This Blog is about “going green” in Indiana. Five years ago when we started looking for evidence of sustainability in Indiana we were happily surprised to discover lots of “green” already in place. So we started a website to make these efforts more visible. Then we realized that Indiana’s bicentennial was coming up in 2016. What if Indiana roused itself and became a national leader in green innovation by the bicentennial? What an achievement that would be!

Wendall Berry is quoted as saying “The real work of planet-saving will be small,humble and humbling,and (insofar as it involves love) pleasing and rewarding.  Its jobs will be too many to count,too many to report,too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded,too small to make anyone rich or famous.”

This “planet-saving” work includes,in my opinion,telling the truth without compromise,liberating the faint hearted from fear,and loving the colleagues with whom you are working.

I held my wife in her last days.  I held my children in their first days.  These are not mere biological events.  These are universal,spiritual experiences.

We all get born.  We all will die.  Everything in between is detail.  Politics,economics,education,race,religion,sexual preference,ideology,gender,work,and class are all details.

Details are important but focusing on details tends to divide,whereas focusing on our origins and endings may create the basic unity,trust,and respect so vitally important to strong and sustainable communities.

I wonder if we approach race relations the wrong way.  Usually,we point out cultural and historical differences.  We try to understand each other better.  We strive for tolerance.  What if we focused on our overwhelming sameness?  We all get born.  We all die. We all try to find meaning in our life.  Color and culture are important details but do they deserve to rule us or define us?  They enrich the fabric of our mutual existence but actually,factually they are superficial when compared to the spiritual oneness every human shares.  Everyone starts out in a crib and ends up in a coffin.  In that sense we are all brothers and sisters no matter what our color or cultural heritage.

I wonder about the way we do economics.  Are humans simply a cost of doing business?  Does the economic system exist to serve people or do people exist to serve the system?  So,if the answer is so obvious why do employers hire cheap and fire at will to enhance their profit margin?  And why do consumers typically look for the ultimate bargain even if it’s made in Chinese,Indonesian,and Mexican sweatshops?  Prophets will rant but profits will continue to rule unless we reframe the game from a spiritual perspective.  Management,muscle,and mind all start out as babies,end up as corpses,and try to make sense out of being alive.  Can we not invent an economic system that reflects our common humanity?

I also wonder about the crisis in education.  Most politicians and pundits claim that education is the answer to all our social ills.  Translated,this means that if you pass the standardized test and get a diploma you will get a better job and be able to buy a better life.  Some students and teachers buy this line of thinking.  But,many do not and for good reason.  In the first place,it often is not true.  How many college graduates are driving taxi or waiting tables?  How many of us are really cut out for a high tech job?  Some of us are but for the rest of us,do we need to pass algebra and calculus to be artists,actors,and artisans?  Our souls rebel at this attempt to make education an instrument of getting ahead.  Better,I suggest that we revisit the very purpose of our humanity and create an educational system that supports that purpose.  When we align education with soul rather that salary I predict the crisis will disappear.

So what can we do?  Three things come to mind.  I’m sure you will think of others.

1. Each of us can get in touch with our personal spirituality.  We don’t have to invent it.  It’s standard equipment.  It comes with being human.  There are many ways to tune the soul.  For me,it’s spending time in quiet reflection,reading a good book,or watching squirrels at play.
2. We can be more open about our deepest values.  According to research scholars,Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson,one in four Americans is interested in putting spirituality to work to transform society. They care about the environment,spiritual and psychological growth,human rights,holistic health,sustainable lifestyles,and caring communities. (See Cultural Creatives:How 50 Million People are Changing the World.)  As we make our spiritual values known to each other a synergy toward rethinking and reinventing our cultural bottom lines will propel us forward.
3. We can increase our spiritual leadership capacity.  Reinvent every organization you belong to from a spiritual perspective.  Make it serve the interests of our common humanity.  Help it focus more on inclusive human solutions rather than exclusionary cultural and ideological agendas.  What the world needs now are leaders who see the bigger picture and have a longer view,leaders who lead rather than mirror the prevailing trends.

We all get born.  We all will die.  Everything in between is detail.

When your gumption goes limp and depression sets in,it probably means you have a case of the “big purpose blues.”  It’s not that that you don’t have a purpose.  It’s simply that you don’t see it happening.  You’re in a state of quiet grief.

Deep inside each of us is the knowing that we are special—that there is more potential than what is being realized.  There is something trying to get born…music,poetry,leadership,inventiveness,love,laughter,fresh ideas,compassion,etc.

One way to get back in touch with your purpose is to ask yourself “what is really worth fighting for?”  What is so important to me that I would exert myself radically and risk myself totally to defend or accomplish?  What if my spouse,child,or best friend was in eminent danger?  What if someone was stealing my inheritance?  What if someone was about to poison the city’s entire water supply?  What if a child was being severely abused in my presence?  Keep asking these kind of questions till your blood begins to boil and you feel the “fire in your belly.”  Now your passion is arising.  It will lead you to your purpose and to a happy and high energy reunion with what really matters.”