no to TV

We have no television, never have, never will.   Although it's nice to save a few dollars on cable, that's not why.   And don't get me wrong, we love good movies and do watch them. What I'm really talking about is a totally different reason for not having television, the one that Waldorf schools have advocated all along. Television with its massive amounts of manipulative commercials that constantly disrupt programs and the stream of thought, and with all those pictures of ugly events, from natural disasters to man-made ones, creates a distorted and highly negative picture of the world. Weather predictions, too, are designed to create hype. Think of the nervous anticipation the weather people create before a winter storm or a heat wave (and sometimes nothing much manifests and you could have spared yourself all that adrenaline). When, on top of that you hear the same story repeated over and over and over over the course of a day or two or three the nervy effect is cumulative and highly toxic.

Not only does it feed our anxiety level, another consequence is our heightened need for safety and security to compensate for this seemingly dangerous world. Think of it, teachers wish the kids a "safe summer" before summer vacation. When friends go travelling we wish them a "safe trip." And we hover over our children, taking opportunities away from them to grow and become independent, assess risks on their own, learn to get themselves into a situation and back out. Remember when you were young? I bet you were more independent than your own children are now.

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer by far my paper newspaper. I can skim over the ugly stuff, filter it, or read it without that frenetic anxious energy of live on-screen reporting. Without television the energy in our home is a lot more peaceful.

with nature, not against it

The present (waning) industrial petro-energy age, while having afforded us an enormous leap in standard of living, is also unfortunately characterized by domination and exploitation of nature, which we not only rape but also use as a dumping ground for the ensuing waste of the technologies we have developed - a win-lose situation all around. The dire consequences of this belief system are at our doorstep now. A new way of seeing ourselves is embedded and part of nature, not apart from nature. This perspective is birthing a whole new way of looking at technology. Science writer Janine Benyus calls it biomimicry and wrote a book about it. Biomimicry looks at how nature does things and then emulates it for our human applications.

A terrific example from architecture & engineering is a huge building complex in Zimbabwe whose cooling system was inspired by termites' design of their weird looking desert dens that maintain a constant 86 degrees F, even though the outside temperature may range from 30 at night to 110 in mid-day.

An example from agriculture is permaculture.  Permaculture is a man made food growing system that integrates local weather and soil conditions, native and predominantly perennial plants (that don't require tilling the soil), possible integration of animals into the system design, all in a circular wasteless process. Therefore, permaculture has no negative impact on the surrounding environment and it produces food for us.

Win-win all around!  What a great new paradigm.

enjoy your week-end, really

What is it always with this Thursday/Friday frenzy before a long week-end? The pace picks up frenetically, everyone seems to need something very urgently before close of business on Friday, nothing can wait until after the week-end - as if we were closing shop for the next three weeks.   But in light of the fact that we are back on Tuesday morning it's really quite absurd. Many things can wait, and how is a three-day week-end so different from the regular two-day week-end anyhow? In this country - and in Hong Kong, where I lived for a bit, as well - many people feel guilty about taking time off. Culturally, virtue is seen in working long hours (even if they are not all so productive), slaving (or looking as if) away for the bottom line, bowing to the Grand Poobah of profitability and money, and fearing job loss otherwise. Many European countries give between four and six weeks vacation (on top of the many religious holidays and sick leave), and their economies are doing just fine.

We need time off to clear our head, to sleep in, to get out of the métro-boulot-dodo routine (French for the never ending subway-work-sleep grind), pursue our hobbies, spend time with family and friends. Time off refreshes us, it balances us, it puts things into perspective. Lack of sleep and too much stress shorten our lifespan.  Without playtime life is dull and drudgery.

Time off is a necessity in order to perform optimally and creatively, it's not frivolous luxury. Enjoy your week-end and don't feel guilty about your time off.

Happy Earth Day

Today, I am wishing you a "happy" Earth Day with the caveat that our worldwide window to tackle climate change is beginning to close.  A few days ago I read something about 15 years.  If we don't achieve a definite downward curve on carbon emissions within that time frame our lives will change drastically, and not for the better. We can't keep shrugging our shoulders and putting the onus on "the government," because "the government" gets its nudge from all of us.   Things change when true pressure is exerted on "the government" from all of us.  Change comes from within, moves from the bottom up and out, and government is a reflection of us.

