Humankind Advancing, Vol.12, No.2 April 2001
Theme: Expanding Horizons
CONTENT
Editorial
Discoveries in Neuroscience (Fred Gage)
Quotes from Williams and from Haulk
Quotes from Elgin and from Suzuki
The Generation of Wisdom
Harvesting the Fruits of Age (Baltes & Baltes); excerpts
Sperry-Berry Comparison
Laying the Foundations
SOS Children's Villages
Quote from Williams
Developing Responsibility for our Future
It Takes a Universe (Charles Bull)
Ideas and Dreams
Robert Muller
Mark Satin
A Practical Suggestion
W. Akin Hassan
The Bright Side of Old Age (two letters)
Reflections
Discoveries in Neuroscience (Eric Kandel)
Acknowledgments
References
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Editorial:
A person's horizon expands during his or her entire lifetime. But in old age, insight and wisdom are actually furthered, beyond the accumulation of experience, by the fading away of smaller and relatively unimportant details of daily life, which allows for a new and more accurate vision into the distance. -- It is as if the leaves had dropped from interfering trees in the fall, and a marvellous mountain range appears on the horizon that was previously invisible.
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Besides, as has only recently been discovered, the brain can grow new cells. An article in TIME(August 7, 2000, p.50) reports that a 49-year old neurobiologist, Fred Gage at the Salk Institute for Behavioral Studies at La Jolla, California, discovered two years ago that -- contrary to all previous knowledge and teaching about the brain -- neurons are constantly renewed, most of all in the learning and memory centers. Until his groundbreaking experiment was conducted, it was always believed that the neurons a person was born with had to last an entire lifetime.
Of most interest is that the new cells were generated by neural stem cells, that is cells with the ability to transform themselves into any kind of brain cell, determined by the kind of chemical stimulus they encounter while they grow. They may even belong to a still more ancient type, one which retains the ability to become any cell in the body -- not only a brain cell. Gage showed the location of such actively growing cells in the hippocampus.
The discovery opens exciting possibilities far beyond the increase of memory -- such as the treatment of epilepsy, stress, and depression (neurogenesis slows during stress). Gage even believes that behaviour (e.g.exercises) may encourage nerve growth and alter the brain.
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Our highest goals are at the horizon, but as we move towards their achievement, the horizon moves on. We do not live on a flat earth, with a `final and absolute' boundary. In time and space our universe is spherical. Life is part of the action within that Universe, and it shares its unendingness.
Life is to strive, to move `forward'. Goals are milestones along the path, and there is no final goal - after which we drop of the edge of this life/universe!
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There is a message, an opportunity, in every encounter, no matter how fleeting. We can not take all opportunities, far from it. We must continually make choices, and with every choice we foreclose options as well as open up options. We have only a limited action ability, and our creativity must be directed for best effect. It is sifting out of the many messages that is the perennial problem. We have to be discriminatory, that is what we have minds for. It is a matter of using our discrimination, and not being pushed around by the rush of life, the constant clamour for attention of all the myriad things of life, the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Unlike the blind men and the elephant, we cannot simply put all our points of view together and come up with an "elephant" since the universe is a changing reality that yields to our perceptions and conceptions. By organizing according to our own general understanding, we merely create a crippled universe retarded by our need for control.
* * * * *
Teenagers are reckless and tend to think they live forever, the human family is acting recklessly in its rapid consumption of natural resources, behaving as if they would last forever.
