If you want happiness for a lifetime —
help the next generation.
— Chinese proverb
The quest for personal wellness is an illusion without a commitment to the wellness of all and the entire universe. We do not stand alone. The people of this planet are interdependent in all things.
It’s the Law of Stewardship, and it has us realize the interdependence of all things. Everything we do has an effect, either for good or for ill, on the wellness of ourselves and ultimately on the wellness of the Earth. Its mandate is revolutionary: we are called to live our lives with appropriate regard for others.
The implications of this law are massive, its application both simple and complex. For the Law of Stewardship calls for us to do nothing less than examine and awaken our conscience to see the connectedness of all of life.
We don’t “own” anything. Not really. We may use something for a while. But we don’t own it. We pass it along or discard it.
Not one thing is ours in terms of absolute ownership.
But you say, “Wait, here’s the tide to my car. I own it.” According to the legal system, yes. But we are actually users of that asset for a period of time. Then we pass it on.
“But, my house. It’s mine free and clear. Look at the deed.” Same concept. We may use it, even over our entire lifetime. It may stay in the family through several generations. But we don’t own it in a real sense; we are users.
“I created this business from scratch, from nothing but an idea on a scrap of paper. You can’t possibly tell me this isn’t mine.” Well, it isn’t. Legally, you and the bank may be registered and responsible. But it’s a myth that this asset is really yours, or even your heirs’. We may even assign a dollar value to the asset and sell it. But even those dollars aren’t really ours.
The concept of ownership is dwarfed by this larger idea called stewardship. Here the emphasis is on the deep responsibility we each have to leave this world in a better condition than it was in when we arrived.
Nowhere is the need for the role of stewardship more evident than in our awakening ecological consciousness. Stewardship of the planet joins forces that are economic, social, vocational, legal, political, medical, aesthetic, and spiritual.
The Law of Stewardship requires us to pass the planet on to future generations in a better condition than we found it in. Historically, we have not done well in this area. The required restoration will touch every aspect of the way we live — from our purchases to the size of families we choose to our choices in leisure activities.
The old school said, “Eat, drink, and be merry.” The new school says, “Eat, drink, and be merry, as long as lifestyle and consumption decisions demonstrate wise use of limited resources.”
There’s a group of people in northern California who desire to form a fifty-first state. Their goal is to divide California in half and create, in their half, a model economic and political system where stewardship would be the first concern.
However farfetched that may sound, the values this group espouses are based in stewardship. They seek to bring together the best of the high-technology culture while simultaneously renewing their commitment to providing a high quality of life and long-term vocational, recreational, and intellectual opportunities.
Listen to the pained and defensive cries of the politicians, particularly those from southern California. They recognize that this proposal is based on vastly more than a concern for the redwoods. The intent is to exponentially improve life quality, for this generation and the next and the next and the next. The awakened consciousness of stewardship is at the core.
But we don’t have to be part of a movement to form a new state in order to know the power of the Law of Stewardship. In our own homes and at our daily places of business, the role of steward takes on immediacy. Are we teaching our children values based on appropriate consumption, conservation, permanency, recycling, quality, craftsmanship — all based on meeting authentic needs? Or are we still promoting mindless consumption, planned obsolescence, and the satisfaction of advertising’s artificially created “needs”?
The Law of Stewardship asks for personal change.
At home, for instance, I am careful to use only the water I need to rinse my razor when I’m shaving. But one morning on a recent trip away from home, I let the water run as I shaved. It didn’t take my daughter more than a minute to say, “Dad, you’re wasting the planet’s resources.” At least some of our efforts to teach our daughter the concept of stewardship have worked.
Many people dismiss such small acts as irrelevant. Not so! When, not if, we couple the Law of Stewardship with the Law of Personal Accountability, all our small, practical everyday acts will create a synergy that will contribute to our own wellness and the earth’s at the same time!
