“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not, With the slightest push — in just the right place — it can be tipped.”
— Malcolm Gladwell
I first learned about the power of “tipping” in 2005, when I was living in Cusco, Peru, and on a grand adventure guided by my soul. There, I met a holy man, named Don Nazario who lived is a remote tiny village perched near the peak of the sacred mountain, Ausangate, 21,000 feet high.
Since pre-Inca times this mountain has been a place of worship and offerings, and Nazaraio was a a pacu of this tradition that continues today. One of the things that pacus do is serve and communicate with the apus, or spirits of the mountains. Nazario called himself a pampamisayuq, or one who makes offerings, known as despachos, to appease them.
I had hiked up with friends and to meet Nazario at his father’s altar, where he would perform a despacho for all of us. Before he did, he offered to do a coco leaf reading for each of us, to offer wisdom about the future of our work, health, family, or financial situation. This was during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, which had broken my heart to hear about while in Peru. I felt ashamed of my country for the response that left so many already struggling people on their own.
Gather the people
I asked if Nazario would do the reading for the United States, rather than me personally. Three coca leaves were thrown into the direction of the sacred mountain, and Nazario layed out a handful of leaves on the blanket in front of us.
The movement of the leaves falling gave him information about my question, which was, “What is happening to my country, and what part can I play?”
This beautiful man who became a good friend, could not read, spoke only Quechua, but had made several trips to Washington, DC, as a representative of his people. I listened carefully as he read the leaves:
“Your leaders have lost their souls. But the people have not. The hearts of the people are good.
You must go back home and gather the people. Make many gatherings and use the medicine of your country (sage) and burn the offerings with love in your hearts. As more and more people gather, for the good, there will be a tipping.”
I cried as I watched Nazario bring his hands together as if in prayer and tip them to one side. I got it. I would find a way to gather the people.
The magic moment
According to Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, the “tipping point” is “that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”
In our digital world, we are constantly being bombarded with new ideas and trends and even conspiracy theories that seek to take hold in the culture at large. Gladwell did in-depth research spanning a number of different fields, industries, and scholarly disciplines, and identified three key factors that each play a role in determining whether a particular trend will “tip” into wide-scale popularity. Not so ironically, he calls these three variables, or “rules of epidemics” the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context.
The Law of the Few contends that a few key types of people must champion an idea, concept, or product before it can reach the tipping point.
The Stickiness Factor is hard to define, and is often generated in ways that are unconventional, unexpected, and contrary to received wisdom. It’s what compels people to pay close, sustained attention to a product, concept, or idea.
The Power of Context is a key factor in determining whether a particular phenomenon will tip into widespread popularity. Also, Gladwell defines “context” very broadly, indicating how small variations in social groups and minor changes in a neighborhood or community environment can serve as shifts that can cause a new idea to tip.
We are in the tipping
The conditions of Covid-19 and the Trump presidency have created a context in which more than a few key types of people have been affected and spoken up about something that has the sustained attention of the world. More and more people have utilized this grand “pause” from the break-neck speed of modern life to shift priorities and begin to ask the deeper questions of meaning that there was little time for before self-quarantine.
In the midst of the galvanized attention of the world, which now has experienced the intricate interconnectedness of all of humanity, Black Lives Matter has brought us to a tipping point like no other, involving the hearts of the people who gather, in spite of Covid-19, because that is what must be done.
Why have you come to earth?
What is your place in this great tipping? What is your dharma, or purpose, at this time?
In Steven Cope’s The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide For The Journey Of Your True Calling he says, “Dharma calls us not to just any old battlefield, but to the battlefield where we will suffer most fruitfully. Where our suffering will be most useful to ourselves, our work, and to the world.”
Here, Stephen is referring to the gift that lies in the center of your wounding.
At some point, each of us begins to feel out of alignment with our true self, even if we don’t know what that is. This happens as part of the human condition, for different cultural, familial, physical, mental, emotional reasons. We feel it, because that is what suffering is.
Our why comes from our wounding and the journey of transformation which is a choice we either make or do not. And the journey of transformation is a journey of experiencing the gift of true love.
When you live your life as a treasure hunt for that gift, your life develops an elevated sense of meaning and purpose, particularly the difficult parts.
The inevitable consequence of love
True love involves becoming masterful at being YOURSELF! It begins with loving yourself fully, in all your messy glory, which you can then extend to everyone in your world, whether they reciprocate or not.
Otherwise, you are constantly not authentic and attempting to influence others for your own benefit. You are taking, because you still feel as if something is missing.
But this journey is elusive, and takes great courage, because you come up against the resistance of the culture we live in to fully love yourself for who you are, and not what you do.
This love is the transformative love which transcends feelings, and becomes a guiding principle the more you let go of what is not you. It is fierce and gentle, steady and vigilant, and is the love that allows us to evolve and change our world.
And the utterly awesome reality is that we can grow in True Love more and more as we age, so that bounds of what we have to give are quite limitless, even in a youth-crazed culture of glamor and success.
Nipun Mehta, the founder of ServiceSpace.org, a fully volunteer-run organization that has delivered millions of dollars of web-related services to the nonprofit world for free, says that “Service doesn’t start when we have something to give—it blossoms naturally when we have nothing left to take.”
The inevitable consequence of love is the desire to serve others.
Gather to love, serve and remember
The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, says, “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
In spite of a world-wide pandemic, and in fact, because of it, it is essential that we do find ways to gather at this time. Each will find their own level of comfort, but the key is that we gather intentionally, for a common vision, with joy.
With so much uncertainty, it helps to know what to ask. Whether you are a parent, a policeman, a healer or an artist—-no matter what you do—-if you ask these two questions every day, you will begin to feel an immediate shift in your energy level and outlook.
- How do I love?
- How do I serve?
It is 15 years since I sat with Nazario asking what I could do for my country? I now realize that I was asking what I could do with my precious life, for my very soul. It seems that has not changed, and I am passing on the sacred message to others.
May my friend Nazario, who died in 2010, be assured that his message got through.
