I want to be a part of something. . . . different. What is this thing? Three words come to mind:
Community
Individuality
Evolution
KEW supports the community of intelligent, analytic, and empathic individuals looking to interact in ways that benefit us as individuals, our villages, and the global community.
The foundations of KEW include the belief that we have a responsibility to realize the wonder and beauty of our individual DNA by expressing our individuality as completely as possible while simultaneously supporting the individual expression in others to facilitate a better human community.
We recognize that we are all unique and stand alone. Yet we also understand that we are members of our species. As such we are born with responsibilities to ourselves and to others. Learning to express and realize both of these pieces is critical to living the best lives we can.
Living the best life is a cryptic and ambiguous goal, but a central tenet to members of the KEW community. We are grateful for what we have, but know we can make improvements. We recognize and accept our individual quirks, but know we can change things if they become detrimental. We can change as individuals to improve our lives, which is the only way we can change the community to improve our species and our planet.
Fundamental to this movement is the central tenet of change. Change is the one truth we accept and we embrace the idea that everything changes in one direction as time passes. We are born and we die. The sun rises and sets. Matter was created once, but continually and infinitely rearranges. As humans, are connectivity to this systematic changing is our DNA. Our DNA was designed to perpetuate our individual uniqueness (See The Uniqueness Imperative) as well as our collective ability to perpetuate through adaptation (See the Evolution Paradox).
Together, these tenets promote a duality of individualism and collectivism where both are interdependent and critical. It is in realizing this, and following a plan to nurture each pathway that we will realize both our own peace of mind (minimal suffering or dissatisfaction/maximum peace or calm) as well as our collective ability to organize and perpetuate a healthy society.
KEW, therefore, defines health in two ways; for the individual and the collective. Individual health is measured by reductions to human pains. These include anxiety, depression, anger, restlessness, dissatisfaction, self abuse, etc. Communal health is measured by our ability to successfully navigate or societal needs including management of communal resources, regulation of unhelpful behavior, egalitarianism, equality, and equanimity. Our goals are to maximize peace and calm, and to minimize anger and restlessness. Simple. Parsimonious.
The purpose of KEW blogs and podcast are to invite people wishing to reduce restlessness and dissatisfaction in their individual lives who also desire a more communal and loving community. Our goals are to improve our individual experiences on Earth as well as contributing to the prosperity of our species through time. There are simultaneously individuality and a community elements the same way there are co-occurring elements of the moment and the future.
I don’t want to prescribe characteristics of people interested in KEW, but I can offer some general descriptors of what characteristics I think we share:
-analytic
-intelligent
-introspective
-curious
-distrustful of the status quo and conformity
-having thoughts of being different or of not belonging
-suspicious of normalcy
-connected to your inner world
-open and curious about things like meditation, mindfulness, and somatic experience
Community
Individuality
Evolution
The three words/mission statement pretty much describes biology, doesn’t it? The whole ‘levels of organization’ thing? We are simultaneously the level below and the level above. We are cells, but we are organelles and tissues. We are individual bodies, but we are organs and families. We are a planet, but we are continents and the universe. Each level begets the next. The whole ‘connectedness’ thing. Is there a single word that defines this? Most of the ‘community’ words don’t recognize the individual within. Most individuality terms don’t imply membership to a greater thing. It’s the levels of organization idea.
Interconnectedness (individual AND society)
Evolution (change through time)
Love (fundamental relation and priority. The currency of life. The measure)
KEW recognizes the duality of our individual selves in the context of the human community. We are both ourselves, and our group. As such we seek commonality among these seemingly disparate paths. We recognize that these path change through time, or evolve, and that time is a necessary element to consider as either growth or de-evolution/recession. We, of course, seek the growth part. Last, we recognize love as the universal measure of both our individual and communal elements. Love is good. Love is the goal. Love is the solution.