100 MILLION YEAR BUSINESS REPORT
"The Iroquois Council of Grandmothers’ 100-million-year Business Report"
Helen Wallace was on the phone. Yes, I would be available. I would like to meet the elderly students whose project she commended so highly. Yes, they could present their “100-Million-Year Business Report on Planet Earth” at the Environmental Center which I directed.
Helen was a colleague and a professor unlike any other I knew. Students bonded with her. In this case, the bonding took place in a course for senior citizens on “Death & Dying.” When the course was over Helen continued to meet for two years with the women on her own time.
Together they undertook a massive research project. They studied Albert Einstein & four other modern prophets. They also studied the history of the Iroquois Federation of Six Nations. They were especially excited about the role the Iroquois Council of Grandmothers played.
Helen explained that some of the grandmothers had difficulty walking. She hoped the Environmental Center would not be cluttered with tools and half-finished projects. I made sure the Center was presentable when the grandmothers arrived.
Helen introduced the women as a modern-day reincarnation of the ancient Iroquois Council of Grandmothers. She summarized the Council’s “Business Report.” The business of Earth was life.
Several elderly women, bent over with arthritis, used chalk to draw a graph across the full width of a 30-foot blackboard. While they were at work a Middle School teacher brought a “gifted class” of boys for a tour of the Center. She instructed her students to sit down with us while the Grandmothers interpreted the graph.
A single line on the graph recorded Earth’s business success over the 100 million years. The line reflecting this success rose from the lower left side of the blackboard to near the top at the right side. The line represented Earth’s ever increasing capacity to support more diverse and productive life businesses. With great enthusiasm the grandmothers shared the secret of Earth’s business success.
The planet was blessed with an infallible management system. The grandmothers took turns explaining. Each species came equipped with a genetically programmed Instruction Book on “how to live and fit in.” Each species was required to put back into Earth’s business more than it took out. Earth’s solution for slackers, species that could not fit in (return a profit) was extinction. No exceptions made.
Across the entire 100 million-year graph, Earth’s businesses prospered even when temporary catastrophes struck. For example, 67 million years ago a giant meteorite collided with Earth causing massive climate change. Climate change wiped out dinosaurs and other species that couldn’t adapt. These extinctions opened niches for new business opportunities. Mammals replaced reptiles as top-dog on the food chain. New specialized businesses made possible experiments with new freedoms never before possible.
The graph showed how Earth’s management system accumulated a huge surplus in capital reserves. The surplus made possible a novel business venture unimaginable in the past. This new species involved such a high risk the grandmothers called it an out-and-out gamble. It was launched within the last inch of the 30-foot line that showed the success of Earth’s management system.
The line began to plummet within a fraction of an inch of the end of the graph. The new species was consuming Earth’s resources faster than all other species could replenish them. Against all management principles the human species was living off Earth’s capital reserves which were rapidly diminishing.
Despite the mess we were making 20th century men chiefs took the position that the rules that applied to all other species did not apply to humans. The grandmothers analyzed their “delusional accounting system.” Why couldn’t they see that soon Earth’s management would be forced to step in?
Why was human behavior so detached from reality? Helen, trained in sociology and psychology, explained that “detachment from reality” was a clinical definition for “insanity.” If the men chiefs bankrupted Earth’s business of life, future generations would be destitute. What could be more insane than that?
INSERT GRAPH - HERE
IROQUOIS ETHICS
True wisdom of the tribe resided in elderly grandmothers.
The Iroquois Federation institutionalized this wisdom into its democratic system of government six centuries ago. The Iroquois Council of Grandmothers served as the Supreme Court and the Environmental Protection Agency for the Federation.
Decisions made by the Chiefs were reviewed by the Council. The Grandmothers administered the “Seven Generations Test.” They could veto any decision they believed would be detrimental to the welfare of their grandchildren seven generations in the future.
The visiting Middle School students and I watched Helen’s modern-day Iroquois Council of Grandmothers apply the “Seven Generations Test” to decisions made by our 20th century men chiefs.
The Grandmothers sat in a circle. Decisions made by modern chiefs were read aloud. One Grandmother asked: “What will be the consequence of these decisions on our children seven generations in the future?”
No discussion was needed. The question was drawn into the deep consciousness of the elderly women where the wisdom of the tribe resided. The circle was sacred. It bound together the deepest concerns of the oldest generation with the well-being of the youngest generation. The circle was a symbol of their unity of purpose.
As we watched, one grandmother smiled, another grimaced. Body language provided clues to what the women might be feeling. Intuitively, they empathized with each other as they considered the consequences of decisions on their children seven generations in the future. Each grandmother was aware when an agreement was reached. Slowly they got to their feet and announced in unison their decision.
