Living an Integral Life in a Non-Integral World
Christine McDougall's Personal Blog
Living an Integral Life in a non Integral world has its own challenges. In 1927, at the age of 32, Buckminster Fuller set out to use himself as a scientific experiment designed to discover "what a healthy young male human of average size, experience, and capability with an economically dependent wife and newborn child, starting without capital or any kind of wealth, cash savings, account monies, credit, or university degree, could effectively do that could not be done by great nations or great private enterprise to lastingly improve the physical protection and support of all human lives, at the same time removing undesirable restraints and improving individual initiatives of any and all humans aboard our planet Earth." (page 124, Critical Path, by R.Buckminster Fuller)
Bucky is my hero. I would like to think that my life will be half a shadow of his. When I am afraid, I think of his courage, love and immense trust. I am 49, my daughter is about to be independent, and I have only a 5 kg dog that depends on me. I do have a degree, and I have little capital. My real wealth is my mind, heart and physical health, plus the incredible relationships I have with amazing people world wide. My personal intrinsic motivation is to inspire, teach, support as many people as possible towards their own comprehensive integrity. In plain English, this means to move people ever closer towards expressing their own truth, and the unique gifts they have to offer the world in service to the greater health of all sentient beings and the greater environment called Universe. The struggle I have had in my life has been to find the sweet spot between living in integrity and having that be profitable. I am not alone in this struggle. Many people are laying down the track to living an Integral Life in a world that is not. The Western World is centered at Amber and Orange, moving towards Green.
(see Sense Making)
Lets just say, for want of an argument, that we are centered at Orange, which is all about success, achievement, status, money, stuff, more.. Living an Integral Life (second tier) in a world that operates in first tier, is not easy. The pathways have yet to be solidly forged. It is up to us, the pioneers and second tier scouts to lay down the track, to experiment, fail and go again into the fray. The world of first tier and Orange is like a giant magnet that keeps sucking us back. All the systems and models are built for Orange. There is a requirement for success, and not just any success, but for success to look a particular way. Lots of money, all the accoutrements of money, the car, clothes, homes and travel schedule. Unless this kind of success is evident, few people reach any kind of credibility, unless you are a messiah in some form, like Gandhi or Mandela. Our Orange system also requires adherence in order to build a "viable" business, within the Orange system. Our cultural embalming spreads it's greedy little fingers around our idealistic plans. Gaining finance, putting together the business plan, creating viability-all of these structures an embedded in an Orange system. (Please do not get the impression that the Orange structures are wrong, or bad. They, like everything, have their good and bad, they have their time in history. The wheel is turning, and we are emerging into new structures and systems, with the ideal being to take what is great from Orange and build the next iteration.) Bucky set an incredible example of living an Integral Life way ahead of his time, as usual. He only pulled it off through a rigorous application of personal self disciplines. In this part of the Positive Deviant web site, I will be writing my personal blog (Buckminster Fuller called it a chronofile) about my journey as Guinea Pig C (for Christine), setting a path of living an Integral Life in a non Integral world. In the following pages I will cover both business and personal experiences. The purpose is to share what works, what does not, and hopefully to offer inspiration and some level of fast tracking for people wishing to undertake a similar journey of living an Integral Life. I will also at times have other people on a similar journey share their experiences. Part of my own journey, you will discover, is to be open and honest. One of my very favourite and most used quotes comes from "A Course In Miracles". "In my vulnerability I am invulnerable." I have always believed, rightly or wrongly, that the sharing of my soul allows people to travel the journey with me in a way that is far more inclusive and supportive than if I held back. In seeing all of me, the good and the weak, people feel safe to be themselves, and this allows them to participate in a way that supports their own experience. It is also a way that I ensure that no one mistakes me for someone that I am not. Come join me...and..as always, your comments and feedback, stories and lessons, are received with gratitude. Update, late February, 2010. I have shifted the Guinea Pig C blog to a full blog site. The articles on this blog are personal, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes thought provoking. Please check it out
here
where I will post an article about once a week. I invite your comments and feedback. You can also follow the Guinea Pig C blog on Twitter
here.
I look forward to meeting you.
Scarcity - “Not Enough” leads to “more is better” leads to “you” or “me”
Living in Humility, October 2009
Voluntary Simplicity, October 2009
Breakdown USA- my thoughts on the modern day fall of Rome, September 09
To Read about my Definition of Success, August 09
An experience in Rio de Janeiro's City of God, August 09
Life Expectations -Life doesn’t turn out as we expect, July 17th 09
What Does Integrity Mean- Integrity as a daily practice using Integrity around money as an example
Redefining Relationships-The Archetype of the Strong Single Woman
Kairos Time, June 10th 2009
Blog Post, April 6th, The Transrational World-Working in a World Beyond Reason
Blog Post, Feb 10th, Meltdown
Blog Post, Dec 23, Audacity of Hope
Blog Post, Emerge Through Emergency, November 27th 2008
Return from Living and Integral Life to Positive Deviant Home page
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