Fig Meant

Merry Skull Bites 1: Music as the Soundtrack To Our Lives: AC/DC

We never forget the flavor of our senses that pepper our first sexual escapade. We never forget the surrounding elements of the moment: what was in the air, the texture of the ceiling, the color of the carpet, the liquids on the skin.

I was lying in my friend Jeanne's bed after eating her mother's supply of brandied blueberries with my current boyfriend Joe. Joe was cornrow blonde and wore heavy metal sleeveless t-shirts. He sucked the tips of matches because he liked the tang of sulfur. He lit my first Marlboro Red that I actually inhaled and poured me tiny sips of Wild Turkey that helped form my aversion to hard liquor. He was three years older than me with a black and white checkered bandanna forever secured around his neck in my memory bank. The soundtrack to my deflowering will spin eternal captioned with the gutter seed words of AC/DC as they sang "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap".

I will never forget that Summer. Raised by a hard working single mom, I lived in a small town stigmatized by its poverty, meth amphetamine production, juvenile delinquents and loose, vulgar mouthed teenage girls. I attended private school which prevented me from having hometown friends and for the brief two hottest months a year I could mingle with the locals instead of being a mere white trash wanna -be in a guilty Catholic school uniform.

Everyday I would dress hopelessly in a blue Colorado River tee shirt that hung down over my skateboard scuffed legs and walk bra-less to the community pool where friends and I would whittle away the day. Our toys consisted of knives and pens for carving up park benches with the latest objects of our frustrated lust's names. Our ghetto blasters maintained a musical background as we frantically struggled to memorize the words to illicit sounding songs like "Shook Me All Night Long". I would open my mouth wide, inhale a nicotine puff and wait for my very favorite line. "Knocking me out with those American thighs…" I would sing it loud enough for at least one boy to notice and take heed of my legs. At that age I wasn't mature enough to comprehend the true complexities of sexual attraction but I could feel the power of a lyric's innuendoes.

I was wet with a blooming damp beauty that year. I was immersed in the lazy summertime lull of experimentation, bad flattery, wicked first attempts and latchkey freedom. I was excited by the seeds of arousal that threw my libido into the strange New World of puberty. When I look back towards that ironically innocent time when I'd yell "Big balls!" and jiggle along to Ace Frehley's manic strums, I realize that AC/DC was my introduction to the electrical taboos I felt tingle the pelvis and stab the brain.

Dirty Deeds, indeed.

Appendix

Real Live Girl Who Grew Into A Pixie #1

All of my art revolves around character sketches of women and psychological portraits of the myriad complexities of female identity. I don't actively seek out my models or create concepts prior to finding inspiration in a particular character-it usually is something that just hits me immediately.

In the case of Summer, it was immediate. I had known her in high school and was always fascinated by her light and spirit-the kind of free flowing girl with the perpetual laugh and twinkle in her eye, who you knew was destined for a life of happiness as exuberant as the joy she consistently spread onto others.

When I recently reconnected with her, I was amazed to find she'd turned into the exact kind of pixie I would have predicted. A life in body work and massage, a small house in Pacific Beach with a surfer/environmental designer husband, skin permanently golden from a two block walk to the beach, and a relaxed smile born from choosing a life that fits like a second skin.

The series Real Live Girl Who Turned Into A Pixie was born. In this series, taken solely on the beach in the early morning pure sunlight, I am expressing the whimsical and sensual freedom of a life reigned over by the crests and troughs of waves, the tides that swish under a moon's hypnotic gaze, and the carnival-esque colors and pure raw pigments of seaside life that turn a woman into a living, breathing mermaid.

Intergenerational Co-Creation

Intergenerational Co-Creation
© 2007 by Gordon Davidson

One of the areas of social change that I have become very excited about is the realm of intergenerational cooperation and co-creation to build the new civilization and culture emerging all around us. I have been drawn into this work as the result of my experiences with many members of generations younger than myself--in courses I’ve taught, groups I’ve worked with and one-to-one mentoring and coaching. They have inspired me with their vision, enthusiasm, mental brilliance, and with their deep, heartfelt commitment to solving the core problems in our world. I also love that they remind me of the passion for change I felt when I was in my twenties!

