What to do next...

Ralph Copleman rcopleman at comcast.net
Mon Dec 21 04:39:20 PST 2009


Harrison, you asked...

> And I was wondering how would apply what you
> have said to an everyday situation? Supposing it is Monday morning at your
> place of work saving the environment in New Jersey. Your inbox and todo list
> are filled to over flowing -- and that cup of coffee (if you had one) is
> getting cold. What do you do next?

Hmm.  Cool question.

My life as director of our small nonprofit has been reinforcing two lessons.  One is Yin, the other is Yang (though I cannot tell which is which).

One lesson: there are steps I can take to help move my community toward sustainability.  I can and must take action on my own.

On the other hand (lesson two), I know it's not up to me alone.  I hold space for many others who participate in this work with me, and I must accept that each of them moves in their own way and their own pace.  Often I find I am watching others hold space, too.  Our collective activity adds up to a self-organizing system, as you'd expect.

If your question is, how do I decide what to do, well, I get my answer from the 50 Swedish scientists who created the definition of sustainability known as The Natural Step.  They set out four system conditions that we have to meet to achieve sustainability.  These four are, in effect, the criteria established by Earth during 4.55 billion years of self-organizing evolution, and that had been working fine – until modern humans came along and sold ourselves a large set of lies about ownership of the planet.

When I get up in the morning, I ask myself, quite simply, what can I do today to more effectively live within one or more of the self-evolved system conditions.  You could say I'm holding space for Earth and the sentient species known as homo sapiens to re-consider their relationship.

But I have a feeling I have not completely understood your question.  Is my answer missing something?

Ralph

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