Thom Swain

SYNOPSIS

 

Turn on the news, bring up the internet, read a newspaper, and the horrors of man's inhumanity to man seem epidemic all around us. In a world apparently dominated by fear and greed, is the ideal of the 'goodness of Mankind' merely an illusion? Are our media sources an accurate insight into the nature of human beings on planet Earth? Or could it be that our perceptions of our civilization are more a quantitative illusion rather than a qualitative reality? Consider by what means YOU may have concluded that perhaps humanity is indeed a 'lost cause.' For most who hold this impression it is hard to escape the truth that such perceptions of billions of our fellow human beings are based on information received by an unbelievably 'small quantity of sources' – and that qualitatively those sources of information are largely discontinuous within most of our inter-personal experiences.

I would implore you to really think about this by considering 'how many' specific individuals you listen to and rely on to formulate your impressions of the state of human affairs. Come up with a number. I would confidently suggest to you that most of us would be hard pressed to come up with even a dozen 'sources' of information that direct your personal impression of the quality of life and interactions between human beings in this very complex world. But let's be generous in our estimations…say you could account for dozens…even hundreds…let's even suppose a thousand different persons and media sources are responsible for your impressions…and assumptions…about your fellow man. Even if it was a thousand individuals (which I dare say is highly unlikely)…all or most of them are feeding your 'indirect' impressions, none of which have any truly inter-personal connection between you and the 'others' they are describing to you. It's ALL 'heresay' if you will. And by in large, the messages they are relaying evoke anxiety, apprehension, fear, and uncertainty about the 'intentions' of our fellows. Are the majority of these impressions 'in sync' with the majority of your own…actually inter-personal experiences with other people in your life? Do a 'few dozen…or even a thousand' opinions really characterize the truth and realty of nearly seven billion human beings?

Where is the wisdom of 'writing off' the bulk of humanity as a 'lost cause' because a small handful define our humanity merely in terms of fear, greed, and cruelty when in the lives of most of us, love, grace, and joy are the real potentials of the majority of our directly inter-personal experiences with others?

A basic premise of FOREVER NEW is that this contrast between 'quality' and 'quantity' of impressions cannot be fully judged nor appreciated without the 'primary inter-personal experience' that according to Thom's "perfect model" is established WITHIN each of us: the 'good news' of the inter-personal Connection between the 'created and the Creator.' It is through the realization of and then the acceptance of this 'Perfect Model' that the great hope for happiness and peace in our individual lives will be the means to these same potentials in our entire civilization.

But what is really meant and implied by the personal? This concept of 'personal' is something so ordinary and routine in our experiences that we rarely truly stop to consider what 'personal' means. Everything in this world and in our lives…changes. It seems nothing stays constant…immutable…unchangeable. But there is one…and only one aspect of human experience that 'changes not'…and that IS the 'personal.' Pushing toward the culmination of my own nearly seven decades of living, I attest that the only element in my life that has NOT changed is that subjective 'interior orientation' of me the experiencer. Everything else, including my body, my ideas, thoughts, values, have 'evolved'…become something more and different than they once were. Relationships have changed…come and gone…but I who experienced and know the relationships…remains. I recall a conversation with my 90 year old mother not long before she passed away. In a gifted moment of pure intimacy she and I both attested to this 'mysterious truth' that…as she remarked…“I'm that same young 8 year old little girl I was over eighty years ago…it's just my body that has changed.” And so it Is…personally…for each and every one of us.

I suggest to the reader, that this issue of the 'personal' is the very foundation of all that human kind ascribes to as having 'value' in human experience. This imbues even our choices of what is considered 'valuable' in the material world around us. Again, think about it: what 'quality' is common to those tangible matters that nearly all persons and cultures ascribe as having 'value'? Land, gold, gemstones, and 'immutable' materials…are 'valuable' because they 'change not'…they REMAIN unchanged amidst everything else that does change. I attest that it is our very most fundamental nature…our changeless personal identity as an 'experiencer having changing experiences' that is the foundation of ALL VALUE in our lives. Little contemplation of this profundity is required to arrive at the inescapable conclusion that PERSONS are the 'gold standard' of value in human experience…individually and more profoundly collectively.