By Jim Selman | Bio
I have been making the
case that our country is trapped in a vicious cycle, analogous to
alcoholism or any addictive spiral that inevitably leads to ‘hitting
bottom’, and that we need a rigorous ‘recovery’ program. Our
Constitutional Democracy cannot work if our founding principles, the
Constitution itself , and the institutions responsible for sustaining it
are not aligned and functioning as a whole. In the ‘recovery’
literature and all 12-Step programs, the first and primary question to
resolve is “Where is the bottom?” Have we had enough of having enough?
Are we ready to acknowledge that the system is broken and we are
powerless to fix it? If we are, then we can begin the real journey to
recovery.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
12_step_program
america
constitutional_democracy
context
faith
recovery
surrender
By Rick Fullerton | Bio
On my way to a candlelight vigil for climate
justice, I wondered who else would show up. It was minus 5 Celsius and
with the wind chill it felt like minus 25—bitterly cold by any measure.
Hardly a day to be concerned about global warming. Yet some 200
committed souls braved the cold—some on foot, some on bicycles, and
others (reluctantly) by car. By the time I arrived, the vigil
organizers had thankfully decided to move the event inside. Once out of
the cold wind, I was impressed by the strange bedfellows who had come
together to express their commitment to the future of the planet.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
climate_justice
collaboration
common_cause
faith
leader
purpose
 By Jim Selman | Bio
It was said that
the philosopher Martin Heidegger’s last words were “Only God can save
us.” He was, perhaps, one of the deeper thinkers (at least in modern
times) on the question of who we are and what is really going on. As
far as I know, he wasn’t religious. So what he meant by these words, if
indeed he said them, is open to question. My view is that he was
talking about the fact that all human beings live in interpretations of
“reality”—cultural and linguistic inventions—and that humanity is now
‘trapped’ in an interpretation that has no back door. That is, the
‘Cartesian’ worldview that now dominates the globe is so powerful that,
like a black hole,[ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
Tagged with:
faith
future
god
heidegger
possibility
transformation
vision
By Jim Selman | Bio
There is a widely understood belief in
Argentina’s culture that “the way we are is a big part of the problem …
and one of our characteristics is that we’re always waiting for a
leader to come along and save us.” The first time I heard this I was
giving a talk to a large event in Buenos Aires. A man stood up and
challenged my ‘American optimism’, suggesting that I just didn’t
understand the way things really were in ‘their’ country. My response
was to acknowledge that this may be true and to suggest that, since
they were all waiting for the leader to appear, perhaps he could take
the job until the leader came along. That got a chuckle or two and
drove home my point. We live as if[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Leadership
Tagged with:
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faith
genie
leader
miracle
possibility
vision
 By Shae Hadden | Bio
My life is my game—no one else’s. And I create the rules. What freedom,
what choices, what responsibility! Playing ‘by the rules’ means playing
according to choices I’ve made about what’s ‘best’ for me. And that’s
left me in a quandary, because many ‘old rules’ don’t fit anymore. It’s
time to examine them, keep the ones that still suit me and replace any
unworkable ones. So here I am, wondering how to pick and choose from
the rules I have been playing by. Yet is it possible for us to know what choices, what rules will be ‘right’?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
choice
faith
freedom
future
responsibility
rules
trust
In the late 80s, Anne Wilson Schaef and Diane Fassel wrote a book called The Addictive Organization.
While I have a very different experience and theory than what they were
proposing, I think their metaphor was perfect. For me, the idea that an
organization or society can become ‘addicted’ is not a metaphor. I
believe, like Charles Horton Cooley, that “Individuals and
organizations are not separate phenomenon; they are the collective and
distributive aspects of the same thing”. The way I express this idea is
that “the ego is to the individual what the culture is to the
organization (or society”). What I am saying is that, from a phenomenological perspective, the ego
and culture are both self-referential structures of interpretation. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
Tagged with:
addiction
breakdowns
control
faith
perspective
trust
I have written about resignation on several occasions. I think we need
to remember this is a condition in which we give up, but do so in a way
that hides the fact that is what we are doing. Resignation is a big
part of what we think of as the ‘human condition’ and, in my opinion,
it can become more pervasive as we age. I frequently speculate on what
will happen if enough of us become resigned about something at the same
time. My view is that the resignation becomes the reality when this
happens. I am in Buenos Aires this week.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
age
argentina
change
faith
possibility
resignation
I have been doing a bit of work in the area of corporate social
responsibility (CSR) lately. It is becoming a hot topic in
organizations and a lot of very committed people are thinking about how
to think about the mix of economic, social and environmental concerns.
Traditionally, the sole purpose of business as an economic enterprise
is to make a profit—and therein lies the problem. Yes, all would agree
that this purpose includes being ethical, honest and responsible for
stakeholders directly related to the organization and its activities.
The fact is that business today is the predominant institution in the
world—in terms of resources, governmental influence, technology and
capacity to bring about change. Whether business has been a major
contributor to the problems in the world is arguable. More importantly,
it most definitely must be a major part of the solutions. Until recently, CSR has been for many (though not all) companies either
a necessary component of public relations or a sincere project to find
new ways to work and do ‘the right thing’.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
commitment
corporate_social_responsibility
csr
faith
purpose
responsibility
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