Learning to design a better future

I was born in a family of political and social activists. Visitors to our home brought with them energy, ideas and commitment to making the world a better place. While listening to the passionate conversations at home and observing and sometimes participating in my parents’ activism I embraced a few simple principles of living that brought me a sense of purpose and joy: compassion, fair play, humanitarian and ecological sensitivities and engagement in creative activities.

As much as I recognize that human relationships and institutions are often driven by a craving for power, I have alway been more interested in becoming better at caring for and sharing with people I came in contact with. I have nurtured an implicit belief that cooperation rather than competition, creativity rather than confrontation, compassion rather than anger will help me build a network of relationships that will survive ideas that make us hate each other.

I do believe that we are all born with the capacity to appreciate beauty. We can also sense balance and harmony. I have therefore wondered why do humans make choices that create ugliness and imbalance. I found the answer in the realization that when we surrender our inner sensitivities and sensibilities to the voices of power mongers, we let ourselves drift. When we believe in others who promise us salvation or a wonderland we become deaf to our inner voice of reason and conscience. When we start seeking power we forget the most important thing that brings us more joy than any other possession- we forget how to love and play.

I have arrived at a conclusion that we need to become better at cultivating capacities for co-existence that nature has endowed in us. The two principle that will bring us sanity, harmony and joy are “Caring and Sharing”. We must apply our emotional, intellectual and physical energies to building relationships, institutions, and engagements based on caring for and sharing. We can make a start by becoming better at at learning to observe without judgement and to have a dialogue when our impulse wants confrontation.

I hope we can work towards designing such a future.