Where we go from here
Seek connection, give hope, forge ahead
The opening session of the Transformational Presence Leadership and Coaching program often begins with a group exercise to experience two contrasting fundamental worldviews. So let’s start with a very short version of that exercise.
Look around your space and imagine that everything you see is completely separate from you—that you have no relationship to anything you see. Assume that everything exists independently of everything else. You may or may not actually believe this, yet just for a moment, set aside what you believe and allow yourself this experience. Assume that your presence has no impact on your surroundings, and your surroundings have no impact on you. There is no connection. Whether you find this comfortable or uncomfortable, stay with it a bit longer to feel the impact of viewing the world as everything is separate—nothing is connected. Take the time you need.
And then take a deep breath. Shift your focus to assume and trust that there is a connection between you and everything you see—that something happens in the space in between you—that if you allow it, you recognize a relationship or connection of some kind. If nothing else, at this moment, you are sharing the same space together. There is an energy between you; it might draw you closer together, or it might push you apart, or it could simply be a recognition. You might notice, even if only subtly, that how you show up is impacted by your environment and the things, people, and animals around you.
Give yourself a few moments in this way of seeing, assuming that everything you see will elicit some kind of presence or response, even if it is indifference. Something exists in the “space in between.”
What does this experience show you about how you view the world? Do you believe that everything is somehow connected to everything else, or do you assume that nothing is connected—that everything is separate—that there is no relationship between things or people unless that relationship is forged by intention or circumstance?
This fundamental worldview shapes how you respond to everything and everyone around you. If you believe that every person, family, culture, and situation or circumstance is separate and distinct from every other—that anything that happens to one has no impact on another—then you interpret things things coming together unexpectedly merely as coincidence. Yet if you believe everything is connected to everything else, even if the connections aren’t obvious at first, you tend to see the unexpected coming together as synchronicity. Something brought them together—a greater purpose or intelligence, even if not yet recognized. You may or may not understand it, yet you sense that it’s there.
So, to recap, most of us see the world either as a grid of unconnected dots, or as a matrix of relationships where every dot is connected to at least one other, and perhaps more.
Which brings me to the final week of the 2025 Chautauqua program season that concluded last Friday. The theme for the week was “Past Informs Present: How to Harness History.” The speakers all brought interesting perspectives and insights on our past, present, and future. It was ultimately a week about legacy—the legacy we receive from the past as well as the legacy we are creating now for those who will come after us.
Questions explored during the week included:
What do we learn from those who have gone before us?
What are we learning (or not learning, as the case may be) from our own as well as others’ past experiences, circumstances, and events—personal as well as historical? Are we acknowledging the truth that each past generation shaped their present and future by their choices, actions, attitudes, and decisions, and that we are now doing the same? What parts of our heritage are we currently lifting up and celebrating, and what parts are we denying?
What future realities are we currently creating that we will leave to those who come after us?
For me, the glue that held the week together was actually the preacher. Brian McLaren preached in the Sunday morning ecumenical worship service in the amphitheater that began the week, and then at the short morning services Monday through Friday. He’s a public theologian and Dean of the Faculty at Father Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC), in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Now I admit that, while I usually attend the Sunday morning services here at Chautauqua, I rarely attend the weekday services. The preacher has to touch my heart and engage my intellect in a profound way for me to cut short my early morning reflection time by the lake. And he did.
In his short sermons, Brian McLaren called in indigenous and spiritual wisdom from many traditions across the ages. And he drew clear distinctions for where we stand today, individually and collectively, by speaking in dualities. Spiritual teachings generally encourage us to move beyond duality thinking, yet Brian McLaren masterfully used dualities to heighten our awareness of the stark realities of our times. He posed simple yet powerful questions. I share three of them here in a combination of his words and mine.
Are we living and breathing as indigenous spirits, recognizing the interconnectedness of all, or are we fundamentally viewing the world as colonizers, seeking power, influence, and even command over the world around us?
Do we believe that we belong to the land, or that the land belongs to us, and that it’s there for us to use as we please to fulfill our own interests and desires?
Do we see ourselves as part of a greater whole and, therefore, choose to care for and nurture the wellbeing of all? Or are we independent forces, individually or corporately or nationally, seeking to control others for power and dominion, imposing our interests, desires, beliefs, and ways of living on them?
These are critical questions for us as individuals and as a collective. Because how we answer these questions informs how we look at everything. How the prevailing mass consciousness views the world—as connected or separate—ultimately informs our collective social and political choices as well as our overall sense of safety, security, and wellbeing.
Of course, for many of us, it’s not so “black and white.” There are many “shades of gray”—many subtleties that take us beyond such dualistic thinking. However, sometimes we need the starkness of duality to wake us up to the many layers of complexity within the collective consciousness. Which starts with examining our own worldviews and how we personally engage the world around us every day—our perspectives, attitudes, choices, decisions, and actions. What is the worldview that we are currently living into reality?
