The Human Crucible of Evolution

The importance of crucibles

I like the term crucible; one of its definitions is a vessel that enables people to change. I view our personal crucible to be the family, friends, and community with whom we primarily share our lives.

We have institutions of many forms in our society: political, religious, commercial and social, which consist of people partnering together to achieve a purpose. Our institutions provide an environment in which we can learn how to be better partners in achieving a shared purpose. However, our ability to do that depends upon the personal evolution of each member.

I like the phrase “let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me”. The teaching of Mahatma Gandhi was that we need to become the change we wish to see in the world. Who we are today is a result of our experiences and the personal “context” we’ve established as a result of our life journey. A journey that has primarily been influenced by the relationships within the crucible of our family, friends and community.

Quantum Leaders (quantumleaders.com), who are champions of the living organization, stress the importance of what they refer to as “context”. They say that context influences the way we see the world and behave in it. Our individual context influences the choices we make to address the challenges we face. We only change our context by learning from new life experiences.

The healthier the environment a plant grows in the more likely it is to thrive and so with human beings. Yes, there are many symptoms of ill health in our society which we need to find ways to ameliorate. However, it is also essential to understand the critical importance of the crucible of relationships with friends, family and community. The crucible that provides the environment in which we can learn how to love ourselves and love each other, and which enables our personal evolution and incrementally our contribution to the evolution of humankind.

It is extremely important for advancing the evolution and collective wisdom of humankind to grasp that the crucible of our relationships is the soil in which we grow and the importance of enhancing the nutrients within them that facilitate our growth.

We have institutions and professions such as psychologists and family therapists whose role is to help people overcome challenges in their daily lives. We need resources within our society that help build the crucibles of human relationships within which we learn and evolve.

Key Thoughts

  • A human crucible can be viewed as a vessel which includes a person’s family, friends and community. It is the relations within this crucible that enable us to learn to love ourselves and each other.
  • Who we are today is an outcome of the experiences we have had on our life’s journey, resulting in our personal context, which influences our choices.
  • We only change our context as a result of new life experiences.
  • The crucible of our relationships is the soil in which we personally learn and evolve, enabling us to contribute to advancing the evolution and collective wisdom of humankind.
  • Our political, religious, commercial, and social institutions provide an environment in which we can learn, evolve and become better partners.
  • Pondering the evolutionary destiny of humankind

    A Step in Human Evolution- Hearing Our Inner Wisdom

    The crucible of human evolution