“Tomorrow-Landing”, our “mandate to innovate”, we are all arriving immigrants to the future.
-Chad Ponder
Mark Twain may or may not have said “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow”. Comparing the words “today” and “tomorrow”, one is placing a “to” either with the “day” or the “morrow”. It has been said by countless folks, “every day is a new beginning”, and further “the best place to start is at the beginning”. Actually when one is faced with the realization, inspiration or necessity to start something, the ONLY place to start is exactly right where one is. There you have your beginning, there your story starts, there your day and your dream is born, for to do otherwise is to betray that realization as if it wasn’t there and ignore and reduce the energy that already begins to bubble up behind an idea or decision the way a fog bubbles out of a genie bottle in precedence of the arrival of said genius, and in the other words of some unknown genius, “how it begins is how it goes”.
The challenge of today’s so-called sophisticates, and as well the pressure, is to start something, and less sophisticated for falling short of that, to join up. Whether you deem yourself or others a “millennial” or some other categorical reference, we are all part of a start-up, pop-up and often virtual economy and culture full of micro-explosions of momentary inspiration and bedazzlement like a continuous show of fire-works, an international brain-storm if you will.
The ideal conceptions of futures full of greater and sought after abilities and opportunities is no longer some elusive and daring dream for another generation or two down the road, but it is upon us as a shore is upon a ship that has been long at sea, and we must make our landing, go ashore and find our legs and learn to walk. Mankind has started, again, it would seem, and the beginning of this new start is quickly springing up into a more definable framework as new leaders, protocols and etiquettes emerge and our society sprints to catch up with it’s ever emerging and evolving technology. It is no longer a question of whether or not we have arrived, it’s a matter of deciding where to go next, or better phrased, where to take ourselves from here, given the hope that one has at least mostly embraced some accurate and relevant, enabling perception of “here”.
The late and great Pablo Picasso stated “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” This is the purpose of art, of creation, of dreams, of FUTURE and the concept of art is applicable to the geo-panoramic-socio-economic organic and interwoven panoplies that describe the evolution of humanity and the macro-cosmic scale of creation that connects us all aboard this rolling 6 ½ sextillion ton stone that gathers no space moss. Abraham Lincoln’s often quoted “whatever you are, be a good one” implies our mandate to innovate, to re-evaluate, to rethink, repaint and reboot.
In the face of “global warming” or “climate change” and unprecedented and exponentially growing levels and dimensions of industry accompanied by unprecedented levels and dimensions of industrial waste and waste mis-management more commonly referred to as pollution, we are in the midst now of the present-future scenario discussed in Earth Science classes for more than 3 decades. There seems to be an ongoing industrial civil-war at play here, and who will rise up and issue a global “Emancipation Proclamation”, a mandate to innovate that gives us the clear and present purpose to address the un-survivable outcomes of antiquated industrial methods and their role in hazardous environmental change? Many voices have chimed in, famous personalities and there have been some champions, but none has “presided”, none has been elected to this global role and lead us through this crisis, our most destructive industries have the most influence over the general outcome and are as Captains of our environmental The Titanic, we are helplessly in their hands, hoping and placing as much confidence as we can in their ethics that they will not sink us, at the height of all we have accomplished thus far.
The lost and weaker among us are easily influenced by the powers that be, lured into being indoctrinated into a robotic, drone-mentality that resembles humanity but enthralled and enslaved by an unquenchable, immediate and continuous sense of false connection, entitlement and gratification, device-shackled, vying for “likes”, “retweets”, “shares” and other transitory and otherwise worthless social media medallions, a false sense of values, virtues, and action that blankets an insidious and suicidal neglect, suffocating a real need for real reality, truth, for substantial and sustainable livings, lives and fulfillment. This is the dark side of “the social media mannequin” mentality.
The light side is fluffy, “Cloud City” style and finesse but unwilling to experience the now and caught in a delusional (if not drug induced) trigger-state of over-imaginings, above and beyond the din of decay that lies on the surface and beneath, too far removed to effect anything, neurotically aloft, atop, elite, hidden and held up by a callous greed, fear and ultimately pain, “safe from harm”, a harm that doesn’t want to be changed, a dusty, rusty and toxic cocktail of psychosis anchored down by callous greed, fear, and ultimately pain, the most base and insidious aspects of cosmological existence, deeply hidden by clouds and chasms, both ends of existence built out of avoidance of each other and everything in between, a near mirror of the behavior of our geo-magnetic field.
From above the top and below the bottom, these are the parameters that give mankind it’s grade point average, it’s potential and failure to realize it. We are arguably from any angle or possibility, immigrants to this universe, to this world, to the lives and circumstances we are born into and find ourselves, to future outcomes and possibilities, yes, of that I am sure. How it begins is how it goes, and our flight has always been on the wings of innovation, on the wings of necessity, desire, demand and a relentless hunger for a greater reality, for a piece of ourselves, and a peace with our selves, not as a peaceful, painless, safe and sterile death of ability, desire and creativity, but as an invigorating state of behaving according to our design, to fly. Let us recognize and embrace this inherent mandate to innovate, to be here again, as first generation citizens, emancipated from the repetitive and redundant clichés of history, with our timeless wisdom and lessons learned, let us be driven by our new purposes, full of hope, courage and strength to overcome whatever it takes to settle an attainable future worth having, passing forward or coming back to, here upon this vacant plane. To those of us involved in the task at hand, we say to those just arriving: “Welcome to Tomorrow Land, can you give us a hand?”
Chad Ponder is a creative consultant and multi-media artist with life-long, professional, specialized experiences and successes in writing, illustrating, designing, lighting, photography, stage, film and video performance and production, song writing, singing, dancing, and public speaking…and cooking. Rather than pursuing an escape from challenges, from a sometimes tumultuous and painful life, art has always been a means for Chad to find the truth and the ability to address reality and change it for the better, to understand, to enable, to recover, to rekindle, to make joy.
All along the way Chad has been fortunate to have studied, worked with and learned from very talented and accomplished teachers, masters and individuals in these various mediums. Throughout his career Chad has received recognition, awards and opportunities for his contributions and the results of his work. As part of his creative discipline Chad is constantly filling up his own well, drawing in from a multitude of environments, people and sources, looking, listening, feeling, and experiencing, the essential fuels for a “state of create”.
An effective helper, Chad had the ability pitch in and assist (or take charge when needed) with virtually any situation. Chad has over 10,0000 volunteer hours working with various groups and organizations and over 25 years professional working and management experience in over 20 fields, leadership styles and business models including peacefully serving out a full term with a “U.S. Army Hospital Unit” as a non-commissioned officer and combat medic/medical specialist, (honorably discharged in ’00).
Among life’s great pleasures, Chad enjoys fitness, beaches, sailing, sunsets, starry skies, smiles and fatherhood.