Humans are part of a great experiment called “life on earth.” Like many other species, we originated in grasslands and spread around the globe, populating forests and wetlands, seashores and cliff sides. Like most other creatures, from ants to bats to elephants, we took what we wanted (and could get) from the world around us and discarded what we didn’t want, without much thought. However, over the centuries our thinking has developed, and so has our impact on the planet. Our thinking has allowed us to create huge settlements and elaborate networks for provisioning them. This astonishing material culture has risen out of our cultures of thinking –the stories we tell ourselves about reality.
At this point the experiment of “life on earth” is overbalanced by human impact, and the natural consequences of this are beginning to restore an equilibrium which is not so dominated human abilities and cleverness. We can see the corrections coming, even though we do not know the specific form they will take. The old stories we have told ourselves about reality no longer seem to apply. Stories of “us and them,” of “ruling the world.”
What new thinking can we bring to our present situation? Can we find new stories with which to leaven the old culture? Can we describe our reality in new ways? Ones that help us draw back toward a more balanced place within the experiment of life on earth?