Purpose Inspired #47

PICTURE OF THE WEEK - A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE        

REFLECTION OF THE WEEK - #MYTHS        

Humans are soft-wired for stories. Myths are not lies; they are meta-narratives that reflect, guide and inspire human experience. One of my favourite film sagas is Star Wars, which is a masterclass in mythology: the heroes’ journey, good and evil, the wise teacher. Director George Lucas was an avid admirer of mythology scholar Joseph Campbell. But myths are not confined to the movies. Myths inform our daily lives: on economics (growth vs development), identity (us vs them), saviours (God vs technology), heroes (entrepreneurs vs activists) and the future (winner-takes-all vs sustainable). It matters which myths we give credence to.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK - APOLLO MISSIONS        

“We desperately need more Apollo-like sustainability missions that the public can get genuinely excited about”

Quote from Sustainable Frontiers | More quotes on?social responsibility ,?sustainable business ?and?transformational change

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK - KEYS TO THRIVING        

How does the world really work? How does nature function? How do societies change? How do economies rise and fall? These are questions that have led me to a lifetime of enquiry and a career in sustainability. After more than 30 years of wrestling and wrangling with theories and practices, I still don’t have all the answers, but I do have a map with clues to where the treasure is buried. The treasure is thriving – the ways in which nature can regenerate, societies can flourish, and economies can prosper. The clues are six scientific keys to unlock the mystery of how life not only survives, but also thrives.

Read the article : To unlock life’s mysteries, use the scientific keys to thriving | More in the?Thriving series

PODCAST OF THE WEEK - SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY        

In this episode, we begin to explore the process of unlocking change through social responsibility. In particular, the episode includes the following topics: The Rise and Fall of CSR; The Ages and Stages of CSR; The Triple Failures of CSR; and CSR 1.0 and Burying the Past.

Listen to the episode | Browse ?other episodes

POEM OF THE WEEK - NEXT        

You never know what’s coming next, / around the corner, around the bend / in life’s twisted maze; there are no signs, / no rules, no lines unbroken, no guarantees, / for more is spoken than is known, / more unwoken than the mind’s eager eye -?/ the sigh of invisible breezes, blown fragments / of meaning, like leaf-piles scattered / as we chase our dreams, the things that / matter, the pitter-patter of love, / the flitter-fluttering dove of inner peace, / of calm in the maelstrom of motion, / our incessant becoming, our running / from the past and striving to be / different, better, elsewhere, anywhere / other than where we are, away / from the storm, the swarm of buzzing thoughts / and bustling tasks, yet no one asks: / what for and why now, why so urgent, / this need to strive, to plot and plan, / to map the stars and our orbit through / the spaces of living, the traces of dying, / the faces of who we are and who we will be - / until, at last, we are free, unvexed / by what, or who, is coming next

Poem link | More?philosophical poems ?|?String, Donuts, Bubbles and Me ?(book)

BOOK OF THE WEEK - STRING, DONUTS, BUBBLES AND ME        

This creative collection, now in its 3rd?edition, brings together philosophical poems by Wayne Visser. In this anthology, he muses on subjects ranging from space, angels and destiny to time, science and meaning in life.?According to scientists / The world’s made of string / That buzzes and fuzzes / Or some such strange thing / It’s also a donut / That curls round a hole / With middles and riddles / Just like a fish bowl / And there’s no mistaking / It’s more than 3-D / With twenty or plenty / Dimensions unseen / Still others insist / It’s really a bubble / That’s popping and bopping / Through the lenses of Hubble.

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THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - #SPORT        

Sport is a metaphor for life. We level the playing field, compete for our place, play by the rules and are good sports. Life is a game of risk and reward, of scores and penalties, of rules and referees, of winning and losing. We can choose to play fair or dirty, and to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat.

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THRIVING FEATURE - FORESTS        

To understand regeneration, we need only look to nature. Take forests, for example. Without trees, there are no forests. Yet forests are so much more than trees. Forests are complex living systems, but they also serve as a good metaphor for systems thinking. When we say we “can’t see the forest for the trees,” what we mean is that we are too zoomed-in and focused on the parts (the individual trees) to appreciate the larger whole (the forest). In fact, as humans, we are often spectacularly bad at seeing or understanding the bigger picture. We lack the necessary perspective, which requires zooming out and noticing how everything is connected to everything else, not only in space but also in time. The forest is not just a collection of trees, it is a web of relationships between trees and countless other organisms and natural forces.

Extract from Thriving | Order a copy of the book

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