SEVEN SISTERS OF RECONCILIATION

 Seven sisters sat in a circle underneath a full moon.  The eldest spoke first.  “We have come here to celebrate the full moon and to meet the challenges given to us by our parents.”

 “Our father gave us three challenges about the new global economy.  He said that if we met all his challenges, he would give us his blessing and each of us would become fulfilled as a whole person.”

 “Our mother gave us four challenges about the new global culture.  She said that if we met all her challenges, she would give us her blessing and we each would become fully a woman.”
 
 

 The eldest summarized the challenges for her sisters.  “Our father gave us his challenges by describing the new global knowledge economy, the most powerful economy the world has ever known.  He challenged us with three conflicts that need to be reconciled to make the new global knowledge economy work.

War and Peace,  The new global knowledge economy requires a necessary peace, so its vital machines, the computer, communications, transportation and financial networks, will not be broken by war, and the global economy by which nearly all gain their sustenance can continue to grow and thrive.

Rich and Poor,  Instead of the rich intimidating and controlling the poor into mass obediance, a new relationship is needed so the poor will provide the mass creativity needed to fuel the global knowledge economy.

Humans and Nature, human influence in nature is becoming so strong, we must have a new relationship with nature.

"Our mother challenged us with the need for a new global culture to support the new global economy.  People needed new motivations and new ways of living and working together.  She said that the new global knowledge economy has new jobs for people to do in new ways, and needs to be supported by a new global culture to organize the people in successful ways, and motivate them to do their new jobs in the new knowledge economy.  She said that there were conflicts in the old culture that supported the agricultural and industrial economies, which must be reconciled to establish the new global culture for the new economy.  The conflicts served the agricultural and industrial economies well, but in the global knowledge economy, they produce harmful conflict,  forbidden destruction and loss of creativity.  In the new culture, these conflicts must be reconciled.  She described specific conflicts among people, and challenged us to reconcile the conflicts and build the new global culture.  The conflicting groups are

  Science and Religion,  fighting over which is right for certain

  Different Religions, fighting over which religion is true and to gain converts

  Different Ethnic Groups, fighting over which will be respected and have a share of the economy

  Men and Women, fighting over who will decide what each does”
 

 The response was grumbling among the sisters.  “No one knows how to do all that.”  “How will we get our blessings?”  “We do not know where to begin.”

 One sister took charge and said, “Which challenge shall we work on first?”  Many answers came quickly.  “Father’s.”  “Mother’s.”  “No, Father’s.”

 The youngest said, “How about if we combine the two challenges into one big challenge and work on it together.  When we meet one we have met the other.”

 How do we do that?

 “We have seven challenges.  Let us each take a challenge and solve it.  When we are finished we will have met all the challenges. Let us do the dance of inspiration in the moon light to find the answers.”

 The seven sisters agreed.  They stood up, held hands and began to dance around in a circle.  The oldest, named ECONOMY, began to twirl and danced into the center of the circle.  She sang a song, which said “I will go first.”  Then the dancing stopped, the sisters sat in a circle, while the eldest continued to dance and sing in the middle.  Then she paused, with a strange look on her face, as though she were straining to understand.  She stopped and said, “I will take the challenge of turning war into peace.”  Then she paused, lost in thought again. The other sisters gasped.  That was one of the hardest ones.  They had no idea how she would do it, and waited for her to speak.  She stopped dancing, threw up her hands to the moon and yelled.

 “I, ECONOMY, am the answer to reconciling the conflict between war and peace.  I will do it.  I will reconcile the conflict in favor of lasting peace and bring the necessary peace for the global knowledge economy to flourish and prevail, generation after generation, indefinitely.”  Her sisters sat silently in wonder at this outburst.  She danced some more, lost in ecstasy.  Then her vision cleared and she spoke.  “When the people, the wealthy and the leaders realize that the new economy works only when its machines are running smoothly and are full of new creativity, and they all starve when it does not work when the machines are broken by war, they will all support whatever it takes to stop war and protect the global peace.  We live in one global community, which cannot survive with the destruction of war, so they will insist on peace.”  She danced around inside the circle and sang a new song, with several verses, and this chorus

 She stopped singing and looked off into the distance and said, “Those who promote war will be restrained.  All war, including holy war, will be banned. The global knowledge economy will provide business and prosperity for everyone.  It will develop new knowledge of how to do more and more for people for less and less.  The global knowledge economy will lift the poor out of poverty and into prosperity borne on their own creativity.  They will not want war.”  ECONOMY lifted her arms to the moon, her face shining radiantly in its light, revealing her joy at meeting the challenge set by her father.  She exclaimed, “The full power of the global knowledge economy, the most powerful economy the world has ever known, will establish and protect the necessary global peace ... indefinitely.”  She danced confidently and twirled back into her place in the circle and sat down with her sisters.

