Updating Our Collective “Operating System”

Why are we experiencing so much polarization and division? At least in part because we lack a grand narrative that allows for unity with diversity. But, there's hope ...

Hi beautiful being,

I cracked the screen on my iPad Pro the other day. While waiting to deboard a plane; I was holding my device in one hand, and a bag in the other. Seeing a man stretching and straining to fetch his suitcase from an overhead bin just across from me—I instinctively reached out with my iPad to slide his luggage closer to him. Yet, when I opened its case to use it on the next leg of our journey, I realized my act of kindness cracked the screen—while also blacking out a couple of stretches toward the top edge.

While it still works, I do have to work around the dead spots. That said, I find it fascinating how many different directions the story in my head about this could go.

I could be angry and frustrated about it.

I could resolve to be less kind, since helping a stranger was what damaged it.

I could decide to be more careful with my devices in the future.

I could become sad and crestfallen every time I saw the damage.

I could make the best of the situation.

I could toss it out and buy a new one.

I could take this as a reminder to value people over possessions.

Isn’t that interesting, friend? While facts are facts—the iPad is cracked and has black spots—the narratives we tell ourselves about said facts are nearly endless. What’s more:

It’s pretty incredible how the story we tell ourselves about things, impacts our inner landscape. Sometimes dramatically shifting our mental, emotional, and/or physical disposition one way or another.

(The dead spots make a kind of cool pattern 🤣)

A couple of days after the “incident”, my iPad informed me it had an IOS update ready to install—but needed me to clear some storage space first. On that note: You know how computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. have an operating system that’s always running in the background? And how the OS occasionally makes itself known to you—typically when there’s either a problem, or an update available?

As humans, we have three stories continually “running in the background”. These narratives about the way things work, are akin to a person’s operating system. What’s more, like a piece of tech’s OS, while we are constantly affected by these narratives—we are only sometimes aware of them. They are the stories you and I, consciously and subconsciously, tell ourselves about:

Our individual life. Our communal life. And life overall.

Now ideally, these fit together like a Russian Nesting Doll. We each have a notion of what our individual life is about, as well as the way things work (note, how aware we are of these, is another topic entirely). Likewise, our community, aka “tribe”, has its own take on the topic. Finally, there’s an understanding of reality that transcends individuals, families, communities, nations, etc.

As you might imagine; the better these three stories nestle together, the more whole and harmonious we feel—with the opposites also being true.

That said, generally speaking, the tales we tell ourselves tend to mold one another so that they fit together. A really interesting thing about this, though, is our belief about reality itself is a bit like the One Ring from the Lord of the Rings. You know how through his “master” ring, Sauron had power over not only the bearers of the nine human rings (who became the Nazgul) and seven dwarven rings, but far beyond that? Likewise, our understanding of life overall—which is commonly referred to as a meta narrative—has a way of molding the other two stories into its image, so to speak.

That’s not to say meta narratives are inherently evil, like the One Ring. Their power can be used for good or ill. For instance, it was such a grand story that deluded and twisted millions of good Germans into supporting and/or committing unspeakable evils during World War II. Likewise, history is chalk full of times when they led people to do extraordinarily beautiful things—consider Gandi’s nonviolent revolution for instance.

Speaking of which …

As an observant and loving person, you “might” have noticed how polarized politics are these days. A big reason why we’re so at odds with each other, is because we lack a commonly held meta narrative that brings us together. For the U.S., Europe, and beyond, Christianity used to give us that gift. But, with the mass exodus from the Church (pun intended), we’ve lost this “glue” that bound us together.

The thing is, many people never ended up replacing Christianity’s overarching story with a new one. And you know the old saying that “nature abhors a vacuum”? Although politics, being a decidedly tribal endeavor, belongs in the communal life storyline. It has rushed in to fill the empty meta narrative space. Effectively elevating itself from tribal tale, to One Ring status.

The massive problem with that is—to be constructive, and not destructive like it was in Nazi Germany—a meta narrative must hold space for multiple diverse communal storylines. It needs to be universal in nature.

(From Inspiring Quotes)

Spoiler alert, political parties are not universal in nature, and are currently failing to hold space for differing perspectives.

In other words, …

We are in desperate need of updating our collective “OS” with a meta narrative that unites us all, in a manner that holds space for difference and diversity. Are you with me?

I believe one of Jesus’ teachings—which long perplexed me—can aid us in this endeavor. He said, “Don’t put new wine into old wineskins, because it’ll just burst the skin and run out. No, you have to put new wine in new wineskins.” (Luke 5:37-8) This is important because we are in a new era. We have collectively learned, grown and evolved. Trying to shove the newness of now into old ways of thinking, believing, and behaving—as Jesus wisely points out—simply won’t work.

It turns out; in researching this issue for my doctoral project, I came across a meta narrative I believe will work. Are you interested?

Let’s call it “The Human Family Story”. One cool thing science and religion essentially agree on, is that all of reality comes from one source—be it God and/or the Big Bang. This means the earth, as well as everyone and everything on it, can be traced back to this singularity. You and I, as well as the rest of humanity, are quite literally made of stardust.

What is more, people across the globe have long recognized there is an intimate connection between Mother Earth and humans. And not just indigenous peoples. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we’re charged to take care of the planet—from whose “dust” we come from and return to. Latin echoes this by painting a word picture of our kinship, so to speak. We get the word human from Latin, and its root word, humus, means “earth” or “ground”. In a very real way, we’re all children of our planet—aka earthlings.

(From Inspiring Quotes)

Now let’s all “step back” for a moment, to consider how massively interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent we are with one another—regardless of country, race, or creed. For most all of us, the number of people involved in growing, harvesting, packing, shipping, preparing, packaging, delivering, displaying, and selling us our food alone, is staggering! Factor in our devices, furniture, clothes, decorations, appliances, automobiles, the place we live, and so on—and I don’t know about you, but my mind is blown.

What this drives home, what “The Human Family Story” as a metanarrative we can unite together under—with our differences—tells us is:

All humanity is the offspring of one source, living on one planet. Which means, we are all family—here to tend to and take good care of one another, and the earth we call home.

Friend, I hope and pray this resonates with and moves you. And whether it’s to agree, disagree, or add a different idea: It would be a true blessing to hear from you in the comments. And please “like” 🤍, and consider sharing/restacking this post if it spoke to you.

Hugs & Love,

Lang (aka “Dr. Love”)