A Healthy Society

Could you run a government with the underlying framework of a healthy society?  This is the aim of Ryan Meili which he outlines in some detail and filled with wonderful vision and ideas in his book, A Healthy Society.  Meili proposes that the Province of Saskatchewan could once again be a national leader in health services and that politicians could use healthy society as a goal making policy that works towards this seemingly simple idea, a healthy society.  When you think about it, it kind of makes sense why not make a healthy society our number one goal...  Meili provides documented proof on the cost of the growing inequality between rich and poor and what this costs both the rich and the poor in terms of health.  In countries with a smaller gap between rich and poor, the rich are healthier than in countries with a larger gap, so although income is the number one indicator of whether or not someone will be healthy the income gap also seems to be important.  

Meili identifies income as the single most important indicator of health.  Will you be healthy?  If you have a good income...  Mieli offers many idea's, and possible solutions to work towards both a healthier society and reducing the gap between rich and poor in society and Saskatchewan.  In order of impact on individual health Meili states 1. Income 2. education 3. social support networks 4. employment and working conditions 5. early childhood development 6. physical environment 7. personal health practices and coping skills  8. biological and genetic factors 9. health services 10. gender 11. culture 12. mass media technology.  Mieli argues we are only as strong as our weakest link and that in order to truly live in a healthy society we need to focus efforts on those in the most need.  This thinking however is not politically popular and it really doesn't win votes.  I agree with him wholeheartedly, however even when chatting with friends on the left side of the spectrum they are still quite interested in their own personal plights, their immediate families and typically if they are voting they are voting for those politicians with their best interests in mind... so how to win votes if you actually genuinely care about those at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of education, income, and health and if you believe and some research suggests that this strategy actually is effective for making everyone healthier in society.  Malcolm Gladwell while reviewing expenses for medical treatment in California found certain individuals could cost the system one million dollars annually in trips to the emergency department.  Imprisonment costs society between 100 and 150 thousand dollars annually per person, and being in jail increases the likelihood of being in jail again in the future, in a cruel and unforgiving sort of way, the system is not rehabilitative...

One of my favourite definitions from the book was Miele simply explaining the difference between the left and the right.  The right believes in looking out for number one and the left believes that we are all in this together.  I hope that someday all in this together will include a voice for the Lorax as well, someone who speaks for the trees...  Another of my favourite parts was when Miele speaks with his patients in the core neighbourhoods of Saskatoon about rent, and housing and the economic boom in Saskatoon and while the boom has been great for many, he states that the smallest boats often sink when the tide comes in too quickly.  The boom is swamping those on the edge in Saskatchewan, if you were struggling to make rent and rent doubled well then where are you at now???

Some reading recommendations from Miele include: The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.

The book is full of compassionate stories from someone who I believe really does care, is not corrupted by politics or beuracracy, who truly cares in a healthier Saskatchewan for everyone, I am sure my words do not even begin to do the book justice, it is a short read and I encourage you to give it go, thanks for sharing your stories Ryan and best of luck, you have my support :)

Moving On pt 2

Chains on a westy, no heater, radio, lights from Golden to Vancouver, a non operational charging system, new spark plugs and distributor, multiple boosts, skiing opening day at Sunshine in bitter cold conditions with over 100 cm of fresh snow, a blizzard in Calgary, a blizzard in Kamloops (i didn't know they got blizzrds in Kamloops, one foot over night while I slept in a dead van at Canadian tire), trickle charging at every stop (thanks to everyone who let me do this), friends in Revelstoke, getting stoked on mountain bikes in the heart of stoke Revelstoke, best pho in Calgary, dead on the side of the road (only once), too many egg mcmuffins, 2400km ish, a seized shock on the mountain bike, one near mis s with a deer but somehow something shuffled out of place in the back of the van at just the right instant causing me to slow down and avoid the beautiful deer, basically pushed the van into the parkade from the edge of Vancouver...  oh and one kite attempt in 40 fresh cm of pow in a white out in Calgary gone awry because of a forgotten harness in Regina and a broken harness in the van, fix your stuff seemed to be a constant theme, getting settled in Kits, work starts tomorrow, pre reading about renewable energy for residential!!  Thanks to everyone who helped out along the way :).  curtis 

 

Moving On

The hardest thing I ever did... Why has it been so difficult to say goodbye to the people and place I have come to know as home over the past 30 years?  I don't even have what it takes to properly reflect and write this blog because it makes me sad, an emotion that doesn't seem to lend itself to writing more about what is making you sad... and I have been avoiding finding the headspace and time to put finger to keyboard, so I apologize as this is not polished and does not even flow, I will try and come back to it in the future.

