Stunning news has emerged from Sweden in the past month. Biologists have reported that Santino, a 30 year old chimpanzee in the Furuwik Zoo, has achieved a milestone in primate behavior. Santino has engaged in unprovoked premeditated planning, has moved from pure reaction to circumstances to anticipation of future events. This is the first record of an unrehearsed primate making unprompted plans, engaging in what had been thought was a purely human behavior. In the morning Santino deliberately and calmly makes several piles of rocks two to three inches in diameter. He has even been known to break off loose chunks of cement in his compound to round off his piles. Then later, in the afternoon, Santino picks up the conveniently stashed rocks and hurls them at visitors. Figures doesn’t it? Santino doesn’t calmly collect flowers to make arrangements later in the day. No, he stockpiles some ammo. I submit this as final and irrevocable proof that human beings are descended from primates.

About twelve years ago when daughter Kara was a senior at Boston University she told me that she really really wanted a loft built in her rather Spartan dormitory room in a BU highrise. I was living in Northern Virginia at the time but rented a truck in Boston, located a lumber store near the University, and packed my suitcase with a change of clothes, toothbrush and tools—lots of tools. Inside the carry-on were a saber saw, hammer, electric drill, screwdrivers, and the ever handy utility knife. When I went through the gate to board my plane the attendant was quite nonplussed. She opened my bag, focused on the saber saw and thought maybe it was something about which she should be concerned. I said that unless there was an electrical outlet on the plane the saw couldn’t do too much damage. That seemed to reassure her and she let me through, tools and all. So the loft got built.

It was a fun adventure and I felt pleased about doing my part as a good Dad. I enjoyed jollying the gate attendant and was amused by the fact that she had never seen a carry on bag like that before. And you can be quite sure, she hasn’t seen one since. Some of you may recall that there was a time when ordinary human beings could board a plane, walk into a courthouse, a city hall, a high school, without going through metal detectors to make sure that some of Santino’s evolutionary cousins were not packing some ammo. That era is in some respects a pleasant memory. It was a time when there was something called a social compact in the United States. Of course, it was also a time when there were whole classes of people in the country who were greatly marginalized and subject to random violence. African Americans certainly, women—they were second class citizens. Gays and lesbians, let alone bi-sexuals and transgendered, individuals are not part of this social equation because such persons did not exist until they were invented by the liberal media in June of 1969 following the Stonewall Riots.

White males such as me still get off the best but there has been a democratization of violence. Now the gloves are off for and by everyone. Wealth matters a great deal; perhaps even more than before since there is such a paltry selection of other options for feeling superior to everyone else. But we all must be on our guard, keep our deadbolts thrown and our car alarms primed. This constant state of being on alert is an exhausting way to live. Did you know that the global suicide rate, adjusted for population growth, has increased by 60% over the past forty years? And which direction do you think the sense of social anxiety is moving—towards greater ease or greater suspicion?

How do we change this—and for the better? And I mean “better” in the sense that we make forward progress in our relationships with each other so that justice, fair play, respectful and honest dealing flourish; and not just for a selected few but for everyone, as in the Universalist “everyone.” How do we get movement in the right direction? How do we turn this historical vector around?

There are a couple of immediate reactions which you might have. First up, “Reverend Mark are you out of your freaking mind?” You might well wonder, “What makes you think that we should take on something of this scope right here in this Unitarian Universalist church in Houston, Texas.” Some of you might prefer to think of something a bit more manageable. Some of you might think, “Hey I have enough trouble making my car payment let alone creating world equanimity!” And some others of you might be thinking that this is just too depressing to even contemplate. The list of things that are in pretty bad shape is pretty intimidating. So maybe we should just chill a little bit. “Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be.” (“Psst—got any rolaids?”)

