Do you know the definition of the word “epiphany”?
” Sure ! This religious festival is a secular tradition, you will answer us. Epiphany is the day of the Kings, the feast of the Church which celebrates the manifestation of Jesus to the Magi (fixed on January 6 or the Sunday following the 1er January). »
You are right, it is a good definition.
But do you know that with a lowercase, in the literary, figurative sense, epiphany also designates a sudden awareness?
Let’s take two examples.
When astronauts look at the Earth from the stratosphere, they become aware of its fragility. The words of astronaut Ron Garan sum up this epiphany well: “When we look at Earth from space, we see an incredibly beautiful planet. It looks like a living, breathing organism. But at the same time seems very fragile. This astral awareness even participated in the creation, in 2008, of the think tank (laboratory of ideas) Overview Institute“devoted to the idea that seeing the Earth from space causes a kind of spiritual epiphany that changes the perspective on humanity forever”.
Another type of epiphany: in 2006, President Chirac became aware during the private screening from the movie Native, in the presence of Jamel Debbouze and Rachid Bouchareb, of the unfair treatment of former colonial combatants. Moved, like Bernadette – who would have whispered to him: “Jacques, something has to be done! – he immediately decided to align the pensions (retirement or disability) of these veterans with those of their French counterparts at the time of the fighting. He was aware of these inequalities – during the 1995 presidential campaign, he had already promised to settle things – but he was not fully aware of them. It was the movie that changed everything.
The Earth, a president… Let’s synthesize the two.
What if, for 2023, we wanted our President Macron to also experience an epiphany, that ecology finally be at the heart of his mandate? Because, when he declared, on December 31, 2022, on the occasion of his vows, “Who could have predicted the climate crisis? – a speech written, read, re-read and re-read… – we have a big doubt about his real awareness of climate change. It is not “a clumsiness”, it is a flagrant lack of acuity.
Perhaps we could ask Elon Musk to send him into the air so that, like an astronaut, he comes back with clear ideas once his feet are on Earth?
Is the carbon footprint worth it? Maybe !
But, in truth, we prefer to wish ourselves a general epiphany. Let everyone have their own awareness!
” He Ho ! Kaizen, if we read you, follow you, it means that we are aware of the ecological crisis! »
Yes, we know.
But all of us, including us, are not aware of certain things – things that we cannot name until we are aware of them (CQFD)
For example, before publishing our women’s special issue, Pascal, our editor-in-chief, was unaware of the male stereotypes he conveyed. He said, for example, to his daughter while observing a construction crane: “You saw how the crane operator is high? » De facto associating this job with the male gender, and thereby depriving his daughter of the dream of becoming crane operator !
The strength of habits and stereotypes, anchored in a collective unconscious that interferes in our ways of seeing and acting in the world, is often done without our knowledge. And knowledge is not always enough to change your outlook or behavior. Neither do you feel it.
Will the increase in temperatures experienced in recent months be enough, for example, to profoundly modify the roadmaps of governments and companies, to transform collective and individual actions, to embody epiphanies?
So, in 2023, let’s hope for concrete epiphanies, to awaken the best of ourselves by paying tribute to the one who gave birth to us, shelters us, feeds us, heals us, makes us live: the Earth.
Happy new year to all, magical and bright!
The writing of Kaizen