“One thing is certain, change is inevitable.” ~ James Calvin Sage
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” ~ Harold Wilson
Have you ever been in, or seen, or read about a situation and it just feels wrong? I have felt that many times. It settles in my gut like a slimy worm. It’s the worst feeling. It doesn’t have to be something that happens to me personally. It can be some world situation. I want to rage, I want Divine Oneness to do something about it because I feel powerless. And yet something inside me whispers that that is just not true. I can do something. I can speak up, I can look the bully in the eye and say, “I’m not going to take this anymore.”
The situation that has always felt the most wrong to me is the one where the big shots make decisions that benefit themselves while undercutting the little people. They use that disgusting phrase, “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.” Yeah, like losing my house, or my job, or getting charged huge fees for something I need isn’t personal.
This situation has been going on for millennia and it seems like, “It’s just the way the world works and there’s nothing we can do about it.” Another phrase I hate. But we can do something about it, and in fact there are lots of people who have taken up a cause, gathered with others and made changes however small.
I have been thinking about this situation for a long time since I have been the little person at the mercy of the seemingly stronger ones on more than one occasion but I felt like I couldn’t define the situation properly until just recently.
The coalescence came when I was listening to the podcast, What Should I Read Next, episode 289 with Neil Pasricha. Neil told the story about going to see the movie Cloud Atlas, and being so taken with it that he read the book. That’s a movie/book that I love and use when teaching my dramatic structure class. There is a chilling phrase that is used more than once in that story, “The weak are meat and the strong do eat.” And if you haven’t seen the movie, or read the book with it’s six storylines, there are lots of instances of actual and metaphorical cannibalism.
But here’s my point about that phrase, it describes perfectly the way the world has worked for millennia … until now. The tide has turned. I have seen little indications of the change but this week a big one was in the news. President Biden signed an executive order just yesterday, as I write this, containing 72 initiatives to boost competition so that workers and consumers can benefit from the end of punitive hiring practices and pricing of products. I say, it’s about time for the “eating” to end.
There is something else about Cloud Atlas that is a vitally important message. At the end of the book, one of the characters, Adam Ewing, declares to his father-in-law, who buys and sells slaves, that he and his wife are moving to the East to join the Abolitionist movement. The father-in-law says something like, “It’s the way of the world. You are just one drop in a big ocean. What do you think you can do to change things?” To which Adam responds, “But what is the ocean but a multitude of drops.” And what I’m reminded of right this moment is that, water is a powerful change agent. It seems soft and insignificant, but it can cut through rock. It may take a very long time, but it changes landscapes.
When people band together in a good cause, they can change the world. There have been many times throughout history when it’s happened. And now it’s happening again with all the humanitarian movements that have been happening all over the world in the last few years.
I wrote all of the above to get to this point. We’ve had it backwards all along. Those who claim to be “strong” because they have all the toys, are really terrified that they’ll end up with nothing. And the “weak” are afraid the small amount of things they have will be taken away. What we’ve never realized is that the Universe is abundant and there is enough of everything to go around. Everyone can have enough of whatever it is they want and need. And maybe that’s what we’re waking up to. We’re starting to balance out the distribution of wealth and all the rest so everyone is taken care of. Now that feels good!
Thanks to my new followers. If you listen to my podcast, Story~Power, please go to your favorite podcast app and rate it, and/or write a review. It will help people find me.
We’re off on vacation this week, so the next few posts will probably be short. I hope your life is going well and you’re healthy and happy.
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2021
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.
Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.
The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.
Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.
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