The Skills to Lose Everything Well, Pt 1.
Staying Human in the Age of Displacement
By all projected accounts, a billion humans worldwide—maybe more—will be involuntary migrants in the coming decades, mostly due to ecosystem collapse, economic displacement or armed conflict. Many of us are already initiates in the unchosen path of displacement. In the United States, 9 out of the 10 years with the highest number of natural disasters occurred in the last decade. So many of our families and friends have lost space and place - in the Santa Rosa Fires, when Asheville was drowned, in volcanic eruptions- and especially this past winter, when so much of LA burned.
Many who experienced these upheavals, grieved and persevered: they know who they are beyond the material realm, and, with the help of community that aided and absorbed them, they found their way. Others collapsed into a sort of stunned freeze, which they haven’t really recovered from, at least not yet. Some became resentful and angry and were quickly swept into conspiracy theories and politicized blame. This left me thinking, again, about the skills for living in times of rapid and global upheaval, and doing it well and joyfully?
What are the workdviews, and the capacities of those who can lose everything— or share everything— well?
Today begins a series of essays is on meeting this moment in human culture from our essential wisdom, with the kinds of psycho-spiritual-emotional capacities we will need to develop at scale to respond to these upheavals, without falling into fear, control, domination or dehumanization.
This could be seen as a how-to for coping, but I am extending it rather as a vision for becoming fully human again, in the presence of accelerating complexity and change.
Here are some of the topics coming up: The ability to digest more of one’s inner experience without dissociation or collapse. The discernment to protect one’s nervous system, attention, and perception in digital environments engineered for manipulation. Plus “Necessary reenchantment”. Plus “The we-ness” (I know- still working on that title!).
Today’s essay is on the urgent need to rewrite our identity outside capitalist constructs of worth and productivity. Which of course is deeply intertwined with the reclamation of ancient wisdom technologies.
In other news:
The July European Retreat Registration is open! Wake down, wake up, connect- it’s going to be an amazing week.
I’ve had some good press on my new book, plus 5 star reviews and a lot of sweet notes from people. If you haven’t read it yet, I would love for you to consider it for mother’s day gifting, or if you’re a man person, to really learn about the way the other half lives in a body.
Read today’s Essay: Post Capitalist Identity Formation
