In writing this month’s editorial for my newsletter, “The End of the Superhero: A Time for Collective Heroism,” another point needed to be made. So I will make it here on the blog and invite you to read this month’s newsletter as well.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the human species as we exist right now will not be around much longer. Now please don’t think I’m talking about unavoidable extinction or that we will cease to exist. I’m saying that we will either have transcended the conditions in which we find ourselves now and evolved to a higher order human or we will have devolved into a more primitive existence with unpredictable challenges to our survival. To be a bit over simplistic, we will either give birth to a new age of light, love and transcendence or will have brought forth a dark age in which today’s standards for living will be impossible. I don’t mean extinction but there could be drastic population reductions, huge shifts in where people live on this planet, and general degradation to total dystopia!
scene from Mad Max the movie
What will determine this collective choice point for humankind? I propose this tipping point will occur when our collective passion for our common welfare exceeds our individual passions for personal ideologies and ambitions. Said another way, when we care more for the commons we all share, when we care more for each other and future generations than we do for our own petty positions and private vested interests the tipping shall begin.
Does this mean everybody in the whole world is united in this collective passion? Hardly, that would be utopian thinking, and in any case, totally impossible. But there is a growing mass of people who are taking this stand to prevent the fall of modern civilization.
Sounds pretty black and white you say? A transcended reality and a super-evolved civilization versus the “Mad Max” dark ages? Normally I don’t think in such polarized terms but I fear we have painted ourselves into the metaphorical corner and the longer we continue coasting along the less “wiggle room” we’ll have to take corrective measures. There is a window of opportunity that’s been opening over the past several generations, a window that is making it easier and easier to make this kind of shift in consciousness to what I’m calling “the new human” in my next book, provided we have the political will. But, there is also another window that is rapidly closing and once it is closed life on earth for human beings will be at best challenging and at worst impossible.
The choice is ours, individually and collectively.
According
to Wikipedia, “The word orthodoxy
is mainly associated with the Greek Orthodox Church…. Since this theological
aspect was established the church moved on to resolve the right way to worship
God or Orthodoxy.”
As I
read on about the “right way to worship God” I cannot help but see the
parallels in how so many devote capitalists attach themselves to “the perfect
way” to create wealth, to engage in commerce, to generate profits and dominate
markets. And it isn’t just religion and economics. This adherence to the “one
right way” pops up in all human systems.
The
fundamentalist approach to anything - be it religion, business, law, medicine, politics,
education or any other discipline – is a function of the mind seeking a structure
it can comprehend. This provides security for those who identify with their
beliefs. The mind likes certainty and predictability. The mind has difficulty
with things experiential – things that can be “messy” and unpredictable. So,
the right way is sought and, once found, strictly adhered to with great fervor.
In
religion it is the right way to worship, the right “sacred text” to believe
literally, the right clergy to obediently follow. In medicine, it could be
loyalty to tradition which prevents new learning. In education it could be the
conventional factory-style method of training our young in the Three Rs. In
business it shows up as the dominance of the financial bottom line.
When
this orthodoxy is prevalent, those who challenge this perfect way are seen as
heretics, such as advocates of the Triple Bottom Line in business, holistic
healthcare, alternative schooling and restorative justice. While religion gave
rise to the term, we see orthodoxy has found its way into all human endeavors,
helping to make our institutions stodgy and arthritic, resistant and slow to
change.Heterodoxy or “other teaching” which opposes
orthodoxy met with plenty of resistance over the centuries in the world of
religion. With the modern pandemic of this black and white way of thinking into
all areas of our lives, we are seeing mass polarization, schisms and divides
between neighbors, brothers and sisters, and friends similar to what was seen
in the Inquisition, Crusades and Jihad.
For the sake of future generations, let us call a halt to this capitulation so our sense of
spirituality, justice, education and health is allowed to remain experiential
and not be concretized for the convenience of the egoic mind. Let us resist the
temptation to reduce everything to what can be contained within the limited
capacity of the mind and allow for these powerful experiences to have full rein
within our hearts and souls.
“How selfish soever man may be
supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him
in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though
he derives nothing from it,
except the pleasure of seeing it.” – Adam Smith (1723-1790), author, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s a group of us involved in the World
Business Academy were concerned about where capitalism was headed. WBA Founder Willis
Harman compared Wall Street with gambling casinos in his book Global
Mind Change(1988). We had many discussions comparing the growth of a
more speculative approach, demanding greater returns in shorter time frames, to
the days when people really invested for the long term and looked forward to
dividends. There were frequent comparisons to gambling casinos as growing numbers
of day traders and creative mechanisms appeared on the scene, all designed to “make
a killing” for those insiders who were skilled in manipulating the financial
system.
