Maria Arpa
This week
Record Keeping
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
Mainstream Obsession
For a long time, I have understood that there is a mainstream obsession that our experiences must be recorded in some way in order to be validated. And, in many ways, it is a useful way to preserve memories. However this evolved into obsessive record keeping, and evidence building to support a society in which the record keepers, administrators and managers feed an ‘authority’ who are more important than the teachers, the nurses and the therapists because they are not trusted to deliver good experiences without punitive oversight and compliance.
Think about it. In the society we have created of insurance, risk, entitlement, judgement and blame, it is almost impossible to operate without the right documentation. Attempting to rebut the system can lead to punishment by a system that is bigger than you. Yet, when we observe nature at its best, the migrating birds do not have bigger birds recording their movements in filing systems, the trees don’t have bigger trees that approving their growth and measuring and writing it all down.. all the moving parts of the ecosystem just do their thing in harmony with what is around them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying nature is only kind and generous, it is not. It is sometimes brutal and very often uncomfortable. The fluctuation between comfort and discomfort is an important part of the experience of living.
My reflection is that for all our recording, record keeping, surveillance, scrutiny and administration, are we making life more wonderful? Do we experience any less discomfort? I see we made life less wonderful because we are serving something that takes away from the beauty and authenticity of human connection in the experiences of life.
I have a very dear friend who has a swimming pool in his garden and he likes to open it up to the local community in the summer. Recently some aggressive young people started to use the pool and some neighbours have been uncomfortable. All the advice is to shut it down and stop the young people from using it because of the amount of administration it would take to protect himself for which he simply doesn’t have the knowledge or the money (CCTV, Insurance, Safeguarding policies, Health and Safety audits, registration procedure). He’s just trying to do a kind act and share his resource with local community members which is made impossible without him protecting himself. How did we arrive here as a society?
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
The DRM takes into issues of power, authority, justice and risk. We explore the risks we want to take and the risks we do not want to take in the face of punitive systems so that we can resource ourselves adequately. We examine protection and fear so that our strategies are proportionate.
The Wednesday Whisper
When has bureaucracy held you back? Is there something you wanted which you have chosen not to do because of the associated administration?
If you would like to access more content, please visit our Youtube channel where we add content regularly.
If you like this blog please share it with others.