And greatness only comes from pursuing….nobility. 

Nature has a version of prosperity – but it is different from ours.  It is called “flourishing.”    Nobility is at its core the drive to overflow, overcome – and flourish.  flourishing is different from our common notions of prosperity in this way – it has a place for necessary loss, for shedding of  old, dying structures that no longer function.  Or that cause as many or more problems than they solve.  Our culture’s current, popular notion of prosperity will have none of it – we demand more, faster, grab and hoard – forever.  The only thing we feel we can lose without social shame is….weight. 

The project is about bringing us home and growing us up.  We can learn to flourish the way every other living system does.  But we’re going to have to shed some old, brittle, dried out, ugly, out-lived certainties and solutions – and let Life take the initiative to teach us some new and better ones.  

We can do this.   You can do this. 

Help us demonstrate what it would look like in your domain, your industry, your profession, your community – and we will help you in any way we can that doesn’t take more from you than it gives you.  Deal?

The people that take exercise boot camp classes with me call me mighty mouse.  Mighty because I’ve always been faster, stronger and had much greater endurance than them – using the 45 minutes I had to work out during the work day to get the most benefit as possible – constantly pushing myself to the limit.  Mouse because I’m 5’0 and quiet – I was never boastful about my abilities, I just did the best I could with the time I had – and me doing my best with results encouraged others to give 100% in their workouts. 

 A couple of years ago I started having pain in one of my hamstrings when I ran but I pushed through it.  I also started feeling weaker during push ups – I thought it was age so I pushed through it.  After a couple of years of pushing through, my muscles were so tight that my body had trouble pushing blood through my body.  So now mighty mouse is in physical therapy. 

I’ve had the following thoughts about this experience:

-          At first I was shaken.  I thought I was doing what was best for my body.  I found exercise classes that worked for me for 3 years so when the pain came, I ignored the warning signs and kept doing what had worked in the past – just like what the US is doing with its economy and the stock market.  When are we going to realize that was has worked well for us in the past is no longer working?  When are we going to realize that we need something new?

-          Pain is supposed to be a precursor to change.  Pain is a call to stop down, analyze to find the problem and start experimenting with change.  The sooner we realize that pain is an indicator of something that needs to change and not something to simply be suppressed, the sooner we can start problem solving for a better future. 

-          People say I am an intense and extremely passionate person.  And I definitely worked out with intensity.  Then when I started having some pain, I started stretching….aggressively.  The first thing I leaned from my Physical Therapist is that stretching aggressively only makes tight muscles tighter.  She said that when you stretch a muscle too far, your body sends a message to your brain that you are experiencing pain, and then the brain sends a message to the muscle to “tighten up or you’ll rip”.   The second thing I learned from my PT is that if you push the body to do more than it’s ready to do, the system freaks out and gets so tight in protective mode that it ceases to function (like the inhibition of blood flow in my body).  I want to make systemic change for a better world.  This experience has taught me that if I push too far, too fast, it’s only going to make the system tighter and tighter until nothing new can get in. 

• This is who I am – intense and passionate – and I feel like I’m losing my identity somewhat.  But I’m also learning a lot from this experience and I love learning and growing.  I know this is a big one – it’s redefining me.  I don’t think I’ll have to change from intense and passionate to passive and indifferent but I do think I will be changing the outlet of my intensity from aggressively fighting through to progressively building with.  And I will be much more keen to warning signs.

 I’m excited about building the platforms for the New Nobility Project.

 Although accounting is my occupation, I am a dancer.

 I grew up in an earthy, grass roots kind of studio. 

No flashy leotards on our dance floor. 

We came to the studio to work and express the deep emotions of the human experience.

No fake smiles on our stage. 

Hard work forged deep bonds. 

The studio was a refuge from the materialistic and shallow society we experienced at school. 

Like the base camp we are building for nobles. 

At the studio we were loved for being ourselves – in fact we were required to bear our souls when we danced, giving all the energy we possibly could to the performance. 

