With ubiquitous access to all the tenets and traditions of global wisdom and wonder, instant communication and collaboration tools in every modality, and overnight courier service for access to 'real world' tactile resources as needed, it is time to evolve beyond the antiquated and redundant industrial paradigms and fragmented trickle-down hierarchies of schooling and education.

Embracing the very best of all times, places, and traditions, it is time to re-envision and 'make actual' an effective, adaptable, and sustainable 'system' of human actualization that builds upon the primary socialization of the home and continues to honour and hone the unique latent potential of the soul and spirit of every human being from 'cradle to grave.' This is not the status quo of careerism and consulting which are short-term, cyclical and ego-based. It is the prioritization of real-time modeling, mentoring and companioning on the life journey that sparks and fuses the loving dedication of primary socialization and most aspirational intentions of schooling, education and vocation.

Even in higher education where 'praxis pedagogy' encourages more student centred approaches with critical, creative, divergent and ethical thinking that make actual learner outcomes the primary focus, the climb is steep. It is just not the way of bureaucratic life. We do not advertise, interview, or conduct performance evaluations with any mention of the human hopes, dreams, desires of those who serve or, more importantly, their success stories and relationships with those they cheered for and may still champion. It is only the willingness to pay lip service to the latest-greatest program, policy or protocol that determines participation and privilege. When there is literally no reference to people--much less the individual person who serves and may be served--we have chosen the realm of the transactional. Lacking human soul, spirit and meaning, it is tired and tiring.

This is where two essential definitions come in. Alone and together, like the individual and the collective, these terms have great import. It is my heartfelt wish for them to also have impact. Awareness and understanding are essential, but without action they remain inert. An intention. To achieve a synchronistic and catalyzing lift off. I hope that you--for your own sake and the love of all those near and dear--will agree.

The first term is 'actual.' It is defined as 'to make real' or 'come into being.' The second is 'actualization. It is the shortened form of 'self-actualization' made so soulfully clear, desirable and achievable by such like-hearted humanists as Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Abraham Maslow, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Deepak Chopra and Scott Barry Kaufman (in birth order) and so many others who have devoted their personal and professional lives to studying and teaching. Their work exemplifies the soulful resonance in Tracy Chapman's voice when she sings about the longing to 'be someone.' Or the lyrics of 'in the living years' by Mike and the Mechanics. Or even 'the wind beneath my wings' by Bette Midler.

We continue to ignore them all at our peril.

Way, way out, beyond the performative platitudes, policies, and procedures that take on lives of their own without accountability or regard for those they purport to serve, there are now billions of everyday people who long to become their 'personal best' and contribute joyfully and productively to organizations and associations that they ultimately devote so many years to--with or without belonging, meaning, and inspired evolutionary engagement of actualization.

Although organizations and associations are constructs that do not exist without the group of living, breathing individuals that comprise them, they do, for better or worse, have the transformative power to unlock the innate potential of the individual. In their fullest conception and most masterful and glorious realization, these clusters or groupings help create societies and a world that have the potential to become 'far greater than the sum of their parts.'

But make no mistake. It all comes back to the individual. While global mythology warns of the hubris and folly of high stakes expectations for any one individual, we are mortals raised in a milieu of personal hopes, dreams, and desires. However narcissistic and utopian this may be, we want the world for every child and creative inner child--especially if they are our own.

So I am here to say as a childless old uncle and now repurposed teacher, librarian and counsellor: It's time! (It's always been time--but I'm not getting any younger so I've taken to shouting from rooftops). Aloof and sympathetic head patting will not suffice! I am here on my own time and dime to keep articulating what I just cannot get out of my system. I believe that it will alway be time for earnest, excited, and infectious nodding, nudging, winking, elbow-bumping, and hope-filled high-fiving as we contemplate the future of our children and their children.

It's not a time to think small or slink away with mediocrity mandates and defeatist defaults as prevailing old-world or last century paradigms. It's time to embrace the fullest and most meaning-filled hopes, dreams, and potential of our species! Deep down, at the soul level, every person wants and deserves to do more than survive. It is the forward thrust of life. We want to thrive and, as much as any other belief system, it is our birthright.

We currently spend billions of dollars and all our time, energy, and talent on various conventional and alternative models of socialization, schooling, and education. More resources than ever are spent dedicated to shaping and influencing perceptions of reality and our values and visions via popular culture and social media campaigns. Time goes on. Budgets get spent! Vision statements with lists of core values and colourful pie charts are published. Careers are built. Good people come and go from often fragmented systems never to be seen or heard from again.

I say it's time to make them count! Every minute. Every dollar. Every person. Without giving up fundamental human freedoms and flexibility for some kind of dystopian Big Brother nanny state, there is so much we can do! If we dare to care!

Having spent decades of my career shamelessly wearing a lime green nose to help my educational mascots bring sometimes old fashioned and sometimes seemingly sophisticated concepts to life in child-friendly ways with a level of enthusiasm a tad more compelling than Charlie Brown's teacher (wawawawawawa), critics of my ongoing naivete and idealism can rest assured that notions of personal pride and dignity, snickering and retaliatory attack will never stop me. (Been there. Done that. Never again).

In the words of Josie Bisset, 'Dreams come a size too big so we can grow into them.' Seriously. Let's go!