My God, this week has fairly flown, just as I realise that this substack is turning into a weekly account of what is going on my world. And, as I think was experienced for a whole heap of people in the world, last week was intense. New Moon energy, perhaps.
So it is time to write.
The slow falling hammer
The hammer that falls is the exit from “normal” life afforded by vaccine mandates. The mandate slouches toward me, withering that which it touches. I’ve watched it off in the distance, heard its mumbling and whispering twirl in the wind, but this week came its first touch upon my world.
Lifeline, a national suicide prevention hotline, will require vaccination for all crisis supporters, first jab by end of 2021. I have been working towards becoming a fully accredited crisis support since the start of the year, about 4 hours per week. First in training, then my internship on the phones. All unpaid. It was something that really meant something to me.
Talking with a person in crisis, another human, is deeply fulfilling, and it requires skills that I have learned through training and practice. I was not able to do this before Lifeline. I am grateful for the experience, though I am also perplexed by the decision, right at a time when the service is being overrun. But it is what it is, and I will not fight the signals given.
I also won’t return. The decision makes me see the face of the machine, and as much as I enjoyed being part of something greater than me, I feel Lifeline is no longer it. I would rather serve community locally, in full visibility and accountability, rather than nationally and anonymously trying to plug a dyke that is long past saving.
The beast slouches also toward work. The first proper conversation with my manager about my imminent departure, though timing not discussed. It cometh, and that’s ok. In fact, it’s more than ok. It’s right, because I might otherwise never have escaped the comfort of a good salary doing something that I’ve ceased loving.
The conscious dance
The experience of life changing before my eyes has been disconcerting, the decay of old comforts and former patterns unnerving. As it happened, I was able to dance during the week too. As in conscious, ecstatic dance.
Now let me get one thing clear here. I am not known as a dancer. If you had suggested I do a dance even 6 months ago, I would have become defensive and run away. DID get defensive and run away. But, as with all of the things that are good in this world, confronting the fear of newness leads to wonder. So I am not a regular fixture at ecstatic dance, and certainly not a sight to behold, but I do now appreciate it.
That said, the dance this week was unexpectedly moving. I entered with all of this tension wound up tight within my body. Knowing that I need to keep on plunging forward, plunging to keep my head with my heart with my legs as they tumble, tumble down the hill, and yet all of these emotions also stored also within. As I danced, this tension loosened, eased and then dissolved away and I had an epiphany.
I had been thinking that I needed to approach people in the waste industry, the sector in which I have most value to give, and offer them my services in writing. Because writing is what I do, and bringing together a new narrative around waste is how I make my writing pay.
As I danced, I realised that I don’t need to ask to write for others. I can write for myself. I can build my own presence, not others’, and people can pay me, not others. This realisation coursed through me and exploded my heart.
The DAO
All of which brings me to a closer definition of what I am creating. It is beginning to look like a huge, bold, crazy plan to create a community that can solve waste. A community of communities. And crypto is a big part of this, both at the metaphorical and the literal.
Metaphorical because crypto did the impossible by creating an alternative to banks, enormous, protected and centralised by governments. Waste is a product of material flows that are huge, protected and centralised (or at least, highly aggregated in a few very large producers). In fact, these features seem to be what makes waste exist. So, at the metaphorical, maybe the decentralisation baked into crypto is a model for solving waste.
Literal because I believe that a DAO can solve waste. First by creating a framework for rewarding contributors, properly rewarding them with money that lets them flourish. Then letting it grow. Then getting even more funky and enabling autonomous economic agents that optimise for materials flows without any human intervention. Think of a rubbish bin getting a micropayment in a cryptocurrency for sorting rubbish, then collectors getting paid a micropayment to collect, all optimising to maximise income. And in so doing, waste is solved by micro-iteration, not macro-policy.
So this is the dream that is beginning to take shape. It will start with a newsletter / blog where ideas are explored, community formed and eventually leading into a DAO coalescing. I think that will live on Mirror because of the prospects for creation there. The dream is that Mirror enables a narrative which enables a DAO which changes the world.
I will write about the problem, how it comes about, and how we deploy Web3 tools to solve it. My mirror project will create a series of articles that gradually build the story, and thus community, and ultimately formulate action around the world, galvanised by a common narrative. A meaningful narrative, informed by 20+ years of working in the space and constantly questioning.
And so the quickening
In this world that is coming to be born, the birth is quickening. Faster, sooner, more demanding than I had expected, but also much, much more beautiful.
I am returning to a time when I knew I could create my reality, when I could manifest. Only, this time I’m being conscious of the reality I bring about.