'How?' you ask...? Part Three-A

This week has been chock-full of rich experiences and Life-lessons for me. (This is an admittedly silly way to begin a post; all weeks contain these. LOL) So please forgive me for not getting to the meat of the matter and immediately laying out my practical suggestions.

Family health, medical and mortality issues. The travails of friendship. Meeting online commenters for the first time. Reconnecting with community confidantes, their intellects and their spirits. Observing knee-jerk judgement in action. Witnessing well-intentioned community efforts go benignly awry. Reading both enlightened and informed commentary (and reassuring responses to these) as well as self-indulgent, self-limiting pap.

Despite some peoples' perceptions of me by way of my online 'delivery' (I'm strident, that ain't gonna change), I'm actually a sensitive bunny. Most of the above affected me in one way or another. And apropos of this series of posts, they contributed to what I believe about changing 'How Things Are Done in Hamilton'.

Hamilton is, at the same time, blessed and cursed.

Blessed by the number of impassioned people. People with big hearts. Just-as-big minds. Untapped resources of near-unimaginable richness.

And cursed not only by our 'legacy malaise', but by a somewhat-indulgent mob-mentality that's got this I.V. drip going on of cynicism, frustration, desperation...and fear.

I'm reminded of someone who's in a panic. Someone who, for the sake of argument, is 'too smart by half'. Articulate, seemingly self-formed. Have you ever been around someone like this when they're in meltdown? Ever had to talk a friend 'down from the ledge'? Ever known anyone with either Bipolar Disorder 1 or 2, who's in their 'manic' state and are going a kajillion miles and hour, thoughts and concepts and ideas just barrelling out into the air you're breathing so rapidly that not only is it almost impossible to see any of them with any degree of clarity, but the process actually deprives you of oxygen?

OK; that's not quite what I'm seeing. It's not as dramatic as all that. But the bottom-line is the same: they're not going to get to where they think they're heading to.

Which ties nicely into the discussion summed up in 'The 8-Ball and The Curve: Why Are We Always Behind One or The Other?'

If I'm able to pull on my 'Toque of Cynicism' for a minute, we have a rigged system before us and all around us. Mostly because we have chosen by way of either conscious decision or unconscious neglect to not insist that we play the part we have every right to. (After all, we're the ones footing the bills.) And frankly, I'm 'concerned' at how far away we collectively are from having the skills to be able to take our place at the table. 

I've sat in on meetings where it was proposed that there be some kind of 'schooling' for potential candidates for Council to make the most of their innate abilities in order to prepare them for both the election campaign as well as the day-to-day of City Hall life. 

We're going to have to have something similar in place for the general public if we are to pull up that chair in that game. 

Now, I'm not talking about classes. I'm not talking about instruction or school or anything like that. I'm talking about- Well, I'm talking about the notion of 'raising the level of debate in the city'. By way of example. 

And connected to this, the reality that we're never going to have an entirely-engaged citizenry. I'm not sure what a reasonable expectation is in any given set of circumstances, so instead, I'll frame things this way: we need to consider the realities of producing a tiered system of engagement. Where at the bottom, you have The Disinterested. Above this, you have Those Who Are Willing to be Engaged, So Long as They're Convinced It's Worth Their Time. Above this, The Marching Army. And at the 'peak' tier, Those Capably Marshalling The Troops With Vision and Forethought And Leadership. 

And I suddenly feel a little queazy, realizing how far away we are from this. 

Next up: Some practicals. I promise. Really. Trust me.