CREATIVITY stood up.  She had tears in her eyes.  “I do not know why, but I feel I must stand up for a change in the relationship between men and women.”  She was young and lithe and beautiful, as she wove slowly into the circle.  “I want so much to be fully what I am, a woman, but I don't know how, and it is so confusing.”  She twirled around in a more rapid dance.   “Sometimes I want a man to take me in his arms and dance with me.  I feel I can follow him where ever he leads.  Other times I feel the dance and know what to do.  I want to hold the man close to me and take him with me as I lead him through the dance.  Sometimes I want to dance off on my own.  Some times I want to make up a dance with the man as we go along.  I am so confused, I am afraid to dance at all.   But I must.  What is a woman to do?  Mother promised that if we answered all the challenges, we would each become fully a woman.  How are we going to do that?  How am I going to do my part?  It seems so hopeless.”

 She danced around in a listless, defeated manner.  Then her step quickened.  “I remember Mother said when I was in a difficulty to be myself, to be true to myself, and I would begin to see the way through.   Maybe I am part of the solution?  How can that be?”  She danced more rapidly, not knowing why, but feeling she was about to find a path to the answer.  A saying of her father popped into her head.  “If you can’t find the answer to a problem of yours, think outside of yourself.”  She thought about her sisters, her parents, her community, the world.  “That’s it.  I don't know why, but the answer is at the world level.  What about the world?  I don’t know.  Oh, why did I stand up any way.  I stood up because PARTNERSHIP said there was a new economy in the world that was so powerful it drove a change between rich and poor.  The rich build the machines and the poor do the creativity to fill the marketplace.”  She leapt up, threw her hand up to the moon, then went dancing and twirling, singing, “I am the answer.  I am the answer.”  Her sisters looked at her and were amazed.  What had she found?

 “I, CREATIVITY, am the answer.”  She slowed to a stop and changed to a rhythmic weave as she spoke in a trance.  “I am the answer.  We do not need the people to be intimidated to be obedient to the few at the top, so much as we need them all free to be creative in the new global knowledge economy.”  She danced around some more as if she were trying to understand the implications of what she just said.

 “If we do not need the people to be obedient to the few at the top, I see that we can have a new relationship between men and women.  I will take the challenge of reconciling the conflict between men and women.”  Her sisters stared in wonder at her.  This too was one of the most difficult to reconcile.  It was very important to do it wisely and correctly.  She danced into the center of the circle, knowing what she had to do, but still not knowing how to do it.  She stared at the moon while twirling around.  Her vision blurred, but new thoughts came to her.  She thought of men and women and marriage and the needs of the economy.  Ideas floating around.  Nothing made sense, until ... she saw the connection.  She sang out, “Marriage is a training ground for citizenship.  Marriage is a training ground for citizenship.”  Her sisters had no idea what she was talking about.  “What does this mean”, one sister asked, “This makes no sense”.  CREATIVITY slowed her dance, and said, “I see it.  I see it. I will make up a story to show you.”  She moved to the center of the circle and sat down, then began to speak.

 “If all the people in your country were equal and had a culture where each person  made his or her own decisions, and you wanted to change the culture so you made the important decisions for them, and they obeyed you, what would you do?  How would you do it?”  The sister who spoke up said, “We have no idea.”  “It is easy”, said CREATIVITY, “you can do it in two steps.”  “What are they?”, her sister asked.

 “First you have half the people control the other half.  Now the problem is only half as big.”  “How do you do that?” asked her sister in wonder.  “That is simple,” said CREATIVITY, “The answer is marriage.  You create the role of marriage to define the relationship between men and women, so that the man provides the food and shelter from the economy for the woman and her children, and the woman is dependent on the man for her livelihood and protection.  The woman stays in the home, bears and rears the children, and obeys her husband.  The husband gets sex whenever he wants it as his reward, and a woman to keep his home and rear his children.  If they are lucky and wise both get companionship for life.”