I have perceived how each generation seems to talk primarily to other members of their own meme or tribe, and how intergenerational sharing seems to need to be carefully sought out and facilitated to really occur in any depth. Part of the reason for this is that each generation seems to have its own language and way of thinking, which can be quite unique.

For example, for the 60s generation, the idea of creating alternative communities, or meeting places where people could be supported to grow and explore new paradigms was usually called “dropping out” --going to “centers of Light” or “liberated zones” where people could free themselves from the unhealthy patterns of the current paradigm and find new ways of being and relating. These unhealthy patterns include identifying ourselves by the roles we play, the money or possessions we display, distorted relationships between men and women and with the earth, to name but a few.

By contrast, the current 20 to 30 year olds, heavily influenced by technological and scientific language, call this process entering a “pattern interrupt,” and finding a “receptor site” you can plug into. Here is how some of my younger friends describe it:

“A pattern interrupt is taking a step back from our normal habits and seeing what is really happening. When there is an old ingrained pattern that doesn't serve – you actually have to hang out in the pattern interrupt – in between receptor sites – and hover there, and then organize around the vitality – which looks like our values, our embodied senses/awarenesses and our needs.

“A person enters a pattern interrupt because they are no longer able to function in the normal pattern with their heightened awareness. You cannot really go back because you know more now. If you return it would be painful. What you have been able to integrate during the pattern interrupt, you can apply when you connect up with a new receptor site.”

For some of the older generation, this might sound like a foreign language, just as my generation’s did to my parents. This highlights another key issue between the generations--the relationship between the idealism and passion of youth and the experience and sometimes world weariness of their elders. It often happens that creative members of the younger generation break away from their parents’ world and values (unless they happen to coincide, which they sometimes do) and establish their own generational “tribe” or “meme,” aka an affinity group. This process is necessary for individuals to establish a generational identity, as well as to establish their own personal values and identity.

This can be quite a wrenching and challenging process, especially for parents. Yet one of the functions of each new generation is to hold parents accountable for what they say they stand for, and point out where they are not “walking their talk.” The current younger generation has a great sensitivity to the actual quality of the energies people are emanating from all levels of their being. When they see people stating who they are, but then not embodying it in their being, they are quick to point this out. This can be challenging for all concerned. The younger generation can also indicate where an older one has lost some of its values, been co-opted, or made compromises that have made it difficult to live up to their values. Here is a statement from another member of the younger generation on this issue:

“Mainstream culture has expanded and extended itself in all directions,
insidiously co-opting and trivializing much of the imagery, vocabulary, and iconography of the spiritual revolutionary/activist via media domination - taking over the music business, film ,television, and even the wild frontiers of the internet. And the people are hooked: imaginations ensnared, attentions enslaved; ingesting the toxic medications and poisonous foods; continuously absorbing the mind-numbing memes. Brain-damaging stress is broadly cultivated through the insufferable hardship of meaningless overwork, the fixation on material acquisition, the health issues and addictions borne of the whole sick system - all tirelessly broadcasted through our so-called ’entertainment’".

This illustrates one of the questions that often arises from the younger generations: “What happened to the vision of the 60’s and all the people involved with the revolutionary idealism of those times? Did they all get co-opted?” Has their attention to the core issues of our times, building peace, economic fairness and a sustainable society been distracted into the quest for a comfortable or even opulent life with power to rule the world? A partial answer to this is that the people causing harm to others in the world today never had the 60’s values of peace, sharing, and love for all life, as not every boomer was a radical in their youth by any means.

However, those of us in the older generation who care about other people and the future of life on earth have been busily engaged for the past 40 years in creating alternatives to the current mainstream paradigm. These include the thousands of ethical and sustainable enterprises listed in Coop America’s National Green pages, conflict resolution initiatives in place all over the world, the women’s movement, the environmental movement, the wholistic health movement, organic agriculture, soul-oriented education, cooperatives of all kinds, alternative energy, technology for poverty alleviation, and a new spirituality that honors all traditions.