I like to think of myself as open, curious, and generous of spirit. In general, I’m an “everything is connected” guy. Yet if I’m honest, I also have to acknowledge that while that’s my ideal, I don’t always live up to it. Sometimes, usually out of fear and uncertainty, I catch myself becoming “singular”—feeling separate from everything and everyone else—and shifting into survival or protection mode. Maybe sometimes that happens with you, too?
Understanding and recognizing this fundamental worldview duality—that either everything is connected or everything is separate—in ourselves and in others can help us understand how and why people make some of the choices they make, take the stands they take, or embrace particular leaders or movements.
At the most basic levels of human behavior, when our worldview is that everything is separate from everything else, we are more likely to compete for power and dominance as a way of survival. Our initial motivation when first meeting a new person or situation, conscious or unconscious, is to find out whether this person or situation is good or bad, friend or foe. This worldview fosters a belief that our ability to survive depends on how good we are at fending off attackers. At its extreme, it supports living in protection and survival modes all the time, ready to defend what we perceive to be ours, attacking anything we may perceive as a threat, and being always on guard so that nothing can be taken from us.
Yet when our worldview is that everything is somehow connected to everything else, we are more likely to take a different approach. We’re more likely to listen for common ground or for a key to understanding the other’s position. When we see the world as a matrix of connections, we are more likely to acknowledge that we need each other. We can only thrive in this world through healthy relationships and interactions. It doesn’t mean that we always necessarily like or agree with everyone we encounter; it means we’ve found a way to co-exist. Building relationships is the key to nearly everything.
It’s not just about our relationships with other people; it’s also about our relationship with the land. Which takes us back to Brian McLaren’s question: Do you belong to the land, or does the land belong to you? When we view our entire world as an interconnected ecosystem of which we are a part, and when we understand that the ultimate wellbeing of every person and every part of the system is dependent on the wellbeing of all, we make different choices and take different actions. We start building a future together instead of focusing on grievances or personal gain. We build alliances and expand awareness. We take care of the whole, individually and collectively.
Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) was a social, environmental, and political activist from Kenya and the founder of the Green Belt Movement. And she was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In her Nobel Prize Lecture on December 10, 2004 in the City Hall of Oslo, Norway, she said:
In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.
—Wangari Maathai
Culturalization runs deep within us—deeper than most of us want to acknowledge. No matter how aware we may be, most of us still have some deep subconscious beliefs, patterns, and worldviews that run counter to what we like to tell ourselves we believe and who we prefer to tell ourselves that we are. Getting down to those core beliefs and perceptions is part of our work now if we are going to reverse some of the current trends in many countries around the world.
Times like these call us to go deeper inside to root out our own fundamental beliefs about how the world works. And to ask ourselves very directly, “Are these beliefs in alignment with who I wish to be and how I want to show up in the world? Are they in alignment with the world I want to live in? Am I living how I want to be remembered?”
Transformation is an “inside out” process, whether within an individual, a family, an organization, a culture or society, or a country. It starts with a shift in fundamental perceptions, beliefs, awareness, and understanding. Our fundamental worldviews have profound influence on our present and our future, as well as how we see history—on the world we create for ourselves now and for those who will come after us.
Last week, Brian McLaren spoke of “letting go to something bigger.” In Transformational Presence, we call this surrender in its highest form—not giving up, but rather giving over to something larger, to “what wants to happen” in service of something bigger than ourselves. Surrender as partnership and co-creation with a greater potential.
We can’t control the choices and actions of others. Most of us are not in such public positions that our voice alone will shift policy-makers’ decisions. Yet what we can do is keep challenging and stretching our own worldviews—our deep subconscious conditioning about how the world works.
We can look for how the dots connect between people, circumstances, choices, and actions at all levels of society. We can be honest and compassionate with ourselves as well as others when we and/or they react from a perspective of separation and fear instead of from connection and generosity of spirit. We can keep stretching ourselves. We can stand up for policies and structures that support the wellbeing of all. And we can create safe environments that allow for connection and community.
Sustainable transformation can’t happen any faster than the mass consciousness transforms. The mass consciousness transforms organically as we transform—person by person, group by group. Just believing that everything is connected to everything else is not enough. We have to live it—you and me.
Sabrina Lynn Motley, Director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, spoke towards the end of last week. She mentioned the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), whose perhaps most famous quote is:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead
In talking about what defines America, Sabrina Motley recalled Margaret Mead’s belief that compassion and cooperation in the face of hardship are what truly define a society. Mead said that life does not stop for difficult times. Well, here we are. We can’t stop now.
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Thank you Alan! This gives me hope!!
Thank you for these wise words, Alan. I am on a walking trip in Quebec; what a perfect time to notice connections and see what they have to teach me.