how to change a culture

Spiritual resource to share: vision and achievement

"If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it!" Jesse Jackson

"The devotion of thought to an honest achievement, makes that achievement possible." Mary Baker Eddy

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

This is an ongoing blog about the dynamic of our community meetings. Just to sum up for those new to this blog, we are a group of people representing various voices in our community. We have been meeting to address the need to forge together a community that focuses on healthy kids, families and communities and in so doing, create a community wide prevention plan that alleviates or reduces racism, violence, and alcohol and drug abuse. These problems have been around a long time and lately have escalated.

We have come to an exciting junction in the road in these meetings. It started with people getting frustrated. At our last meeting (the eighth one) people had time to voice their concerns and opinions. It was feeling like we had little traction with what we had accomplished so far.

Several times "plans" had been presented as a way of organizing thought. Some of it has gelled, some have not. I love watching the dynamic of organization ebb and flow. And the meeting started out not flowing. I kept praying, establishing in my thought the oneness of Mind, intelligence, and recognized that it was being expressed with clarity.

This is what happened.

People stayed to the end of the meeting.
People's grievances were heard.
THEN came the boom. "We are trying to do too much. This is over-whelming." said one therapist who shared some of his reasons for saying this. "If we can't perceive what it is we are trying to do, we will never achieve it."

Yep. We had taken on trying to reverse a cultural footpath that has been so thoroughly documented and trod on, that it would appear to be an intractable rut. We were really asking now, how can we change a culture? How can we lift a culture of low expectations and abuse to a culture of tolerance, progress, and a celebration of diversity?

Then came the reversal of the boom: "HOWEVER", said a counselor who worked in a drug prevention program, "look at what happened with cigarettes! How did they do that? I don't know, but they did it. Now, everyone is aware of its health hazards. We can do this, too."

From there, various people commented on what worked in other programs, another recognized that success builds success, another saw how large of an umbrella we could be to give more focus to all those willing to buy in to the idea of building healthy communities.

A tribal elder commented, "In all the years we have been trying to tackle these problems, there has never been this many people willing to work for a solution. I've never seen this happen before now." He added, "By coming together like this, each of us from different walks of life, we form a formidable power. We are already having an impact. We are already moving forward."

Several agreed and a number of them mentioned certain steps that were taken in the high school that were progressive and responsive to the community - and were directly in line with what this group is hoping to achieve.

We are now on a success and possibilities track. This is good.

How do you change a culture? Culture is defined as the context of our human experience. To change the culture is to change the context. And changing the context from a limited, material basis of things (which breeds limitation, abuse and division) to a spiritual basis (which nurtures peace, unity, progress and innovation) is the way to change a culture. And it can be done.

Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon the improvement of moments more than upon any other one thing. -Mary Baker Eddy

A deep sincerity is sure of success, for God takes care of it. -Mary Baker Eddy

With God, all things are possible. - Christ Jesus

....and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.... -The Book of Hebrews

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.