The infrastructure of the new paradigm is already in place in prototypes created all over the world by millions of groups highlighted by Paul Hawken in Blessed Unrest. Although ignored by the media, they are nonetheless successful and filled with new life, and they are generating hope and vision for millions of people. This infrastructure, and the ideas and principles behind them, are the true legacy of the 60s generation.

We can see that a key dimension of the intergenerational relationship is discovering what each generation can give to the others. Many (but not all) of this older generation have already made their contribution to society in various ways, including creating gradual change within the system, which the younger generation does not always see or acknowledge. They have established economic security and yet are still planning on continuing to contribute to building the new civilization for the remainder of their lives.

Younger people, on the other hand, are fired with a passion to add their energies to creating and transforming an obviously decaying civilization and culture, and yet they often struggle with finding the resources to do so. They bring intensity, brilliance, and wildly creative and innovative approaches to everything. They also bring an innate ability to use media and the internet for social change.

They can fire the older generation with renewed energy and passion to continue transforming our troubled world, and the older generation can share their experience and resources to help the younger members actualize their visions. It is in the co-creation of this shared vision of a just, peaceful and sustainable world where spirit is honored, that all generations can meet and work together.

I have also found in relating with the younger generation that they are hungry for older people to listen to them and take them seriously, to give them the benefit of their experience, and provide mentoring, resources and support for their visions. They are eager to learn and willing to serve. Thus there are many opportunities to co-create this partnership, friendship and creative power between all generations. The older generations know how to work “the system,” how to bring things into being in this world, and the younger generations have thousands of visions of what they want to create. If we trust Spirit and the living soul presence within each being, we can help the highest within everyone come into expression, as these will be the building blocks of the new civilization and culture.

But there are also challenges to this partnership, based in the stereotypes each generation holds of the other. Those of us in the older generation may fear being surpassed or supplanted by the rising generation, and may envy or resent the youth and vitality of the younger generation. The older generation may have an unwillingness to acknowledge their own eventual passing from this world. This can lead to a reluctance to plan for who will succeed us in the great work of building a civilization of joy and love on our planet. It takes greatness of heart to love, honor and respect the next generation enough to give them the opportunities and assistance they need to make their contribution to the world.

The younger generation may have anger or wounding from relating to the older generation, which needs to be healed. They may feel trapped by the “Matrix”—the system and its control—and feel afraid of being co-opted and contributing to an old paradigm that is destroying life. This causes them to remain outside of the system and stay in their own tribe, often ineffective and marginalized. As one young friend said to me, “When you have no money or possessions, all you have is your integrity, and you guard it very carefully.”

Yet this attitude can lead to separation from those who are ready and willing to help and support them. The idealism of the younger generation can also lead to a refusal to adjust or adapt and work with the system, so “the perfect becomes the enemy of the good.”

One way to evaluate the greatness of a leader of any generation is what I call the “oak tree theory of leadership.” Simply observe, in the shade of the mighty oak that is the leader, how many young oaks or future leaders, are growing under his/her protection and nurturing. It takes a careful balance of masculine and feminine energies to provide this type of mentoring and coaching, and many leaders of my generation today are able and willing to provide this.

The times require an unprecedented partnership between the generations, for the crisis today within humanity and the biosphere of all life on earth is of such magnitude that only the united heart-inspired efforts of all generations - including those still arriving - can set causes in motion to that will offset the current dangerous course we are on.

The challenges we face together of dealing with a system designed for profit, power and control are formidable. We as humanity, united across all generations, need to go to a deeper place of intuition/meditative decision-making together. We need a spiritual revolution/evolution of how we are perceiving reality, as just about everything in the current system needs a deep overhaul. And we will succeed because there is no force more powerful than human hearts and minds moving in co-creation with the world of Spirit and the world of nature.

Our shared intergenerational goal is nothing less than building a new, spiritual civilization and culture on earth. To achieve this, we need the synergized, co-creative engagement of every willing and able soul from every generation. Our purpose is to share and clarify our vision of the new world we are building, and develop a process for maximizing collaboration, co-creation and synergy between generations to make this dream real on earth. It is this unified power, love and co-creativity that can resolve our current crisis and move us into the world humanity has dreamed of and worked for centuries.

