Autumn 2021: Rotten
Welcome to Autumn,
As the sunshine of the summer fades into cooler, darker evenings, I’ve been growing ever more aware and saddened by the darkness that seems to be engulfing so many of us around the world. As the season changes and we descend into another phase on our journey around the sun (Autumn/Fall), I can’t help but wonder, what has happened to us?
We have become extremely advanced in so many ways, from revolutionised space exploration, discovering potential answers in vaccinating against HIV, BLM getting nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and so much more, and yet we have regressed and destroyed in so many other ways. For instance, the devastating Texan law on abortion, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the intensifying climate crisis, along with the misinformation and tragedies that are continuing to accompany the pandemic and racial divides. This makes me question what direction are we actually moving in? Because it feels like this car is just stuck in reverse.
It seems as though we have all become so disillusioned with one another: who subscribes to this narrative, that political opinion, who sides with which side of the coin – aren’t we sick of it? Fighting for change, or against change, all becomes superfluous when operating from a place of ego and who can be more right, more superior, more established in their right to have ‘X’ opinion to the other person, and why he, she, they/them should subsequently be metaphorically burned at the stake for daring to think/behave in a way that is anything other than what’s agreed by the majority. And who is this majority anyway? Far-Left Twitter? Far-Right Facebook mums? Our plight for moral superiority has become so convoluted that we’ve lost all meaning, and the things that really do matter, the things that really require attention and action are getting diluted and pushed to the back of the queue.
Fighting for the “good” of XYZ cause, seems to have become so toxic in some circles that we have done nothing but alienated ourselves, created deep-seated wounds and added salt into other existing ones. What change do we actually feel we’re making when we are still covertly operating from a need to dominate, and compensate, due to unresolved feelings of disempowerment and disillusionment? We are all hurting – and we are just continuing to further hurt each other. It’s clear that our strategies are not working.
We were all told growing up to “be yourself”, and yet nothing seems to be more dangerous today than being ourselves; for having a different skin colour, aligning or not aligning with particular views, for not understanding something, for not caring about something or caring too much. We’re so against labels and stereotypes these days, yet we’re printing them out left right and centre. Where actually is the tolerance and empathy we’re preaching about? When did we all get so damn tribal?
I’ve recently become a listener of Ethan and Hila Klein’s brilliant podcast ‘H3’, where Ethan speaks with different guests, discussing various topical happenings. A few times in these episodes, Ethan has touched on what he calls ‘The Cult of Outrage’, which I think is so apt. It seems that no one dares to step a foot without unknowingly plunging their boot into the cold depths of intolerance and abuse from strangers online; calling for cancellations and dishing out death threats to people for daring to have an opinion different from theirs, under the guise of being “offended” (or conversely, rallying against someone for being a “snowflake”). Equality is a necessity and accountability is critical – but so is grace, tolerance, context, and class. Regardless of how strongly we feel about a subject, these values matter – having values matter - otherwise we’re not really making progress, we’re just flipping to an opposite extreme at the other end of the spectrum, and detracting from the value of the original argument.
You don’t have to scroll for long on platforms such as ‘Twitter’ to discover hateful, piercing comments splashed all over someone’s mundane post; brandishing threats, derogatory character assassinations, and glee at any expressed misfortune. Where has our humanity gone?
Our intolerance of one another is corrosive and it’s eating away at the fibres of our humanity. The internet has made us far too comfortable with saying the vilest disgusting things to complete strangers. You are absolutely entitled to disagree with someone, but how you go about it defines your character and either compliments or undermines your standpoint. Therefore, represent yourself and your argument positively and with grace, so that it may have the best, far-reaching, and long-lasting impact. Hate just creates more hate – and it makes you look like a jackass.
I recently attended a private workshop hosted by one of our new Featured Writers, Sharon Aneja. Sharon founded ‘Humanity Works Consultancy’, a business dedicated to helping professionals avoid burnout, through psychological fitness training, leadership coaching and wellbeing consulting. As part of this workshop, ‘The Great Awakening’, Sharon shared how “healed people, heal people” and are therefore the architects of a better future. These few words, I feel, possess so much meaning - and greatly influenced my letter this season.
How can we create and embrace the future we want, evolving into the next stage of being, when we are operating from a place of hurt, further harming one another?
We literally can’t, it’s flawed by design.
