Politics is a big fat waste of time.

Why don’t you get a Ph.D in engineering, then never build anything?

A lot of people consume a lot of politics, but never do anything with it. They stay up to date on current events and political news, they lose sleep over it, they talk about it incessantly, but they never do anything with it. It’s like spending a decade in college and graduate school to get a Ph.D in engineering, but then never actually building anything.

Either produce something instead of endlessly consuming, or do neither, and do something useful with your life instead.

Activism doesn’t work.

And if people do decide to act instead of simply consuming, they usually choose activism. They make a bunch of signs, get together with other people who agree with them, and stand around.

You know what? Activism hasn’t worked since the 60’s. Why did it work back then? Because it made people uncomfortable. Now it’s expected. It’s part of the background noise. Oh, activists. Oh, they’re having a rally.

We expect protesters to protest pretty much anything these days, pro or con. Activists have lost their power to make us uncomfortable. We’re jaded and we’ve seen it all before.

And so, activism is also a big fat waste of time.

Politics distracts us from what’s really important.

We get so caught up in what the politicians are going to do that we lose sight of the bigger picture.

Why have we given up our personal power to these people?

Why do politicians even have a say in our day-to-day lives?

Why are other people authorized to kill on my behalf? I don’t want that.

It’s like the manipulation trick that parents use on their kids. Instead of giving them a real choice, you give them the illusion of choice. “Do you want to take a bath now, or do you want to take a bath later?” Note that “Do you want to avoid taking a bath entirely” is conspicuously missing from the list of choices.

But without politics, we’d have no laws, and there would be lots of crime and war and stuff!

Yup, you’re probably right — but only in the current paradigm. Politics is possibly the best way to make the current system suck less. So if that’s your goal, if that’s your life’s work, then I wish you luck. You’re helping make things better for us, and that’s admirable. You keep on doing what you’re doing.

We’re doing something different.

We’re changing the world into a world that doesn’t need politics.

Why would there be lots of crime and war and stuff without politics and laws and people to enforce them? Because we’re living in a control paradigm instead of a connection paradigm. If we all lived in community and connection with one another and with ourselves, then we could come up with a better solution than politics. Politics is inherently anti- connection paradigm. It forces you to give up your personal power to someone you don’t know. Even if you feel a connection to your politician, the feeling isn’t mutual, simply because of the way the political hierarchy is arranged and the 150-person cap on any one person’s monkeysphere.

Local and community politics aren’t necessarily broken.

When you get to a smaller scale, where the number of people involved is less than 150, it’s possible to work together in community to make things happen. Moreover, it’s possible to do it without resorting to control paradigm tactics and systems that require isolation to work.

Due to the fact that we’re living in a control paradigm, these systems do often break down into petty politics, power plays, and fighting without ever really listening to each other. But they’re not inherently broken.

So what’s the alternative?

A paradigm shift.

Right now, most of the humans on Earth are playing the Politics Game. They believe that the way to change the world is by doing well at the Politics Game. And that’s true — if everyone else is playing the same game.

What we’re saying is that we can choose to play a different game.

Sounds lovely, but how exactly do you propose to do it?

Without players, a game is nothing. If enough people stop playing the Politics Game, the game becomes meaningless. The politicians no longer have power over us, because the people who enforce the rules are people too. When we create a paradigm shift, those people won’t want to play the game anymore either. The game board will have lost all its pieces, and there will be no one left to play.

After that, it’s up to us to create a new game for ourselves. Maybe a bunch of smaller games, because there’s no one right way. Maybe a game without rules but with principles instead — rules are so old paradigm!

One thing for sure, we can’t do it alone. We’re only two people.

Would you like to help?

Gravatars

We have Gravatars! We figured that seeing each other’s faces is a good way to get to know each other, so we added gravatars (globally recognized avatars) to the comments section of our blog. If you leave a comment and your picture doesn’t show up, sign up at gravatar.com and upload an icon. It’ll appear not only here, but at oodles of other blogs that use gravatars! It’s pretty nifty.

Pace and Kyeli

This week has been mixed between stressful and awesome. On Tuesday, we talked with Naomi about our business plan. (Reminder to myself: post about why the Freak Revolution is a business rather than a nonprofit, a hobby, or a charity.) That was wonderful. Naomi is always lovely to talk to, and we came up with some great ideas together!

