Last year archaeologists revealed a stunning find in Mexico. A set of footprints, more than 12 000 years old revealed a mystery and a drama.
We are not sure who this prehistoric individual was, perhaps a woman aged about 12 or a young man, but we do know they were in a hurry. The scientists could calculate that the person was rushing at a sustained pace of 6.12 km/h. Through marshland.
The tracks form an almost dead straight line across the swampy expanse. It was clear that the individual was critically focused on reaching a raised piece of land in the middle of the marshy surroundings (the muddy landscape is the reason we have such well-preserved prints).
So far so good. Then another detail pops into the equation. At one point the person’s tracks are joined by a smaller set. A 3-year-old.
The quick pace means that carrying the toddler was essential or they would be progressing too slowly.
And then the break.
Either the person was tired, or the toddler had to conduct ablutions, we’ll never know. Through this break in the pattern, we get insight into a whole new dimension of the drama.
The tracks back are preserved too. We know the person returned without the toddler about an hour later (reduction in weight can be read in the depression depth). In the interim, one of prehistory’s fiercest animals, the giant sloth (no comparison to the docile modern sloths) crossed over the old prints.
What drama, what mystery is revealed by this simple break in the pattern. Was it their child or did they steal it from another tribe? Was it taken to safety or sacrifice? And most crucially, why did they make this journey through tough terrain alone and without the tribe?
We’ll never know the answers to this mystery that is twice as old as the pyramids. But that small break, the set of small footprints next to the track connects with our human hearts in a way that a straight series of tracks never could.
Cognitus Interruptus
The breaks, disruptions, and shifts in patterns are always the points at which we gain the most information. If someone comes to work on time, every day, you get nervous five minutes after they don’t arrive.
Parents know this too well. When the house gets quiet, you know the kids are up to no good.
It is no well known that taking a break, especially where we allow ourselves to wallow in boredom, can be the true fuel of creativity. As Banksy famously says:
If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.
These pauses where we recharge the batteries can make the essential difference between taking a break and being broken.
But we also fear the break. A break in the pattern is the door into an unknown.
Scare city
In my twenties, I had a vision of life. I imagined this giant ball with invisible threads running between the surface and the core. Tiny beads were bouncing back and forth between the core and surface. Some were stationary... While imagining this sphere I realised it was a metaphor for our life trajectory.
Most people will spend their life either rushing towards (the core) or away from what their parents created in them.
In your twenties you see many people rushing headlong to prove everything their parents believe wrong. In your 40s you see the same people rushing to affirm everything their parents lived.
The sad reality of this metaphor is that most people are so consumed by this trajectory that they never jump off the thin line they are fixated upon. How many people are able to free themselves from this line?
Like the prehistoric child-bearer, they are fixated in one direction or the other. Rushing towards what they believe is certainty, safety, clarity, for whatever deficit they carry.
I found an Island in your arms…
Where can you break? How do you take the quantum jump to a new orbit?
One step is looking at the difference between an abundance and a scarcity mindset. The scarcity mindset is fixated on proving something right or wrong. Believing there is only one option that can be proven right or wrong, locks the mind into the invisible thread.
The abundance mindset understands that the options we see are limited by the perspective we take. Change your point of view (or space in the sphere) and the whole landscape of options changes.
The operative question here is not: “Is this right or wrong?” but rather “What has led me to believe that this is the only option? – what have I excluded?”
Understanding the space around your mindset makes breaking the line easier, but not less risky.
Re-cord-Breaking
Starting out in Germany 25 years ago I was constantly reminded of the supreme importance of a gap-free CV. Any space that was not filled with productive activity was the kiss of death for an interview. A smooth, unbroken trajectory of ever-rising responsibility and status was the golden ticket.
The certainty and predictability of conformity serve as the snuggle blanket for our frightened souls. Too scared to put our feet in the mud and have our footprints count. Too scared of our dent in the universe.
Will you be remembered as the loyal employee that never took a sick day, never contradicted your boss, never missed a socially conformed meme? As MacArthur said: “We are remembered for the rules we break.”
Breaking the pattern is where the information and the energy lies. How many times have you seen friends gushing after a break-up? The unbounded energy and opportunity that is released from breaking out of a dysfunctional relationship that had you caught in a tension web.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not being a proponent for the “Move fast and break things” school of thought. I’ve always considered Mark Zuckerberg’s mantra as a myopic ego trip. Unable to demonstrate true empathy, the exploration of his own curiosity is lived out at the cost of others.
When breaking our trust, our friendships, and our social fabric are simply collateral damage to building vast advertising wealth, there is a clear misalignment of value/values.
Breaking things shift trajectory and gravity.
This week we had our first Corona death in the building where I live. A single mother committed suicide. This is the dark face of the breaking point. When we step into a void beyond the certainty of polarity. When our physical and mental capacity reaches a point beyond which we simply cannot grasp.
We all have this deep fear of the unknown. What lies beyond our certainties?
Scarred Issues
The truth is that after the broken moment, nothing looks the same anymore. We cannot simply put the kintsugi pieces together and call it golden lipstick on a pig. We have to fundamentally redesign.
In a sense that is what is being called for with our slow motion eco-cide. Our approach to the planet is broken. We have spent the last 500 years moving fast and breaking things. And now it is broken.
The golden threads of tech fixes (nothing more than scaffolding for sustaining the old extractive economic models) have to be rejected just as firmly as the fantasy that we can return to Eden. We can break free from the mindsets of the past.
We have to imagine a new relationship. We have to discover the hidden child in the trajectory that gives every new step a deeper meaning.
Let’s take that leap.
Three key take-outs:
1. Point breakCan you define the point at which you’ll take a break? Or will it define you?
2. Shining lineAre you aware of the constraints you have adopted due to your current trajectory? What are you running to? What are you running from? What happens when you let go of the polarity?
3. BrokenCan you reconfigure your options anew after a break-up? Or are you still using the framework that defined the od relation-Ship?
Side Note:
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Cooko is a new venture which aims to improve the situation for cacao farmers. The industry is currently one of the world’s biggest contributors to human slavery and environmental degradation.
Please reach out if you’d like to know more and invest.
