Uncertainty and disquiet have become constant companions for many of us since the pandemic.
Whether we interpret it from a place of fear or curiosity is a choice.
Whether we see it as the quiet before the storm or as the quiet before something more substantive (as in Gal Beckerman’s great book).
The structure of the workplace is changing; to what, we’re not yet clear, and our place in it is uncertain. I find many tiptoeing around this uncertainty, afraid to wake it and make it real and labelling it as though there is a cause rather than recognising it as the nature of change.
The thing is, it’s neither asleep nor malign. How we see it is a matter of perspective. If we want things not to change, to be secure in our old knowledge and relationships, and the privileges we have inherited, then it is most certainly a dragon. If, on the other hand, we choose to see it as a transition from a dysfunctional, destructive, unsustainable chimaera of industrial thinking and the worst of consumer capitalism to something more wholesome for our offspring, then we should welcome it, even as it scares us.
My friend Steve Done recounted to me his experience of riding a skittish horse, being followed by an old van with a squeaky fan belt. The horse became increasingly unsettled until he turned it to face the van. When the horse could see the source of the noise, it settled down.
As artisans, it is our job to turn and face what is going on, find out what it is made of, and harness it.
The silence before the sound
the silence before the sound is a quiet envelope between the now and the after, your last moment of unknowing before the sowing of whatever whoever wherever comes next Unattributed, found on https://silenceisbeauty.com/short-poems-about-silence/
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