Thank you to everyone for all the memories, particularly the kiteboarding clan, family, friends, friendly squashers, a decade of badminton followed by a decade of squash and kiteboarding :), six years of professional work experience and admittedly some frustrations along the way, uncountable parties and adventures via bike, van, camp, longboard, skis, boards, motorhomes...  I really do love Regina..., what is the value of running into a familiar face on the street and just saying hello or catching up briefly before continuing with your day?  How can you put a value on that?  Social fabric, familiarity and family.  I read and now you can also watch a great TED talk by Dan Buettner on the people who live the longest in the world and the most important lessons Buettner learned were that living close to family, and maintaining an active social life were two of the secrets to a long and healthy life, http://foodfreedomgroup.com/2012/03/11/blue-zones-longevity-tips-and-tricks/ , based on this work I guess I will have to consume more wine :), find purpose beyond kiteboarding, hoping Lighthouse (new job) will contribute to that and it sounds like they will, play more squash and as Murray and Ian say expand the tribe.

Coping with the big city: a guide for small town kids.  A friend who is also considering Vancouver suggested we write a book, definitely an idea, how to cope with the big city from a small town perspective, while Regina is not really a small town, it still most of the time feels like it, with a 6 minute bike ride to work and 10 to 15 minutes to be anywhere in the city, including kiteboarding in the winter.

Thanks to Russell for the wonderful feedback on my last day of work that really meant a lot to me and to everyone who has made an effort to say hello, share a drink or a meal during what Koyler is calling the 'going away tour', it has been a great one :)!

Without a doubt I am going to miss Regina, family suppers on Sundays and really on any day that I wanted, also the plethora of vegetables in the garden, scrabble games, yoga, and mainly all the friendly faces.

I have heard it is good to do things out of your comfort zone, this move is certainly out of my comfort zone, while I did live in Calgary for eight months and it was an incredible experience, one that actually did change my life (meeting Roger and Janice), learning about mountain biking and tandem bikes, two things that would inexplicably change my life (for the better), having now spent a decade mountain biking and four months at 21 years old? tandem bicycling nearly 10,000 km across canada.  Completing a Masters degree in Victoria and meeting 50 kindred spirits from across Canada and the US, and becoming a Roadmonkey, and in doing so meeting so many amazing people from Vietnam and around the world, learning about and working with Catalyst and all thanks to a classmate and the CEO of Roadmonkey who took a chance.  So while challenging, pushing myself, has served me well in the past, I hope my luck will continue!  Also my most recent fortune cookie said I should explore the nearest coast line, obviously advice I don't want to turn down :).

And finally I am so excited to be moving in with my long time, long distance for much to long (just the long distance part not the relationship) girlfriend, Emily.  We have had so many amazing adventures together, with anxiety, intrepidation and excitement, a new adventure begins...

thanks so much again to everyone who has made Regina so wonderful, I promise I will polish up my thoughts and write more in the coming days or months :), all the best, ciao :)

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Loved one challenge

An interesting little idea that my sister and I came up with, since the creation our dad deed has shifted from TV, which was impossible for him, unfortunately, to no drinking, which is just as healthy so win win!  :)

This is meant to be fun, helpful and not finger pointing and hurtful, be kind and supportive with your suggestions :).

I AM

I AM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAwIzT8cBSA "what is right in the world".  This is the most interesting, fascinating, fun and reflective documentary I have ever seen.  Tom Shadyac who brought us Ace Ventura and pretty much every comedy Jim Carey has been in, had a terrible mountain bicycle accident, was left in a concussion / coma state, basically a near death experience, on his return to life he has brought a new meaning, a new purpose and a new perspective to his thinking and the world!!!  The movie was absolutely fascinating you could probably spend the rest of your life researching heart math, the connectedness of everything on the planet, the fact that Darwin spoke of love, compassion, cooperation 100's of times in his book on evolution and only mentioned survival of the fittest twice, only twice, I feel like we have been a little bit duped by not knowing this... its all about me and I and what I want and this is partially because Darwin discovered survival of the fittest and we must look out for number one and what the documentary tells and shows us is that this was a bit of a misrepresentation, it has occupied our minds and become our culture and its not correct, at least its not a full truth.

