Soulscapes

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• We are all… - click to view
  We are all One – but One is so Many!  There are 6 ½ billion people, living in nearly 200 countries, worshipping through nearly 9,000 religions (OK, that includes a liberal interpretation of the animist tribes of Africa and Amazonia.)  We wrap ourselves in furs, suits, and loincloths.  We live in modern glistening cities in cold weather climes, and primitive huts on remote equatorial islands. We're dark and light; short and tall; skinny and fat.  We speak through over 6,000 languages.  A New Gulliver learns quickly that there are many paths, many voices, and many "truths."  Like the refracted rays of a prism, blurring into a multitude of colors and wavelengths, we give meaning to our common Humanity.   Ironically, the converging world of the 21st Century promises anything but uniformity – instead, the vast diversity of the Body Human will be on display like never before.
• We share…
  We share a common biology; irrespective of ideology.  We’ve all got 23 pairs of chromosomes nestled into about 60 trillion cells.  We breathe air that's 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen.  We share the common family of A-B-O blood types. We've got about 45,000 miles of neural networks coiled inside of us.  We love, we fear, we hope; we want the best for our children.  Compared to these bonds, the thoughts that divide us are mere "style differences."  To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee, quarreling over beliefs (i.e. religion) is like "two fleas fighting over who owns the dog."  As the shrinking world brings us colleagues, friends, hosts, vendors, employees and customers, entertainers, and all other facets of wide and varied Humankind, we’d be well served to remember that underneath all those layers – they’re just like us.
• People will do…
  People will do extraordinary things when they see how beneficial their actions are to others.  When we can raise our heads up from our jobs, our bills, and life's other stressors, we possess an amazing capacity to do "good" for our fellow humans.  Like the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, or Kansas City's Secret Santa, Larry Stewart.  Hollywood even made a movie, Pay It Forward, about random stealth good acts.  We get an endorphin-like effect from reaching out to others, one that can obliterate other less than honorable acts and feelings that we humans often drift into.  With the shrinking shorelines and collapsing borders of the 21st  Century, we're all going to have plenty of opportunities to Lift others.  New Gullivers know this isn't a burden.  It's a gift, and strengthens all of us.
• The "Connection"…
  The "Connection" supersedes all of our style differences.  If you've ever held a dying child in your arms in a Sub-Saharan AIDs clinic; or spent time as a guest in the home of a people halfway around the world; you've felt the invisible bond that renders insignificant all of our outer differences.  Even the Stockholm Syndrome, the phenomenon of hostages empathizing with their captors, has befuddled criminologists for decades.  Our Mindscapes, Soulscapes, and Landscapes may all be slightly different, but the tapestry that holds them together – the Web of Humanity – is solid, mysterious, and permanent.  As our exchanges with our global siblings amplify in the age of disappearing boundaries, we'll have ample opportunity to build alliances – and make connections like never before.
• The Golden Rule…
  The Golden Rule – "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" – is universally shared by major and minor faiths throughout the world.  In fact, when translated into a common language, our myriad of Golden Rules are strikingly similar, sometimes only differing by one or two words!  No matter what theologies, or economic/political/social customs that may separate us, we find that deep in the human heart the same aspirations ring true. The current state of the world does not stem from an inappropriate message; it's just that the curtains of fear have often obscured this message.  In the New World  we will find that more than ever before, displaying the simple courtesies of the universal Golden Rule will allow us all to feel better, have more, and be more.
• Transformational ages…
  Transformational Ages are always accompanied by spiritual turbulence.  People lose their bearings, and seek new moorings to secure "meaning" in their lives. The Protestant and Catholic wars of Europe – and the radical face of democracy in America – were fueled by the printing press.  The excesses and deprivations of the Industrial Age led to Utopian communities retreating to the periphery of civilization's nerve centers.  The global-scale, systemic challenges we currently face play out in a time when we can see deeper into the furthest reaches of space, and ever deeper into the infinitesimal mystery of the sub-atomic world.  Somewhere straddling those abysses, we ask ourselves:  "What can I do – Here and Now – to add meaning to my life?"  The good news is that transformational times can be amplified by small touches from everyday people – if we know where to push.  Like Archimedes, we just need the right lever, and the right fulcrum – and we can Lift the world.

What would you like to add?
By submitting questions to TGP, you give permission to TGP to post my question on the website or in their newsletter.

• What commitments or beliefs… - click to view
  What commitments or beliefs do you have in the deepest core of your being that would still be there regardless of your upbringing, level of education, religion, experience, etc.? How do you differentiate between faith, and subtle-ingrained cultural beliefs? Is there a difference?
• Imagine that…
  Imagine that you were raised in totally different circumstances than you have been.  If you were raised "rich", then imagine that you were raised "poor."  If you were educated, pretend that you were uneducated.  If brought up in a religious family, imagine that you grew up as an atheist or agnostic.  If you’re a Caucasian living in a crowded European city with cold winters, imagine that you're a Polynesian raised on a remote, temperate island.  Under those opposing scenarios, what "truths" would you believe?  Are those "truths" different than the ones you believe now? How can both truth/belief modes be right, if they're opposite to each other? How do you reconcile that in your business, social, and personal dealing with "Others"?
• If, like the snowflake…
  If, like the snowflake or prism-spectrum we are all unique, what is the special thing that you do best?  How does it serve you and the world?  Are you doing that thing now, or planning to?  What things do you see "in your way" at present that are preventing your action?  Are those things "real" constraints – unavoidable – or is it possible that some of them are excuses based upon fear, and could, in fact, be "worked around" ? 
• Does it seem that…
  Does it seem that pursuing your own "self-interest" –  that is, your chosen vocational, recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual pursuits – often puts you at odds with commitments to your nation, organization, church, family etc.?  Or, do you consider these pursuits as gifts, not only for yourself, but for serving others?   How do you go about "weighing" your commitments to others, versus yourself?  By the way, how do you define self-interest?
• If you had…
  If you had an experience – "inner" or "outer" – so powerful that it changed your worldview or overwhelmed your previously held "truths," what would you do -- research others who've experienced the same thing?  Ignore it; write it off as fantasy or dream?  Put it in the "rainy day" file to revisit and contemplate later? Act upon it?

We also encourage submissions – that is, your Soulscape questions and comments!
By submitting questions to TGP, you give permission to TGP to post my question on the website or in their newsletter.

Escapes