Reading through Bernie’s "Evolution of Human Convergences", I am struck by his articulation of the issue many of us face; How to make a living in ways that match our deepest values? I am also aware of how some of the research our Institute has been doing can facilitate an answer to the question he raises; How to make these human convergences truly transformative?

My own journey has brought me to a place of not being able to face getting a "job" in the everyday world that is available from where I live. Going back to school for the past ten years has provided some freedom from entering the workforce, at the price of significant debt. Eventually, my passion for "being part of the solution" led to the formation of our Institute for Transformative Leadership.

Through this work I have come in contact with many others with a variety of levels of success at integrating values and livelihood. The issues for me seem to focus around how what we want to-and are doing-does not support the power brokers of the status quo. So creativity in funding and support is required. This can come from working on the edges of the system, trying to reform it from within, or by gaining access to means of livelihood in this manner. Or it can involve creating alternative flows of economy among groups of cultural creatives supporting each other. No matter how we go about it, we are faced with having to change the way we think about our lives and the world around us.

This brings me to the second point.

Bernie writes, "It will be the human convergences that will give people a greater sense of purpose" and "the coming years deeper meaning." One of the issues I see coming up constantly is in order to manifest this greater sense of purpose. There is an element of maturity that as human beings is necessary. This maturity involves the development of consciousness, the transformation of the processes of thought, and an ongoing self-inspiring engagement with life.

There is a wealth of literature available that describes the related, or cognitive levels of development throughout our lifetime as children and as adolescents. While our society operates as if we stop maturing at around 20 and become adults, there are many further stages of growth needed to operate successfully in the modern world. We need to change much more than the contents of consciousness. We need to change the fundamental quality of consciousness from which we engage the world. To engage in this transformative process, what appears to be the simplest method is to have a fundamental orientation to a life of self-inspiration. This is premised on answering Albert Einstein’s fundamental question, "Is the universe a friendly place?" with a resounding YES! If we can learn to trust that life will act in our best interest and that the good of the whole is inherently good for all of us, then we can engage in an authentic transformation and self-growth. That would exclude our self-embedded, culturally conditioned perception of what our best interest might be.

As more and more cultural creatives mature as human beings, we will see our deeper values being articulated more clearly, and acted upon with greater coherence. These changes in behavior will in turn facilitate our collective ability to bring about a convergence between values and livelihood. The momentum from this will set up new cultural norms, thus breaking the ground for the next generation to build upon.