Change is ever with us, and we are made for change. As a toddler, we can’t wait to learn to ride a bike, then ride the school bus, and then gain in ability to do many other things. How common is a youngster’s exclamation, “I can do it myself!”. We love the day we become a teenager, then get a driver’s license, go to college, get married, have a child, on and on. Each of these rites of passage may carry with them some initial trepidation, but very few of us allow this to dampen our excitement. Yet at some point most of us learn to approach further change with reluctance and resistance. Why?
Once we have settled into a good job, have a family and enjoy a social setting with a predictable level of financial security, future changes that come along tend to increase our anxiety rather than our anticipation. We learn from our own experience and the experience of others that change is most often “bad”. Even positive change, such as a great job promotion can bring huge upset within the family. Change of any type often threatens our status, our routine, our relationships, our autonomy and often our financial security. In short, change threatens our sense of CONTROL. In general, the greater the level and speed of change, the greater the threat we experience.
We could devote a lot of time exploring how to prepare personally for the inevitability and increasing speed of change in our lives, but for now it is sufficient to understand how deeply important our “being in control” is to us. Perhaps we can better understand how significant innovations in transportation efficiencies, renewable energy resources, manufacturing processes and medical advances might be very threatening to the powerful automotive, oil and medical industries. The discoveries of DNA and of quantum mechanics, technological innovation in geothermal energy and other renewable energy sources a half century later have still not fully impacted our lives as positively as is possible. Fleming’s discovery of penicillin was ignored for almost two decades in spite of its tranformative potential for the healing of previously untreatable diseases. Change in all its forms – societal, technologicial, educational and financial – is a double-edged sword. Change most often today involves what we call “Destructive Innovation”. That can be scary.
This long introduction brings us to the whole point of this discussion regarding change. How our soul blossoms depends to a large degree on how we respond to change in our life. Can we envision a time in the not too distant future when massive technological advances require perhaps 70% fewer hours worked than are needed today to provide us all our basic necessities of life. Energy is virtually free, sickness is a rare anomaly, food is nutritious and plentiful, clean water is abundant, quality housing is affordable and amazingly efficient and comfortable. How will we transition to share material goods and services so that everyone thrives in such an environment? How will our meritocracy (material and financial wealth is distributed according to one’s ability and personal industry) change to include benefits for the great majority who have little work to do.
We are many years away from this quasi science fiction account of a future utopia. But we are months or only a few years away from confronting world-wide water shortages, diminishing carbon-based fuel supplies and droughts that crush our food reserves. Financial constraints in many countries are today creating significant hardship for increasing numbers of our world population. How do we address these disturbing issues bumping up against our doorstep right now?
Will we hoard, wage war, exploit technological and geographic advantage as Darwin supposedly predicted? Or will we witness the true blossoming of our soul and recognize that cooperation and sharing of our technological discoveries will advance the planet’s well-being most beneficially? Will we recognize the enormous power of compassion, kindness, forgiveness, love in its most practical sense in our every day lives? There are now at least 50 studies that discredit most of what Darwin professed. Even Darwin recognized well before the end of his life that his body of work was flawed. Numerous studies also prove the effectiveness of cooperation over competition in most human activity, especially in education and economic activities.
I’ll close by relating the essense of an article I read this week about Cummins (formerly Cummins Engines). They have been operating with a strong and effective sustainability mindset, increasing fuel efficiency in their engines by 75 to 100%, recycling in many of their plants as much as 90%, ensuring the quality of their water effluents is 100% as pure as their intake, and have even more demanding goals for improving their sustainability performance in the next 5 years. Two things are evident. The technology to do all of this is available today, otherwise Cummins couldn’t possibly attain the goals they’ve set. The technology to function in an Earth and human friendly way is available to all. Cummins’ profitability has continued to grow as their sustainability efforts have expanded. They are shining a light for us to follow, as are other forward thinking organizations. We can do this together. And we are. The more we allow our souls to blossom, the easier it becomes.
Blessings,
Tom
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