Zero Growth

“Can I so you what I’ve been up to?”

- Terry Ehlers

Zero Growth

Young children always say the same thing.

“When I grow up!”

They look forward to their personal growth.  They are natural born builders and seek to try and master new things on a daily basis.  They are seemingly in perpetual motion.  I find it challenging to be around them because I don’t have as much energy as they do.  There are also times when I don’t seem to have the same type of vision as they do.

What does vision have to do with growth in all of its forms?  It’s a very interesting question and I’ve been watching for clues as to their special relationship.  I say special relationship because it appears as if you can’t have one without the other.

A friend stopped by to see me yesterday.  He talked with me about his projects and how he is progressing on each one of them.  I took special interest because he’s the same age as I am.  In fact we were born within two weeks of each other.  Yet, I sometimes I see a magical spark in his eyes that is often lacking in the eyes of other people about our age.

What is this spark?  It has to do with vision.  Not how well his eyes work mechanically.  It has to do with the way he sees the world and views his role and opportunity in it.  He sees great things ahead and is actively working to achieve.  As a result he is growing all of the time!

A person who lacks vision also lacks growth.  Such a person actively fights growth.  As they do so, their view of the world shrinks and they see less and less opportunity for themselves and others.  There are also times when such people verbally talk about the benefits of “zero growth.”

Is there such a thing as zero growth?

I remember sitting in math class and learning about negative numbers.  Before that time I thought that zero was the lowest number possible.  But, as my teacher taught me about negative numbers I began to realize that zero was a small stop on an infinite, negative path.  A Rabbi once explained this concept to me in a very different way.

Said he, “If you had the whole world and all of its wealth, but lived alone on this planet would you actually be wealthy?  True wealth is the result of relationships.  A person with no relationships can have all of the money in the world and also be the poorest person in the world!”

As a person’s vision decreases, growth decreases.  Both vision and growth may stop at zero for a brief time, but as they pass zero they begin to accelerate to more toward the negative as time goes on.

I’ve heard others say, “He is dead.  He just doesn’t know it yet!”

Death does not have to be our future.  As our vision and personal growth accelerate toward the positive our relationships also grow.  As our relationships grow, our communities grow.  When our communities grow, all of us become more and more wealthy in every way possible.  Vision, growth and strong relationships accelerate every one of us into infinitely higher possibilities of joy and fulfillment.