It doesn't strike a chord anymore.
Do you feel that fantastic invitation to steer toward trust on trust? Away from fear for fear? You are certainly not alone in this. On the contrary.
The feeling that something isn't right, that the flow is lost, is ubiquitous today. At times, I feel pulled into this uncomfortable friction field. Yet, it's also an invitation to embrace raw experiences and care for our own heroic mission. It's listening to what wants to die and what wants to come. Mourning what no longer fits. And daring to embrace what does.
Sometimes, you experience essence. Like yesterday, in every cell of my body. September 26, 2021, was the High Mass of cycling. The World Championship in Belgium. In my hometown of Leuven, no less. We stood on the Blijde Inkomststraat, and the atmosphere was magical. Everyone sang. Everyone invoked the Gods. I felt like a musical note on a score. So small, yet so grand and fitting into the whole. In the right place.
A better world can take root in each of us. If we dare to embrace our own historical roots. Rediscovering roots is an incredibly powerful source to reinvent yourself. To be both powerful and fluid. Powerful. Not through an external armor, but through figurative muscle tone on a human scale. A beautiful word to describe the path to that strength is antifragile. As humans, we must work within boundaries that can feel uncomfortable. As an amateur cyclist and dancer, I experienced this firsthand. By giving conscious stimuli and training, you automatically regenerate into a healthier person. You become antifragile. Always together and through others. Otherwise, it won't work. It's akin to a beating heart, the alternation between effort and relaxation. And ultimately, there's rhythm. Much like the rhythm of our hearts.
A better world starts with ourselves. It goes far beyond incremental outcomes, where Life is reduced to a few harsh parameters. Like in a clinical study where a decrease in a substance in the blood justifies bringing a drug with enormous side effects to market. I am the first to put this bold statement in context, but the rage of reductionism is sometimes beyond belief. The whole covid crisis was an eye-opener for me. Especially in how we, as a society, deal with health. It feels at times like a militaristic straightjacket. A result of the (in)visible rules that take us by the hand. And instrumentalize us as human data points. Stripped of Life. During the entire crisis, I was most bewildered by how the voices of people with often broad and deep insights into health were silenced. And even banished from television screens. While we all aspire to the same thing. A vital Life. A healthy Life.
I have always been a researcher at heart. And I am almost euphoric because we will never reach the horizon of absolute knowledge. It's up to us as humans to find the new rhythm. To discover our antifragility. And to explore as humans. Mistakes become flow in this. And from this openness, find the inspiration to continue, support each other, and grant each other. On the way to a deep solidarity that goes beyond borders and yet starts with yourself, with the encounter with the other.
This whole transformation also reminds me of the sudden phase transitions in gel-like materials. They are combinations of a little mineral and a lot of water. Small changes in conditions can produce entirely new structures. And so, tomorrow we may wake up in the same Dust, the same mineral. And yet, we no longer recognize what we once built. A Nobel laureate once said that Life in essence is the same as water dancing to the tune of Dust. Let us finally become water then. Powerful and fluid at the same time. And dance, as we surrender to the magic of the choreography. Let the Day of Judgment make way for a fluid transition. A dance move that we will only realize once it's over.
And that holds true, much like the rhythm of our hearts.
Written on the way to Châtelus, France, September 27, 2021.
This text is an adapted version of the foreword I wrote in Dutch for the book by Hans Siepel, "Met Godsverstand, Build Christianity Back Better."
