IF EVOLUTION WERE ALL ABOUT PROCREATION, men would die at 30 and women would die around 45. We would mature, have sex, raise children, and die. So, why do we live so long? Because old people are needed to contribute as community members, wisdom keepers, storytellers, and backup parents. We do not stick around to retire. Our evolutionary mandate is not to grow into a life of leisure or a second adolescence. The world did not—and does not— need that, and that simple fact was once obvious to everyone. We old folks are here to be busy spiritual action heroes for our communities, families, children, and society—proudly working more than we did when we had our careers. Our job is to save the world.

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I was in Boulder, Colorado, at the studios of gaia.com, creating a meditation series tentatively called Care of the Soul. I sat on my knees and gave dharma talks about grief, anxiety, forgiveness, right practice, and compassion. Then I guided the audience through a Vipassana/loving-friendliness meditation. I spent a lot of time sitting that day, and the mind chatter that kept taking me from paying attention to my breath during meditation was about responsibility: specifically, what should I do about the injustice, hate, bigotry, exploitation, and other poisons so prevalent today?

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING from this column, remember this: Being out of harmony with your soul or with the demands of your spiritual nature is like having a rock in your shoe. It is going to bug you until you fix the situation.

SEVEN YEARS AGO, I took my sons Henry and Patrick to South Africa to check out some new charitable project requests for the Utopia Foundation and to review some projects we were already supporting. Utopia’s mission is to create a world where every person goes to bed feeling safe, fed, happy, and optimistic about tomorrow.

LAST WEEK I PICKED UP STEVE KIESLING (who had been my editor at Spirituality & Health for 20 years before the publication merged with Unity Magazine) at the airport a few miles from my home in Gqeberha, South Africa. On the way to his B&B, I outlined the fun things I had choreographed for our two and a half days together: going to Addo Elephant Park, a long hike up the coast, a trip to the penguin sanctuary, and joining my family on some scouting activities at the beach.