Heartland: The Future: A Perfect Fit

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We met with shamans and had experiences that reminded us that what we Northerners call reality is a very thin slice of the web that connects us to all life. And we registered more viscerally the fact that our consumerist trance is poisoning all life.

The trip, and especially my conversations with Oliver, further convinced me that to Futurefit is to reframe many of our most pressing issues, from how to reuse our waste to rethinking a country’s political system. It’s about how we manage not only our use of material resources, but also our personal energy, emotions, and social interactions.

The term itself is a playful twist of phrase meant to invite creativity, play, and a sense of possibility. It’s also a nod toward the ingenuity inherent in designs like inventor Jay Harman’s impeller, which was inspired by the movement of seaweed in storms. As Oliver, who is already planning a return to Ecuador after graduating from college, said recently: “Futurefit isn’t just about the decisions we need to make for the seventh generation to come; it’s seeing that those decisions are the same things we need to do now to really live life.”

I’m mentally redesigning objects around me. What if the hot-air-driven fan on my woodstove were equipped with Harman’s impeller? What products would qualify for a Futurefit store? What form would a Futurefit support group take? I’m also daydreaming about a radio show (think NPR’s Car Talk as a tea party with revolving cohosts and visionary guests).

I find myself thinking about the late French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, often referred to as a pilgrim of the future, who said: “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”

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