Opportunities for stewardship are everywhere. Maybe we’ll make a commitment to plant a million new urban trees. With this simple act, which would be undertaken by hundreds of thousands of our neighbors as well, we would add to the aesthetic value of our urban environments, save billions of dollars in electricity, contribute to the refoliation of the earth, and boost the health and quality of life of millions of people, now and in the future. That’s stewardship.
I lived in the Los Angeles area for over a decade. Shortly after moving there, I looked out one day to see my neighbor doing yard work with a surgical mask covering his mouth and nose. I thought he must be super-sensitive or allergic to something like pollen or ragweed.
“No,” he said, “I work for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. I know what’s in this air. And I don’t want any more of it in my lungs than is absolutely necessary.”
I learned a great deal about the air-pollution problems of this region from my neighbor. Some of their causes are geographical, with mountains trapping the air, not allowing for any release. Other causes are industrial: for decades manufacturing, commercial, and industrial production facilities dumped toxic chemicals without regard for the future; others pumped solvents and ash into the air with impunity. For all the economic good industry contributed, it also contributed to some of the most unhealthy air of any major metropolitan area in the world.
Auto and truck traffic added to the problems. Southern California at one point actually made a decision to abandon mass transportation in favor of the now world-famous freeway system. For years the area “solved” its transportation problems by building more freeways. More freeways meant more cars meant housing developments in outlying communities meant longer commutes meant more hours in the car meant more pollution meant worse air meant more sickness meant…. It goes on and on. It’s interdependent. Everything we do has an effect on all.
The Law of Stewardship asks us to think through these very decisions before we commit to their implementation. The Law of Stewardship demands that we undertake actions with proper and high regard for other people and the next generation.
A footnote on the Southern California air. My neighbor and his co-workers are making excellent progress. In the last ten years, first-stage smog alerts have plunged from over 100 per year to 23 per year. Less severe smog days have fallen from over 200 per year in 1980 to under 100 in 1994. The combination of a state auto emissions program, controls on refineries and factories, plus the introduction of new technologies including clean fuels, all played important roles in the turnaround. Stewardship does work.
The Law of Stewardship demands that we make shifts in our thinking and behavior. This is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. When air becomes so toxic we must wear masks, when local water sources are so contaminated we must buy bottled water, when strip-mining devastates the beauty of a valley and the mining company accepts no responsibility for regenerating the landscape, when agricultural chemicals are traced to an incidence of lymphoma fourteen times the national rate, then it is time to seriously reevaluate our priorities.
The Law of Stewardship shows us that the planet on which we live has systems that regulate temperature, air flow, rainfall, and a whole host of other variables. The earth is much more than a chunk of rock with different species of plants and animals living on it. It is a highly complex system made up of many smaller systems, of which humankind is just one. Our place within these systems is as steward. Let’s be certain we renew our renewable resources and conserve those not renewable. We are here to leave things better than when we found them.
The Law of Stewardship applies equally to the country’s economic sphere. If we continue to operate under current beliefs and practices, we will saddle future generations with an overwhelming debt that will constrain life as we know it. Reducing the national debt, operating under a balanced budget, and ensuring economic growth are not partisan political agendas. They are economic imperatives of our time. We must leave our economy, just like the planet, better than we found it.
The Law of Stewardship also applies at work. We are under an obligation to contribute through our jobs to making life better for all. This closely parallels the Law of Purpose Through Service. We must invest our work lives for the good of all.
Relationships? Of course the Law of Stewardship applies. We are each charged with building and encouraging one another.
The Law of Stewardship applies even on a spiritual level. Our life is not ours. Face it: life’s a gift, given freely by the Ultimate Giver. As stewards, let’s set out to make a return gift — the gift of our lives. It’s all we can do in appreciation for all we have been given.
In the final analysis, the Law of Stewardship requires us to manage our lives in such a way that we hold in high regard the welfare of others and leave things better than when we found them. We are all stewards. Let’s rise to meet our responsibilities.
Simple and profound. It’s the non-negotiable Law of Stewardship.