We are fluent in the story of our time marked by catastrophe and dysfunction. That is real, and it is grave — but it’s not the whole story of us. Here’s what this phrase — the generative story, the generative narrative of our time — is insisting on: that there is also an ordinary and abundant reality of learning and growth that is happening, of dignity and care and social creativity and evolution.
The great challenges of this century call us to rise to our highest human capacities. They need the landscape of generative people and projects to act like an ecosystem: sharing what we are learning, joining our vulnerabilities, and joining our flourishing.
Calling out this reality, naming that there is a generative story of our time, is in fact a way to begin.
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Consider picking up a journal, or something to record with, when you sit down or step out to listen. Take it, and the prompts below, as a companion in listening and your life beyond listening.
Ponder:How would you start to tell the generative story of the world you can see and touch?
Practice:Set out to become alert and somewhat reverent of what is good and life-giving in the ordinary encounters of your days: what you read, what you focus on, what you look for and notice in people close to you, and also what you notice in strangers. Let that shape the larger picture of the world that you’re working with.
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Next time: Living the Questions
Follow us, and talk to us:
Instagram: @onbeing
Twitter: @kristatippett
Email: artofliving@onbeing.org
Nick Offerman — Working with Wood, and the Meaning of Life
Ada Limón — “To Be Made Whole”
“The Quiet Machine” by Ada Limón
“Dead Stars” by Ada Limón
“A New National Anthem” by Ada Limón
Amanda Ripley — Stepping out of "the zombie dance" we're in, and into "good conflict" that is, in fact, life-giving
Dacher Keltner — The Thrilling New Science of Awe
Emergence: On Being Is Back!
Foundations 4: Calling and Wholeness
Foundations 3: Taking a Long View of Time, and Becoming “Critical Yeast”
Foundations 2: Living the Questions
A Listening Ritual for this Fall: Poetry Unbound
A Season of Emergence with Krista
BONUS: An On Being Listening Party — Celebrating 20 Years
Ocean Vuong – A Life Worthy of Our Breath
[Unedited] Ocean Vuong with Krista Tippett
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson — What If We Get This Right?
[Unedited] Ayana Elizabeth Johnson with Krista Tippett
Rachel Naomi Remen – How We Live With Loss
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