We need a new shared dream to inspire and create that. What would be a future worth living for?
Do you know the difference between a story and a narrative? According to Michael Margolis, a story is about a specific event with a beginning, middle, and end, making a closed loop. On the other hand, a narrative is an abstract concept, an open loop, with no clear beginning, middle, or end. It’s an infinite subject about aspiration and identity. The “American dream” is an example.
We all want and need a unified shared narrative. Even though we can’t control what happens to us, we control the story we tell about it. When we discover that, it’s the moment of freedom and power.
When we take ownership of that narrative, anything and everything is possible.
Our current cultural narratives about America are insufficient, even counterproductive, to create a future worth living for. We sense the dissonance and disconnect between them and what we see happening in our world, and we haven’t yet found new ones that inspire us, ring true, and” land” for us collectively.
Our necessary work now is to create new cultural narratives. I see more and more examples of life-aligned movements, initiatives, programs, and projects pointing to new cultural narratives emerging. To use the metaphor of the caterpillar and butterfly, these are the imaginal cells of our new cultural butterfly:
“At first the Imaginal Cells – the seeds of future potential, which contain the blueprint of a flying creature – operate independently as single-cell organisms.
“They are viewed as threats and are attacked by the caterpillar’s immune system. But they persist, multiply, and form connections with each other.
“The Imaginal Cells communicate more, creating larger and larger cooperative networks until they eventually hit a tipping point. And a butterfly is born.” (emphasis mine)
As Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller said, “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”
Here are just a few examples of our emerging Cultural Butterfly’s "imaginal cells" who are weaving new narratives:
Earth4All is an “international initiative to accelerate the systems-change we need for an equitable future on a finite planet”, combining the best available science with new economic thinking. Earth4All is a vibrant collective of leading economic thinkers, scientists, and advocates, with science at the heart of their work. They say they are “providing a platform to connect and amplify the voices of people and organisations who want to upgrade our economies. The momentum is growing, with communities and policy makers around the world pushing for economic systems change.”
Earth4All has identified “five extraordinary turnarounds needed to rethink economic growth as a measure of progress and create a safe pathway for wellbeing for all on our planet.” They have embarked on national engagement strategies to champion and establish locally relevant policies aligned with their core messages, allowing them to transform their ideas into tangible actions.
COPx is the “Conferences of People”, digitally connected and independently organized everywhere, simultaneously,. It will be a
“global climate network organized by and for the people, creating thousands of synchronized events worldwide to build climate action bottom-up. Each one will deliver a bit of action right away and build political will – constituency by constituency.
“COPx organizers will implement action on the ground, build a mighty global community of practice, and be a force for significant political pressure. Across the world, we are creating a universal movement that will be visible with thousands of events mushrooming worldwide.”
Bioregional Weaving Labs Collective is a "growing assembly of 25+ international system-changing organisations, funders and impact investors, initiated by Ashoka, co-led by Commonland and OpEPA, and grounded in a community of practice. BWL represents hundreds of system changers in the field working directly with farmers, nature conservationists, communities, educators, and other stakeholders in bioregions to restore, protect and regenerate (biodiverse) ecosystems.”
They are mobilizing and supporting 1 million changemakers who together contribute to restoring, protecting, and regenerating 1 million hectares (2,471,000 acres) of land and sea in Europe by 2030. The goal is to create observable impact across the 4 Returns: social, natural, financial and inspirational returns.
They are organizing a participatory film event, Bioregional Hope, to transform January 20th into a day of Active Hope. They say:
“Coinciding with the inauguration of the Trump presidency, the 20th of January symbolizes a new political era in a world that looks more and more divided. That’s why on this day we want to bring the larger bioregional community together around an alternative vision for the future, from nation-states to bioregions — a vision of Bioregional Hope:
“What if we moved beyond nation-states and began organizing ourselves bioregionally — to reconnect with the unique landscapes we call home, while being part of a larger, interconnected whole?
“During this event, we’ll premiere 7 short films, each featuring 3 bioregional changemakers, brought together by Bioregional Weaving Labs across Austria, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain, who are protecting, restoring, and regenerating their lands and seas.
“We invite you to virtually travel to at least two bioregions, watch their films and interact live with the changemakers. . . . we’ll end with a clear call to action to get involved in the larger bioregional movement.”
The Fugitive Futures Summit will be:
“a five-day transformational journey in which we join edge-walking thought leaders and cultural revivalists to challenge the meta-cultural narratives that bind us, instead dreaming of a more fugitive way forward—a path of becoming unmoored, unmade, and fully alive to new possibilities. This is an invitation to unlearn control, listen to the wisdom of the more-than-human world, and dare to imagine a future worth living for. (emphasis mine)
“Together, we’ll ask bold questions:
~ What does it mean to surrender certainty?
~ How can we “get lost” to discover new ways of being?
~ How does your pain—grief, anguish, or trauma—point to the medicine the world is asking for?
~ How can we activate pleasure as the deepest agent of transformation?
“Your lostness is not a personal ‘failing’, but a recognition of our collective crisis.”
Regenerative Agriculture is a system of managing food production that increases the carbon levels of soil, removes carbon from the atmosphere and actually fights climate change. Further, regenerative agriculture is inherently about a positive future of abundance, joy, well-being, and prosperity.
Regenerative agriculture/landscaping/gardening has these common themes:
~ Agricultural practices that focus on the health of the ecological system as a whole, not solely on high production yields of crops.
~ Focuses on actively “building health into the system,” beginning with increasing soil fertility. . . a holistic systems approach that starts with the soil, and also includes the health of the animals, farmers, workers and community.
~ Rooted in Indigenous wisdom . . . a set of principles and practices to grow food in harmony with nature and heal the land from degradation.
~ Basic ecological soil health principles based on biomimicry
Biomimicry Institute is "on a mission to help solve humanity’s biggest challenges through the adoption of biomimicry (nature-inspired innovation) in education, culture, and industry. We are the bridge between biology and design, advancing the adoption of nature-inspired strategies to help solve the most pressing problems of our time.” Among other projects, they have AskNature.org, an open-source database of deep biological knowledge in accessible language, to help anyone answer the question “how would nature solve this?”
Regenerative Economics In his groundbreaking Introduction to Regenerative Economics course, John Fullerton says we’re running the world on a fatally flawed economic theory based on the model of scientific mechanistic reductionism. He describes holism as a “new” (indigenous) way to think and see the world as it really is, because holism explains the creative process of the universe. As he defines it, Regenerative Economics is a holistic, living systems theory of economics that applies nature's laws and patterns of systemic health, self-organization, self-renewal, and regenerative vitality to the design of socio-economic systems.
These are different from the examples I published in my ebook Hiding In Plain Sight: Evidence of Our Life-Aligned, Regenerative Culture Emerging. That book has more than 200 specific examples of actual on-the-ground, life-aligned, regenerative projects, programs, movements, and initiatives happening which show the socio-economic cultural paradigm shift taking place “below the radar” of mainstream news. These are all stories that point to a new cultural narrative.
Here’s to our “cultural butterfly” continuing to emerge more and more powerfully, gracefully, easily, and joyfully to help us create a future worth living during 2025!
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