{"id":2230,"date":"2011-12-28T09:50:14","date_gmt":"2011-12-28T14:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=2230"},"modified":"2012-01-05T09:51:55","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T14:51:55","slug":"common-sense-by-paul-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=2230","title":{"rendered":"“Common Sense” by Paul Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found this among my documents of “Thoughts” that I’m converting to a newer word processor.\u00a0\u00a0 Most meaningful to me were the words quoted by Joanna Macy<\/a> during a workshop at Rowe Camp and Conference Center<\/a>.\u00a0 They strengthened me for a long time.<\/p>\n

“How dare I be discouraged in the work
\nby anything so trivial
\nas the fear of personal failure?”<\/p>\n

Excerpts from Common Sense<\/p>\n

We have been born
\ninto a moment
\nof unprecedented danger and opportunity.<\/p>\n

Our failure to act
\nis itself a choice.<\/p>\n

There is nowhere to hide
\nfrom this awareness.<\/p>\n

It is time.<\/p>\n

Our purpose here
\nis to build a bridge.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the bridge
\nis to span the distance
\nbetween our present situation
\nand our vision of a better world.<\/p>\n

The beauty of a bridge is that,
\nonce it is in place,
\nanyone can walk on it.<\/p>\n

A few people can build a bridge
\nthat can be walked on by many.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

On the edge of the dream
\nwe face our deepest doubts.<\/p>\n

Now that it all is almost real
\na terrible fear of success takes hold
\nand we grab desperately, incontrollably, for failure.<\/p>\n

One last chance to get off easy.<\/p>\n

Who among us really wants to save the world,
\nto be born again into two thousand more years
\nof struggle?<\/p>\n

How much sweeter to be the doomed generation,
\nfloating gently on the errors and villainy of others,
\ntowards some glorious apocalypse now . . .<\/p>\n

Hallelujah! It’s not my fault–
\nBring on the end times!<\/p>\n

We hate our enemies
\nto provide ourselves in advance
\nwith excuses for possible failure.<\/p>\n

Only when we give up
\nthe comforts of pessimism
\nthe luxury of enemies
\nthe sweetness of helplessness
\ncan we see beyond our own doubts.<\/p>\n

I am speaking today of a great possibility
\na chance to return to life
\na chance to create a world for our children
\nnot worse than the one we have<\/p>\n

How dare I be discouraged in the work
\nby anything so trivial
\nas the fear of personal failure?<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

There are bridges to build
\nnew maps of consciousness to be delivered
\nto every planetary address
\nin every planetary language.<\/p>\n

We are ironworkers, skywalkers,
\nstubborn messengers
\nof light and life.<\/p>\n

O friends
\ndon’t forget
\nwhy we’re here!<\/p>\n

The truth is, we have the skills
\nand we have the courage
\nif we could only keep our minds
\non what we really want.<\/p>\n

. . .
\nHow to prevent world catastrophe:<\/p>\n

1) Admit that it could happen.
\n2) Decide that it will not happen.
\n3) Commit your vision and energy to number two<\/p>\n

without ever forgetting number one.<\/p>\n

To choose to build a bridge<\/p>\n

is the essential act of love.<\/p>\n

– Paul Williams<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found this among my documents of “Thoughts” that I’m converting to a newer word processor.\u00a0\u00a0 Most meaningful to me were the words quoted by Joanna Macy during a workshop at Rowe Camp and Conference Center.\u00a0 They strengthened me for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}