Science.  Oh yes wonderful science, all powerful and knowing science once knew the earth was flat, the earth was the centre of the universe and that there are no harmful effects from smoking, science the 'doc' argues is just starting to catch up to eastern religion, medicine and first nations thinking in the connectedness of all things on this planet.  This leads me to a question I have thrown around in my circle of friends, a Buddhist question, if the story we told ourselves from birth was one of reincarnation, one of caring for the birds, the bee's, the tree's and the impoverished people around the world because we would likely come back as a fish, a flower or a butterfly, how would we live on this planet?  What would we eat?  How would we take shelter?  What would our cities look like?  What would we teach in our schools?

All things are connected, one of the most fascinating examples from the 'doc', a petri dish with yogurt, two electrodes are placed in it and then connected to a ohm/volt meter.  A conversation pursues, the meter shows no response, and then Shadyac is asked about his ex wife, his lawyer and his agent and wham the meter bounces around each time, the electrodes in the dish of yogurt are claimed to be sensing the emotional energy that Shadyac is feeling... it is spectacular, I couldn't find the experiment on youtube, you will have to get the documentary, the library has it :).   Further along this thinking, the doc discusses 60 random number generators around the world and then the fun experiments and then real life not so fun experiments that have been tried on these random number generators.  So random number generator generates random numbers, this is true in most cases, however, when a group of people are in the room with the generator and they all have either happy or extreme sorrow emotions, the random number generators are thrown off, they are not random.  This was also seen in all 60 random number generators around the world after 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Tsunami, unbelievable, the odds of patterns appearing in random number generators, effected by human emotions, all I can think of is... the possibility of emotion-winning the lotto... :), guess I will have to buy my first ticket someday :)

Heartmath, now apparently 95% of the messaging to our brain actually begins in our heart, heart math advocates that we actually sense the outcome of a situation in our body/heart/blood before we think it.  This is a huge leap, its extremely interesting science and I encourage you to do a little more research for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8dKcvROnl4.  Heart math attempts to explain why we can't think clearly under certain emotions.  How anger makes us stupid.   Why we function better in empathy compassion and love than the alternative.  Also the heart maybe able to predict the future, and respond in the body in advance of the mind :).  Pretty neat thinking!  If anyone has any further info in this I would love to see it!!

Shadyac has since his accident downsized his private jet, multiple mansions around the world lifestyle, he rides his bike to work, lives in a small trailer and teaches at a community school about ISHMAEL, and the new thinking he has undertaken, oh and donates to a common good all excess proceeds :0 WOW.  Oh further there is a huge section on money and happiness and how more money does not make you happier, which we all know of course :), a theme of this blog I think...  

 A couple more take aways for me: 
Ray anderson ceo interface "we have it all wrong" the way we are living.  
All of life is our biological kin. 99percent same genes as apes, same as pets dogs cats fish fungi trees we are all relatives.
Obamas dad wouldn't have been served at a restaurant in south 60 years ago. 
Tribal hoarding... We are living it, we are the first hoarding tribe.  All nature obeys the law, the first law is that nothing in nature takes more than it needs or it dies off, nature cooperates or it dies. 
Soldiers and suicide off the charts, war is not natural.  
Critical thinking followed by action, is the best meditation we can do now. 
Criminally insane to have this type of poverty and injustice and environmental destruction in the world with this type of wealth right out our front doors. 
You can't be neutral on a moving train and there is no such thing as a tiny act. 

A great interview here with Shadyac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3hhsVqsJNo&feature=related

Share this great stuff, the film concludes that the greatest way to shift thinking is to start thinking, sharing, learning and being a little bit different, that collectively when we reach 51% thinking different, we will live different!!
Change:  is a building of consciousness until we are grasped by it and change.
Everyday acts and small acts build over time into a great movement
Make your heart sing with passion and inspiration, change comes about as a result of millions of tiny acts. 

ok completely random, beautiful thoughts, enjoy the film :)

The ABCs of biology

I have just finished reading 'The Story of B' by Daniel Quinn.  Some escaping or inescapable thoughts:

