The Right Way to Flourish

Before you write me that there is a typo in the title, don’t bother. The small “d” is intentional. I am not writing about the big sense of Democracy, as in Democracy versus Socialism or any other political ideology. I want to focus on democracy as a particular way of interacting at all scales from families all the way to nations. If we are to flourish as both individuals and a global community, we must change our routine behaviors, that is our norms, such that the unintended consequences that are producing unsustainability and the growing departure form our common visions… Read More

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> Let’s go back to first principles. Call it automation, call it robots, or call it technology; it all comes down to the concept of producing more with fewer workers. Far from being a scary prospect, that’s a good thing. > Becoming more efficient (what economists call “productivity”) has always been central to a growing economy. Without higher productivity, wages can’t go up and standards of living can’t improve. What’s wrong with this quote? It appeared in an oped piece, by Steven Rattner in today’s (June 22, 2014) NYTimes Sunday Review section. The topic, as this quote suggests, was about… Read More

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The notion of care is central to my way to flourishing. I found it among my forays into philosophy while trying to understand more about just about everything. The notion of care or concern is central to Heidegger’s ontology of human Being. Like most people, I have struggled hard to get what Heidegger is saying and a clear sense of how he got there. Understanding what it is to exist as a human being is necessary and prior to fully appreciate what flourishing is. So before I get to care, a preface about Being. In my use of the term,… Read More

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My wife has been reading a biography of Margaret Fuller (*Margaret Fuller: A New American Life,* by Megan Marshall), who led a truly amazing life as a member of the better known Concord transcendentalists. She lived in a way as proof that women could stand up to her better known peers, Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, etc. Among the many accomplishments of her life was the establishment of a group of women holding regular “Conversations.” This was just one of her many actions to “transcend” the stronghold that men had over civic and other matters that affected how people lived. My wife… Read More

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I am still getting settled for the summer and deeply into my reading. I will restart my posts shortly. If you have any thoughts about where I/we should head, send your comments to the email address at the bottom of the list of posts on the right-hand side. I found a wonderful quote from Erich Fromm this morning in James Carroll’s column in the Boston Globe, “The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning.” My posts may become even scarcer as the sun has begun to shine here in Maine.

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> Habit and routine are great veils over our existence. As long as they remain securely in place, we need not consider what life means; its meaning seems sufficiently incarnate in the triumph of the daily habit. Now that I am fully relocated from Lexington to Maine for the elusive summer, I can get into my summer routines and habits. Two predominate: fishing and reading. The fish haven’t migrated far enough North yet, so I am largely relegated to reading. I brought up more than I usually can get through, but this year I have limited the subjects to two,… Read More

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> The transition from abundance to scarcity in a commons requires a profound change of values. In abundance, personal interests and individualism are the keys to success and growth. In scarcity, the values necessary for survival are a paradox: It is in the best interests of each and every individual to put the interests of the whole society above his own; survival and stability are possible in no other way. Those who live in the common environment of the planet are now experiencing the transition from abundance to scarcity. The immediate challenge ahead is not physical limits to growth (which… Read More

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Can you imagine life without buttons? There are times when neither Velcro or zippers will hold your clothes together. But do you ever think about buttons except when you struggle to button one? You should reflect on them from time to time because they are an essential tool that enables everyone to care for themselves. As you all should know by now, care is at the center of my path to flourishing. We flourish when we have acted to care for all the essential domains that made us human. Our flourishing is helped along by the care we receive from… Read More

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Last week I spent a day in Cleveland with my colleagues on our spirituality in business project. Our collective thinking is being publishing very soon as *[Flourishing Enterprise: The New Spirit of Business](http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=23936)*. It has the same editor and publisher, Stanford University Press as my last book. It continues the effort to put the ideas in my books into play. The arguments here are closely tied to those in *Flourishing*.With this book, I seem to have found a magic formula for getting one’s ideas into print. I wrote the first one one, *Sustainability by Design*, my own. Then Andy Hoffman… Read More

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A friend sent me this poem. I could never be so clear about what care is about. Advice by Lion Goodman An ink-black crow yelled at me, saying, Be responsible for everything: your life, and the lives of others. The war in Iraq, and children dying of starvation. Your neighbor’s happiness – and the Amazon rainforest. Your body’s health, and the community of elders in Tajikistan. The bacterial network in the soil, and the fungal mat beneath the roots of trees. The farm workers being slowly poisoned by pesticides, and the wilderness being stripped of its wildness. I complained loudly… Read More

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