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The Story of the Aral Sea. (Condensed excerpt from a Suzuki Foundation Report, Summer 2000) -- In the 1950s, the Soviet Union decided the great plains around the Aral Sea were ideal for growing cotton and built a series of dams on the great rivers that fed the sea. Some 40 000 km of canals were then dug from the dam reservoirs to divert water to the fields. -- But the sea began to shrink. At first, the villagers in fishing towns like Muynac on the water's edge assumed this was a temporary condition and dredged canals to allow fishing to continue. But soon canals were 30 km long! -- Then the fish began to die, as run-off full of pesticides and salt from the fields poisoned the water. Eventually, every native fish species became extinct. Today, Muynac is more than 100 km from the sea. -- The sea's water level has dropped by 16 meters and exposed a vast area of seabed that is laced with pesticides. Now, when the wind blows, toxic dust spreads across hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. -- As a result, people in this region have the highest incidence of tuberculosis in the world, plus elevated levels of a host of bronchial and kidney problems as well as cancer. Leonid Elpiner, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recites a litany of problems ranging from increased microbial contamination of water to higher levels of chemical pollution of air, water and food; intestinal diseases; polio, viral hepatitis and non-infectious diseases. -- Zita Mazhitova, Head of Pediatrics at Kazakh State University, reports that 80% of fertile women in the region are anemic, while 87% have various chronic diseases. Mortality has doubled and life expectancy dropped. Children are especially vulnerable. Mazhitova's devastating analysis concludes: "There are no healthy children in the Aral Sea area and 89% of them have several organs and systems affected at the same time."
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THE GENERATION OF WISDOM
Harvesting the Fruits of Age
Growing Older, Growing Wise
By Paul B. Baltes and Margret M. Baltes
Excerpts from an article that was originally published in National Forum: The Phi Kappa Phi Journal, Volume 78, Number 2 (Spring 1998). Copyright by Paul B. Baltes and Margaret M. Baltes. By permission of the publishers and P.B.Baltes.
The good news of old age even includes some aspects of psychological functioning where, in the long run, there is hope for an age-associated advance in functioning. Two examples are emotional intelligence and wisdom. In emotional intelligence, that is, the ability to understand the causes of emotions (such as hate, love, or anxiety) and the ways to control and use them effectively for problem solving, we seem to improve with age during adulthood. This improvement is particularly noticeable when difficult interpersonal problems of life are involved.
The second example of an instance of positive aging and a new frontier of mastery is wisdom. Historically, wisdom is the peak of human excellence, the perfect integration of knowledge and character. In extensive research being conducted at the Berlin Max Planck Institute for Human Development, wisdom is defined as "expert knowledge about life in general and good judgment and advice about how to conduct oneself in the face of complex, uncertain circumstances."
Our research results have supported the notion that wisdom is a domain where older adults can excel. Older adults in particular seem to have acquired the dispositions and skills to benefit from such social exchanges with others to solve the dilemmas of life. Here may lie the foundation for the many success stories of grandfathers, grandmothers, and older mentors who are able to express warmth, understanding, and guidance.
For us, such findings on the age-friendliness of wisdom-related knowledge and skills are cause for optimism. Only during the last century have so many people reached old age. With more and more people living longer, and thus -- at least potentially -- growing wiser and wiser, who is to say what the aging mind may contribute to the future? (p.13)
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Nevertheless, it is admitted that with further advancing age -- say between 75 and 100 years -- the disadvantages of aging become more pronounced, while the advantages recede. In spite of these findings, the authors discern ways to circumvent average developments. They go on to say:
There is hope, however. Hope exists not only because of scientific and cultural progress, but also because we as individuals are powerful creators of aging as well, even in the face of increasingly limitless resources. We can adopt strategies for successful aging. There is growing evidence, for instance, that people can find effective strategies of life management in the face of reduced reserves and adaptive fitness.
Consider what Arthur Rubinstein said when asked how he managed, at the age of 80, to remain such a good concert pianist. He indicated that he preserved high-level concert performance by playing fewer pieces, practising them more often, and using variations and contrasts in speed to generate the impression of faster play. When considering his answer we can detect three processes at work: selection, optimization, and compensation. Rubinstein restricted his repertoire (selection). At the same time, narrowing the scope of his repertoire gave Rubinstein the opportunity to practice each piece more often (optimization). And finally, he looked for alternate means (compensation) that would overcome aging losses, for instance, in psychomotor coordination and finger agility.
