## Metadata - Author: [[Octavia E. Butler]] - Full Title: Earthseed - Category: #books ## Highlights - God is Change, and in the end, God prevails. But God exists to be shaped. It isn’t enough for us to just survive, limping along, playing business as usual while things get worse and worse. If that’s the shape we give to God, then someday we must become too weak—too poor, too hungry, too sick—to defend ourselves. Then we’ll be wiped out. There has to be more that we can do, a better destiny that we can shape. ([Location 1096](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=1096)) - We’re all sore and sick, in mourning and exhausted—yet triumphant. Odd to be triumphant. I think it’s because most of us are still alive. We are a harvest of survivors. But then, that’s what we’ve always been. ([Location 4282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=4282)) - “Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. Civilization provides ways of combining the information, experience, and creativity of the many to achieve ongoing group adaptability.” ([Location 5765](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=5765)) - “Any Change may bear seeds of benefit. Seek them out. Any Change may bear seeds of harm. Beware. God is infinitely malleable. God is Change.” ([Location 5768](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=5768)) - “It isn’t really religious—your service, I mean. You guys don’t believe in God or anything.” I turned to look at him. “Dan, of course we do.” He just stared at me in silent, obvious disbelief. “We don’t believe the way your parents did, perhaps, but we do believe.” “That God is Change?” “Yes.” “I don’t even know what that means.” “It means that Change is the one unavoidable, irresistible, ongoing reality of the universe. To us, that makes it the most powerful reality, and just another word for God.” “But…what can you do with a God like that? I mean…it isn’t even a person. It doesn’t love you or protect you. It doesn’t know anything. What’s the point?” “The point is, it’s the truth,” I said. “It’s a hard truth. Too hard for some people to take, but that doesn’t make it any less true.” ([Location 5893](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=5893)) - “So you’re saying praying doesn’t work.” “Oh, no. Praying does work. Praying is a very effective way of talking to yourself, of talking yourself into things, of focusing your attention on whatever it is you want to do. It can give you a feeling of control and help you to stretch yourself beyond what you thought were your limits.” I paused, thinking of how well Dan had done just that when he tried to rescue his parents. “It doesn’t always work the way we want it to,” I said. “But it’s always worth the effort.” “Even if when I pray, I ask God to help me?” he asked. “Even so,” I said. “You’re the one your words reach and strengthen. You can think of it as praying to that part of God that’s within you.” ([Location 5926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=5926)) - Once he’s made everyone who isn’t like him sound evil, then he can blame them for problems he knows they didn’t cause. That’s easier than trying to fix the problems.” ([Location 5937](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=5937)) - We’re becoming more and more isolated as a people. We’re sliding into undirected negative change, and what’s worse, we’re getting used to it. All too often, we shape ourselves and our futures in such stupid ways. ([Location 6058](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=6058)) - “Where would they go from Halstead? Halstead is like Robledo with a better wall. Why do you think there are people there who are planning to emigrate to Russia or Alaska and others who are just trying to hang on to their little piece of the twentieth century until they die? None of them is trying to build anything to replace what we’ve lost or to boost us to something better.” “You mean like Earthseed? The Destiny?” “Yes.” “It ain’t enough.” “It’s a beginning. It’s a way of trying to build tomorrow instead of cycling back into some form of yesterday.” ([Location 6915](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=6915)) - We know more about survival than most people. The proof is that we have survived. We have tools that other people don’t have, and that they need. The time will come again when we can share what we know.” ([Location 8835](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=8835)) - “That’s what Earthseed was about,” I said. “I wanted us to understand what we could be, what we could do. I wanted to give us a focus, a goal, something big enough, complex enough, difficult enough, and in the end, radical enough to make us become more than we ever have been. We keep falling into the same ditches, you know? ([Location 10097](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=10097)) - “Earthseed is about preparing to fulfill the Destiny. It’s about learning to live in partnership with one another in small communities, and at the same time, working out a sustainable partnership with our environment. It’s about treating education and adaptability as the absolute essentials that they are. It’s…” I glanced at Len, caught a little smile on her face, and wound down. “It’s about a lot more than that,” I said. “But those are the bones.” ([Location 10111](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=10111)) - “We choose our purpose,” I said. “I chose mine before I was old enough to know any better—or it chose me. Purpose is essential. Without it, we drift.” ([Location 10158](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=10158)) - “Purpose Unifies us: It focuses our dreams, Guides our plans, Strengthens our efforts. Purpose Defines us, Shapes us, And offers us Greatness.” ([Location 10161](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=10161)) - “People followed me, though,” I continued. “And they didn’t only do it because they were convinced that I could help them get what they wanted. They followed me because I seemed to be going somewhere. They had no purpose beyond survival. Get a job. Eat. Get a room somewhere. Exist. But I wanted more than that for myself and for my people, and I meant to have it. They wanted more too, but they didn’t think they could have it. They weren’t even sure what ‘it’ was.” ([Location 10188](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=10188)) - I don’t know how I’m going to do it, Len, but the world is full of needy people. They don’t all need the same things, but they all need purpose. Even some of the ones with plenty of money need purpose.” ([Location 10341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=10341)) - Religions are no more perfect than any other human institutions. But Earthseed will fulfill its essential purpose. It will force us to become more than we might ever become without it. And when it’s successful, it will offer us a kind of species life insurance. I wish I could live to see that success. I wish I could be one of those who go out to take root among the stars. ([Location 10648](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072NZBPFG&location=10648))