By Mitchell J. Rabin
Yes...there was a big, beautiful planet called Earth. And running all around her, as well as swimming inside her, were all types of interestingly shaped, sized and colored beings, each making their own unique sounds, hums and noises while moving about in their own unique ways. SSome walked, others crawled, some swam and yet others slithered. Despite the fact that some ate others for their sustenance, they all had a way of finding time to frolic, pro-create, rest, and those who were on land, bask in the warmth and rays of the sun. And in a strange, somewhat abstract way, all were somehow, more or less, co-existing on this beautiful, blue-green planet.
At a certain point along the way of the multi-billion-year history of this marvel of an Earth, a green gem of the solar system, appeared a being known initially as Neanderthal, and who later, much later, came to be known as a chimpanzee, oh wait, excuse me, as homo sapiens. Yes, in one of his now considered ancient languages, this meant "rational, or wise man" with a brain volume of a minimum of 1,350 cubic centimeters. What we have learned from biology and history, it is apparently not size that most matters.
He was a playful if mischievous creature, and due to his larger brain than that of his neighbors in the animal kingdom, in different ways, began to lord over them. He lived in accordance with the beauty and abundance of this amazing and extraordinarily rich, beautiful planet during which period, he was considered, according to another of his ancient languages from the other side of the Earth, living in the Tao, that is, the flow of life.
But one day, he began to plant seeds and grow crops. And then he realized that the more land he controlled, the more crops he could grow or animals he could herd and instead of just ingesting what he and his family or tribe needed at a given time, the herding turned into hoarding. Fights broke out in disputes as to who had control of what land, and before long, different belief systems developed, ideas of the Universe were cultivated, and alas, what we call human culture and civilization dawned, dominating Nature and all the kingdoms of Nature that came with Creation.
And even though more brain parts developed which allowed differing levels of consciousness, such as reflection, contemplation, imagination, self-awareness, a group of homo sapiens, not exercising the ‘sapiens’ part of the brain, kept acquiring and self-aggrandizing at the expense of the rest of the human flock.
So homo sapiens is indeed endowed with the potential for high-level functioning, on the levels of mind and heart, yet so many exercise so little of the potential which has been bestowed upon them and within them.
It takes leaders among homo sapiens today to call attention to the self-destructive-through-self-aggrandizing tendencies of this mischievous tribe, and to remind it of the meaning of its name: Wise, Rational Being. Wisdom contains heart (allowing sympathy and empathy), and rational allows for understanding consequences.
Some of those leaders are committed to contribution to a better world, and to be part, not of the problem, but the solutions we so need as a tribe here on this beautiful planet, which unfortunately, is getting polluted out of existence. We have such potential, and now we need to be schooled in how to use it.
Some of these leaders come to speak with me on A Better World Radio & TV, providing wise, provocative and sometime humorous counsel on what we most deeply are and what we can most effectively do to martial our energies and turn this spaceship around.
The more you stick around Progressive Radio Network and A Better World, the better the world will be.