Which Will You Buy Into? Encouragement or Fear

(The following is one of my recent and rejected submissions to a contest the Tennessean sponsored. I decided to practice the Shift of which I write which for me is to not reject myself just because the paper did. :)

At a gathering earlier this summer, a woman I had just met shared that she had been wondering why we aren’t encouraged today the way people were encouraged during the Great Depression.

The evening concluded but this idea intrigued me. I contacted the person to further our exchange. She shared that not only did FDR’s speeches encourage people through dark times but that whether it was intentional or not, Hollywood seemed to partner with the government during that era as movies and music often held recurring themes of hope.

I found this curious. Why aren’t we similarly encouraged?

The next day I went to see the Frist’s Andy Warhol exhibit. I’ve never cared for Mr. Warhol’s work. I’ve never considered soup cans art yet I determined to be open to his work the way I would desire a person to be open to mine.

Standing before the famed paintings of soup, I realized the genius of Mr. Warhol’s work. The soup cans provided a commentary on the period into which we were rapidly moving from being the preparerers of our meals to consuming prepared foods. Soup was one of the first fast foods and heralded the beginning of being encouraged to make our lives easier and our diets more sodium filled.

The marketing of stuff to ease our lives while creating more dis-ease keeping up with what’s new and next has increased ten thousand fold since the 60’s. Ads bombard us suggesting what we need.

Andy Warhol also painted his era’s cultural icons like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis. Our celebrities are paired with the stuff marketers hope we’ll buy as we’re continually shopped to.

Standing before those soup cans, I realized we are encouraged. We’re encouraged to buy things. We’re encouraged to be afraid. These two have gone hand in hand since 9/11 when we were told by former President Bush to “go shopping.”

We were encouraged to shop and fear while paying attention to rainbow colored security alerts. At one point we were told to buy duct tape and plastic to cover our windows and doors.

We had the opportunity to stimulate the economy of the heart, to offer care as happens so beautifully in this country when in crisis. Instead we were told to stimulate the economy, the same economy whose potential collapse is now suppose to be the focus of our fear.

Encouragement’s a personal lost art relegated to Dr. Phil, Oprah and ‘supportive’ reality shows. Some benefit from this, but we’ve opportunities daily to offer encouragement through a simple smile or nod to someone who for all we know may be wondering why he or she should keep on living.

Let’s not wait for our leaders to encourage us. Let’s not wait to be told not to be afraid. Let’s call up the courage of our ancestors who survived economic collapse prior and two World Wars. Let’s wake up to what we’re being told to buy into and get about the business of offering encouragement and stimulating the economy of good will.

*** and if you live around Nashville, get yourself to the Frist to experience the Andy Warhol exhibit on display through Labor Day.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 26 August 2011

dawn@imaginetheshift.com