 “How do you solve the other half of the problem?”, asked another sister.

 CREATIVITY smiled.  “That is where my song comes in.  She began to sing.  “Marriage is a training ground for citizenship’.  Then she began to speak to explain her song.

 “The husband and wife learn all the rules of the dominance relationship in the home.  Then the dominant husband leaves the home and becomes the submissive laborer, tax payer and soldier for the king or the government.  Now the leaders have control over everyone.  A vertical social structure has been established, with the few decision makers at the top and everyone below being obedient and doing their part to carry out the leaders’ decisions.  The sad part is that it requires violence to keep the people intimidated and obedient.  This vertical social; structure, this dominance culture, worked well in an agricultural or industrial economy, especially when the economies were in constant conflict and war.  It is much more adaptive for the people to move as a group, like an army with one commander, who decides how best to fight the war.  Then all the soldiers obediently move as one, united, powerful force, much more powerful than any one individual could be.  The well disciplined Roman legions conquered the western world with this approach to social organization.”

 “But Sister”, complained another around the circle, “intimidated people are afraid to be creative.  The culture stomps it out of them at an early age.  They are afraid to think for themselves.  They are afraid to take risks.  Intimidated people cannot be creative enough to sustain a powerful, global knowledge economy.  If we cannot reconcile this conflict, we are lost.”

 “Yes dear sister,” answered CREATIVITY, “don’t you see, that is why mother gave us this challenge to reconcile.  All of these challenges must be reconciled if the new global knowledge civilization, with its great promise for all, is to grow and succeed.  We have to change to make it happen.  We have to change from a vertical dominator culture to a horizontal partnership culture.  The global knowledge economy is driving us, but we must change.  We must reconcile these conflicts and develop new ways to live together in peace and harmony in a global culture.  I believe that begins in the home with a new definition of marriage, a marriage that trains both husband and wife for successful citizenship in the new global knowledge economy.  I will tell you a sign.  The change from a dominator culture to a partnership culture begins with respect for women as competent, independent decision makers in the world.”

 “What kind of marriage?  What is it like?   Tell us?”

 “It is a marriage which nurtures both partners to be independent decision makers, each responsible for his or her own happiness, and yet dependent on each other in many ways.  Instead of most marriages being based on a dominance relationship, where the husband decides for the husband and the wife what each will do and when, the marriage is a combination.  The marriage is a combination of decision relationships.  In some areas the husband will know more and decide for both of them.  In some areas the wife know more and decide for both of them.  In some areas they will consult with each other and decide by consensus, with each agreeing on the best decision.  Husband and wife will each be devoted to achieving his or her own fulfillment as a whole person, and nurturing the other to do the same.  Each marriage will have a different mix of the three areas of decision making.  Their decisions will be his, hers and ours.  As time goes by, the mix will change as the partners grow and change.  Each partner nurtures the other to fulfilled life as a whole person.  This kind of a marriage, based on mutual respect of each partner as an independent, competent, creative, risk taking decision maker, who is devoted to home and family as well as career, provides the example for good citizenship in a knowledge economy.”

 “O.K., but what causes the change to this new kind of marriage?”, asked one of the sisters.  The one in the middle of the circle, threw up her hands joyously and yelled.

 “CREATIVITY!”  She danced around in the circle, then began to explain.  “What does the new global knowledge economy need most from the people?  Creativity!  Remember this is a competitive global knowledge economy.  Countries or peoples who do not compete well will not do well in this economy.  Those countries and people will be far poorer than the rest who do compete well.  If you lock half of your people up in their homes and scare them out of being creative or ban their products from the marketplace, you will lose out in the competitive race among nations and groups of people in  the world.

 “The men cannot do it all.  The women cannot do it all.  Each nation and group needs all its men and women being creative from an early age to compete successfully in the new global knowledge economy.  The need for both creative men and creative women drives the change to a new relationship between men and women, where instead of the man being responsible for the happiness of both of them, they are each responsible for their own happiness.  This new relationship nurtures independent thinking, compassion, creativity and risk taking in both men and women.

