Sometimes, the most important thing, is to ask the right
question, says Daniel Wahl, PhD in a talk based on his book Designing Regenerative Cultures. Wahl is
a Sustainability Educator who works in sustainable community design.
In
talking about the great upheavals of this present time, Wahl uses language that
is easy to relate to on an individual level. He feels that we need to be both hospice
workers to the old system that is passing away and midwives to the new system
that is being born.
Wahl does not use the revolutionary language of killing,
ending, or murdering but instead uses the more feminine approach of allowing
something to pass away in its due time. He doesn’t use the aggressive language
of imposing or forcing a new system onto people. Instead, he uses the language of birthing. Wahl feels that it is useful to recognize the
old system patterns that are still working in us. Then we can be compassionate and
understanding in hospicing those patterns, to let them go and resolve. We can also be enthusiastic and visionary
about the new story that is coming into being.
This language struck me because I understand hospice or palliative care which is gentle and nurturing.
It allows someone to pass away with dignity and with as little pain as
possible. I understand midwifery which
allows someone to come into the world as gently as possible while the baby and
mother are nurtured and supportes for this difficult passage.
Wahl asks two important questions: “What things do we need
to be hospice workers for?” And, “What things do we need to be midwives
for?” He asks these questions for us as
individuals, communities and globally.
Wahl did not give specific answers to these questions as he
believes that these questions are important for each of us to think about. I
have been mulling them over for a few weeks now, trying to answer these
questions for myself personally. I found
it difficult to apply these questions to myself. I think the hardest part was acknowledging
that I have the choice to hospice and midwife things compassionately, gently,
for myself. That put me in the
proverbial driver’s seat.
Wahl feels that it is important to answer these questions
for ourselves personally because we are part of nature. If it is good for us, then it must be good
for nature, for our communities, for our world.
I spent time with these questions and some answers began to bubble
up. For instance, I want to hospice the idea that I am
on my own and that any problem must be solved in my own head.
Here is an example of this way of thinking. Last week it was extremely cold and my four-year-old
car, which I still think of as new, would not start. Even worse, the
hood latch was frozen closed. Anxiety
rose quickly since I spent years and years driving old cars and running into
trouble. I reasoned that I could call
the roadside help line but the hood wouldn’t open. I came inside and told my partner who very
calmly came outside with tools and a flashlight to have a look. Together we thought of applying heat and he
had a little heater which we aimed at the frozen latch. A few minutes later
the hood was up and he started my car with jumper cables from his car which luckily did start. I called my mechanic and asked him if he had
any batteries since mine was obviously worn out. He told me he would order
one and I could come in that afternoon so he would install it. Later that day, it was all solved. My old way of thinking, that I had to solve
this problem on my own needs to be hospiced, to be allowed to pass away. Clearly, it is not a helpful way of thinking
and only leads to anxiety. Getting help
from people who are good at this sort of thing makes much more sense. That is a way of thinking that I want to be a
midwife to. When a problem emerges, feel the support of the web that I am a part of.
To apply this example to a community or more globally, would be to move from more isolated, protectionist ways of solving problems, to a more cooperative, co-creative way of solving problems. This can happen easily if the problems are big enough. But it does require letting go of the notion of solving problems with limited resources and knowledge and midwifing the idea that using the collective knowledge and intelligence of more people will provide a better diversity of solutions.
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| Dr. Daniel Wahl |
Wahl believes that asking the right questions is important. He believes that the new story will be born from the answers to these questions.