I don’t know if the ancient Iroquois Council of Grandmothers made decisions exactly in this way. The modern Council of Grandmothers we were privileged to watch believed they did.
Reality through the eyes of four wise elders and a visionary youth
The 20th century men chiefs flunked the Seventh Generation Test. The boys sitting in our circle all cheered. Next, four of the grandmothers explained the modern men chief’s “detachment from reality” through the eyes of four men scientists they had come to respect during their two-years of research.
The scientists were R. Buckminster Fuller, Ian McHarg, Jacob Bronowski, and Carl Sagan. The elderly women dramatically role played each scientist. What follows is a brief summary.
“Fuller” said humans were in the last lap in a long relay race. The last lap was a final exam that would determine if humans qualified to go on. He warned that if we flunk our exam it will only be because we “hook young people on a game of life that has nothing to do with where the Universe is going.”
“McHarg” said the human species had become a cancer. We were consuming our host, devouring the planet. The good news, he said, was the cancer would die off before it killed its host—and Earth would recover.
“Bronowski” said the human species was not a cancer. We were in a stage of mutation. It was too early to tell whether humankind would become a cancer or transform itself into a better fitting species.
The youngest and most ebullient grandmother played the role of Carl Sagan. She startled the boys when she threw a handful of sunflower seeds over their heads. “Sagan” said that wherever intelligent life is seeded in the Universe it will go through three stages. First, intelligent life will discover technology. Second, intelligent life will discover a technology powerful enough to destroy itself. In the third stage, intelligent life will…
In mid-sentence she paused and addressed a question to the boys. “In the third stage what do you think intelligent life will do?” One boy whispered: “Destroy itself?” “Yes,” the grandmother whispered back; Sagan thought intelligent life would destroy itself…unless that intelligent life discovered a higher purpose for its existence.
Nobody moved. Helen nudged me. I was supposed to lead a discussion. We never had the discussion. We had something better.
One boy came slowly out of his chair. He walked as if in a trance to the blackboard. He looked at the chalk line and asked in a husky voice: “Who would want to live there?” He pointed to where life was prospering; “If, they could live here?” He pointed to where the line plummeted down.
We adults in the room stared at him blankly. Slowly it sank in. During the role-play he had internalized everything. The two years of research by the grandmothers was now encapsulated in the consciousness of this young man—an honors student who could someday become one of the men chiefs.
As if talking to himself he explained that the whole 100-million-year years had been a “time of preparation.” Now was the time for which everything was being prepared. Who wouldn’t want to live now, if they knew that?
Our generation and his and the next few will determine whether our species becomes a cancer or a “better fitting species.” A time like that will be incredibly challenging. Exciting! We have a choice!
The visionary youth knew that a mutation is an organic process. It takes place inside of a living organism. It requires sensitivities that don’t exist in institutions. A transformation into a better fitting species will have to take place in the consciousness of individual human beings.
It can not take place in intellectual think-tanks. Not in sophisticated laboratories of science. Not in prestigious universities. Not in powerful centers of political and military might.
Whether we destroy ourselves or discover a higher purpose will depend on the consciousness and conscience of individual human beings. To this young man that was an awesome insight!
His expression suddenly changed. He was perplexed. There was something he didn’t understand. He looked at his teacher, the grandmothers and me. “If all this is true,” he said, “how come nobody ever told us before?” He didn’t direct the question to me, but I had a gut response I couldn’t hold in. “I couldn’t have told you. I didn’t know myself—until now.”
The boy whispered back: “But you know now. What are you going to do now that you know?”
Years later I wrote Now That You Know: A Journey Toward Earth Literacy. It tells the story of the grandmothers, their business report, the visionary youth and the Turning Point it was for me. It was published by Earth Knows Publication at the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center, Washburn, Tennessee.
Helen Wallace’s dream of a partnership betweenvisionary youth – wise elders
Soon after the grandmothers presented their Business Report Helen shared her dream with me:
She believed it will require seven generations for humans to mutate into a better fitting species. A partnership between wise elders and visionary youth will be needed to provide continuity from generation to generation. No single generation can rethink and modify all the old assumptions that lock our institutions in obsolete ways of thinking about reality. Obsolete ways that Einstein said will lead to “unparalleled catastrophe” for our species.
The grandmothers, haunted by fear for their grandchildren’s future, had in only two years set the stage to demonstrate her dream was feasible. In the time it took for them to present their 100-Million-Year Business Report, the generation gap Helen believed was at the root of our detachment from reality had been bridged – at least for that moment.
The young people, whose presence had been a surprise to the grandmothers, came alive and responded to their drama. One boy was able to synthesize all the elements in their 100-Million-Year Business Report in a way that gave it a deeper meaning. Helen said that his understanding was a quantum leap beyond “the understanding we had achieved.”
