Do No Harm

Either I am totally lost or I am on the verge of some great personal discovery. You make the call.

I’ve been a little bit quiet lately. For about eighteen months, I had a lot to say about land use planning, the growth of our town, and our plans about how it all should happen. Make no mistake -- I still have a lot to say -- but I’m just not sure how to say it.

I spend a large portion of my day on the internet. That gives me access to lots of points of views, news stories, videos and opinions.

Yesterday for example, I ran into a YouTube video of a college event on a big field. Lots of students and partying going on. It looked like a sports event. For some reason, a guy decides that it makes sense to take off his clothes and hang out naked.

Three uniformed police officers respond -- as professionally as possible -- to encourage the guy to put some clothes on. It escalates to the point where the naked guy says that he is not going to put clothes back on and that there is nothing that the uniformed police officers can do about it. Of course, the officers have no choice but to “enforce the law” and you end up watching a video of a naked guy getting “tasered”, tackled and handcuffed by the three police officers. (A taser is an electronic gun which sort of electronically stuns.)

I was unable to watch the second half of the video. It’s just too painful for me. Everywhere I look, I am seeing the violence that goes with our current notion of being human beings.

It’s not the police officers. It’s not the naked guy. I mean, it’s just us. I’m talking about all of us. I’m talking about me.

The very last piece that I wrote here in the Post, was an article where I took the Town Council to task for rejecting attempts to unify some Planning and Building services of the Town and the County. I accused -- point blank -- the Town Council of actively reinforcing the mentality of “division” within our already functionally unified community, That somehow there really is an “us” downtown and a “them” uptown.

I mean, maybe that is how it was once upon a time. But the fiction of a “tale of two towns” is not the reality on the ground today. It’s just not.

But of course, the real problem is that my language and my speaking about “the problem of divisiveness” was clearly divisive and harmful in and of itself. I was complaining about the harm someone else was inflicting but I was doing it by inflicting harm.

Ouch.

So, now I am wondering about what’s it going to take for me to communicate in a way that “does no harm”. At the same time I want to completely tell the truth (as I see it). How do I share my perspective with the community without turning it into another opportunity to hit somebody over the head?

That goes back to my feeling of either being totally lost or just on the verge of some great personal discovery.

If I didn’t know any better, I would just become comfortably numb. But, I do know better. It’s a bit of a challenge for me but somehow effective communication has got to be an option. Like most people, I spend a lot of time staying distracted, being off point, and generally not being focused on what is really going on here and now.

Right now, there is almost nothing that our community leaders can do without provoking an outcry or attack from the “public”. There is almost nothing that the public can say without attacking the leadership.

It is fascinating to watch the gut level, visceral attacks that come upon a new president of the United States. When a “Republican” becomes president the attacks come from people who say that they are “different thinkers”. When a “Democrat” becomes president the attacks come from people who “think differently”.

Never mind the fact that the liberal and conservative points of disagreement actually all exist in a fiction from the past and have absolutely nothing to do with what is going on right now -- today.

For example, the federal government is not really run on “tax dollars”. The United States budget is primarily funded by money literally printed out of thin air. And that, my friends, is neither a “liberal” nor a “conservative” problem. It’s a very much bigger problem. (More on that topic, later.)

But of course, it is entertaining to distract ourselves with heated banter about who’s a liberal and who’s a conservative. That’s a whole lot easier than talking about the end of free market capitalism and the looming destruction of our currency. Our supposed “two-party” system of government in the United States and all of the chattering of the talking heads “is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”

Our current community dialogue must be what Don Miguel Ruiz (author of books including “The Four Agreements“) was talking about when he said that humans all live in a dream. We all live in a collective dream that we call “reality”. But actually the dream is a nightmare called “hell“.

Apparently, this problem has been around for a while. I like this 2500 year old verse from Lao-tzu:

Governing a large county
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.

Approach the universe with the Tao
and evil will have no power.
Not that evil is not powerful,
but its power will not be used to harm others.
Not only will it not do harm to others,
but the sage himself will also be protected.

