Change

I’d never heard the word “liminal” when I started writing “Wisdom@Work,” and then it seemed that life couldn’t be defined as anything but liminal (outlined in this blog post from November). Since then, it looks like the world caught a case of liminality, with profound questions now staring us in the face. What radical changes is Destiny calling us to undertake? What does this mythic moment signify?

Many of us, today, are working and worried. Gone are the days when having a job meant “doing your job.” We are feeling anxious and worried because we can no longer expect our work to be the same as it was in the past. Staying ahead of the game is what it takes simply to be part of the game. We feel the pressure to renew our most important asset – ourselves.

It’s Summer Solstice, a change of seasons. As such, we’re quoting Yoko Ono: Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.

People don’t want you to change. We have a “quid pro status quo” with most people in our lives. If I don’t change, you don’t change. Yet, comfort breeds apathy. And, if there was ever a time to experience some post-traumatic growth, this might be the time.

The whole MEA library is full of books that speak to the way of transition, but there’s one particular section called “How can I evolve?” that best captures the navigation of midlife transitions. William Bridges’ trailblazing book “Transitions” is there, but so is this book written twenty years later by Bridges which has the subtitle, “Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments.”

Introduction by Chip Conley: The beginning of my 2013 sojourn working with Airbnb was almost simultaneous to when a middle class Baby Boomer couple from Seattle, Debbie and Michael Campbell, chose to go out on the road for what has now been seven years of adventure.

When the 9/11 tragedy happened, it was 6 am in San Francisco. I was awoken by a panicked call from my friend Janine who was on the east coast and could barely speak. I spent the day in my bathrobe in our construction zone of a home with my partner Donald and a couple dozen construction workers glued to the TV. The day is seared into my heart as everything changed so suddenly, horrifically.

As many of you know, we have an MEA Library with more than 400 books in 25 sections each defined by a question, not a topic. This is my favorite book in the section defined by, “What are the socio-political implications of aging?”

This piece of wisdom floated up to me, although the author is unknown. I wanted to share with you because it reminds me a little bit of my post “Where’s Your Gumption?”

"I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason" - John Keats, 1817