Intention

Intention
7/2 and 7/3 2008

I was interviewed today for an article on AFAP in the Manila Times Newspaper. Due out on 7/4/2008.
The reporter asked why I wanted to learn Tagalog or Filipino. I answered the best I could but I would have loved to be able to elaborate. By all measures, I shouldn’t be speaking Tagalog or Filipino at all. The use of other languages is actively discouraged in the US. It’s not that people don’t persist and keep their language, they do despite it all, but the main message is consistently speak “English” now, you’re in “America”. My Dad who was thrown into an unfriendly world here at 7 years old had to do it. Now he understands some, but bursts out into laughter whenever he tries to speak. That’s another story. But, suffice to say that my culture actively discourages speaking other languages in generals and especially in schools. That’s another story.

Back to intention. I think that we all start out with some tools and information from our families of origin and their collective experience over time. Some things we do and we don’t know why we do them. Many times it’s a product of what worked in the past for either ourselves or our family members. We learn habits. We also are in an society that values profit over people and seeks to maintain that idea with a logic of it’s own. Does anyone really say outright that they want other peoples lives to be more difficult? Not usually, but so many of us in the US want our retirement plans to mature, develop, and support us in our old age. We have money invested with companies and have given them permission to make money at all costs. That’s our agreement and even if that means mistreating people that get in the way of that goal here or overseas, that’s the goal. If you lost your job because the factory moved overseas or you had money stolen from you from a company’s policies, or if you loved one died in a hospital where they were short staffed of care, although making record profits,…. It’s all connected in the idea of profit over people. I hear a lot of people angry at our President and frustrated by the suffering he has help create, exacerbate and promote worldwide for US economic interests. And that’s valid beyond measure. What I don’t hear people talking or thinking more about is the system that he is serving and that we all participate in on a daily basis. If we can prioritize different things, like people, like our futures, like the beauty in our lives, and especially in the US, the idea of “how much is really enough to have a satisfied life” then I think that will lead to better world for everyone.

Yes, I will have to change my behavior. Move closer to work, create work closer to home…. And many more things. Not flying, not driving as much or at all, but don’t you think that we’ll have to do that anyway eventually.

Working for positive change in your own life is preparation for a realistic future. Like training for a race or studying for a test, would you want to be prepared for a challenge ahead and potentially help to shape the future or unprepared when the time comes to deal with reality (or at least your illusion bursting).

So, I shouldn’t be speaking Filipino, but I want that for myself. For many reasons, again another story, but with using my intention I have the opportunity to reshape my habits, my skills, even my brain (see brain plasticity article last month). And if I can reshape myself, which I am, I can reshape the way I move through the world and my interactions with others, the way we spend our time, and what we focus on and prioritize. And that shapes the world.