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and sky that envelope our planet. I was intrigued why some combinations of government, commerce, and philosophy seemed to produce standards of living (or more importantly, quality of life) very different than others did. I was mystified as to the paradox of what it means to be human: how we’re simultaneously capable of such magnanimity and power alongside of such pettiness and fear.
But true to my generalist nature, I had never wanted to specialize in any of those endeavors. I just didn’t want to be a geography teacher… or a historian…or an academic researcher… or a minister… or a politician…or any highly-trained specialist occupying a box on one more corporate “Org” chart.
Somehow, someway, I wanted to fuse my interests and talents together. It just happened that my sphere of interest was the world – Planet Earth and her peoples; what makes us tick, how we can enjoy peace and prosperity. How we can feel better, have more, and be more while still honoring our Golden Rule(s).
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Just like the scattered debris after a giant storm, the morning’s quake had shaken loose some compelling thoughts. I can’t say that they were completely new thoughts, but like driftwood, they washed up on the shorelines of my awareness. These voices demanded acknowledgement, and soon, they vied with the Santiago skyline and that towering Andean wall for my attention.
This time, I knew, would be different. For the first time in my life, it felt like a “calling,” some alluring thing that I had to do; something that would have my own stamp on it. An idea had been swirling around in the nebulous clouds of my cranium, but for some years, I could only sense it, not see or describe it. Still, this was the genesis of The Gulliver Project.
A picture started to coalesce that day. It accounted for our greatness and our pettiness; it offered a pretext for hope against a backdrop of despair. It inspired action in a manner that was fun, self paced, and enriching to all; decipherable through the lenses of own cultural filters and enacted in non-threatening manners. It offered a way to “Make sense of the Nonsense” and “Find peace in the Paradox”. It was intangible – and it was substantive.
I knew then that I wanted to put together a program that gave people hope, one that connects peoples’ innate talents and virtues with the tremendous tools and resources out there in the world that could enrich them, and prompt them to empower themselves.
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To flesh out those thoughts and their implications, I knew that I had to get out the pen and paper (alright, the keyboard!) and structure a program. The ensuing result – after four years of incubation – is right here at the company website and throughout the books and other media.
Please understand that those thoughts weren’t orderly or logical. Rather, they were crashing around, like those tectonic plates or tsunami waves. Furthermore, it would be audacious to claim that these ideas were (are) “The Truth.” Perhaps instead they represent “truths” – things that could be observed, and have managed to survive the test of time. In any case, The Gulliver Project was launched that day, if only in the recesses of my mind. I guess I was shook up “just right.