With that, plus Pace taking the Heart of Money course, there’s been a lot of soul-searching. We’ve been asking a lot of big questions, about our business, about our blog, and about all sorts of things.

It’s time to stop asking each other and start asking you. (This seems embarrassingly obvious in retrospect.)

Tell us what you want.

We’re writing this blog for you. Please, tell us what you like and what you don’t like. We’re listening. We want to write things that will help you, inspire you, make you happy, and maybe even change the world.

Here’s a short, anonymous, three-question form for you to tell us how we can best do that.

(If you don’t see the form, click here.)

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Thanks oodles!

We appreciate you, and we appreciate your input! With your help, we’re an amazing force that will change the world.

Our new friend Tracy of Fiercely Loved wrote a blog post about how she’s expanding her monkeysphere and her concept of God by exposing herself to people who aren’t like her, listening with an open heart, and seeing the Divine in each of them.

Sounds pretty darn connection paradigm, right? Pretty darn freak-revolutionary? Most definitely. It touched both of us very deeply.

Some of the phrasing she used, however, triggered one of Kyeli’s landmines, which was planted there long ago by some bad experiences with Christianity. The two of us had a conversation about what came up for Kyeli when she read Tracy’s post, and about our different concepts of the Divine.

We recorded it, asked Tracy’s permission to share it with y’all (which she graciously granted), and are posting it here with all its beauty and warts for you to hear. Here goes. *deep breath*

Kyeli and Pace have an emotional conversation about Christians, pagans, and different facets of the Divine. (12:41)

Favorite quote: “It’s like putting funny glasses with a nose and moustache on the face of God. That doesn’t make it Groucho Marx; it’s still God!”

News flash: Scientists make the usual error

Jodi pointed me to this article, which basically says “Be precise in how you want your work to be used, because other people are going to make the usual error.”

Guest Post!

Pace wrote an awesome guest post about the usual error for Social Work p.r.n., a social work company based in Pennsylvania.

We were connected to them through our dear friend, Bob Poole - thanks, Bob!

OMG Daniel Quinn!

The brilliant author of Ishmael and The Story of B, two of the three most boat-rocking, life-altering books we’ve read, put a short blurb about us in his news column last weekend.

This is a big deal for us, as these two books were a huge part of what inspired us to create the Freak Revolution! We’re honored to be featured on his site.

We made a new friend!

Our new friend Tracy, of Fiercely Loved, wrote a very interesting and touching blog post about how we’re pushing her boundaries and her journey from fear to acceptance.

It’s beautiful and well-written, and managed to accidentally step on one of Kyeli’s triggers - who is currently still processing, but we’ll post a podcast about it on Monday.

Decluttering Goddesses is happening soon!

Leonie and Lisa’s course, Decluttering Goddesses, starts this Monday! It’s all about creating sacred space in your home so you can do your Work without the clutter-stress impeding you.

Kyeli is particularly excited about this course. She’s very sensitive to her environment, and clutter stresses her out big time. She’s already signed up and hopes you join her! It’s going to be amazing!

Time’s almost up to register, so why don’t you click here right now and check it out? Even if you don’t buy anything, you still get to look at Leonie’s luscious handwriting and art. (:

Here’s a taste of what’s going on in the Freak Revolution Community.

Member Tiara won third place in the New Talent category in Brisbane’s Cabaret Burlesque! Congrats and well done!

Member KN is getting ready to lead a Summer Solstice ritual for a conference of the North American Interfaith Network, which will happen on June 27th as part of a long weekend of workshops and religious services from various faith traditions. Kyeli wishes she could be a part of that; it sounds super cool.

Member Ari is going back to university after a two year hiatus - excellent! She also gets to meet her godson for the first time - he’ll be 10 months old.

Member Rachael is reading Zen to Done in hopes of finding something peaceful and helpful; we wish her luck!

What’s going on with Pace and Kyeli?

We had a schedule change last week; Dru started spending weekends with his other mom instead of Saturday through Monday, so we’ve been adjusting to that. It’s been a bit rough.

