“I can re-claim my own idealism and innocence, and it brings me the power!”
I was one of a group of 10 people who participated in a weekly conversation based on George Kinder’s latest book, A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness. Over the course of four weeks, we were lucky to have George Kinder himself facilitate a series of what he called “Golden Civilization Conversations.” The conversations posed questions to the group about what we each thought was needed to create a Golden Civilization, including “What do we want to see happen in the world to restore sustainability, equality, kindness, etc.?” Whatever any of us came up with was welcomed and added to a board divided in three vertical parts. The board captured answers to three main questions:
“What is important to creating a Golden Civilization?”
“What are the obstacles do we see?”
“What can we do about creating our vision?”
The discussions were wonderful! Each of us contributed ideas to all three questions. Getting to the action part was a wake-up call and a means of catharsis for everyone. The action could be as basic as being kinder or wishing to be kinder. Some of us came up with wonderful action ideas and plans that we could do in our homes, neighborhoods, cities, countries, and for our planet.
One of the best parts for me was George’s charge to live our vision of a Golden Civilization every day, every moment. This has shown me that there are many, many times in every day that life itself has many moments of a Golden Civilization if I look for it. I can also see that there are so many ways that my life and my world are very far from the Golden Civilization in the larger scale. I have much more clarity and empowerment to not accept the unacceptability—and to stand up to power. There is much to do, much to learn, and I know I don’t have to do this alone. George teaches freedom. I found my own sense of corruption in the sense of cynicism and exhaustion toward power. I can re-claim my own idealism and innocence, and it brings me the power!
And it was really fun!!!
Joan Luzier