"You can limit the freedom of my body, but not my mind
I must be free to roam and explore all that the world has to offer
I must be free to independently believe what I choose to believe-free of all other influences
I do not need anyone's permission or support to have my beliefs
I must resist the pressure to conform."
I wrote the above in February 2007 in response to yet another attempt by others to get me to conform to some normality, which may bring me greater social acceptance, but which, to me, makes no sense and takes away from my sense of personal freedom. Most of us come into the world and accept it as it is, often without questioning what we do not understand. We simply "fall in" as told and our lives become ritualised into the norms of the dominant culture and religion of our immediate environment. In so doing we fail to exercise our divine capacity for independent thought and follow blindly. As a pastor told me recently: "People are lazy and do not want to think and so we must tell them what to think, what to believe and what to do with their lives." Thus, many people end up as members of groups parroting beliefs that they were told by some influential person-parent, teacher, religious leader, community leader, gang leader-and who they chose to believe and follow blindly. They unwittingly become members of "tribes," consumed by prejudice and the fear of others. They easily buy into a pessimistic gloom-and-doom mentality which takes them down a path of grumbling and complaining about everything but doing very little to change anything themselves. Their world remains unchanged. Such folks mostly end up living just for themselves and their immediate families as they seek shelter from the dangers they see around them. A selfish and tribal mind dominates their thinking. Ignorance dominates their lives. On the other hand, a few people come into the world and refuse to accept it as it is because they believe that the world can become better and they set about to make it a better place for all. They question, challenge and seek greater understanding rather than just following blindly, thus exercising their God-given capacity for independent thought. In so doing, they discover their own inner power, their human goodness and the spiritual nature of humanity. They become harbingers of hope as they strive to advance humanity and to help the world to become a better place. The spiritual mind dominates their thinking. They exist in a state of enlightenment.
As human beings, we all have the capacity to be spiritually minded. The spiritual mind has no tribal limits. It sees and recognises the equality and dignity of all human beings. It sees across the wider human family and embraces all. The spiritual mind is free from the cages of tribes, race and religion. It has space to roam and it roams freely. The spiritual mind is energising, illuminating and elevating. It brings out the positives in the human being. It brings out the creativity of the human being. It is a mind that generates a feeling of contentment and inner peace. Without doubt, this is the mind that dominated the lives of Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa. The spiritual mind is a mind of truth, fairness and of tremendous courage. It is a mind that can withstand the many challenges of life. It is a mind that thinks independently, sees clearly and reasons clearly. It is a mind that has clarity on the environment around it. It is a mind that is not trapped in any cage or prison. It has true freedom. It is a mind that can resist the pressures to belong. It sees the cages clearly but does not enter. A person with a spiritual mind sees every human being, listens to all and treats all fairly. Human development is about the progressive development of the spiritual mind. Let me now share with you my vision of a united humanity. It is vivid. It is a vision rooted in my deeply held belief that human beings have the capacity to be good and to live out that potential for goodness. As a social species, human beings have been slowly fulfilling that potential and I believe that we will continue to do so. Although we have made great strides, I believe we are still at an early stage in the process. We were once much more primitive in our behaviours -more selfish, more tribal and more violent. I believe that we are on a path of becoming less primitive and a more social species.
My vision of the destiny of humanity is clear. It is my source of optimism and hope. I believe that humanity is on a journey of creating something that is truly beautiful in which human beings will live and work in the interest one another. It will be a world in which there will be a true collective effort to deal with the challenges of nature and the challenges of our own irresponsible behaviours. It will be a world in which we will be able to comfortably and collectively feed, clothe and house all humanity. My vision is of a world in which we will each be our brother's keeper. It is a world of peace and happiness. It is in keeping with this vision that I chose to be a leadership educator with a message of hope that we can make the world a better place for all. My interest is not to keep people in the present, but rather to help them to go places they have not even dreamt of. My interest is not just clarifying the past and the present, but rather to help people to see the future. My interest is not to learn to live in the present, but rather to help create the future that we want. My interest is not to limit my future to a world defined by others, but rather to expand my world to accommodate the unknown, the undeveloped and the undiscovered. I am convinced that a better world is possible. I am convinced that we have the capacity to help create that better world. In my lifetime, I have seen T&T, the Caribbean and the world become a better place, despite the many predictions of gloom and doom. It is my continuing desire to help replace ignorance with enlightenment.