 Her sister spoke up, “Who does this, and for whom.  It sounds like this is something for the women.”  CREATIVITY said, “The women do it, they lead the change.  Many of the values that make this relationship work are feminine values, so the women lead the change”

 “The women define it for the women?”, her sister asked.

 “No, the women define it for everyone.  The men define vertical social organization, dominator culture, with an economy that takes little knowledge to run it, and mass obedience to get the work done, and much violence, conflict and war.  The men define the dominator culture, based on the masculine values of the warrior, for a few men to be at the top.  The women define horizontal social organization, partnership culture, based on feminine values for everyone, men and women, to be on the same level, to be equal, to live in peace and pursue fulfillment rather than control.  The focus in partnership culture is not on male dominance, violence, endurance, macho discipline and control, but on creativity, self expression and success in living a fulfilled life as a whole person, whether one does so as a male or a female.  The ways of fulfillment of men and women are different and equally valuable to the economy and the culture.  What is needed in a partnership culture is not so much the obedience of the people, but the creativity of the people.”

 “I, CREATIVITY, reconcile the conflict between men and women in the old economies and the old cultures, and move the world to the new global partnership culture, based on its new relationship of equality between creative men and creative women.”  She twirled around triumphantly and sat down hard at her place in the circle.  Her sisters applauded their dynamic sister.

Her sister, VARIETY, spoke up.  “What is going to happen in the mean time, while these different cultures are changing.  Even after the change there will still be different cultures.   Mother said we had to resolve the conflicts between different cultures.”  Her sisters responded together, “You solve it.”  VARIETY hesitated, then got up and danced slowly into the center of the circle.  She twirled around faster and faster, then stopped and threw her hands up to the moon.  “We must have a reason for the different cultures to respect each other and need each other, then they will get along in peace.”  Satisfied with her insight, she resumed her dancing, not knowing how it was all going to work.  She too thought about her Father’s saying, about thinking beyond herself.  She thought about the community and the people who wanted new things to buy.  Then she realized the whole nation was like that.  When she thought about the whole world, she was overwhelmed.  “Where would all that creativity come from to satisfy the tastes of all the different people in the world”, she wondered.  “Think of the billions of consumers all over the world with their different tastes and needs and wanting to buy.  Where would the creativity come from?  No one country or culture could do it.  It would take Chinese creators to satisfy the more than a billion Chinese consumers, who liked Chinese products.  It would take Indian creators to satisfy the wildly varied Indian tastes of more than a billion consumers in India who liked Indian products.  There would be some cross-over, but many Indians would not buy Chinese designed products, and many Chinese would not buy Indian designed products.  To fill the wants and needs of  all these billions of people, there would have to be different kinds of ethnic products made to appeal to the tastes of all these different people.  The more the merrier.  The more different products, the more ethnic consumers would buy, and the stronger the global knowledge economy would be.”   She stopped her dance, and stood there for a moment taking in the enormity of what she had understood.  Then she threw up her hands to the moon and yelled, “I understand!  I too am the answer to my challenge.  I, VARIETY, am the source of strength of the great global knowledge economy.  I am the source of the creativity that provides the mass of goods and services that flow through the economy all around the world and make it strong and robust.  We must honor variety in people, because that makes the economy stronger, from which we all gain our livelihood.  Billions of ethnically and culturally different consumers are satisfied by billions of ethnically and culturally different creators.  Hooray for ethnic and cultural differences.  Hooray for VARIETY.”  She twirled around in triumph.  “Different people need each other!  The necessity of variety for the knowledge economy makes different people valuable to each other, and is a strong basis for reconciliation and mutual respect.”  Then, after recalling the long history of such human differences being used against each other, with “us vs. them” attitudes, to incite war and conflict and sustain dominator cultures and values, and feeling satisfied with her new vision, she happily sat down at her place in the circle.

