Monday, November 16, 2020
Peter Tarlton
Via Media…Yo-Yo style
My almost 80-year old heart and brain admittedly suffer from cultural whiplash. I wrestle with my desire to integrate personal values with communal stability. Long ago, we felt united. One could loyally serve in the military, earn graduate degrees, marry and raise a family, build an industry leading company. Perhaps a golden age of privilege. I will also add persistent endeavor. Along the way, we learned to value teamwork, balancing budgets and options, individual and group creativity, risk taking, thoughtful debates of ideas, how to incorporate national legislative initiatives into operating practices, and that a good education can help all members, on and off the job, at any age. Our country was then, and is now, a melting pot of people and ideas, a continuing process of integration to build a better common good. There was then, and is now, a full spectrum of behaviors, talents, identities, and contexts. Complex, indeed, and in need of appreciative inquiry to understand, and patient, respectful discourse to yield good results.
My childhood Yo-Yo comes to mind. I was never able to perform fancy moves with it, but after hours of hand-eye coordination of my awkward muscles, it would rhythmically go down to the end of the string and return to my gently moving hand. If I tried too hard, it stopped. There was a precise balance, to be discovered, for my eye-muscle coordination to happily work together.
I wonder if my Yo-Yo could work in today’s socio-economic climate, a time when complexity and balance seem lost in simplistic polarization. Political people throw vitriolic bricks from both sides of the aisle. Media companies amplify agendas, instead of informing us with objective journalism. A Digital revolution rewards a few with billions, and new, subtler forms of power. Corporations move abroad, leaving workers behind, while Urban and Rural poverty areas continue with lower quality healthcare and education. Income gaps widen while universities enforce group think, frustrations build, and Polarities widen. Where did the Joy and Hope of collaborating on solutions go? Away, Forever? Can people still be curious about others and different ideas? Or must it always be my way or our group’s way? Are we still a country, or was Abe right, “divided we fall?” I feel sad and upset simultaneously! Will anybody listen together?
My Yo-Yo starts to talk, “Being at the far end of the string can feel like destructive condemnation, almost crashing into the ground. Returning to your warm hand makes me smile; we came full circle, a successful cycle! My string expands and contracts, connecting both ends with a spectrum of attitudes, oscillating between the possibilities, just like daily feelings. And we can choose where and when to be in balance, rhythmically interacting, or not!” A wise Yo-Yo.
What if we intentionally share in the middle, rather that discount others from the poles? I can practice tolerance and acknowledge that everyone has something good to contribute. Clarity can emerge from the complexity of multiple realities, when we take time to ask questions, get to know one another’s life experiences, values, and ideas about problems and solutions. Conversations can integrate the needs and wants of many and release the joyful energy of collaboration. We can blend the past, present and future into constructive and hopeful ways for individuals, communities, country and world. We can do it once and many times!
Can I show you some tricks with my Yo-Yo? I have learned how to do them from others