The problem is that our whole tribe - if you will, the larger community of humanity itself - is on a death march ecologically and in terms of the intensification of violence and conflict.

On the one hand, our social nature is our greatest beauty - it means that we have natural empathy and sympathy. But our social nature also means that we may let ourselves be controlled by the judgments of others, precisely because we care so much about our status in community.

Nature is with us if we can learn how to align with it and not break the basic laws that generate life.

For me hope isn't wishful thinking or blind faith about the future. It's a stance toward life - one of curiosity and humility.

A teacher told me this story some time ago: She asked her students to line up in order of how much power they thought they had relative to the others in the class, and they all fought to be last in line. They didn't want to acknowledge that they had personal power.

The good life is not about avoiding fear. Just the opposite.

Hope is not what we find in evidence, it's what we become in action.