“We are all just walking each other home” with Kathleen R. Smythe Many have been deeply moved by Ram Dass’s declaration that “We are all just walking each other home.” It is interpreted as accompanying each other through the end-of-life process. The resonance between Dass’ oft-quoted statement and the KiSwahili verb, kusindikiza, “to give a […]
Honoring Our Species: Hands and Feet with Kathleen Smythe I will share what I think is an important way of thinking about the health of the planet and the health of our species together. The premise of this presentation (extracted from my larger work Whole Earth Living) is that healing the planet and human communities are remarkably […]
I wish to focus on what I believe is the most fundamental essence of who we are and how we navigate this world. One of the most influential books about this question of what is driving me and you, what makes church appealing is Ronald Rolheiser’s book, The Holy Longing, published in 1999. Rolheiser is […]
Through reflections on my daughter, I will ask us to consider that children and those younger than we are like messengers from another world, another way of being that is more in touch with optimal human flourishing. Our “raw” and uninitiated young children have an important perspective on human culture and meaning, particularly a willingness to love […]
Our male children are in crisis and have been for decades now. Research shows that boys are more vulnerable than girls, even in terms of live birth rate, but also in finding their way in the world, trying to balance cultural “norms” of toughness with emotional expressiveness. The result of this collision, combined with institutions that […]
A Nigerian proverb notes, “In a time of crisis, the wise build bridges and the foolish build dams.” Today I would like to build a bridge from 21st century US culture and history to African history. Such a bridge can provide a new story about the human place in the scheme of things, and African history […]
Sustainability can mean different (and sometimes competing) things to different people. The most common word-based image of sustainability is a balanced three-way relationship between the environment, society and the economy. The idea is that if you consider all three equally you will have a sustainable outcome. Several years ago, I began to try to understand […]
Agriculture is approximately 10,000 years old. Thus, it has only been practiced for a very small portion of human existence, yet agriculture is arguably the single most important development in human history. It is also probably the most ecologically disruptive development in human history. A sustainability visionary has been working on changing human agriculture, undoing […]