Center for Visionary Leadership co-founder Gordon Davidson is helping organize and facilitate an intergenerational gathering at Meditation Mount in Ojai, California from December 7-9th. For more information or to register go to www.meditation.com/intergen.) this site.

Becoming the Change We Want To See

I recently attended the IONS Conference put on by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which in laymen’s terms, is all about the study of consciousness. The week long conference is full of sessions and speeches on the state of global affairs in regards to human consciousness, a myriad of spirituality workshops on all the latest trends in energetic psychology, talks by authors of the current bestsellers in the vein of Deepak Chopra and various tools to turn on the masses of hungry searchers. I was skeptical that I would be swept away by anything entirely new until I enrolled in a six-hour session with Sacred Activist Andrew Harvey and got my whole judgmental ego kicked to the curb by a hammer of humility.

According to Harvey, the world’s apocalyptic chaos is certainly going on all around us, albeit for some and especially us here in America it is somewhere on the other side of our television screen.

This is reflected in the way that the Earth is being affected by the changing weather patterns. Although the erosion of the Earth by weather patterns, and the changing of climatic and geographical terrain, is a natural phenomenon, we as humans have done nothing but contribute to the rapidness of that decay by polluting the ethers, poisoning the waters, and cutting down the oxygenated foliages of the world that breathe for us, wildly denying our own connection with the Earth as our key life giving source.

This is the reflected in the way we are wildly addicted to material things and mind-altering escapism that causes a numbing and obese disconnection of ourselves from other human beings.

This is reflected in our ability to murder each other because of our egoic need for control and power as is seen in the incidents of war and genocide.

It is mind-blowingly insane yet we dampen this knowledge with our blind attempts at self help fix-it-alls as seen in the popularity of the DVD The Secret, which although is hopeful in its ability to reach into the mainstream and express inherent truths, oftentimes just leads us to use what we learn about manifestation to get more, more, and more for ourselves. More, more, more is the last thing we need when we are living on a planet with resources to sustain only two billion people but that currently sustains four billion. Mother Earth is heaving beneath us but in our pocketed worlds of disconnect, we manage to assuage our souls with the thought that we are not here forever so what does it matter; or that it’s too late to affect any sort of change.

According to Harvey, all of the world’s ails are a mirror reflection of the way we have continued to repress our shadow sides. In a world of PC perfection and the need to feel superior, we deny the anger, rage, pain, ugliness, and raw primal elements we all contain and wrap it in the sin of religion or the things we dare not speak of. All of this repression is what disconnects us from our true integrated whole and allows us to relegate these things as separate from us. It is the powerful way we let ourselves ignore all together. It is why the human race has turned into a virus rather than a flourishing growth.

It’s no longer as simple as complaining about the President. This is a worldwide epidemic. Harvey spoke of the fact that the hippies and liberals are wildly ineffective because they’ve been trying to spread love to those who will not accept it, trying to talk people into change without really doing anything concrete and ohming into higher states of bliss that keep them on the couch. He spoke of problems with the activists who are so angry that any true message is lost in their erratic confrontationalism. He said that the solution lies in being a sacred activist—a person who is willing to take a moral, mental and physical inventory right this second and then continue to walk with a conscious intent on being a strong, spiritually and universally connected being. A person willing to crack the ego constraints and facades placed upon them to become a new vibrant and powerful being of presence in every moment. Someone who thinks about everything going into the body, who minds their words with graceful truthfulness at all times, who doesn’t waste time on game playing or lies, who makes every moment productive not destructive. It’s about becoming the change we wish to see and leading by example so that this interconnected network of conscious activists can individually build a new language of education, sustainability and progressive mentality that will outreach and begin to connect a whole.

Harvey’s is a trying and challenging blueprint of radical transformation that has nothing to do with a paint by number kit of ten steps to becoming a goddess, but everything to do with personal accountability and conscious presence. It is something completely simple to understand but much harder to take into the heart, do, and become.