The new direction for the societies and economies of the world is not growth, but depth!
Depth, as defined by ecologists and works of wisdom from various lineages, is when an entity develops and strengthens its connective tissue and builds and regenerates its cells, instead of just growing larger. The perfect example is of an adult who has reached the full height that they will obtain. As opposed to a baby, toddler or adolescent, they are no longer growing vertically. Yet the work has not finished. Now they must develop a maintain a happy, healthy and fit body. They will also focus on personal development, business, and relationships and deliver on their promises.
Another example is of a building project. When it is conceived and started, something grows out of the ground and then it reaches its complete state. What then comes is finishing, interior decor and the warming of the building. In addition to the physical elements, it now needs to obtain its purpose — be that of it being a school, a house, a hospital, an office complex or a beachfront villa. It needs to be populated. It needs to be maintained. Transactions take place within and the physicality of the building is no longer the prime project. There is maintenance and some development and some deconstruction from time to time, but the building of the building is done!
So is it with families. Once you marry and have children, the family is built. Now the family needs to be developed, and to get to its work. You do not make a new baby every day, at least not without sending the first ones along on the next steps of their journeys of growth!
And this is the case of nations and societies and economies — and human civilization on Planet Earth. We have apparently been through a very long era of getting to where we are right now, in the forming and storming stages of being. We now need to get to the norming and performing stages. Human population under constant stress, in despair and in a state of perpetual war is not the destiny or purpose of humankind.
The future is in settling and resting, and deepening our lives, works and being.
This is not giving up work and even growth; this is growth and work in a different dimension. Mathematically and in terms of orgnizational structures, we are going from linear growth and hierarchies to networks and relationships. Once again, the example of a family comes handy. Say, a couple, Sara and Haroon, have had four children. The children do a journey of growth where they are educated, as well as trained for life at home and through their community and exposure and experiences. Then the children turn adult. Sara and Haroon are not having any more children. The family is not growing linearly. Their child Joseph might even leave home and get his own apartment. A dauhgter gets married and brings a son-in-law to the family. The third child starts up an entrepreneurial venture overseas. The fourth is drafted in service. Each is adding a level of complexity to the family, and adding value (sometimes subtracting!). This means that the growth is no longer linear and hierarchal in Sara and Haroon’s family; there is now something akin to a web being woven. This is not a hollow metaphor either, this is exactly what their family tree would look like!
Speaking of trees, plants grow likewise. There is a period of growing longer or taller, and there is a period of bearing fruit, and there is another period of making value-added products (if any) out of the fruit and bringing the fruit to the table or the market.
These are epochs in the lives of civilizations and nations, and seasons and years in the lives of humans and trees. The current epoch of humanity is ecological, and demands that we rest, restore, repair, rejuvenate, and regenerate.
If we do not most urgently turn to this wisdom of deepening, we will only break our own bodies, minds, hearts and psyches, as this era is compelling, and is destined for humankind. This is not a choice and there is no escape from it. This is a destiny that needs to be embraced with readiness, to take early advantage of it and obtain an advantageous position within the new matrix.