The Centre Does Not Hold

The other day, I was watching the 2020 mini-series, The Stand, based on the same titled 1978 Stephen King novel. In it, an army general quotes William Buttler Yeats's "The Second Coming." When I heard this line: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.." I thought, that's it; that's what I've been thinking (albeit in a wildly different context, but it fits with my musings).

Here's the rumination in a nutshell: communities with a good, healthy, noble, wholesome cause start out well enough. They're centred. They know their mission -- it's decent and worthy. People rally around it. It gains momentum -- there's a buzz, people hear about it and join. Good things happen within the community and because of the community's reach.

It's like the Beatles. I know, I just took a hard right, but stick with me. For such a time and place as this (Germany, England and then the world in the early to mid-sixties) the Beatles took the world by storm. They were young, writing pop and rock and roll that changed the popular music scene forever. They weren't taking themselves too seriously and seemingly having a good time riding the wave of Beatlemania. 

Then things fell apart. George wanted to write more. Yoko came along. Drugs happened. Ringo left then came back. Paul wanted to be the boss. The centre did not hold. Mere anarchy was loosed upon the band. They broke up. 

"For such a time and place as this..." comes from a book in the Bible eponymously named Esther. Her uncle says to her,  "...For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

So here's the thing: a) I'm not even sure what I'm trying to say and b) I'm not even sure I entirely believe what I think I'm trying to say... because I'm not sure what I'm trying to say. At this point, you might be thinking, Then why am I reading this...? fair question :)

If there's a nuanced point to be made here, it would be to hold onto things lightly because far more often than not, the centre does not hold and things fall apart. On the surface, this seems pretty cynical, but it doesn't have to be. It's all in the "nuance." 

So often when something good falls apart -- usually because of the mess that we humans are -- there is hurt in the wake of the falling apart. I don't want to minimize this hurt. There is a direct relationship between the level of hurt and the amount of mess (evil) that we humans inflict in any given scenario. 

So apart from the necessity to address and deal with injustices, my advice: the centre usually does not hold, things fall apart, so hold onto things lightly. 

By holding onto things lightly, I don't mean skim the surface of life and relationships and don't commit, because commitment equals hurt. I mean, live in the paradox: commit your whole heart to a thing if you think the thing is worthy. And realize, in life, the centre usually does not hold and sometimes (often?) things fall apart. Anarchy ensues. 

This is the lesson of history that communities don't often pay attention to. When was the last time you were part of an organization that formulated long term goals, had vision casting sessions and/or recalibrated their mission alongside the leader(s) saying,  Are you pumped now? Good! And, oh, by the way, let's build in a plan for the eventuality that this too shall possibly not last because, oh well, the centre does not hold, things fall apart and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...

I mentioned the Beatles earlier. I guess a follow up blog post could be to consider the likes of bands like U2 and the Rolling Stones but to name a few. What's the difference in culture and/or personalities that made the Beatles break up ten plus years into their musical lives when they were in their late twenties as opposed to bands that are still going strong decades later?

Or, even better, what about organizations that are good and wholesome and have been around for centuries? These would definitely be worth looking at as outliers. An organization might not last centuries -- they usually don't -- but what's the harm in studying them to learn what they did well, what they did badly and how they learned from their mistakes, recovered and reinvented themselves.