The Sixth Sense

Death and Conflict

(Smile…it won’t be that bad!)

I want to start this post with two more quotes from ‘Story’ by Robert McKee:

“Story is a metaphor for life, and to be alive is to be in seemingly perpetual conflict.”

“Death is like a freight train in the future, heading toward us, closing the hours, second by second, between now and then. If we’re to live with any sense of satisfaction, we must engage life’s forces of antagonism before the train arrives.”

Can you imagine a good book or movie that doesn’t have some significant conflict at the heart of it? Conflict is what keeps us engaged in a story. It isn’t always in the form of an enemy of course. Inner conflict can be just as engaging as the villain in a James Bond movie.

Why do we get bored of any story that doesn’t have a sense of conflict at the heart of it? I suggest it’s because it isn’t real. Conflict is core to our lives. We might not see it in such stark language, but somehow we know this deep within our souls.

The people we admire didn’t get there by accident. Richard Branson’s conflict with BA in establishing Virgin Airways is legendary. Mother Teresa didn’t live her heroic life without conflict. And, whether we recognise it or not, we all face conflict on various levels every day of our lives.

So, here’s a conversation starter. What does conflict look like in your life? What are the things holding you back from realising your potential? What/who is opposing you making the most of your life?

What do you think?

Tags: Conflict, Death

Burma death toll jumps to 78,000

The news from both Burma and China keeps getting worse and worse. The latest article on the BBC website says that the death toll has reached 78,000. Not only that, the number of people still missing is close to 56,000.

In China too, news is coming out that up to FIVE MILLION people are now homeless as a result of the earthquake there. Five million. I can’t even imagine what that looks like. If that was in the UK that would be 1 in every 12 people.

These two tragedies have really got me thinking about how Mosaic - the movement I serve with here in Sheffield - can become something that really gets our hands dirty in terms of doing what we can to make a difference in these situations and others like it.

I don’t want us to be a passive group of people who expect others to do something. Even though we are just a small group of people, we can make a difference.

One of our strap lines is ‘creating a world that works for everyone’. Surely it is in situations like this that we need to rise up and make the strap line a reality?

What do you think?

If you haven’t already, please reply to the ‘Who Are You?’ post. Thanks!

Tags: Burma, China, Death, Disaster, Earthquake, Life, Mosaic, Mosaic Sheffield, News

China quake toll ‘to top 50,000′

I really struggle to get my head round the kind of news that’s coming out of the tragedies in Burma and China.

It is all too easy to become so blas’e about it. It becomes just a number. I hear ‘50,000 dead’ and I know that it doesn’t move me nearly as much as it should.

I sit here on the other side of the world, happily carrying on with my safe, comfortable daily life. And whilst I do that thousands are fighting for their lives.

Maybe it’s because I feel powerless that I struggle to feel what I know I should feel. Maybe I close my heart from feeling because it could never handle the reality of all the suffering that is happening all over the planet. 

I know I need to break free from seeing the world’s population as numbers. Humanity is not a collection of statistics.

Everyone one of those 50,000 people is a unique, one of a kind, human being. Everyone of those 50,000 people has friends, family, colleagues who know them and love them.

It IS truly a tragedy. I just wish it felt more real to me. Or at least I think I do.

(Read more from the BBC about the China earthquake here.)

What do you think?

If you haven't already, please reply to the ‘Who Are You?’ post. Thanks!

Tags: China, Death, Earthquake, Life