Seminal cells

In her book, The Soul of Money, Lynn Twist describes the process by which a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. At first the caterpillar lives a pretty normal life, crawling around and chewing leaves. Then at a certain point, it develops a voracious appetite and eats everything in sight. Eventually it stops and encases itself in a cocoon. We all know this from 4th grade biology.

But here’s the surprising part. Inside the caterpillar are particular cells—seminal cells—that know how to make a butterfly. Eventually they find one another and start working together. The caterpillar then becomes the nutritional soup from which the butterfly is formed.

When we look at the world, we see the same thing happening. Modern society, with its voracious appetite, is consuming everything in sight—forests, seas, land, air. We are barraged with constant messages to buy more, have more, spend more.

But here and there, individuals and groups are catching a glimmer of what a sane society could look like—dynamic and peaceful, prosperous and sustainable. Slowly they are finding one another and starting to work together.

These “seminal cells” are finding out what they love to do and what they are passionate about. They are harnessing that energy to create new ideas, new structures, new ways of doing things. They put their hearts and souls into the work. And they attract resources as a result: like-minded people, contacts, partners, ideas, conversations, tools, material means. They are collaborating with those around them and coming up with creative solutions and new ways of looking at the world.

These people are under no delusions about the state of the world. They know things are in bad shape. But they have decided they can and will do something about it.