Friday, August 14, 2015

Don't Wait, part two

Last week we were speaking about Dreams, and I suggested that dreaming should be a life long activity.
I teach creativity programs to the elderly, most of whom lived ordinary lives and reminisce about family and friends, experiences and events. Usually there is a gentleness to those memories, as if the memories are in soft focus, the rememberer's eyes see things in the past, focusing inward.
On the other hand the dream chasers eyes light up when they tell their stories, the fire in their belly is still visible all those years later, I've never spoken to someone who regretted chasing those dreams or the work and struggle that being a chaser entails .
Scientists researching animal behaviour say that there are two basic behaviour patterns seen in individuals in the populations of all species, in an experiment David Sloan Wilson called them  sitters and rovers . Sitters wait in cover for food to come to them, the human equivalent of sitters are the rule followers, they go to their jobs, collect their pay, raise their 2.4 children, and retire at 65.
The rovers explore, try new things and take risks. They may be eaten by predators, but they are also more likely to get the best forage.
Interestingly in the animal kingdom approximately 20% of the population are sitters,  The vast majority being rovers.
What happened to us? In the human population the numbers are flipped, with approximately 80% behaving more like sitters.
Sir Ken Robinson has a theory in his TED Talk he says the industrial revolution and the education system are to blame. Industry needed good obedient workers, so creativity and individuality were ground out of students to make them good workers.
In 'The Burning Times'  another theory is presented, during the Inquisition, and several other Purges, including the Holocaust anyone who was different, or non compliant  with the ruling regime was murdered, taking their DNA out of the gene pool, changing the human race.
Garette LoPorto theorizes rovers are actually the bearers of active Neanderthal genes, and calls us up-risers. His theory is interesting, most non African people do have Neanderthal DNA, but there isn't a shred of evidence to support his description of Neanderthal culture. 
So, are you a sitter or a rover?
Do you dare to chase your dreams?
Keep making that list.
Choose one, maybe not the biggest one, lets start with something a bit easier. If you've been lurking in cover, your first step out into the open is going to be difficult.
What can you do as a first small step? how soon can you do it? Make a plan. Do it.

Be a rover.
steps in a painting, Robin Baratta
First Steps in my newest painting, step by step we can accomplish our dreams


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