The connection has to come from us. We need to remember that we are one people - from different unique, special, and sacred, backgrounds, religions and ethnicities, yes, – but we are one. We are not better than one another, just different, and we all have a right to be here. We need to appreciate each other’s journey and hold hatred accountable. Of any kind, on a micro and macro level.
So how do we do that?
I think a great starting point is looking and taking lessons from science. If you haven’t seen ‘Fantastic Fungi’ on ‘Netflix’, first of all, why? You’re missing out. But in all seriousness, this documentary contains some pretty powerful messages, and no I’m not suggesting we all just get high and chant in a field – although that could help. What I’m saying is to drop a level deeper and look for broader meaning behind the words…
This documentary explores how mushrooms may have played a significant hand in the development of our consciousness, evolution, and ability to connect and communicate. The scientific interest in this area seems as if it's about to explode, and after learning a bit about the research out there already, I can entirely see why - and how much MUCH more funding and attention needs to be put into this. Benefits range from mental health, progressing on to the next step of evolution, tackling the climate crisis and beyond. Humankind could be onto something absolutely profound here, and it shouldn't be ignored.
However, what I found particularly interesting about this body of research, was the part about the mycelium network. This network is described as an interconnected growth pattern that plays a major role in how cellular events and behaviours operate at an ecological level. The network structure is linked to flows of resources that in turn modifies the network architecture itself. In other words, the network intelligently communicates, responds, and reacts to positives and negatives that happen in the environment, so that it and the surrounding plant species, may continue to thrive.
“When [the network is] connected together and carbon is moving between plants, the trees are supporting the weaker ones. If [the mother tree] knows that there’s pests around and that she’s under danger, she will increase her competitive environment towards her own babies so that they regenerate further away. It’s a magical thing. And this could not happen without the fungi”
If we take the words from Sharon Aneja earlier, and apply the principles of the mycelium network along with them; a blueprint unfolds of how we can revolutionise our interactions and reconceptualise one another, in a way that benefits us socially and thus, evolutionarily.
You see, we are the fungi. Our relationships, happiness, life satisfaction, and progress as a species, depends on our own ability to foster healing within ourselves and others, by the means in which we value and communicate with each other. Hate creates hate, hindering growth. Love inspires love, facilitating growth. We need to nurture and cultivate our mycelium network.
“We need to have a paradigm shift in our consciousness. What will it take to achieve that?”
We cannot thrive, heal, and evolve if we are not working together, valuing love and prioritising community and understanding. We cannot heal if we are still hurting each other, and we cannot communicate and progress if we are too terrified to speak honestly with one another, and are instead committed to isolating and alienating ourselves, due to our views.
We need to be conscious, not only of what we consume (mentally and physically), but what we are contributing to the world (i.e., the spores we emit – gross, but you get what I’m saying). We need to question our actions and words, and think about what purpose these things are serving. Are we contributing to more division? Are we stoking any flames of resentment or miscommunication? Are we being controversial or abrasive for no good reason?
Are we helping or hindering our growth? Our mycelium network?
We need to critically reflect on our behaviour, the motivators behind our behaviour, and how we may be impacting one another – because it matters. We need a re-set on our values, and I invite you all to take stock.
“Mushroom mycelium represents rebirth, rejuvenation, regeneration. Fungi generates soil that gives life. The task that we face today is to understand the language of nature.”
Paul Stamets, Mycologist, says that his mission is to discover the language of nature; of the fungal networks that communicate with the ecosystem. I think we can (and should), work to apply these principles from nature and research to our own lives. Therefore I invite you to be curious about how we may work to better understand one other and to use that love and understanding to create better relationships; assisting our advancement as a whole, as a society. This, I’d argue, is one of the main keys we need in order to unlock our next evolutionary step – the key to unlocking our language of nature.
Mushrooms appear at the end of life when the rotting and breaking down of dead matter nears completion; the mushroom appears, supporting life and growth through its spores and mycelium network. Thus, the fungi are there both at the beginning and at the end of life – the process is cyclical.
Therefore as summer draws to a close, as the chill sets in, and as the leaves fall, let’s be conscious of how we are too at risk of degeneration, and choose instead (as funny as it sounds) to be a mushroom and nurture our own, real-world, mycelium network: our connections with one another.
Refuse to fall and rot with the leaves; bloom again this autumn and start a fresh cycle. A tolerant, loving one, pitched towards a positive and useful evolutionary step.
“We have the ability to do so much more than just break down matter”
We have the ability to do so much more than just break down each other.