Why am I saying all of this?  Because the onus for drastic change is on each one of us! Now!  Don't throw your arms up in despair at the enormity of our challenges.  Instead, make a conscious effort to embrace what needs to be done by fully accepting our environmental calamity and committing to make a difference.

So, what can you do?  Here are lots of ideas, and the more of them you incorporate into your life the better for all of us.

Recycle and compost your kitchen scraps, plant a garden, buy an energy efficient vehicle (or at least consolidate your trips, or car pool), insulate your home to the max. and consider installing new tight windows, read all you can about climate change and the environment in general, buy local,  bring your own bags to the supermarket (no more plastic bags!  there is a plastic swirl in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas!!! and plastic does not, I repeat, does not disintegrate in hundreds and hundreds of years),  drink well water and forego buying water in plastic bottles (and who knows what leaches into that water from the plastic anyhow),  read all you can about industrial food production, then make a drastic change in where and what you buy to feed your family,  install solar panels on your home (30% incentive state tax credit until 2015), consider a geothermal heating/air-conditioning system  (after tax credits, cost is similar to a conventional system and you'll be off fossil fuels), switch your electric supplier to one who provides 100% electric from renewable sources, eat less meat (it's better for you anyways), spread the word to other people and inspire them to make a difference, most of all - inform yourself and become aware.

Don't be surprised that none of this is for free. However, you have a choice of making these investments now on your own terms (consider them an insurance premium for environmental health), or shortly being forced by environmental circumstances into a very ugly reality that money and technology will no longer be able to improve.

If you love your planet make it a happy Earth Day by making a difference for yourself and your children and grand-children.

the flat earth syndrome

Heretics are out-of-the box thinkers who challenge culturally accepted beliefs (dare I say dogma?).  More mildly we may call them activists.  A big historic idea challenger for example was Galileo Galilei, who determined that the sun is at the center of our solar system, not the earth.  And remember that before him we believed the earth to be flat.  The way we think about things stays around for a few centuries, even millenia, then cultural beliefs change again. I believe that we are currently going through such a big belief shift right now.  On the one hand we have our currently accepted paradigm - scientific materialism with its glorification of science, that's been around for the past 300 or so years -, on the other a more balanced and holistic view is wedging itself into our culture.  This 'holistic' paradigm recognizes the unseen aspect of life - emotions, beliefs, stories, spirit, consciousness -, and integrates it into our world view for a more complete picture.

Many scientists and thinkers fight this holistic view tooth-and-nail (how about Richard Dawkins?).  However, I believe the holistic approach leads to a deeper, more satisfying, more encompassing, more complex, more sustainable and more compassionate life.  A marriage of science and consciousness offers us far better options than one without the other.

Take the reductionist scientific understanding of nourishing ourselves, now called nutrition, as a composite of quantified nutrients and calories that fuels that engine of a human body.  In juxtaposition, we can look at food from the holistic perspective as nourishing mind, body and spirit by way of appreciating it, celebrating it, healing us, bringing us together, growing and creating the best of it.

It is good to be aware of our beliefs and our culture's beliefs and to inspect them periodically.  Also reread a previous post on The Great Transformation.

on happiness

"Happiness comes from your perspective," says Marianne Williamson.    A recent study showed, to the astonishment of the researchers, that depressed people were depressed because they had negative thoughts, not that they had negative thoughts because they were depressed.  This goes to show that you can train yourself to think more positive thoughts in order to change your outlook on life. But your government's priorities sure help.  One country that has made happiness its national business is Bhutan.   Bhutan has created the GNH Index and studies how happy its people are and what can be made to improve the situation of those who are not.  Bhutan's search for happiness is not a recent endeavor since its 1729 legal code already stated "if the Government cannot create happiness for its [people, there is no purpose for the Government to exist."   What a country!

And Denmark was crowned the world's happiest country in the 2013 World Happiness Report (not sure why Bhutan does not appear in the report), figuring at the top with the other Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and Canada.  Social support, gender equality, a culture of generosity, freedom to make life choices, good life expectancy, lack of corruption at the leadership level and a large GDP all contribute to making for a happy country.

Priorities, priorities!

inspirational Facebook?

I don't know what your impression of your Facebook stream of information is.  But I find that Facebook has become quite a forum for inspirational and spiritual postings.  As a matter of fact, at times I get more inspirational postings than status updates from friends - not sure whether that's good or bad.  Be that as it may, there may be two reasons for this. The first one may be that I have so many like minded friends that I simply see reflected back to me what I am putting out there - seeing the spirit in all of us and the rosy side of life.

The second reason might be that more people overall are actually inspired and in tune with themselves, each other and the world.  I am hoping it's the latter because then there would be real progress.

What do you think?  What is your impression?

piranhas and the eco-mind

It is interesting and eye-opening how "the truth" can be so deeply in the eyes of the beholder.  We see what we believe, and we don't see what we don't believe.  We have been thinking along the (somewhat) misinterpreted Darwinian lines of nature's potential ferociousness and cruelty in the name of the survival of the fittest.  But scientists are beginning to dismantle this paradigm. Sunday's NY Times article took wildly exaggerated reports about the supposedly blood thirsty piranhas apart and reduced them to nothing much.  Growing up I remember hearing stories about entire cows supposedly being stripped to the bones in minutes by a huge swarm of these fish.  But I also acknowledge reading later about indigenous people wading and swimming fearlessly in piranha inhabited waters.

A short video on Suzanne Simard's work on the wood-wide-web and the mycorhizzal (mushroom) network recently made the rounds on Facebook.  Dr. Simard is involved in research about mother trees (huge old trees in the woods) and their social network, where plant seedlings grow up around the mother tree, and mushroom networks reach far underground, living in symbiotically nourishing relationships with the trees for their mutual benefit.

Nature is becoming friendlier by the minute as our outlook on the environment is shifting and we are becoming more eco-minded.

new year's resolutions

The Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky came to two major philosophical-spiritual realizations during his ten years in prison, as reported in the NY Times a few days ago.  One of them is very relevant on this New Year's Day when many of us make resolutions. Khodorkovsky said "I think the Russian problem is not just the president as a person,..., the problem is that our citizens...don't understand that their fate, they have to be responsible for it themselves.  They are happy to delegate it..."  This is a life changing realization for everyone who wakes up to this enormous and beautiful responsibility, because that is what it is.  We can't wait for Prince Charming to show up at the doorstep with a million dollars.  We have to show intent, move ourselves in the direction of where we want to go, and actually do it.  It is work, it takes courage jumping over your own shadow, it means taking risks, and it may be uncomfortable at times.  But it is rewarding and it works!

No diet pill or new fangled miracle diet will take your pounds off for you if you are not willing to pull through with it.  Complaining about the government and not voting or taking action in your own small way is delegating "we the people" to some abstract politician or entity, as Khodorkovsky pointed out.

With every New Year's resolution you need a solid action plan that comes from the heart; think business plan for whatever you are striving to achieve, whether it is losing weight, making more money, moving to a warmer climate, leading a more balanced life, or whatever else. Let's toast to intent and courage, because they are what make things happen!

no Me Generation

Turns out that Generation Y is very different from the Me Generation, the baby boomers.  The NY Times reported in a recent article that Generation Y, those born after 1980, are more into quality of life and less into financial success - quality over quantity.  "Meaning" and "making a difference" are terms that come up.  Meaningfulness for these millenials is associated with "other-orientation" as well as giving, as opposed to egocentrism and personal gain.  The term ecocentrism (as in ecosystem, in contrast to egocentrism) has also been used for those who think "green," who care about doing what's good for all and nature vs. what's just good for oneself.  This is a real shift and in sync with the shift or rise in consciousness we have been told is underway.  These convictions will have huge implications on our culture and politics.

Fasten your seat belts!  Move to the side boomers!