  Her sister EVOLUTION stood up.  “One of the great sources of conflict in the last 500 years has been between science and religion.  Each has been trying to prove to the people that it was right for certain, but something has been wrong.  Neither side has won, and both sides are still here.”  She started to dance around the circle slowly, lost in thought, trying to reach an understanding of what was wrong.  She danced and danced, wanting an answer for certain, before she spoke.  Nothing came.  Then she realized why.  She blurted out, “There is no certainty!”  She stopped suddenly and looked beyond the circle.  “There is no certainty, because humans cannot know anything for certain.  Lao Tsu knew that.  He told us that he who says he dosen't know, knows.  Plato knew that.  He told us with his allegory of the cave.  Paul of Tarsus knew that.  He told us that we see through a glass darkly.  We have forgotten the lessons of the past.  She began to dance again, her head bobbed back and forth trying to reach an understanding of what was wrong with the conflict between science and religion, and why neither side had defeated the other.  She danced around and around, until she sang out,

 “Science and religion each tried to prove to the people that it was right for certain,” she exclaimed, “and therefore the other was wrong and not to be followed.  It was a war for control of the people, but ... It was a useless war.  It was a useless war, because no one can understand anything for certain.  Neither side could win, so both sides quit fighting.  They learned a new humility, that neither one of them had all the answers for humans.  They learned a new mutual respect, that they were each important for successful human life, and that people all over the Earth needed both science and religion.”

 She danced on with a new wrinkle of concern clouding her face.  If neither science nor religion can do it all for people, but people need both of them, how will they work together in peace and mutual respect.  How can the people relate to both of them, if they are so different and use such different methods.  She spoke about how different they were.  “Science understands only what it can measure, and describes how to reliably cause change in the physical world.  Religion understands the human spirit, which guides and motivates life and gives it meaning and direction.  Science tells the individual what we can do.  Religion tells the individual why the individual should or should not do it.  How can the individual relate to both of these important parts of human life?”

 Filled with the complexity of her question, she danced around the circle until her thinking blurred and she could no longer see the question and all the complications.  It was all swirling around in her mind.  How could science and religion help the people in a common way.  Commonness swirled all around her and led the way.  She followed the idea of commonness around here and there until she saw herself coming toward her.  Her vision cleared of the fuzziness around her and she saw the mirror that reflected her face.  In the clearness of her thinking, she wondered what had just happened and what it meant.  She was following commonness as a direction toward a solution of science and religion working together for human kind, when she saw herself in the mirror.  It was as if commonness was the answer and the search for commonness had led to her.  She stopped dancing.  She looked in vacant wonder, staring to see the final connection.  Her sisters wondered what had happened to her, but dared not interrupt her trance.  She began to weave slowly feeling like the answer was coming into place.  Then she had it.  She knew.

 She threw her hands up to the moon, and sang out. “I am the answer.  I am the answer.  I, EVOLUTION, am the answer.  A special understanding of the process of evolution is the answer, because it forms a common world view out of which both science and religion can do their respective work with their own methods and integrity, but in a way that is harmonious for the people.  WOW.  I see it now.”

 “What do you see?,” her sisters asked.  “I see a common world view for science and religion, instead of each trying to convince people that its world view was correct for certain, and the other was therefore wrong.  In this common world view both religion and science are possible, and live comfortably together, each doing their work for the people.  It is easy for the people to accept and benefit from both of them, because they come from the same world view.  Instead of science and religion insisting the other is impossible and wrong, each has a new humility that admits the other is possible.  Science has lost its innocence through its own proof of the impossibility of knowing everything for certain.  The Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics, Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem in mathematics and skepticism in philosophy have done that.  If the certainty of determinism is impossible, then the existence of the divine and heard and answered prayer and divine intercession are possible, even to science.  Science can no longer categorically deny the possibility of God.  It just cannot say how God works.  Science is no longer a threat to God.”

 “Yet science in its growing understanding of humans, has recognized the importance of religion to successful, healthy life.  Science has recognized an important role for itself in describing how the physical world works and how to reliably cause change in it.  Science has also recognized the important role of religion in life to help people with their spiritual needs, in ways science does not address.

 Her sister asked, “What about religion?”

 “Religion lost its innocence by studying its history.  Much of the violence, suffering and death of humans in history has been committed in the name of religion.  It is not the divine that is imperfect, it is the humans who worship the divine that are imperfect.  Religion operated by humans is imperfect.  Religion also cannot be proven right for certain.  Religion must be careful to be a servant of the people and not a selfish, greedy, lustful master.  Often in the past it has fallen from the former into the depths of the latter, proving again the humble imperfection of religion operated by humans.  Yet those who genuinely and humbly live their religion know there is nothing like it to lift them up, give meaning to their lives and keep them focused on living righteous, successful lives.  Even when they have fallen, their religion is a means of forgiveness and getting back up again to live fully again.  Their religion has taught them ways of life they did not imagine, that are so rewarding, they cannot believe their ignorance of them, such as genuine love.  Religion is valuable to people.  Religion proves to itself its value to people every day.

