Ancient Love Letter

The US Presidential election is in less than 3 months! ?

The more I’ve seen the world and the ways people live, the less I believe in countries and the more I believe in communities.

I honestly feel Presidents are too big. I believe countries are too big.

I believe these concepts and structures may become unnecessary in the future.

People looking at me like I’m crazy. ?

It’s a valid reaction.

Especially in this political environment we’re in — of a country with a President. It is, afterall, all we’ve everknown in our lifetime.

But we forget that hundreds of years ago, Empires ruled the world. Or so they said.

Huge, huge empires that tried to dominate every part of the globe. British, Spanish, Ottoman, etc. Usually with one head — a King, Sultan, etc. Monarchs.

The bigger , the more powerful. Or so they said.

But if you start to look into these empires — their rise and fall — the falling usually comes because often, they are too big to succeed.

And slowly, people became awakened to their “independence.”

Are countries still too big though?

Let’s be real. If you’ve worked at a small business, you are aware of the many inefficiencies of managing the smallest of staff (maybe 1-5 people). If you’ve worked for a big corporation, it’s easy to spot the bottleneck because of how slow things can climb from top to bottom.

How do we govern people a size of a country? And why would we even want to?

Where is the interest here? Where is the conflict?

Maybe Democracy is what sold us countries.

I’ve tuned in to a lot of people’s viewpoints on politics all over the world. It is rare to talk to someone who feels represented by their government officials.

But we are encouraged to vote anyway.

The question is, how many of you even *know* your government officials? From the top (President) to the very bottom (local govt). If you know just their name, that really doesn’t count.

Or do we tend to know them and vote based on color (party)?

Well, it’s a good tactic. Most of us are visual people, it makes it all simpler. Color code everything. Isn’t that easy?

Because seriously, keeping track of all our officials and who we should vote for, feels like a full time job. So we simplify based on parties. Color code it to make it even easier.

But why do we need to have such huge structures? Who benefits? You? Me? How?

Is innovation and productivity really the product of big corporations? And big government?

Again if you look back at history, how much of innovation happened when companies are small vs when they got bigger? How about the damage and unintended consequences bigger have produced?

Maybe it’s a case of, it worked then, but time for change now?

But did it ever worked?

I don’t know the answers and these are genuine questions.

I know, I know. Why do we need to reinvent the wheel?! Why are you talking crazy?

If you’re asking that question, then maybe you don’t feel the need and don’t see what I see. And that is okay.

In a lot of ways, I don’t feel I am talking to the people of today. ?

In a lot of ways, I feel I’m talking to the people of the future. People who are not even here yet. ?

I’m not that crazy, I don’t believe I’ll see any of this come to pass in my lifetime. ?

But centuries from now? If we still exist? Maybe.

I hope so. I hope we create smaller human structures that humans can really connect with and thus manage better.

Not bigger human structures that keep us all disconnected from each other.

I wonder if those big empires ever anticipated their downfall? I wish we know that. I wish they wrote to us from their times.

What is the alternative then? Communities, probably.

Think about a country. USA. (Pick your own)

Most people *outside* of the US think of USA as NYC or LA (Hollywood). But the whole of the US is nothing like those 2 cities.

Most people *inside* of the US think of USA as wherever they live. Their community. And their level of involvement and perspective revolves around that community.

So, where is the real USA? The President? The Senate? The Congress?

And if people don’t feel represented, where is the real country? Who even is the country?

As we’ve traveled around countries and visited cities, we noticed that even a city can be further broken down. In a city you’ll see pockets of neighborhoods that are completely different from each other… and even in those neighborhoods you can see even smaller pockets of communities!

Why can’t we all just have our little community? Focus on our little corner of the world that we can manage and once we have taken care of that — explore, not exploit, our neighbors.

Why do we hunger for more land, more power, more resources — when humans can’t handle them?

Humanity for so long has eaten more than its mouth can chew and its stomach can digest.

I long for the generation who will eat with their hearts not with their eyes. Who will be faithful and can be trusted with and in the little.

In a way, me writing this, is me calling them forth. Rising them up. Asking them to understand the beauty, the wisdom, the glory, in ownership and stewardship.

“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

That’s a quote in the children’s book, The Little Prince, that I never really liked because I probably never really understood it. It just came to me now… and in some ways, today, I have a sliver of understanding for it.

So to you, a generation, yet to come, this is my love letter.

You don’t know yet how the world is supposed to work. That is a good thing. You don’t live in mental cages and perceived ceilings like we do. Because we do. I wish we didn’t.

But I am telling you so you know and can see clearly the cages and ceilings in things that we’ve built … and structures we left to you.

Please don’t feel the need to follow in our footsteps. Please don’t be afraid to rebuild. Stand on our shoulders if you have to. Or dismantle it all if that’s what you need. Learn from us if you can. We’ve lost our way. We’ve created rules that were intended to work for all but so often only worked for a few.

Please create new rules that works for you and this new world I see you creating:

Smaller and healthier communities of living beings that know and thus support each other. Communities that love their neighboring communities like they love themselves. The earth will be a collection of healthy, breathable neighborhoods who don’t glory in acquisition but glory in stewardship.

My vision feels very limited and weak, but I see and trust that you, the young ones, will be building on solid ground, on a firmer foundation than we ever did.

I am rooting for you in spirit,

Your ancient grandmother, Hajer ♥️