1991- Cooperation and Destiny - Windstar Note

 

 

JD with nurses at Windstar Symposium, thermometer in mouth

 [Admin: This was the world as John saw it in 1991. Political comments, as they refer to sections of this article in today’s terms, are not appropriate and will be deleted. Thank you.].

Watch the newscasts and other reports in the popular press. Cooperation seems to be a grand discovery. It is a fad in arenas such as teaching techniques in school, games for children and adults, and new corporate management policies. Cooperation is even being touted as the foundation for a new world order.

I would welcome a new world order, and have been a fan and enthusiastic proponent of cooperation for years. At the same time, I realize that cooperation is an ancient idea. It is not new at all. I think, as more and more attention is being paid to cooperation in the popular press and society, that this is actually an indicator that we are listening to the world around us. We are restoring primal ways of thinking and knowing. Cooperation is a natural part of the natural systems. It may even be more natural than competition.

It is well known that things appear different to us depending upon how long we look at them. For example, the sun in the sky seems fixed and unmoving if we glance at it for but a moment. A child appears complete and unchanging from one hour to the next. Yet, if we give our eyes to the sun for a full season or year, the sweep of the solar dance spins our day star across the sky in a complicated rhythm of constant change. So, too, does a child show to the patient eye a process of change that spans life from birth through adulthood. In fact, all of the rhythms of natural and cultural worlds are part of a grand sweep of change that can neither be fully noted nor understood if we merely glance at a tiny part of the story.

John playing horseshoes with President Bush 1.

I think this is true of cooperation as well. Competition is favored by those who describe nature and even the realm of human affairs as something like a huge game in which scores are kept. There are winners and losers, victors and vanquished. I have always sensed a dreadful undertone to such thinking. Such an approach seems to value strength over right, and power over grace. When I advocate an approach to life that is based on honoring you and me, rather than you or me, I am showing my commitment to cooperation more than competition. I will say, however, that my own commitment to cooperation suffers neglect when it comes to horseshoes and tennis!

John playing tennis.

One of the debilitating attributes of competition is its tendency to set up winning as such a compelling goal that any means and ends may be justified. The true evil inherent in the old-world order is the tendency to destroy vindictively in desperation. The small scale nuclear winter that the world is experiencing as a result of the torching of hundreds of oil wells in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf is an example of such madness. The whole planet is victim to this old-world thinking. The war is over, yet the air breathed by the people and living systems of the Earth will be held hostage for many years to come.

With the death and despair in the Persian Gulf, there were also signs of hope. Extraordinary international cooperation was one. We need practice in learning to cooperate on a global scale. The irony is the extent to which war gave our human family this opportunity. Now we must promise ourselves and the Earth that this war was the last expression of an old-world order. We must become the promise of hope that rises out of the ashes of this war.

John in Africa, 1984.

Cooperation must emerge as the long-term expression of our shared promise to ourselves, to each other and to the Earth. Let’s make cooperation more than a fad that is noted by the newsmakers. Let us make it the foundation of a new world order. For in the long term, that is how nature itself works.

John Denver

Windstar Vision – May-June 1991

1992 - New Beginnings - Windstar Vision Note

 

“The time resembles the exciting beginning of spring when the cosmic forces are in inspired harmony. There presently exist the ideal conditions for new awakenings, healthy growth and progressive plans. It is a totally cooperative environmental setting that leads to the flowering and prospering of what is now aroused.” -R.L. Wing - The I Ching Workbook

Spring is about new beginnings. I can’t believe the thrill I feel each year as the signs of new life appear all around me after winter’s rest. As the natural world shows these signs of change, I find myself looking around me with wonder at all the changes I see within people and cultures on the planet. Some of the most evident changes are in Eastern Europe and what was once the Soviet Union and yet changes are touching people in communities on every continent in the world.

It is strange to me how resistant, cautious and fearful people are of change and yet the environment shows us how natural it is. Somehow we humans get caught up in the insecurity of the unknown. We forget that change is actually essential to continuing life. My faith is that change is a natural product of growth and evolution. To the degree that we don’t open ourselves to the possibilities of the future, we are inextricably bound to those things that hold us back in the world of yesterday.

Emerging Monarch Butterflies

Sometimes the process of change and new beginnings can’t take place until the old is done away with in a rather dramatic fashion - so that there is a real death or completion in what has been past. I am reminded in nature of how a snake sheds its skin or a lobster its shell before it can grow further. It’s a kind of death of the old to allow for the new. And think of a butterfly- a miracle of change. Out of its cocoon comes this creature of wondrous beauty. Who with the the wildest imagination could imagine what would emerge?

In nature there is no fall of changing colors without the abundant life of summer. There is no spring without winter. So taking our guidance from nature itself, we need to recognize the necessity of change. As humans, we need to be courageous and surrender to that reality. Sometimes it means that we have to complete some issues for ourselves in our lives - around who we are; our relationships; how we choose to live in our friendships, families, communities, and businesses; how we choose to live in relationship to the planet itself. Without courage and recognition of the importance of surrendering to change, we are inevitably bound to the past - individually, socially, collectively. We need to see the value of change in all aspects of our lives. That means being willing to let go, to honor death in order to receive new life. This may mean death of old ideas that don’t work and ways of being that leave us closed and tired instead of open and refreshed.

I watch the opportunities that greet us - and certainly so in this country of abundant opportunities, the United States. As we get closer to an election next fall, it seems that we must recognize the need for change and create a new agenda in this country. That doesn’t mean we throw out all that is old - but it does mean, to me, that we need to be willing to look anew at the principles and values that we hold dear.

For those we find of value, let us recommit. Let us reaffirm our principles, recreate our values, and revalue our directions.

To do this will allow us to determine, in a larger sense than ever before, our place in the world. If we are really going to serve in a leadership role for ourselves or any others on this planet at risk, we must make some tough choices that may not necessarily deliver in the short term, but will carry us with integrity and a promise of continuing life into the 21st century. If we make these tough choices, we can demonstrate a world that works for everyone.

In the process of honoring death and change, we must get to the core values that nourish healthy lives. To begin, that requires us to go inside ourselves to hear our most authentic voice. If each of us acts from authenticity, we will find the courage to make the touch choices that are necessary.

So in this springtime, let’s go outside and look deeply into the petals and stems of new life all around us.     

·        Let’s bring authenticity into our lives.

·        Let’s connect with that vitality and honor new beginnings.

-John Denver

Windstar Vision - March-April 1992