 “Religion deals in faith, understanding, relationships and stories.  Although the stories change, the relationship between the divine and the individual remains.  It is that relationship, however understood, that creates the meaning of religion for the individual.  Although the story changed dramatically in the West around the year 1,500 of the current era, religion survived and flourishes to this day.  Religion had taught that the earth was the center of everything and the sun went around the earth.  Then science revealed that the earth went around the sun, both of which were insignificant specks in a vast universe.  Religion claimed to have all and the only right answers, yet had been proven to be profoundly wrong.  Yet religion survived the change in stories, flourished in new ways of belief and became stronger.

 “Religion is not threatened by changes in science’s stories or theories.  Science is not threatened by religion saying the world does not work the way science says.  Both describe the world in stories, which both know can and do change.  That is part of their humility.  Now that science and religion know that people need them both, and science and religion are humble enough to live together in mutual respect, how can they operate out of one common world view, so they will not confuse the people?  What is that common world view? What is the basis of it?”

 She danced around in the circle with a faint, knowing smile on her face, letting her sisters wonder over what the answer could be.  “Do you wonder?, she exclaimed.  Then she stopped, threw her hands up to the moon and said, “I am the answer.  I, EVOLUTION, am the answer to the basis for the common world view of science and religion in the global knowledge civilization.”

 “What is it?”, her impatient sisters exclaimed, knowing she was playing with them.  “Tell us the answer.”

 “The answer is ‘The divine process of creation is evolution.’

 “Evolution works for both science and religion.  The divine chose evolution as the process for creating new, survivable existence in the universe.  The divine, however that is understood by different people, watches over the creation and interacts with it in various ways as understood by different people.  Science can seek to understand the processes of evolution and the structure of existence, and describe how to cause change.  Religion can focus on the relationship between the divine and the individual in this world which science sees, to lead the individual to strong faith and fulfilled life as a sentient evolved organism, loved by the divine.  Religion does not need to disprove science to prove God or the validity of the Scriptures.   Science does not need to disprove religion to get the people to use its knowledge to reliably cause change.  Both can do their work for people out of the same world view, the divine process of creation in the universe is the process of evolution.”  EVOLUTION danced coyly over to the edge of the circle and sat down.

One of the sisters, who had been silent up to now, said, “That solves the conflict between science and religion, but what about the terrible conflicts, destruction and death we have seen from conflicts among different religions, each trying to force converts to their religion?  How do we solve that?”

 Her polite, generous, considerate, compassionate sisters said in unison, “You thought of it.  You solve it!”  She got up heavily and slowly, not knowing why she was having to go into the circle, but feeling strangely pulled into it.  She did not feel like fighting the urging of her sisters to undertake this seemingly impossible task.  She stood up and moved slowly into the circle.  She began to dance, and bumped into one of her sisters.  “Ouch, you clumsy oaf.  Watch where you are going”, the sister said.  Instead of getting angry, she kept dancing, now more carefully.  She got rid of her momentary anger at her sister, and realized that her sister had been surprised and a little hurt, and her reaction was natural.  She forgave her sister and herself for her clumsiness.  Then her mind wandered back to why she was in the circle.  All of this had not helped her solve the problem.  She concentrated on the problem of reconciling the different religions, and danced more seriously.  That did not last long. The dancing and the moon and the night air took her attention.  She liked dancing.  It felt so good to flow lightly on her feet as if she were floating.  It was so different from everyday life, where she walked heavily and was always bumping into things ... and people.  She remembered stepping on her sister at the edge of the circle.  She felt immediately guilty and disgusted with herself.  Why couldn’t she pay attention and watch where she was going as her sister said.  Then she remembered that her sister was not perfect either, staying out late, angering their mother.  She too could be mad at her for that, ...but she wasn’t.  She accepted her sister as she was.  She accepted all her sisters that way.  It allowed them to get along and be a family.

