Kosmos Old Site

A letter to you,

Twice a year I have the opportunity to connect with you and to express my gratitude to those who have inspired and uplifted me on this long journey toward planetary harmony and wholeness. Although I have not met many of you in person, I think of you often, knowing we are resonating to the same note. Many of you are designing and crafting exciting projects and exploding with creative ideas. You wrote such meaningful essays with so much caring, concern, and effective action that my heart was full of hope for our future. We named this issue Hope of the World because of you.

We understand that recognition of the inadequacy of our traditional institutions is the first step toward taking that great leap into a new era where a higher-level consciousness will be reflected in our transformed institutions. Although we know that pervasive creative destruction will bring in a brighter light in the long run, we are deeply concerned for the suffering that will be endured by the most fragile members of our global family. Sensitivity towards this suffering spurs many of us on to make contributions way beyond what we ever thought possible.

Again, I was full of excitement and hope as the feature articles began to come in for this issue. It was clear that social entrepreneurs, gone global, were bursting at the seams and implementing creative ideas, with love, backed up by a resolute will. My hopes rose more as I saw our youth step forward to take responsibility for creating the new civilization. Tatiana Glad, amazed me with her ingenuity in founding The Hub, habitats for social entrepreneurs who now flock together in major cities to enhance one another’s innovations. Then, the brilliant Helen Titchen Beeth spun off a casual e-mail to a group about the foundations of systems theory that eventually became a full-scale article for Kosmos. Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee’s idea of producing videos inquiring about the meaning of ‘oneness’ and giving them away without charge, raised my hopes even more for a culture of sharing. And Google Foundation’s leader, Larry Brilliant, a veteran social entrepreneur, is now defining what compassionate capitalism is, while materialistic values reveal their shallowness and ‘giving’ reveals its fulfilling interior rewards.

Then there is the ‘commons’ movement, which identifies a new force in society to protect what should be the common inheritance of all people from the grasp of a few. It is an extension of the idea of civil society and a clearer definition of the need to protect common resources for the good of all humanity. It is a revelation of the current dangers of losing such basic commons goods as the right to water to private profiteers. James Quilligan, Kosmos Board of Directors, and David Bollier are leading the way to civil society as a distinct third force—the hope of the world for fair governance, economic justice and the new civilization.

The great shift of values is expressing itself through all fields of endeavor. Elisabet Sahtouris, our science entrepreneur, has initiated a worldwide effort for a new evolutionary science that she calls Global Sciencing. Barbara Fields engages us with 21st century spirituality based on experiential knowing and spiritual activism. Philip Hellmich, an amazing youth leader, tells an engaging story about how he maintains inner peace while dealing with traumatic conflicts in Africa.

Kosmos is noted for carrying the message both with words and through evocative images. In this issue we have invited some of the most talented and innovative artists for our Galleries. Mia Hanak, another young social entrepreneur, tells us her story of founding the World Natural Museum. Martin Hill designs stunning natural sculptures which demonstrate lessons learned from nature, while Anne-Marie Pochat shares her visions of the Birth of the Worlds in stunning detailed forms of beauty.

Rounding out this issue, we present an innovative Kosmos seminar that took place in Bolivia, by Nila Tadich de Ossio and an interview by Susan Cavanagh with John Schmidt about his research on mindsets and sustainability, part of the ‘Wisdom Leaders Series’ soon to be released on CD by Kosmos and SummitSpeak.I am inspired by hope. I am surrounded by young and old social entrepreneurs, born to elevate our world. Millions of people, just like you and me, are stepping up to participate in this world-wide opportunity to create the kind of world that inspires hope, where dignity and grace and justice accompany our evolutionary journey. This is the call we dare to answer.