Time of Change

We are at an inflection point of change.

Politically, socially, technologically, psychologically, monetarily and culturally – and in every other way.

The world can appear more threatening and less safe. Simultaneously, the pace of our lives is speeding up and feeling more chaotic. Our news constantly exposes us to violence, war, opposition, greed, envy, hate and fear.

From political to social issues, there appears to be more polarization and less harmony in the world.

While technology has advanced with amazing speed and impact, we are connected virtually but separated personally. Technology allows us to communicate and gain access to the many portals we desire around the clock. For example, we can shop online at 3 a.m. as easily as we can at 3 p.m.

There is an interesting ratio that equates to perfect symmetry and is expressed repeatedly in many patterns in nature - the Golden Ratio. This ratio comes from the Fibonacci sequence (as highlighted in the movie, The Da Vinci Code). Remember, the Fibonacci sequence is 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34…, where the next number is identified by adding the previous two numbers.

As this sequence increases, taking the larger number and dividing it by the preceding number will give a ratio that approaches the Golden Ratio of 1.618. This ratio defines perfection of the human species and was the ratio used by Leonardo DaVinci to construct his famous work, the Vitruvian Man. The Golden Ratio also leads to the formation of a Torus, which is seen in nature’s many forms, including our universe.

I think this ratio also describes the ultimate relationship between creative energy/chaos/entropy and structure/organization/senescence. The more motion and information one is subject to, the larger the numerator of this equation and the more order/structure/senescence, the larger the denominator.

Thus, the more movement and information, the higher the ratio, and the more structure and order, the lower the ratio. We are rapidly transitioning from a low ratio to a high one, based on our dramatic change in the amount of information, which has expanded exponentially.

As outlined in The Conversation, “Each day on Earth we generate 500 million tweets, 294 billion emails, 4 million gigabytes of Facebook data, 65 billion WhatsApp messages and 720,000 hours of new content added daily on YouTube. In 2018, the total amount of data created, captured, copied and consumed in the world was 33 zettabytes (ZB) – the equivalent of 33 trillion gigabytes. This grew to 59ZB in 2020 and is predicted to reach a mind-boggling 175ZB by 2025. One zettabyte is 8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits.”

As evidenced above, this ratio is skyrocketing in our day-to-day lives and has left many feeling unstable and out of control.

If this ratio is too high, we feel excessive movement and instability - physically, psychologically, culturally, socially, financially and personally.

We do not feel stable or safe.

We deal with this feeling of instability by controlling our environments to find safety. This is deeply driven into all of us as the survival response. In fact, humans are twice as tuned into threat as love. It is called our aversion bias.

To find safety and stability, we seek external acquisition and position. We believe that safety is commensurate with external status, wealth, and position, to give us the control to create safety for ourselves and those we love.

Time is also an enemy to many. Whether it is the pursuit of continuous beauty and youth, or working excessively to earn enough to retire early, time is a further cause of anxiety. But, as The Rolling Stones remind us, “You can't always get what you want; but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find, you get what you need.”

This reminds me of a story about a fisherman who was extremely talented at catching fish. A venture capitalist sees the fisherman and offers to back him financially and create a fleet of ships and crew that would dominate the local seas and compensate the fisherman significantly. Told by the venture capitalist that the fisherman could retire early and do whatever the fisherman most wanted to do in his new-found leisure time, the fisherman responded, “I would fish.”

Focusing on our external world as a pathway to happiness and joy is limited. This is the finite pathway.

Instead of guilt about the past and anxiety about the future, we need to focus on the only moment that is real - the present.

It is a gift. Note, we can only think about the past and future in the present moment.

To slow down, we need to focus our attention on the present.

Savor our life and focus our attention on what is important – children, family, friends, nature, music, exercise, mindfulness, meditation, nourishment, learning – to name a few.

These are our priceless gifts. Not external gifts like money, power, position, fame or fortune. Instead, focus internally on our gifts of health, empathy, joy, love, acceptance, kindness, and service to each other.

Whatever you choose to do, choose to BE HERE NOW and focus on living each moment of your life fully.

Focusing on the present allows us to connect with the experience in front of us and to ourselves.

The inscription on the Temple of Apollo at the Greek precinct of Delphi is, “Know thyself.”

The internal path is the infinite pathway. The pathway to knowing ourselves.

The Sufi poet Rumi said, “Yesterday I was clever and wanted to change the world, today I am wise and decided to change myself.”

We are at a biblical time of change.

But we are powerful entities that can welcome and shape change positively through our thoughts, beliefs and actions.

Remember, quantum physics reminds us that everything is interconnected.

Everything.

In fact, three physicists won the Nobel Prize for this pioneering work in entanglement, which proves that every molecule, electron, photon and all of us are really part of ONE thing. Stephen Hawking’s last theory before death reinforced this idea of entanglement – that we live in a holographic universe. This means that everything exists as a whole in every piece, no matter how small.

If this is true, then we change everything by changing ourselves.

As Ghandi told us, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

It is our opportunity and duty not only to ourselves but to our university, state, country and world.

Almost heaven.