 “It what?, she thought.  “It allowed them to get along and be a family.”  She thought a moment, then half heartedly put her hands up to the moon, not quite sure of what she was about to exclaim.  “I believe...I think...I am the answer to this challenge.  I, TOLERANCE, am the answer.  I think I see the key to how it works.”  She put her hands down and began to dance around some more, as if to gain a clearer understanding of what she had seen, before she said any more.  Her sisters felt she had left them hanging, but they knew her, and when she was like this, it did no good to try and interrupt her or scold her.  She was too lost in thought to hear them.  She kept on dancing slowly.  One of the sisters called out in frustration, “What is the key?  You said you saw the key.  What is it?”

 She kept on dancing, not really hearing the impetuous question.  Then she slowed, looked up into the air, then down, then up again, and said, “I have it.  The key is conversion.  Conversion is what gets the religions in trouble with each other.  They are always fighting each other to get the other’s faithful to convert to their religion.  If we could find a way for the religions not to fight each other over conversion, not to fight the conversion wars, the religions could live in peace with each other.”  Her head went down again in deep thought, trying to understand more about what she had just said.  Her sisters knew they could not rush her process, but they were impatient.  If she solved this challenge, there would be only one more left, and they would get their blessings from their parents of becoming fully women and living fulfilled lives as whole persons.  Why couldn’t she hurry up?

 Oblivious to their thoughts, she kept dancing.  The sisters saw nothing but slow unconcerned dancing and a blissful face.  How frustrating!  How could she do this and not feel the frustration.  She always lived in her own world.

 Behind the blissful face ideas were flowing in syncopated rhythm, swirling now here, now there, coming together, flowing apart, changing and flowing together again.  “Why were the religions fighting over conversion?  Why were they so determined to force converts from other religions?  Why was it their job anyway?”  Then she stopped dancing and spoke out.  “That’s it.  It is not their job.  It’s not their job.  It’s God’s job.  Conversion is none of their business.  Conversion is private between the individual and the divine.  It is not the job of religion to gain converts for the religion.  It is not religions job.  It’s God’s job.  The divine changes people’s hearts in genuine, life saving conversion.  It is not the other faithful of the religion nor the leaders of the religion, it is the divine that does it.  What a relief.  The religions have been let out of the bag that has kept them fighting each other.”

 The sisters were somewhat confused, “What are you talking about?”, they exclaimed.  Now she saw clearly the answer, and she spoke with conviction, “I, TOLERANCE , am the answer to reconciling the different religions.  Each religion should spend its energy on helping its faithful, not trying to win converts from other religions.  That is not the religion’s job.  It is the job of the faithful of each religion to believe the religion passionately as true for certain, and where the religion says other conflicting religions are in error, to believe that passionately too.  Then it is the job of the faithful to live the religion passionately, live by its rules and wisdom and worship.  Each faithful person should live the religion passionately and let the light of his or her successful life shine, so others would know how valuable the religion was in successful life.  Then the faithful should teach, preach and evangelize their religion to others, so they would have the chance to learn about it.  Then the faithful should stop, and let the divine convert the other person, in the divine’s way and the divine’s time.  Conversion of others is not the job of the faithful, or of the leaders of the religion.  It is God’s job, the job of the divine to change people’s hearts.

 “The leaders and the faithful should not presume to do the divine’s job.  They should not try to use force, fear, economics or social means to make people convert to their religion.  It is not their job.

 “Their job is to believe, live and teach their religion passionately, and then let the other person decide for himself or herself.  When the religions work this way, they can realize that different people find the divine in different religions, and respect those other religions as paths to the divine, even if they are viewed as partial and flawed paths, and not the one true path.

 “Once the religions see themselves this way,” she summarized, “they can retain their exclusivity, yet live in peace with each other, letting the divine make converts, while the religions live together with tolerance, mutual respect and in peace in the global knowledge civilization.”  She closed her mouth, set her jaw, lifted her head and walked, almost stomped, over to her place in the circle and sat heavily down.

 Her sisters sighed.  At last this part was over.  Then all eyes turned to HARMONY.  The sisters said, “There is only one more challenge left, and we have all taken one.  It is up to you now to reconcile humans and nature.”

