Welcome to the Evolution
When I was 27 years old, I completed a graduate thesis in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana that braided together memoir-style essays about my own personal evolution with larger questions about the evolution of human consciousness, beginning with the Big Bang.
At the time — over twenty years ago - I had no idea where my life would take me, but I knew that it had to contribute to the loving, life-affirming evolution of our human selves. And now that I’m here, I can see that my young self cast before me a map of the terrain that I would get to spend the rest of my life exploring. I’m so grateful to that young woman for her commitment to that map, despite its lack of defined paths.
The short piece below was the final essay (if it can be called that) in my collection. And it feels like a fitting opening to the collection of offerings that this blog will become.
Welcome to the evolution, my friends. Mine, yours, and ours.
Welcome to the Evolution
Welcome to the evolution, to the movement of our culture of denial into one where we are bold enough to ask, What kind of world do we want to live in? Welcome to the evolution. Where we use our unique form of consciousness to decide what we need to do to keep this dynamic network of interactions alive, to keep it safe enough that our children and their children's children can have lives they have reason to celebrate.
Welcome to the evolution. Where we use our powers of mind more than our powers of might, where we are intelligent enough to say no to inventions and practices that give us money or a sense of accomplishment in the short-term, but have disastrous effects in the long-run. Welcome to the evolution, where we are confident enough in our own strengths that we do not need to exert them upon other people or the land to believe in them.
Welcome to the evolution. Where the stories we tell to explain our place in the universe speak of wonder and chaos and dynamism. Welcome to the chills that come from knowing that we are here for now, that despite the brevity of our existence, we are truly powerful collections of energy. Welcome to the boldness of asking ourselves what our bliss is and following it to the end, ready to encounter any obstacle we may face along the way.
Welcome to the evolution, where we are not burdened by religious dogma that tells us we were born wrong, that we must spend our lives making up for the sin of one sassy woman. Welcome to spiritual traditions and personal mythologies that make us feel unique without belittling any other beings on this planet or in the universe. Welcome to the evolution. Where we accept that although we are small in time and space, we are truly immortal. Where we know that the stories we are live on in others and in the land long after we're gone.
Welcome to the evolution. Where our fear of death does not make us fear life. Where our love for others and the acceptance of life's inevitable end frees us to live deeply. Welcome to the transformation of our tenacious desire for eternal life into a commitment to making the most of our brief tenure here on Earth.
Welcome to the evolution. To the elimination of stories that drive us to consume, destroy, ignore, fight, and hate. Welcome to the laying down of protective shields that not only hold dangers at bay, but keep us from the soft touch of the wind, of a gentle moment with a friend. Welcome to a world where every individual does a job with integrity that is not dependent upon the exploitation of people or the planet. Where we know where our clothes and food come from, and we care about who labored to get them here.
Welcome to a new American Dream that no longer looks like a soft green lawn, big house, SUV, and 1.6 children, but a neighborhood sewn together by fields of diverse plants and peoples, children running outside, and a pile of bicycles stacked against the side of an off-the-grid house. Welcome to a neighborhood where homes don't glow blue from television sets at night, but reverberate with the laughter of families and friends.
Welcome to the evolution. Where we ask ourselves what drives our excessive speed, consumption, and exertion of control. Where we get an inkling of an answer and take the scary path necessary to address the hungers that cause those things. Welcome to a United States of America that no longer believes that it, alone, should have weapons of mass destruction, that does not insist that it has a right to almost half the planet's resources, and that instead uses its incredible economic and technological advantages to employ systems that sustain.
Welcome to the evolution. To the movement of our culture from its divorce from feelings, from one another, and from the planet we all depend upon into a people who listen with our ears and hearts to the true centers of our beings and of the land. Welcome to a world where we are not afraid of stillness, we are not afraid to pause, because we are not afraid of all that may arise when we do. Welcome to the evolution. Where we are taught from the beginning how to sit with our difficult emotions and work through them, rather than ignoring or numbing them with busy-ness or booze. Welcome to the critical thinking skills that allow us to know when we are being manipulated. To being brave enough to say, No. It is more important to have health care and good schools and a job that supports my family than it is to build yet another weapon that could destroy all of life at the push of a button.
Welcome to the evolution. Where industrial schools metamorphose into learning adventures. Where teachers teach children how to think and ask hard questions of adults and of themselves. Welcome to schools where children learn with their bodies and their minds, where they scrape their knees climbing trees and get their cuffs wet in the stream, where art and drama and music get as much attention as math and science. Welcome to the evolution. Where feminists, environmentalists, and social activists do not have titles, because working for a society based on the notion of interdependence is the status quo.
Welcome to the evolution, where every farm is a permaculture operation, every home and office are fueled by renewable energy sources, where communities are connected by high-speed rails and highways are given back to the weeds. Welcome to using our bodies again, thanks to all the cities that are made for bikers, walkers, wheelchairs, and skaters.
Welcome to the evolution, where the infrastructure of our society is modeled after other life systems. Where our economy is a circular, closed system, where the true costs of the goods we buy factor into their prices, where waste becomes fuel for a fire or filler for a home, where top-down leadership becomes decision-making driven by the people whom the decisions affect the most. Welcome to the polls where officials are elected by their merits and their ideals, not by corporate campaign contributions or by our fears. Welcome to a world where no nation has weapons because our sense of self has expanded to include our whole human family.
Welcome to the evolution. Where we are one species, one blood, one group of individuals with a shared history fourteen-billion years deep. Welcome to the evolution. Where we are all so slain by our story that we evolve to keep it alive.