In 1993, Joel Kurtzman, then a business editor at The New York Times, published The
Death of Money: How the Electronic Economy Has Destabilized the World’s Markets
and Created Financial Chaos.Kurtzman’s
“electronic economy” is the vast volume of transactions made each day by unstaffed
computers, prompted by market fluctuations. Additionally he revealed the giant
share of transactions in the economy that have nothing whatsoever to do with
services or goods. They are entirely speculative, just like gambling. As he
writes, “…how can there be equilibrium when the size of the pool of money
changing hands globally every day dwarfs the actual value of the goods traded?”
Consciousness and Economics
Willis and I were excited about Kurtzman’s book and discussed compiling
original writings for a new anthology which Willis and Kurtzman would co-edit.
The working title was Conscious
Capitalism. For various reasons the book never happened but it did inspire
me to write about this new breed of capitalism, a system far closer to what
Adam Smith envisioned. In 1996, I published “A
Call for Conscious Capitalism” and incorporated this model into many of my
subsequent articles, including an entry into a contest co-sponsored by The Economist in 2000. But, alas, the
world continued its path toward more perverse and predatory ways of practicing
capitalism.
Around the same time I
met Bernard Lietaer, a Belgium banker who
seemed very informed and experienced in money matters, particularly the
consciousness around money, not merely the mechanisms involved. This ability of
Lietaer to know the way the system worked as well as appreciating the impact of
human consciousness on the system was very attractive to me. He also held a
systems perspective and was predicting large scale shifts in the global economy.
Last week, Lietaer shared some of his recent writings with me. In part, he wrote,
“we have now entered the long period of unprecedented financial
instability that was predicted in The
Future of Money[his 2001 book]. It is most likely that this will take
the form of the dance where one goes two or three steps backward for every step
forward. Every small step forward (i.e. any temporary improvement) will
predictably be hailed as the ‘end of the crisis.’ It is quite understandable
why governments, banks and regulators will make such statements, simply because
saying otherwise would only make the situation worse.”
Lietaer
sees this current breakdown as a symptom of system structure, not a cycle
as many are referring to it. Lietaer is currently working on two new books due
out this winter which will surely benefit from his additional insights from
this market meltdown.
Free Market, Ha!
A couple of years ago on a flight to Brazil, I was seated next to a
young man from India. He worked for the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. As we exchanged
cards I noticed his title was “financial engineer,” a term I found curious.
Engineering seemed contrary to free markets. Upon further reflection, however,
I could see many manipulations that were contrary to the market being truly
free. I recognized the conflict between market fundamentalism and laissez faire capitalism, with their strong opposition to government
interference, and the manipulations and contrivances these same free market advocates
endorse such as lobbying, subsidies and tax advantages. In other words, don’t
do anything that hinders us but allow us to gain every advantage we can afford
to create for ourselves. So much for “free” markets!
So it wasn’t a total surprise
when the markets crashed and the meltdown started in recent days, rippling to
other economies like dominos in free fall. Any unsustainable system eventually
reaches its breakdown. Band Aid approaches to fix the system will likely be
attempted. If they are they will merely postpone the breakdown and possibly lead
to an even harder breakdown later.
The system is
broken. Even mainstream media are saying it today. It requires a rebuilding not
repair. While there have been plenty of warnings and predictions this could happen,
the leaders of the system - those with the most power to bring about change -
refused to listen. As Harlan Cleveland, former
U.S. ambassador to NATO, wrote in his book Nobody
in Charge, "Those with visible responsibility for leadership are
nearly always too visible to take responsibility for change…"
So the forecasts were correct and now some people in leadership
positions seem more likely to listen. Perhaps this had to happen for us all to
finally get it. This is more painful than it needed to be, and it will likely
get worse, but new listening may be available for the first time. The “system”
may have been jolted hard enough to shift its attention so we can reinvent the
system, not simply prop-up the old one.
The consciousness behind the system has fostered greed, parochial short-term
thinking, market manipulation and outmoded regulations. The new system has an opportunity to be based
upon our mutual interdependence, global citizenship, market transparency and 21st
Century regulations.
