Personhood & Home
We want homeful, safe and nurturing homes to call our own.
Every human is naturally concerned with their own physical and mental safety, security, well being and growth. This doesn’t mean you should morally prioritize yourself over your family members – of course not. It’s just a natural way that we all orient concern. We need safe, comfortable and nurturing homes, regardless of how we characterize our families or whether we have families or not.
Family & Partnership
We want safe and well-resourced families and partnerships.
Moving out from ourselves, we find our families as the next most important thing to us. Those that don’t have family or cannot participate in family life with their family members may adopt friends or even communities as families. The important thing to realize is that family is the next natural circle of concern as we move out from self, whatever that means to you. We need healthy, well-resourced and supported families.
Community & Belonging
We want safe and vibrant communities.
Beyond the family we find community life and belonging. As we move out from the home, we encounter others. People working and living near-by. We may be part of a strong, local historical community. But communities can also be more abstract or remote. For instance, regional farmers might be a community. Staff in a workplace might be a community. Communities can form around common goals and interests.
Spirituality & Belief
We want spiritual freedom and security.
Beyond our natural affinity with goodness and beauty in every day life, we find spiritual, agnostic, atheistic or a-spiritual beliefs, practices and communities. The Circle of Spirituality and Belief does not dictate what people should believe. Rather, all beliefs are welcome in Transformationism, so long as fundamental human rights are respected both within and outside the home.
Goodness & Beauty
We want goodness and beauty in life.
Most people care about goodness and beauty. We find that the good and the beautiful are celebrated and shared throughout humanity. Goodness and beauty can be experienced through our bodies in clothing, hair, tattoos, make-up and movement, in our homes through our decorations, ornaments and furniture and lifestyles, in the structures, gardens and avenues of our communities, the sounds of festivities and music, and in the natural lands, waters and skies that hold and surround us.
Creativity & the Arts
We want living and prosperous creative and artistic communities.
Creativity spans everything from gardening and home decorating to social media and music. Creativity should be available to everyone, everywhere, in whatever form they choose. While every culture has different forms of creativity, there are few, if any, that have no creativity whatsoever.
Entertainment & Sports
We want healthy and safe sports and entertainment – for all ages.
Moving further, we find entertainment and sports. Few on planet earth don’t avail themselves of some form of entertainment or sport.
Work
We want good, purposeful work.
Health
We want to know that our communities will be there for us when we need health care.
Learning
We want to grow up, and our children to grow up, with all the learning they need to thrive.
Science
We want to make sure our communities have all the best knowledge to hand.
Security
We want to be safe everywhere we go.
Justice
We want timely and fair access to justice.
Economy
We want to participate productively in the economy.
Government
We want accountable and productive governments.
Structures
Homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, farms, museums: all types of buildings are included in the Structures Circle.
Energy
Clean energy for all types of structures and human activities.
Food
The provision of food to everyone, everywhere it’s needed.
Clothing
Making sure we all have decent clothing.
Mobility
Making sure we can all get around safely and responsibly.
Technology
Responsible, innovative technological production for every circle of life.
Things
The things we all love to have!
Animals
Not just your pets, but farm animals and wild animals, birds, fish and insects too.
Human activity, intentional or not, has a huge impact on animal life.
Plants
It goes without saying that we need a healthy biosphere.
Land
Custodianship of land is critical to our well being.
Water
Our fresh waterways, lakes and aquifers are life and death to every living thing in the world, including us.
Ocean
It’s not just pretty to look at and fun to jump around in. The ocean is as critical to our well being as anything.
Sky
Without air, you die in minutes. So yeah, we have to take care of it.
Space
Don’t let them litter the skies with satellites. Don’t deny future generations of a beautiful view of the cosmos. It’s the view from home – the only one we have.
Something to be aware of is that the way I’ve depicted the circles could be thought of as western, individualistic or egocentric.
I’m also aware that many cultures centralize land or spirit or both in their belief systems, much closer to the self than I’ve depicted.
In defence I want to make sure it’s clear that the order isn’t designed to express significance. Plus, the order is flexible, since no one circle governs any of the others. Rather they’re inseparable – interwoven.
A different illustration might start with space and end with the self, or place land closer to the self, or place things at the periphery.
I welcome feedback!