Population and food Quinn argues are intricately linked and that all this fuss about birth control and education and democracy and less babies in industrialised society or western world etc is nonsense.  We have a human population problem, for 2 million odd years there were 10,000 humans on Earth the population starting doubling with agriculture and increase in food supply, first it doubled in 7000 years, then in 5000 years, then in 2000 years and now it will double to around 14 billion in 40 years, omg.  Quinn provides a simple example of 2 mice in a cage provided 2kg of food each day, the population grows until it reaches a number that can be sustained by 2kg of food and then fluctuates between 280 and 320 with an average of 300 mice.  The second experiment involved providing the mice what they could eat plus an additional 10% after time the cage was expanded but the population continued to grow and grow and grow.  Quinn argues that humans, not as individuals but as a species exhibit the same behaviour as we grow more food our population increases regardless of every other factor (birth control, efforts to reduce population, etc).  Quinn calls this the ABCs of biology.  He uses the saying you are what you eat and until we can eat dirt, icicles, air or anything else population will follow food.  Increasing and better production methods leads to more people.  Will this sort itself out with time?  Quinn argues that if you are living in a building with known structural flaws it maybe fine for you to continue living in that building for your life, however your children are going to be pretty upset when that building comes crashing down in their lifetime...

Quinn also offers some optimism as he reminds readers that the way we are currently living, our current culture, practiced in 99.9% of the world, is not the way that humans lived for millions of years.  He argues that tribes survived in balance with other species for millions of years on planet earth.  So that just because it seems like humans are programmed for over-consumption, pollution and wiping out other species, this is only in very recent, the last 10,000 years of history and that humanity is actually programmed much differently than this current trend.

Quinn argues we need to stop seeing ourselves as the pinnacle species on the planet, "we are just the same as ants, spiders, bears and elephants" and we need to live like that again.  I once heard someone say that once we care about the plankton in the oceans, not the dolphins or the whales that we will have finally figured out what is really important.

So what to do with this new knowledge?   To breed or not to breed, is that one of the questions?  Should we be putting more effort into land conservations and trusts and protecting forests and not turning every last bit of space into agricultural land?   How can we stop producing more food or will this just happen naturally and we don't have to worry about it...  Maybe the world eating more and more meat will end up being a good thing because it is so much more resource intensive and will mean ultimately less people...  Pretty big questions for an individual... All I can finish with is read the book, start the dialogue, tell someone... :)

Wikipedia also has a great summary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_B

The flying environmentalist...

As I get ready to embark on another adventure, to add to feeling like a spoiled rotten twirp or brat which I may very well be, as I do believe we live like kings and queens used to live, a friend basically called a spade a spade saying that I am basically a hypocrite.  He argued that travelling to Vietnam to do a couple weeks of philanthropy work was not enough that to really live my blog I should move to a beach somewhere and live without an environmental footprint, enjoying local food and a very small carbon diet in terms of transport, heating my home, etc etc.  Not buying stuff which aside for kites I don't...  So why don't I do that?  I have often thought about it, I have even written about it for a school assignment last year, why don't I do that?  I do love where I live, I love being blocks from my parents and grandparents, many friends, a short bike ride to work or really anywhere in the  city, connected to music and environmental and social communities in Regina, I feel so connected to this place and the idea of leaving, even to live the life of nomadic kiteboarder definitely scares me.  So I guess I will get on a plane on Saturday morning and set sail to North Carolina, kiteboarding mecca with a group of 60 or so semi crazy Canadian kiteboarders...

How do we become  so connected to place?  How to balance a connection to place with a wander lust, a sense of adventure and most importantly a long distance love...    Vancouver, nomadic kiteboarder, semi frequent flying environmentalist... not sure if the last one is really fair...  late night thoughts, go canucks go!

a great discussion on air travel can be heard by George Monbiot who believes that there really is no place for air travel if we want to truly slow/stop human caused climate change...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbYsZFEYclM

ISHMAEL

Teacher Seeks Pupil: Must have an earnest desire to save the world.  Apply in person.

 

This story is a must for anyone interested in shifting the dominant mindset of the world.  Ishmael helps us to see our sometimes ignorant or human-centric ways providing examples and explanations for how humans came to be the dominant, what Quinn refers to as Takers, on the planet.  The book was stock full of insights and left the reader truly seeing the world in a new light and inspired to take on the task of adjusting the way others see the world in what Quinn says we need to teach/show others one at time what the world could look like and that our current practice of man over nature and believing that the world was made for man are simply wrong.  

One of Quinn's great insights towards a new story would be humans able to look around in a billion years and state what a great role model humans became for living on the planet and also leaving some of the planet for other species.  Currently if you use the Rees and Wackernagel Ecological Footprint Calculator, Canadians would need 4.5 planets to support our lifestyle, leaving absolutely nothing for other species, let alone other humans...  

