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Growing out of chaos

Butterflies emerging
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Debilyn Molineaux
By Debilyn MolineauxDec 10, 2021
Debilyn Molineaux

Debilyn Molineaux is the catalyst of JEDIfutures.org , a global initiative that helps people imagine and create just, equitable, dignified, and inclusive futures. She is best known for her pioneering work in civic innovation, having co-founded Bridge Alliance, Living Room Conversations, and National Week of Conversation. She formerly acted as co-publisher for The Fulcrum. Across these efforts, Debilyn has brought together unlikely allies to co-create solutions for democracy, governance, and social transformation.

Her work lives at the intersection of strategy, systems change, and spirit. A long-time practitioner of personal and collective growth, she brings a deep commitment to the inner dimensions of change that are often overlooked but essential to transformation. Debilyn speaks of the “interstitial spaces” — the connective tissue between people, institutions, and movements — where new possibilities take root.

She also hosts the podcast Terrified Nation, which helps audiences move from fear and despair into courage and action. Her voice is sought by impact investors, changemakers, and visionary leaders who want to align resources, imagination, and human growth toward a thriving future for all.

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Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and President/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

The beauty of a butterfly does not happen easily. The transformation is a grueling period of cellular warfare. And for a time, there is nothing but gooey chaos.

Our society is in the middle of a human-level gooey chaos.

We see it in the information wars, the fractured relationships and the dysfunction of government. And we, the humans on planet Earth, are prone to fear for our future. Many of us dislike the rapidity of change and we seek solace about our future through order and predictability.

In the world of caterpillars and butterflies, the gooey chaos is the place between. The caterpillar dissolves and the butterfly is not yet formed. As humans, this place in between is very scary but like the caterpillar we contain imaginal discs of what we might become.

The imaginal discs, written into our Constitution and heralded by civil society, offer these possibilities for our future:

  • Government that is of, by and for all the people.
  • Strength through diversity.
  • More prosperity for all.
  • Equality before the law.

Which leads to what many have identified as an inclusive, equitable and beloved community.

The legacy of our founders endures today despite the obvious flaws they had and the inability to see that the words they spoke did not apply to all inhabitants of America.

It is our responsibility to live into the legacy of these words from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The imaginal discs of the butterfly create a new order. The gooey chaos is what nourishes the new order of the butterfly. In our current human equivalent, we need to co-create, re-create and re-imagine systems and participation that supports the vision expressed but never realized by our founders.

Let’s use this in-between time to discover our imaginal discs and bring them to life. Let’s emerge from this cocoon of gooey chaos and take flight into a beautiful garden of democracy.


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