Recently I’ve been reading Wicked.
Some of you may know it. It’s a novel about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It tells her life story and why she became so hated. (No, I haven’t see the musical. Yes, I intend to.)
There’s a scene early in the story were the witch’s friend at college helps her sneak texts to a professor. They try to prove that Animals (like the Cowardly Lion) are just as good as human beings, and deserve legal rights.
Years later the witch encounters her old college friend again. The witch has only grown stronger in her revolutionary fervor, and she’s preparing to take action against their dictator. But her old friend is married. He has several kids, a wife, and a successful farm. He enjoys working the land. He talks about how he remembers their college days with excitement and fondness, but that he’s quite content with his settled life.
She asks him about his politics, and he declines to answer. He wouldn’t want the police to overhear him say anything out of line.
The witch is disgusted.
A Night at the Bar
I had a startlingly similar experience. I visited a friend’s tavern and whiled away the night talking with co-adventurer Lex Garey. Word got out that I’m walking to Brazil. A drunk gentleman with a friendly face came up to me and asked me if it’s true.
I told him it is.
“When you get there,” he sputtered, “When you reach Sao Paulo, and you see the sun, when you make it…” his admiration for the journey literally brought a tear to his eye. Out of politeness, I pretended not to notice. I asked him about himself.
He works in finance, has a wife and several children, and a good home. He repeatedly told me he’s happy with his life the way it is. Then his story changed. He said that when I’m in the nursing home some day—”And nobody gets outta there alive!”—I’ll be the one with the smile on my face. Finally he confessed:
“I hate my job. I’m the guy who makes sure the rich get richer. But what can I do? I have a family to look out for.”
Citizens and Revolutionaries
My readers are a special kind of creative. We are free thinkers. Many of us use the new digital economy to escape from a traditional way of life. Anyone can learn to do it, but very few people have. We’re the expostmoderns.
You may be an artist, designer, musician, writer, blogger, traveler, nomad or entrepreneur. You might be some brand new type of expostmodern creative that you invented yourself. Or, you might be aspiring to any one or several of these things.
In other words, you are a visionary. You live by your ideals.
Visionaries will always be faced with the many, many people who aren’t. The people who, like the witch’s old friend, are too afraid to speak up; or like the gent in the pub, who feels trapped. These people cannot see a way to stand up and reshape their lives. No amount of coaching or cheering will get them to leap forward if they don’t want to.
It’s hard to live by ideals and pay the bills, so people give up ideals. And you, as a visionary, have a choice to make.
You can scoff, eyeroll, guffaw, sneer. You can think of them as robots, zombies, dullards, drones. You can look down at them like the Wicked Witch of the West. Like a samurai beheading a peasant.
Or you can care for them. You can extend sympathy for their difficult situation. You can respect the life they’ve chosen. You can use your talents, freedom, and income to support and encourage your fellow humans.
Like a hero.
Please tweet and share this post. How do you handle people who won’t take action?
Drew Jacob, Rogue Priest
October 3rd, 2011 at 8:15 am
I try to encourage people who don’t take action to do it anyway, maybe starting with a small step. To show them that it is possible, though it’ll never be easy and there’s always bills to be paid. I do have sympathy if they’re really in a difficult situation, but some just feel they are, while they can easily buy their freedom. That’s a difference to me: if people really have no choice but to plough on, or if they can change things for the better (sometimes from within their job or situation).
October 5th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Esther, that is exactly the way. For many years this never occurred to me (??) but thanks to a few people, including Leo Babauta, I finally learned this lesson. Funny how the nigh-impossible seems so much easier when you give someone a simple first step.
October 3rd, 2011 at 9:11 am
When I start feeling “judgey”, I try hard to find a way out of that feeling- as you’ve noticed, many people just don’t “get it” and they even feel SORRY for the families we’re with/we’ve created (you don’t have children {that you know about, haha}, but others of us do)…I remind myself that they can walk their own path, and if my example does nothing for them, I can allow seeing their path in my perspective to strengthen my own determination on which path *I* chose to walk. How many English teachers did I take out with that poorly put sentence?! I can look at say “NOPE! That is absolutely NOT my heart’s desire. But I know what is, and in honor of it I will take one step closer to what I want right now.” and then DO SOMETHING. Selfish maybe, but it helps me not feel judgemental about the things that I am perceiving. Seriously- not EVERYONE who is married with children is dying to get out and away from it all. Some of us are going to drag the people we are most in love with along for the ride. :)
October 5th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Awesome Nicki. Also, I don’t think my drunken new friend was hoping to get away from his wife & children – it was his job he wanted to escape.
October 3rd, 2011 at 3:54 pm
A nice thing about modern social networking is that you can offer, “Well, right now might not be a good time for you to travel, but here’s my blog/ facebook page – you can travel virtually with me. I’d love to have you along.”
I don’t judge anyone who hasn’t made it out onto the road (as long as they aren’t criticizing me for traveling). There are different ways of being happy. Sometimes I physically ache to have a home, things I don’t worry about fitting into a backpack, a pet, maybe kids… But the thing that got me to put my boots on was the fear of always regretting not doing this, not at least trying to live overseas, and I’m glad that’s out of the way. Leaving home has let me become so much more than I’d be now if I had stayed in Minnesota. But I don’t mind settling a bit now, even if it’s in a city I don’t exactly love… but I don’t actively hate Moscow anymore either, and sometimes I’m really glad I get to be here right now.
