An article appeared in today’s newspaper about a number of social innovators who will be receiving awards this week for work they have done to solve community and world problems in their “encore careers”.  According to Civic Ventures, the San Francisco non-profit sponsoring these awards, this refers to people over 60 who are embarking on a “mid-life redirection” of their lives.

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Here’s a fun question.  What if one single advancement in technology could turn Earth into an absolute Eden, a place where war was unknown, nobody starved to death, and everyone really and truly had the opportunity to do and become the very best they could imagine?  What might that advancement be?

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One reason to ask the question “Why Should I Care?” is simply to ponder the opposite scenario. What if nobody gave a flying crap about anybody else? What if we actually lived in a Mad Max/Clockwork Orange Society where everyone just took what they wanted, did what they felt like, and ran roughshod over anything and anyone who stood in their way, leaving broken shards scattered behind them without thought of the suffering they had caused or the ultimate consequences of their actions?

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I was listening to the ten o’clock news last night and was regaled by the usual progression of natural and man made disasters – floods in Samoa, roadside bombs in Afghanistan, fires in Southern California, political repression in Iran, several murders in Oakland, and just in case that’s not enough to keep the juices flowing, the swine flu is still spreading throughout the world.  Just for an instant the thought crossed my mind, “Why do I really care?”  And I realized that there are several different ways to answer that question.

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It should come as no surprise to anyone possessing even the slightest powers of observation that civility in America is dead. Now I am not speaking here of the long lost art of chivalry… spreading one’s cloak on the ground so mi’lady can daintily step across the puddle without soiling her toesies. No, I’m talking about the common courtesies of giving seats on the bus to old people, not flinging garbage on the streets, and refraining from “throwing the bird” to every driver who happens to move into lane in front of you.

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It’s hard to believe that it was only eight years ago that the world watched in horror as 110 stories of glass and steel and hopes and dreams and visions and human lives came crashing down to Earth, not once but twice. Those of us who were there to see it will never forget it. The scars which it left on our psyches and in our hearts may never be completely healed. And while a lot has changed since then, we now have a Department of Homeland Security and long lines at airport check-ins, sad to say, the energies and fears, hatreds and self-righteousness that allowed 911 to happen have only gotten worse.

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My wife and I have just redesigned our back room, the one that serves as office, TV lounge, library, exercise center, and guest bedroom.  It’s not a big room, just an awfully useful one, and given all the uses to which it is put, it was clear we needed to have a neater, more efficient floor plan.

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Senator Kennedy died last night and the airwaves are filled with tributes coming to him from around the world. Granted, I haven’t listened to any conservative talk show hosts, but the praise for his dedication and hard work over the years in promoting the causes he believed in seem to come from both sides of the aisle. There is a lesson in higher consciousness here.

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She drew our attention as we waited at the red light, standing in the middle of the lane with her bike rather than snaking her way between the stopped cars like messengers and experienced riders do. “There’s a newbie”, I mused. “And not really dressed for biking”, my wife added, a dimension of awareness that I had missed completely. Several riders caught up and headed to the front of the pack, and she, apparently feeling the strength in numbers, followed, disappearing around the bus ahead.

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We seem to be going through a period of human evolution where the solution of choice to any problem or misunderstanding is to kill the person on the other end of the equation. This is true whether we are talking about having differing religious beliefs, holding varying political views, being fired from a job, getting cut off on the highway, or even having bad dreams.

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