Recently a friend told me the following significant truth
about butterflies. She said: We tend to think that caterpillars crawl in
their cocoons and then their little caterpillar eye’s turn into butterfly eyes
and their little caterpillar necks turn into butterfly necks and they sprout
some wings and then they are ready to go.
But that is not actually what happens. What actually happens is that some butterfly
DNA, called imaginal cells begin to emerge.
As they begin to emerge the caterpillars immune system kills them. However, that is not enough to deter the
butterfly to be. The imaginal cells
keep emerging at a rate that they cannot all be killed and they begin to
recognize each other, and to bond together, and finally when there is still not
that many the immune system is overwhelmed and gives up trying to kill
them. At that point he caterpillar body
dissolves into a “nutrient soup”, a sort of gooey substance that is used as the
raw material for building the new butterfly following the DNA map of the
imaginal cells.
I suspect most of you know where I am going with this but
for those of you who wonder why my Quaker Blog is suddenly talking about
butterflies: I think the current situation in our country is the chrysalis for
a new society (either that are we have
simply dissolved into a terrible mess!)
I think Donald is attempting to transform our previous country and I
think our previous country was already dissolving in so many ways from so many
problems. I think that some of us have
been holding a vision for a long time of a new society, one based in justice,
equity and love. Those of us carrying
that vision are the imaginal cells. As
it appears to some that the country is descending into chaos or anarchy with
record size demonstrations, and spontaneous airport demonstrations supported by
spontaneous taxi strikes, and when government officials are resigning, disobeying
and opening covert twitter accounts to still communicate the truth to the
public…we are in the nutrient soup.
There are some days that simply seem like everything is being attacked
and coming apart, and other days when there is feignt glimmer of what might be
emerging. But we can see the different
movements rising up, noticing each other, sometimes banding together, sometimes
simply gaining inspiration or encouragement from each other.
We are far from the end of this. Some “cells” will be killed by the defending
system of the old paradigm. People have
already been fired, black people have already been shot in the streets for a
long time now, a woman at Standing Rock has lost most of her arm, and a man the
sight in one eye, I pray none will die there, but it is possible. The abrupt unplanned demolition of the
Affordable Care Act may in fact lead to people’s death without health care, even
as I write this activists are on trial for turning off the flow of tar Sands
oil from Canada to the US, etc, etc. But
it is very, very important that we not become confused in the darkness and the
struggle that it is the end rather than holding the vision of a butterfly
becoming.
Which that would mean that first as a Society of Friends
that has long held up its testimonies as the Truth as we currently know it,
that it is really important that we give voice and witness to that future that
we believe possible. It is important
that we continue to voice crazy ideas like “Ok if you are going to do away with
ACA and you want everyone to have health care…then time for a single payer
system.” Or “Ok you want the greatest
country on earth, then time for alternative energy so we can have cheap energy
for business”. Etc, etc. it is also really important that we are
able to articulate to our fellow activists, often full of despair from Trumps
attempted roll backs, what non-violent revolution or social change really looks
like. (I highly recommend the reading of
Towards a Living Revolution by George Lakey, or any of the things that Gene
Sharp wrote.) If you don't like the nutrient soup and are scared it is a failed butterfly, I encourage you to work harder for the New Society coming. It is important that even
as things appear to be desinigrating that we have Faith in the emergence of a
butterfly. In many ways this is like the
Faith in resurrection at a moment that looked like the Savior God sent was
dead.
I also think that part of what it means to be the imaginal
cells is that as members of the Society of Friends we hold memories of
struggles past that the general public has little or no memory or understanding
of: for the vote for women, the civil rights struggle, the Anti-Vietnam War
struggle, the anti-nuclear struggle, etc .
We must hold up the Light that explains how the struggle for change
works, how it proceeds and how it succeeds!
It is not enough to simply say NO we don’t want a caterpillar, or NO we
don’t want this goopy mess at our feet.
That cry NO does not create a butterfly.
Our jobs as imaginal cells is to be able to describe a sustainable
earth, and a just society. Not only to
describe them but to do so in a way that is compelling and helps organize all
available life forms towards that end! And interestingly for me (see previous posts) butterfly's have always been a sign of the presence of God. So maybe as we create this New Society we can also move closer to God.
