The Internet was down in my office yesterday. Normally, I spend Thursday’s working on this newsletter but, due to the outage, I was serendipitously gifted the opportunity to reflect on the future direction of this newsletter. Specifically, what is it that I want to say and what would I like you, the reader, to do with the information I provide?
The short answer to the first half of the question is that I want you to know the world is changing rapidly. The answer to the second part is that I’d like you to understand that the best way to successfully navigate this coming disruption is to change yourself.
The conundrum I’ve been struggling with is this: It is the outer material world that is experiencing accelerating change, but our hope and salvation for dealing with this tumult lies in inner transformation. In other words, I have been having great difficulty speaking about secular and scientific change without delving into matters of spirituality.
In order to reconcile the two, I’ve done a good deal of soul searching and have had to make some difficult choices. Without going into great detail, I will preface the following remarks with this idea: To live your best or most true life, you must be willing to say “no” to a lot of good ideas, projects, and, in my case, customers and clients.
For this reason, as a professional futurist, I intend to focus exclusively on farming and agriculture. (If asked or invited, I will, however, consider speaking on the topics of community, trust and faith). My reasons for focusing on agriculture are simple: First, I know the industry well. Second, farming and agriculture are essential to the future of America and the planet. Third, I am personally interested in ensuring small and mid-sized farms survive and prosper. Fourth, I want to be involved in advancing regenerative agriculture and biodynamic farming; and lastly, I enjoy working with and for the people involved in the industry.
As such, beginning next week, this newsletter will take on a sharper focus on farming. I intend to continue to provide insights on how technology is shaping the world, but it will have an “agriculturally heavy” tilt, and I will also no longer shy away from how my faith is influencing my thoughts.
I also feel called to spend more time reflecting, thinking, writing and acting on behalf of matters of faith and spirituality. To this end, I will soon begin offering a new, free newsletter entitled “Spiritward: Reflections of a Contemplative Celtic Christian.” The newsletter will focus on our need to respiritualize the world and will primarily be a vehicle for sharing my thoughts on why and how matters of faith and spirituality–and not technology–will be the key long-term drivers of change in the future.
P.S. Next week, I am excited to share a new article I wrote for “Compass” (the professional journal for futurism) entitled: “The Future of Love is Now.”
