Mandy Nolan’s recent ‘sorry’ article struck a deep chord.
I sense many of us are yet to make the leap from saying sorry to acting sorry. We are complicit in supporting a system that largely marginalises and diminishes those disadvantaged within it.
I highly recommend watching this beautiful and eloquent discussion between Stan Grant and Dr Cornel West .
http:// www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/451860035927/awaken-cornel-west I offer myself as an example.
I write this from a ski lodge at Mt Buller.
Signs all around the resort implore me to enjoy MY holiday with MY crew.
I ski all day focusing on MY technique.
I get back to the lodge at night and listen to other similarly privileged white anglo saxons discussing their holiday homes, their mortgages, their super, their jobs, their promotions.
I sense large scale complicity.
I know I am not alone in lying in bed awake at 3am with fears and doubts spinning in my head compelling me to think of ways I can engage more ‘successfully’ with the system.
A system based on competition rewards individual ‘success’ generally to the detriment of ‘others’ unable to engage within if for whatever reason.
I sense the shift to ‘WE/OURS’ will create a system based on collaboration and supports ‘others’ to engage more fully within it.
Implicit in such a system are words such as Love, Trust, Sharing, Creativity and Community.
I agree saying sorry is a first step.
Beyond that I sense a need to act sorry.
A need to shift from thinking primarily of ‘ME & MINE’ to thinking primarily of ‘WE & OURS’.
And to therein create a system measuring success by the way we support and encourage our most disadvantaged.
Phil Preston Mullumbimby
