“The Altar”

I am honored and proud to share these images of another meaningful commission from my good friend and profound community leader Brent Robertson, Co-Founder at Fathom in West Hartford, CT. Fathom is an organizational and leadership development company that elevates the importance of meaning within organizations to bring out the best in it’s people by aligning them with their purpose.

This table was inspired and created amid the darkest days of the COVID pandemic. When there seemed to be no end to the isolation in sight, instead of folding in the tents and closing the doors to their vast network, Brent and Matt Reiniger from Fathom ( #fathomfutures ) chose to double down by reaching out to engage in a new kind of community that was intended to bring people together and look toward a future that needed to be created.

The #createwhatsneeded community was ironically a unique opportunity that was born of this COVID crisis that allowed us to look at each other, to look at our lives as they had been and decide what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to let go of. As the uncertainty of “what comes next?” became more apparent, the community became more focused on bringing forward new ideas for what our futures should hold and asking tough questions of everyone involved about the things we wanted to leave behind as a mark on our communities and our society. 

From these conversations came the three pillars of what we as a community wanted to maintain—Humanity, Purpose, and Abundance. These three concepts are the inspiration for this work, represented by the three structural I-beams at the base of this table, randomly merging into balance and holding up the platform for a new and better society. A society that addresses all of Humanity with equity, inclusivity and sustainability for all humans to be treated with dignity, honor and respect. If this vision were to become true in our society, this radical act of selflessness and love could only happen on Purpose, with clear intent, real effort and unwavering determination toward a more human-centric foundation of our culture. This endeavor would have to address of how governments need to actually govern “for the people”. This initiative would demand that corporations place people over profit as the rule in a new path forward. It would mean education, healthcare and basic resources like food water and clean, safe shelter were human rights not class based privileges. This version of a future reality would take a commitment from each of us to contribute and align ourselves with a more human-centric version of Humanity and by doing so, our world could realize a safe, equitable and stainable future for all its citizens. A future that properly uses our earth’s resources and fairly distributes opportunities that ultimately provide enough Abundance for everyone on this planet to live in peace. 

Admittedly this is an idealized notion of what could be, and in reality, it is not something that would happen without an enormous amount of effort and a lot of healing in our culture. But nothing good ever comes without effort, and nothing of consequence is ever done without the help of others. I have been inspired by the work of this small community to do my part and to inspire others to stand up and do their part too. Not just because I believe in the ideal, but because I know it is worth working toward and because I still have faith in humanity to make the ideal a reality…otherwise what are we doing here?

Brent calls this table his “Altar” for bringing goodness and love into the world. Through communing with other visionaries, change-makers, and leaders, Brent continues to make the world a better place and is setting an example of how to live on purpose in service of the greater good toward a better future. I am so honored to contribute this piece as part of his effort to build a global community by spreading love, one person at a time.

Check out more of what Brent and Matt are up to at Fathom.