This is the kind of synthesis that Eli’s mind thrives on. He is constantly putting the puzzle pieces of disparate things together, trying to see how they relate and what’s the underlying meaning, the commonality that emerges. For the above puzzle, Eli immediately came up with three commonalities!

First, they are all things that children love. Second, they’re probably not things you’ll see or do in the winter. And then he went deeper. He said these are three things that may no longer exist in 100 years:

Oranges: As companies like Monsanto keep genetically modifying fruit to have no seeds, and with global climate change threatening the life of pollinators like the honey bee, we may be looking at at future where fruits and vegetables are a rarity. 

Bears: Thousands of species are disappearing from the planet every day because of the impact of human choices. The polar bear is on the brink of extinction as we speak. 

Hopscotch: There have been days in Beijing in the last year where one can not go outside with using supplemental oxygen because the air pollution is so bad. Without drastic changes we are looking at a world where doing things outside for fun is an idea of the past. 

This ability to see commonality in disparity may well be the skill needed to move forward as we attempt to move from divided nations to a global structure, from opposing forces to some kind of working, conglomorative unity in order to broker a world that works for all. In his podcast, Eli takes values, pandemia and racism to construct a larger view, a view that could enable integral thinking to envision an inclusive, both/and way of processing.

This is not just for the current issues but future ways to bring collaboration and synthesis.

Please enjoy my recent interview with Elisha: