Where are we now?

Part 1 — Introduction

Original photo: Dust and Reflections by Australian photographer, Steven Mohr

Have you ever had the privilege of seeing the night sky in Australia’s outback — or better still, have you seen it through an astronomer’s telescopes just a few kilometers from Uluru? I looked through 4 powerful telescopes each one focused on another aspect of the night sky: each one bringing another perspective. The experience was life changing: the ground falls away beneath you. The stars are just there at the tip of your nose. You wave an arm around fully expecting to catch a star — and it’s not even falling! It’s an experience that I hope to repeat one day. I was lost in wonder. The glory all around me held me breathless. Captured. So totally out of control on my planet and so totally awed. It was the first time I realized that we are space creatures, held captive on Planet Earth but not afraid. Like Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s Little Prince, gazing from his tiny asteroid at the great unknown.

Well, that’s sort of how I feel today as I listen to global news reports. The ground beneath our feet has suddenly fallen away — those mental models that remind us that the good guy always wins in the end and the baddie gets his comeuppance. But while we are once again totally out of control on our planet, this time it’s scary. In 2017 there has been a major shift in what moral society looks like: Megalomaniacs sit as Heads of State teasing each other with their pointer fingers poised over The Button. Many other Heads of State — including some from African and Island nations — bully their Ministerial officers into corruption, deception and murder. The gulf between the poor and the powerful has never been wider. Heinous acts of terrorism are a regular occurrence. So, what does all this mean or does it mean nothing at all? Where are we now and how do we get back to humanity and sanity because, unlike gazing at the night sky, this life experience is scary.

In this Series I want to explore the ideas of Gebser, Wilber, Scharmer and Graves, and the Saints, Mystics and Mighty Men of old. The first 4 give us models (astronomer’s telescopes) through which we can get a clearer picture of what’s going on around us: the Saints, Mystics and Mighty men have lived experiences in the rise and fall of civilizations and yet their view of humanity and sanity has held firm. I call upon them all to bring their perspectives to our ‘today’ and perhaps they will be kind enough to shine their collective torches on our way forward.