Where’s the Pony?
There’s an old story about two young brothers who come home from school
to find their room filled with horse manure. The pessimistic one gets very
upset and immediately starts crying and complaining about the mess. The more optimistic
brother starts jumping up and down, looking all around with great excitement screaming,
“Oh boy! With all this manure there’s got to be a pony here somewhere?”
As I read articles in the Financial
Times and The Wall Street Journal
reporting that capitalism is broken (at least the U.S. model) and how our
economy is the victim of the “anarchy of speculation,” part of me is elated,
not for the pain and suffering so many people are feeling right now but at the
prospects for a true transformation, which is sometimes only possible after the
system blows up. Then President Bush (friend of the fat cats) comes on television
and tells us the debacle in the markets is “the result of a speculative
economy.” The man whose policies exasperated the dysfunction and brought it to
a head is telling us indirectly his policies helped to bring us here. This must
have eaten him up, to admit his philosophy and policies were a major factor in
this disaster for which the American people will pay dearly in so many ways. And
he’ll probably go down in history best known for presiding over this devastating
bit of financial piracy.
Thank You Market Fundamentalists
The market fundamentalists everywhere have been the biggest
contributors to this debacle. A few greedy people and many clever financial
engineers did their part too. Time will tell whether or not this major upheaval
will be a major blip in our evolution to a better system or a complete failure requiring
us to effectively start all over again.
Like with all transformations, there is pain and chaos, uncertainty and
big changes. Transformations often include rough spots. So let us make the most
of this rough spot and not simply repair an outmoded system, restoring the same
mechanisms. Let us create a system that works for everyone and is truly sustainable.
Let us create a more compassionate capitalism, similar to that which Adam Smith – the so-called
“father of capitalism” - envisioned in his works about wealth and morality.
In
2002 I wrote about the “modern-day tyrants” suggesting they might be the master
manipulators of Wall Street. In part I stated:
These modern day tyrants value short-term
financial gratification more than anything else. Their actions are totally
inconsistent with a sustainable world in which people are valued and life is
affirmed. They create no real value in the world, certainly not in the way most
of us think about adding value, such as an exchange of something for something
else. Their sole purpose is to make a profit, and to do so with the least
amount of capital as possible.
Fast forward six years to this past week...
The
other evening I was watching a segment of the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean” starring
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. In one scene Sparrow and a fellow pirate
make a toast, apparently one of the pirate codes - “Take what you can. Give
nothing back.” In light of the financial fiasco confronting the whole world
today, this seemed very timely for the consciousness (or lack of it) that has
been allowed to permeate our corporate environments in recent years.
We apparently learned nothing from the Enron, WorldCom, Arthur
Andersen debacle earlier this decade. Nor from the savings and loan scandals of
the 1980s. Or the many other indicators that predatory capitalism only works
for a very few at the expense of the vast majority. Americans are most probably going to pay for all this maleficence.
If markets were truly free and unfettered, the
market fundamentalists might have a valid point. But those who manipulate the
market to their advantage cannot honestly justify that position when they themselves tilt
the playing field in their favor. This is not a free market but a skewed market that required some restraints.
Those
who have mastered this game – those who made fortunes while leaving the rest of
the world in ruins – have no conscience. They leave others to clean up after
them and slink off into the darkness with
their loot. They truly do subscribe to the pirates code: Take what you can. Give nothing back. This makes these dubious characters
the modern-day pirates, far worse than mere tyrants.
If
you happen to know any of these modern-day pirates and are keeping quiet about them out of
some distorted sense of loyalty I suggest you blow the whistle and do it now! It may prevent another bunch of greedy SOBs
from pillaging the public trough in another few years.
[please forward to
anyone you know who works in the financial services industry]
I had the pleasure to host social activist and environmentalist Van Jones as my guest yesterday for the Howard Thurman Forum Series. The format is similar to “Inside Actors Studio” which airs on the Bravo TV Network in which host James Lipton interviews a well-known actor with an audience of students at New York’s Actors Studio.
A sizable group of young people, mostly students, were in the audience to hear Van. Their presence definitely influenced the tone of the interview and the comments which followed. By the end of the Forum, it was fairly clear to most of us that we have been a disengaged citizenry for a couple of generations and that for any meaningful change to occur in the U.S., the new generation has to get more involved in the political process. Left to the people in Washington, even with the anticipated changes in the White House with the upcoming elections, things will only get worse. The systems is broken and no heroic figure is going to make much difference unless the system changes. It is also clear where this scale of change is going to come from: we the people.
