1. Re-Enchanting Humanity: Stories for a Sustainable Future
Wednesday, November 28 – Friday, November 30, 2012
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Hosted by
Hendricks Chapel and P.A.R.C.C. (Maxwell School),
In partnership with
SUNY – E.S.F., Le Moyne College Office of Mission and Identity
and the McDevitt Center for Creativity and Innovation at Le Moyne, and others
Only weeks after one of the most divisive elections, and months following the Earth Summit drew competing lines on Mother Earth, we gather to tell the stories of our civilization and search for a shared narrative to restore civility and move us beyond the conflict to peace.
“The stories we choose to tell and how we choose to tell them, determines the course of civilization,”
~Ralph Singh, Chair, Wisdom Thinkers Network
WTN Roundtable 2012
Today competing ideologies dominate the landscape leaving citizens little room for peace. They have put our world on a deadly course of destruction. Dominated by the divisive rhetoric, empathy has vanished and no one stops to listen to each other anymore. We have forgotten how to share our stories. Can sharing and learning to honor each other’s stories lead to a shared narrative? At the root of all, regardless of ideology or discipline, Wisdom Thinkers recognizes a spiritual connection which will allow us to transcend our individual positions and work to create a shared narrative for the future of humanity and of our planet – a new ethos for a shared planet?
Recognizing that our behaviors, our cultures, and our policies grow out of our stories, Wisdom Thinkers Network is gathering a diverse group of visionaries, from around the country and around the world inSyracuse. We are bringing storytellers and artists together with leaders from key disciplines and traditions to reflect on what stories have influenced our current position, and what stories can indeed help change the course of civilization towards a more compassionate, inclusive, and that includes our environment, pluralistic, civil society.
Roundtables will focus on:
I Stories of Our Being – Our place in the Cosmos
II Stories of Our Relationships with Nature – How do we value our environment
III Stories for a New Economy
IV Democracy – Our Stories and the Structures to Support Them
THURSDAY, NOV. 29 An Evening of Stories and Music for Sustainability
7:00–8:30 p.m. Maxwell Auditorium (with open reception in Maxwell Foyer at 6:00 p.m.)
Panel discussion and cultural program to share emerging narratives. Open reception preceding the event will allow the public and university community to gather with presenters and participants.
- Remarks by Ralph Singh and by Professor Marjorie DeVault on the role of narrative in social change
- panellist include Rabbi Brad Hirschfield (Co-President of CLAL), Dr. Naresh Singh(former UN Advisor for
- Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods), Nick Stuart (President and CEO of Odyssey Networks)
- Stories presented by Francis Parks, storytelling matriarch and founder of Sojourner Story Festival
- Music offered by jazz clarinetist David Rothenberg, with world-renowned sound designerDoug Quin
10:40 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Global Collaboratory, 060 Eggers Hall
Discussion of emerging narratives assisted by visual facilitator Julie Stuart. Audience contributions will be welcome as the group identifies opportunities for change and begins to frame a call to action.
“The basic challenges to sustainability or sustainable development depend on the simple question what is it we want to sustain? The answer to that question might be economic growth, human happiness, human development, nature, human progress, human freedoms, choices or options to make a sustainable livelihood, etc.etc…..Chances are we will pick more than one these and even if we picked one, it might depend on others. Whatever we pick however we will find that the dominant pathways of our current civilization are not likely to lead us there. On this 20th anniversary of the Rio conference on sustainable development, 2 common picks are likely to be sustainable human development and environmentally sustainable economic growth. A lot has been done in these areas over the last 2 decades or more, but progress has been so slow we seem to lose our way. We have revised our concepts, developed new theories, and tools, done groundbreaking research and developed new technologies, engaged in public awareness programs, had gatherings of world leaders to commit their nations to change etc.. What else needs to be done? WTN will suggest that we need to change the dominant narrative of our civilization through the stories we tell. Share some stories that you think will have such power and who might be the audiences to whom these stories might be addressed.” Naresh