I was a freshman in high school in Southern California in 1991 and in the Model United Nations class that received quite a few different daily newspapers every day. It was a big class working in a very loose style where we worked mostly independently studying our countries for the next MUN conference. And, in addition to that, part of our daily (or was it weekly) tasks were to summarize and reflect on current events. In 1991 there was front page after front page about the Soviet Union dissolution and bulletin boards all over the room were covered in historic L.A. Times headlines about where the future was headed post-communism.
I don’t remember which teacher taught us the definitions of “perestroika” and “glasnost” but they are two words I remember vividly (getting right on the exam). Along with Mr. Minier’s particular favorite “zeitgeist.” He said it all the time.
Perestroika- the policy of restructuring from an old model to a more modern idea of society. Glasnost- the policy of opening up. The practice of openness.
Fast forward to now. In our own situation it seems like the ideas of perestroika and glasnost are curious concepts to ponder as we redefine how we structure a modern society and how we practice an opening up in a way that nourishes us and builds a strong unity amongst ourselves and our neighbors.
Glasnost. An opening up. And I don’t mean shopping at the mall or going to football games.
A deep opening up is reaching for love over fear and practicing it over and over again. Love for self, love for others, love for this one beautiful, dangerous life.
The people who most inspire me are the ones leading the charge of widening the circle. They are the ones welcoming new voices, asking hard questions of themselves, challenging their own fears on a day to day basis and showing up in their own gloriously flawed, beautiful, fearlessness to offer what they have to offer.
Glasnost. I like it. I wonder if it’s shed its baggage from before. I wonder if it triggers emotion and feeling from some. To me, it feels like it’s up for grabs. And I feel like grabbing it.
I feel like it’s good to name a process and decide upon a pathway. If I’ve learned anything in these past two years, it’s that I prefer to rise and fall by my own decisions than hide behind the decisions of other’s. I prefer to honor my own inspirations and callings over surrendering my power to what I presume others might think of me. That’s part of my glasnost. My opening up is trusting my own callings and passions instead of playing it safe under the shroud of someone else’s expectation or fear. Fudge that sugar.
Glasnost during a shut down? There is no better time. No better time to question what you’re up to and what you would like to let go. Emotions are charged, there are lines in the sand and if you can untangle your thoughts now, in this unrest and unease, then the pay off will be huge before we all go back to the dull low-stakes game of normal life. You want t a big return? You gotta go big when everyone else is trying to talk you into staying small.
Glasnost. It’s a funny thing. Opening up has so much to do with love. Love has so much to do with fighting back fear. Fear is powerless before it and the longer fear stands in the light of love, the clearer it becomes that Fear is not a big bad monster who will swallow you whole. It’s a coward feeding on weakness. Once you stop fighting your own weakness, you declaw Fear, you pull its teeth, you see it for what it really is. An illusion.
Do not fear.
Love. It’s amazing how the land mines disappear. The egg shells and broken glass you thought was everywhere vanish. The road straightens, the rough places are still rough but that’s OK. What’s so wrong with rough places? The story gets bigger, the story becomes quite delightful. You let yourself be the main character, you let your neighbor do their thing, you fall in the love with the openess of this life you’ve been gifted.
I’m saying all this because this is the lesson over and over again. I’m not done learning it. I know I’ll forget it and have to learn it all over again. And that’s OK too. I’m learning this lesson now in the shut down, far away from anyone. I’m living such moments of wonder and abundance in the most astonishing and unexpected ways that I have to document it. I have to let you know that life is still happening, new connections are being made, discovery is possible. Fear and safety are not the same thing.
Fear likes telling you that stepping out into newness is a danger. Love will tell you that stepping out in to newness is the whole point of this whole thing.
What’s your glasnost? What’s it look like? How is it scary? How is scary not something to be afraid of? What is on the other side of opening up that’s just waiting for you to walk through the door? A wall falling down. A regime change, a restructuring, a leaning in to moving forward and not looking back. Gorbachev’s ghost is waving a sad little red pendant for you. (No, he’s not. I don’t know what I’m talking about. I just thought it sounded cool). And so am I.