Kyeli has been working on optimizing her life. She’s been feeling stressed out and overwhelmed with the many hats she wears, so we’ve been working on a hat-rotation schedule so she can only worry about one hat at a time. A hat for everything and everything in its hat! She’s also been working on letting go of some superhuman expectations of herself that she picked up throughout her life. We’ve had ups and downs, laughter and tears. Progress (and hats) are being made, but this week has been pretty rocky in the emotional department.

Pace started Heart of Money with Mark Silver, who is amazingly awesome. She’s just into the pre-assignment, and is already 100% convinced that this course is going to change her life! (And she says “Thank you, thank you, thank you” to Kyeli for convincing her to sign up.)

And you?

That’s it for us, how are you doing right now?

Squirting lemon juice on your face makes you invisible to video cameras.

Our friend Biogant sent us a link to this video, which talks about the fact that incompetent people are often unaware of their own incompetence. It’s interesting. We all have our blind spots, but it’s scary to realize that we’re often blind to our blind spots.

This video, on the other hand, talks about the same thing, but is even more amusing.

5 Concrete Things You Can Do to Improve Your Relationship

Kyeli wrote a guest post for Out In America. You can read it here! (:

Andy Hayes

Today is a big day for our freaky revolutionary Andy Hayes. It’s his first day of self-employment as a travel writer and photographer! Let’s give him a big round of applause! (So that he can hear you over the internet, leave him a comment with *clapclapclap*)

Jonathan Mead

Andy’s not the only one! Our friend Jonathan Mead quit his day job earlier this week! Way to go, Jonathan! *clapclapclap*

Decluttering Goddesses

Our darling and dear friends, Leonie and Lisa, have joined forces to create a smashing decluttering program to help people get unstuck and cleared out. From the site:

There are adventures to be had, projects you’d love to dive into, and people you want to have time for. You want room to breathe, to think, to play. You want to shine as the amazing Goddess you are.

But you know there’s more to life than managing stuff. You know that your time and your energy and your special light are your most precious resources. And you know that life doesn’t have to be so complicated.

Are you signed up yet? Kyeli’s in!

Athena Bradford

Our friend Athena wrote a very sweet post about giving her daughter a vibrator for her 15th birthday. Unsurprisingly, a right-wing blogger took offense at this, saying “This is the kind of thing that kids end up going through years of therapy for.”

I think the poster on that blog are making the usual error. Since it would be inappropriate and possibly traumatic for their daughters (more than likely because they’ve been “properly” raised with the “sex is dirty and bad” meme), they’re assuming that it would be inappropriate and possibly traumatic for everyone’s daughters.

It’s the same as when people get all hot and bothered about nudists. Since nudity is tied to sex in their minds, they assume it would be inappropriate for a child to be around naked people all the time. But in fact, it’s completely normal and natural if the child doesn’t see nudity as sexual.

(Favor request: Please don’t get into any arguments with these folks. It won’t do anyone any good and has the potential to cause unnecessary drama.)

Toilet Lid Mystery

Night before last, I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It being all dark and scary, when I used the last of the toilet paper, I opted not to go into the garage and get more. I left Kyeli a signal - I put the toilet lid down and stood the empty TP roll on top of it.

It failed. She wound up stuck for quite a long time the next morning, getting increasingly mad at me for not leaving her a signal. We have cats, so that explains the TP roll having fallen to the floor (being knocked, no doubt), but how did the lid get raised? Neither I nor Kyeli have any recollection of raising the lid, and Dru doesn’t ever use our bathroom - and said he didn’t on the night in question.

I realize our cats are interesting, but opening the toilet? It’s a mystery, and we can’t figure it out.

A-kon

We had fun at A-kon, mostly by spending lots of time with our friends: Marty (he was all zombi-fied and terrorizing children), Megan, Kathy and her husband, and Frank and Kori.

The Kon itself was fun, but this year there was a distinct lack of anime we were interested in watching more than one episode of - which is the entirety of why we go. Kyeli’s saving her money for our Irish honeymoon, so she didn’t shop like she usually does, and Dru bailed at the last minute, having mistaken A-kon for AggieCon in his mind til the morning he was due to join us.

All in all, we came away with a single question: Does anyone know of a Netflix-like thing that’s good for anime?