If only the ruler and his people would
refrain from harming each other,
all the benefits of life would accumulate
in the kingdom.


Empires rise and empires fall. National currencies get stronger then they collapse and disappear.

Vibrant communities are led by vision and hope. Communities contract underneath the weight of their own fear.

Sometimes I can communicate and help lead the community forward. Sometimes my opportunity to lead gets lost in my reptilian instinct to attack, defend, and become numb.

In my speaking, I am a painter with a brush. My carefully chosen words, consciously placed upon the canvas of the community conversation have the power to create something new. I can paint a positive vision of tomorrow or I can kick the canvas in frustration.

Being a "leader" instead of a "caretaker"

The Town Council held a workshop Tuesday afternoon to discuss ways that the Town and County could merge Planning and Building services. Also discussed by some was why it could never really happen. With a total of five members of the Town Council and the Mayor, there appeared to be an even three to three split over the idea of doing some kind of merged planning versus doing very little to nothing to change what we have got.

From my seat in the audience of a packed house, here is what I saw. No I won’t pretend any personal objectivity or neutrality on this topic at all.

The County’s spokesperson Rick Bellis appeared to be offering everything that the County possibly could to entice the Town into combining staff.

What I saw was some people attempting to form a more unified and more streamlined way of managing future development. I saw some other people so afraid of the details and the possibility that “something might go wrong” that they were completely unable to see the bigger picture here.

Imagine that large aliens from outer space came with a huge vacuum cleaner and sucked away both the Town Hall and the County Hall of Justice. Imagine that we were then left to replace the government of our community with a new structure.

Given a clean slate, would we build two separate governments to manage our small community or would it be logical to only install one government for our unified community of less than 10,000 residents?

Would it make any sense at all to install two building departments and two planning departments for a small community organized around a single seven mile strip of commercial development?

It can only make sense with the statement “well, but that’s just the way it has always been done”.

The heart of what I want to write about here is the difference between being a “caretaker” and being a “leader”. Most of the time, it is adequate for elected officials to be caretakers. Once in a while -- at critical junctures in our history -- true leadership is necessary.

Sometimes that leadership comes from elected leaders. Often times it must come from somewhere else.

General George Washington and his ragtag band of rebels almost starved to death in Valley Forge in 1778 because the vast majority of the citizens were too afraid to “change the system” and couldn’t be bothered to dig into their personal pockets to finance the rebel army. It was only a handful of men and women who led the vast populace of the American colonies towards forming a more perfect union.

After a bitter debate, only 7 out of the 13 colonies voted to approve the new constitution in 1787 which formed the unified republic. This result was the achievement of a small handful of leaders.

On its face, as an outside observer, obviously one planning and building department to manage our one small community makes more sense than having two departments do the same work. It’s obvious from the outside.

The real estate and building community has articulated clearly why a “one stop shop” is better than two separate departments. One thing is for sure. The current system of two planning and building departments does not work to grow our community as envisioned in the Comprehensive Plan.

For myself, it was a little painful to sit in those Town Council chambers and watch some random remarks about how a merged Town and County Planning and Building staff would be less efficient than two separate departments. It was a little painful to watch some make claims that the best interests of Town residents were served by continuing with a divided administration of our single little community.

So to those few adamant voices who argue against merging redundant Town and County services, I ask you this. What is your vision for the future of the community? I have heard your fears. I have heard your rejection of the logic of the merger proposal based upon small details that have yet to be worked out. I heard what might go wrong.

But, I don’t believe that I heard any vision for the future. I don’t believe that I heard any guiding plans or principles. Where are you leading us to?

Fear is not a future.

This disfunctionalities of the past do not inform a positive road map for tomorrow.

In life you always end up with one of two things: What works or the reasons why not.

The "conversation" that we are

I like to read the Pagosa Daily Post almost every day. The regular writers keep me up to date with what is going on in Pagosa Springs.

What particularly fascinates me is the "conversation" that the community of Pagosa Springs is.

