A "Civilizing Genius"

November 2020

In this season of ingathering, some thoughts on the Mystery of Home and Thanksgiving…

…at the beginning of each Communal Service, we light the center candle and say: Here is the place we pay homage to the civilizing genius of the human through a dedicated service to the life of the home and the community: all believed and all beloved.

Let’s face it, there are some for whom the phrase, “civilizing genius,” may set off a little alarm as they question just how “civilizing” some of our civilizing advancements have been. Maybe it’s worth exploring a little this idea of the “civilizing genius of the human.” As is my habit when I set out on an expedition of this sort, I turn first to the dictionary: “civilizing”—“acting to advance social and cultural development” and “genius”—“an exceptional intellect or creative power” or “very clever or ingenious.” Hmmm. These contemporary definitions conjure up less than inspiring images of a visionary character or mad social scientist hard at work making clever but ineffective utopian plans at best, and diabolical, dystopian ones, at worst.  

However, if I look beyond contemporary entries to the old meaning of these words—especially “genius”—as “the attendant Spirit present from one’s birth” or "a tutelary or moral spirit”—then, my imagination is immediately awakened. I begin to think of what Howard Thurman had to say about the roots of our ideas around “community” in Search for Common Ground: “There is a spirit in man and in the world working always against the thing that destroys and lays waste.” And, “the experience of community or realized potential is rooted in life itself because the intuitive human urge for community reflects a characteristic of all life. In the total panorama of the external world of nature, there seems to be a pattern of inner logic that manifests itself in forms, organizational schemes, and in a wide variety of time space arrangements. The most striking pattern of all is that there seems to be affinity between the human mind and all external forms, a fact that makes an understanding of the world possible for the mind.” Sometimes I imagine what it was like the first time a human discovered a stranger at the hut or cave entrance and upon looking into the stranger’s eyes, recognized a common ground …a ground so familiar that the stranger was welcomed in to sit at the fire to share warmth and food. This and each moment like this form the touchstone moments, I believe, to which we pay homage to home and the civilizing genius of the human being. 

This quest for community becomes even more vital in our current social and political landscape in which we’re restricted from most of our “civilizing” communal settings.  How are we to pay homage to the civilizing genius in these days of polarizing discord and fear?  

 “One person sitting with a friend in a room.”  
…the civilizing genius of the human.

“One person with a flower or music or a cup that is special has made a home.” 
…the civilizing genius of the human.

“One person who has made this moment in life special for another person – for a mate or a child or a parent or a friend.”
…the civilizing genius of the human. 

Rumi wrote: In things spiritual there is no partition, no number, no individuals. Catch the spirit and clasp it to your bosom. We must not let walls keep us from enrichening the life of another. Caring for another knows no quarantine. We pay homage this month to the civilizing genius of the human.