Quinn also believes and points to literature that supports the notion that what he refers to as Leavers and we know as hunter-gatherer societies would commonly work two to three hours per day and leave the rest for play, conversation, community, dance, song, etc.  Sounds like a pretty great work day to me.  Quinn hypothesizes that one of our tragic errors was to believe that we needed more than we could consume and that this would reduce stress from our lives, he makes some convincing arguments that the world of hunter gatherers didn't mean that people went hungry because there were no grocery stores, it meant that people lived more in balance with natural systems, and controlled their own population much better than today.  Quinn argues that this idea of growing more food usually by plowing more forest area to feed the hungry is simply not working it falsely causes populations to grow that are simply not sustainable.  Quinn states for three million years there were no grocery stores yet somehow humans survived.  He argues that humans are cunning and ingenuitive and omnivores and when the going gets tough (drought, flood, etc) humans would not be the first to go hungry.

I could go on and on, Ishmael is the equivalent of what the DaVinci Code was for the one main religious story that we tell ourselves in North America.  This book is worth the three or four nights of reading, and I believe that everyone will take something a little different from it.  It's even kind of like a boy named Sue, you will come away with a different point of view, seeing how the story we tell ourselves about how we should live and looking for the one right way to live, and that humans are above all other animals on importance scale will not help our long term chances on this planet.  We need a new way of seeing ourselves in the world.  This story is a great step in that direction, thank you Daniel Quinn, bring on the Story of B.  

The world was made for man and man was made to conquer and rule it has outlived its time...  We had a great example of this in my recent school semester in Victoria, our instructor had a string with the evolution of live on it and each centimeter represented an era/period of species on the planet.  Humans had the final two centimeters and the string was 50 meters, let's become role models so that our legacy can move a few more centimeters down the line, :)  

thanks

cd 

An enticing new story

Continuing with the thoughts from the last post.  What is a new and enticing story for us to start telling that does not involve destroying the planet and as many species including each other as fast as we can...???

I have polled a few friends about this and also have just finished reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (more about this in my next post, it is brilliant) which dives into this subject.  Some of the answers from my friends I would like to share: we need to move towards a more service based economy, so as some friends have said we can continue to do more we just need to redefine what more is.  More art, yoga, music, games, home made food, time with family and friends and maybe less plane tickets around the world, burning of hydrocarbons to the tune of 90 million barrels per day and war...  to be extremely general and trivial.  Another friend suggests to help people become more aware with their emotional needs and that money does not fill this need.  The Beatles sang something about money and love I think...  Another friend shared this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryjgChC2WE a Regina Spector song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSOzx5Ra4Fc&feature=related) people are just people, you'd think the world was ending right now, maybe you should just drink less coffee and never watch the 10oclock news...  :).  Super cute.  People are just people.  If you are looking for a little lift I recommend watching these!  Simple, poetic in an off key kind of way, and beautiful.  Finally another friend said it is very important that this new story excites people and is about a world that is amazing and that people could not envision living any other way...

When I think about sustainability and a new story to tell ourselves, maybe one where humans don't dominate over nature, one where humans live and respect natural rules and boundaries of the earth and ecosystems and consider supply and demand and all the other species when making decisions, one where ecosystem services are valued, when I think about this I get really overwhelmed, how do we move away from the ideas we have been born with and constantly told and tell new stories and what should these stories begin to look like...  

What stories are being told in our workplaces, on our televisions, in our news, in our schools, on the internet, and on the radio?  What are people talking about in the lunchroom, the change room at the YMCA, and other public places?  What dialogue are we having about these important issues and who is involved in it?  I have often wondered the feasibility of a "good news for a change (borrowed from Suzuki)" news channel from around the world that covers issues like: Pay it Forward, children at play, ducks being rescued from sewer grates, stories about first romances and not from celebrities, stories about grandparents, gardening, salsa'ing (both the dance and the act of harvesting tomatoes from your garden and preparing them into salsa with family and friends) and all the wonderful things that are happening every moment all around us, why is that stuff not news worthy, what impact would some "good news for a change" on the o'clock news have on the world??  I know in Saskatchewan if the Rough-riders win there is a distinct positive mood in the province, I know when the NHL missed a season their was a small baby boom (not because we need a baby boom, but love is certainly a good thing.)