As to whether or not I am out of my mind? Probably. As to whether or not a focus of this scope is inappropriate for a Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston, Texas I have three thoughts. First, some think that being in the energy capital of the world is the least likely place to work on creative responses to world misery. But I would point out that if or when we have less energy world misery will increase no matter what else we do. All of our go forward solutions require more, not less, energy. If we aspire to be the energy capital, we need to step up our game to get more BTU’s without damaging our environment. I mean, either we are the energy capital of the world or we’re just talking about it.

My second thought: We sometimes suggest that there is this thing called the interdependent web of all existence. Now last I checked, the interdependent web of all existence does not stop at our walls. And, we are interconnected not only with flower gatherers but also with rock throwers. Since we are so interconnected what we do, or leave undone, matters a lot. There is no such option as “not have an impact.” So the strands of the web yank all of us around a bit in ways we do not always like. The burglar breaks into our home; the waste disposal company dumps a load of way too exotic chemical soup down a public drain, Sir Allen (Stanford), takes our money. My point is, since we are inevitably being yanked around a bit—why not yank back, raise a little creative mayhem?

Which leads to the third thought. Since being a mere observer is not a real option, that means we get to participate in either destructive or creative mayhem. I am here to inform you that the human race has already exceeded its quota of destructive mayhem makers. We are full up in that category. The only job openings are for creative mayhem makers. Perhaps that might strike you as too hard a job to fill. But having joined this congregation of your own free will it must have occurred to you somewhere along the line that you would be asked to do something that was hard and sometimes frustrating.

Thus the question—how do we make creative mayhem? A great deal of what we do in this congregation takes the form of amelioration of hardship. We make sure a lot of people get fed: through Meals on Wheels; our making sandwiches for the homeless agency SEARCH; donations to the Foodbank; and the Annual Cropwalk. Every year two families in Houston get their house repaired by members of Emerson and other UU Churches in Houston through our participation in Rebuild Houston. We make sure that there is money for over a dozen agencies here in Houston and beyond. But while these efforts are absolutely necessary they do not alter the fundamentals. Keeping food in the tummy and rain off the head is necessary but we also must be attending to the matter of why people are hungry and poorly sheltered in the first place. We must be attending to such larger matters because they shouldn’t be hungry or wet in the first place. If they are then we collectively are missing something, getting it wrong.

But just what is missing? Our culture, such as it is in the United States, has a lot of clarity about individual responsibility. People are responsible for their own welfare. We have a correspondingly much diminished sense of collective responsibility, of collective welfare. So imagine my surprise upon learning that, according to my latest issue of Newsweek, Uncle Sam wants us all to go shopping. “Come on people, go out and buy more stuff you don’t need. That’s the patriotic thing to do. It’s the only way to get the economy out of the tank. ” So that’s the great collective project of the United States of America? Is that what my life ultimately is all about—buying stuff? What utter emptiness.

I am very ambivalent about this current economic crisis. On the one hand there is a lot of misery being heaped around—particularly on those least able to afford it. But at the same time, this reduced level of economic activity has done more to slow down global warming than any political agreement has ever achieved. And so there is a part of me that hopes we won’t go back into economic overdrive anytime soon. Like anyone else, I want a recovery. But this may well be a time to do some reassessment, some hard thinking about who we are and that for which we strive. If we are thoughtful enough the culture of accumulating stuff could give way to something far richer, far more satisfying. And I believe if we do not we may well spend ourselves into oblivion.

An alternative approach towards a richer sense of collective life which often occurs to Unitarian Universalists involves our pursuit of peace, justice and of equal rights for all people. I myself am passionately supportive of these efforts but as far as them being a purpose of life I believe they are problematic. Hardly anyone notices that such peace and justice mongering as a purpose of life requires wars—if they are to be stopped. It requires injustice—if there is to be something rage against. And it requires inequality—if there is something to protest. We certainly must protest whenever we see injustice and brutality. But I don’t want to build the meaning of my life on the misery of others. And rather than offer other people my commiserating anger about their misery, I think it is better to offer hope of something far more beautiful that lies ahead of us.