Selection means a reduction in the number of goals we strive for and their relative priorities. For instance, a man experiencing visual problems might not be able to engage in reading books anymore, but he might be able to listen to tapes to engage his mind. Furthermore, there are new settings and goals in late life that can give meaning and forward movement. Coming to grips in old age with one's own mortality and finitude is a new goal that can harbour flourishing insights. A new and old-age- appropriate spirituality emerges. Similarly, old people seek new leisure activities and relationships and forms of intimacy with their families and friends, often in new settings and locations. Maintaining one's physical health is also of increasing importance and requires attention and monitoring.
Compensation skills in particular move to center stage. Hearing aids and household support personnel are typical examples; however, there are context specific strategies as well. For instance, elderly people experiencing the first signs of Alzheimer dementia might organize a line of assistance for the future when they will no longer be able to care for themselves. Collectively, with their life companions and professional experts, they might also engage in mental and memory exercise programs to develop more resilience to the onslaught of loss. Even in the Fourth Age [the age between 75 and 100, or over], we can continue to be the masters of our lives, though the territory we control through internal and external means necessarily becomes smaller and smaller.
Successful aging, then, is possible despite the biological and psychological losses that loom on the horizon as we move from the Third to the Fourth Age. The Greek philosopher Hesiod made a
telling comment that applies to strategies of successful aging (that is, the orchestration of selection, optimization and compensation). Hesiod claimed that "half can be more than the whole." Making smaller territories of life larger and more beautiful is at the core of a fulfilling and passionate life in old age. (P.14) (Emphasis added.)
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Paul Baltes is the director of the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Berlin Max Planck Institute for Human Development and professor of psychology at the Free University of Berlin. Margret M. Baltes, who died in 1999, held a professorship in psychological gerontology at the Free University of Berlin.
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Thoughts of Maturity are expressed in a comparison of two belief systems, both held by widely known and respected thinkers.
Search for Beliefs to Live by Consistent with Science
by R.W.Sperry (Excerpts)
One proposal that seems in overall outlook to come close to the view presented here, and which has had wide popular influence and acclaim, is that of Thomas Berry (1988). Moreover, its outlook is quite broad, enabling fairly extensive comparisons....As a Christian monk and gifted historian of culture, Father Berry is able to express his position more persuasively than most of us in science, adding rich insights to the historical and cultural background. Before probing the basic differences in our views, I list some of the many points of agreement to be kept in mind as we focus on points of contention:
[10 points of similarity follow, such as for instance:]
1) A changed sense of the sacred is centered in the natural world, as opposed to dualistic schemes, and is held to be consistent with a reconceived cosmology of science.
3) The growing chasm between the "two cultures" of the humanities and the sciences is bridged in an integrated new worldview that restores the emphasis on the humanities.
4) Some basic incompatibilities between the reference frames of religion and science are reconciled in a unifying worldview.
5) Today's global crisis is attributed in large part to inadequate mind-sets of the past, both in religion and in science.
6) A new outlook on existence is called for with a new ethic and a changed sense of ultimate value. Adoption would lead to fundamental social change and improved prospects for quality survival.
8) The proposed value-belief system is of a natural, neutral, non-exclusive type, with potential for acceptance by different ethnic, cultural, and national communities.
[Among the differences, Sperry lists:]
Another difference concerns the concept of evolution. Berry sees the governing, directive forces of creation as present from the start, rather than self-built in gradual stages. He writes favorably of the anthropic principle (Berry 1988, 16), refers to "the primordial intention of the universe," and states that "the governing principles of the universe have controlled the entire evolutionary process from the moment of its explosive origin" (Berry, 1988, 44). In the view I present, the principles governing evolution are instead, developed in graduated stages as evolution proceeds. In accord with standard biological thinking, they are self-generated and self-organizing, not preplanned or preconceived in a "primordial intention" or "anthropic design."
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LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS
The following article has been reprinted from one of the first issues of Humankind Advancing (Vol.1, No.4, October 1990) because it represents the kind of responsible, future-oriented thinking needed to lay the foundations for a harvest of wisdom.
