Hi there. I'm James of December 2020, and this is my story of how we could grow bigger than our problems. Which problems? Well, I see three types: societal, relational, and personal.
Societal: our crumbling political norms and abysmal epidemic response have shown how little capability we have for large-scale coordination or sensemaking. We are gripped in culture war power struggle, with existential threats looming — inequity, authoritarianism, climate change, and the relentless progress of AI, nano-, bio-, and other technological power becoming more widely accessible.
Relational: our connections to physical tribes are gone or gutted. Church and traditional community connections are waning. We have fewer deep friendships, scattered more widely, strained by an age of algorithmically intermediated digital (dis-)connection and physical isolation. We crave belonging, connection, safety, and love.
Personal: we spend our lives in pursuit of happiness and find it elusive. Traumas large and small haunt us as we navigate adulting in a complex, rapidly changing world. The scripts of prior generations don't work for newer ones. We strive to fit in, to find ourselves, and to find meaning — then it's all overwhelming, so we cope by bingewatching shows while doomscrolling on our phones.
This whole complex system of you, I, we, and society must adapt by developing the capacity to survive and thrive at every level. None of us can beat the system alone, and there is no conventional solution. So what of a solution? More capable doing flows from being who we want to be, which starts with awareness and intention. Awareness is the means to pay attention to what's really happening — it breaks through the frames limiting our perspective. Intention is the will to cause something to change — it unlocks fluid, non-coercive motion through the paradox of accepting the world as it is alongside our desire to steer its future path.
Together they bring us the capacity to become our biggest selves and the capability to move through increasing complexity. This happens within our own selves, takes root in our relationships, and can then flow outward to grow a new system that can succeed the old one — personally, relationally, and societally.
Does this resonate with you? I was looking for allies: explorers and pioneers of co-creation, seeking to develop a kernel of inter-subjective practices supporting our growth in awareness and intentionality — particularly (but not exclusively) in mindfulness practices, human connection practices, adult development theory, cultural/societal evolution, and the future of work. We can find the way only by walking the path together.
Written by James, December 2020. Preserved here as a historical artifact of Intentional Society — the call that started it all.