April, 2007

No matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter how important you are, you have a common predicament with the rest of humanity. Like it or not, you are stuck on a round chunk of rock nearly 8,000 miles wide spinning at a rate of 1,040 miles each hour, revolving around the sun at more than 66,000 miles per hour. The solar system around our planet is nestled in an outer arm of the Milky Way galaxy, spinning at the rate of about 560,000 miles per hour. On top of all that, the galaxy itself is moving through space at more than 660,000 miles per hour. Think about it. If you feel at all out of balance, you have one very persuasive excuse.

However, while we may not be able to alter the course of the planet, we can transform the course of our own futures here. It is inexcusable, therefore, that we are just as oblivious to the forces shaping our environment here at home. You’d think after a few thousand years on this planet, we’d have a better lock on where things are going. That we would have a game plan for addressing all, or at least some, of the big trends—political, social, economic, environmental, etc.--playing themselves out on the surface of this massive rock on which we find ourselves. But we don’t. Not even close. That’s the bad news.