Das Kinderdorf
In a cold, calculating, money-oriented world, the following developments could not have occurred. -- Yet, they did occur:
A young Austrian medical student, Herman Gmeiner, became deeply concerned with the misery of orphaned and abandoned children. Institutions seemingly provided these children with their bodily needs, yet left their souls empty. No one person was there with whom to form close bonds -- at an age that set the stage for the entire future development of the individual. -- The institutional environment was unnatural; boys were separated from girls, younger children from older ones, different persons cared for different needs.
A good foster home might have provided the answer, but too few suitable foster parents could be found, and often the children were shifted from home to home. That was just after World War II, and life was hard enough without these children, who often had problems.
What Gmeiner saw in the faces of these orphans was the distress signal: SOS -- "Save our Souls."
His deep and constant concern generated an original idea -- turned down by state and church welfare authorities as soon as he had stated it:
"Find a women of the right kind. Build her a house; give her a batch of children -- eight or nine -- of all ages, both boys and girls. Tell her, "These are now yours, for life." To the children you would say, "This is your mother, this is your home -- for keeps."
The idea was rejected as too expensive, too impractical, too dangerous (the mixing of the sexes). Anyway, no woman would take on such a load.
Gmeiner left medical school and launched the entire precarious task himself. He found friends, formed an association, collected fees. -- In 1949 his first house was opened in Tirol. In 1967, 19 houses stood at that site, each with a mother and eight or nine children, forming an "SOS-Kinderdorf" (SOS Children's Village). Eight other such villages existed in Austria, eight in Germany, seven in France. 53 villages were either in operation or planned at that date.
Each mother works in her home and cares for her children just as a widow with modest means would do. A father figure is provided by an overseer who is responsible for all the houses in a village, counsels the mothers and helps with difficult educational problems. He also deals with the authorities and keeps the accounts.
How does Gmeiner find the women needed? His principle is to look for the right person, and the person alone. (Diplomas don't count for much.) She should be unmarried or widowed, childless, healthy, strong, stable and self-possessed, also humorous and religiously secure. The most needed trait -- next to a motherly heart -- is the ability to bear up under stress. In Austria, nearly half of the mothers are farmer's daughters with an eighth-grade education. -- With that selection-policy, up to now (the time the article was written in 1967) not one of more than 200 grown-up SOS-Kinderdorf children has had a criminal record of any kind. -- Albert Schweitzer has proposed Gmeiner for the Nobel Peace Price.
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The preceding is a synopsis of a Reader's Digest article that appeared in 1967. -- Gmeiner died in 1986; but his work lives on and proliferates. There are now 300 SOS Children's Villages and 700 SOS Outreach Centers in 100 countries all over the world.
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Editor's comment: These lines were written in 1990. In the meantime, I followed (and supported) the further spread of SOS-Children's Villages around our globe. A Herrmann Gmeiner Academy now provides comprehensive training courses for senior staff members of SOS-Children's villages, and care is being taken, through emphasis on personal development, that all children leaving the village are able to master their future by themselves. Present-day necessities, such as computer-literacy, are not forgotten, and the Newsletters contain many success stories of young adults, who are proud to have been raised in an SOS Children's village. -- Insight into the importance of these places is shared by many outstanding persons. The Spring 2000 Newsletter, for instance, reports: "Stephen Hawking, leading British astrophysicist and professor of Cambridge University in the chair that Isaac Newton once held, is also a good friend of SOS Children's Villages. The `second Einstein' who wrote the best selling book A Brief History of Time, and his wife, Elaine, have been loyal supporters for many years and last year took advantage of a trip to Vietnam to arrange for their first-ever meeting with the child they have been kindly sponsoring all these years."
For more information, please write to: SOS Children's Villages Canada, 1203-130 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5G4
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- P.75 All people should be treated in an inclusive way, with respect. But people are different, some have obvious disabilities, and young children simply cannot grasp certain concepts until they have gone further in their mental development. Respect [and communication] requires an appropriate framing of ideas, a working from a common ground. --
Gary Williams
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DEVELOPING RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR FUTURE
Review of
It Takes A Universe
The Story of How We Came to Be
by Charles Bull
I have read many unpublished manuscripts, but never -- from the first sentence onward -- with such enthusiasm as this one. Here, everything was expressed I always had been trying to say myself. The truth and integrity of science, the poetry of nature, the human warmth that makes life worthwhile were woven together in simple language for a children's book on evolution. -- The chapters are very short, the events condensed.
