What’s going to happen in 2025? Who the hell knows?!
But I do know it’s up to us to create a new future. Dream a new dream. Write some new stories.
We are currently living out other people’s old stories. Some people are living in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Some are living in a Marvel superhero-supervillain universe. Others are living in ancient science fiction warrior tales of world domination (dreams of the glory of the Roman Empire). Some are living in a political thriller filled with secret “dark” forces operating behind the scenes. And some are still stuck in Godfather Mafia land. Can you believe that Mafia romances are super popular right now? Of course they are. All these worlds exist at once, in our minds made manifest in the world around us.
There is increasing scientific evidence that what we think about comes to fruition. We create our own reality through the stories we ingest — both consciously and subconsciously and the stories we create. That’s why it’s so important to be careful about what we read, watch, and listen to. It’s also important to realize we have much more power than we think we do.
Stories are the maps that show us where to go. Just like Aboriginal song lines!
But where do we want to go, and how do we get there?
I know what I want: A world of abundance and peace where we live in harmony and balance with nature. A world where we are all free to be our true, diverse selves. A world where men and women and everyone in between can live in true partnership, able to express and live out our sexual and spiritual dreams…with love. A world where there are walkable cities and communities surrounded by nature. Where energy comes from the sun and wind. Where women’s work and nature are valued and honored. Where food is plentiful and delicious, and water is clean and clear. Where laughter is joyful.
I watched two movies this past week that gave me insights into the future and the power of story.
The first was Babygirl. TikTok is raging with reviews and analysis of this one. As a movie, I actually thought it was fairly mediocre. And I’ve seen movies that were much, much sexier. The official promotion videos say it’s about liberation, and there is some truth to that. But what was great about it was that it revealed some truths and made us feel things reflected in our own lives. Like the secret desires that are rejected by our partners and the resulting shame. The ecstasy when you find a partner who is unafraid of your secret desires and, in fact, shares them and makes them come true. The desire of a woman in power and in charge to sometimes have someone else take charge once in a while (as a former CEO, I felt this in my bones). The importance of play and laughter when it comes to intimacy. Historically, in literature, when a woman finds sexual fulfillment, she usually dies (Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina). That’s what made Lady Chatterly’s Lover so radical and thus banned. She lived! (I LOVE that book, by the way.) In Babygirl (spoiler alert!), she returns to her husband. This strikes me as a false, safe compromise. She didn’t die. She lived. But suddenly, her husband wants to please her like she wants it? Here’s the thing. It’s not just about the orgasm! (Although orgasms are Very Important.) It’s about the heart. The emotional connection. The spiritual connection. Again, TikTok is filled with middle-aged women who have walked away from unfulfilling marriages and would rather stay celibate and single than stay trapped in a relationship that brings them no satisfaction, sexual or otherwise (Maybe that’s why they are trying to ban it?). Despite my complaints about the movie, it’s a step forward because it has people talking about it. That’s a great step. But we need to go farther. Be bolder. If we want to create relationships in a world where both partners are truly and deeply satisfied, we need to create stories that show people how. How to communicate. How to protect each other. And how to feel both safe and free.
The second movie was the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. What does a film about the past have to do with creating the future? Bob Dylan is a master of creation. He has never stopped evolving and breaking boundaries. He shows us that it’s the artists — the songwriters, the painters, the writers, the performers, who bring a new world into reality. Two of my favorite quotes of all time come from Bob Dylan. They are not in the movie, but they are relevant here:
“Life isn’t about finding yourself or finding anything. It’s about creating yourself and creating things.”
“Thought will fuck you up. It’s heart. It’s not head.”
This is the truth about creating the future. You can think and think and think. But what is truly essential is feeling it. And helping others to feel it. That’s what good art and good stories and songs do. We must paint a picture of what a new sort of future looks like. We need to create and sing songs that celebrate it.
All important things start with the dream, the vision, the sketch on a napkin or piece of paper. Greta Thunberg recently said that “avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.” But as any builder knows, before we can lay the foundation, we need some sort of idea of what we are trying to build. Cathedrals took centuries to build. Generations. Today, it’s time to dream and start sketching.
Once, many years ago, I was at a very, very exclusive banking conference (I was one of the only women who wasn’t a hostess or a staffer). Some guy who was apparently a genius, but I can’t remember his name, gave a talk about AI and the future it would create. After the talk, I asked him where he saw nature fitting into his view of the future. “I want to create a world like the Jetsons! There is lots of nature in it!” He smiled stupidly.
First, I had to go back to look at some of the Jetsons to be sure (created in 1962, the year of my birth). Unless you count outer space, there is no nature in it. Not even a house plant. But listen, his inspiration was a kid’s cartoon. What cartoons, movies, and stories are we creating now to inspire young kids today? What seeds are we planting in our minds that will grow and bear fruit that will feed us in the future?
Yesterday, a friend of mine said I was a seed planter. “Thanks,” I said, “I plant them but then I can’t remember what I planted or where I planted them,” I laughed. But here’s the thing. It doesn’t matter. I’m like a squirrel who accidentally plants a forest because I forgot where I stored my food. Be like a squirrel. Plant seeds. Dream a new dream. Let’s create a new future together. A WILD new future!
We can’t go back to the way we were. As romantic as the past often seems, it’s over. Just like 2024. Thank God.
Happy New Year!
This post brought a vision… imagine circles of women sitting circle regularly all around the globe. Imagine them dreaming a new world, then speaking/singing/painting/weaving it into being. Imagine new and full moons waxing and waning in intention. Imagine…
One of the things I like about planting seeds is that you may THINK you know where the resulting plants will grow, but after the initial deployment, they seem to wander in our garden with minds of their own. Some disappear entirely (hey, where did our cosmos go?) and others pop up in strange places (where did that coneflower come from?). It’s another reason to plant a seed: you don’t know where it might spread.