What's Outside the System?

Solutions can come from what's bigger than politics

Photo by Inderpreet Sekhon on Unsplash

This week-end, many Torontonians are celebrating Easter or Passover as they mark their personal religious or cultural traditions. In observance, I’m writing today about the importance of keeping a wide lens when we work for change in our lives and our city.

What so many of us want is huge. We want peace. We want love. We want comfort. We want beauty. We want life that thrives - not just human life, but animal, plant and insect life as well.

So it can be frustrating when we try to get those things out of the tiny boxes that we’ve placed ourselves in. A political system that seems to reward short term thinking, that operates through conflict and secrecy, that exists to control and organize according to very limited principles dictated by the current economic system. And a current economic system where it’s hard to make a profit (or even a living) without depleting what we need to sustain life and spoiling our ecological nest.

These systems are the ones we’ve been born into, and we all navigate them to the best of our abilities, trying to live a life that makes us happy, and take care of the people we love. My running for mayor is an example of me trying to navigate this system, hoping that it can somehow produce something positive.

But our political and economic systems are not the only things running the planetary show. No matter whether you have spiritual beliefs or not, you possess the understanding that there are larger forces than us out there. The universe is a complex and mysterious place that does not operate according to human laws. The universe does not care (at least not that we know about) about bylaw number 29748, that the election is on June 26th, the level of property tax or the amount of traffic on the roads. The universe is something so much bigger.

Everything that happens in our lives is affected or granted by that mysterious universe. Change can feel destructive or beautiful. Yes, how Toronto looks next year, or in twenty years, will be influenced by the politicians that are in charge or the economic interests that shape development. But the influence of our amazing universe dwarfs those tiny things.

The unexpected can always happen. An ice storm paralyzes a city. A scandal derails a government. Panic over a virus upends the globe. And, plants rise up out of previously frozen ground in the spring. Birds arrive from thousands of miles away. Blossoms release beautiful fragrances. Children dance and sing for no reason but their joy of life.

If we see that there is a much bigger picture, even though we don’t know what it is or understand it, we can perhaps take our human struggles less seriously. If I believe that this election is everything, and that only my vision can save this city (these are things my ego likes to say sometimes), I feel agitated, stressed, tight and boxed in. When I remember that this election is the tiniest part of the tiniest drop in the bottomless bucket that is the universe, I relax. It’s all a game!

Of course, it matters to me in my daily life what I see and hear around me, and I have lots of opinions about that, which I have and will continue to write about here. Yet if I put it into perspective, I get to let go of the reins of control a little. I get to put the outcome of the days to come in the hands of the universe, and instead enjoy my Easter dinner, feel gratitude for the incredible food our farmers have grown for me, pay attention to the beautiful family and friends I get to celebrate with. I can look for buds in the trees and watch the sun break through the clouds. The magnificent universe is always there for us no matter what’s happening in politics. And it’s stronger than any political endeavour.

It is only the grace of the unknown that allows us this moment. This holiday week-end may we all put a little trust in the power of the universe that greater than our own. For all we know, there is a butterfly somewhere out there whose wing may produce the incredible change we’ve been dreaming of.