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.

The Wealthy Barber Returns

Not your expected post on this blog.  I just finished reading the barber returns, and its actually quite amusing, pretty sound advice, "save and save more and save now", I usually balance living with this and maybe a little too much, as living frequently wins, an unfortunate effect of keeping the friends I have, in the words of Tyler Koyl "you only live once."  There was one particular chapter that really stuck out for me, "Consumed with Consumption".  I am going to recite a bit of it here:

     Obviously there are certain basic needs we all share - shelter, food and clothing being the big three.  Naturally in a wealthy, developed economy like Canada's, our desires will run well beyond our stream of needs into our pool of wants.  That's understandable and even healthy.  Our quest for "the good life" and the possessions and experiences it brings is part of what motivates us to work hard, innovate, embrace risks, grow our talents and then take full advantage of them.  However maybe we have gone a little too far...
     Nothing is ever enough.  We want more.  And when we get it, we want more yet again.  We want what we see on TV.  We want what our friends have.  Hick, we want what rich people have.  We even want what we already have but in the newer, fancier, bigger models... We want with such emotional intensity that we're able to convince ourselves that our desires aren't wants at all, but instead integral components of our future happiness.
     Nothing could be further from the truth.
     In reality, all our stuff weighs us down.  And our pursuit of 'more' often distracts us from what's truly important in life.  No, I'm not having an Oprah moment here.  I genuinely believe that our never-ending material quest is not only sabotaging our financial tomorrows, but also negatively impacting our psychological todays.
     The brilliant philosopher Bertrand Russell once noted, "It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly."
     I couldn't have said it better myself (which, is, of course, why I quoted him).  One of the most damaging misconceptions in personal finance is that saving for the future requires sacrifices today that lessen people's enjoyment of life.  Surprisingly, it's quite the opposite!  People who live within their means tend to be happier and less stressed.  That's true not only for the obvious reason - they know their financial futures look bright - but also because they're not consumed with consumption.  They're not in the emotionally and financially draining race to acquire the most stuff they possibly can.  A race that, it should be noted, has no finish line and thus no winner.
     Too many people are possessed by their possessions.  As Seneca said 2,000 years ago, "These individuals have riches just as we say that we have a fever, when really the fever has us."
   
    On status:  when you hear that John is successful, what jumps to mind?  He's a great parent?  He lives a balanced life?  He's a man of character?  Of course not.  We all think the same thin:  "Wow John's makin' the big bucks!"
     "success is synonymous with financial success"  Many times I have asked people how are the kids doing, well, "Mary is a successful dentist and Fred is a struggling mechanic."  Perhaps Fred's a struggling mechanic.  Perhaps Fred is a dud around cars and somehow his mom and dad found out through rateyourmechanic.com, I suppose, but more likely, they're letting their children's incomes determine their adjectives.
    Whats more, we even mismeasure this mismeasurement.  We gauge people's financial successess not by their not-worth statements (that would be bad enough), but instead by their material possessions.
     Is it any wonder conspicuous consumption rules?  
   Many of our purchases are made with others in mind, whether we realize it or not.  From the sizes of our homes to the logos on our clothes to the brands of our cars, we're trying to make a statement about ourselves and , at its core, that statement is very basic:  "Look at me - I'm worthy"
     Geoffrey Miller one of the foremost experts in evolutionary pscychology, "modern consumers in particular strive to be self-marketing minds, feeding one another hyperbole about how healthy, clever, and popular they are, through the goods and services they consume."
 
One of Chilton's greatest tips, don't buy more house than you can afford.  The book was good and these two sections were excellent, Chilton is accurate with his assessment of conspicuous consumption and our pursuit of status...  Now the process of going the other way, redefining who Fred the mechanic is and what our vision of success is.  A friend at work shared with me today that she only works 60% she doesn't miss the money, spends more time with her family and can't even imagine going back to 100%.  I applaud employers who allow this, I applaud them even further if they promote it.

whyisallieverwantismore...

:)

To Give or Not to Give

It tis the season, or is it?  Continuing with my thoughts from my last post.  Should we give to others?  Where should we draw that boundary on who we give to and how much and what our own community, our country, money or time and how much? Is 0.7% of our before tax income the right amount (this is the amount urged by the United Nations for the developed world to give to the developing: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/press/07.htm), should we give for religious reasons or because we feel lucky or guilty or simply because we can?  Or contrarily why should we give at all?  I am reading Butter Down the Well  a Saskatchewan tale set in the dirty 30s and during WWII, times were desperately poor in Saskatchewan and for the most part (anecdotal evidence) people worked the dirt fields as hard as they could and managed to scrape by...People were extremely proud and took charity from no one (anecdotal).  My parents also grew up poor and for the most part raised us with modest incomes.  And now, how the times are a changing in Saskatchewan.  We have quickly become a have province and one of the wealthiest (in terms of dollars) places to live in Canada if not the world.

So if I worked my butt off to get here, why would I want to give it away?  I'm thinking the answers have a lot to do with context, how you were raised, how much affluence you grew up with, who asks you for a donation and when and if they catch you at a good time or on a good day... In a world with seven billion people, an evolution of acquire hardwired in us, does giving stand a chance?  If we can profit from that giving, in terms of feeling good, or status, or if it fits with our vision of ourselves thereby making us the person we think we are/ought to be (this is seen as very powerful in psychology, we dislike cognitive dissonance), perhaps...

Other thoughts that parallel these, is money the right thing to give?  Do the less fortunate socio-economic class in Saskatchewan and other parts of the world even need more money?  food?  housing?  clothing?  jobs?  education?  Are we even giving the right thing?

All questions and no answers, getting to be pretty typical of my posts, sorry about that.  I would like to think about these things more deeply and discuss them, empathy comes to mind, and can we as William McDonough says, "can we love all the children of all species for all time"...

to give

and if you haven't watched this video, you should, three minutes...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onsIdBanynY&feature=player_embedded