expand_less

Table of Contents
 
 
Prologue 
        How I stumbled into my evolutionary epiphany......................................................  ix
 
Introduction..........................................................................................  1
        Poem:  Stardust settles on earth to learn..............................................................................  8
 
 
I.  Reflections on Evolution and Creation ...................................................................  9
 
1.   Evolution 2.0:  A Big History that embraces
       all the sciences ................................................................................... ............................. 11

            Poem:  Since the Big Bang never stopped  ............................. ............................... 28
 
2.  The Big CPU..................................................................................................  29

            Poem: The same golden force..........................................................................................  35
 
 
II.  Reflections on Evolutionary Activism .......................... 37
 
3.  What is the evolutionary activist worldview?.........................................................  39
            Poem: Showing up......................................................................................................................  42
 
4.  My evolution in to evolutionary activism.....................................................................  43
            Prayer: A prayer of evolutionary affirmation .....................................  48
 
5.  What is evolutionary activism?.................................................................................................   49

            Poem: Riotous meadow people .................................................................................  54
 
6.   What makes evolutionary activism different
       from other forms of activism?..........................................  ..................................................... 55

            Poem:  Star story children ......................................... ...................................................  65
 
7.  Learning to be evolution...................................................  .........  66

            Poem:  Calling of Creation.................................................  82
 
8.  Becoming evolution's conscious weavers .................................  83

            Poem:  First of all ..................................................... .............................................................. 92
 
 
III.  Reflections on Strategy and Tactics...........................  95
 
9.   Learning from our evolutionary past into
       our evolutionary future ........................................................  97

            Poem: That Great Evolving Power .................................................................. 112
 
10.  A "Big Story" evolutionary fitness program...................................................... 114
            Poem: A larger force works through us...................................................... 121
 
11.   The strategic synergy of individual and
          collective ...........................................................................  122

            Poem:  Journey power story questions ...................................................... 128
 
12.  The evolutionary role of conversation...................................................................... 130

            Poem: The facilitator ................................................. 144
 
13.  Transformational leverage............................................... 146

            Poem:  Life like spring............................................... 153
 
 
IV.   Reflections on Evolutionary Grace and
            Appreciation ......................................................... 155
 
14.   Goodness Gracious:   evolutionary integrity
         and our engagement with life........................................  157

            Poem:  A powerful Grace .......................................... 162
 
15.  Active appreciation....................................................... 164

            Poem:  The whole knows............................................ 170
 
 
V.  Reflections on Crises and Democracy........................ 173
 
16.  Six degrees of separation from reality .............................. 175
            Poem:  Mother Earth's message................................. 180
 
17.  Something bigger than Life is trying to work through us....... 184

            Prayer:  Prayer for conscious evolution ....................... 196
 
18.  Building wise democracy as crises emerge ........................  197
            Poem:  We are on the edge........................................  211
 
19.   Democracy and the evolution of societal
         intelligence ............................................................... 213

            Poem:  Ultimately global catastrophe
                           is about life.................................................  221
 
 
VI.  Reflections on Systems  .........................................  225
 
20.   Caring and systemic awareness:  Does
         compassion itself need to evolve?.................................  227

            Poem:  What we long for ........................................  238
 
21.  What makes a social system conscious? ..........................  239
            Poem:  You can't hide anymore ................................ 248
 
VII.   Reflections on an Evolutionary Activist
            Movement.......................................................... 249
 
22.   A rationale and guidance for nonviolence
         as a basis for conscious evolutionary activism................. 251
            Poem:  Together at the leading edge ........................ 268
 
23.   Five areas to attend to when building an
         evolutionary activism movement  ............................... 271

            Poem:  Sunshine being meditation .......................... 274
 
24.   Imagining an activist movement for the
         conscious evolution of social systems...........................  276
                  Poem: To Martin Luther King, Jr. ......................  282
 
25.   Some ways to engage in co-creating this
         movement ............................................................. 284

                  Poem: Co-aliveness ..........................................  290
 
Appendices................................................................. 293
 
A.  An annotated informal glossary of basic terms ................  295
 
B.   Evolutionary Life...................................................... 301

 
C.  Models of transformational leverage..............................  303
 
 
Index ......................................................................... 315
 
About the author ......................................................  335
 
Acknowledgments  .................................................... 337
 
Praise for  Reflections on Evolutionary Activism ......... 341
 
            Poem:  Just a moment  ......................................... 344