“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” — Arundhati Roy
Yesterday, Donald Trump stood in front of his colleagues in the United Nations and told them that their countries were going to hell.1 In normal times, we would call that transference.
As we watch our institutions collapse around us and the earth suffer under our endless extraction, it becomes clear that we need a new way of imagining society and culture. If we are to survive—more than that, if we are to flourish—we must dream of a society that honors life rather than promotes death. We do this not to emotionally bypass the realities of the consequences we have already set into motion; we do as a statement of faith in the resilience and creativity of the human spirit.
What if governance was no longer organized around control, consumption, and coercion, but around care, stewardship, and sacred reciprocity?
What if, instead of departments focused on war, punishment, and profit, we organized our shared life to reflect what truly matters, to nourish the web of life we all depend on?
Imagine…
A Department of Earth Stewardship, responsible not for licensing extraction but for healing the land, restoring watersheds, and supporting local food and seed sovereignty. Instead of pipelines, we would see soil trusts and community reforestation programs.
A Department of Care and Continuity, ensuring that every child, elder, caregiver, and person living with disability has the support they need—not as charity, but as a communal obligation. This department would coordinate universal childcare, eldercare, and care-time banks so that tending to one another’s lives is no longer invisible or unpaid.
A Department of the Common Good would exist to protect and co-govern what we all share—forests, seeds, airwaves, public data—not as commodities, but as sacred trusts to be passed down to future generations.
A Department of Just Transitions would guide us through great societal changes: decommissioning harmful industries, mourning what is lost, and ritualizing the birth of what must now emerge. This department would organize Just Transition Councils and host site-level processes for dignified letting go.
A Department of Lifelong Learning would reframe education as a lifelong unfolding of wisdom, place-based knowledge, craft, and purpose. No longer would we treat learning as a factory pipeline, but instead as an ecosystem of belonging and embodied practice.
A Department of Reciprocity and Labor would organize work around care, creativity, and restoration. A 4-day workweek, guaranteed jobs in repair and renewal, and time-banking would become the norm—not the hustle, not the grind.
A Department of Restorative Justice would metabolize harm through truth-telling, reparations, and collective healing—not incarceration. Harm wouldn’t disappear, but neither would the people we’ve harmed. Together, we’d learn what it means to be whole.
A Department of Infrastructure and Repair would build for durability, not disposability. Every road, every pipe, every bridge would be built with the future in mind—and with the possibility of graceful retirement when no longer needed.
A Department for Peace would replace our war apparatus with something wiser: peacekeeping grounded in relationship, disaster response with dignity, and ecological boundaries tended with respect—not weapons.
This may sound far-fetched. But so did abolition. So did marriage equality. So did every act of liberation until it arrived.
Our sacred texts remind us: without vision, the people perish. The Hebrew prophets knew this. Jesus knew this. The Buddha knew this. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) knew this. The mystics, the sages, the elders have always known: We must hold a vision of what love requires, even when the world is falling apart.
So let us not despair. Let us imagine.
Let us write the policies of the world that could be—not as fantasy, but as foretaste.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
What part of this “government of life” stirred something in you?
Which department do you wish already existed in your town or city?
What small act of tending or repair are you already doing that belongs to this future?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer for Sacred Imagination
Spirit of Life, You are not done with us yet. Breathe into the ashes of this age. Ignite our imagination. Steady our courage. Help us dream beyond what we’ve inherited And live toward what we dare to envision. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Design from the Future
This week, sit down with a journal or a friend and design one small piece of this “government for life.”
What might a local version of one of these departments look like?
What role might your congregation, co-op, or town already be playing?
What micro-policy or public ritual might be possible within your circles?
Then, take one tiny step toward making it real. Post a flyer. Convene a conversation. Write the draft. Build the compost. Tell the story.
Imagination is not escape. It is resistance. It is preparation. It is practice for what must come.