We the people have abdicated our responsibility as citizens. Our forefathers and mothers made great sacrifices to create a country that could function effectively with checks and balances to maintain order and freedom. Many made huge sacrifices for their country. Nowadays, if we vote every few years we consider ourselves good citizens (the half of us who do vote). The rest is rhetoric – discussing candidates or issues along the way toward voting. Very few of us do any service for the nation such as Peace Corps or the military or even connecting with our elected officials. Most of us are disengaged, busying ourselves with relatively trivial matters like television reality shows, tabloid TV or radio, and fascination with our technologies. Regarding engaged citizenship we have essentially quit. We act as if we are asleep, impervious to the fact that we have the governments we deserve.
Van helped us see yesterday that many of us have been sleepwalking through our lives when it comes to our role as citizens in a democracy. He made an excellent point for the benefit of the younger audience members that they have a sacred responsibility to engage in the politics if anything new is going to occur, no matters who is elected to the White House in November.
The question we have to ask ourselves: can we wake up? Are we merely somnambulating (sleepwalking) or has something died inside us making us zombies, the “living dead” who are beyond recessitating?
These are questions we of the older generations need to ask ourselves now, while there is still hope for real change to occur with the upcoming elections. As Van so eloquently pointed our yesterday, any new President will fail at making real changes without an engaged electorate standing behind them – an electorate determined to fix the system, reform the way politics is done, even reinventing government if that is what it takes.
Whether you are an American or live elsewhere in the world, we are the change we’ve been hoping for. Like the U.S., our world has become too complex for any one person to be a hero and fix things. It will require many of us to get things working again, and that includes me, Van, those young students and you…yes, you the person who is reading this. Yes, you.
Most of us pay pretty close attention to our physical cleanliness. We shower, brush our teeth and perform daily bodily functions with intention and consciousness. In the West, it is considered good personal hygiene and adds assurances we’ll remain healthy.
According to Wikipedia, “The term "hygiene" is a reference to Hygieía oder Hygeía, the Greek goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation (Roman equivalent: Salus). Hygiene is also a science that deals with the promotion and preservation of health.
In some countries, personal hygiene has become more an issue of social acceptance or fear of offending others with annual sales of deodorant, lotion, mouthwash, powder and cream in the billions. But the hygienic focus is almost always physical. We pay close attention to our hair, teeth, underarms, genitals, nails and underarms – all parts of our physical bodies. Some of us exercise regularly, watch our diets and take supplements so we feel better and enjoy better health. But how much attention do we pay to our emotional, spiritual and mental health? What about our “attitudinal hygiene?”
How much attention do we pay to our intellectual diets? How discerning are we about what we read or watch on TV or hear on radio? What attention do we pay to the lyrics of the music we listen to or the talk shows and Sunday morning pundits we endure.
What degree of consciousness are we employing when we allow ourselves to become emotionally constipated, with suppressed feelings bottled up and turning rancid inside us?
We take such care to avoid infections of our bodies yet most of us are so careless about exposing our thinking and feelings to infection from negativity, cynicism, resentments and imagined fears. How well do we nourish ourselves spiritually? Do we maintain our spiritual practice whether it is structured religion, private meditation or walks in Nature?
How would you rate your hygiene in these three areas of your life? This might be something to consider – perform an inventory of sorts. Where could you improve your health spiritually, emotionally and intellectually?
In seems to me that we’d have a much healthier society and a much better world if we spread the idea of good personal hygiene to include the entire environment around us, the people we spend time with, the physical space we occupy, the entertainment we consume as well as what we eat and drink. Good attitudinal hygiene offers us an opportunity to be healthy emotionally, spiritually and mentally as well as physically. As comprehensively healthy people we will more likely be making wiser more mature choices and, therefore, create a better future for ourselves, our children and generations to come.
Two weeks ago I delivered a two-day workshop on systems thinking to a group of 40 executives for a business school in Trinidad. Subsequent mail exchanges with some of the participants has moved me to start this conversation, specifically on organization systems and their functionality, leadership and vitality. So here goes....
One cannot engage the subject of the future of the world without engaging the organizations we have created and address their dysfunctionality, the way they seem to resist change and the apparency that no one is in control of them sometimes. The world will never change unless our organizations do.
