A Wealthy and Wise America

I have a vision in which outdated beliefs, attitudes and old money paradigms have shifted into a new conscious prosperity. It is a world where wealth is used with wisdom for the good of each person, where individuals thrive. Money is simply a window into the soul -– a metaphor for how you are living your life –- with dignity and respect for your self, your money and for others. My vision is of unlimited thriving with money used for good, as the rudder that drives each American's vision ship.

I have a personal vision (one I have no idea of how to accomplish) of giving my book FREE to each and every person who wants to change their relationship to money to thrive with wealth and wisdom. They read it and are inspired to take action towards their prosperous future.

This is my work, my mission and vision that gets me up in the morning.

Marilyn August

Thriving Malls

Shopping malls are among America's most well-used public spaces, but do they really serve our needs? In the future I see them thriving by integrating more fully into our lives in two important ways. First, they will broaden their spectrums of activity by adding residential space above the shops. Second, they will join with the surrounding neighborhoods by adding transit centers and replacing swathes of parking lot with open green space. With these basic changes, and the new patterns that will inevitably emerge from them, our malls will truly become centers of community.

See also: The Future of Shopping Malls: An Image Essay at Worldchanging.

- Ian G, 37, Seattle

Vote 4 Hope

Passionate and poetic hip-hop video. Look who knows a brighter day will come.

The Original 'Yes We Can' Song

Mesmerizing, eloquent heart-beat of hope. If you haven't seen this, or haven't revisited it in awhile, take another look and let it lift your spirits.

Respecting Farmers and Farms

A thriving America has a renewed appreciation for the health of our land and of our farmers. America has turned away from agri-business, directed financial assistance to small-scale farmers, rejected GMO, embraced local, organic, seasonal food. Food production is humane, sustainable, small-scale and feeds our population without reliance on petroleum-based fertilizers or abusive international labor practices. In a thriving America, all of us, in all classes, know where our food comes from. More of us are involved in food production. Both of these make us all healthier.

- Christina G, 33, Seattle

The Power of Imagining

A couple of years ago, my family went to a "visioning potluck" where everyone present not only shared dinner but a collective imagining of the future, as if it were the past. The idea was that rather than saying, "I wish things were like this," or "I plan to do that," we were to think as if all that had already happened. What if we were at a potluck celebrating something that was 20 years old? What did it look like? What challenges had we overcome, as a group and as individuals?

When it was my turn, I talked about the garden I'd started - although I didn't have anything more than houseplants at home - and how it was thriving now, how I was "growing my own pasta sauce." Such a garden was something I'd been talking about wanting to do - really - for a number of years, but I hadn't gotten anywhere with it. I don't know if thinking of it as a done deal was transformative in any way, but I have a garden now. It didn't produce pasta sauce this year - our summer was too cool to make the tomatoes truly happy - but I have a couple of pints of green peas in the freezer, a few jars of cranberry beans in the pantry, lots of quarts of blueberries and raspberries, and upwards of 20 pounds of potatoes, all homegrown.

I suppose my point is that sometimes it's helpful to stop thinking about how something is going to get done and start thinking about it as if it were already done.

Enough with the grousing about what's wrong with the country. Enough with waiting for someone else to fix it. Let's start talking about it as if it were better, right now. Perhaps if enough of us start seeing America as we want it to be, the road to that place will become so clear that we can't help but get there.