Architects of the New
I’ve always questioned everything… ask my parents. From a young age, I did not resonate with certain systems, most notably organized religion and education. However, with the development of my discernment over the last few years, I can see outdated systems of oppression entangled in nearly every aspect of our everyday lives.
Religious Systems
I always joke that my Methodist upbringing was more akin to growing up without religion, but we attended church services on holidays and most Sundays, preceded by Sunday school, where my mother volunteered her educational experience for many years.
I hated going to church, and I’m sure part of that was getting up in the morning, dressing up, and being quiet for an hour. I can’t pinpoint any other reason for my aversion from a young age. When I reached middle school, I began confirmation classes, and this is really where my distaste for the entire system was revealed. I learned that baptism is done without your consent, but confirmation is supposed to be your own choice. And even at fourteen years old, I knew my choice would not be to pledge my allegiance to the church.
The entire system seemed like a sham to me. I saw people dress up and pretend to be good people for one hour each week, so they would be rewarded after they died. What?! It doesn’t even make logical sense. As much as I didn’t resonate with organized religion, I found an even greater disdain for Catholicism after attending my friend’s church. The pomp and circumstance felt like a smoke and mirrors show, and the services were designed to make others feel less than.
I argued with my parents about having to proceed with confirmation, and in the end, I’m sure I went along with their wishes out of guilt. Ironically, I have zero memories of the experience. I couldn’t tell you with certainty that I was confirmed.
Educational Systems
Throughout high school, I began to detest school more and more. Considering I generally found myself in the top 10% of my class without practically any effort on my part, I can’t say that the education system did me any favors. It also really bothered me that people were made to memorize details to pass tests, not learn useful knowledge, or prepare them for the real world. Maybe I knew all along that there was something they weren’t telling us.
As I skated through my senior year, I was again under pressure to do what society asked of me and pick a college. The problem was that every time I did one of those career assessments, it would suggest nearly all the career options because of my wide variety of skills and interests. I saw these as a waste of my time. It came to the point where the school needed me to pick a college so they could put a school banner on my locker, and I finally caved. I chose to attend a local (ironically Catholic) college with a good theater program because acting was the only thing that brought me joy. But college wasn’t a good fit either. I dropped out after only a year and a half.
Financial Systems
Because I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life, I tried several professions with long stretches of unemployment in between, and therefore have always struggled with finances. Eventually, I realized it was during the stretches where I wasn’t gainfully employed in corporate America that I found true happiness and my entrepreneurial spirit.
In my early twenties, I dabbled in direct sales and took an entrepreneur class at the local technical college. During my unemployment stretches in my thirties, I painted houses and repurposed furniture and antiques. By my early forties, I started a creative agency for freelance marketing and event planning, the basis for what I’m doing today. Outside of creativity for financial sake, I also continued acting, made jewelry, painted, learned to sew, knit, and crochet, cook, and bake. I’m sure I’m forgetting something! I found joy in the void where anything was possible, and I could create whatever I could dream.
Systems of Oppression
In the world we live in now, it is becoming clear that these organized systems of education and religion were designed to keep people in debt and in fear. And now, I can see these layers of control and oppression in so many aspects of our daily lives. I understand my disdain for these old systems stemmed from an innate knowing that there is a better way.
Money is a make-believe system we were sold to believe is the answer to everything. People rely on governments to tell them what is best for them - hello pandemic. Hollywood is crumbling because it keeps trying to sell us the same fairytales we have outgrown. Most recently, I have seen that our organized national sports are a way to keep people divided, us vs them, week after week. All the while, rich people get richer selling us tickets, merchandise, and stuffing us full of advertising. Yes, football was created to sell us food, Matthew McConaughey, among other things.
I was never one to have a celebrity crush or idolize famous people, and frankly, didn’t understand this behavior in the people I knew. I always saw famous people as human beings just like me. I never got too involved in politics, and I couldn’t care less about sports. While I always knew education and religion were not for me, it has only been in recent years that I can see why I had not been interested in these other systems of oppression. I was not built for the old way.
Building The New
I can see it all so clearly now, and I’m so over all of it. These systems feel like dishonesty to me, and I’ve always had a strong barometer for truth. It’s time to gently release these old ways and start imagining a world that feels like the joy of creation, the truth of authenticity, and the transparency of intention for the highest good with roots in unity, collaboration, and community. It’s time for us to fully embody our role as the architects of the new.
