What to Do Now?

Considering what it means to have an online presence today, I wonder if there is effectively something of ourselves that comes across when we write online, sharing an opinion or insight in some forum or another.

Is there something we honestly project as our personal expression, some authentic evidence of a creative identity, looking hopefully to rest properly in another intelligent mind, possibly surviving the slight dendritic pulsings of weary surfers and searchers, too busy, or languishing perhaps, in some far away chair, some near or distant moment of our timeful imagining?

Might we somehow be alive for a brief particular moment in this unknown person's thought? Is this background mulling now an integrated feature in how we reach out, how we attempt to touch each others' hearts, to leave some lasting impression in the mind? Or is this a more creatively primal and preliminary exercise, precursor to our learning to socialize more responsibly at deeper levels, to become more present not only at these multiple distances, but even more, to be present and awake in our communities and homes?

We move so fast, consume so much information, restless to keep up with a world wired already beyond our imagining, chasing a technical culture designed and destined to speed up more each day. How do we maintain our shared humanity, our dignity, our sensitivities to friends and beloveds, to our dearest comrades in this accelerating vortex of transformation that so stirs the pots and begging bowls of our deeper longings?

Do we ask too much of this cyberspace, this virtual commons and meeting hall? Do we expect enough? Too little? Can we gain anything constructive at all, besides witnessing the distraction and breadth that enriches this expanding marketplace of ideas, with clues floating so sparsely across the surging river of tomorrow's commerce? How does one maintain any consistent identity or sanity even, navigating these tides and eddies of continuous change and varied superficiality?

Philosophers have lamented the enormous waste of our throwaway society, something like three or four planets' worth of recycling presently needed to keep up if we all consumed with the disregard of the most indulgent among us. With more countries and peoples 'modernizing' all the time, global warming and such, polluted oceans and all, do we perhaps need some new way of being, not just here online, but in our neighborhoods, in our communities, our relationships; in our commerce, in our politics and diplomatic relations?

Lots of questions to consider. We could spend hours posing more. Weeks and months exploring endless complaints and worries about what we're all doing together, and individually here, to either improve this mess we're in, or frankly, many days, to ignore it. This later option becomes less dignified, less responsible every day that we hesitate to find some better approach to focusing our energies, some more effective use or expression of the gifts we've been given, some more visionary motive to get us through the day.

Yes, I used the word visionary. We are at a place in history, in time and space, in the re-imagining of our humanity where vision is being democratized, popularized, energized and resurrected yet again as a viable tool to restore integrity to our homes, to our gatherings, to our lives.

Buckminster Fuller titled one of his essays 'No More Second Hand God' describing how we each have revelatory capacities, creative ingenuities and inner musings, that if well tended and cultivated, would provide answers to solve even the most intractable problems of civilization. But this requires us to pay attention, to slow down enough to retrain our minds and our hearts.

Carol Adrienne, in 'The Purpose of Your Life' reported one of her students coming to a realization, saying he was struck by the thought that, "You can have anything you want. But you can't have everything."

We CAN have anything, but not everything...

Here is where we see that our intentions are more effective when focused, observing how they can also be rather fuzzy and diffuse. When they are focused, it is because we've decided as individuals that this is necessary and helpful to having a meaningful success in life. If our intentions are scattered and vague, it's because we haven't yet learned the value of limiting our desires and wants, of directing our energies in a more disciplined and purposeful way to get done what we know needs doing.

Individually, we can do a whole lot to make this a better place. We can each work to reclaim the central passions and callings of our lives, respecting one another's distinctive service and belonging to some higher order as well. That we can each be more fully ourselves seems clear. That the world will advance more quickly toward our best shared future when we support this in others - in all others - to me, this seems a lot more obvious every day.

Poets and mystics have always imagined some personal version of this better world. Our time, watching us move warily into this new century, in fact into a new millennium, carries the vision of a potentially huge step forward, practically demanding we clean up our acts, morally and ethically, while beginning yet again to better engage, encourage and support each other in coming more alive, more real.

Integrity, dignity, intelligence, respect, honor - these are all timeless and profound compasses pointing to the lives of fulfillment and satisfaction we might all envision with each other. For we cannot do this alone. If we are to have this golden prize for ourselves, it's imperative we offer it to others.

I hope you find echoes of this in your own thinking, overlapping ripples of connection, so you might share the realization that these thoughts can have real meaning only when they're lent something of the heart, something intangible, given freely from your own longings and dreams, from the irreplaceable presence of your own being.

This is how we find our way to gratitude and finally, to peace. Focus the inner purpose, pursue it with the best that's in you, and by doing so, discover how much easier it is to greet the many new friends waiting along the way.

So, what do you most want to do now?