On A Road Well Known but Less Travelled: On Being Guardians and Gracious Guests to Others and Our Planet

Informed and guided by ecosystemic thinking, the author addresses the question: What do we need to learn for the sake of dwelling and flourishing with our ‘natural others’ (human beings and all else that exists in our planet) in our era of technological dominance and perverse economic growth which, like a runaway train, continues to accelerate at the expense of natural, social and human capital? Through the storied experiences of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, and Max Weber, the fundamental character of dwelling is interpreted as being-at-home in our world by safeguarding, caring and being a gracious guest in our mutual relationship with natural others. As earthly dwellers the author makes a case for the need to ever learn to be Guardians and Gracious Guests of our natural others by bringing heart and soul into our relationships, including business relationships. This reflective article concludes with three practical exercises for being a Guardian and a Gracious Guest that can be used in organizations and in classrooms. Practical, not in terms of “how-to” but rather practice as a choice and decision between possibilities.