Dear Readers:
This week, I am sharing two short pieces. The first is entitled “The Man Who Planted Trees: A Blueprint for My Spiritual Future” and it explains how Jean Giono’s beautiful little book, “The Man Who Planted Trees” continues to shape my life–and future.
The second article offers a brief preview of a talk I am giving this Sunday at my church: “The Future of Faith in an Era of Accelerating Change.”
I have posted both in their entity below. (If you prefer to just read one, I suggest you simply click on the above links.)
The Man Who Planted Trees: A Blueprint for My Spiritual Future
The book, The Man Who Planted Trees, may be an unusual place to have begun a spiritual journey but, in my case, it happens to be true.
I first recall reading the short, little book 20 years ago and it has been working on my soul ever since. The effect has been so profound, in fact, that I am now emulating the book’s main character by planting trees. (In my case, I am partial to oak trees and it is my intention to start nurturing an oak savannah, which will only grow to maturity after I’ve died.)
If you are not familiar with The Man Who Planted Trees, it was written by Jean Giono in 1953 and chronicles the fictional tale of Elzeard Bouffier, a humble shepherd who wages a single-handed and decades-long battle to reforest a desolate valley in France in the wake of the First World War.
Exactly why the book touched my soul so powerfully is not hard for me to discern. As a Celtic Christian, I’ve long found it most easy to experience the Divine in nature, and the simple act of planting trees is, for me, an act of prayer. (I’ve long subscribed to the wisdom found in Robert Ingersoll’s saying: “The hands that help are better than the lips that pray.” The picture to the right is of me planting trees at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN.)
I now re-read The Man Who Planted Trees every year (FYI: It can be read in less than an hour), and its impact continues to grow within me.
As a professional futurist, I’ve long loved the wisdom inherent in the ancient Greek proverb that says: “Societies grow great when old men plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.” Now that I am older, I want to put this wisdom into action.
We have a sacred responsibility to leave future generations a healthy and habitable earth. Unfortunately, as a society, we are failing in this responsibility and, at a personal level, I am failing. I intend to rectify this by doing my small part to help restore Mother Earth by planting trees.
Let me now conclude by speaking of this matter in terms of my Christian faith. I believe in eternal life, but I will admit that I am unclear as to how eternal life unfolds. (Remember the words of Isaiah 55:9– “As the heavens are higher than earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”) As such, I am open to the possibility that reincarnation is real. If it is, it stands to reason that we will need healthy places to which our souls can return.
Now, I don’t expect my soul to return to the small plot of land my wife and I will restore but if another soul does, I believe we’ll be able to take some eternal comfort in knowing we did our best to honor the covenant between God and ourselves. (Genesis 9:13– “I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and earth.”)
The Future of Faith in an Era of Accelerating Change
This Sunday, I will be giving a presentation at Christ the King Catholic Church in Southwest Minneapolis on “The Future of Faith in an Era of Accelerating Change.” (I hope the talk will be recorded and, if it is, I’ll post a link to it in a future edition of this newsletter.)
One of the many topics I’ll be discussing is the all-too-real possibility of radical life extension. In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, there was an opinion piece entitled “AI and the Fountain of Youth.” ($Paywall). Here is just one paragraph:
“For generations, we’ve accepted [death] as inevitable. But that assumption may no longer hold true.” The author goes on to add that even reversing aging is a real possibility.
Society is NOT prepared for this level or scale of change at either the secular or spiritual level. With regard to the former, radical life extension of even 10 years will wreak havoc on Social Security, Medicare, long-term insurance and pension plans. Social Security and Medicare are already under great stress, and if people begin living a decade longer, these systems could very well collapse. If they do, the safety net for tens of millions of Americans could evaporate with frightening speed. The resulting political fallout is difficult to predict, but it is almost certain to be painful and ugly.
Despite this reality, most of our so-called political leaders–from President Donald Trump down to the newest member of the U.S. Congress–refuse to even acknowledge the issue. Unfortunately, putting our heads in the sand and hoping the issue will go away isn’t an effective strategy.
At a spiritual level, the crisis may be even greater. In the short term, it is highly unlikely everyone will have equal access to the drugs, medicines and treatments that will radically extend a person’s life. Is it fair that the wealthy will have first access? Is this right? Is this just? Is radical life extension even wise from a personal or societal perspective? (Personally, I have grave doubts.)
A reckoning is coming. We need smart minds thinking, planning and working on this issue today. More importantly, we need wise hearts and souls contemplating possible paths forward NOW! (As an example of why radical life extension may be so disorienting to people, consider this little thought exercise: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and I are both 61 years of age. Imagine it is 20 years in the future and Jeff Bezos looks a sprite 41 years old because he has chosen to reverse aging (and has the financial resources to do so) but I have chosen to age naturally and look 81. We will still be the same age but, to the human eye, we will appear to be separated by 40 years.)
Society is on the verge of changing what it means to be human, but humans alone may not be sufficiently equipped to navigate a path forward. Access to a higher power may be necessary.
It is my opinion that the world will soon experience a wave of spiritual revivalism as people and communities alike grapple with the question of why we are here and what we are meant to do with our time in this realm–be it limited, extended, or, God-forbid, unlimited.