Like all good books on evolution, the story starts with the beginning of the universe. But the author doesn't like the word "Big Bang;" it is ugly and demeaning. It does nothing to instill wonder and reverence for the mystery of creativity into the heart of a young child. For Charles Bull, time and space began "in a flash of infinite energy."
The crucial fact is that it was energy that created the mind (including everything else in the world), not a mind that created energy. And yet, throughout the book, the beauty, the poetry, and the wonder of perception are not diminished. They are part of reality, as are the atoms and molecules, the stars and the galaxies, the plants, the animals, and the human beings which evolved in succession.
Nor is coincidence dismissed. "During this period [the first hundredth of a second] all the constants of nature, like the strength of gravity or the speed of light, were set forever. If any of these had come out a trillionth of a trillionth part differently, ours might have been a universe of all matter and no energy, or all energy and no matter, or else it might have thinned right out before any stars or planets had a chance to form, or collapsed in its earliest moments. Gravity came out just strong enough to hold everything together in a gentle embrace." But I must not repeat the entire manuscript. The above is sufficient to gain insight into the author's style.
Moreover, even events that occurred billions of years ago are made relevant to the present-moment- orientation of a child. He or she is invited to listen (with the right radio antenna) to a "soft sighing" in outer space -- the moment of liberation of light energy in the far distant past -- or to look at the night sky whose awesome assembly of stars just shows part of our home galaxy, a tiny portion of the entire universe.
Of special excellence, however, is the translation of abstract scientific knowledge into a child's sphere of interest. We know that hydrogen and helium were the first atoms, followed by others created within superhot stars and liberated during their explosions. Bull explains the significance of these events for the present. "No world of just hydrogen and helium will ever bring forth a mountain or a dolphin or a poem. For these you need atoms of many different kinds."
Now, he is ready to describe the generation of our planet, Earth, and the evolution of its biosphere. The molecules danced, "changing partners endlessly," until they found the right combination that created molecules of life. (How superior to the cold expression of "chance creation," and yet, how accurate.) RNA and DNA molecules are at the basis of everything, "the beauty of the rain forest, the song of the whale, a child's wide eyed wonder." -- We can picture the author, holding his book on his knees, and reading it to astonished and amazed children, who learn from the very beginning that truth and beauty are compatible.
The combination of molecules into the first simple cells, the invention of chlorophyll which makes food from light energy, the poisoning of the atmosphere through liberated oxygen (until a method was found to make use of it: the burning of food molecules for energy) the separation of plants, who make their own food, from animals, who swallow other animals, and the evolution of the latter into predators and prey (which are constantly kept in balance), all these are natural events without the perception of good or evil. That perception had to wait for the evolution of the human mind to offset the danger of unbalanced growth, which could lead to extinction. Bull simply says: "Every species has been kept within limits, so that no one kind could gobble up the rest."
But first, the evolution of symbiosis and of cells containing nuclei is described, which leads naturally to the importance of sex. Differentiation and variety are not anymore solely the result of mistakes in reproduction, and with the increase of variety, evolution proceeded at a vastly faster pace. Death of old age, too, was an invention that moved evolution onward, as was the combination of cells into multicellular creatures. Life arose from the sea and adapted to conditions on dry land. Yet, "the blue jay, the caribou, the crocodile, the human, we all share the fish as our common ancestor."
Plants developed seeds, animals locomotion and the fertilization of eggs in the interior of the body instead of in water. But enormous mass extinctions interfered with the smooth forward march of evolution. Over and over again, many species vanished forever. Each time, the event threw evolution into a new direction. The dinosaurs came and vanished, after which the mammals -- and with them the first stirrings of emotion -- finally had a chance to grow and multiply.
