Love Finds the Perfect Partnership in All We Do
by Marc Allen • Novato, CA

Partnership is the solution to our personal and even global problems. For our personal problems — our anxieties, doubts, and fears; for our global problems — hunger, poverty, and war — the solutions are only to be found in new and better ways of working in partnership in every relationship we have: with our intimate partners and families; with our work, our community, our nation, and our world; and with nature and Spirit as well. Only through partnership can we create a world that works for all of us.

The great work ahead of us, author Riane Eisler reminds us, is replacing the well-entrenched model of domination, based on fear and a need to control, with a new way of living, a new model of partnership, based on love and respect for all people, and for all of creation.

Living and working in partnership is the key to solving our global problems. Ultimately, partnership is far more powerful and effective than domination and exploitation.

Living and working in partnership means loving and serving ourselves and others, and that is the key not only to a life well lived but to global peace and prosperity as well. This is the course, after all, that Jesus took, and Buddha, and Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Love and serve your neighbors. Love and serve even your enemies. Why does that still seem to be such a radical idea? Perhaps someday — I pray it is within my lifetime — this country will have a president who actually follows the words of Christ. All our presidents have called themselves Christians, but not one of them has truly followed the words of Christ. How can you possibly invade another country and still call yourself a Christian? Christ would never build an army, attack and kill others, for any reason. He was very clear on this: “Peter, put away your sword. If you live by the sword, by the sword you die.” Our leaders have forgotten the teachings of Christ, and they keep sending their children into war.

If we had a president who actually followed Christ, he or she would say to the world, “How can we love and serve each other? That’s the only way we can solve the problems we have. We have been good partners, in many ways, with many people. But we have also been dominators and exploiters in many ways, with far too many people. How do we move beyond that, into partnerships that work for all of us?” This is the key to global peace and prosperity.

Our acts of exploitation and attempts to control people result only in endless conflicts and obstacles and problems, because they inevitably lead to frustration, anger, hostility, and resentment. The result is an endless chain of violence and suffering. Working in partnership however, leads to countless creative ways to interact with each other; it leads inevitably to harmony, mutual support, prosperity, and, yes — always — love and respect.

As R. Buckminster Fuller pointed out, we now have the capability to feed and house and support everyone on the planet. We have the technologies available for every one of us in the world to move up to what the great psychologist Abraham Maslow called self-actualization. Maslow realized that humanity can be seen as forming a great pyramid. Over the years I have adapted his ideas somewhat — here’s my version of Maslow’s pyramid: The people on the bottom need food, shelter, and medical care. Those needs dominate their consciousness, and it is very difficult to move up the pyramid without having those needs fulfilled. The people a little higher need security. Without it, it is very challenging to move up and create more satisfying lives. Once those basic needs are met, we move up the pyramid into the realms of education.

We certainly have the capability to have good, free public education for all. We certainly have the money, as soon as we realize that investing in education is far more important than burning through money in warfare and other types of domination and exploitation. The two best things a country can do for its national security are to work in partnership with other countries and to have great education and vocational support for its own people. We have the technology. We have everything we need to create an excellent educational system, from cradle to grave, for education is an endless process, finally leading us to the top of the pyramid, to self-actualization.

Sometimes I ask, what is my purpose in it all? I’ve reflected on this for years, and asked many other people to reflect on this as well. What is your purpose in life? Many people have trouble with that word, purpose; it seems so serious, so heavy. You can substitute the word mission if you wish. Or vocation, which comes from the Latin word for calling. What is your calling? When I ask that question, I’m given a great key to a life well lived:

We have a great purpose in life —
a great mission, vocation, and calling.
We are here to reach our full potential,
to evolve as much as possible,
and to contribute to the betterment
of humanity.

So many have discovered, when we love and serve others in some way, our own sense of well-being, and our resources, and our joy of life expand vastly.

As Charles Caleb Colton wrote nearly two hundred years ago:

If universal charity prevailed, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.

Excerpted from the book The Greatest Secret of All: Moving Beyond Abundance to True Fulfillment © 2008 Marc Allen. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or 800-972-6657 ext. 52.

Marc Allen is a renowned author, composer, speaker, and co-founder of the book publishing company, New World Library. Marc also teaches seminars in the San Francisco Bay area. For more info, wwwMarcAllen.com