Human Beings Can Transform Their World-The web of our relationships with others, and the natural world, which has given rise to our problems as a Human Family, can be changed.
The conditions of our lives are not unchangeable givens. We are not trapped in the world as we know and experience it. How things are now is not how they always were or how they will always be in the future. Indeed, change is the most fundamental characteristic of our universe. Although many of us live within the illusion of permanence, the reality is that our lives and the world around us are in a constant state of change.
Many challenges and difficulties we face as human beings everywhere on Mother Earth are either the result of our own actions or other members of the Human Family. To a considerable extent, people make the human experience what it is. Because we don’t understand the natural laws that govern the physical and spiritual worlds we live in, we violate each other and the natural world upon which all life on Mother Earth depends. As a Human Family, we dwell within the web of relationships we have made with other peoples, nations, nature, and the spiritual world. The hurt of one is the hurt of all, and the honor of all is the honor of all.
The totality of the impact that the web of all these relationships has on our lives, on our future generations, and on our Mother Earth itself is what can be referred to as humanity’s challenges. Prosperity and poverty, sickness and wellness, justice and oppression, war and peace -- all of these are products of the impact of these fundamental human relationships.
It is of the utmost value to know that these relationships can be changed. It may be very challenging and arduous. It may take great vision, sacrifice, and effort, requiring time and patience to unfold. Still, everyone needs to know that healing and development are not only possible but inevitable!
In practice, the application of this principle implies making a shift from being a passive recipient or victim of the realities and conditions within which we find ourselves living; in other words, "stepping into history" (Freire, 1970). Moving from the passive to the active state begins in consciousness. It begins from within. It begins in how we see ourselves within the process of life as it unfolds.
This active approach of entering into a creative relationship with life and consciously making choices that will lead to making a better world is the choice of "stepping into history."
