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?