 “Oh, thanks”, she said, “You give me a hard one.  I have no idea how to do it.  Oh, O.K., I’ll get up and dance and see what happens.”  She got up and moved into the center of the circle.  Her dance was slow and uncertain at first.  The dance seemed to take over and she began to flow in rhythmic movements.  She had no idea how to begin to reconcile humans and nature, and not even exactly what the problem was.  She decided to not think about anything and let her mind wander with the dance.  Her thoughts drifted off to relationships with her sisters, her parents, and how she too would be old some day, and maybe a wife and mother.  When she thought of being a mother someday, she thought of children differently.  Instead of carefree little persons engaged in play, she thought of them as little persons for whom she was responsible.  This different way of thinking surprised her, but if felt right, and it seemed to always happen when she thought this way.  She was thinking about helping a child, when she stumbled slightly, which brought her back to what she was doing in her dance.  “Oh, yes, What is the relationship between humans and nature and how can we reconcile their differences?  Well the relationship is different at different times, and requires different ways of reconciliation.”  She was amazed at her insight, and quite proud of herself, until she realized it did not solve the challenge.  She thought some more about it.  The relationship between humans and nature has changed as humans have changed.  She stopped dancing and sang out, “The relationship between humans and nature is like the relationship of the individual human and the parent.  We begin in infancy, change to adolescence and move into adulthood.   In infancy we see the parent as awesome, all powerful and God-like.  As adolescents, we seek control of our life, our environment, our parents and others.  Then when we gain what control we can, we become adults and take our place in the world.  Now our relationship with our parent becomes one of adult friendship, and we learn to live in harmony with our parents, making room in our lives for what we want to do, and making room in our lives for what our parents want to do.”  She looked gleefully at her sisters and threw her hands up to the moon.

 “I, HARMONY, am the answer.  I, HARMONY,  am the answer to reconciling humans and nature in the new era of the Flowers of the Universe.  Don’t you see.  Our relationship with nature is like our relationship with our parents.  When we were young in tribal times before cities, we looked at nature with awe.  Nature controlled us, and there was nothing we could do about it.   We hunted and gathered and took what nature gave us.  Then we discovered agriculture.  We could control the food supply, plant crops in one place, live in cities, and use our creativity to develop tools and knowledge with which we could control much of nature.  We built irrigation canals to change nature’s water courses to suit our needs.  Instead of being awed by nature's mountains, we built mountains of our own, right in our cities, and called them ziggurats or temples.  We developed written language and computers to record what we had learned how to do and what we had done.  Eventually we developed submarines and spaceships, so we could create our own environment under water and in space and go many places we otherwise could not naturally go.

 “In our adolescence, we learned how to control nature so well, that we began to permanently change nature on Earth.  Then we recognized this and realized that nature was not an infinite well from which we could draw water indiscriminately.  We influenced nature, just as nature influenced us, and nature had mysterious ways, we did not understand.  We needed to respect nature and nature’s ways at the same time respecting our needs and our ways.

 “We need to live in HARMONY with nature, as children live as adult friends with their parents.  The new adult relationship between humans and nature is not one of fear and awe, nor one of controlling nature.  It is now a relationship of harmony between humans and nature.  We respect nature and nature’s ways, at the same time respecting humans and human ways.  We do not run roughshod over nature with our powerful new global knowledge economy, nor do we run roughshod over people to protect nature.  We do not try to shift the ecological burden of the economy on the environment from our part of the world to some other part of the world.  We have a global economy and a global need to protect nature.  We protect the whole Earth and nature as a whole.  We look for ways to live in harmony with nature.”   She drifted over to the edge of the circle and sat down.

 Her sisters applauded her.  Then one of them said, “We have completed the seven challenges from our parents.  Let us rise and dance together in celebration.  Tomorrow we will each tell our parents our solutions to their challenges, and they will give us their blessings.

 The next day, when the parents heard from each sister, they were very pleased and proud.  The seven sisters had answered all the challenges.  Now the world would have the new values to grow into a global knowledge civilization.  Their mother sincerely and happily gave each sister her blessing to become fully a woman.  Their father happily and proudly gave each sister his blessing to live a fulfilled life as a whole person.  Following the seven sisters’ reconciliations, the global knowledge civilization grew in strength, peace and prosperity for nearly everyone on Earth, and reproduced many times, launching the era of the Flowers of the Universe.