Occupy Yourself

 

 Being pissed off is not the answer. It only feels like the answer.

Then you discover that you've given half of your energy to the very people you're pissed off at, in the form of your outraged shadow.

I wasted most of my life blaming, scapegoating, projecting my anger on the "enemy." That's what my culture taught me to do as a "man." But I was just making the "enemy" bigger and more powerful by feeding him with my aggression. Now the enemy, the slogans tell is, is "the rich." For a while there it was Muslims. Then it was "the far right." We just keep replacing one scape goat with another: we need someone to hang our shadow on.

I'm finished with toxic blame. Projecting anger and blame wastes half my energy, energy I could be spending actually creating something - like joy, like beauty, like abundance. 

I refuse to buy into any more conflict between Rich and Poor, Left and Right, Christian vs. Muslim, Israel vs. Palestine. These are just shadowy generalizations, not living people. Nobody is 1% or  99%. We're all 100% human. 

In the 60's we shouted the same slogan we hear today from the Wall Street occupiers. We were convinced that "all the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few ruling-class families." Remember that? The truth we didn't want to hear, and still don't, is this: if we evenly redistributed the wealth of the 1%, we'd each get a few hundred dollars and spend it in a week without creating a single job. 

The problem isn't wealth or poverty. The problem is that Americans just don't make stuff anymore. This is not an economic crisis, but a crisis in creativity. If you need a better income, you have to make something or do something that people want to buy, then sell it to them. That is your declaration of economic independence.

Let us each honor our unique power. We were created in the image of a creator, not a beggar. We were born to make, not to take. But self-worth is difficult for many of us. It's amazing how many folks feel bad about asking a fee for doing what they love and do best. They think they have to give it away. What they're really telling the world is, "I'm not worth anything."

Here is the economics of full employment and mutual abundance: I will honor your creative power and pay you for it. You will honor my creative power and pay me for it. Each of us produce a real product doing the work that we love, and place a worthy price on it. Does that sound selfish? It's not nearly so selfish as whining with resentment against "the rich."

I don't need to occupy Wall Street. I need to occupy my Self.