Could the Desire to “Fix” the Problem BE the Problem?
[ Reading time ~ 3 minutes. ]
INTRODUCTION
Is it possible to fix problems – whatever a “problem” looks like to you – without a DESIRE to fix the problem?
For example, could searching for happiness, say, be what’s keeping you from being happy?
Or could it be possible to look for a solution, maybe, without knowing what that solution looks like? To have an agenda/answer/ideology without attaching yourself to that agenda/answer/ideology? To allow yourself to not know what NEEDS to happen to next?
Well, the following piece (I first wrote in 2017, for a soon-to-be-defunct blog) asks the same questions. Kind of. I’m not sure if “poetic”, unspecific writings about the human condition do it for you, but if they do – enjoy…
(Listen to this, as a podcast episode?)
Invitation: A Poetic Call to Arms
Put down your sword*.
Put down your words.
Put down your thinking.
Put down who you think you are.
For a moment. (THIS precious moment.)
Put down your SHOULDS, your COULDS and your WOULDS.
Put down your sword, I invite you.
Put down your need to be right.
Put down your desire to be liked.
Put down your need to know what’s next.
Put it down, place it here, let it go.
Put down the past. Put down the future. And be… here… now…
Put down your sword.
Put down your black and whites, your wright and rongs.
Put down your judgements, your frustrations, your fears.
Put down your facts and your figures.
Put down your causes, your labels, your isms and schisms.
For a moment. (THIS precious moment.)
Put down your sword.
Put down your shield.
Put down your safety.
Put it down, all of it – and share what remains.
A smile, maybe. Or a hug. Or a dance, or a song.
Or just share some silence with me, please do.
Put down your sword.
For a moment.
I invite you.
FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS (LIKE YOU)
That’s poem points me to the quite place where wisdom lays waiting .
SB (2017)
I do t need to know anything
I don’t need to take anything
Just be
Beautiful and very meaningful. I needed to hear this today. Thanks, Steve.
KM (2017)
What Do You Think?
Firstly, here’s what I think of my piece first written in 2017. Simply put, this poem seems to be an an invitation to stop fighting fire with fire. To stop responding to intolerance with intolerance, prejudice with prejudice, and hate with hate etc. And to see how doing so helps your cause, your fight for justice and equality for all, and even to your own experience of life and yourself.
Anyway, whether you’ve come across this piece of mine before or not, I’d love it if you gave me some feedback on it. Did the piece move you? Did it shine a light on the human condition, on your condition, just a little bit? Or is it all too woolly (or worse), especially when it comes to solving the very real problems of the world? Do tell. Please.
* Provocative note: a sword can be your most cherished values and beliefs, by the way, or your way of thinking, or even the cause that you’d fight to the death for. A sword can be the very last thing you’d ever want to put down. Still, I invite you… to put down the sword, if only for a few moments…