The Sacred Trust
By Victor Bremson

I guess for me it all started one day when I was playing with my oldest grandson Elliot. It might have been the way that he squeezed my hand or hugged me when I walked into the house. I began to think about what kind of future I wanted for him. This was not just about his college education or whether or not he would ever get married and have children. It was more about coming to a realization that I had been given a sacred trust that has been passed on by generation to generation since the beginning of time.

Someone once joked that if I knew that having grandchildren was going to be so great I would have done it first. It is far different than having children. I worked really hard while my two sons were growing up and I don’t remember a lot of the subtleties of childhood development. I can remember running noses and problems with school. One of my sons had allergies and had trouble staying up in class. The other had problems with dyslexia and we were constantly taking him to special tutors. My wife Roberta and I worried a lot about them but somehow despite our best efforts they turned out to be pretty successful adults.

I have more time to enjoy watching my grandchildren growing up. My daughter-in-law allowed Roberta and I to be present in the delivery room when Elliot was born. It was a very difficult birth and as a man I really got how powerful a moment birthing is. Since then I have seen Elliot conquer a thousand challenges as he learns to become to a fully functioning person. Lately I have been taking him to swimming lessons and I watch with some personal pride as each week he learns a new skill. I don’t remember that in the same way as my children were growing up. I was just too busy.

Vocationally after a stint as a US Navy Officer, I worked as a corporate turnaround consultant until I retired. That meant that I would take on these incredible difficult projects of saving companies. A project could often take between one and two years and totally absorb me. I was never satisfied unless I could right the company and save it from liquidation. I enjoyed my work and had a good reputation with bankers and corporate attorneys who would keep me busy. I learned a great deal about things like globalization from doing that work. I personally witnessed how large chain operations could destroy a community through unfair business competition. I did the best I could to help my clients withstand the challenges that this presented. I probably understood better than most how the business practices of large companies have been used to destroy a lot of our way of life. This was an important part of my education.

I also was involved early in activism. I suspect that my Jewish gene pool had something to do with this. I have memories in high school and college of being involved in community politics and school desegregation issues. In the 1970’s I got involved with a group called Creative Initiative Foundation and my activism went to a new level. I became more interested in wanting to make a difference in the world. Their original name–Woman to Woman Building the Earth for the Benefit of Our Children came from a small book by Teilhard De Jardin that spoke directly to the idea of individual responsibility. And the organization became heavily involved in outreaches such as the California Nuclear Safeguards Initiative and eventually morphed into a effective peace organization called Beyond War during the 1980s. Both of those initiatives were also important to my education.

A final important piece of my story has to do with receiving a Doctor of Ministry after I retired from the University of Creation Spirituality, which is now called Wisdom University. Mathew Fox, the founder of this school created a pedagogy that helped give people a deeper understanding of some of the great mystic traditions. We studied the teachings of great mystics such as Meister Eckhart, Mahatma Gandhi, Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King. We took times to reflect on what was happening in the world and what part we could play in allowing new ideas and actions to emerge. It is an incredible place to convert someone from hard-nosed corporate consultant into full time activist. Ministry to Mathew talked about reinventing our world.

So what do you get if you mix a successful corporate turn around consultant with a doctor of ministry. The joke among my friends was that saving companies was no longer a challenge for me because I needed to find something bigger to save. I wasn’t sure what that was, and then I had grandchildren. I don’t know if the realization came to me in one moment of enlightenment or whether the understanding came to me over a period of time. This innocent grand child that loves me unconditionally was coming into a world that was not as safe as the world that my generation inherited. This may sound like guilt but the experience goes way beyond guilt.

It is more about feeling connected to time and history. I have learned to experience 14 billion years of time. I read and celebrate about all the miracles that took place that allowed our species to emerge and flourish. It physically gives me chills to learn that it took 2 billion years of Earth’s history for oxygen to accumulate to sufficient quantities to sustain us. My heart pounds when I think about the gradual emergence of the great ideas that often were talked about by our mystices that have filled our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and other great contemporary documents such as the Earth Charter. And on the other hand I understand that on the earth timeline the industrial revolution took place only a few seconds ago and that our species has not had time yet to figure out the destruction that this revolution has caused. I reflect sometimes that we are like small children experimenting and fascinated with fire loving its beauty and warmth and not fully understanding that if we touch it the wrong way that it can destroy us.

At school I studied the wisdom traditions of many other cultures and find strong support for valuing concern about future generations. The Iroquois Nation for example teaches that the role of a chief is to be concerned about the well being of the 7th generation. I like the fact that wise people argue whether the 7th generation refers to 7 in the future or the 7 that generations that a person who lives a full life can experience. I like the latter idea of feeling a concerned for that span of time from my ancient elders who I hardly knew all the way through the great grandchildren that I will just see for a moment before I transition. This means that I have a responsibility for ensuring that my elders final days are held in care and respect and that my great grandchildren inherit a world of joy and beauty.

Unfortunately the industrial culture values short term rewards instead of long-term concerns. We see this very clearly in our consumption and investment practices. And our public culture media has learned that people like to learn about these practices. We are engaged in learning how to become rich and beautiful. The stories of people who have chosen other values are not as well covered and yet I suspect the world is full of them. In fact I suspect that there are literally millions of stories like the following three out there.

David Suzuki has lived a rich life while fighting to save old growth trees and other places of beauty. His daughter Severn at 12 years old followed in his footnotes when she spoke before the 1992 UN Earth Summit by saying, “You grown-ups say you love us. I challenge you please, make your actions reflect your words.” David’s work can be found at the Suzuki Foundation.

Craig Kielburger at 12 years old became concerned about child welfare laws when he read about a boy his age who was killed in Pakistan for speaking out for child welfare laws. He formed a non-profit called Free the Children that today is the largest child welfare organization in the world.

Laura Peterson has worked for years to nurture children and empower women. She started an organization called Hands to Heart International that trains disenfranchised women in early child care skills. One of the groups activities is to go into orphanages in third world countries and provide massages to new born babies who don’t have mothers to bond with.

This all reminds me of the opening line from Dickens, Tale of Two Cities—“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” On one hand there are many of my friends who brag about the size of their house, their holdings and their latest material acquisition. They complain about their children’s selfishness and talk about spending it all before they die. I want to emphasize that these are not evil people. They have just not taken time to reflect on what matters most to them. On the other hand my world is filled with people who stories I shared above but who spend all their waking hours joyfully, trying to find ways to ensure that life as we know it continues to survive.

I recently heard Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy interviewed about what her hope or prayer was for 50 years into the future. She thought for a second and said something like--- I want to know that my grandchildren made it. To me that talked to the sacred trust that we have with future generations.

In May of 2006 I produced a Sacred Activism Conference in Seattle, Washington. We had a 1000 people show up and struggle with the question what do you hold sacred in your life. While working on the conference I met a new colleague Richard Henry who had been independently thinking about future generations as well. The difference is that Richard and his wife chose not to have children because of their concern about the future. He feels the sacred trust and loves everyone’s grandchildren as much as I do. We came together and formed a new organization called ForTheGrandchildren with the hope in mind that we could help unleash the power and joy of this value that we call generational responsibility.