“The entire planet has fallen off a cliff into the stupid zone. The bad guys exploit the illusion of differences. Do you really think these refugees and immigrants are different from us? Do you really believe what these [world leader] clowns say? Do you really believe what these guys say? Or do you look at your heart and go, “No, the world isn’t like that”? If we can remove the stupid stuff that most of these bad-guy leaders are dumping on us, we can go back to who we really are: profound kindness.” Richard Gere, Actor, Peace Activist.
I was going to talk more about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s (RWK) work, but a short sidetrack for this week that still relates to full sustainability. My five items for human sustainability can be somewhat started within the human hierarchical dominance meme, but full long-lasting sustainability will only be reached through the second meme (as being described by myself, RWK, and many others). And it all comes down to intention, which generates the focus and the outcomes (my 5 items) needed for full sustainable living – Stewardship and Guardianship of the planet.
I came across this article from The Inspireist (Facebook) site that was so profound about how our ancestors, even within the hierarchical control system they lived within, managed to produce us – all of us. I tried editing it out and paraphrasing but the article speaks for itself as originally written.
“We are all far more closely [and genetically] related than we realize. But does this make your ancestry less meaningful? Does it diminish the significance of the people who came before you? Not at all. In fact, it makes it more profound.
Consider what each of those ancestors endured just to survive long enough to have children. They lived through plagues that killed one-third of Europe’s population. They survived famines when crops failed and entire communities starved. They endured wars—religious wars, territorial wars, wars over succession and power—that swept across continents and destroyed everything in their path. They survived childbirth in an era when both mothers and infants died with heartbreaking frequency. They survived childhood diseases that killed half of all children before they reached age five. They survived infections from simple cuts that, without antibiotics, could turn deadly within days.
They worked brutal hours in fields, in workshops, in dangerous conditions that would be unthinkable today. They faced cold winters without adequate heating, hot summers without clean water, constant uncertainty about whether there would be enough food to last until spring. And yet they lived. They survived.
They found love, built families, raised children who survived to do the same. Every single one of them faced a thousand moments where survival was uncertain, where the chain could have broken, where your existence could have been prevented by illness, accident, violence, or simple misfortune. But they made it through. Not all their siblings did. Not all their neighbors. Not all their children, in many cases—infant and child mortality was so high that most families lost at least one child, and many lost several. But the ones who became your ancestors—those specific individuals in that specific lineage—survived. And more than survived: they thrived enough to raise children who thrived enough to raise children of their own. That survival required not just luck but strength. Resilience. Adaptability. The ability to endure hardship and keep going. And all of that—all of that survival power, all of that resilience—is encoded in you.
You exist because hundreds of your ancestors refused to give up. Because they kept going when giving up would have been easier. Because they protected their children fiercely. Because they found joy even in hardship, love even in difficulty, hope even when circumstances seemed hopeless.
Geneticists talk about “survival of the fittest,” but fitness doesn’t mean physical strength alone. It means adaptability. The ability to survive whatever circumstances you’re born into. The capacity to endure and persist. Your ancestors demonstrated that capacity, generation after generation. So yes, you have fewer unique ancestors than simple mathematics suggests. But each one of those ancestors appears in your family tree multiple times, which means their influence on you—their genetic contribution, their survival traits—is actually stronger, not weaker. The question then becomes: What do we do with this inheritance?
Every one of us carries the genetic legacy of survivors. We carry the resilience of people who endured plagues, famines, wars, and hardships we can barely imagine. We carry their strength, their adaptability, their refusal to surrender. But we also carry their capacity for love. For building families and communities. For finding meaning in difficult circumstances. For creating beauty and joy even when life was brutally hard. That’s our inheritance. Not just survival, but the ability to thrive. To build. To love. To persist.
In many cultures around the world, ancestor veneration is a central practice. Not worship, but deep respect and gratitude for those who came before. A recognition that we stand on the shoulders of countless generations, that our existence is a gift purchased at great cost by people whose names we’ll never know. In modern Western culture, we’ve largely lost that practice. We focus on the individual, on the present moment, on our own achievements. We forget that we’re part of an unbroken chain stretching back thousands of years. But remembering our ancestors—honoring them, feeling gratitude for them—doesn’t diminish our individuality. It enhances it. It reminds us that we’re part of something larger than ourselves.
Every time you overcome a challenge, you’re channeling the resilience of ancestors who overcame far greater challenges with far fewer resources. Every time you show kindness, you’re expressing the capacity for love that allowed your ancestors to build families and communities that endured. Every time you persist through difficulty, you’re demonstrating the same refusal to surrender that kept your ancestral line alive through centuries of hardship. You are the culmination of countless acts of survival, love, courage, and persistence. So take a moment today to acknowledge that inheritance. You don’t need to know their names. You don’t need to trace your family tree back through centuries. You don’t need to visit gravesites or research genealogical records.
Just pause and recognize: you exist because hundreds of people you’ll never meet faced impossible odds and survived. Because they loved fiercely enough to protect their children. Because they held onto hope when there was little reason for hope.
Their legacy isn’t just genetic. It’s also the gift of life itself—the opportunity to experience this world, to build your own meaning, to create your own legacy.
What will you do with that gift? Will you honor their persistence by persisting through your own challenges? Will you honor their love by loving fiercely? Will you honor their courage by facing your fears? And perhaps most importantly: What will you pass on to those who come after you? Because someday, if you choose to have children or influence the next generation in other ways, you’ll become an ancestor yourself. Someone in the future—maybe 300 years from now—will exist because you existed. Because you survived. Because you persisted. What legacy will you leave them?
The answer to that question is being written right now, in how you choose to live today. Your ancestors gave you the gift of life. What you do with that gift—how you face hardship, how you love others, how you persist through challenges, what meaning you create—that’s your gift to the future. We are all connected—not just to our own direct ancestors, but to the vast web of humanity stretching back through time. We carry their resilience in our genes and their legacy in our hearts. Now it’s our turn to be worthy of that inheritance” The Inspireist (Facebook).
Our ancestors struggled through the millennia of mental and even physical enslavement by the hierarchical powers that be. I would love to see our modern legacy be one of creating the sustainable world that we awakened ones already visualize. A world where all humanity is empowered with personal sovereignty to work together to create a better world that honors ancestral struggle and all life in a meaningful way. Our gift for the future generations ought to be an honoring with gratitude of the sacrifices and resilience of our ancestors with the creation of a sustainable future. A new future – a new kinder humanity. It will not happen by accident. It will happen because we are courageous enough to choose it, for it will not happen otherwise. What will seven generations on say about us? Will they respect us for having made the decisions that created a sustainable world?
To Be Continued …………………….
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