In U.S. culture the word good has become highly associated with the word more. In the Handbook Dr. M. describes how your brain thrives on associative links, your mind needs to fill in the blanks, and your imagination loves information in the form of stories. Words and ideas become associated with your feelings and emotions and the network of associative links shape your habits of behavior. Good means to be desired or approved of, pleasing and welcome. I do not see a problem with good. Good seems good to me! Of course, if we insist that everyone see the same things as good then we increase the probability of conflict. If we insist that everyone see the same things as good at the same time that we do we increase the probability of conflict. The Enia believe that good is relative but there are also certain good ideas and values that all Ti-Enia will rise to in their time. Dr. M. said that the Enia have the power to force change on the Ti-Enia but they choose not to because enduring change must come from within. We can all learn from their example. Nurture the inner and the outer will give form to it. Impose form on the outer without nurturing the inner and the outer form will crumble into the void.
It seems to me that in Western Culture, good has become associated with the ownership of things and conspicuous consumption. Power is good! Prestige is good! High Social Status is good! Owning more stuff is good! That may be alright on some level but a problem arises when the word enough becomes negatively associated with good, and the word more becomes so powerfully positively associated with the word good that wanting more of anything and everything that we experience as good seems so obvious as not to require any hesitation or thought. More Power, more prestige real or imagined, more social status, more stuff! Good and more is a problematic association in the environment of human emotions, needs, desire, instincts, and drives. Good’s negative association with the word enough is the other side of the problem. When is good enough, good enough? Maybe a test score or an auto repair job is not good enough. But, maybe there are some things that are good enough just as they are for now. You know the Handbook is about adults’ responsibility to teach the youth so they can rise. So what do you tell them about good enough? What associations do you want them to form between the word, idea, and feeling of good, and the word, idea, and feeling of enough?
We eat something and experience it as good and say ‘more’, instead of saying that experience was ‘good (and I have had) enough’. We are now the most obese population on the planet. I think a good example of the strength of the good-more association is the successful Storage Rental industry. I’m not talking about the people who require temporary storage because they are in transition, or those who use them for business purposes. I’m thinking about all of those people who need to rent storage space simply because they have not disconnected good from more. Our mother earth is a finite reality. The drinkable water, the balanced chemistry of the air, the atmospheric limitation on the suns powerful rays, the vital oxygen given out by the trees, the land under our feet are all under assault because of the unchallenged association of good with more. How can the next generation come to understand that there are times when good is good enough? There are actually times when good enough is the best course of action. There are times when more is not better. In fact there are times when more, even of that which we experience as good, is downright deadly. Water is a good we can all agree on. Yet people have killed themselves from more in the form of over-hydration.
In the Handbook Dr. M. speaks to U about the process of coming into the world, being born into a cultural fish tank. The Prime Directive is a guideline for all of the important decisions we have to make for our children and that they will have to make for themselves and their children. If we teach them to follow in our footsteps they are on the wrong path for sustainability. You know that and there is enough evidence around you for you to believe that what you know is the truth. Humanity is on the brink of an abyss shaped out of our bad choices. Our children need to find a different way of being in the world. Their creativity and natural talents hold the secrets to new ideas, new definitions of community, new ways of building cities, new modes of transportation, new ways of preserving our environment and all of her forms of life. This is what Dr. M. and the Enia are hoping and working for. Their goal is to unlock the potential of our youth by unlocking the minds of those who are closest to them, their parents, teachers, counselors, mentors, and friends. The primary Mission of the Peaceful Space Project is to promote the Prime Directive of the Human Family and give our youth the opportunity to choose a different paradigm for building the future.
Living in alignment with the Prime Directive
is a choice to which everyone should be invited!
You have been invited!
You have been invited!
Create Peaceful Space!
Trust Your Process!
Peace, Love, and Health!