When one is anticipating making meaningful change occur in a system - be it a company, institution, government - systems thinking is not only a huge advantage I would say it is essential if the change is major and you want it to last. Some people merely want to "tweak" their organizations, make an improvement in some aspect of its functioning. Sometimes incremental change can be perfomed linearly. But others may want to reinvent the culture entirely, or make significant changes to it. This would be meaningful change or what many call "organizational transformation."
I have written a lot about The Conscious Organization, which I envision as the ultimate system for functionality and effectiveness. You can read some of these articles and past issues of my newsletter at www.Renesch.com.
I would be interested in hearing of real life situations where meaningful change is desired but thwarted by the system. Anyone interested?
NEW QUERY: See another inquiry that may interest some of you.
Thanks to Yvonne from Canada for the challenging query (see her comment under "It doesn't have to be this way!"
There are a few things I know and many more I don't know when it comes to social transformations, such as the challenge of shifting from a global culture/paradigm of separateness, fear/terror, scarcity, reductionism to one that allows humankind to get along as a family, caring for one another and having a sustainable home planet. This can seem daunting for some, most of whom choose to simply occupy themselves with things they feel they have more control over, such as amassing more toys, having fun or doing the best they can "under the circumstances" Never mind the "circumstances" may mean significant degradation of the quality of life for more and more people on this planet, living more in fear and denial, and increasing division amongst people and nations making the arms industry the primary gainer in the marketplace.
Others may wring their hands about how sad this state of the world is, perhaps forward emails and go to see movies (911, The Corp, Truth, etc.), recycle, march, etc. A few of us (probably several thousand in the world) have been beating a drum of social change / transformation for a few years and more are joining our ranks every day. I do know many of these people and I can say from experience that they, like me, feel called to continue the rallying cry for change. It's our job.
Another thing I know: there is real possibility for this to happen. Despite the growing wave of cynicism on this earth, I KNOW we can collectively shift the paradigm, reach a tipping point (plus all the other cliches). It has been done before in human history and it can be done again.
Another thing I know is it will not take a majority of people to shift the collective consciousness for this to happen. Everyone needn't be a holder of this vision of a better future as long as some committed people are (ala Margaret Mead). I also know that it will only come about if we are talking to one another, having meaningful conversations about important things like where are we headed as a species, what is our destiny and other inquiries into our consciousness about the future. Conversations about trials, Anna Nicole, scandals, celebrities and such occupy precious amounts of consciousness that could be much better applied to constructive dialogue about changing the status quo.
So, I speak at conferences, write books and articles, publish my newsletter, even start a blog (thanks to the Global Dialogue Center) as my part in helping to bring forth this sea change in worldview. My work is to get better and better at communicating a vision, provoking and challenging existing entrenchments in thought, and trusting that someone is impacted to start thinking differently and taking greater responsibility for our future. Like a nulear reaction that accelerates exponentially, the collective will could be an "overnight phenom" once ignition takes place.
What I do not know is when that ignition will occur. Or even if it will happen at all? It is, after all, a question of will - more willingness than will power - not ability. But I continue to do what i do because it is my calling, it is my job, and it makes me come alive!
This is my first experience at blogging so my rookie eyes and mind can be easily surprised, I suppose. I just heard there have been 150 visits to my last post of mine and I'm surprised there hasn't been at least one posting. So...since somebody is actually reading these, here's another thought fresh from my afternoon walkabout along the streets of San Francisco.
Envision a future where almost everyone makes each choice with consciousness and full attention on what they were doing. Think of the world we could have!
Look at how we got this far in our survival of the fittest evolution. Most people through the ages have been well-intentioned, passionate, caring folks who were doing the best they could with what they had and knew. A few gifted people did magnificent things with their passions and skills, inventing, discovering, creating art and literature, leading movements and serving humanity. And civilization as we know it has evolved pretty positively despite a relative few dark individuals who were more infatuated with hate and power over others than love for their fellow human beings - as most were.
Considering there has been almost no consciousness in play through the millennia, we've done all right so far! But now, for the first time in history we have a new ability...we can destroy ourselves, annihilate the human race. One person can destroy millions of us thanks to our technological advances.
With great power comes responsiubility say sages through the ages. With this significant increase in our ability to do great harm, comes a need to be a bit more mature in the choices we make, recognizing the long term impact of our actions and converting all the wealth of information we have available to us to practical wisdom.
