The Arc of the Moral Universe

In this perfect storm, we shall overcome, moment by moment.

For the past sixty years, I have believed that I was part of a movement that was changing history and helping make a better world.

First, as a campus activist at Oklahoma State University, I felt empowered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (photo above) to oppose the Vietnam war and champion civil rights including women’s rights.

Then, with the Ecumenical Institute, I believed that we were renewing the historical church so that it could care for the least, the lost, and the last and create a world that worked for all.

Next with the Institute of Cultural Affairs, I believed that we were demonstrating human development in poor communities and that this would be replicated worldwide by the structures of society.

Then with the United Nations Development Program, I was sure that our programs and policies would promote sustainable human development in countries around the world with my particular focus being on participatory approaches to decentralized governance and localizing the Millennium Development Goals.

Next, teaching wonderful students from around the world at New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, I was confident that they would make positive changes in their countries by applying effective methods of innovative leadership of group facilitation, social artistry, integral thinking, and mindfulness.

Then, by consulting and giving speeches around the country and the world, I felt that I was helping awaken people to the critical decade in which we find ourselves and to commit to the tasks required to mitigate and adapt to climate change and societal chaos.

Next, I felt certain that the powerful vision that came to me of creating a compassionate civilization, and that I wrote about in my book of the same name, would help strengthen the movement of movements to create a world of compassion and ecological regeneration.

In the past couple of years, I have believed that my mindful activism of publishing weekly essays as part of “Compassionate Conversations” on Substack, and getting out the vote would help create a better nation and world.

And just a few days ago, I wrote about being part of an island of sanity that is helping create the beloved community in our hurricane-ravaged town on behalf of our county, state, country, and planetary society.

Thinking back to 2013, I wrote:

What is the responsible thing to do when you sense imminent danger? Should you make other people aware of it, even if you don’t know what they should do? I think so. If you see a tornado forming, you should send out the alarm, even though you can’t tell each person and family exactly what they should do.

Well, I sense that a perfect storm is brewing, involving not only climate chaos but political, economic, cultural, and social chaos as well. I wish it were not true. I hope that it doesn’t happen. But I think that I have sighted a hurricane heading our way. Look out. Prepare. Act. Care for self and others.

Well, here we are in 2025, with increasing climate disasters of mega-storms, powerful floods, and raging fires, weakened democracies, rising fascism and oligarchy, racism, misogyny, patriarchy, the rise of artificial intelligence, and many other challenges.

Have I been deluded these past sixty years? Are things any better or are they worse? Has anything we have done made a positive difference for people and planet? I don’t know for sure, but I would do it all again.

I know that I have been a small player and am not famous or wealthy. I am aware that we can never know the impacts of what we do. Sixty years ago, my first master teacher, Joseph Wesley Mathews, told us that we are to be the nobodies who give our lives to bend history. And in the days ahead, I intend to learn new effective ways of caring and continue to do what I can until my last breath.

The struggle never ends. We each do what we can. And then the next generation does what it is called to do and be.

And things do change. Life can improve. Suffering can be relieved. Happiness can be a way of living. People can learn how to take collective decisions and actions. We can care for all people and all of the living planet we call Earth and of which we are a part. We can strengthen social justice, ecological regeneration, participatory democracy, and peace and nonviolence.

Remember that evolution and history are continuing to unfold. Each of us makes a difference with our thoughts, words, and deeds. There is only change. All is impermanent. Everything is interconnected in interbeing.

I know that many of us, including me, are sad and worried, even angry, fearful, or depressed. We must take good care of our body-mind by stopping, resting, breathing, becoming aware, accepting reality, giving thanks, and committing to continue our journey of understanding and compassionate action. I honor our grief, but life and love continue.

On January 20, we celebrate his thirty-nine years of transformative living, speaking, writing, and action, and we remember the wise words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

We shall overcome, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

During the less than 13 years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from December 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced. In addition, he wrote, spoke, and marched in support of genuine democracy, socioeconomic justice for all people, and peace and nonviolence around the world.

Onward we go, moment by moment, in mystery, love, and gratitude.

Let’s go together, while singing or humming “we shall overcome.”