“The future belongs to local economies with global awareness.” ~ the WiseFool 

obama

Well, whaddaya know? Obama has moved in. And your home will never be the same again. Gracious as ever, he makes you feel at home in your own house. He occupies the leather couch in your living room, but his presence fills your entire space.

True to form, Obama didn’t come empty-handed. He comes bearing gifts for your entire family. The tan prince giveth more than he taketh. But what does it all mean and where will he take us?

Who knows! But you know this: A brain-dead, trigger-happy president has given way to a charming intellectual with a heart. Paranoia has given way to hope. And you can’t remember the last time you were this excited about a president. Or the last time you were this proud to call yourself an American.

Will Obama deliver? We don’t know. But does it really matter? At least, he’s not going to destroy the world with some cold idealogy. Even if Obama does absolutely nothing — he would still be a raging success. Sigh! That’s how low the bar’s been set by the previous guy.

Actually Obama has already delivered. He’s given you HOPE. What more do you want? After all, here we are — holding hands all across America and grinning from ear to ear as we stand waist-deep in poop from yesteryear while chanting “yes, we can” in unison. May we never recover from Obama!

Some would argue that we are not going to get far with hope alone. They would be right — if “hope” were just a concept. Lucky for us, hope is an emotion. Emotion is energy in motion. As an emotion, hope has a way of drawing to itself all the other ingredients necessary to make progress.

That someone so intelligent, so fair-minded and so level-headed would occupy the highest office in our land speaks not only for Obama’s gifts, but for the people who put him there: We Americans. Our collective hope has triumphed over our collective fears.Hurrah!

And that says a lot for the resilience of the American mind in particular and humanity in general. We humans are deeply flawed and yet incredibly beautiful. That something so noble would emerge from the ashes of the past few years leaves me, well, gasping.

Obama was right when he said, “This is more about you than about me.” Even so, he happens to be the right man at the right time with the right moves. He’s surfing an evolutionary wave, the first in a series that is sweeping across humanity.

The present sucks and the future spells h-o-p-e. So where are we going with all this? What does the future hold for us in these turbulent times as we stir beneath the smelly crap of yesterday armed with little more than hope?

No one knows. But one thing is for certain: 2008 destroyed whatever box you were living in. There is no box for any of us to go back to. There is hope for future, but it ain’t a blank check.

The future belongs to those –
* Who give up their comfort zones for creative thought
* Who feel their way thru life more than think thru it
* Who listen to nay-sayers and challenge the yes-men
* Who step out of their heads and into their hearts
* Who put aside cold ideals to embrace their humanity
* Who replace big resentments with little gratitudes
* Who learn from the past, not borrow from the future
* Who cooperate with enemies and compete with friends
* Who go from mindless consumers to mindful lovers
* Who honor the feminine and restore her rightful place
* Who don’t hanker for stuff that cannot be sustained
* Who worship local heroes more than global celebrities
* Who only need what can be produced locally
* Who favor small-and-diverse over large-and-monolithic
* Who favor local craftsmen over global name brands
* Who feed village economies not global corporations
* Who generate more energy than they consume

Your future hinges on these two questions: (1) Where does my food come from? (2) Where does the energy I consume come from? If it’s not “local” — you’re pushing your luck; you’re running on fumes.

The future belongs to those who know the farmer who raises their food, the baker who bakes their bread, the milkman, the clothes-designer, the furniture-maker, the jeweller …. and all this with a curiosity and awesome fascination for other cultures, other thought systems and other ways of being all across the globe and beyond.

The future belongs to those who dance in their local economies — but with global awareness.

Here’s to the future!

Namaste, Shri

© Shri Yannam