Toward that end I mentioned two weeks ago how profoundly important it is that we learn to love the Earth as the source of all that we are and ever will be. I have become convinced of this in part for the very technical reason that human beings do not cooperate very well unless they collectively accept a commanding reality. Inasmuch as enhanced cooperation yields a greater sense of collective responsibility, it is important for us to have a common sense of what really is in charge if we are to have any hope of collectively addressing the issues that continue to bedevil us. And as commanding realities go, no one can really beat the Earth as far as I can tell. There is very convincing evidence that it is the source for everything that we think of as “human,” including our language, our arts, even our stories about gods. And furthermore, as I said, we can pay little heed to our ecosystem for a time, but only for a time because ultimately, it always rules. There are no exceptions. All things considered Earth truly has the chops for being truly commanding.

Still, it is a hard thing to get your mind around. Someone, on leaving the sanctuary on that Sunday bemoaned the fact that she felt like a failure because her son does nothing but play video games all day. Not much nature appreciation there. And I could imagine that some of you might have thought, “Well, does this mean I have to go get some Birkenstocks and start eating tofu?” But I’m not really talking about a behavioral shift so much as a spiritual shift. No amount of behavioral changes will really make a difference if we do not gain some clarity about that to which our hearts are inclined. Underlying all of our behavioral issues are matters of human perceptions in which those behaviors are rooted. Do nothing about the underlying perceptions and not much will change. If all we did was start a massive nature appreciation drive and got everyone outdoors we would trample every bit of wilderness left. And, if all I did was focus on behaviors I would be placed in the wonderfully excellent position of having to instruct you about what kinds of behaviors were good and which were bad. I’m sure that would go over well.

So instead of instructing you, ponder this: There are a lot of things to learn about this earth in which we live and have our being but the real place to start is our perceptions about who we are, as fully created by the astonishing forces at work within this earth. We have to begin here because we mistakenly prefer to imagine instead that we have by some magical means managed to transcend our own biology. That form of transcendence actually is impossible. How do I know that? The number one rule to remember about all creatures on this planet is that we are first and foremost profoundly invested in our individual well being. As for human beings, we prefer to imagine that we are not tied down by anything that might limit our capacity to enhance our well being. So we prefer to imagine that our own consciousness trumps biology (not to mention everything else), that our own consciousness is or should be in charge of our life so that we can dodge and weave, make adjustments as necessary, to get a better outcome. But, you see, this preferred imagination is in fact only a form of the biological drive for personal success. So, perhaps you can see that even our belief that we are not absolutely driven by nature is—driven by nature, by the inescapable reality of evolution. And I would add that this profound interest in our individual well being leads us to make a second substantial mistake in our thinking. What would that error be? We act is if everything here on this Earth was made just for us, to be done with as we please. So we act like it’s all about us, when in reality the exact opposite is true—we are all about it. We are absolutely, amazingly, wondrously biological through and through. We do not thrive here because we are somehow above the natural world. We can only thrive here because that world made us—absolutely every last little bit and particle of us.

Inaccuracy about these two points, who we are and what the world is, has created a great deal of destructive mayhem. But when we understand that we are created as a part of the natural order then we can begin to address what truly motivates us and subsequently imagine what our real options may be. And when we put this biological underpinning in our understanding we can begin to glimpse that our peace and justice issues are also derived from our evolutionary heritage, that our peace and justice issues are at heart “trust” issues which issues are central to our biological heritage.

How can that be? Well, human beings are very social animals, not because we like it but because we cannot survive except within a society. But in order to have any kind of society we must have some means to determine whether we can trust others to treat us equitably. But, here’s the kicker. We have been given a limited and rather imperfect means of creating and sustaining trust. Because this capacity is not nearly as robust as our desire for individual well being we easily slip into mistrust. And this is where the destructive mayhem gets created. When our marginal capacity for trust formation breaks down, as it has in our society, we have very limited means to modulate the drive for personal well being. Ultimately everyone acts for themselves and in doing so feels an overwhelming desire to accumulate as much treasure as possible to ensure individual well being. How much is enough? The only way to tell is by comparing it to how much treasure someone else has. So, if you get a Lear jet then I need a faster Lear jet. If you make a million then I have to make a million and ten. This behavior is not confined to the hushed confines of corporate boardrooms but extends out into the streets of some of our poorest neighborhoods. Of course, those with reduced opportunities to “legally” pimp their ride have no problem with more violent techniques for enhancing their individual well being. You see, when cooperation seems like a bad bargain no one of us can escape the feeling that if you have more than I do then you put my survival in jeopardy. The truly unfortunate part of this drive is that there is no such thing as enough. And when you add the biological drive of sexual selection into the mix we get competition that is off the charts. Both men and women will engage in all kinds of very costly behavior in order to promote the case that they have the best genes (g-e-n-e-s) for prospective partners. Just to show you how robust is the drive of sexual selection, the drive is just as true for gay and lesbian couples, who, at least as a couple, cannot produce children.

As long as we do not realize that we are all being pulled around by this biology, that it deeply influences our decisions, then we have no hope of moderating it. Our attempts to instruct ourselves to be better will always fail unless we understand the root source of our behaviors. And you can be quite certain that our ability to instruct others to pursue better options will fall on deaf ears. We’d have more success turning an elephant into a giraffe than trying to turn aside hundreds of thousands of years of evolutionary human heritage. Only when we realize what our biology is doing for and with us can we have any hope of working within the confines which it provides. Without that awakening within us of who we are, creatures, and where we live, our beloved Earth home, cooperation will continually recede.

Some might imagine that the Earth as a commanding reality is just not special enough. I would urge caution about such a conclusion. Again, such a thought is more than likely derived from the biological drive to view the Earth as useful only to the extent that it supports our individual success. That would be fine, except that when personal success entirely subverts our capacity for cooperation fewer of us will be around to talk about it. And as for our biology being special, I would suggest that when we begin to truly understand the miraculous heritage with which we have been blessed I don’t see how we can fail to be amazed. Consider something as routine as teaching a baby how to talk. We say “ball” and eventually the baby says “ball.” But do you realize how many instructions are actually involved in getting that one syllable word out. “Okay kid, you hold your diaphragm thus, move your larynx just so, tuck your tongue against the floor of your mouth just behind your teeth, and force air out through your just opened lips, to get the word “ball.” Oh, wait a minute, sorry. I haven’t taught you the words, ‘diaphragm,’ ‘larynx,’ ‘tuck,’ ‘tongue,’ ‘lips,’ etc. yet; let alone what any of those words refer to.” No, all we do is say, “ball” and eventually the baby says “ball.” It doesn’t strike us as the least bit complicated but it’s a miracle that it happens at all. What is really going on here? You are not teaching your baby to talk. Rather, your brain is reminding the baby’s brain that it already knows how to perform that amazing synchronization of body parts to create a word. A baby’s brain is “pre-wired” to perform all the steps that are necessary to produce words. These are steps which you couldn’t successfully explain to a baby in a million years.

So how do we change the collective life of ours—for the better? And I mean “better” in the sense that we make forward progress in our relationships with each other so that justice, fair play, respectful and honest dealing flourish; and not just for a selected few but for everyone, as in the Universalist “everyone.” How do we get movement in the right direction? Once we learn who we really are, Earth’s children, and learn that God’s true realm seeps through every pore of this Earth our home, then we truly deepen our capacity for cooperation and encounter all the blessings that cooperation brings such as respectful and honest dealing—not just for a few but for everyone. I know it’s not that easy but what are you willing to try so that all tummies get fed and all heads stay dry? Come on people, let’s do some creative mayhem here. Let’s give that interdependent web a nice firm yank.