June 18, 2008
Dare to desire
What is your vision of a perfect world? I’ve captured mine in a flash movie, A World of Truth.
Many people refrain from creating a vision of what they want because the reality is so different that the discrepancy is too painful. But if we can’t even picture what perfection would be, we’re doomed. We can never make it happen.
So fill in the blanks with your own vision – imagine a world where…
Dare to desire a better world.
I invite you to fill in the vision of my flash movie with the world you envision.
June 10, 2008
“What you don’t know CAN kill you”
Quoted from Journalist Bill Moyers.
June 8, 2008dare to care
I read an article this week about bystanders who ignored an elderly hit-and-run victim. I was ready to move on to another article when I realized – the bystanders weren’t the only ones who were chillingly unresponsive. I had read this article without responding emotionally. I had felt no sadness for a world where people show so little caring.
On closer inspection, I realized the article had triggered emotions, but I automatically shut them down so quickly that I hadn’t noticed they were there.
Why would I shut myself off from what I feel? Why are we afraid to care? Could it be that caring would be overwhelming? I think of a friend who watched an NPR documentary about plastic in the ocean and felt an urgent need to solve the problem. She was painfully aware that she was just one person, and what can one person do about plastic pollution twice the size of Texas? And even if she could solve the problem, there are so many more problems to solve.
I’ve been paralyzed into inaction. I once stood helpless with a circle of people around a man who apparently had a heart attack. The irony was, I was on break from a CPR training class. I was sick at heart for weeks – but it was a wake-up call for me to get the courage to act.
There are no guarantees that we can solve our problems – but if we stay paralyzed, it’s certain we won’t. If the people who exploit are the only ones motivated to play, failure is guaranteed. You are responsible for your actions – not the results. Dare to care – and do what you can. That’s all anyone can ask of you.
dare to hope
There was something about the combination of elements that inspired me. Amy Goodman showed clips on Democracy Now of Barack Obama declaring himself the nominee with Leonard Cohen’s Democracy playing. I felt my heart swell with a glimmer of hope for a new day.
I mentioned it to a friend who said, “I’m not letting myself feel hope. I’ve had my hopes dashed too many times.”
I can understand how anyone who had involved themselves in politics would feel an unwillingness to hope. I’m sure many Clinton supporters are feeling their hopes dashed these days.
Yet we must keep hoping. As my assistant Michael says: hope should never be dashed, only expectation.
So while it might seem risky to hope, I encourage you to nurture the hope you feel. Because hope is the only hope we have.
Here’s Democracy performed. See if it doesn’t create a glimmer of hope in your heart.
June 1, 2008Old school politics ~ Obama supporters vs. Clinton haters
I read pages and pages of blog posts about Clinton’s RFK comment before someone pointed out an obvious point that I had missed. Many commenters referred to Obama supporters as if they were all alike, and as if they were all Clinton haters. I hadn’t notice the conflation until someone noted,
I am an Obama supporter, but I do not hate Clinton. Please do not equate the term Obama supporter with Clinton hater.
Thanks for that sane request! And to think that I write about this stuff and the conflation slipped past me!
Unite and Concur Pressroom