When I started this blog in 2006 I had just spent 6 weeks travelling around Central Europe and was about to go to Mexico to begin my trip to Chile. At the time I was mad at the world for our destruction of the environment that maintains us, for the excesses that I have always thought normal while so many struggle just for survival and for the war that stains our past, present and unfortunately our foreseable future with it's horrific consequences.
Two years later those things haven't changed. I have seen more of the world and heard first hand stories about political disappearances, I worked with children who are innocent victims of the violence which comes with inequality and indignity and seen unnecesary suffering for people who need medical attention but can't afford it. The closer I have gotten to the reality I had begun to read about 2006 the more I have looked for reasons why. I still reject that it's innate human frailties that have created the current situation. While surely we must take responsibility for the current state of the world (particulary those of us in the western world) given our almost infinate capacity to manipulate it's conditions, I don't believe it has to be this way. I have also come across many sources of hope. I have met hundreds of people who are dedicating there lives to creating a world where everyone can live in dignity and thousands who have developped thoughts about the way things are and know that we must change our ways. For some it's our ways of war, for others it's the environment, others working conditions. For me it's the economic system which must be changed for any of the above goals to be achieved.
Wars for resources and to boost the economy will only increase in intensity and frequency as business pushes government to get control of more comodities (water, oil, land etc). The planet is having everything it has to offer acquired then sold, our economic system of growth requires more and more of everything which the planet cannot provide and whos attempts to extract it create it's own trail of mass extinction and pollution. Workers will continue to be squeezed as labour costs gradually become less and less of the overall production costs as executive wages and shareholders become gluttenously fat both literally and figuratively on the backs of the majority.
Over the 2 years I have gone from politcally illiterate and ignorant of history to knowing at least a little of most topics worth discussing. I have all but given up drinking. I gave up my exercise obsession for a time only to take it up again with more rigour than ever. It's been a good way for me to maintain some routine in my life and is part of my quest to become continually better as a being. I learnt Spanish, a little German, a little Portuguese, a little Tzotzil (in the mountains of Mexico) and have begun learning French.
As far as actions according to what I believe. Maybe the most significant was to turn away from the most obvious path I was set to follow and start searching. I gave away a potential career in physical performance coaching to see what the world is really about. I still have a passion for this area but I'm glad that I took that decision. I put myself in situations very foreign from those I had grown up in, walking the streets, meeting people and living in some of the poorest palces in Latin America. I openned my heart and mind in an attempt to understand things from a human point of view which meant rearranging some of my fears and prejudices. I now fear those with power and impunity much more than those who have had theirs taken away from them.
I have seen all kinds of political problems and various attempts at solutions and debated their merits with people from all over the world.
But to be honest despite all this I still feel like I haven't done anything yet. I feel like I have put myself in a better position to do something about the way things are and that I have taken some small actions of consequence to create the change the world needs but still the personal change I need to start doing things that I really believe in hasn't come.
At the moment I'm wandering Australia sharing experiences and saving some money continuing my preperation.
To use a sports analogy from my former life. I have spent the last 2 years in offseason steeling my mind and body gathering skills and having a few mock games but still game day seems distant. When will I arrive, this is the change I'm searching for most.
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