Working, Living and Giving as If There's No Tomorrow
Death is not something many of us like to talk about, but on October 9, Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, visited the Woodbury School of Business to do just that. His discussion, titled, “The Only Way to Go: How to Work, Live, and Give as If There’s No Tomorrow” was more uplifted than many might have expected.
Amidst a plethora of concerning data about the destruction that human civilization is bringing upon the earth and all its living inhabitants, McPherson encouraged his audience to not hesitate to take action. He warned about a mindset of monetizing everything as well as simply assuming that our species is superior among animals. McPherson proposed three critical behaviors we should all consider from here onward:
- To remain calm, realizing that we have nothing under control.
- To practice personal excellence, regardless of what others may think or feel about it.
- To love. The world is perennially on fire, and the best response to that is love.
In response to the questions afterward, McPherson underscored that we have to remain mindful about different perspectives on what is the right thing to do, because people differ on that issue. He reminded his audience that, while we cannot fix what is broken, we can reduce our suffering by refraining from becoming too attached to anything, and always trying to do what we consider the right thing.
Guy McPherson’s talk was sponsored by professor emeritus, Dr. Robert Schultz, as part of a series of awareness lectures on humanity’s fatal flaws, which he named, “The Bob Talks.”
The next Bob Talk will be given by Schultz himself in spring 2018 titled, “From Wild Animal to Master of the World: How did this Happen?”