Context: The Gateway to Wisdom and Growth in a Complex World
Exploring the Power of Context to Shape Understanding, Relationships, and Societal Evolution
You may have noticed we’re a little behind in our publishing schedule. Last week I was engaged in a weeklong intensive training in project management methodologies, systems, and tools in preparation for the PMP certification exam. It was a mentally exhausting journey, but worth the effort. I’m only now getting back into the writing as the ideas never slow, only (at times) the mental and emotional energy to pen those ideas into discernable essays does. So let’s get to it, shall we.
A number of years ago, my writing was criticized by someone who said I was “killing people with context.” At the time, I was still in the place where any criticism was a confirmation of my flawedness. But while I didn’t stop articulating context in my blogs and essays, I retained this thought in the back of my mind that maybe I was going about it all wrong.
More recently, though, I perceive context as the gateway to wisdom — that without it, we have only information, not understanding.
Context, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is, “1): the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning,” and “2): the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs.” Which, to me, confirms its essential nature in the pursuit of depth, wisdom, understanding, and even such things as healing and peace.
Context is an invitation to depth. It’s the surrounding landscape of thought that births mere facts into actionable insight, incidents into feelings, conflict into healing, and ideas into movements.
A wonderful quote from Simon Sinek is, “A community is a group of people who agree to grow together.” Which struck me powerfully as I’ve long subscribed to the notion that fulfilling relationships are wrapped in a dedication to growth, so naturally such relational context would extend to a community. But it could go farther. It could extend to companies and even governments.
Let’s just fantasize for a moment. What if we had a constitutional amendment that said something like,
“Section 1. We the people strive for a more perfect union through the continuous effort to grow individually and collectively. We face into conflict (not for the sake of conflict) but rather for the opportunity it provides for healing and growth. We thus extend a growth effort to all branches of government, including the judicial and military. No law shall abridge the right of any individual to the effort of continuous growth and we seek to continually align all branches of government to support this aim… yada, yada, etc., etc.”
Then we could go on to say,
“Section 2. We acknowledge that the Federal government cannot compel any individual to healing and growth, but we can work continuously to provide ample opportunities for growth throughout governance and by establishing as the highest priority such things as addiction recovery, mental health, career training, and cultural and ethnic diversity.
“Section 3. Further, we hereby establish that the explicit function of the criminal justice system is healing and restoration, and that our economic policies shall align around serving the greatest number of people, based on the approach of a rising tide lifting all boats.”
I’m sure the constitutional lawyers would have a field day with such language, calling it too intangible and functionally unenforceable. True, indeed. But what if?
Such language (or a legally refined version) would change the context of the good ole’ U.S. of A. We’d have specific intentionality to surround laws, governance, and economics. No longer would sound-bite politics rule the day, but instead all laws, political platforms, and positions would have a framework to work within that involves healing for the greatest number of people.
Our present context is supposed to be inalienable rights, liberty and freedom, and (of course) democracy. But all too often those tenets are subverted by personal ambition and misinformation campaigns designed specifically to confuse the populous so we either throw up our hands and say, “I don’t know what to think,” or we simply go along with the politician that speaks to us on some level that we can identify with.
But if we were all (or most of us) oriented around a different context, one of healing and growth, imagine how that would fundamentally change things.
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