Individual growth and humanity's evolution

Human societies change.  That is inevitable.  Individual changes - from birth and throughout our lives - are also inevitable and collectively drive societal change.

Many societal and individual changes are wholesome and welcome - from government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" to the invention of amazing, pocket-size research and communication devices.  However, many changes harm progress toward human societies based on truth and law, peace and justice, mutual respect and reasonable balancing of individual rights.  Having an authoritarian government which disregards the laws enacted by citizens' elected representatives, including legal barriers to exercising and increasing unlegislated powers, is not good for that government's people or for humanity as a whole.  

To resist effectively and thwart the individual and group actions which threaten a society's health, that society needs to do more than care.  That society needs to change.

Humanity's wholesome evolution comes ultimately from collective evolution at the cellular level - each person being a cell in the body of humanity.  We - individual members of society - need to change.  We - you and I - need individually to notice and diminish excesses of some natural and powerful human qualities which often act like viruses within families, communities, and the body of humanity: apathy, prejudice, greed, fear, self-righteousness and impulses to violence.  Ceding to others this difficult but liberating work weakens society and leaves us impotent and frustrated.  This is hard work!  But we must do it if we aspire to the values, qualities and practices of individuals on whom humanity depends for progress.  Becoming the best members of humanity we can be will be no accident.

January 11, 2026

I have been blessed with countless moments of pure joy.  Joy needing nothing to be complete. Joy despite all the travails and injustices of humanity – of Life.  One of those moments came on a woodland hike with a dear friend over a decade ago. I described what I felt this way: “I love how I feel when I am with you.”

As I yearned for such moments before that summary came to me, I have yearned for such moments since.  I think we all do: it’s the joy of being completely alive and free.

Grace gives us unexpected, even transporting “I love how I feel” moments like the one I had with my friend.  (The “when I am with you” circumstance is wonderful, but not necessary.) But I have sought actively to cultivate such moments.

Randomly – or providentially – I recently found and read a copy of a chapter of Thomas Kelly’s 1941 classic A Testament of Devotion entitled “The Eternal Now and Social Concern.”  Reminded there of the "possibility of this experience of the Divine Presence," I realize that I can have “I love how I feel” moments whenever I have the presence of mind to connect as best I can with the Holy Spirit within.

Another question for the new year...

We all want to matter to other people.

How does that happen without earning it?

If we do not strive to take good care of the gift of life, to grow, to seek and spread joy, and to contribute to the betterment of society, what is our purpose?  What is it that is more important to us?

A simple path to joy in the new year

We all yearn to feel ALIVE!  To be thrilled.  To feel unalloyed joy.

There are many ways, intentional or subconscious, to seek the feeling of being alive - some of them at great risk, with costly consequences.

The simplest, safest, and most reliable way to feel alive is not to depend for that feeling on any other person, substance, setting, or act.  It is just to look around, relax, and breathe in and out slowly; to take in all that your senses bring you; to let go of negative judgments - of wanting more or different; to consider how much worse your life could be than it is; and to discover joy and gratitude in the moment.  This can, fortunately, become a habit.

A question for the new year

What am I missing?  If our decisions and intentional actions are not selfish in origin, what, please is their origin?  What unselfish place is there within us from which our decisions and intentional actions come?

  
If you believe that our decisions and intentional actions come from a holy, spiritual place which is inherently unselfish - a place within us but not us - I bow to that belief.  I think you are blessed to have it.  That is a belief by which I have not been graced.

To find joy, give up self-righteousness.

We all want to feel ALIVE!  To be thrilled.  To feel pure joy.

The simplest way to feel alive is to look around, take in all your senses bring you, let go of negative judgments - of wanting more or different - and seek and find joy and gratitude in the moment.

Self-righteousness kills joy.  If we take responsibility for all of our decisions and judgments - if we strive to bring unconscious judgments and impulses into consciousness and keep only those which serve our most important values - self-righteousness ebbs.  Try it.  I believe you'll see what I mean.

Reality Check #25

Whose judgment of the quality of my life - moment to moment or Big Picture - matters most?

If I yearn for something, who decides whether to learn - to grow - from the yearning or just to feel sorry for myself?

When something is unjust, offensive or painful to me or to others, who can choose to do something to ameliorate the situation rather than focus on "poor me?"

If I specially love how I feel under conditions NOT present, who can decide to accept the present conditions and even to be grateful for them compared to the worse that might be but is not?