It takes a village to raise a universe
By Douglas D. Germann, Sr.
© Copyright 2008, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
It takes a village to raise a universe. We are responsible for the universe, for its wholeness and completeness. It is not complete with any one missing. Are you missing? Am I? Where do we fit in? Are we just providing carbon dioxide for the plants, or are we making it more whole?
When we are whole, we include the divine. We not only include, we entwine the divine, we work with the divine, we intercourse with the divine, we are the divine.
We are petals on many flowers, we are the breathers moving the atmosphere, the exchangers making carbon dioxide out of oxygen, we are the creators of a larger wholeness.
This is where connections of the connections come in, intercourses of the intercourses, entwinings of the entwining. We are growing ever more together. Larger and larger sets of connections. Not larger associations, companies, nations: larger combinations of interplaying. With two people we can have 1 set of interactions, with three we can have 3, with 4 we can have 6 plus groups of two and three to one, and soon we have exponential growth. How many triangles fit in the triangle? Plants can be grafted onto others, but people can graft onto each other without end.
But do we? All this is possible, but do we get conscious and conscientious about it? We are starting to. We are reaching out around the globe with email and social networking and whatever comes next—or we can. We can get conscious about it.
What can that look like? It can look like pollination of corporations by green activists, geeks by Darfur refugees, Greeks by Nicaraguans, on and on. It can look like you expressing your need for something on a website and finding an answer, a friend, a cause.
But it first starts with a simple question, a live question. What do you gritch about? What stupidities really get to you? What would make the world a better place? Who do you care about? What tugs at your sleeve? What dream did you have last night? Who in the paper this morning, the news tonight needs one little new idea?
The second question is easier to ask: Who cares? Easier to ask, tougher to carry out. For here is where the crux of the matter is: it demands you. Exposed. Vulnerable.
Let me tell you about my friend Rob. Rob is my hero. Rob in my life stands for courage. Practical everyday courage. “I gulp every time just before I say it,” he told me once. But he still finds a way to let people know: he will preface something he is saying with “As a gay man…” and go on from there. That is a difficult thing to admit even in our “advanced” times. Gulp and speak. In the case of your second question, gulp and ask it.
Chances are there are people among your friends who care. So then ask, What can we do? You will be tempted to shrug and walk away from your heart. Don’t do it. This is easier than the Who cares question. Not much, but easier. Keep asking. Don’t let shrugs be your answer. There is something you can do. Keep digging.
That is how we change the world, make it more whole, give it heart.
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