Time to Act

… and a lesson from birds

Murmurations in Nova Scotia

Experiencing a murmuration (flocking behaviour) of birds is an incredible and awe-inspiring sight. Whether they’re doing it to keep warm or scare off or confuse predators, it is awe-inspiring to watch them fly together with grace and ease, a dance in the sky. 

Turns out scientists have done studies to figure out just how this happens. In one study from 2013, a team from Princeton collaborated with physicists and determined from a mathematical model that each bird pays close attention to its seven closest neighbors, ignoring everything else. 

“Birds have a much higher temporal resolution than we do, meaning that they take in certain information around them and process it much more quickly than humans. They see much faster than we do." ~ The Secrets and Science behind Starling Murmurations, How Stuff Works

They pay attention to their immediate surroundings and know instinctively what to do and how to work together - a process of self-organization. For humans, this is possible too but easier said than done. The point is that they closely attend to their surroundings, and then act accordingly. 

Adaptive Agency

One of the main purposes of seeing clearly is to know what to do! I believe that most people want to contribute in a way that makes a difference to the world, their community, their family and friends. In other words, they want to have agency, which means “to act or intervene, so as to produce a particular effect.” 

Each of us has agency to varying degrees. We can all do something. However, it’s easy to get stuck in overwhelm or paralysis when the problems of the world, the things we care about most, seem so huge. I definitely feel this way a lot! Or, we stay in our little bubbles and deny the problems. Or, we revert to cynicism and blame or on the flip side, idealism - “everything will be just fine.” Sound familiar?

So, how do we keep a sense of agency?

Activist Jim Enote is a Zuni elder from New Mexico, who says that in his Indigenous culture, they were taught to take care of their immediate world. In other words - like the birds - they look around and see what needs to be done right now. This could be as simple as picking up litter on a walk or helping out with the grandchildren or sharing vegetables you grow with a neighbour. It’s called adaptive agency.

“Adaptive agency is our biological ability to adapt to our circumstances and environment and to be responsible for being agents of our creative lives.” ~

Jeffrey Davis, Tracking Wonder

Adaptation is part of the evolutionary and creative process. Yet, in Western culture there tends to be an emphasis on taking control, setting goals, and bracing against the uncertainties of life. The pandemic has shown us that being able to pivot is also an essential skill, as Rosie Spinks argues in her excellent article, Replacing Ambition with Adaptation. 

“Embracing adaptation as an alternative is not saying that we can’t be creative or innovative or willing to work hard — on the contrary, we must be all those things. But it calls us to shift those skills elsewhere, beyond our personal interests and egos to communal and societal challenges that are collective. It also calls us to redefine what it means to live a “successful” life.”

Standing in the Tragic Gap

Sometimes what we see clearly is painful and our impulse is to turn away. A few weeks ago, I was in Yosemite National Park in California with my family. It was a long-awaited reunion in one of the most beautiful places in the world. And, we did experience the majesty of the mountains, gigantic rock formations, and thousand year old trees. 

At the same time, the impacts of climate change were evident. The air was very dry and unhealthy the whole time we were there, smokey from major fires to the south of the park. There were areas of burned out trees from previous fires and some bodies of water contained toxic algae. There were areas where thousand year old sequoias and redwoods had been downed by a violent windstorm. My son is working in the park and just last week, they had a major rainstorm, causing flooding and fallen debris from burned out areas. Heartbreaking, yet reality.

Quaker writer Parker Palmer calls this “standing in the tragic gap, the gap between the hard realities around us and what we know is possible — not because we wish it were so, but because we’ve seen it with our own eyes.” - Healing the Heart of Democracy

Standing in this tragic gap is not easy; there is always tension between reality and possibilities. But, rather than resort to denial, resignation, cynicism, or idealistic fantasy, we can stay with the tension, not trying to resolve it, but exploring options. Sometimes this requires pausing to listen and learn; to not  respond in the habitual way. Sometimes it means speaking out or collaborating with others - all examples of adaptive agency.

Palmer says that it’s important not to judge our actions by their success or failure. Instead, we must be satisfied with acting in a way that is faithful to our community and our values, regardless of the outcome. There are many possibilities that could arise as we stand in the tragic gap of what is possible. Some might be opportunities never before imagined. Some might thwart your carefully laid out plans. Full engagement is what’s required. So much depends on that.

Practice

How are you a citizen of your place? Be like the birds. Identify 7 living beings in your immediate surroundings? What do they need right now that you could provide? What urges are motivating you to act? How can you contribute this week?

How have you had to adapt and pivot during the pandemic? 

Where do you find yourself standing in the tragic gap—in your family, your workplace, your community, or the larger world? Do you lean towards cynicism or idealism or denial? What helps you to stay in the gap and act from there?

What does it mean to you to live a successful life? 

Resources 

Book: The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

Standing and Acting in the Tragic Gap - a 5 minutes video with Parker Palmer. 

I haven’t read Palmer's book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, but a couple of his books have been very helpful for me, The Courage to Teach and A Hidden Wholeness.