GUERILLA LOVE

Where the energy goes now

I made the video above after attending the Hands Off protest in D.C.

There was a great amount of energy generated by the protests yesterday, and the challenge now is to keep it going. A non-violent revolution is not a particle but a wave. Think of yesterday’s protests not as a single event, but as activation for a continuing energy. Now all of us have to take it from here.

Non-violence as a political philosophy isn’t simply a mode of activism, it’s a way of life. We can’t create a different kind of world unless we’re willing to be different people. Literally. The world as we know it is simply a reflection of who we have been; our most urgent task to arise from the malaise of our personal weaknesses to become people capable of taking on the challenges of this moment. It feels like each of us is embodying the larger struggle at hand, faced with the blocks to our better selves and the challenge of our need to remove them.

The politics that will transform events is different than the politics of the past. That which got us here will not move us forward. The new politics is relational as opposed to transactional, attending to the vertical as well as the horizontal axis of life. It’s not just what we do but how we do it that matters. As Gandhi said, “The end is inherent in the means.” We have to be the change we want to see in the world, because otherwise we will never see it.

The question for all of us is, what will you do now? In what way can you move the needle forward? Are there people in your circle you should meet with, so together you can try to make a difference? What are the projects in your town, or state, or the country, that you feel moved to work on? Complacency is what got us here; generative, invigorated energy is what will move us forward.

“Ain’t it awful” is yesterday’s news. “Aint’ it wonderful” is the theme for today, so together we can co-create the tomorrow we wish to see. Yes, our political horizon is darkened now, but each of us can be a star in the sky. No one’s efforts are more or less important that anyone else’s. And none of this is random. We allowed the disrepair; now it’s our time to be the repairers.

We are experiencing a political plague, it’s true, but society has an immune system just as does the body. What the Founder’s called “Nature’s God” is driving us toward a collective healing, if we’re willing to be used in its service. The opportunities are all around, if we’re willing to open our eyes and see. In the quantum field there are no little steps.

The totalitarians are on a roll and we need to be too. Show up for this moment. Be a guerilla for love.