Dear New Zealand, switch off the TV, pick up a pen. The world needs your imagination!

There’s a lot on my mind today. I am feeling a huge sense of losing ground in New Zealand. Literally.

The sheer amount of issues feel like too much for one person. Too much for a facebook group to tackle.
All the issues that I bang on about (climate change, crime, poverty,
mining, whaling, peak oil, individualism blah blah) are all symptomatic, and all come from the same collective blind-spot.

Our suffering is caused our failure to be the inspirators and writers of our own story.

We can’t let politicians and businesses continue to write the history of humanity. Because they will write an ecological tragedy with people pitted one against one another.

This storytelling belongs to the people. The first thing any author needs to
do is switch off the TV. And probably the internet. And start thinking, start sensing, start writing. What is the world you want to live in, and hand on to your kids?

Our true nature as humans is that we are bonded inextricably with each other and the world around us. We depend on each other for survival. What would our national and international governance look like if it were to reflect this truth? What would our educational policy be? How would it affect the way we handle crime?

What this world is lacking is our IMAGINATIONS!!!!!!!!!

If we want to inspire change, my friends, we must be willing to step beyond our tightly held beliefs, enter the ‘fierce urgency of now’ and be moved by our instincts - listening to life, with an empty expectant sense that something grand is taking place before us. (Paraphrasing J Marshall Roberts)

My fellow New Zealanders, switch off the TV, pick up the pen. Make your week special by claiming time for yourself be an author, a crafter, a creative, a dreamer, a maker, a collaborator, an inspirator. Form an alliance, work in a group, meet some people, share your hopes, share your story. Weave them together. They are tighter and have more energy than the stories told by politicians and corporations. You don’t need to do a degree or study to become an author, a citizen, an artist - you self-actuate. Your acts of creativity and intent are acts of making life in places in our world where our very life-force has leaked out.

The world needs our imaginations!
It needs your unique world view, your fine singing voice, your dyslexic writing, your poor mathematics, your passion for trains, your love for smells, your wandering mind, your OC tendencies, your mental illness, your rich history, your pain, your loves, your messy bedroom, your fears, your un-filed tax return, your un-nurtured sense of possibility…

“Come
as you are
as you were
as I want you to be
as a friend
as a friend
as an old enemy
take your time
hurry up
the choice is yours
don’t be late”
- Kurt Cobain