Another world is not only possible. She is within us—waiting to be born.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
NEW!!!!!!!!!!!! October 8-9, 2025, 7-8:30pm ET ONLINE Event- Counterpoint: A Response to Peter Thiel’s Antichrist - For four straight Mondays, tech billionaire Peter Thiel is convening a private series in the heart of Silicon Valley on his obsession with the Antichrist. This peculiar and troubling theological fixation is not just eccentric—it reveals how his version of political theology and apocalyptic imagination are shaping the worldview of some of the most powerful people in the world. We cannot remain silent. As a counterpoint, join me and Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox, along with Kamala Harris’ former Communication Director, Gil Duran, for a powerful counter-narrative rooted in wisdom, justice, and authentic spirituality. REGISTER HERE.
October 18, 2025 - No Kings 2.0 Protest - Scholars of authoritarianism teach us that we need 3.5% of the population rising up to disrupt the rise of authoritarians. The last protest had over 6 million people in the streets in the US (more around the world) which was one of the largest protest in US history. We need to double that number. So here we go again. The movement builds. See you on the streets.
October 20-24, 2025 - FREE Online 5-Day Summit on “Made for These Times: Spiritual Leadership for a World in Crisis.” Political extremism. Climate collapse. Cultural fragmentation. People of faith across the globe are asking: How do we lead with clarity, courage, and compassion in a time like this? REGISTER HERE.
October 23, 30, November 13, 20 2025, 7pm ET - In Search of a New Story: Reimagining What Comes Next, A 4-Part Online Series with Dr. Matthew Fox, Cameron Trimble, Ilia Delio, Diana Butler Bass, Caroline Myss and Luther Smith. We are living through the unraveling of many old stories—about who we are, why we’re here, and how we are meant to live together on this Earth. As these inherited narratives collapse under the weight of climate crisis, social fragmentation, and spiritual disconnection, the question becomes clear: What story will guide us now? REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
NEW!!!!!!!! July 19-24, 2026 - Join me and my amazing co-facilitator, Victoria, on retreat in the back-country of beautiful Wyoming. The Art of Wilding is a 5-Day Expedition for Women Leaders. We will spend the week reconnecting to nature, exploring our inner landscapes for change, and engage the wisdom of spiritual teachings. Click here to learn more.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-address-un-he-distances-us-global-cooperation-2025-09-23/
Cameron, this is what the historic peace churches have been striving for! I am an ordained minister and spiritual director in the Church of the Brethren - one of the historic peace churches. How can we work together to spread this vision to others? Can we turn this article into a document for signatures that we can share with other churches, denominations, activist groups, and individuals to sign on to and help spread the word? This vision is so different than the one so many in the United States are brought up with. Just by showing that there is another way of living focused on life and vitality and not on division, judgment and death, can create amazing ripples for change! Let’s make this mainstream! Let’s advertise this, spread it to our officials in leadership roles. Let them know that We the People are demanding a better future for our families and communities. Let’s connect and get this going! Or, if your amazing group of peers would like to create such a document, please send it to me and I will share widely with my peers, denomination, and others. Thank you for your beautiful vision and words! Let’s be the change.
Joanna Davidson Smith
joanna.davidson.smith@gmail.com
Cameron, we first met in Victoria, BC, Canada some roughly 20 years ago. Two points. Some of us elders have old souls very early in our journeys of life. I am one. I have been fighting for creation for over 50 years now as part of the ecological movement. I continue because Mother Earth needs us so badly right now. And I live here in Canada with our Premier (read Governor in US terms) pushing for more pipelines for oil and gas.
We need to keep this vision going. As a Lutheran ministry serving a mostly Presbyterian United Church of Canada congregation we are having a wonderful time of cross-fertilization of ways of doing life in church. The vision can be achieved; it can be real; and I pray that we have the commitment of the disciples that we read about in Acts to keep on keeping on.
Oh, and I pray for all of you (friends and family) who are living in the midst of this on a daily basis. Rev. Scott Brown, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.