Dear Ornament Reader,

Due to ever-shifting global and national circumstances, the forces of change that pulsed through the twentieth century seem to be gathering even greater force during these six years into the twenty-first century. Many are realizing that the world has reached another critical tipping point. We have experienced an explosion of information and inventions, with no one left untouched and nothing remaining the same.

Not so long ago we also went through two wrenching, destabilizing elections: one a set-up for a Bush takeover and the second election given to him by an electorate too scared over this new monster called terrorism, setting off demagoguery about others’ religions. We are mired in yet another immoral, illegal war. Nature shows its astonishing power by striking a large part of the world with a huge underwater earthquake and the resultant devastating tsunamis; and a hurricane makes landfall on the United States and brings heartbreak and our own personal devastation, with the added bonus of re-opening the race and class divides that are endemic to American life.

Beneficial visions for the future are being addressed by a still relative minority, but these visionaries are stimulating discourse and behavioral modifications that encourage building flexible new humanitarian structures for preventing and resolving conflict—promoting holistic healing to encompass the spiritual diffuseness that leaves so much of modern life empty—inspiring methods for an improved, more sustainable world—and much more; and doing so with intelligent, deliberative and compassionate solutions.

We live in a time that requires a new kind of observance and attentiveness to how we work
and play; how we regard the world about us and the worlds beyond us; how we learn to conduct our commerce, politics and technologies. As we increasingly enter a totally new world where we are transferring our investments from fixed resources like fossil fuels, land and water to expandable resources like processing information, we must seriously reconsider and respect our core beliefs that guide us philosophically and spiritually. In a matter of a few hundred years we have changed the planet so radically that the fundamental issues to be addressed can be synthesized down to what critical steps do we humans take now, right now, so that we can live without destroying the environment and ourselves; so that there is a future capable of flourishing and evolving. This is an extremely vulnerable and sensitive age to be alive.

It is also a time to speak out and to speak up for the values and lives that most of us hold dear. This is not a time for silence and fear—otherwise a steady erosion of our wondrous rights and glorious liberties will become more manifest, and we will be manipulated into accepting and supporting a society and policies that in other nations we have denounced. Speak up! It is our turn on the wheel of life as it continues its evolution through the spans of time. This is our chance and our challenge to make the world better, more fair and equitable, a just world. Help us evolve a little bit more. Speak up!

 

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