PEACE BULL launch
Making peace possible.
Why PEACE BULL?
PEACE BULL is my pseudonym.
As a Taurean I have always strongly identified with the characteristics of this astrological sign and bull symbology. The bull’s strong, powerful outward appearance deceptively conceals an unexpected inner calm, misunderstood due to human provocation for the bull to fight. I connect with the masculine attributes of strength and determination and the lunar bull feminine power, fertility and life giving. The PEACE BULL image of the bull is a reminder to stay grounded, on a circular foundation for a complete and wholistic perspective, and in association with the wings of the dove and olive branch, represents abundant peace.
If I was to choose one value I resonate with most it would be courage. In a world that is constantly tempting us to compromise on our own values, luring us into disconnected individualism and corporate profiting, on the presumption of normality or it is just the way it's done, it is increasingly imperative to hold a strong ethical position. In my experience, faltering and submitting to corruption leads to lost humanity. When being ethical is the minority choice, there is no option other than to be brave.
Why now?
Growing up, my heroes didn’t wear capes and leap tall building in a single bound. They went on hunger strikes to draw attention to their convictions of non-violence and seeking after truth; took themselves into the environment of animals to learn from them in their natural habitat; and sang to the world a challenge to imagine us living as one.
My earliest memory is sitting in the back seat of the family car looking through the window at a police officer. I was probably four years old. I was sitting behind my father who was in the driver’s seat. His window was down. The police officer looked at me through the open window and spoke to me. I don’t recall why the police officer was there and what he said exactly, but I remember smiling at him. He made a comment about my smile and let us go with a warning.
This memory is just a momentary occurrence with a myriad of potentially complex interpretations. What is significant for me and for the development of PEACE BULL is that moment within the pattern of multiple moments leading to now.
In reflecting on my life, as long as I can remember, I have been trying to do what is right.
There were defining contexts that amplified my ambition to find what was the right way for me to live. The first was family. There was school, marriage, parenthood and the workplace. These all represented different roles, different expectations of behaviour and encouraged varying degrees of thought and choice. I approached each context believing that there was someone else who knew the right way to behave who would inform or show me.
Teachers in school were supposed to know the right way to learn and socialise. My family and the school as a system would teach me the right way to think and the right choices to make to live the right way. The social environment of family and school would shape me to understand social conventions of friendship, marriage, and parenthood. The health system would know and show me the right way to nourish myself and birth my children. The government would demonstrate the right way by creating a structure of society that would lead to the right way for its citizens to live. Entering the workforce would expose me to employers who had more knowledge and experience than me and would lead me to understand the right way to behave in the workplace.
I was seeking guidance in a society that was lost. I was searching for truth in an environment full of falsehoods. I was craving honesty in a world plagued by delusions.
As a developing human, and from a place of respect for those with more life experience than me, I routinely submitted my will and my authority of self to others who I believed would hold greater understanding of what was right. I trusted implicitly, especially adults. Social structures gave the developing self the very clear message that it was systems of authority, not the self, that knew what was best for everyone. This was no more evident to me than in the health and education systems.
Apart from the unwavering love of select family, life was invariably characterised by disconnection, distraction, disappointment, disillusion, depression and at times disgust. It was the movement out of the narrow institution of secondary school, into the broader world of university and work life where I started to see the bigger context of life. It occurred to me, if my experience of the way the world worked didn’t maximise my life, then perhaps this was the experience of life for others also. I innocently made the unfounded assumption that governing bodies just hadn’t found the best solutions yet and were oblivious to the harm people experienced.
In my experience, governing systems were insensitive, whether intentionally or ignorantly, to the right way for my life, my family, my friends and the wider community. Governing bodies in other countries sometimes more so. Whether it was maleficence or incompetence, I was fed up. My critical evaluation, of life and those who govern it, was fuelled. As a designer by nature, I looked for ways to make things better. I wanted answers to why people and governing bodies make the choices they do and how better choices could be made to prevent harm to life. This did not lead to the study of politics but the study of people.
I searched for answers in the disciplines of psychology, health psychology, health, peace and conflict, art therapy, yoga and business.
Psychology gave me skills to think and evaluate. Health Psychology gave me an application of my purpose. Health gave me an appreciation of nature. Peace and Conflict gave me a global perspective. Art Therapy gave me myself. Yoga gave me more of myself. Business gave me a direction for action. I challenged my own thinking and pushed the boundaries of my ideas and the ideas of others. But it wasn’t until I became a mother that my eyes were opened the widest. My developing self inevitably began to rebel and I consequently withdrew my respect for authorities who persistently tried (and continue) to claim the right to govern my decisions and life choices.
My context for the right way evolved. I came to see the rightness of behaviour or choice as encapsulated in context. All study and exploration is meaningless without a context of life to ground it. I believe my most significant contribution to this world has been my commitment to the nurturance and learning of my children…a horrifyingly undervalued role in so much of the Western world. Being a mother has, and continues to be, the greatest pleasure and learning of my life. Everything I have learned since the birth of my first child has been cultivated through this experience. My writing reflects all that I have learned through my perspectives as a mother.
I was a home schooling parent of four children for 27 years. As a life learner I continued to study, reflect and grow personally and made notes on life throughout that time. Now it is time to share it. In sorting my writing notes and calibrating these with what resembles a writing plan, I was struck by how frustrated I am that I can’t just share it all at once. It all feels so relevant and urgent.
The sense of urgency I feel is not new, it has been percolating for decades. In applying my own framework for life, I realised that lack of optimum space and optimum connection were my greatest challenges. I have been the patient bull, waiting for the right time and place. Now all my children have grown to independence, I have the space. Now I have discovered Substack, I have the connection.
The PEACE BULL Project
Purpose for profit.
This project is part of our family partnership Old Gladstone Prometheans (OGP). I am the Project Lead of PEACE BULL and an OGP Partner.
The PEACE BULL propositions for peace grew from my commitment to generate a practical means for personal, local and global peace. I explored diverse understandings, philosophies and scientific discoveries. Society is complex and unfortunately peace doesn't come naturally to governance…it requires the conscious and intentional application of a life design framework for decision making. I have developed a conscious and intentional, focussed approach to: describe universal needs, understand effective means and resources to maintain universal needs and prioritise the synchronisation of universal needs for all life…for peace.
Peace is my essential motivation. Not a vague unattainable peace you simply wish or hope for but something much more pragmatic....a peace that is the end product of a series of decisions.
I am building a tool from the framework that can be applied at all levels of social relations. This will facilitate the design of practices, policies, products, processes, services and systems, with personal and organisational applications, for creating a shared language around peace. In our world that is advancing in digital and AI technologies faster than we can comprehend, life design is essential for ensuring that peace becomes and remains the primary focus of movements ahead. My intention is to transform thought for the facilitation of choice and promotion of peace.
The PEACE BULL publication
Booklets, reflections, commentaries.
PEACE BULL pack
The PEACE BULL pack is a set of six booklets that outline my propositions for peace. These booklets are the culmination of my observations of life and reasoned contemplation regarding the way we maximise the potential of all life. All my thinking and writing is informed by these propositions. I repeatedly refer to these propositions in my writing on all topics.
Posted weekly Wednesday and Friday by 4pm AEST until end July 2023. These will be available for free access.
The physical version of the PEACE BULL pack will be available soon at www.ogp-projects.au
Reflections
Reflections are my personal thoughts and rumination on topics I care about and/or have some knowledge or experience with. Some examples: feminism, mothering, diversity, corruption, defensiveness, trauma states, parenting, regulation, learning and more. There is a philosophical and psychological tone to my reflections and they all come from a motivation to understand and promote peace.
Commentaries
Commentaries are my response to others shared content. Have you ever been frustrated by wanting to respond to content you see on the Internet and just can’t say all you want to in a short comment? Yep? Then you can relate to why I am sharing commentaries.
I am sharing my propositions for free. If you feel they were valuable to you or you just feel like subscribing, your contribution to my work is much appreciated x