When you look back over the past 50 years, how would you characterize the overall spiritual and psychological trajectory of human beings in our world? If I were to answer this large question, I would have to say that on the positive side I believe humanity as a whole has grown a lot both psychologically and spiritually. I believe this is true because of the enormous advancement in psychology generally speaking, because we know now how very important it is to honor our hurts and woundedness, to pay attention to the symptoms of PTSD, to support people who are in grief, to pay close attention to and when needed to intervene where domestic abuse or incest may be happening.

We also are much more compassionately concerned about and are willing to listen carefully and wisely to both our children’s and us adults when we are feeling depressed, hopeless, overly anxious all the time—and we know much, much more now about the truth of the diseases we call alcoholism, drug addiction and the evils of racism, prejudice and discrimination.