The people I find annoying are the ones who insist you’re running away, being escapist, irresponsible, abandoning your people because you’re not doing local protest marches, etc etc etc. Also, having someone tell me I should move to St. Paul because it’s historic and beautiful… right after I got back from Europe… and have NO CLUE and don’t realize it… The people who think small and want to keep everyone around them small too – they bug me.
October 5th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Yes, agreed about that last point especially Kira. Though sometimes I think their criticism comes from anger or jealousy that they, too, are not out living that life. One friend who originally hammered me with criticism eventually came right out and admitted that – she said she felt angry when I talked about it and, when she examined that anger, she realized it was jealousy.
October 3rd, 2011 at 8:27 pm
This is one to watch…
October 5th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Ha! Thanks Scott :)
October 4th, 2011 at 9:41 am
It is important to remember that we never know what seed we plant will sprout, or when. But we have to keep planting – with love, not with hubris or judgment.
PS – Loved the book Wicked, hated the musical because I expected it to be like the book. They are two completely different, er, animals.
October 5th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
I’ve heard that. I suspect I’ll actually like the musical better, personally…
October 4th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
“How do you handle people who won’t take action?”
Ooo. Tough one. I generally encourage them and if they genuinely ask my help in that regard I do what I can.
I hope to reach a point where I can help many people at the same time to be free of the control economy and expected lifestyle has on people now. We should be able to live freely.
October 5th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Let me know if/how I can help Rua. I support that ideal.
October 5th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Then give me some criticism and bounce ideas on Ehoah! :D
(It is surprising how difficult it can be to find that and it is needed)
October 5th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Happy to. I’ve read about it but it’s been some time. Wanna post links to the best article(s) you’ve written about it? I’ll read through and see what rolls around in my head.
You can post the links here and hopefully get some interest from other readers, too :)
I assume you’ve run Ehoah past B.T. and C. Luke Mula?
October 5th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
I’ve never really been in direct contact with C. Luke Mula and don’t know much about him.
Never really got much dialogue with B.T. about Ehoah outside the interview on Humanistic Paganism.
The subjects under the Spiritual tab could use some critiquing. I am hoping to develop celebrations, and rights of passage, and would love to hear some suggestions. I’ll mostly be looking for help when Silva Collegium is up as it is a Wikia.
This can also be continued on the Ehoah facebook page to jive some convos with the community already there. And any help to move towards the goal of living free, especially a whole community, would be great (I think the Silva Collegium would be a big part of this)
October 4th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
I like how you ended that, recognizing that Elphaba is a bit blinded by her ideals. She made choices, too–choices that others might have avoided for reasons of their own. Yes, she’s “free,” but all choices have consequences–and it’s up to each of us to decide if we’re ready to face the consequences, good or bad. Even noble choices can have unexpected and perhaps unintended consequences.
And that’s what I LOVE about “Wicked!” I think that’s one of its main lessons. But when you see the Broadway musical–and you totally should–just remember that it’s NOT the book. Similar themes with charms all its own but slightly different outcome, in keeping with America’s love of a happy ending (unlike the book…..!!)
October 5th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
I can hardly wait–!
And thanks Wes. I agree about Wicked. It’s very much in keeping with the original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that started it all – it too had flawed, uncertain characters who had to make a choice.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
As someone who’ll be watching your journey with envy and not a little regret over her own choices, thank you, Drew.
October 5th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
That’s touching Jen. Regret can be a horrible banshee to live with. I hope you’re able to find a path that will lead you to your dreams, despite whatever obstacles and obligations you’ve managed to take on.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I’ve been that Witch. But I’m not that kind of Witch anymore. I used to encourage, but found that some people who feel “trapped” often will argue with you why they can’t get out, even if you point a way out for them. They have to discover it on their own. The Witch is the outsider, the questioner of authority, the one who brings about change, or who makes it change. But sometimes even a Witch can get stuck in a rut, usually when she thinks she’s better or more powerful than the lack luster fellows around her.
I haven’t read the book, but the musical is spellbinding and lives up to the hype. When I hear the songs, it makes me wish the Green Girl never melted in the Wizard of Oz and that Ms. Popularity would be taken down a notch or two.
As for being a “real” Witch, my path has led me to start little revolutions of my own. I carve out change for myself like dropping pebbles into a ponds and seeing the ripple effect — you start with yourself. When I see that I am making positive and healthy effects, I know I’m doing something right. When I see people and things around me sour and get ill, I know I’m not doing something right.
In any case, I’ve always loved the Wicked Witch and am glad she got a re-write! There’s always another story behind each story…
February 28th, 2012 at 8:31 pm
If they can’t or won’t, I leave them to it. It’s a bit pretentious to go around “enlightening” people.
But if they *want to* but just don’t know how, that’s where I help apply leverage. Funnily enough, I just finished a letter to my list about this very topic. People get so entrenched in their lifestyle, where the job is necessary to pay for the nanny, which is necessary for both people to work, only to have the household be taxed at a higher rate, and no one have time to cook, which causes health problems which creates more and more of a strain until … kablooie! The house of cards falls down.
It’s hard to derail a train on those tracks, but if you’re looking for help, I’ll give it.