But, she emphasized, the perspectives of both elder and of youth are needed to bridge the many gaps that became an abyss in 20th century. The abyss that threatened to swallow civilization was not just between generations. It was a widening gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” It was an abyss that divided our belief systems – political, economic, religious, and scientific – into enemy camps.
As a sociologist, Helen had studied the cultures of indigenous people who she believed knew how to bridge the kind of gaps that were dividing modern humans. She participated in rituals with Native American Indian tribes that were reestablishing traditions to renew the bond between wise elders and visionary youth. Renewing this bond, she believed, could begin a process to heal the modern virus of violence.
She described the role of wise elder and visionary youth in indigenous cultures she had studied:
The role of the wise elder was to remember and pass on wisdom traditions that worked for their culture in the past. This wisdom was rooted in a deep amorphous understanding of the connectedness in which all the different streams of life flowed together into one reality. The traditions were embodied in belief systems encapsulated in an evolving, unwritten Instruction Book on “how to live and fit in.” Elders brought the beliefs embodied in their Instruction Book to life through stories, dances, chants, art, rituals, and mystical experiences.
The role of visionary youth was to bring fresh insight and new ways of thinking to old traditions that worked in the past. This was facilitated by initiation ceremonies that included a vision quest. The vision quest, which took place at puberty, would be an arduous test of one’s mastery of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual disciplines. It could involve days of fasting alone in the wilderness or desert. Intense psychological and spiritual training conducted by elders preceded the quest. The goal was for each youth to identify one’s own totem insight into deeper realms of reality. It was to envision a path of beauty that could be followed for the rest of one’s life. Finding one’s path signaled the transition from childhood to maturity.
The partnership between visionary youth and wise elders worked well as long as tribal belief systems remained open. The role of elder and youth remained collaborative.
When belief systems closed down, as they often did, tribal cultures became trapped in the same Real People Dilemma Thomas Merton said modern civilization is trapped in now. Institutions hardened into rigid and established systems. Only those elders authorized to do so could tell the sacred stories. The function of the stories was no longer to teach, but to conform. Vision quests no longer brought fresh insight to old traditions. Every vision had to fit into inflexible traditions frozen in a pre-Neolithic past.
Helen believed we have much to learn from both the successes and the failures of our indigenous forebears. The most important lesson we needed to learn is how to keep our belief systems open from generation to generation.
To reverse our present drift toward catastrophe we need to undertake three tasks at a species level:
In her dream, she saw youth and elders as natural allies for her proposed seven generations project. Youth are not yet completely hooked on a “game of life that had nothing to do with where the universe was going.” With encouragement and inspiration from their elders, they can come alive and play an important role. Retired elders are no longer so hooked on “rigid and established systems” that they can not explore new ways of thinking. With encouragement and inspiration from youth, they can come alive and once again play an important role as in the ancient past.
Helen gave me a loose-leaf notebook filled with material she thought relevant to her dream project.
The first page in the notebook was a gift membership to the “XAT American Indian Medicine Society” headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The second page was from a newsletter written by Frank Chilcote, a Crow Medicine Man and co-founder of the XAT Medicine Society. Chilcote provided a definition of the art of education from a wise elder’s perspective to enable young people to find their own path.
Frank Chilcote’s definition of education:
Education is to nourish and cause to GROW.
The art of education is to continue to GROW as long as you live.
GROW…from what you are, into what you desire to be. Live to learn and learn to live.
GROW…a larger concept of education. Every moment brings its lesson. Every person is a teacher. Every place is a classroom. Your university is the universe. That’s the Indian Way.
GROW…in all directions. Cultivate the whole person. Develop a desire for goodness, an eagerness for knowledge, a capacity for friendship, an appreciation of beauty, a concern for others.
GROW…in your love for learning. “Love is ever the beginning of Knowledge, as fire is of light,” wrote Carlyle.
GROW…an inquisitive mind. Remember the Chinese proverb: “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, he who does not ask a question is a fool forever.” You can learn from everyone and everything.
GROW…in awareness. Keep the channels of your senses alert to all that goes on outside of you. Keep you mind alert to the stream of thought received within you.
GROW…in new directions. Do not stagnate in the backwash of outworn tradition. Respect the past and learn its lessons. Do not confuse man’s outmoded rules with the laws of the Creator. Be alive to inquiry and change. Explore new areas and ideas. Seek to walk in balance, all ways.
GROW…in deeper levels of the human spirit: contemplation, insight, intuition, and prayer, for Spirit rises out of the structures of consciousness that are receptive to the vision of good.
GROW…in wisdom and understanding. Remember this secret from that ancient Chinese volume, The Book of Changes: “Every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible well-spring of the divine in man’s nature.”
GROW…man is never finished. Man never arrives. Education never stops.