3 Ways You Can Save the World with Wisdom and Compassion

May 14, 2021

Imagine that you and one other person are left on earth, with everything of value and of perceived value having been burned to dust. As you stand around in ashes, naked down to your toenails, what do you have? At first glance, you have nothing. But after a longer look, perhaps what’s left is all there ever has been. Consider that with no material goods or gain between you what’s left is a relationship. You and the other last person on earth are solely responsible for your mutual relationship and your collective and individual relationships with Creative Energy.

In this moment, you have one job: respect the sovereignty of Creative Energy and the power of relationships.

Don’t think Creative Energy is sovereign? Try to undo it. You can’t. Notice the vast bodies of water still standing mightily and the rivers and streams continuing to flow. Look alive as plants and flowers — hopefully, good for food — spring out of the soil without permission. Feel the breeze passing underneath your new loincloth and let that draw your attention to the perfectly formulated air passing freely in and out of your lungs. And forget about trying to survive, even among so much life, without tapping into your inner creative processes, you can’t do that either. There is nothing the last two people on earth will be able to rebuild without Creative Energy. This same vibration by which all things are created and sustained is the same by which you will come upon your ability to determine which problems need solving for your survival. By creative inspiration, you will choose the right solutions and tweak them for efficiency before deploying them — this is creative thinking at work. And that takes care of half your job.

The other half has to do with social infrastructure. Even as you are creating solutions for safety and sustenance, full survival will require also using Creative Energy to build a robust interpersonal relationship. Relationships are powerful exchanges of energy. So, building interactions of wisdom and compassion with your fellow human being is a matter of nurturing one another’s mental, emotional, and spiritual lives. By this, what and how you create will be good for both of you and the planet. Wise and compassionate creative thinking, which includes being open, evaluative, sensitive to one’s environment, and strategic, is a key ingredient for agile and resilient relationships. It also makes room for a healthy inner life. And when you are the last two people in the world, these are as important as a reliable path to food or a sturdy shoreline from which to draw your water.

Thankfully, the earth is fully populated. All 7.6 billion people and our unprecedented material abundance are still intact. Yet, Creative Energy and relationships are still all we truly have. In fact, it’s what we are. Profound respect and mastery of both are still in order.

Here are 3 ways to use wisdom and compassion to honor Creative Energy and relationships:

1. Take a creative pause. The greater task at hand, when faced with any challenge, is to understand the real problem we are trying to solve. A creative pause before attempting to respond to a challenge or opportunity (even personal conflict) allows for a chance to clarify and evaluate action steps that may take the needs of all into account.

2. Choose consciously. Creativity is a function of conscious choice. When we are adept at noticing the subjective lens through which we are interpreting and making decisions, we may create more holistically. We may be less blinded by our bottom lines and more open to other perspectives.

3. Be an individual but be not separate. Remembering that what I do for myself, I do for others; and what I do to others, I do to myself is key to robust human relationships. It’s a simple exercise of the Golden Rule, but when applied in the creative thinking process, we can take into account how what we produce affects the whole. We are all interconnected.

These are simple principles by which we might honor Creative Energy and relationship. Treating them as optional may encourage the smoldering of insensitivity and toxic power exchanges that can set a planet ablaze. Bearing them in mind may ensure we never find ourselves standing barefoot in the ashes — that we might hold onto the world and one another with care.

3 Ways You Can Save the World with Wisdom and Compassion was originally published in Creative Enlightenment on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.