04-04-04

You are receiving this message because I like to mark special days like the fourth day of the fourth month of the fourth year. I began this series on the irresistible date of 01-01-01 with some thoughts on grandparent energy. Not only have many of you responded, some of you have even expressed interest in what I will say this year. I’m curious about that too.

The date has been rattling round in my head for months: 04-04-04. When I just listen to the sound, I sometimes hear: Who for? Who for? Who for?

That is a good question. One possible answer is what I wrote about last year. Who for? For me, for you, for us.

Although the question applies to lots of situations, I could begin with this message. Why do I spend hours thinking about this message and drafting various versions? (This one is number four!) And why do I spend hours working to update your email addresses?

Who for?

Well, first of all, for me. Writing this message every 13 months challenges me to clarify what I am thinking and feeling at the moment, challenges me to deal with whatever gloom and doom exists outside me and inside me, challenges me to look for inspiration that will encourage me in the months to come.

And that’s just the writing. This message is also for me because it gives me a deadline for updating all the email addresses that Christine, my assistant, and I have been working on all year. We don’t have everyone’s current email address yet, but we will send some of these by post and ask you for an email address so that we can keep this process mainly electronic. So that’s for me: writing and updating.

Who for?

For you. I hope that some of what I say will encourage you to get in touch with me and to tell me what you are thinking and feeling. I hope you will share the good things that are happening in your life.

Just as I will share with you the joy of celebrating our granddaughter’s first birthday, with older sister Lily helping Frances enjoy her special day. And the joy of doing life-changing work with people from round the world, while working with wonderful colleagues old and new.

We could also share our worries about the future for our children and grandchildren in a world intent on violent solutions to difficult problems. And what we are doing to change that.

So that’s about you and me, re-connecting after meeting a few days ago or many years ago.

Who for?

For us. This message is not only for me and for you. It’s for us. This message and messages like it help create and maintain networks. And networks give us more power than we have as individuals. If we want to change things, we need to stay in touch with each other and use our networks to change our lives, to change our organisations, to change our political situations, to change our planet.

Networks give us the chance to listen to each other and to learn from each other. So let’s imagine a challenge worthy of us as a growing network. Let’s imagine something worth doing.

There are many challenges facing us. What encourages me is when we deal with the challenge by talking with each other and listening to each other. What discourages me is when we stop talking and turn to force, to power, to violence.

The most exciting opportunity we have in this new century is to achieve what our ancestors imagined in the last century: the abolition of war. We can stop using violence—with small bombs or large bombs—to solve problems.

After the “war to end all wars” the nations of the world created a multilateral pact outlawing war: the Kellogg-Briand pact of 1928. Our opportunity is to take their dream seriously.

And how could we do that? Well, we have already abolished war in many situations.

We have made war illegal within a family. When I was a child, I sometimes hit my brother. I was told that this was not acceptable. That did not necessarily stop me from trying again, but slowly I grew up and slowly I learned that violence—although it does exist in families—is not acceptable. Or legal.

04-04-04

You are receiving this message because I like to mark special days like the fourth day of the fourth month of the fourth year. I began this series on the irresistible date of 01-01-01 with some thoughts on grandparent energy. Not only have many of you responded, some of you have even expressed interest in what I will say this year. I’m curious about that too.

The date has been rattling round in my head for months: 04-04-04. When I just listen to the sound, I sometimes hear: Who for? Who for? Who for?

That is a good question. One possible answer is what I wrote about last year. Who for? For me, for you, for us.

Although the question applies to lots of situations, I could begin with this message. Why do I spend hours thinking about this message and drafting various versions? (This one is number four!) And why do I spend hours working to update your email addresses?

Who for?

Well, first of all, for me. Writing this message every 13 months challenges me to clarify what I am thinking and feeling at the moment, challenges me to deal with whatever gloom and doom exists outside me and inside me, challenges me to look for inspiration that will encourage me in the months to come.

And that’s just the writing. This message is also for me because it gives me a deadline for updating all the email addresses that Christine, my assistant, and I have been working on all year. We don’t have everyone’s current email address yet, but we will send some of these by post and ask you for an email address so that we can keep this process mainly electronic. So that’s for me: writing and updating.

Who for?

For you. I hope that some of what I say will encourage you to get in touch with me and to tell me what you are thinking and feeling. I hope you will share the good things that are happening in your life.

Just as I will share with you the joy of celebrating our granddaughter’s first birthday, with older sister Lily helping Frances enjoy her special day. And the joy of doing life-changing work with people from round the world, while working with wonderful colleagues old and new.

We could also share our worries about the future for our children and grandchildren in a world intent on violent solutions to difficult problems. And what we are doing to change that.

So that’s about you and me, re-connecting after meeting a few days ago or many years ago.

Who for?

For us. This message is not only for me and for you. It’s for us. This message and messages like it help create and maintain networks. And networks give us more power than we have as individuals. If we want to change things, we need to stay in touch with each other and use our networks to change our lives, to change our organisations, to change our political situations, to change our planet.

Networks give us the chance to listen to each other and to learn from each other. So let’s imagine a challenge worthy of us as a growing network. Let’s imagine something worth doing.

There are many challenges facing us. What encourages me is when we deal with the challenge by talking with each other and listening to each other. What discourages me is when we stop talking and turn to force, to power, to violence.

The most exciting opportunity we have in this new century is to achieve what our ancestors imagined in the last century: the abolition of war. We can stop using violence—with small bombs or large bombs—to solve problems.

After the “war to end all wars” the nations of the world created a multilateral pact outlawing war: the Kellogg-Briand pact of 1928. Our opportunity is to take their dream seriously.

And how could we do that? Well, we have already abolished war in many situations.

We have made war illegal within a family. When I was a child, I sometimes hit my brother. I was told that this was not acceptable. That did not necessarily stop me from trying again, but slowly I grew up and slowly I learned that violence—although it does exist in families—is not acceptable. Or legal.