Integrity:
state or quality of being complete;
wholeness; entirety;
unimpaired state; soundness; purity;
moral soundness; uprightness
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

A LITTLE PERSONAL HISTORY

About ten years ago, in my private practice, a cluster of people came to me seeking help in undoing the damage they felt other practitioners had created for them. Although I believe we each have a certain responsibility for what we “allow” as well as what we do, some of the stories I heard were troubling and I wondered about the possibility of publishing a set of ethical guidelines people might refer to if they were concerned about what they were encountering.

I approached a holistic publication with my idea. The response was interesting. What certified people would I consult? (“Certification” is necessary for integrity?) How would these people be determined suitable to discuss ethics? How would I present opposing ideas? I had a simple essay in mind. This was looking like a bigger project than I had time for, so I simply continued to present my ideas to my own clients, explaining what they could expect from me if we were to work together as well as what I probably would expect of them… and then did my best to make my actions match my words. That was perhaps the most honest thing I could have done, for who does not have her or his own definition of integrity?

AN OVERVIEW

We each are born into particular families and cultures, situations and local natural environments. Each has its own rules of conduct. Some are clearer than others. Some we don’t understand. Some operate below the level of our conscious minds. As we live our lives, we explore our particular territories. If we can learn about the big and little “rules” and can conduct ourselves appropriately, we have a chance of meeting our basic human needs. If we cannot, often we have difficulties.

According to many, because we are human, after we have met our physical survival requirements to varying degrees we all have fundamental additional needs:

1. The need to belong, to bond
2. The need to maintain a balance of giving and taking, for equilibrium*
3. The need for the safety of social convention and for predictability, for order

In all our relationships, the energies of these needs interact in complex ways and somehow we are to figure out what is what, hopefully working toward increasing clarity and wholeness as we do so. The rub comes as we widen our territories and discover that the codes of conduct for all those we interact with and have relationships with are not always the same. In fact some appear to be directly contrary to others.

Once two men argued about whether it was appropriate to have one’s head covered or bare in a place of worship. They became quite embroiled in their discussion, each presenting many reasons for his thinking. But they missed the point. The hats were only symbolic of the respect each offered, one by covering his head, one by uncovering his head. Both men offered respect.

BEYOND THE HATS

How do we move past the hats to seeing larger pictures? In Webster’s definition of integrity “wholeness, unimpaired state and entirety” is significant. If we truly are all one, as so many believe, then it is a short and practical jump to wanting the greatest good for all beings because we too, each one of us, are a part of that greater whole. What we do to the “other” we do to a part of ourselves. If we expand our thinking to imagining everything in its own way is alive, filled with spirit, then our caring can grow to include our environment. And that it needs to happen because our materialistic behavior here in the industrialized world is out of balance and out of integrity with the greater whole. Not because we are “bad people” but because, for whatever reasons, we have been looking at hats.

Within the very recent past, the contemporary economic rules of our industrialized world have come to state that unlimited growth is good. Many people believe this is an indisputable truth. Confined within the limited and temporary world of “economics with access to vast resources,” there are valid reasons for this way of thinking. We have built an elaborate series of systems based on this idea. Yet we live on a finite planet. The wisdom of the planet tells us that there are limits here on earth and we will get into trouble when we ignore them. In this case, the small rules are in conflict with the larger rules. If the small refuses to concede to the large, it does so at its own ultimate peril, and our own. Roughly speaking, the rule of the importance of the “bottom line” needs to cede to the rules of what makes life on Earth possible.

In order to be in harmony with the greater whole, to come into planetary integrity, we need to change some of the ways we have of thinking about business and growth. Yet to do so appears to promise immediate difficulties for us and for our industrialized ways of life. On the other hand, not to do so assures disaster.

We are presently within the energy patterns of change. An easy way of thinking about this is to consider the process by which a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. As the first cells make the change to reorganize (and do this they must), the rest, not recognizing the changing cells as their own and believing there is a possible invasion taking place, attack the changing cells. It is only after a large enough number of cells begins transforming that the “attack” ends. In time metamorphosis is completed and where there was once a worm like creature that crawled, there is now a very different being with wings and the ability to fly.

As we experience the shifting interlocking energies of an economy gone wrong, of global warming and of a befouled natural environment (and have no doubt, it is we who have befouled it) some of us will respond very much like the protective cells in the caterpillar’s body. In defense of life as we were used to having it be and as we would like to have it continue to be, we will look for enemies to confront. We will do this in one way or another until enough of us come to understand that change is necessary for survival. Then we can focus on how to work with what is changing in the best possible ways.

WHAT NEXT?

Nature has a way of favoring interdependence. If we look around, we can see that there are no natural monocultures, only ecosystems. Mother Nature did not plant those endless rows of genetically altered Kansas corn. The various parts of nature do not stand alone in isolation. They are both amazingly varied and in relationship with each other.**

In the natural world, we see a variety of interconnected ecosystems with many, many interlocking parts. As our scientific knowledge deepens, in our own way, we are learning what indigenous peoples repeatedly tell us, that indeed, everything is connected and that we are all related. We disrupt the connections when we act with neither sufficient thought of the consequences to the whole, nor respect and concern for the well-being of the various parts of that same whole.

We cannot have continual economic growth on a finite planet. But we can have change. We can begin to conduct our affairs as if the welfare of other cultures, other creatures and of the planet really matters, as it assuredly does. Because we are an inventive species we can chose to work cooperatively and creatively together for the greater good.

PERSONAL ACTIONS

We each can become mindful of contributing positively to our shared situation. We can move toward greater integrity by aligning our actions in the material world more closely with our spiritual beliefs, with our concerns for the greater whole. We can do this right now.

Most of us know that a major component of global warming is the carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels. We use these fuels—gasoline, coal, oil and natural gas—to run our vehicles, power our homes and to produce and transport the goods we consume.

An average US household produces about 55,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. We might think that figure is high simply because we are an industrialized country. Not so. At 27,000 pounds, a typical German household produces about half what we in the US do; at only 15,000 pounds, an average Swedish household produces even less. As David Gershon points out in his award-winning book Low Carbon Diet, clearly we have room for improvement.

As we think of the larger whole, beginning today, we can each:

• Address our individual carbon dioxide issues
• Alter our thinking to acknowledge the fact that we live on a finite planet
• Although we can offer opportunities to others, we do not need to impose a US industrial monoculture wherever we go. We can be respectful of others’ ways and learn from them.
• Consider the rest of the global family as we address problems and difficulties close to home

Under the umbrella of the greater good of our global family… that is all of life, not just people… we can begin creating a different, more sustainable kind of future, one which is in integrity with the greater whole.

*The idea of basic human need to maintain an equal balance of giving and taking comes from the work of Bert Hellinger. An excellent resource is his book Love’s Hidden Symmetry, a clear presentation of the human condition, stripped of judgments and specific cultural coloration.

** Animate Earth by Stephan Harding, written for the lay reader, contains a number of interesting and lively descriptions of natural relationships, cycles and interconnections.

General Resources:
Limits To Growth, The 30 Year Update, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis Meadows
Deep Economy, Bill McKibben; ideas and examples of sustainable economics
Low Carbon Diet, David Gershon, a simple and fun beginning program for getting a grip on our excessive use of fossil fuels

Copyright Pat Foley, 2009

Pat Foley attempts to live a green/sustainable life just outside of Cornish, Maine. She is the owner of Earthrest, a retreat center operating on solar power which offers gathering space for groups and individuals. The underlying focus of Earthrest is on following Gandhi’s advice to be the change we wish to see in the world. You may contact Pat at \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or (207) 625-4179.