Oceana

All three of us went to see Oceana yesterday. Our friend Kira is in it - the same Kira who co-taught Iron Pentacle class. It was incredible. Awesome. World-view transforming. If you’re in Austin, get thee to the Vortex! Show ends this weekend!

Your turn!

That’s it for us this week; what’s going on with you?

Benji

Our friend Benji sent us a link, saying, “I don’t know if J. Jacques reads The Usual Error, or if you guys read Questionable Content… or if this is just some bizarro cross-over moment… check it out!!”

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=858

Neat! It’s feeling considered and the veggie burger. (:

(Kyeli does read QC and is a huge fan - this strip made her giggle for hours.)

The Merch Girl

Our freaky revolutionary friend The Merch Girl thinks that burlesque can change the world. I think she’s right.

Trish

We had a 3-hour conversation with Trish Lambert about the Freak Revolution, Landmark, how to avoid letting evil creep in as the revolution grows, the Think Big Revolution, horses, and lots of other stuff.

Deb

Deb Owen wrote a great post about being too “nice”. Good stuff about fierceness and holding healthy boundaries.

Pace and Kyeli

This week has been full of ups and downs for us.

The downs

Stressful conversations about money and sex. (Unrelated conversations, mind you.) Still too raw to post about in detail.

The ups

Yesterday, we had a long talk about both issues and made good progress. Today, we talked more about both issues and made more progress, and then had good connect-y time together.

And tomorrow, we’re going to A-kon! It’s a big anime convention. It’ll be lots of fun; this is the fourth year in a row Kyeli and I have gone together, and our first year with Dru along all weekend. Dru is cosplaying as Detective Conan. (:

Our evil illustrator, Martin Whitmore, will be at the Con. He’ll have a table with the lovely and talented Megan E. Morris. Our awesome, cat-hat knitting friend, Kathy, of Platypus Dreams, will be there, too. We’re looking forward to it - we always have a blast!

OH! And I (Kyeli) went to the bank this morning, and they asked me for a second form of ID. I presented them with my Freak Revolution membership card, and they TOOK IT! It was so cool.

How’s your week been? Anything you’d like to share with us?

What’s been going on in our community this week?

It’s raining freaks! Hallelujah!

Over 70 freaks have already joined the revolution! Click here if you want in, too! We’re awash and sparkling with all the awesome around us.

Extra! Extra!

We sent out our very first newsletter! It had some news (which seems appropriate for a newsletter) and a tip on compassionate communication.

In blog news, we’ve set our posting schedule: We update every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:30am. Wednesdays are Book Bonanza days til September, and Fridays will be Community Updates. Monday is a free-for-all!

Freak Revolution Coffee House

We’ve been getting to know each other and having some great conversations at the Coffee House, some serious and some silly. (The Coffee House is our community meeting place; it’s currently a Google Group but will metamorphosize into a shiny new forum soon!) We’ve been talking about NLP, Core Transformation, culture and family structure in Singapore, our families of origin and our families of choice, a bronze statue of two dancing clowns, and tossing around ideas for the collective noun for a group of freaks. (:

Tim

Pace guest posted on Tim Brownson’s blog to explain to everyone why Tim will save the world.

Johnny

We had an awesome conversation with our good friend Johnny Truant about what’s wrong with the world and how to make it better. We talk about why we don’t watch the news, how to opt out of the fear culture, how to change the world with laughter, and why we started the Freak Revolution. It’s a good listen, and Johnny is hilarious. (:

Naomi

We also had an awesome conversation (scroll down to “Changing the Fucking World, Part 2″) with our BFF sister-from-another-mother Naomi about homeschooling, unschooling, why the job culture is so fucked up, how to get out of it, and how living an awesome life can make a big difference in the world. In Naomi’s words, it’s about “galvanizing those of us who don’t fit the mold and helping us change the world.” (In case you don’t recognize Naomi from her voice, that’s her on the header of our website, on the far left.)

Pace & Kyeli

We found mold in our bathrooms, so they’re tearing out the cabinets and replacing them. It’s a huge pain in the butt, but luckily our landlord is totally awesome and is being really great about it. We’re hoping that getting rid of the mold will cure our son’s recurring cold-like symptoms. Poor kid, he’s been sick off and on ever since we moved to our new place.