No half-heartedness was allowed. 

Like the kind of work the New Nobility Project requires.

The new pieces were always very exciting.  It was so fun to experience it all coming together from the first combinations (I would run home to show my Mom) to the finishing touches to rehearsing like crazy and showing at cast rehearsal, dress rehearsal and final show.  After months of preparation, all of the movements were in our bones and we could flow through them – experiencing an incredible energy exchange among all the dancers on stage – everyone belonged, knew their place and gave all they had from the depths of their souls. 

We couldn’t wait to hear what people thought of the new stuff…an experiment – did they get it?, did it give them chills?, did it disturb them?, did it make them think about what they valued?

Much like the kind of experiments the New Nobility will be conducting.

Our artistic director would always say that people laugh when they don’t know what else to do, when they don’t understand something they’ve just experienced. 

The New Nobility will be laughed at for what we want to do in the world and for the ideas and hypotheses we will be testing. 

Those that hear not the music, think the dancers mad.

Do you hear the new music?  If so, will you use your energy to drown it out with all the noisemakers of society or will you dance?

 When you’re ready to join the dance – come visit us at the Tavern.    The party is just getting started.   www.nobletavern.com

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1023831–why-i-quit-ctv-news

For those of you who have read the book, where in the journey into nobility is this daring young Canadian?  Where are you in that journey?   Feel free to gather and discuss this at the tavern.  We’ll all be hanging out there more and more as the summer goes on. 

www.nobletavern.com

Is there something bubbling up inside you?  Do you feel misrepresented by the way you are living?  Are you feeling hypocritical for acting the way society wants you to?  Is some deep truth about to explode out of your heart? 

Have you wondered who is going to step up and save the day?  It might be your life assignment to do so.  The awakened are few but we are gathering to support one another in our life assignments.

Read The Pursuit of Nobility.  If it fits, pull up a chair at the nobletavern.com.

Tim’s book, The Pursuit of Nobility, assured me that I wasn’t alone or crazy for being bored and unfulfilled living the American Dream and wanting to evolve humanity. 

 There are others and we are starting to connect.  Check out the book.  If it fits, pull up a chair at the nobletavern.com.

Psychology, distilled, is the problem of how we deal with loneliness. Philosophy, distilled, is lusting after better habits for sifting through all the clutter. History, distilled, is the discipline of seeking an approximation of truth by critically comparing lies.  Literature, distilled, is the sum – for better or worse – what we leave behind.  Progress is only possible because memory is both unreliable and, essentially, an act of creation.  

My husband and I have been thinking seriously about doing without so much materially in order to have more time to devote to our noble selves and noble pursuits.  In theory, if we don’t have to pay as much for our house, cars, stuff in general, then we won’t have to work as much to make as much money.   Sounds like a good plan I think.  But it might be easier said than done….

The other day, I was driving to work around 8 a.m., and waiting at a stoplight which was located down the block from a casino.  While waiting at the light, a gentleman passed me in a car from the 80’s.  He looked like he could be a neighbor of mine, except for that car he drove.  He was headed in the direction of the casino.  In fact, the only thing in that direction was the casino, and a gas station.  I instantly made the mental judgment that he must be headed to the casino to gamble away his money at 8 a.m., and that is why he drives such an old car – he has a gambling problem. 

I consider myself a non-judgmental person  – someone who doesn’t believe the lie that you are what you  drive, wear, or own.  If I was so quick to make a harsh judgment about this gentleman in the old car, how quickly will others make the same judgments about me if I stop “keeping up with the Joneses?”  Am I prepared for not instantly being judged as competent, smart and successful?  Will the freedom l get from living on less be worth it?

Nobility ventures beyond self-reflection into the courage to risk self-identity and continually begin again at a higher level.

Nobles cherish, and smile at, the continual discoveries that their crucial and self-defining ideas are incomplete or even wrong.