Do you remember the famous “I’m mad as hell” speech from the 1976 movie Network? The character Howard Beale, in part of a long monologue, cries out:
“Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.”
Some mornings these days, I feel this deep in my bones. It’s not steel-belted radials for me, it is my coffee and my fiction escape novels. Sometimes, in times of chaos and increasing inability to sort out truth from fiction, I would rather tune out everything that isn’t within my immediate control.
With a political landscape that seems better suited for a pro wrestling match than a dignified debate over the future of our country, it is tempting to decide that we are not having anything to do with it. We can opt out – no one would argue that these spaces are negative and hateful. No one would question our desire to live only in spaces of love and light.
Maybe we secure this choice by telling ourselves that our voices wouldn’t really make a difference anyway and that we don’t want to be associated with the madhouse. Or that it’s someone else’s job to solve. And so we focus on our personal bubbles, just trying to get by day by day, tuning out the rest of the world to the best of our ability. That is already quite enough of a load.
But I cannot get on board with the idea that our souls came here to spend all our time avoiding difficulty. None of us chose this life to be a bystander. No, we were meant to live deeply into this time of cultural breakdown. Because only a breakdown – done well and embraced completely – can lead to a genuine transformation. Only by losing the known and embracing stages of uncertainty can we mobilize a rebirth.
These are potent times we are living in. Scary and unstable, but also, initiatory opportunities into a new way of being. As uncomfortable as they can be, a crisis calls us to anchor to our personal integrity and truth far more than times of stability ever do.
So despite wanting to disappear under the covers some days, I know that what awaits me is a world that needs healing – starting with myself. I’ve seen firsthand the beauty that emerges from breakdowns and crises, and this is why I show up every day. I love this world and I have a unique contribution to make to it. So do you.
And if you are personally undergoing an identity, midlife, spiritual, and existential crises, all the better. Come join me in immersing in the breakdown work. Not because it’s easy, but because it is the threshold we must cross to step into our most authentic selves. We cannot build something new on the ruins of outdated beliefs without first acknowledging that the old structures no longer serve us.
Image by Anastasia Petrova from Unsplash
The world is crying out for change. That begins with us all examining long-held beliefs, no matter how hard-set or time-worn. And not just the surface beliefs, but the ones that have run rampant and unconscious within us. We are all a part of the whole, microcosms of the macrocosms. Change begins within.
I don’t claim to know what a new world could look like, but I do know that we will need a new kind of human being. One that isn’t driven by fear or the need to conform to societal expectations. One that lives from a place of deep alignment with their values, staying anchored in truth even when the world around them is in chaos. Right now, in a world that is on fire in so many ways, the old language of love and light is little more than spiritual bypassing. Give me anchors for my feet, not wings for my shoulders.
Our True North
Finding and holding to our deepest guiding principles and steadfast integrity, what I call our True North, is the most important work of our lifetime. It is the work we are called to do. In this work, we will not simply add new beliefs or mottos to our already overstuffed closets of beliefs. We will take everything apart, see what it is made of, and trace it back to where it comes from.
It is not enough to wait for the world to change. Or to hope that someone else finds the courage to stand up. We are the heroes we have been waiting for. The brave activists we admire. It starts with each of us doing the work to untangle our beliefs, release outdated belief structures, and lean into our own True North. Now is the time to claim your sovereignty and anchor yourself in what is true, not only for yourself but for the world you wish to help create.
If you feel the call to explore these deeper questions and navigate this turbulent time with me, please join me for a free, online information session on September 26 at 5:00 pm or October 26th at 12:00 pm. Join me in this safe place for courageous conversation. Let us together discover a new path forward for the turbulent times we live in. Register here