Forerunners of apes evolved into humans, who invented fire, language, tools, and goaldirected thinking. With them an entirely new kind of evolution, cultural evolution, arose, which could be transmitted without genes and was considerably faster and more efficient than anything existing before. But it is also more dangerous. Without the perception of good and evil, and its constant updating in the light of experience, the next mass extinction would swallow us up. We have to realize that the future of evolution now lies largely in our own hands.
All this is told in a far simpler and more beautiful language, and though the harmony of nature is perhaps somewhat overrated, and cultural progress somewhat underrated, the ending of the book is optimistic and encouraging. "We are still learning and our possibilities are beyond our imagining. The best part of the story is surely yet to come."
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Reverend Charles Bull is a minister in charge of five Anglican Parishes in the region of Lockeport and Barrington in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although his views on evolution are often rejected, he is much liked as a person.
* * * * *
Editor's comment: I am thinking about Robert Muller, the former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, and his 36 Robert-Muller Schools the world over, dedicated to teaching young children first about the universe, then about the earth which evolved from it, then about plants, animals, and humans on earth and their close relationship to each other, and, only after all this has been learned, finally about their own home-country and their own individuality. With the help of this succession of teaching, Muller intends to achieve from the very beginning an emotion of kinship with everything and bring us a step closer to Peace on Earth. -- I am imagining that Reverend Bull's book would be published and used in these Robert-Muller schools to help fulfil one of the most beautiful dreams of humankind.
IDEAS AND DREAMS
It was Dr. Robert Muller, who suggested to reserve a section for "Ideas and Dreams" in each one of my quarterlies. The suggestion is good, and I will start today. -- As he himself is the most prolific generator of ideas and dreams, it is only fitting to start with his own.
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It will take great vision and honesty to achieve the harmony and fulfilment of our journey in the universe and in time. We have come to the point when the prediction of Leibnitz is coming true. He had forecast that scientific inquiry would be so thrilling for humanity that for centuries we would be busy discovering, analysing, and piercing the surrounding reality, but that the time would come when we would have to look at the totality and become again what we were always meant to be: universal total beings. The time for this vast synthesis, for a new encyclopedia of all our knowledge and the formulation of the agenda for our cosmic future has struck. Like the human eye which receives millions of bits of information at every glance, we must see the total picture, meaning and beauty of our planet, of the universe and of our lives.
The media is basically teaching the miracle of life, the art of living and of human fulfilment within our current knowledge of space and time, and make each of us feel like a king or queen in the universe, an expanded being aggrandized by the vastness of our knowledge which now reaches far into the infinitely large and the infinitely small and from the distant past into the future. It is to make each human being feel proud to be a member of a transformed species whose eyesight, hearing, hands, legs and brain have been multiplied a thousand times by telescopes, microscopes, radio, machines, means of transportation and computers. The objective should be to make us exude a resplendent joy of living, of being witnesses to the beauty and majesty of Creation and our capacities. Knowledge, peace, happiness, goodness and fully conscious meaningful, responsible lives --these must be the objectives of the media to make us healthy living cells, right servers of the planet and the universe.
Robert Muller
Ideas and Dreams for a Better World
(This viewpoint is extracted from "A World Core Curriculum" by Robert Muller, available from Media 21, a division of Gaughen Public Relations, 7456 Evergreen Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, U.S.A.)
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Counter-argument:
Utopia vs. the good-enough. I used to feel the most idealistic books were also the wisest and most hopeful. Now I'm not so sure. The 20th century is littered with utopias gone awry - Hitler's Germany, Mao's China, Cambodia, the Soviet Union...
It may be that, as political philosopher Isaiah Berlin has suggested, the abandonment of utopia is what makes real, gritty, ground-level progress possible. It may be that by accommodating the unlovely realities like that "electronic herd" and the "golden straitjacket," and by not worrying overmuch about leading purely virtuous lives, we can create an imperfect but sustainable planetary civilization.
Mark Satin
Editor's Comment: It is not the striving for a better world, but the atrocities committed in an effort to achieve it, and the complete disregard for comparison of projections and results, that causes the failure and rejection of ideals.
