The Charge to Create a World that Works for Everyone
“You may have to travel the road alone, but you don’t have to be lonely”, said Dr. Shah, my professor during a Calculus class in my first semester in college. The sentiment strongly resonated at a time in my life when I was in a completely new environment and overwhelmed with reconciling my experiences growing up and my thoughts about who I was meant to become. Her words let me know that I could traverse the unknown by seeking strength and insight from a genuine connection to others. Now, after a year of watching many of our societal structures and norms falter and in some cases fail, it’s become clear to me that a reframing of my perspective on connectedness is necessary. Experiencing a global pandemic, environmental calamities, unprecedented levels of civic engagement, and a racial reckoning has forced me to reckon with new daily habits and fresh ideas about normalcy. The Great Conjunction and it’s ushering in of a new astrological age provided celestial evidence that we were entering a new season of change. Although we face a new world, the words of my professor continue to reverberate with wisdom about how to move forward into this new chapter of our lives.
But where to start? The juxtaposition between shelter-in-place orders and major societal events has been hard to hold at times. While the momentum of my personal circumstances has slowed and their complexity have contracted, national and global incidents of inequity and injustices have ramped up in both frequency and intensity. Like so many people, I had an increased desire to be a part of envisioning and working towards a world that works for everyone, but also felt more sensitive and particular to who I interacted with- even virtually. At times, it has felt like trying to move from our current understanding of a physical world with the familiar three dimensions of length, width and height, into a world with one additional physical dimension. I can’t quite comprehend it. The situation is reminiscent of math wherein mathematicians struggle to depict 4-dimensional objects and are forced to approximate them with countless 3-D slices of them. By analogy, I acknowledge that the enormity and complexity of our societal challenges can only be approached by small collective and interconnected efforts that approximate a prosperous and equitable world.
“It is perhaps fortunate that truth is too large to be described by one man. It belongs, like the Earth, to all the Earth’s inhabitants” – Frederick Douglas, ”Age of Pictures” Lecture
There is an Indian parable about a group of six blind men who are taken to an elephant in order to experience what it is actually like. Each man is positioned at a unique position near the elephant and told to describe what they feel. Though each man vividly describes a tusk, ear, tail, leg or trunk, they fail to understand the entirety of the elephant. They each held a piece of understanding something much larger than what they could directly experience. Only their collective perceptions and experiences got close to depicting the elephant completely. I think creating our future is like this, no one person will hold a single complete vision of what our future is to be. We each have our own unique offering to add to the whole, our particular puzzle piece that when added to other pieces, completes the picture. We don’t have to know all that needs to be done, just what we need to do.
"A tesseract is a four-dimensional version of a three-dimensional cube, just as a cube is the analog to a square. The concept tesseract has inspired pop culture portrayal of travel between time and space or futuristic beings."
“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Part of how I made sense of the past year was through my work with clients and treasured interactions with family members and friends. At work, I found hope in supporting leaders focused on creating positive social impact in gaining clarity about their mission. At home, it felt significant to either cheerlead the personal and professional victories in some circumstances or be present for great losses in others. Through it all, social interactions, be they physically distanced outings or drive-by birthday parties, felt especially precious since in person contact has been so limited. In essence, as I struggled to make sense of what was happening in the world, I found strength and meaning through my connection to others.
“Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman.
What I do know, what is my piece to understand, is that central to this new world will be a renewed value of our shared humanity. This recognition that we are not alone in the midst of our personal journeys is bigger and deeper than our respective job titles or vocations. This is about intentionally creating circumstances that maximize the chances for everyone’s optimal well-being to be realized. Taking the multitude of problems in our society and identifying our unique solutions to some of them is perhaps the most important thing that any of us can do. Piece by piece, step by step, we can fashion a new way of being and build a world of systems, values and practices that allows for human progress. If you’ve been brewing an idea for a program, a service or offering in your mind, now is the time to take the first steps to bring it forward. Your unique vision and perspective of the world is needed; our future will be better for it and incomplete without it.