I'm honored to be writing to you. First of all, I want to say that I feel that your being elected to our highest office probably is the single most important event that's happened in our great but often misguided land since the assassination of John F. Kennedy stole the hope of a generation. And that's because you so unapologetically stand for hope, for reason, and for the possibility of what feels like a completely different order of governance-one that is just and fair, one that seeks to earnestly find real and immediate ways to come to terms with the overwhelming national and global crises that we face at this time. I humbly want to offer a simple thought to keep in mind as you define your role as leader of the free world: we human beings have regularly been faced with overwhelming crises ever since we first stood up on two legs. Whether it was attacks from tigers, bears, wild elephants, or poisonous snakes; the enormous challenge of the Ice Age; or the countless earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, droughts, decimating plagues, bloody revolutions, insurrections, tribal wars, power struggles, foreign invasions, mass genocides, two world wars, terrorism, and even the threat of nuclear war, we have been surviving in one way or another for 200,000 years. And we're good at it. The fact that we're still here, and actually thriving, in spite of the infinite number of overwhelming and life-threatening crises we've faced, proves just how good at survival we are.

Survival-as an attitude, as an inner posture, as a natural reflex-is a highly developed capacity within our species. Thinking about and being emotionally concerned with survival is the most natural orientation to life for us. Why? Because we've been completely consumed by the necessity to survive for a very long time, since the very first single-celled life form emerged around 3 billion years ago.

Slowly but surely, however, something new is beginning to emerge at the leading edge of the development of human consciousness-a new posture, a new attitude, a new reflex, and a new instinct. And that is the instinct to evolve, to consciously evolve. That means an entirely new perspective is emerging: a new orientation to life itself, based upon not merely the instinct to survive but an instinct that compels us toward higher, as yet unmanifest human potentials and possibilities. It's a powerful compulsion that, when we awaken to it, lights up our heavy hearts and clears our clouded minds. The experience of this evolutionary impulse, as I often call it, is inspiration, passion, and confidence-a deep spiritual confidence in the inherent goodness of life itself.

As we awaken to this evolutionary impulse, we begin to understand that Life is, in its essence, the will to exist, the urge to become, the creative spark behind the unfolding cosmos. We recognize that merely surviving is not what we are here for. Consciously and intentionally striving to evolve, individually and collectively, for the sake of the evolution of the entire creative process, is what imbues human life with a higher meaning and purpose. And what an extraordinary world we can create when we are in touch with this very best part of ourselves!

Needless to say, if we don't find a way to overcome our collective crises and survive, then the evolution of consciousness will be a moot point. So we must survive-but not for the sake of survival alone. We must survive for the sake of our collective evolution, for the emergence of our as yet unmanifest higher potentials-those hidden treasures that we have yet to contribute to the larger life process in so many ways.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to shoulder the burden that you have chosen to carry for us all. But I offer this simple thought: this newly emerging instinct-the impulse to evolve-is a passion that comes from the depths of the human soul and the heart of Life itself. And when it is awakened, it brings with it a kind of strength that will enable us to weather any storm.