Exploring the Depths of "Yes we can!"

It’s interesting to see sub-editors’ reactions to challenges faced by US President Barack Obama, both in terms of the legislative agenda and on other fronts. I’ve noticed that the play on the slogan “Yes We Can” is still very popular. Given the mechanistic nature of most media worldviews, the slogan gets treated as just that, a simple but effective electoral slogan and so is ripe for reinterpretation to the obvious “No He Can’t” and only-slightly-more-subtle variations around the words “he” and “can’t.” The replacement of “we” with “he” is another telling example of our search for “the one” on whom we can hang our hopes and who we can blame when it all goes wrong. But I was not quite aware of the depth in the “Yes We Can” slogan – the degree to which this is an alternative to the “one hero” model, until I had a conversation some time back with a mentor.

I was talking to this mentor about “perichoresis” – something I’ve reflected on in this blog before. It’s an idea that wholeness is generated in the interplay (“dance” is the root from which the word is derived) amongst:

1) the source of all possibilities for life,

2) the openness of manifest beings to the possibilities for life that present themselves and

3) the way that “signals of possibility” are continually transmitted through life.

It’s the mystical notion behind the Christian idea of “Holy Trinity” although mechanical minds have tended to simplify the way that is understood to some sort of personified god hierarchy (which obviously I don’t believe it is).

Anyway, explaining my insights into perichoresis my mentor (who by the way has no particular interest in United States politics generally or President Obama specifically) said rather nonchalantly “Oh, that’s ‘Yes we can!’”

It was a profound comment.

Yes – recognising a source of possibility beyond our comprehension.

We – being open to our part in “taking up of possibilities” means leaving room for others to play their part too.

Can – our actions, as we play our parts together, send signals of further possibilities for full life back through the whole system (cunnan: to know).