Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 192 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 6/29/08

Awakener; My Occupation. And yours?

By       (Page 1 of 3 pages)   14 comments, In Series: Awakeners
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Rob Kall
Become a Fan
  (295 fans)

quotations on awakening at the end of this article

My other half sent me a $25 credit I can use to loan someone as part of a microfinancing approach (a birthday present.) This is through kiva.org an incredible manifestation of the idea that Muhammad Yunus started.

As I signed up as a site member, the form asked me for my occupation. In the past, I've answered with a number of responses-- executive or entrepreneur or inventor for my small business futurehealth.org, counselor, from when I worked in the mental health field, or biofeedback practitioner, from when I used to work in that field as a practitioner, writer when I've functioned as a freelancer in the past or editor or journalist, more recently.

But today, I thought about what I've been across many of those "occupations, and I typed in "Awakener" because I realized that through most of my life, my work has been aimed at waking people up.

It feels so good to have founded a community that is filled with fellow people who share the same occupation.

Now, the dictionary definition of awakener as someone who awakens. That is not what I am talking about. Well, actually, my concept of the occupation of awakener is one in which we do the work that produces the dictionary definition-- people who wake up.

Do you volunteer for an NGO, non-profit, grass roots politics? Do you write about issues that people need to know about? Are you an educator, therapist, marketer, minister or coach? Try it on for size. See if or how it changes your approach to what you do and how you see yourself. It's just started to do its work on me.

I read this to my brother-in-law. He commented that it's not an occupation you'll see listed-- that I'll have to check off other.

Yet there are literally millions of people-- many millions, maybe billions-- who are on the awakener's path.

Seven years ago, I had an insight and realized that STORY is the biggest business in the world, except perhaps, for transportation and the energy sources involved, an that the world of story involvies movies, books, newspapers, television, cable, magazines, lawyers, politicians, ministers, corporate consultants, marketers, knowledge manager, therapists, scientists-- all creating narratives-- as well as storytellers, screenwriters, novelists,mythologists, linguists, philosophers, critics and poets.

I discovered, through conversations with leaders in those fields, that there had never been a conference that brought together people from all these fields. So I organized the first one and it was one of those blind wise men and the elephant moments, where people discovered they were all looking at different parts and aspects of story.

My point is that sometimes we humans do some things, a real lot of us do them and we don't see, don't realize that there are millions of us doing the same thing and finally we do wake up. WAKE UP. And usually someone helps us to wake up. And that's what this is about. If the US and the world are to survive the literal war against humanity that corporatism is perpetrating in the name of profits, we must wake up-- first ourselves and then those around us.

In his visionary book, Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawkens describes how there are hundreds of thousands of people engaging in a bottom-up revolution that IS waking huge masses of people up.

There are millions of bloggers who are speaking truth to power, waking people up. Arianna Huffington, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (Dailykos) Josh Marshall (talkingpointsmemo.com) are all opening up venues where people who practice the occupation of awakener can do their good work. And there are all those professions and lines of work I listed above.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Rob Kall Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect, connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune 500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful people on his Bottom Up Radio Show, and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

A Conspiracy Conspiracy Theory

Debunking Hillary's Specious Winning the Popular Vote Claim

Terrifying Video: "I Don't Need a Warrant, Ma'am, Under Federal Law"

Ray McGovern Discusses Brutal Arrest at Secretary Clinton's Internet Freedom Speech

Hillary's Disingenuous Claim That She's Won 2.5 Million More Votes is Bogus. Here's why

Cindy Sheehan Bugged in Denver

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend