Welcome to the Memory of the Future Project!

What if we remember the future?

What does a healthy, thriving future look like?

What if we create the roadmaps to get there?

What if we become mapmakers?

The idea for the Memory of the Future Project came about as I realized I did not know of very many examples in literature, arts or film that portrayed healthy, working futures for human beings and Planet Earth. I was able to think of many examples of dismal future visions in books and film, and I believe those examples become a kind of path of least resistance that draws us toward them like a magnet, if we are not consciously steering ourselves. So we need a new map. We need to become mapmakers.

I was talking with my two friends Peggy Taylor and Charlie Murphy about this dearth of healthy future models. Peggy and Charlie co-founded an amazing youth empowerment through the arts program called Power of Hope. Peggy spoke about a “future history” writing exercise she had done in a workshop. The premise was that it was 500 years into the future and it was working well. They were instructed to describe it in detail and then work backward to create an account of how we got there. And Charlie said, “I know what we can call this—we can call it the Memory Of The Future Project!”

I’m creating this blog site/gathering place at this time because I believe there is an enormous window of opportunity that has opened since Barack Obama was elected President of the United States on Nov. 4th, 2008. What many people had previously thought impossible, (or had long since abandoned hope for) is now possible, and with that comes an expanded universe of potential for the world.

Obama inducted us into a higher experience of ourselves and each other. He spoke to us as partners and collaborators, and we stepped into those roles eagerly and with fervor. He’s even asking us to submit our stories and visions on his new change.gov website.

He asks us to “fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend”.

I contend that everything human-made was made up, literally; dreamed up, thought up, sketched out, proto-typed and then created. All of our systems; social, financial, political, they’re all made up, so they can be re-made, and need to be.

I contend that we need examples of this healthy, thriving future in every form; think of it as a road map to follow. We all know the models of the grim, dark sky, constant rain, Blade Runner, Road Warrior, Apocalyptic, Armageddon future. Where are the books, films, paintings and songs that show a future that works? I know there is so much to do and so quickly, with regards to the most pressing issues of our time, and that’s all the more reason to call on our creativity, passion and play to create the world we want to see, the world we want to rescue, rehabilitate and leave thriving for our children, their children, and their children’s children’s children.

I contend that we need each other. We are intrinsically linked. So this is a dream we’re dreaming together.

What is it that we know and remember about what our future holds? What dream is alive, deep inside that can now come up through the fertile ground into the light of the sun, and unfold in astounding beauty and possibility? What dreams and stories can we tell each other in vivid Technicolor? And then inspire and support each other in the creating?

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