If we evolved this far without thinking much about it, merely following invention after invention, discovery after discovery, cure after cure, think of what an exciting, sustainable, peaceful and compassionate future we could have if we stayed awake all the time.
I was walking in the rain, quite a torrential storm actually, somewhat of an oddity here in San Francisco. Rain-geared to the hilt, I was trudging up one of our steep hills with parka hood snuggly fastened leaving me a tiny face hole for visibility and air. As often occurs during my daily schleps about the city, my mind was somewhat blank for the moment, free of thoughts about the day. Then the now famous scene from the 1976 movie “Network” popped into my mind, where actor Peter Finch, playing the part of a deranged news anchor, asks his television viewers to go to their windows, open them and scream into the night, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
I have been writing and speaking about creating a different kind of world for many years. There’s no question that the consensus reality is pretty resigned to it being “the way things are” as people go about doing “the best they can under the circumstances.” Yet their very behavior argues for the circumstances. Most people’s consciousness is rooted in this resignation, this defeated state of mind that accepts small consolations instead of holding out for larger visions.
As this movie scene from the 1970s flashed by it dawned on me that this might be a good subject to explore in a blog.
There is little doubt the human mind is a powerful force, for good or evil. We have plenty of examples which I needn’t detail here. Ideas can be transformative, uplifting and awe inspiring as well as destructive, depressing and the cause for widespread suffering in the world.
An idea that is killing us spiritually, emotionally and even physically is one that puts limits on what is possible for the world and all living things that reside here. This idea, this thought, is reinforced with lots of rationale conjured up by our collective ego-minds. Each of these reasons seemingly add legitimacy to the idea that we can do nothing to change things; that things simply are the way they are and our job is to do the best we can within that limitation. Here are a few samples: • I’m only one person and don’t have the power to change things; • There are too many big problems; the situation is out of hand; • Better people than me have tried and failed; • I have enough challenges on my own without taking on the world’s problems; • I’m much too busy to think about it much less do anything.
This is the litany with which we fill our head instead of putting our values into action. They are excuses for inaction. That’s all they are. Democracy is a team sport and we’re all on the team. Many people who claim to be champions of democracy have taken to sitting in the grandstands, self selecting to be spectators instead of players or coaches. They have chosen to observe democracy like a play or a movie rather than performing their role as a team player.
Reviewing the five excuses I mentioned above, do you see a common thread that runs through each of them? Besides each of them being a cop-out, they all reside in a context of self-pity, martyr or victim. Each of them is a means to avoiding that feeling of powerlessness one is bound to encounter when one takes on a project of global scope, a project beyond one’s familiar comfort zone. By avoiding that feeling of powerlessness, those who rely on these excuses argue for their own powerlessness. Ironic huh?
Can you imagine how the world would be if everyone subscribes to these excuses? How would the world be if everyone watched from the sidelines? Well, for one thing, there’d be nothing to watch!
Now can you imagine how the world would be if most of us got back onto the playing field and rejoined the team, either as a suited-up player, a coach, team managers or whatever role was there to be filled? Can you imagine an organization or a country where there were more players than onlookers? Wouldn’t that be exciting! Can you imagine the kind of company or nation we might have with enthusiastic, completely engaged workers or citizens? And what about a world that consisted on actively engaged global patriots?
What would this cost? What would it cost us to stop settling for a resigned reality and start creating the reality that we really want? It will cost us our cynicism. It will also cost our resignation. It will cost us our excuses. It will cost us our victimhood and self-pity. From where I sit, these are all things I’m very willing to let go of, perhaps even eager to turn loose. After all, holding onto them sucks vitality from my soul and occupies space in my consciousness that I could put to far better use.
The world doesn’t need to be this way. It doesn’t need to have growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. We don’t need to be so damn busy all the time. We don’t need to be worried about spoiling our Natural home, destroying our environment. Our world doesn’t need to endure genocide, wars, murder and all the other violence.
Life for our kids doesn’t need to be an endurance contest, filled with shallow consolations here and there while individual spiritual fulfillment, a sustainable environment and social justice remain only dreams. It can be different. But it will take a bunch of us to get into action. Let’s get our butts off the bleacher seats and find out where we can be of the most service and have the most fun while doing it. Let’s get back into the game and shout “It doesn’t have to be this way and I’ll play my part in changing it!”
