The capacity to germinate is in the individual seed. And the source of creativity for the society is in the person. Renewal springs from the freshness and vitality of individual men and women… A society decays when its institutions and individuals lose their vitality.
—John W. Gardner
If a society hopes to achieve renewal, it will have to be a hospitable environment for creative men and women. It will also have to produce men and women with the capacity for self-renewal.
Thanks to recent research, we now know a good deal about the creative person and about the environment which fosters creativity.
As for self-renewal, we know that men and women need not fall into a stupor of mind and spirit by the time they are middle-aged. They need not relinquish as early as they do the resilience of youth and the capacity to learn and grow.
Self-renewal is possible.