« "Civilization" Is a Human Project; Not THE Only Possible Human Story »

It may have been the gorilla, Ishmael, (Dan Quinn’s book Ishmael) who first burst open the container in my mind that equated “civilization” and “human history.” Separating them sent me exploring like an animal first released from an enclosure. My mind began to laugh; my heart elevated.

You see, civilization scares me as it accelerates toward a precipice of it’s own choosing, and of its own dismantling—like an unconscious death wish hiding beneath a consciousness of achievement and bravado. After 12 millennia of “civilizing” the wild out of wilderness, as well as out of the wild-streak in all of us; and after subduing the autonomy of species perceived to be too brutish, even though they know the deep caring of eco-balance while we civilized ones don’t; I am ready to speak loudly through the megaphone: “We humans contribute our best capacities to Earth through our wild, full, and loving humanness, not through the rules of the civilization project underway since 10,000 BCE.”

We could have chosen worlds different from the one we’ve shaped through the civilization project. And that means we still can. Buddhist practice is known for emphasizing detachment. Christian scriptures urge us not to be conformed to the present age. Let’s detach further from this project gone bad, from this Frankenstein monster we’ve created from our inferior selves, and lets transform by the renewing of our minds, by moving into topographies of greater consciousness. Earth-sized consciousness is so much bigger and more mature than civilization consciousness.

As the Spirit-infused Earth and Cosmos evolved conscious life, they wrote early chapters in the book of life which they want us to add to working with them. So, we can’t stay stuck in civilization. We’re evolved and evolving to shape a story that is fully human, responsibly wild, lovingly autonomous, and humbled with wonder.