A Community that Transcends Time

Would you like to be wiser? Then take a deep breath…I mean that literally… and hold it.

With your lungs filled, ask yourself how close you are to Julius Caesar. Likely, you consider him far away, understandably given he lived in Italy 1,179 years ago. Indeed, he is far away in some ways, but at another, fundamental level, he's closer than you think, remarkably close, in fact. Okay, you can exhale now.

There's a 98.2% chance you breathed in and out molecules from the last breath taken by Julius Caesar before he died. Initially, the molecules floated around Rome before being swept further away on jet streams, ocean storms, and rain clouds. Some were absorbed by living plants and animals then released to circulate once again at their death. Over 1,179 years, Caesar's molecules dispersed themselves around the globe, and a few of them are at your doorstep.

That long-ago, far-away occurrence crossed both space and time to become very near you in a fantastic feat of nature. But why does that matter?

Every action you take in space and time has a more significant impact than you can imagine.

Inhale once again, but now I want you to know there's a 98.2% chance that you just inhaled a small part of someone else who lived a long time ago.

Cleopatra. Moses. Buddha. Confucius. Jesus. The list goes on.

And in a thousand years from now, others will be inhaling you. We are intimately linked to people, places, and things unknown to us. How do we make wise decisions when this is true?

Native Americans use a clever decision-making strategy called Seven Generations. When deliberating on what action to take, we are encouraged to consider the Seven Generations that came before us and their impact on the current situation, and then consider the Seven Generations that will come after us and how our decision might impact them.

I love the words spoken by a member of the Beaver clan, Rich Hill. "We are connected to a community, a community that transcends time…to the first Indians who walked on this earth… we're also connected to those Indians who aren't even born yet, who are going to walk this earth. And our job in the middle is to bridge that gap."

We step into the gap whenever we pause to stand in awe of the majesty of life. Hopefully, from that perspective, we'll notice that we are both tiny yet powerful agents in the course of history.

Use your place in the gap wisely.