I know I rambled, I usually do, more on Ishmael next post, read it, also as a minimum the song link is worth watching, :)

cd  

The stories we tell and language we use creates our culture

We can shape our culture in society and in our organisations by the stories that we tell.  There is an excellent TED talk on this idea here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq5NbWmyGWk&feature=share

What are the stories your organisations are telling about community, environment, ethics, sport?  What do we talk about at the coffee table?  Climate?  News?  Entertainment?  Sport?  

Know thy self - we need to know ourselves, who am I, in order to even start to be authentic?  Who do you want to be?  What are you doing to get there and how are you measuring it?  I always love the exercises of creating self trees of goals, aspirations, visions and who we are... At yoga teacher training my sister looked at the question who am I for hours on end... do we ask ourselves this question often enough or even at all?  Are we living the lives we want to live, do we even think about it, what effect does this have?  What effect could thinking about it have?  “every person has the right to invent their own wheel (Friere, Paulo)

Knowing thy self creates power in yourself, for yourself, it builds confidence, it makes you happy to be pursuing or working on what you know/want to work on and knowing that this is what you want and what makes you, you.  Knowing what makes one tick so to speak, knowing your plan de vida, allows you to work towards it.  Not knowing, not having a plan, can lead to neurosis, dis-empowerment, feeling lost...

So if we know the stories we want told and we start telling them to ourselves, about ourselves, in our organisations, in our communities, we just may start to see these stories come true.  What stories are we telling?  Hope?  Despair?  A beautiful sustainable vision for the world?  A world that loves all the children of all species for all time (McDonough)?

sharing thoughts from day x?? of residency, morning lectures and a little inspiration from classmates and professors.

monsters and aliens or you and me...

I didn’t get it, I hated it, then I got a little of it, then I got a little more, then I liked it, then I loved it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ObxJvn4yk&feature=youtu.be

We are taking a class right now with a professor who lectures a little or even a lot like this.  Not as tongue and cheek though.  I imagine the message will be received slightly or even radically different by everyone who watches it, and I think that maybe part of the point.  Just the act of me writing about it now changes my perspective and means I am still thinking about it.  The critiques included try and focus a little more, would have been good with more focus and what the heck was he talking about?  What was he talking about, like I said it will be different for everyone.

I felt he was asking us, the privileged, to stand up, quit being a robot and live your life to the fullest.  And to the fullest cannot continue to mean a large house, a fat belly and a full wardrobe.  That helping even a few people is a wonderful place to start.  It almost felt like a challenge, like "what are you doing and why are you doing it".

Was the medium dis-organised, or intentionally designed to make the message linger in ones mind?  It's still lingering for me... "more to do with you versus yourself", "no boxes", "doing stuff just to do stuff",

"you cannot manage innovation"
"there is something about innovation that smells funny"
Innovators (aliens):
"not afraid to be an ass... sistant"
"they don't know important things like fashion and keeping up to everyone else"
"they are lost"
"they live life really large"
Robots:
"always afraid of being afraid"
"self medicate with mediocre"
"make decisions once and leave it at that"
"they don't live large they just are"
Message:
"do something insane with your life or be a machine get stuff stuck in up into you and be mediocre"
"you are the ones who get to see things"
"you have heard 300 minutes of the worlds most inspirational stories what are you going to do with them tomorrow"
"now that I know what I know", what can you do with your resources, networks, and influences to make the world better?

tears flowing

Empathy, can we extend our empathy from our immediate friends and family to other human beings and species around the world?  This is one of the saddest videos I have ever seen: http://bear71.nfb.ca/#/bear71.  After recently spending a week in the Canmore area and my parents are there now for the next two weeks, this is an eye opener, 5 million tourists annually....  Cat Stevens asked, "where do the children play?" and Bruce Cockburn added, "if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear...".  We are living in wondrous times, remember this the next time you get to be outside in one of these places...

While I can hardly hold back the tears, I am not sure if this type of narrative is effective or not.  We are learning about the psychology of change in classes this go round and as soon as I have some insights I will share.  Death and despair does not work it seems.  It seems there is something positive around teams and social networks and building social capital and a new social fabric that supports a different style of living... from my own research I found this takes time, and organisations may grow impatient quickly.

I saw a little bit of a video by Facebook called "A life in a day" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaFVr_cJJIY&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1, encouraging us to think about the struggles and lives and loves of other humans around the world.  I wish/wonder if we can extend these thoughts and hopes to all other life forms who struggle to share this planet with us.  I think narratives like these help us do that... to start to think about other species and their perspectives in our busy busy lives.