Golden Month: A Letter from Kim Polman

Dear Readers,

Reboot the Future is celebrating the Golden Rule during the whole month of April, not only on the United Nations established day of April 5 which is dedicated to this beautiful and easy to remember principle: Treat others and the planet as you would wish to be treated.

There are unlimited versions of this principle in all religions. It is at the core of many manifestos about values, and has been lived by native peoples for eons. At Reboot the Future we have added the planet to the core principle because much of humanity has been abusive of our natural world.

Though this “Golden Rule” is ancient, 1000’s of years old, it is often forgotten in our competitive and self-serving societies. But it is urgent now that we look differently at how we treat each other and how we treat all of life on the beautiful planet we call home.

There was a global realization during the Covid pandemic that we need to change the operating system of modern society from an ego driven exploitative and abusive system to one of cooperation and compassion where all life thrives. The Golden Rule is simple and clear. It asks us to think carefully about what we want. We believe there are some basic values that are shared throughout the world, respect, dignity, honesty, generosity, kindness, etc. If I want these expressed to me, then I can expect others to want these qualities expressed to them as well. We need to strive to be the first to express them though, because how we treat others is how we are ultimately treated.

The simple question we need to ask ourselves daily is: Are we being helpful or harmful to others and to the planet? We do have that choice. The Golden Rule encourages us to choose to be helpful. This is actually what makes us happy.

Enjoy April and be curious each week as more aspects of this universal and ancient principle are unfolded.

Happy Spring!

Kim Polman