Below is Whisper #48 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains.
Given all the work that goes into enhancing the human experience, why isn’t humanity advancing faster? Perhaps it’s because there is no unifying mission to our work. Ego and tribalism divide, and our planet is still dominated by both.
How many widgets can a company produce? How much territory can an empire acquire? How many converts can a religion muster? These questions all bring me back to the northern plains during the second half of the nineteenth century, when we nearly killed all the buffalo.
Why did we kill virtually all the buffalo? Money, greed, ego, tribalism, and capacity. What if every human organization (be it private, public, secular, or spiritual) adopted a shared mission? Just what might that mission be? I suggest the following:
Let’s help every person on Earth feel trusted, respected, valued, and heard.
If everyone on Earth felt trusted, respected, valued, and heard, what might change? I think everything might change. The center is everywhere. It lives within us all. As a result, progress can only be achieved by helping individuals to find their center and thereby activate their Seventh Power.
Human organizations need a new mission—one that is bigger than their own industry, territory, ego, or god. As long as we are working for a subset of humanity, humanity will continue to be divided. A better goal could change all of this.
Help others feel trusted. Help others feel respected. Help others feel valued. Help others feel heard.
This is the mission.
