I Could Learn From You

In 2017, Odesza released one of my favorite songs of all time, Line of Sight. It ends with these lyrics:

Help me out, don't let me down
I could learn from you, I could learn from you

For me, these lyrics surface a powerful hidden request that I imagine we all carry in the midst of our relationship challenges. In the heat of the moment, few of us can go deep enough to verbalize this request authentically, but that's the value of art.

The artist goes deep enough into their own struggles to help make what's unconscious more conscious for all of us.

I adore the music video just as much as the lyrics. The imagery in the video points to the power of inter-generational collaboration, as well as collaboration between biological and technological intelligence, to preserve and sanctify all that is so beautiful on our planet.

As we enter a new year in the Gregorian calendar, I want to talk a little bit about what I think it will take to "really do our work" at this time in history. Specifically, I want to emphasize the idea of working smarter for a better future rather than harder.

For so many of us, the past few years have been extremely difficult in so many ways. Covid, national and global politics, horrific acts of war and violence, ongoing ecological catastrophe, questions about AI, and the list could go on.

It's past time for us to wake up - to realize that the ways we're choosing to live on this planet simply must change.

Every single one of us needs to change. The earlier we recognize that and begin making moves in that direction, the easier I think this process will be.

One very simple way of describing the work ahead of us is making the unconscious more conscious. Integrating that which we've disavowed.

The years ahead might also be very challenging, but it's crucial to recognize that these years are full of incredible possibility - maybe the most possibility for a positive future many of us have seen in our lifetimes.

I believe we are alive to witness the transition of some very old systems of control. Their death is accompanied by the dredging up some extremely difficult political and economic chaos that represents the last gasps of a thousands-year-old civilizational organism whose time has come to move on.

As we actively work to create the foundations of a better future, I think it's important to understand two things:

1) Part of our work is to become death doulas. We are stewarding the passing of an old way of being and relating so that something fundamentally new can come into the world. That means we need to be prepared for lots of denial, resistance, and grief - in ourselves and in others. It means we need to be actively developing the psychological, emotional, relational, and spiritual skills for supporting this process.

2) There's a certain style of "working harder" that is part of that denial and resistance. It's part of the old way of doing things that we need to let go of. We cannot force the world to become what we think it should be. That's because whatever we think the world "should be" is almost certainly an artifact of the dying system - an attempt by that system to replicate itself. Rather, we need to learn the skills for helping the world unfold into what it's already trying to become.

If I'm right about our historical context, then working smarter might look like some of the following things:

• Ensuring you have time to rest, grieve, and recommit.
• Invest in your own healing.
• Invest in raising your own consciousness - at least partly through making what's unconscious more conscious.
• Invest in your own hope by being diligent about taking in stories that inspire you and fill you with hope and joy.
• Share those stories with others. Build community around them.
• Be creative. Learn from artists you admire. Invest in a better world with your money by paying those artists.
• Follow the news and current events when you need to - but be careful not to be consumed by fear, judgment, or righteousness in ways where you lose touch with your beautiful sense of hope. And employ your critical thinking capacities in evaluating your sources of information.
• Develop your capacity for engaging with conflict productively (see my Generative Conflict Starter Kit here). Ask who benefits from the way you navigate to conflict.

Obviously, there is so much more that could be said here.

But I want to emphasize that when it comes to the question of "How can I authentically work for a better world?," taking the time to see how we might work smarter rather than harder can have huge payoffs.

What do you think of what I’ve shared here? Send me your thoughts at james.boutin@mailfence.com. I could learn from you.

Sending you all lots of LOVE during these mysterious and challenging times.

James Boutin
www.jamesboutin.com

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Click here to subscribe.

Upcoming Events

Processwork Winter Intensive
A three-week immersive experience in the fundamentals of Process-Oriented Facilitation, January 27 - February 14
In-Person at the Processwork Institute of Portland, OR
Learn more and register here

Navigating Conflict Across Differences of Privilege and Identity
A 90-Minute In-Person Workshop
Presented at The Convening 2025: Our Liberation Is Tied
Highline College, Des Moines, WA
February 8, 2025