Sea Change

The last quarter century has brought a profound change to US culture. The 90’s seem like an innocent dream in which we enjoyed a sense of well-being, complacent in our material prosperity. 9-11 brought terrorism to the forefront of our minds, placing our sense of safety in question, which subsequent mass shootings have continued to erode. The 2016 election brought to the surface the depth of division in our country, and the 2021 attack on the Capitol added a threat to our identity as a democratic nation. In between these two events, our inability to respond capably to COVID-19 humbled us on many fronts. As a culture, we have experienced the loss of our national identity as safe, well-organized and successful nation.

Embracing a conscious sense of our incompetence will catalyze our growth as we see our need for growth and begin new works to bring about widespread change in our world.

  • When fear displaces reason, the result is often irrational hatred and division.

    Al Gore

  • The task is...not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.

    Erwin Schrödinger

  • And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

    Hebrews 8:13

  • Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

    Hellen Keller

  • Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war

    Martin Luther King Jr.

  • I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become. Carl Jung To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.

    Carl Jung

  • To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.

    Stephen Covey

  • Opting for peace does not mean a passive acquiescence to evil or compromise of principle. It demands an active struggle against hatred, oppression and disunity, but not by using methods of violence. Building peace requires creative and courageous action

    Pope John Paul II

  • If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is—infinite. But the doors of perception are hung with the cobwebs of thought: prejudice, cowardice, sloth.

    Evelyn Underhill

  • Terrorism is time-released fear….Pervasive, random gun violence, and systemic attacks against groups of people, and the growing vitriol on social media—all of these send fear, like hot lava, flowing across our communities, filling in the holes and eventually working to ravage already fragile and broken places

    Brené Brown

  • Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?

    Pema Chödrön

  • In many ways, there has never been a better time to be alive. Violence plagues some corners of the world, and too many still live under the grip of tyrannical regimes…And yet, fewer among us are poor, fewer are hungry, fewer children are dying… There is still much work to do, of course, but there is hope and there is progress.

    The Dalai Lama

  • In a time of destruction, create something.

    Maxine Hong Kingston

  • We have fallen out of belonging. Consequently, when we stand before crucial thresholds in our lives, we have no rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us as we cross over into the unknown. For such crossings we need to find new words. What is nearest to the heart is often farthest from the word.

    John O’Donohue

  • With the mud of discrimination and fanaticism, we grow the lotus of tolerance and inclusiveness.

    Thich Nhat Hanh

  • Let no obstacle stand in your way;/ get to work—/ you are young and fresh./ Break this fake sleep and snap out of your dreams;/ Then the storms of this world won’t concern you.

    Mahendranath Battacharya

  • Mankind has conceived history as a series of battles; hitherto it has considered fighting as the main thing in life.

    Anton Chekhov

  • And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

  • We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them

    Einstein

  • What you focus on expands.

    Oprah Winfrey

  • All things be ready if our mind be so.

    William Shakespeare

  • If you change some of the inner furniture of your mind, then you really change your life. “The mind altering alters all.”

    John O’Donohue

  • We have inherited great wealth, but we behave as if we are poor. We have a treasure of enlightenment, of understanding, of love, and of joy inside us. It is time to go back to receive our inheritance. Being mindful will help us claim it.

    Thich Nhat Hanh