We are the imaginal cells
It is a beautiful Sunday morning, with blue skies after a few days of relentless rain in an already soaked area.
I watch a country that has, from its colonial existence, espoused freedom and free speech take the quick step to autocracy, a path it has been building from its inception, the shadow of freedom never addressed through its relentless oppression of anyone who doesn’t fit the constructed image of what a human should look like. Even writing this, I am reminded of the Nazi experiment of the Aryan race.
I consider the possibility of travelling there and the risk now to do so as someone who has written about the genocide in Gaza and the cruel, vindictive narcissist in the White House. I know I am not alone in the consideration of this.
Yet there is no time for silence and being on the sidelines hand wringing.
It is a time to rise.
I think of the story of the imaginal cells as the caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. Those first imaginal cells that emerge from the undifferentiated goo are gobbled up and destroyed. The early sacrifice. Bravery at the cellular level.
Eventually, enough imaginal cells rise up to become the storm that transforms.
As many of us as possible, rising up. It is the only way. Too few and the first to do so pay a terrible price.
I listen to the remarkable interview with Nate Hagens and Audrey Tang from Taiwan. https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/169-audrey-tang
She speaks of technology and people power with a clarity few summon. Technology as a facilitator and partner, not as the subjugator of life in the hands of tech bros who lust for power and accumulation.
We have all we need everywhere around us. Unevenly distributed. (Gibson)
Those in power’s greatest fear have always been people rising up. Hence the need for bunkers and security. For deliberately dumbing down. Inducing poverty. The prison industrial complex. And now the deportation industrial complex – all for profit.
It is time. We are the imaginal cells. The stand is for the sacredness of all life. For dignity. Respect. Rights and responsibilities. Kindness.
Photo March 30th, Article written March 30th 2025
