Getting Started
The story of human progress is driven by human creativity. First of all we joyfully create more humans. Every new challenge moves us to change the way things are to a new and better way. This means that in spite of our many mistakes the inevitable net trend is toward a better world, and history bears this out.
The Uplift Project is about addressing the challenges that move us with a new state of mind that creates better ways of doing things.
A while back a new friend told me about the first meeting by a group of local people with a strong interest in helping bring together our little community, then seriously fragmented with conflicting power structures too often squandering precious energy doing battle instead of doing good. He related that they include several highly competent and experienced people, but need an engineer.
Seemed like a good fit, so I put together a pot-luck dish and went with him.
Eight people showed up, including our host who had created the agenda that attracted us to her home. This was the first time several of us had met one another, and it was very nice to meet new people brought together by a common vision.
We shared food and started getting to know one another, sharing a few of our personal values, beliefs, experiences, attitudes, and goals. Like any diverse group meeting for the first time we barely scratched the surface of building the understanding and trust necessary for each of us to create our piece of a common vision and the process of manifesting it. But it seems we did find some consensus about making sure everyone has a voice, and needing to create an effective operational process. The idea that we should create a vision and process that would attract support and financing was strongly promoted. So was the idea that in addition to the left-brain skills required to operate and coordinate our efforts it is equally important to realize that we need to strongly include and respect the intuitive, wholistic, spiritual right-brain wisdom, confidence and immense power in our deliberations of what to do as well as how. Anything is possible, but some things are more desirable and uplifting than others.
The Challenge
It looks to me like most of us have been conditioned from birth by our culture to mindlessly follow the rules because they are rules, not because they make sense. We obey just to avoid punishment, criticism or rejection.
I see a rapidly growing number of folks, like our little group, waking up and working on themselves to get past our fears, break out of the cultural trance, and learn to collaborate effectively and joyfully. As Gandhi taught, we are learning to be the change we want to see in the world. Individual transformations and empowerment are what change the world, not organizations or tribes whose top priority is their own dominance and endurance. They will follow, not lead.
To be ruled by fear is to be easily ruled, to be easily manipulated into believing we are powerless against overwhelming forces and need to give our power away to those who say they will protect us and tell us what to do. Mindless obedience kills creativity, compassion, empathy and our very soul, makes us into subordinate controllers who will murder the enemy du jour on command and be proud of it. If we were to withdraw all that useless destructive energy from the controllers we have put into power and put it into what we want to create instead of what they want to control and destroy, the controllers would either see the light or wither away from lack of support (but not without a fight). We can never defeat them with force or violence. That's how they want us to think. It gives them their excuse to crack down on the "insurgents" who dare to rock their boat, and they've got the big guns.
The Process
Breaking out of the fear-driven cultural trance of conditioned fears and feelings of powerlessness is key to connecting with our vast inner wisdom and power which is everyone's birthright. This is a big challenge. Reforming the processes you don't want, especially your own culturally conditioned long standing limiting beliefs, attitudes and reluctance to speak your truth, should get easier the better you understand them. It also gets easier with a little help from your friends.
More and more of us are waking up to what we are doing to ourselves, each other and our mother earth. It is finally becoming clear that killing the killers, or trying to terrify the terrorists with "shock and awe" is not the solution, but the problem. We are all in the same boat (mother earth) and blasting holes in the enemy's side of the boat is just stupid. We are beginning to cultivate the inner wisdom, creativity, and personal power, and the respectful cooperation essential to synergetic process in turning things around. Like I said, the net trend is toward a better world, but we have some long buried issues, now on the table for the first time, to deal with on the way.
It's all about fear getting in the way of love. The twisted souls ruled by fear need the love that was denied them, usually early in life beginning with failure of maternal bonding and thus of the ability to bond, and left them raging in a tiny world of only fear, abuse, rejection and powerlessness. We will of course still prevent the dangerous ones from doing harm, but not with the old paradigm of degradation, rejection and punishment which just makes matters worse. Some will never in this lifetime be able to transform themselves with even the most loving therapy, but I think many will, especially when they see the whole culture coming to its senses.
Some Process Guides I have found useful and recommend
Over the years of dealing with all kinds of people and issues I realized that I'm not any smarter today than I will be tomorrow, so why make rules that I expect myself to mindlessly follow? This forces me to examine every decision in light of current circumstances which can be similar and familiar but seldom identical.
This also facilitates the creation of evolving process guides, instead of rules, that I adapt to new circumstances on the fly. I generally "free run" without a master clock regimenting my beat, which just goes on as it will, and removes many limitations on my creative freedom and confidence to pursue my passions.
As my PG's evolve they tend to become more comprehensive and flexible and ever less binding when a reasonable exception comes along. As long as it keeps working I'll keep doing it.
So, here goes. Lots of these may be familiar. Many come from my Hippie days. Some may not resonate with the conditioned mind until sincerely tested with a positive attitude and careful attention to outcomes. Like everything, there is a process involved. Taking my word for something without testing it yourself is very weak learning and creatively inhibiting.
When I'm not sure what to do:
Tell the Truth, Trust the Process, and Get the Hell Out Of The Way
Ask myself: Am I being moved by Love or Fear?
Rekindling The Zone (of egoless timeless fearless flow)
Relax, breath deep.
It's the vibes that Count
We are all one
Be Here Now.
Go With the Flow
DO what you love. Don't settle for anythimg less (Thanks Steve Jobs).
Anything Is Possible
For a failed effort after trying everything I can think of: Let it Go and expect an even better outcome sooner or later, usully very soon, but can be even years later, and often requiring considerable patience and perserverance, but it alays works for me.