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A Practical Suggestion
I look forward to more active participation as a contributor to the periodical. But why can't we (the subscribers to the periodical) constitute ourselves into a network? Please give this suggestion some thought. Or are we already one?
W. Akin Hassan,
E-mail of Oct.9, 2000
We discussed this suggestion extensively by e-mail, involving finally a fellow-subscriber, who has experience in networking (Bill Holden), but then decided that, in our case, it would be best if anyone interested simply contacted Dr. Hassan himself (P.O.Box 2466, Sokoto, Nigeria) or leave his name and address with me, until someone is found who is able and willing to coordinate the entire group. Unfortunately, I cannot do this myself without expanding my quarterly considerably or completely changing its character, though I am willing to publish an occasional contribution, as well as a list with names, addresses, and fields of interest of anyone who likes to get in touch with similar-thinking persons.
For a start, I will introduce Dr. Hassan. He is a subscriber to Humankind Advancing for many years, whose integrity I highly value. I have witnessed his struggles through university, read his excellent PhD thesis, and was deeply moved by his gratitude when I sent him my quarterly to Africa for free, and by his insistence on paying me when he could afford to do so (from his bursary while studying in Germany). He has now completed all his PhD requirements, works at the Usmanu Danfodio University of Sokoto, is married and has one child. When asked by the Holdens about his aims and interests, he described them as follows:
"My interests are varied, but they are concisely summarised by the acronym `SAME', whereby S stands for spirituality, A stands for Academics, M stands for music, and E stands for entrepreneurship. By training I am an Animal Scientist with specialization in Breeding and Genetics. This field of study has not been found attractive by many students of Animal Science, especially in the developing countries, despite its fundamental role in raising livestock productivity. I have made some sacrifice in acquiring some knowledge in this field of study right from my days as a Masters degree student. It is my ambition to train many students in this field with the fervent hope that developing countries in general and Africa in particular would overcome the present dearth of Animal Geneticists. So, whatever support you can render towards effective teaching and learning of the subject will be invaluable, bearing in mind the multiplier effect of such an assistance."
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Here, again, stands a single man, leading his continent forward -- without violence, without weapons, and against tremendous odds.
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Editor's comment: The kind of wisdom gracing old age is strongly dependent upon experiences in early youth. It is often forgotten that a brain overloaded with fast and well-functioning neural switchboards may have no space left for the empathy, love, and concern which give life its splendor and beauty. Nor does emphasis on fast intellectual functioning permit appreciation of solitude, thought, and reflection, from which many of the deepest and most meaningful human experiences arise.
The Bright Side of Old Age.
(Excerpt from a letter written to a friend in August 1990)
Don't mind that little bit of memory loss; I am afflicted by it too, and I find it makes life much more relaxing. Instead of being rushed and haunted by all the urgent tasks that need to be done, one forgets them and is able to happily concentrate on the chore of the present. That makes it possible not only to enjoy life much more, but also to be much more efficient. Instead of being constantly absentminded and torn internally, one is able to dedicate oneself wholeheartedly to the task at hand.
Having discovered the advantage of losing one's short-term memory, I decided to look at the bright side of other disadvantages of old age too. For instance, I love gardening, and we used to grow all our own potatoes, fruits, and vegetables since my husband's retirement (1972). My garden, rclaimed from the wilderness with spade and pickax, was large and wellkept; not a weed dared to intrude, and all my neighbours benefited. -- We still grow all of our garden produce, including potatoes -- but the garden size shrank, and I am too weak to dig it all over, or even to keep ahead of the weeds. So, my husband bought a cultivator for spring and fall tilling, and during the summer I simply enjoy the wildflowers in bloom between my radishes. I hadn't even known such marvellous flowers would bloom in my garden all by themselves. Life is great!
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Another letter, written to the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (formerly Rehandart) on Nov. 20, 2000 describes similar emotions. Year after year, I had rejected these artists' calenders, because I had too many calenders already, though I liked, and paid for, their cards. I had sent innumerable letters not to send any more calenders, some I even returned. It was useless; the calenders kept coming.
