The role of citizens of Spaceship Earth
Life is complex. To solve complex wicked problems requires deep, whole systems consideration.
A knee-jerk response, or the application of linear, reductionistic thinking, will not provide the solution.
Everything, every small act and large, sets in motion a whole field of events unforeseen.
Each day is unprecedented. To approach it as if we know how things will unfold, what will happen next, is to continue the same level of hubris that said that man has dominion over Earth.
We are Earth. We are nature. We are part of the complex web of life. The atoms in my body have been in your body and the body of the people who lived in Mongolia 400 years ago.
Our times require a deep level of inquiry. To suspend the belief that we might know what to do. Rather instead to sit with others and inhabit the questions, explore their terrain, go to the edges…and far into the future.
And then, with considered wisdom, and infinite love, choose actions as response to.
Business-as-usual, politics-as-usual, leadership-as-usual, citizenship-as-usual…is now a woefully inadequate behavioural response.
We require the capacity to see, live and act in response to the unprecedented, with a whole new level of thinking, seeing, acting…asking the impossible questions, courageous in our ability to show up as the novice in service to the unprecedented.
This role is not just for our elected leaders or heads of industry, who for the most part, insist on business-as-usual. It is for us. Citizens of Spaceship Earth.
January 3rd 2020
Photo taken January 3rd 2020
