A friend of mine shared during breakfast recently that his parents lived their life in denial about major health issues until they died.  I heard some nobel winning economists recently use the same type of words about our economy.  They compared the stock market going up to cocaine where we lose control of our reasoning ability.  It is a piece of the trance that we all must find a way out of.  In our everyday political world we spend a lot of time arguing about hot buttom items like abortion, gay marriage and the Middle East as if these are the most important issues that we must deal with.  Meanwhile our civilization is in serious trouble and we hardly notice. 

How many days do you think our civilization can last if the water, fuel and food don’t show up when it’s suppose to?  I don’t think very many days and that is the big question that we should be addressing.

A couple of interesting things happened during the recent snow storms in the US Pacific NorthWest.  The first was that trucks could not get through with food stock.  The second was that our local politicians got pummeled becaused they didn’t get the roads cleaned up fast enough or use salt to clear the ice.   The public was outraged.  We don’t seem to have much energy for fixes that take work or pain.

Do you think we humans really understand  the following facts:  we live on a planet where 70% of the world’s forests have been eliminated, 30 % of the world’s arable land has been lost in the last 40 years, 150 dead zones exist at major river mouths around the world, 90% of all large fish are gone from the Ocean, half of all species of life may be extinct in 50 years.

And you read the news--- it is full of crime and war, hunger and refugees.  There are more than 20 major conflicts on the planet today and refugee camps everywhere.   This makes me want to ponder a few big questions…

1.  Why are there so many wars/conflicts on the planet today?  Why so many refuges?

2.  What role does our country and economy play in all of these wars? And what benefits do recieve on a daily basis from these wars? ----

3.  Why do we care so passionately about what is happening in the Middle East-- 10,000 miles away but don’t seem as passionate about closer in issues like the substantially reduced life-expectancy and incarceration statistics of the black, Latino and Native American men in our own cities or the black citizen/refugees of places like Darfur.

Dr. Paul Ray, author of the Cultural Creatives,  recently said that we have really big problems out there and we  need to be thinking of really big solutions.  How many of us are thinking that way?

For example, A good progressive friend of mine who lives in Orange County, California in a 5000 square foot home with a pool and air conditioner.  He recently shared his climate change consciousness with me when he talked about what he was doing to help the situation.  He told me a long story about how his family have begun to think about recycling their home waste and turning off of lights.   All I could say was great but in my heart I was feeling --- what will it take for these friends to fully understand how big our problem is. 

The Awakening The Dreamer Symposium is designed to break-out of our trance and seriously look at these big questions and to help get us to a place where we feel a  sense of hope and empowerment for the future.   A place where we can awaken from our dream and begin to create a new dream that will create a livable future. 

Victor Bremson-

January 11, 2009