Hello readers,
I just spied a book in the book return (which I have not read), but the title caught my eye. The book is called “Abundance: The Future is Brighter Than You Think”, by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler. Quickly, I read the synopsis on the front flap of the jacket, and I was further intrigued. The co-authors insist that we are currently developing sufficient sustainable technology that will allow us very soon to eradicate world hunger, transform polluted and even raw sewage to perfectly clean drinking water, create vertical agricultural systems that use less land, less water, and zero pesticides, and on and on…
I opened the book at random, and I found a paragraph with the authors’ definition of abundance. I think this definition is noteworthy, so I am quoting it here (emphasis added by me in last sentence)
“Perhaps a better way to edge toward a definition of abundance is to start with what I am not talking about. I am not talking about Trump Towers, Mercedes-Benz, and Gucci. Abundance is not about providing everyone on this planet with a life of luxury – rather it’s about providing all with a life of possibility. To be able to live such a life requires having the basics covered and then some. It also means stanching some fairly ridiculous bleeding. Feeding the hungry, providing access to clean water, ending indoor air pollution, and wiping out malaria – four entirely preventable conditions that kill, respectively, seven, three, three, and two people per minute worldwide is a must. But ultimately, abundance is about creating a world of possibility: a world where everyone’s days are spent dreaming and doing, not scrapping and scraping.”
While it seems to me that the priorities and values we promote globally create the world situation as it stands today, I feel we all need to step back and take responsibility for this status quo. The heartbreaking experiences of war, famine, pollution, and oppression world-wide are the result of too many people living from the wrong place. I agree with the authors, and I rejoice that so many people are striving to create real solutions to real problems in a selfless manner.
So the true path to abundance is for each of us to make the conscious choice to live from our hearts, to turn away from fearful neediness and to train ourselves to share our gifts with the world, confident that we will all profit from our talents.
I have spent so much of my own life, as the authors say, “scrapping and scraping”, wasting my own time, energy, and dreams just trying to survive…as my dreams struggle to be heard. I haven’t given up on my dreams, but I feel lonely in my dreaming. Why don’t we all encourage our children to dream and create conditions so that each dream is not only considered valid, but given room to expand and develop? Competition is killing so many of us, forcing us to live lives that are serflike, sterile, and without joy, when a meaningful life is what we all crave at the deepest level. The world contains endless possibilities. I keep reading testimonies about the fullness and generosity of life as pure potential, believing it, but not yet experiencing the potential of my own life to its fullest.
Abundance is already here, ready since the beginning of human awareness for us to enjoy. When will we start to live the reality that is our birthright and which would give every single one of us a life of great joy, challenge, excitement, and meaning? Today is a great time to start making the transition from fear to love, and to risk sharing who we are with the world!
adamevenevenadam 