How ’bout you?

You’re part of our community, too! What’s been going on with you this week?

Over this weekend past, I underwent a lot of change.

Truth be told, I secretly underwent a lot of change when I wasn’t paying attention, and last weekend it all came out.

I have this inner lake. Vast, dark, still waters. Epiphanies and important things and events will sometimes plop in and make ripples, and the sands at the bottom shift. It can be moments or days before I feel the shifts.

Last weekend was very shifty.

I gave my ratlings up for adoption. I’ve always considered myself an animal person. I wanted to have lots of cats, rats, birds, fish, maybe even a dog or two. But at some point, that shifted. The pets I had became too much. Given that the ratlings were also terrified of the cats, and I couldn’t spend enough time with them to soothe their fears, I realized the best thing to do was give them up - even though it broke my heart.

My identity shifts. I am no longer an animal person.

I babysat my sweet adorable toddler “nephew” overnight. He was his sweet adorable self and we had a lot of fun (and a lot of baths). But by the time his parents picked him up, I was utterly exhausted. At one point, he was screaming his fool head off because I had to change his diaper. He was screaming and screaming and wiggling and wiggling. I said, “Darling, if you hate having your diaper changed so much, being still makes far more sense. If you’re still, I can finish much faster, and we can get back to playing much sooner.”

I realized I was talking to someone much older than he. A toddler doesn’t communicate like I do, like my pre-teen son does. And it frustrated me severely!

After I finished changing him, I sat back on my heels and watched him continue to scream and thrash. He was so caught up in his protests, he hadn’t realized that I was finished. I watched, he screamed. After a moment, he rolled and found that he could move, so he stopped screaming - immediately - and went on his merry way. I continued sitting, breathing deeply. I felt different, more clear.

My identity shifts. I no longer want more children.

We think of identity as static. We are who we are, and that rarely fundamentally changes. Sure, we tweak. We grow. We make adjustments. But we rarely, if ever, make changes in the who-we-are part of who we are.

But shifts in who we are make us more real. More clear. More open and more honest. Acknowledging our inner shifting sands brings us clarity and hones our knowledge - not just of our selves - but of the world around us. Because we are our world. Our change brings change.

As you might have heard by now, yesterday was a big day for me and Pace.

We dropped everything and followed our hearts, bringing us here to the Freak Revolution.

The outpouring of support, love, and cheers has been overwhelming in the most positive sense of the word.

A few highlights:

The Magnificent Megan M., one of our dearest friends and biggest cheerleaders, posted an awesome (and fun) podcast about the FR and unschooling and how important what we’re doing here together is to us and the world. It’s long, but it’s rollicking, and I recommend you kick back with a mug of some beverage and give it a listen. Megan is always fun to talk with, and this time was no exception.

E. from GeeksDreamGirl.com, a geek-focused dating-profile-writing site (which I think is a kick-ass service), posted our review on hot dating spots in Austin. She’s a fellow geek, a partner of the Revolution, and a new friend. We’ve been having lots of fun getting to know each other, and writing the post reminded me and Pace of some choice dating spots we haven’t hit in a while. Bonus!

Bob Poole, author of the recently released “Listen First, Sell Later”, gifted us with his own incredible interpretation of our Revolution. Bob is our kind of salesman: kind, generous, smart, funny, amazingly sweet, and genuine. We’re friends, but more than that, I deeply respect him and am honored to have him on our team.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. In only eight hours, we had over thirty people apply to join the Revolution. We had a few phone calls. We had a slew of emails. We had countless tweets, including several that were so sweet we cried. Dearest friends and brand-new friends and soon-to-be friends, all reaching out and connecting.

And the applications! They’re so full of awesome, we barely know what to do with ourselves! We’re so touched and so honored that so many incredible, awesome, intelligent, and thoughtful people are flocking to join us.

You guys are showing us that this is the right path. All the fear, all the tears, all the hard work… Worth every second.

This is the heart of the Freak Revolution. Together, we’re strong. Together, we really can - and will, I have no doubt - change the world. This is only the beginning.

Thank you.

We’ve posted videos before, but this is, by far, the most important one. Freaky and revolutionary, in this episode, we reveal our big secret.