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Prayer for You
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Your Minimum Requirements for Paradise
We have awakened from our sleepwalk. The mini-apocalypse of September 11 cracked open a hole in our crippled, shrunken reality, allowing juicy eternity to pour in. Millions of us have been blessed with direct perceptions and intimate knowledge of the truth that We Are All One. We're hyper-alert for opportunities to further propagate the fresh compassion and empathy that have bloomed in us.As Heaven and Earth coalesce, we register the shockingly exhilarating possibility that we are in charge -- you and I -- of creating a new civilization. Not in a distant time or faraway place, but right here and right now. What are the foundation stones we want to lay? Which stories will be our inspiration? What will be the fresh codes and rhythms at the heart of our transformation? I exhort you to start imagining the paradise we're already beginning to make, beauty and truth fans. Describe it and conjure it and embody it with all your life force unfurled. And tell us all about it. At a future date we will publish the writing you send us in response to the challenge, "What Are Your Minimum Requirements for Paradise?" For our first entry, we present Katrina Z from Australia: My Minimum Requirements for Paradise: * The feeling that "there's not enough time in the day!" is an ecstatic contemplation of the sheer profusion of fantastic experiences available. And yet that feeling, sharply delightful as it is, is interspersed with periods of knowing that there is absolutely all the time in the world. * Art sprouts haphazardly and joyfully around us, without explanatory placards, fences, or price tags. * Music swirls up from gathering after gathering, and there are no such things as "concerts" with big stars on high stages, but rather spontaneous, fluid events in which many people participate and play together. * Every interaction is a delicious creative performance, and -- for all that -- is real and safe. The question, "Why are you being so generous?" becomes completely redundant, and giving and receiving flow together. October 15, 2001 Dear Beauty and Truth Fans: Realizing that we're all shaken to have awakened from our collective stupor -- jolted from somnolence by the attacks of September 11 -- I last week exhorted you to consider that each of us, you and I every one, have the ability to lay the foundations for a Brave New World. We can and should and indeed are replacing the Cowardly Old World through which we had previously snoozed for too many drifting generations. A month ago, I outlined my own minimum requirements for Paradise. Now, I wondered, what your minimum requirements are for an earthly Eden? Startlingly handed the unlikely opportunity to start it all over again, what necessities -- both corporeal and ephemeral -- do you choose? Which foundation stones to lay? Which stories should be our inspiration? What are the fresh codes and rhythms at the heart of our transformation? Here is a small sampling of what you returned with: RICK writes with "incorrigible solidarity" of a world in which "Paradise on a collective level begins with USSEM (Universal Support System for Everyone's Magnificence). I can experience paradise myself, but my heart is now too big for just that after Sept. 11. Now I can only have it when I know I'm doing what I can to support the happiness of the whole planet. "[I see] nothing less than creating our own Network of Heroes, who are as crazy about service as I am, who take on heroic challenges with a total commitment to enjoying them each step: the Department of Universal Health; the Department of Erotic Health; the Department of Making Community Available to All; the Department of Total Freedom of Conscience -- and every other support that humans need to plug into life-working, including an economic network that actually cares about them. Our guiding principle would be: 'If you give a little more than you're asking for, your love will turn the key.'" DREW avers that "who I am is the possibility of making a difference and living life fully," promising that Paradise contains, "Waking up excited and committed to the living of each day. [Being] certain that my happiness and well-being do not in any way diminish another's. Wandering wherever life invites me and embracing the loving people there. Joy, inspiration, and well-being for anyone who chooses. Magic invented and shared; a world that works wonderfully for all." Similarly, CHARYS assures that "In order to qualify for paradise, it is essential: * That you believe in magick -- no one gets in as a pragmatist; * That you tell a good story -- the more amazing, the better; * That you have been crazy at least once in your life and can admit it joyfully; * That you can laugh when embarrassed; * That you are willing to learn any number of new skills; * That you're not afraid of nuthin'; * That you're not afraid of anything; * That you run with scissors; * That if they cut you sap runs out, or that you slosh when you move; * That you understand at least one koan; * That you know how to fly; * That you have more than one name. CANDACE considers the end of a 17-year marriage in light of the recent terrorist attacks, understanding that Paradise isn't all manna and scented candles. There's hard work there, too. "Now I realize [that] if my days are numbered, I want to spend them with him. Separated almost a year, reconciliation feels like my dream now. I am purging my judgements and criteria. No, he is not perfect -- far from it -- but I have come to realize that I love [him], and that what has worked between us needs more attention and what hasn't needs less. . . . I am going down or rising up with a man who is possibly even tragically flawed, if he will still have me." CLAUDIA assures that in Paradise, "we will all live up to our full potential," while VIRGINIA is certain that it's "The total and complete surrender to a power greater than ourselves." Meanwhile, MIKE chants the simple mantra, "Understanding, understanding, understanding. . . . No petty differences that escalate into worlds of separation. To live in a stream-of-consciousness [knowledge] that we are all related. Every person we come across will have a place in our life, not to be forgotten or used and set aside. There will still be rain so we will love the sun and still be pain so that we may know joy, but only in love. Everyone is inherently good. It seems so simple. . . ." MARQ envisions a world in which "'women's work' (cooking, raising babies, cleaning) is acknowledged as the most important work on the planet. Children are never scolded; old people are always protected and respected. Materialism and greed are inconceivable concepts. . . ." And RIVA sees this new chance to live a life where, "The politics of discussion can be held in thoughtful discourse, in the interest of idea exchange. . . . Where the sand does not always have silent, screaming lines of 'do not cross' drawn [upon it]; the food in the refrigerator doesn't have anyone's name on in; and we clean up after ourselves and each other without thinking 'mine,' 'his,' or 'hers.' Paradise is a place where we wake up sleepy but sure, with a small smile on our faces, to feel the covers, see the sky, stretch our arms and wipe the night from our eyes. Where we don't judge the weather, but just dress for it. " JOHN visualizes "Paradise as a solitary experience," within a larger collective. He envisions a world in which, "The greatest qualification for paradise would be an intermingled sense of solitude and comradely. Allow me to be alone amidst a mass gathering of well-wishers. . . . There will no longer be any need for any explanations. We will accept things as they are, beautiful and inspiring, ignorant and blissful. . . . There will no longer be a need to earn your living. Merely living will be your earnings. . . . There will no longer be a need to be anything more than what we are -- perfect." And finally, NAZZY wishes for a place to be "Surrounded by a community of people who believe that dreams are just realities waiting to be created." |
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© 1995-2008 -- Rob Brezsny. All rights reserved
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