Dear Great-grandson

Dear Great-grandson,

Son of ______,
who is son of Shanti and Kasia,


This is Jim Shipsky, your Great-grandfather writing to you from the past. I hope this finds you well and joyful!


Today, May 7, 2010, oil is gushing from a ruptured well-head some 5000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. All kinds of sea life are suffering and dying as a result. Most of us humans have yet to realize we must stop using, that is, burning oil. Very few of us have managed to find ways to live without oil. We have very, very few leaders who model for us how to live without harming the many beings with whom we share this blue-green planet named Earth. I pray that I may be such a leader.


Maybe when you read this in the year 2040 or later, the Great Turning will be a fait accompli. I smile as I imagine you and your family and friends enjoying energy from the Sun, the Winds, the Tides. And maybe someone will have been shown new ways of channeling energy from Spirit, adding Soul to simple everyday acts. Maybe there will be no wars in your world. Maybe the idea will have spread over the Internet that we are all in this together and that only love can guide us in sustainable ways. No, more than that: only love can guide us to survival.


Great-grandson, I smile when I envision your world with no cars, no highways, no eighteen-wheeler trucks, no airliners, but only people walking, talking, greeting each other, maybe riding solar-powered trains, or biking along narrow lanes bordered with flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees.


Great-grandson, I hope you will have no cause to hate or curse me for not having done more, for not taking the necessary steps so that you could enjoy this beautiful Earth in ways similar to what I have.


Great-grandson, I hope and pray you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren that I played a part in the Great Turning from the Industrial Growth Society to the Life Sustaining society.


With much love,


Your Great-grandfather Jim Shipsky