The euphoria I felt in the wake of my experience on the Capitol steps, as powerful as it was, would soon subside. That’s when the real work began. It would be a long road to internalize the knowledge of the Obligations. At first I was hyped. I was impatient about space settlement. I wanted Mr. Grant to sponsor legislation. I organized congressional briefings. I joined the advocacy groups that embraced space settlement as a long-term goal.
There were times when I didn’t feel my efforts were making progress quickly enough, and frustration would creep in. At those times I began to doubt myself and by extension I doubted the veracity of the Obligation and even Mr. Grant’s sincerity. I questioned the whole premise of the Obligation the way I did on the Mall after the Weinstein vote. Sometimes I wished I had never asked about the plaque in the first place. I didn’t want it to be all up to me, as Mr. Grant put it. And then, the feelings of doubt passed. I would wake up the next day with renewed resolve to give myself to the call of the Obligations.
All this personal drama only amused Mr. Grant, both the lows and the highs. It took me a while to understand that the Obligation and being a Conscious Evolver was less about any particular actions I took and more about stabilizing an internal position that was in alignment with them. “Your actions matter, of course,” Mr. Grant said. “But, you can’t get to the top of the tree with a single bound. You must be content climbing to the first branch first. It should be enough to know that you are climbing the right tree whether or not you reach the top.”
If my waffling entertained Mr. Grant, it was an annoyance to Tara who was already well aligned with the Obligation for planetary stewardship. She loved it when I was at ease with the new perspective. But she was less patient with my manic depressive mood swings.
About a month after the Arizona trip, I confronted Mr. Grant on my feelings of doubt about the Obligations, and my part in it. The office was quiet one evening and I took the opportunity to interrupt Mr. Grant who was catching up on personal correspondence to campaign contributors.
We had settled into an ease with each other that no longer required much preamble with regard to the Obligations. At any time when we were alone I could ask him a question and he’d answer. After making me wait a minute while he finished a hand-written note, he explained, “Emerging into the Conscious Evolver for most people is a process. There can be leaps forward, but those are usually preceded by long spells of little changes. Holding the view of the Obligations allows us to make, if we are paying attention, the right small decisions that will eventually lead to the great leaps forward we need to make. But, unfortunately, you can never be a hundred percent sure you’ve made the right decision. So all you can do is be sincere in your intentions. Hopefully, if you live long enough, you will look back with hindsight and see whether or not the decisions you made were right.
“By simply being exposed to the knowledge of the Obligations you are already changed. There isn’t anything in particular you need to do. Like Columbus’ discovery of the New World or Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, the Obligations perspective will force people to reconsider the the nature of human life and our relationship to the world that supports us. Yes, there are actionable imperatives inherent in the Obligations, but paradoxically, what we do with the knowledge is not as important as simply embracing it intellectually and emotionally. The actions will be taken. People will step up, and many already have, to fulfill the Obligations. You’ve started to take action yourself. Whether or not you personally succeed is of no particular consequence.
“People who feel the Evolutionary Impulse toward the space migration Obligation have always been in our midst, though their desires have most often been choked to death before they could do their work. At best they were considered ahead of their time. More often they were labeled crackpots. Either way, they were marginalized for the obvious reason that although they may have felt the Evolutionary Impulse to expand life into space, they simply had no means to do so. That is all changed now and we are in the end game of fulfilling the Obligation. It’s not going to happen tomorrow. We know that. But the light at the end of the tunnel can be seen. It may take us fifty years, or a hundred or more, but the wheels are in motion. Sometimes they’ll stick and sometimes it may look as if no progress is being made at all. How quickly we reach that goal will depend on how much those who care about such matters keep their Intention on the goal. A sizable portion of the population, and ultimately all of us, will eventually embrace these Obligations as unquestionable. The sooner people can embrace these truths, the sooner the barriers will come down, the more the inertia will be overcome, and the sooner the actions you and others take collectively will lead to the fulfillment of the space-migration Obligation.”
His countenance was so emphatic, I was hesitant to pursue my query further. “I see what you’re saying and it makes sense to me. But I feel frustrated. I’m finding it hard to determine what I am supposed to do, personally, in response to the space migration Obligation.”
He first laughed at my confusion. “Well, I already said that you don’t have to do anything. If you feel compelled to take action, and clearly you do, you’ll want to be patient. Listen. Watch. Be attentive to what is going on around you. You should adopt a mindfulness in your actions. Stop creating judgments about everything you see. Stop worrying about the past and the future so much. Mindfulness will help you to be present to what is right in front of you now. This will lead to increased sensitivity to knowing the right action to take in the present moment. Which is really the only time you can do anything anyway.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Grant, but that doesn’t sounds like anything I can hang my hat on.”
