We were small, as in under ten years old. Over and over and over, we spun our little lithe bodies in cartwheels. Spinning stars across her front yard atop scrubby grass a stone's throw from her cement sidewalk outlined in pink chalk for hopscotch. We were busy. Tiring ourselves out playing. Over and over, we tried to nail the perfect form of a cartwheel. She appeared to land effortlessly with a bouncy spring to her limbs. My landing looked more like someone stumbling from a fall. My knees were never straight enough, my kick off never strong enough. My hand not pointed enough. My friend was half my stature with a gymnast's body. I was shaped more like spaghetti, lanky and soft. The game would turn into drill sergeant (her) and weak subject (me), leaving me feeling like a flop. I never thought to question the rules. Why did it matter if your leg was straight? Why did it matter how you landed?
Who makes up the rules for the games we play? Can we change them?
What if those days that I flipped myself upside down in an attempt to perfect something by someone else's standards, something my body never would adapt to, I flipped a switch and imagined a possibility where there could be another kind of successful cartwheel? My wobbly style for the win.
What we know as real is really a shared agreement of an understanding of the imagined. We have the power to imagine anything, and therefore, we can change our understanding of anything, including the rules we live by.
Imagine every system of understanding, being, and doing is a form of play, possibly a game. Sometimes a one-player game, and other times, multiplayer. Some games are competitive, and some are solely exploratory. Can you imagine a game where we all win?
Lately, I have noticed an encouraging trend. I'm witnessing mission-driven people in the fields of business and finance creating new learning models to help empower creatives with applicable financial tools to bolster the likelihood of their success. These people are creating new laws of engagement that allow themselves and others to thrive under capitalism while also acting as potential catalysts to disrupt capitalism's inequitable and oppressive systems by empowering more voices of creative change-making and beauty. This trend looks like small cohorts learning financial management hacks relevant to their level of experience and resources. I am very encouraged by the teaching and coaching work of Fully Funded (Doula turned financial advisor!) and 32 Bookkeeping (Artist/Writer #’s maverick!).
I'm seeing this same trend elsewhere in tiered pricing at grocery stores, workshops, etc. I work hard at it in my non-profit organization, Place Corps, including the design of our compensation model, our tuition model, and our shared-cost partnership model. This is a movement towards creating a place where we all win.
I welcome us all to be brave enough to question the operating rules of our lives and trust in our imaginations to open doors that our deepest instincts know are possible even if we don’t yet see them outside of our minds eye. Let’s flip upside down and turn our heads around!
A gift to you: