I have been called a caring and courageous trouble-maker for a while; a cultural observer, stepping out of the established certainty of the adult development field.

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A couple of years ago I shifted my attention from adult development theories to re-exploring values and character development. It always struck me as a miss in developmental theories that character was not part of the equation. In my experience since childhood, there are good people at all stages and not so admirable ones who can argue at very late stages of cognitive development, but who do not embody what they preach. Indeed, narcissism and ego-inflation can be drivers all the way up. Even into spiritual strivings.

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Currently I writing the book on ego development theory from a perspective that includes an appreciation of non-WEIRD definitions of what it means to be a person in Indigenous cultures. Traveling and training others in Ego Development Theory (EDT) across the world (especially South Africa and Australia), I had the privilege to encounter non-Western wisdom traditions and their different conceptions of reality, their relationship to the land and identity as part of a larger concept of being human. Our separate self-sense in the West has caused much of the trouble we are in now having exploited nature for our own benefit and to the detriment of overall well-being of our home. I am becoming more of an activist now in my later 70's. Not looking for work, but wishing to use my energy to speak up for future generations. As a member of Integral Africa, we explore "how to do human better" and "how to become better ancestors."

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I mourn the loss of indigenous languages and their accumulated wisdom of how to do human as equals to the rest of nature - not owners or superior. I am concerned about the loss of habitat, the loss of genetic variability and the exhaustion of natural resources due to human greed and insane economic theories of endless expansion.

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Yet I also feel deep gratitude and admiration for all those who care for our world, and its denizens of every kind and who work towards "doing human better" despite all the political and systemic obstacles.

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I hope to contribute even more to the Inner Development Goals (IDGs), a subset of the UN's Sustainable development goals (SDGs), and to the Human Flourishing Research project at Harvard.