| Reflections on the
Worth of Lifespring
Our concern
is to generate openings for accomplishment and effective action
in a world of peace and caring human interaction. Lifespring
is an organization dedicated to the possibility of the individual
and the world. Lifespring is an opening for designing ourselves
such that we act out of the concern and commitment that we
are. We proudly acknowledge our proficiency as a clearing
for evoking people's commitment in a caring climate.
Transformation
continues for us as we shift our way of being to be consistent
with your needs and the general needs of our society. As the
rate of change quickens, I see us like the man Plato describes
in his work "The Statesman:"
Everyone
of us is like a man who sees things in a dream and thinks
that he knows them perfectly and then wakes up to find that
he knows nothing.
Staying awake
in the face of that seductive dream state necessitates constant
self-assessment, critique, and renewal. As the inscription
on Mark Twain's bust in the Hall of Fame reads, "Loyalty
to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human
soul." In my evaluation of Lifespring, I ask, what is
the concern and commitment that we are, and how are we demonstrating
it?
One of our goals,
certainly, is to contribute to your well-being as an individual.
But is it possible to attain individual well-being independent
of the social organism? One of the fundamental principles
upon which America was founded is individual liberty. However,
can we separate individual liberty from social responsibility
in a practical sense? I ask these questions not to provoke
political debate, but to illuminate that we are social beings,
and that it is our participation as social beings that causes
progress, fulfillment, and the opening of possibility.
"It
may be that the human facility for invention . ... is a by
product of the need to live in stable social groups."
-
Richard Leakey, Origins
Page
2
|
