Collaborating with Nature
In the course of scripting the television program "Mother Nurture", I realized that the whole notion of "nature versus nurture" was antithetical to the process. We're not doing either or. This isn't about either parents making people or nature making people. It's a collaborative process. People work with nature to shape the being into someone finely human.
It was interesting to watch the word "collaborative" show up on my screen. That is the work Linda is shifting to, moving her family law practice from courtroom combat which is always so dicey and which she deplores, to dignified divorce through collaboration. No judge who might have woken up on the wrong side of a law book, no filing motions back and forth to obfuscate and punish. When people choose the right way, they sit down together with respect and cobble out an agreement that is right for both parties. After all, they know the truth. Plus it means a shorter disentangling process, which costs a lot less money, and creates a minimum of dislocation and sorrow.
As I was perambulatin' the other morning with Buster, mulling and pondering, watching with a mixture of relief and glee as pieces of the script appeared, I realized that the shift from confrontation to cooperation was really at the very core of human beings. And that this transformation we find ourselves in — New Age, Aquarian Conspiracy, higher consciousness — is about a revolutionary change in our psychic posture. Instead of regarding each other as competition — which probably traces back to primitive times and scarcity — we want to view people as collateral assets in a significantly larger venture than simply putting food on tonight's table.
Another dialectic that scratches the inside of my head was the idea of god and evolution. For all these ages, we've viewed them as either-or, and argued and argued and didn't make any sense. But when you consider the alternative — both/and — it suddenly makes a lot of sense. Of course we know there's something going on called evolution. We see it in the changes in the species. But anyone with a modicum of mentality will acknowledge that evolution by no means explains everything. Whereas the evolution-god dyad answers most every question.
Notice I'm not capitalizing the g-word. The fact is that the higher consciousness that teams with evolution to make us what we are today is non-sectarian. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism -- these are just brand names, in fact, as evidenced by how noisy their adherents are about the differences when true wholeiness would induce them to celebrate the similarities and join together to minimize the variances.
There is a remarkable satisfaction that's derived from collaboration. In part because you're not fighting. In part because you're only responsibility for a piece of the action. And when you are truly collaborating, you're usually called upon to contribute your best self to a challenge where you can best shine with the least effort. What a concept. No, I didn't say it was here today, but it beats a lot of outlooks for tomorrow.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.