Economic Crisis or Golden Opportunity?
Somebody
should remind the President of Iran that it isn’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.
He’s been heard of late at the U.N. and on Larry King Live (of all places!) heralding
the demise of the United States. You can’t blame a guy for jumping on (for that
matter leading) the bandwagon of Doomsayers who are intent on painting the current
U.S. economic crunch as an indisputable sign ushering in the End of Days.
After all, what kind of harbingers of disaster would they be to squander such a
golden opportunity to bolster their dark view of human evolution?
To
panic or not to panic: that is the question.
You can relax. I have the answer.
Well, actually Nature has the answer.
I’m just the messenger.
Nature
is where I’ve always looked for the answers to dilemmas that seem to elude
humankind. I just figured out early on in Life that any intelligence that was
capable of creating a system so complex, diverse, inherently in balance,
self-sustaining and just plain visually magnificent had pretty much calculated
and provided for all the possible combinations and permutations that might
arise. So, the answers were actually built into the problems. Hence, every
problem is an opportunity to uncover the answer within.
This
brings me to the caterpillar, metamorphosis and the butterfly.
It’s
a complicated process but let me sum it up. When a caterpillar has eaten enough
it turns into what is called a pupa. To do this it stops eating and finds
somewhere safe, becomes very still, molts its skin then grows a much thicker
and stronger one. A lot of the caterpillar’s
old body dies. It then sort of digests
itself from the inside out. Not all the tissue is destroyed and some of the
insect’s old tissue passes on to its new self. A new body is then formed out of the “soupâ€
that the insect’s digestive juices have made of the old larval body. This
rebuilding process is called histogenesis. During this time the insect is very vulnerable
because it cannot run away which is why insects try to choose somewhere safe to
hide when going through this incredible change.
Why
the lesson in metamorphosis in a blog about the economy?
The
President of Iran, in viewing our current economic crisis, sees the caterpillar
stewing in its own juices, so to speak. He is frozen in time and can’t see past
the moment. In reality he is witnessing the end of a growth phase and, because of his limited
understanding and perspective, thinks he is witnessing the end of the process itself. He is stuck in mourning the death of the
caterpillar and so cannot see the birth of the butterfly.
Which
is why the answer to the question “to panic or not to panic?†is: Not to panic!
What
the economy and our entire value system
are experiencing is the natural process
of moving us from caterpillar to butterfly. Yes it’s a trying time. Yes we will
have to find a safe place in which to do this internal work. Yes we will have
to shed some skin in order to make room for new, improved cells to take root
and multiply. And yes we will have to rebuild.
The
important point to remember is that this so-called “problem†is really an opportunity
for us to transform ourselves and our nation into something much more beautiful,
while also remembering that the answer to the future is locked away inside the
caterpillar…inside us.
Inherent
in our crisis is the answer to it. Nature is designed that way and we are a
part of Nature.
Only
by our willingness to shed the skin in which we have become complacent and by our
courage to see the process through…will we come to experience the beauty we are
truly capable of and, oh yes, to joyfully fly away leaving the Ahmadinejads
behind.
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