On heroes and saints, the #SDGs and the #IDGs
I have often called myself a "professional change agent" when selling my services as designer and facilitator of change processes. Both the "title" and the description of my services are fraught with contradictions and inconsistencies that would need a lot of text to unravel. But today I will not go down that promising rabbit hole.
I have met many professional change agents along the years. Those who became my role models, eliciting my willingness to emulate them, had this in common: they walked the talk and talked the walk.
Trying to emulate them, I came to see some of them as heroes and others as saints. I am aware that nowadays the idea of heroes and saints elicits more revulsion than anything else, but this is the way I think so this is what I write.
The path of the hero goes from the outside inwards. After years of trying to change the world, heroes became appalled by the pain their efforts had been causing others and the havoc they had been wrecking in the systems they tried to change. To diminish the pain their actions caused, they chose the ascetic path: becoming servants of others by detaching themselves from the own ambition to attain power, money, fame, ...
Ascesis: from the greek "ἄσκησις áskēsis" meaning "training to attain some virtue".
The path of the saint goes from the inside outwards. After years of trying to save themselves, saints became tired of the self-inflicted pain and of the lack of impact their self-centredness had in the world. To have some impact in the world they chose the path of obedience: quietening their inside, not to attain inner peace but to better obey what the world was asking from them.
Obedience: from the Latin "ob-audire", meaning to "listen with attention".
In order to walk the talk and talk the walk, to attain coherence between being and doing:
– the people who start their journey trying to save the planet, like for example many who focus their work on the #SDG, will eventually need to do the work of the hero, stepping down from their hubris so that they eventually become servants to those they have tried to save.
- the people who start their journey trying to save themselves, like for example many who focus their work on the #IDG, will eventually need to do the work of the saint, listening deeply to what the world is asking from them and committing to obey that call.
The photo is from "el Grau", the trail up to the Sanctuary I often withdraw to.
I have met many professional change agents along the years. Those who became my role models, eliciting my willingness to emulate them, had this in common: they walked the talk and talked the walk.
Trying to emulate them, I came to see some of them as heroes and others as saints. I am aware that nowadays the idea of heroes and saints elicits more revulsion than anything else, but this is the way I think so this is what I write.
The path of the hero goes from the outside inwards. After years of trying to change the world, heroes became appalled by the pain their efforts had been causing others and the havoc they had been wrecking in the systems they tried to change. To diminish the pain their actions caused, they chose the ascetic path: becoming servants of others by detaching themselves from the own ambition to attain power, money, fame, ...
Ascesis: from the greek "ἄσκησις áskēsis" meaning "training to attain some virtue".
The path of the saint goes from the inside outwards. After years of trying to save themselves, saints became tired of the self-inflicted pain and of the lack of impact their self-centredness had in the world. To have some impact in the world they chose the path of obedience: quietening their inside, not to attain inner peace but to better obey what the world was asking from them.
Obedience: from the Latin "ob-audire", meaning to "listen with attention".
In order to walk the talk and talk the walk, to attain coherence between being and doing:
– the people who start their journey trying to save the planet, like for example many who focus their work on the #SDG, will eventually need to do the work of the hero, stepping down from their hubris so that they eventually become servants to those they have tried to save.
- the people who start their journey trying to save themselves, like for example many who focus their work on the #IDG, will eventually need to do the work of the saint, listening deeply to what the world is asking from them and committing to obey that call.
The photo is from "el Grau", the trail up to the Sanctuary I often withdraw to.