Organizing Principles are Changing

We all live with organizing principles. They are what give structure and order to our society, our world, our neighborhood. They are helpful because they show us how things are put together and how we can live within the construct of our world.Invariably, as is the way of the Universe, they will change. And when they begin to change, we don't always notice that they are changing. It is not until a whole lot of change has happened that we realize, something fundamental, some organizing principle, has shifted. And then for a while we live with the discomfort of the transition. And when enough time has passed, we can begin to look back on what was and assess what is transpiring and we begin to see the organizing principle that has changed, is changing.Here's an example - simply put but one that I can speak to from a personal perspective. There was a time when nearly all women (in the US) aspired to marry, raise children and keep their home. Some might work for a time, or pursue higher education but the convention was that women would ultimately cease working and stay home and raise children and care for their children and husband. Our society was structured that way. That's how things worked.However, World War 2 changed that. Women were called in to service by going to work. They stepped into factories, industry and many other areas that were traditionally outside the norm. And because of that experience we have women leading major corporations, running their own businesses and leading policy changes - we have women with completely different aspirations.In the years immediately following the war, I don't think many people imagined that such profound change would be birthed by such a simple necessity. But that change did happen.Today, it is easy to look back on the organizing principle around gender roles and business and see how it has changed. Every area of business, of industry, of policy, of gender roles, of professional and personal relationship  has altered dramatically. But I don't think that the people living through the '60's really had a full understanding of the change that they were undergoing. (At least not on this topic.) They were at the beginning of a transformation, but didn't know it. The change was acknowledged in the '70's and a full movement was in swing by the '80's.Here's my point: When an organizing principle begins to change, we don't recognize it is happening. In fact, we probably can't even see the organizing principle since it is just so naturally what we are and how we live. And since you can't see it, you don't really notice the change beginning. You only notice the change after enough change has happened so that things don't work like you were accustomed to them working. Or you feel the pain and discomfort of not quite fitting in. Or you begin to realize there is the next generation and the last generation.Does all this make sense? Because it needs to.Why?Because it is happening all around us right now. In such profound ways and to such a degree that when we finally realize it has been going on we are going to be left reeling.Here's what's happening:  the consciousness movement - the circumstances in people's lives that are compelling them to find their heart's passion, to find greater meaning in their lives, to find the way that they come to understand that they are a Spiritual being having a physical experience - this very movement is altering just about every organizing principle we have in every aspect of life as we live it.The easiest way I have to explain it is to say that the fundamental organizing principle we have lived by is DO - HAVE - BE. DO these things  (get good grades, go to a good school, get a good job to make good money). So you can HAVE - all the comforts that money and possessions can give you. And then you can BE happy, at peace, successful. Isn't that how it goes?The consciousness movement re-orients life so that the formula is BE - DO - HAVE. BE worthy, loving, inspired, joyful, peaceful. DO - take actions from that state of being. HAVE success, abundance, reward.Give that some thought. What do you suppose is going to happen when a BE-DO-HAVE person steps into the world of DO-HAVE-BE? Do you think it might look a little bit like our young leaders graduating from college only to find their way back home - unwilling to compromise themselves for what they find in the workplace? Or maybe it might look like the graduates who have been pursuing degrees in finance only to look out into the world and what awaits and decide that they won't enter that field? Or maybe it looks like a a growing surge of independent and small businesses making up their own rules about exchange for services and work-life balance?I'm pretty sure you're seeing in some aspect of your life and never realized that it might be due to a shift in personal and societal organizing principles. If you have an example, please share with me! Personal Note: I give credit to Neale Donal Walsch for initially introducing me the idea of Be-Do-Have in his work, Conversations with God.