“Yes, it’s a little hard to explain. But, you’ve already made some progress toward mindfulness. You’ve mentioned that Tara has been showing you how to meditate. Meditation is a wonderful way to settle the mind, and bring it into the present moment, to eliminate bothersome distractions and gain attentiveness to what is important. Don’t be so impatient about what you should do. But don’t be timid about taking action, either, even though it may not feel like you’re making progress. I’ve already said that there is no guarantee you’re taking the right action, but with mindfulness you have a better shot at getting it right. So, if you’re not sure what to do, sit in meditation for a while and listen and let the answers come to you instead of chasing after them.”
It was true that during periods when I meditated with Tara I felt more at ease. Problems didn’t agitate me as much and were easier to resolve. And my confidence in my commitment to the Obligations perspective was firm. But, when I let my meditation routine lapse, the old doubts and worries quickly took over my thoughts.
“You see, the most important part you’ve already achieved. You’ve arrived, I believe, at a place where there is no question in your mind that humanity must in the quickest time frame possible begin to migrate some of its population into space. That is the right position to take. What you do to help fulfill that mandate is still an open question.”
I still wasn’t satisfied. “It all just seems too big for anyone to take on as a serious goal. What would it take to build a space colony? What technology do we need? What laws need to be passed? What international partnerships would have to be formed? How would it be financed, governed, maintained? There are just too many pieces to even begin to get a handle on what to do that would be effective.”
There was a slight tone of impatience in his voice. “Here’s where we need to clear something up. The Seventh Endowment, the capacity for conscious evolution, is not only about realizing that we are all One. In a practical sense, it illuminates a way to engage in the world and with each other. The Seventh Endowment is emerging now because it is only with this capacity that we will be able to address the most challenging remaining problems the human race is facing—including and especially the amazingly complex task of building off-world cities. This Endowment makes it all possible because of its two main qualities: first, the ability to create unshakable intention for a particular outcome that is for the good of the whole; and second, a trust in collective intelligence and abilities of all participants drawn to a given project. In other words, you alone can’t know all the answers. No individual could. It will take the combined commitment of many individuals to contribute in their own unique way to pull this project off. What you really want to focus on is holding the clarity of the shared Intention to achieve the goal.
“If you can approach this challenge from the perspective of the Seventh Endowment, you’ll find that traditional ways of doing things will quite often not be good enough. The only thing that will matter is going with the best way. Methods will be easily adopted or abandoned according to their effectiveness. The notion of working with any particular ‘system’ will become anachronistic. There will be no ‘system’ other than those that fit the needs of the moment.
“There will be no Master Builder. No Werner von Braun or Sergei Korolev. There will be dozens or hundreds or thousands of such men and women spontaneously taking charge of myriad aspects of the project.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Grant. But, I still don’t see the structural framework for how this will all come about. Are you talking about a U.N. entity, an International Consortium, maybe?”
Shaking his head, he exclaimed, “No. No. You’re missing the point. The most important thing again is the Intention of those who are passionate about fulfilling the Obligation. They will be the ones, together, who will determine how the project will be realized and managed.”
I was still puzzled. I couldn’t see a workable blueprint for action in anything he was saying.
He sighed and his voice dropped, “John, all they need is a place to gather so they can engage in the process together. Do what you can to fan the flames of their commitment and sense of urgency. They need a place where the Evolutionary Impulse can run free in pursuit of the Obligation. If such places can be created and nurtured, it just may be that in a very short time the space migration Obligation will be fulfilled. As you step into this field of action, others who feel the Evolutionary Impulse in the same way will automatically respond in equal measure. So, it is not you at all, but the Evolutionary Impulse itself that is moving and you are merely someone who is willingly caught in its field of influence.”
I pondered this for a few moments. I understood what he was saying, but still struggled to understand what such an engagement would look like.
Seeing my confused look, he offered, “Again, for now don’t worry about just how this will all come about. Simply stay with the essence of your Intention. And be mindful.”
That was the end of our conversation, but I used the opportunity to ask a question that had been on my mind since the evening on the Capitol steps. “The Seventh Endowment, the capacity for conscious evolution, you explained thoroughly. But, what about the Eighth Endowment? The Seventh Endowment’s feminine counterpart. You made so much of the pairing of Endowments. Isn’t the same true for the Seventh Endowment?”
“It’s about time you asked me that.” He let out a big laugh. “We’re still evolving, aren’t we, John? I think you see that. Of course there’s an Eighth Endowment. And probably more beyond that! But you don’t need to worry about that now. We’ll get to that another day. For now, just focus on the Obligation using the Seventh Endowment.”