Becoming Ancestors Worth Remembering: A Vision for Human Sustainability on Earth
#CreativeFreedomAct #CultureShiftAct #CreativeSocietyAct
Becoming Ancestors Worth Remembering: A Vision for Human Sustainability on Earth
A Call to the Imaginative Heart of Humanity
What if the great task of our time is not to grow, but to mature?
We have learned to build machines that think, cities that pulse with light, and systems that stretch across the planet. But we have not yet learned how to live here for the long haul - with grace. We have not yet made peace with the limits of the Earth, or with the miracle of enough.
It is time to ask:
How many of us can live well on this planet - indefinitely - without using it up?
And then a deeper question:
How shall we live together in a way that honors the Earth, ourselves, and those yet to come?
The End of Endless Growth
Let’s say it plainly: the current scale of human presence is too large for the Earth to bear indefinitely.
We are now over 8 billion. And while every life is precious, this level of population - combined with a high-consumption global economy - is unsustainable. We are breaching planetary boundaries: climate, biodiversity, freshwater, soil health, even the integrity of the atmosphere itself.
But this is not a call for fear or blame. It’s an invitation to evolve.
The Path of Regenerative Belonging
Imagine a world with 2 or 3 billion people, living gently and wisely on the Earth.
Forests regrow.
Rivers run clear.
Birds return to the cities.
Humans live in bioregional cultures, deeply connected to land, seasons, and each other.
Energy is renewable, waste is minimal, and art is everywhere.
This is not fantasy. It is a future that could be. But it will not be delivered by force or decree. It must be chosen. And that choice begins with how we imagine ourselves as a species.
Rewriting the Human Story
For most of history, we were taught to multiply. To grow our tribes, our kingdoms, our economies. More people meant more power, more labor, more security. But today, more people can also mean more collapse - unless we rethink what it means to thrive.
Instead of endless multiplication, what if our sacred task now is deep cultivation?
Not to have many children, but to raise each one with care and consciousness.
Not to expand, but to root.
Not to dominate the Earth, but to dwell within it, as kin.
How We Begin
There is no single switch to flip. But the path is clear:
Empower women and girls with education and reproductive choice.
Support smaller families by making parenting more supported and childfree lives more honored.
Tell new stories of what makes a life meaningful - beyond legacy through offspring.
Invest in joy, art, and beauty so that people are drawn to a life of conscious simplicity.
Normalize ‘enough’. Not as scarcity, but as sanity. As balance.
When people are free, supported, and inspired, they tend to choose sustainability. Birth rates fall naturally in societies where dignity rises.
The Role of the Creative Community
This transition won’t be won in policy papers alone. It must be imagined into being.
Artists, writers, filmmakers, dancers, designers - this is our great work:
To re-enchant simplicity.
To show lives of beauty that don’t depend on bigness.
To sing new myths.
To build small, glowing prototypes of the future.
We are not here to decorate the world as it collapses. We are here to help dream it into its next becoming.
Toward a Long Now
A population of 2 billion may sound far away. But if, over the coming centuries, humanity walks with intention - lowering birth rates through freedom, wisdom, and cultural evolution - we can move gently toward it. No war. No coercion. Only care.
Let us leave a world where the rivers still run,
where the children hear birdsong in the morning,
where the soil is thick with life,
and the air tastes like spring.
Let us become ancestors worth remembering.
If this vision resonates with you, consider sharing it, living it, or creating from it. The future is not yet written. It begins in the stories we dare to tell now.
Myself, I am a studio artist and a citizen. My job and my duty is to start the conversation and seed the imagination. It is up to others in the right places to nurture it into a reality. We all have a part to play. What’s your part? Do it.
Hashtags to use: #CreativeFreedomAct #CultureShiftAct #CreativeSocietyAct
web address: https://www.touchonian.com/s/creative-freedom-act
I love the call to “re-enchant simplicity” and build a culture where “enough” is sanity, not scarcity. As an artist and citizen, I feel charged up to help imagine and model this shift—through my work, my conversations, and the small choices of everyday life.
Believe it or not, I am actually a loner. I need lots of time to myself, so having children that would require a lot of attention, was not in the cards for me. I loved teaching kids, but I could go home at night and have my alone time. It is not hard for me to be social, but it has to be on my terms, meaning having a choice. My husband, since the pandemic, has been able to work from home, but he goes into work 3 days a week just so I can have my quiet, uninterrupted time. I have been called "selfish" and "not doing God's will", and many childless women have experienced the same. My answer is always, "Should I have kids when I don't want to?" Some people actually say yes. Well, I choose to spend my time differently, to create in other ways, and contribute to society on my own terms. Selfish? Maybe.