The Party Train
The Party Train
Sometimes it is difficult to accept our current conditions as they are. We wish for "better days." Or we hope things will work out. Trouble is, this is not very useful during a pandemic, or even when confronting climate change.
For that reason, this article will attempt to provide a metaphor which may be able to help us.
Imagine you are riding on a train - a "party train." Everyone is having a good time. It feels good, people are laughing, maybe having something to drink or eat. Life is good.
Unfortunately, right around the corner, just around the curve, is a titanium wall. It is 100 feet tall, 100 feet thick, 100 feet wide and goes 100 feet into the ground. And the train is racing toward this wall without any awareness of what is about to happen.
When we finally see "the wall", the instinct will likely be to try one of several solutions to the crisis:
- Maybe try to go over it.
- Maybe to go around it.
- How about under it.
- Or to move it down the tracks a bit, to postpone the collision.
Trouble is, none of this will work. The wall is real, and a collision is inevitable.
Now maybe, just maybe, the solution is to think outside the box. What creative solution or solutions have we failed to see? Where do we need "new eyes?" What radical alternative could we imagine to save ourselves?
Here is a place to start.
What if the "solution" is not to move the wall, or navigate around it. What if the solution is to get off this train altogether and get on a different one, a new one, one that is on a totally different track?
This is what, I believe, we are being driven to see and do. To abandon the norms of yesterday and fashion a completely new paradigm to move ourselves and humanity forward.
Questions:
- What would this new society look like?
- What stops or hinders us from doing this?
- Where are we "normalized" by the past?
- How does all this relate to identity, relationship and culture?
Marcel Proust once said,
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Having "new eyes" is critically important if we want to get off the "party train."
The article above is a powerful metaphor that encourages us to think critically about our current circumstances and the challenges we face, such as the looming threat of climate change. The "party train" represents our collective tendency to maintain the status quo and continue with our familiar ways of living, even when faced with imminent danger.
The titanium wall symbolizes the inevitable consequences of our actions, and the futility of trying to avoid or postpone the collision by using conventional solutions. The article suggests that the only way to truly address the crisis is to think outside the box and embrace radical change.
The idea of abandoning the "party train" and boarding a new one on a different track is a call to reimagine our society and create a new paradigm that can move humanity forward. This requires us to question the norms and assumptions that have shaped our past and to develop "new eyes" that can help us see alternative possibilities. As Joseph Campbell once said, "If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor."
To create this new society, we must be willing to challenge the status quo and overcome the barriers that hinder us from making necessary changes. This may involve confronting entrenched interests, breaking free from outdated ways of thinking, and letting go of identities and relationships that no longer serve us.
The article also suggests that this process of transformation is deeply connected to our sense of identity, relationships, and culture. To create a new paradigm, we may need to redefine who we are as individuals and as a society, and cultivate new forms of connection and community that are aligned with our vision for the future.
Ultimately, the article is a powerful call to action that urges us to embrace radical change and develop the "new eyes" that can help us navigate the challenges of our time. It reminds us that the solutions we seek may not lie in incremental adjustments or conventional approaches, but in a fundamental reimagining of our society and our place within it.