All healing is self-healing
When negative thoughts or fears intrude avoid the death spiral into depression by finding the positive side: Treat failures as motivating opportunities to come up with something better.
You create your own reality. Dwell upon what you want not what You don't want.
If you don't like your reality, it's up to you to change it. Blaming others is useless and destructive.
Beliefs and thoughts create ALL reality, not vice-Versa.
Consciousness is the creator of physical reality, not vice-versa.
Respectful arguments, even if heated (honest), are creative, productive and improve relationships.
Teaching by force just teaches force.
The noblest of ends is betrayed by malicious means.
My startup Process:
I make very few promises or committments. I can change my mind at any time when something is not working or I want to try a better way. My works speak for me, not my promises, but I try to keep the few I do make.
Real learning comes from mistakes, so I do not fear to try new ideas and deal respectfully and constructively with the consequences and with apparent mistakes by others. I want no force based authority or control over others. I've got all I can handle just trying to keep myself centered. As things evolve I expect my roles will also as I figure out how and where I can do the most good. So I won't get locked into committing to any post, like web designer, videographer, video editor, advisor, writer, presenter, planning, etc. or committments of my time that sidetrack the many other balls I have in the air, as most of us do. But I may well jump into any of those roles and more for as long as I find it worthwhile and feel so inclined.
I believe if we all operate this way we'll find it most effective, but to each his/her own. I will make suggestions, propsals, and argue my positions when so moved. If the group goes in directions I cannot support I will just withdraw.
I find working "meetings" as we all know and hate them very limiting. Even when everyone welcomes everyone else's voice to be heard there never seems to be enough time to be heard fully, thus this tome which you can read all or none of as you wish when you wish, and I will be receptive to any respectful feedback.
Instead, I propose fun, relaxed "Gatherings" for the larger group without agendas or pressure to complete or conclude anything. This is where we get to mingle, inspire and get to know and entertain one another. The Crestone Music Festival comes to mind, also the unique annual Crestone Energy Fair now running for over 35 years, which rcently gained even more uplifting energy by the 8 ppeople I met at the meeting described earlier!
A great Gathering format which I participated in for several years began with opening the doors 30 minutes before scheduled start time for just mingling and/or being late. Volunteer small group facilitators will have posted a topic of interest on a bulletin board at the door with a limited number of colored tags for people to chose to join their groups. After an hour of small groups would be the evenings presentation on a topic of interest by someone interesting, or sometimes a performance of some kind, followed by dancing to live music. An open bar and snacks put the icing on the cake. Over a couple of years this organization grew so fast we had to move to larger venues several times.
This formula of course requires an organizing team and a good venue, which will provide very attractive ways for many folks to make a valuable contribution to our project and learn a lot. My involvement led to being tutored by experienced small group facilitators and to becoming the volunteer publisher and columnist of a monthly organization tabloid newspaper. I had a veteran editor and paste-up crew and people managing printing, circulation, classifieds, calendar, reporting, etc. I also wrote a montly column.
For getting productive work done I favor small groups of the people most qualified and motivated to work on a particular issue, with room for highly motivated newbies who want to learn from (and teach) the masters. This speeds things up by eliminating the time getting the many less involved up to speed. When such a team comes up with something worth presenting to the larger group there could be polished presentations at regular large Gatherings to bring everyone up to speed and invite feedback and new participants.
Finally, I am very keen on making the best of the incredible, unprecedented, rapidly evolving creative and networking tools at our disposal. The wisdom of the world, ancient and modern is at our fingertips. So are search and networking tools to find, recruit, and serve any group of people and interests with near instantaneous information resources and global communication.
The condition of the planet, society and current trends clearly require timely action and we now have the tools to pull it off. This website and others I have developed for clients are beginnings of what I envision to become a leaderless, naturally self-organizing, evolving network of light workers who thrive on sharing their wisdom, experience and skills collaborating to create a better world. Our little group has the potential to not only fulfill our mission of bringing our community together, but could provide a working model and hub for serving other uplifting groups.
In the spirit we all cherish of giving priority to getting to know one another, this is a small portion of who I am with some relevance to our fledgling common vision. I know it's a long read, but should save the time of endless repetition by directing here people who want to know me better. I recommend others do their own write-ups and I will be happy to post them on this site, time and resources permitting.
At some point I expect as we grow and get funded there will be database support and maybe a separate sub-domain on this site and/or a separate domain.
I find the cell metaphor a good match for the Uplift project. Every biological entity is comprised of a networked colony of cells, each with its own functions, needs and resources, and even different DNA, and yet all working in the harmony achieved by billions of years of trial-and-error evolution. What trials did not confer reproductive advantage did not endure. We, as always, are just part of the process. Each individual is a cell, so is each team, project, organization, and whatever short or long term collaborative entities that evolve.
For a temporary working title I will call our new little group UP Cell 1 in hopes it will be the first new UP cell.
I envision the creation of early cells providing common services, like legal, accounting, technical support, information, networking, marketing, and other services needed by nearly every cell but a huge burden on the time, resources and energy of any cell better spent on its core mission.
We all have our valuable gifts, not always realizing what they are until we jump off the cliff and grow wings on the way down. The sooner we learn what we each love and what we each have to offer the faster we can each and all figure out where we match up with what is needed and what is satisfying. When we all love what we are doing and who we are doing it with nothing can stop us.
It would be my privilege and pleasure to meet one-on-one with all and sundry as time permits in uplifting settings where we can get to know one another in greater depth than in a room full of other demands for our attention with too little time.
With love and appreciation,
Rick King 10-15-24
