Hope for the future

‘If humankind is to have any hope of changing the world, we must constantly work to strengthen community. We need, first, to make community with the soil, to learn how to revere the Earth. In practical terms, that means ecological restoration, walking lightly in the demands we make of life – sufficiency rather than surplus, quality rather than quantity, and buying (if and when we can) products like organic food and sustainable timber that are produced by working with rather than against nature’s providence. 

Second, we need to make community of human society. We need to learn empathy and respect for one another simply so that people get the love they need. In practical terms, that means developing an inclusive sense of belonging, identity and values. It means understanding and overcoming the psychology of racism and exclusion; sharing wealth and skills; putting the children and the elderly first; understanding how our family dynamics shaped our worldviews; insisting on psychological honesty; finding the courage to face necessary confrontation with equanimity; shifting from competition to cooperation in politics and economics; and buying ‘Fair Trade’ products that avoid exploitation. For there’s no such things as ‘cheap’ when it comes to right relationship.

And third, but not least, we need community of the soul. Whatever our religion or lack of one, we need spaces where we can take rest, compose and compost our inner stuff, and become more deeply present to the aliveness of life. We need to keep one eye on the ground and the other to the stars. We need to remember that when we let loose our wildness in creativity, it is God-the-Goddess – or call it Christ, or Allah or Krishna or the Tao – that pours forth. It does so from within, as a never-ending river.

This tripartite understanding of community is the root, trunk and branch of right relationship. It is how love becomes incarnate. 

Where, then, might we start? “If in doubt what to do,’ says Ram Dass, ‘feed the hungry.’ Test any course of action with the touchstone of service. Ask: does it help the poor? Does it restore the broken in nature? Does it bring music to the soul?

In short, is it concerned with the blossom?

Enjoy!’

Alistair McIntosh

2001

Scotland

(Excerpt taken from Soul and Soul, People versus Corporate Power, Aurum Press, p.280, 2001)