Do you want to learn a definition of peace or ecology that is more useful than what most people currently have?  Most people think of peace as either the absence of war, or as inner peace. Most people think of ecology as taking care of the natural environment.  But a life-support systems view of peace described in the essay below provides a more comprehensive definition of peace and security. Since your goals and dreams depend on the stability of your community, environment and political system, the bottom half of your goals and dreams is the stability of these life-support systems. One benefit of this new way of thinking is that you have a fuller, clearer idea of what it takes to feel at peace and be secure, since you need all these systems to be in balance. A second benefit is that you see peace, security and a clean environment not as something ‘out there,’ something far away, but instead you see them as ‘underneath you,’ as a foundation that you must keep strong for you to reach your goals. This makes for a stronger sense of connection, as the distance between the big picture of the world and your personal world is reduced.

What Your Life Depends On

Instead of calling all these “environments” let's start calling them “life-support systems.” That will allow me to use the word environment only for our natural world and ecosystem. These life-support systems include our bodies, our minds and emotions, our close personal relationships, each of which constitutes a system, and nonpersonal relationships (those interactions with people we don’t know personally.) To be successful in these systems, we must be able to do at least two things: First, we must be sensitive to the objects and persons and the changes that they undergo; and second, we must respond to these changes by acting in balanced and integrated ways.

              

                                                                

Since we weren’t born with senses that automatically register changes in the economy or political system, we need to learn ways to sense what is going on, or we else we may be caught off guard. In a complex information-saturated world, we must decide what particular information to pay attention to.   For instance, just listening to the evening news is not enough.   Also, since we weren’t born with the instincts for understanding the economy or political system, we need to learn skills for adapting ourselves to the systems, or for influencing the systems to better meet our needs. The following “Two Tables” model provides a way of understanding how our happiness and survival depend on various life-support systems.


The Two Tables Model 

Pretend that your important life goals and dreams could all be put in a box.  That box would be supported by four pillars: your personal health, your mental health, your personal relationships and your ethics or spirituality.  If any one of these systems fails, for example, your health, it would be like pulling out one of the pillars.  When any pillar is pulled out, the box tips over and your goals and dreams go with it. 

 

Now imagine a second tier of four pillars beneath the ones just mentioned.  These pillars would be the environment, the community, the political system and the economy.  If any one of these pillars crumbles, again your goals and dreams, and possibly even your life are lost, too. 

 

 

 

In other words, all of the eight life-support systems are essential to your long-range fulfillment and survival.  Since a peaceful, stable world is the foundation on which you lead your life, the “bottom half” of your goals and dreams is a peaceful, stable world.

That’s why peacemaking, volunteering, and other actions that improve the world are not just nice things to do. They are part of the purpose of your life since they stabilize the foundation, the “bottom half” of your personal dreams.

Incidentally, the above drawing would be more accurate if there were many little tables on the larger table.  These would represent the many other people in the world, dependent on the four life-support systems we have in common.  Of course the drawing can be further refined, since we have many political systems and many more communities, but one overall physical environment, and one mostly interconnected world economy.  Perhaps even another pillar could be added that would represent the news media and Internet—and all our other sources of information.   But all of the other life-support systems have their own information network and protocols: our bodies have nervous systems, the government has departments that publish its proceedings, our communities have their own formal and informal channels for spreading news, etc.

Those wanting concrete examples from each of the life-support systems can look at the Ecological Lifestyle Assessment.

To better appreciate the Two Tables Model, it helps to contrast it with a model that many people unconsciously use. This is a model in which you first address your needs, then those of your family, then occasionally those of your community, then rarely those of the world beyond.

There are several subtleties to this “Four Circles” model that are worth pointing out: First, it puts you and your goals at the center. This is something all our egos appreciate even though we are not really the center of the world.  Second, it puts your family and loved ones around you. This is equally cozy.  Third, it makes doing volunteer work in the community seem like “extra credit,” like an optional bonus. It also makes reaching all the way out to the world something that only rare souls do, the Gandhis, Mother Teresas, and Martin Luther King, Jrs., of the world.

The Two Tables Model is more realistic than the Four Circles Model. You are not at the cozy center of the world.  Instead, your life and your dreams depend on certain pillars. Therefore, maintaining the community and other vital life-support systems are not options, but essentials.  The Two Tables Model gives you a clearer picture of what you need to help keep stable in order to reach your long-term goals and happiness. 

Most people when asked to define peace will give one to three meanings: the absence of war, the absences of conflict, or spiritual peace.  But the Two Tables Model provides a superior and more complete definition of peace, since we can’t really have peace without health, good relationships, a clean environment, and the rest of the eight life-support systems.  The Two Tables Model also points the way to peace:  Peace is achieved by returning your life-support systems to balance.  For these reasons, the Two Tables Model is an upgrade over the way most of the people now living on Earth think about peace.

Two Tables Model yields a further insight.  Many concerned people are sensitized to causes one at a time.  For instance, they might start by donating to organizations helping people afflicted with a particular genetic disease, and years later they might become politically active, and later in life they might support preservation of the rain forests.   Looking back, they might even become proud of their evolution towards being more compassionate.  But if you locate these causes on the Two Tables diagram, you realize that they each make up only a small part of the body, political and environmental pillars respectively.  In other words, the Two Tables Model puts these efforts in perspective: they are small pieces of the whole domain of possible transformations to greater caring. In our lives, sensitization to different issues usually takes place one issue at a time.  Equally, these sensitizations can all be seen as installments on one unitary transformation, to “a care for all.”

Another way to express this is to imagine inviting one speaker from each charity needing funds or volunteers to speak at your house of worship or your place of employment.  The first few speakers who come might rouse some commitment and action, but as more speakers arrive, each with yet another worthy cause, the audience would become overwhelmed and have less and less to give.  If the speakers continued back-to-back, the audience would either shut down emotionally or have to jump to a higher level and find a comprehensive solution.

By pondering that your life and everyone’s life depends on the Two Tables, you can understand how our life-support system are, in essence, the bottom half of our goals and dreams.  It might help you place greater value on volunteer action and charitable giving, and even greater value on the integrated chain reaction approach described on this web site.