Thanks, Ed. Much in here that inspires food for thought and feeling.
"The difference between being an explorer rather than a futurist is that the futurist stands in the present and looks towards the future, and the explorer, instead, leaves the present behind to embrace an unknown future."
This made me think of a common phenomenon where when driving sometimes you feel the road ahead in coming towards you (as if you are stationary) and with a slight shift in consciousness you can then feel you are moving towards it (as if you are the one in motion and the road out there is stationary). Both are 'true' experientially though they arise depending on an internal orientation.
"the thinking that got us here is not the thinking that will get us out of here."
Indeed. And I wonder, reading this line, if 'thinking' itself is not at all what gets us out of 'here'. Maybe thinking is just one tool among many, that we've overused, and will need to put it in its proper place, among those other tools the human has at its disposal - though still requires development? Like intuitive faculties. Or a direct knowing that comes from connection to universal currents where information can be tapped and known, outside the highly limited individuated knowing, we get via thinking?
"What if our past experience instead of illuminating the future, obscures it?" That resonates. And goes to above comment.
"Once the frontier within has been embraced, then the next frontier will show itself."
I'll just saw that "thinking" in isolation from engagement creates a very truncated, limited view of the world. A whole body engagement with the world is required.
When Lewis & Clark went West, they studied the flora and fauna of the regions of the North American continent. They mapped their route. The engaged with the indigenous people along the way. What the experts predicted was that there was "a height of land" where all the rivers of the continent found its source. This notion was dispelled when they arrived at the Lemhi Pass and found endless mountain ranges unfolding towards the Western horizon. So, as explorers, they had to catalog their experience in order to understand where they had seen. And, then before they had even returned to St. Louis, the were passed by trappers heading West. The future enters the present very quickly.
My point is that we have to marshal our entire selves to embrace the future. Move forward and respond to what we observe approaching us on the road ahead.
"My point is that we have to marshal our entire selves to embrace the future. Move forward and respond to what we observe approaching us on the road ahead."
Completely agree and I wonder if these times of intense pressure are not transforming humans in ways they could not even imagine? Perhaps one of the results of that transformation will be a genuinely new understanding of what a human is as well as a reorientation of their relationship to the larger natural world and planet itself?
Both Emerson and Nietzsche wrote about spending time in nature, and in some instances, that they would be 'given' ideas, and understanding by simply opening to what nature offered. (Nietzsche actually said a large granite stone gave him his 'eternal return' doctrine.)
I'd suggest that nature abides in that current of universal information - as do we - and they simply opened themselves to it. The disconnect we've experienced from nature, living in and off the land, contributes, I imagine, to the disconnect people are experiencing in general, the consequential increase in anxiety, and naturally (pun intended) their lack of optimism for the future.
The present challenges are forcing people to reconsider many of the assumptions. One of those is what it means to be a human being. The question is what will we find if we truly looked in a holistic manner.
Thanks, Ed. Much in here that inspires food for thought and feeling.
"The difference between being an explorer rather than a futurist is that the futurist stands in the present and looks towards the future, and the explorer, instead, leaves the present behind to embrace an unknown future."
This made me think of a common phenomenon where when driving sometimes you feel the road ahead in coming towards you (as if you are stationary) and with a slight shift in consciousness you can then feel you are moving towards it (as if you are the one in motion and the road out there is stationary). Both are 'true' experientially though they arise depending on an internal orientation.
"the thinking that got us here is not the thinking that will get us out of here."
Indeed. And I wonder, reading this line, if 'thinking' itself is not at all what gets us out of 'here'. Maybe thinking is just one tool among many, that we've overused, and will need to put it in its proper place, among those other tools the human has at its disposal - though still requires development? Like intuitive faculties. Or a direct knowing that comes from connection to universal currents where information can be tapped and known, outside the highly limited individuated knowing, we get via thinking?
"What if our past experience instead of illuminating the future, obscures it?" That resonates. And goes to above comment.
"Once the frontier within has been embraced, then the next frontier will show itself."
I trust this is the case.
Thank you.
There is a lot of depth of reflection here.
I'll just saw that "thinking" in isolation from engagement creates a very truncated, limited view of the world. A whole body engagement with the world is required.
When Lewis & Clark went West, they studied the flora and fauna of the regions of the North American continent. They mapped their route. The engaged with the indigenous people along the way. What the experts predicted was that there was "a height of land" where all the rivers of the continent found its source. This notion was dispelled when they arrived at the Lemhi Pass and found endless mountain ranges unfolding towards the Western horizon. So, as explorers, they had to catalog their experience in order to understand where they had seen. And, then before they had even returned to St. Louis, the were passed by trappers heading West. The future enters the present very quickly.
My point is that we have to marshal our entire selves to embrace the future. Move forward and respond to what we observe approaching us on the road ahead.
"My point is that we have to marshal our entire selves to embrace the future. Move forward and respond to what we observe approaching us on the road ahead."
Completely agree and I wonder if these times of intense pressure are not transforming humans in ways they could not even imagine? Perhaps one of the results of that transformation will be a genuinely new understanding of what a human is as well as a reorientation of their relationship to the larger natural world and planet itself?
Both Emerson and Nietzsche wrote about spending time in nature, and in some instances, that they would be 'given' ideas, and understanding by simply opening to what nature offered. (Nietzsche actually said a large granite stone gave him his 'eternal return' doctrine.)
I'd suggest that nature abides in that current of universal information - as do we - and they simply opened themselves to it. The disconnect we've experienced from nature, living in and off the land, contributes, I imagine, to the disconnect people are experiencing in general, the consequential increase in anxiety, and naturally (pun intended) their lack of optimism for the future.
The present challenges are forcing people to reconsider many of the assumptions. One of those is what it means to be a human being. The question is what will we find if we truly looked in a holistic manner.
Completely agree! So, despite the pressure-cooker, it's really an amazing time to be human on planet earth. Thanks, Ed. So appreciate your posts.