On Breakdowns and Breakthroughs

As we watch the recent floods from Hurricane Irene and start to recall memories of 9/11, I'm thinking about that feeling when the power goes out, or something unexpected and important breaks down, and you have have no choice but to adjust to a new reality until your old one is restored. If it can be.


I definitely see breakdowns as an opportunity--to reboot, to unblock, to be reminded of other ways of assuming, and, if I'm conscious about it, to help me break out of a pattern that is not serving me. Crisis of some sort is often required for real change, even though some systems are so sclerotic (e.g., U.S. politics) that even crises don't appear to work. I'm wondering, though, might breakdowns actually be prerequisites to breakthroughs?


Okay, I ask because even though I've held it together pretty damn well, I've recently been experiencing my own flood of technological and other breakdowns--no kidding, my computer, land line, cell phone, scooter, car and body have all recently blown a gasket of some sort. I'm generally thrilled to say I have finally crossed back over and am now writing this on a brand new iMac. I'm more hesitant to admit that I'm going in tomorrow to be knocked out and cut up and returned home to heal and soon, God- and universe-willing, be softball-swinging even better than before.


So right now I'm trying to make sense of it all by concluding that I've been breaking down so I can continue to break out, that when the power goes out and my phone is dead the next thing I know I am enjoying the company of the too-long-avoided neighbors and planning a block party. Yes. I'm going to conclude that these breakdowns will soon be followed by breakthroughs that even now I have yet to imagine.