Sometimes -- actually more often than not -- we as a community are a "conversation" that looks something like: everyone who ever takes on any position of leadership in our community needs to be destroyed.

It really is fascinating to watch and explore. Well, unless the news story of the day involves "you". When the "you" (that would be the "I" in your mind) gets involved then all of a sudden it is not so much fun and interesting but all of your painful whatevers are there ready to get triggered.

It looks like this might just be a local Pagosa Springs "conversation". But actually it is a national and an international conversation.

What happens every second day of a new U.S. presidency? The "impeach so-and-so" bumper stickers come out.

So, actually, this "conversation" is not local. It is the conversation that all of humanity is mired in.

But, like fish in water who do not know that water exists......almost none of us humans are aware that we "swim" in a "conversation" not of our own making. Most of us think that we are thinking the negative, critical thoughts. But actually the negative, critical, back stabbing thoughts are thinking us.

That is not just a poetic flourish. The greater conversation of humanity actually "thinks" for the individual. That is to say that we "individual" humans are born into and show up into an already known way of thinking and communicating.

So, here is the good news for you if you are the "target" of a critical story. It is actually not personal.

The critic thinks that they are thinking and writing a critical story about you. The gossip thinks that they are saying something unique. But, notice that most of the letters to the editor are also from the same school of "thinking"......about how other people are wrong and jerks and whatever. And, so, by necessity, the writer must be right or something.

Or at least, for sure, the "leader" must be destroyed or exposed or something.

The good news is that the "conversation" really isn't about you. The "conversation" was in place before you were even born. You were born into it.

This conversation permeates all aspects of human life. This is the conversation that you are with yourself (you know, that ugly chatter in your head). This is the conversation that we are as an intimate relationship. This is the conversation that we are as a town. This is the conversation that we are as a nation. It is a conversation of "no possibility". Roughly, it could be called the conversation of "everything, everywhere is hopeless".

But, the greater human conversation can be altered. Great leaders can do that. That is the fun part.

What I am writing about here is a call to personal responsibility. On any given day, in any given situation, the opportunity is to personally take full responsibility. I did not say "to take blame". To take full responsibility is to claim it. To take full responsibility is to claim and to be a stand for your own personal power. To "blame" is to give away your power. To "criticize" and to talk about the mistakes of "the leadership" is to pretend that you do not have any power to influence your community from whereever you are.

Just because the County Commissioners wear fancy hats or because the Town Councilors wear fancy badges does not mean that they have any more "power" to affect change in the community than either you or I. The true source of the "power" of a County Commissioner or of a Town Councilor comes from the fact that they show up every week and try to get something done. Showing up and taking action is the source of personal power.

But as a people, on this planet, we swim in a conversation that goes something like this. "I have no personal power. Someone else has the power. I can't really do anything to improve my situation and the situation of my community."

As a people, we reinforce the mistaken theory that power exists outside ourselves by "blaming" and finding "fault" in the "leadership". Finding fault and blame are the narcotic that keeps us each, individually, asleep to the power that we each have inside of ourselves.

What power did Rosa Parks have when she stepped onto a bus in a segregated south and demanded to sit where "the white folks" sat?

What power did Nelson Mandela have from the jail cell in South Africa where he was incarcerated for 25 years?

What power did women have to demand the right to vote?

What power did the American colonists have against a Britain which was the greatest military power in history at that time?

What power do you have to alter the shape of the local economy in Pagosa Springs?

What power do you have to influence an efficient merger of redundant County and Town services?

You have whatever power that you claim for yourself.

If you say that the power to run the community is outside of yourself, then you are right. If you say that you claim personal responsibility for the future of our community, then so you do.

More often than not, true vision, leadership, and change in a community comes from somewhere other than the "appointed leadership". True leadership comes from one or two people who take a stand.

True power comes from somebody showing up and taking action week in and week out.

So, to the critical, the naysayers, and the voices of doom I ask "so what?" Now, what exactly are you going to do about it?