"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral." - Paulo Freire, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire

Perhaps to truly be neutral yet engaged, one must go among the powerless, appear to be as they are, and demonstrate humbly the great powers that are all around them, immediately at hand, if they would themselves set down that conflict. Kindness is one such enormous power. Imagination is the power that trumps all others, and in collusion with kindness and compassion, it invents the world anew.

I would draw attention to the difference between "washing one's hands of the conflict," and not engaging in that conflict while acknowledging that yes, it does indeed exist.

Choosing not to engage in a conflict - to not mirror the aggressive or passive-aggressive or entitled or co-dependent habits of those who are engaging -- opens up enormous spaces for alternative actions and new patterns of behavior, that make the conflict not only evidently boring but evidently obsolete. 

Making an Entrance

Step onto the stage, step into the circle, step into a new life. I have been remembering lately how during my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood my bursts of honest and exuberant self-expression were stamped out, brushed aside, or ridiculed. I think two things have happened in the evolution from then to now; one is that I have developed the skill of listening first, strategizing my expression based on compassion for not only the immediate moment, but for what can arise from the immediate moment. I suppose you could call this extending my desire for self-expression to involve matters beyond my self-interest.

The second thing that seems to have happened is a huge change in other people -- what are they eager to hear? What interests them about life and its possibilities? A convergence is at hand: my ability to shape my expression, and a general interest in what I have to say.

Of course I must earn that interest. But this is a spotlight, a circle upon the stage. I am ready to be here.