Then, one day late last fall, I looked at one of them with new eyes. I had forgotten all the work lined up in my head and felt completely relaxed. What I saw was something new I had never seen before, and I wrote:
"I had a chance to look through [your wonderful 2001 Art Calender], and it suddenly occurred to me that this calender far exceeds its utility value to me. It is an expression of the best in our culture, an expression of all I am promoting in my thinking and writing. That it is also a product of infinite effort and determination against all odds makes it far more valuable still. -- Whether or not I have ten other calenders already does not matter anymore."
(The address of the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists is: M.F.P.A.Ltd., 20 Toronto Street, Suite 750, Toronto, ON M5C 2S1, Canada)
REFLECTIONS
The Last and Most Important Gift of Hurricane Floyd. Throughout the last quarterlies, poetry (some of it the best I had written or seen) and other material has been used which I had long forgotten and only rediscovered when Hurricane Floyd in 1999 damaged our roof, flooded my study closet, and forced me to sort through boxes of soaked and mouldy old papers. -- The most important item I found was a letter written at the age of 47 to one of my children. It said:
"You and Hans are right. I will never be able to become a writer. I am just too old."
Since I wrote these lines, I went to university, completed a degree in psychology with honours and A average, worked for ten years with a Noble Laureate (neuroscience) in California, completed my Masters and PhD degrees, wrote three books and several papers, and am publishing my quarterly "Humankind Advancing" for over 10 years now -- all with computer skills I learned when nearly 70. The letter is a most potent antidote against thinking that I am too old for anything.
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The National Post of Oct. 25, 2000 reports that Eric Kandel, M.D. received the Nobel Prize for showing how thoughts, or thought-like activities and experience can change the structure of brain cells, even in adults. When short-term memory turns into long-term memory, a protein is turned on which affects genes, such that they generate more proteins which alter the shape of nerve endings. In short, experience can affect genes, and thought can change the neuronal connections in the brain. Kandel's main interest is presently concentrated on the effect on the brain of unconscious thought -- the way our brain is altered by thoughts and experiences of which we are not aware.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank the publisher of National Forum: The Phi Kappa Phi Journal, and Professor Paul Baltes for permission to use excerpts from "Harvesting the Fruits of Old Age," and Reverend Charles Bull for showing me his manuscript.
REFERENCES
Baltes, P.B. and Baltes, M.M. -- Harvesting the Fruits of Age. Science & Spirit, 10 (3), September/October 1999, pp.12-14. (Original Version in National Forum, 78 (2), (Spring 98.)
Bull, C. -- It Takes A Universe. Unpublished Manuscript. Please contact Charles Bull, Box 54, Lockeport, N.S. BOT 1LO, Canada
Elgin, D. -- The 2020 Challenge. A Report to the Campaign 2020 Initiative. Oct. 1998. (Reprinted in Holden-M2M, May 1999.)
Gage, F. -- Report by Alice Park, TIME, Aug.7, 2000, p.50.
Haulk, R.S. -- Contribution to E.B. (Bill) Holden's Manifesto Task Team of the New Action Linkage Network, May 1999, p.11. (Box 1692, Bellflower, CA 90707-1692, U.S.A.)
Kandel, E. -- Report by Norman Doidge, National Post, Oct.25, 2000, pp. B1 and B3.
Muller, R. -- Ideas and Dreams for a Better World. The First Five Hundred Ideas (Insert between pp.58 and 60). 1997. Media 21, Global Public Relations, Barbara Gaughen-Muller, 7456 Evergreen Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, U.S.A.
Satin, M. -- Mark Satin Report. Center for Visionary Law, Business & Public Policy, Inc., P.O.Box 57100, Washington, D.C. 20037, U.S.A. July 99, p.8. (Reprinted in Holden-M2M, August 99, P.34.)
SOS Children's Villages Canada Newsletters, 1203-130 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5G4
Sperry, R.W. -- Search for Beliefs to live by Consistent with Science. Zygon, 26, pp.237-258 (June 1991).