Raising the Bar

We must stand up and state and fight for what we know and what we believe. Instead we now live in a world where the noisy ones get control of the situation instead of the sane ones.
What if someone complains? Better not rattle the boat, even if you are right. Better be politicallly correct and favor not offending anyone. Live in a bland world? No thanks, bland may not bring on lawsuits but it doesn't make life real or progressive either. What am I refering to? The way science educators will easily give up on using the word "EVOLUTION" because it might offend someone's religious beliefs. They use ADAPTATION instead. REALLY???? If people can't tell the difference between science and faith that is their problem. Science requires zero faith, because faith destroys the ability to prove something. To capitulate to this lowest of common demonators is to weaken our argument that science is needed in order to better understand our world.

Helmets on the Trail

I am all for safety. I am a believer in prevention, but we are going too far. We are preventing kids from some of the most connecting experiences available to them, all in the name of safety or should I say the fear of lawsuits?! Here are just some of the ridiculous rules kids are subject to today: no animals in the classroom, no touching of snakes in nature centers, no climbing on ANYTHING, and no crossing a boardwalk without a lifeguard present. Million dollar payments in lawsuits for non-negligent accidents are largely to blame. When something bad happens we head for the nearest attorney, someone must be blamed and victims compensated, even when it is simply an accident. I let kids play and climb outdoors during the summer camps I teach. One summer a kid even broke an arm and needed stitches in his lip when he fell out of a tree. His mother was great about it. The week before he had broken his thumb during a baseball game. She believed that the alternative was not acceptable: having her child live a sterile, overly protected life.  Frivolous lawsuits lead us to overprotected children who cannot be children anymore. Their natural fearlessness is morphing into a fear of everything outdoors. I see it in students who are never outdoors, every bug and noise is a potential hazard and a trip to the woods is  a reason to experience  a rise in blood pressure. If we do not try to stop this, we are headed for a world in which children might just have to start wearing helmets on the trail, because after all, a tree branch just might fall on their heads.

Teaching Values First

Many have said it before, our priorities are all wrong. We just need to read the news and listen to its message. As a global culture, if you will, we value the wrong things. We sacrifice too much because we ignore and deny our role in this world. Dominant culture teaches that money is all important and that accumulating facts equals education. We teach that material wealth is more important than absorbing an ethical way of living here on earth. In the absence of ethics, our tribal nature becomes a toxic identification which so often leads to violence.

Ethics begins with respect. Respect for all living things and property of others. Respect for what nature is telling us and what science is teaching us. We are great at ignoring the warning signs that our priorities are all wrong.

The other day the dual language Annishinabeg school came to learn about maple syruping at our nature center. These Native American Indian school kids were from a poor neighborhood and it is likely that they also had stressful family situations. But there was something amazing about this group of children. They listened and behaved without constant scolding. The school's teachers had their priorities right. It was obvious that the first thing they taught them was the age-old traditions of their people; to respect one's elders and the natural world. Almost every other class has to be told to treat the museum artifacts with respect. They have to be told not to pound on the exhibit buttons. Not this group. These children, from a disadvantaged place in life, listened patiently for 25 minutes to the introduction. They went outside without needing to be told to listen. They all brought with them a small offering of tobacco leaf which they dropped at the bottom of the maple tree in gratitude for the sugar they were about to extract. We all got to teach and did not have to discipline. That day they taught me much more than I taught them. Did I mention that these students were only 4 and 5 year's old? Maybe they aren't so disadvantaged afterall.

Generosity is Selfish

It is selfish to be generous. We need to get that word out. The world needs so much more generosity and so much less greed. But the myth we live is that generosity hurts and receiving and hoarding our wealth feels good. Why is it selfish to be generous? Because it feels so good to give. It is a much greater feeling to be the giver than the receiver. My parents taught me that. They have perfected generosity. They simply glow with satisfaction everytime they do something nice for someone. They do something nice every day.

When I got old enough to imitate their gestures towards others I discovered they were right. Nothing feels better than to give of yourself. Giving is not always about money. One can be generous with one's time, one's humor or one's possessions. Just ask a lonely person in a nursing home if they would rather have an hour more of your time or a $100 bill.

My parents love giving things they've made themselves. If you are the proud owner of the hundreds of stained glass items my father has made over the years or one of the hundreds of beaded necklaces my mother has patiently crafted, you possess an item filled with the joy of generosity. I am absolutely certain that my parents experienced greater joy than the recipients of those beautiful hand-made gifts. I also believe that the joy of giving lasts longer than the joy of receiving. In a world that seems to breed selfishness and all of the pain it creates, we need spread the word that generosity is selfish.




I

Climate Chaos

Words are important. Silly as that may sound, they carry multiple messages and often unintended baggage. When scientists first noticed that the climate was warming on a global scale due to trapped human-produced gases, they knew that disaster was in the forecast. Polar ice caps were melting thus creating instability in the climate as oceans warm and rise and the jet stream shifts. They called this human caused phenomenon, 'Global Warming'. It's not an inacurate title, but it was a poor choice because it doesn't sound ominous enoug.  If you are living in a cold place, warming sounds pretty good.  Then the powers that be decided they would call in Climate Change. A better but not yet ideal title for such a critical problem. Change is not a bad thing in our language. We need a word that is accurate and alarming. I submit the word CLIMATE CHAOS, because weather patterns get chaotic and our farmers cannot grow food, for instance, in chaotic weather. Human caused climate chaos spurred on but overpopulation and our appetite for burning fossil fuels may just render our planet lifeless. The right title might help to inspire more action than we are now witnessing among leaders who have not been leaders at all on this most frightening issue.

Read the Ingredients

Inside the plastic unrecyclable container lies a bunch of healthy organic strawberries. Organic, gluten free dairy free, high fiber bars wrapped in throw away high glossy wrappers. The Yin and Yang of our times, great products in lousy throw away containers. I am one of those who always reads the ingredients. I avoid: avoid high fructose corn syrup, dairy, and GMO's. I look for organic ingredients with high fiber. But if I hit pay dirt in the ingredient department, I often find myself throwing away the wrapper in the trash. We all know where that ends up, in our limited landfills.

It seems to me that healthy products wrapped in unrecyclable wrapping is symbolic of our times.
We get issues half way. We want a clean evironment and green lawns. We want to reduce our carbon without reducing the number of people producing it. We want the American diet sans the detrimental effects so we take statin drugs to nullify the effects of it. We want delicious fruit but hate bees.

Food can't just be healthy for us it has to be healthy for the planet. Smoking at the back of airplanes is a solution based on only half of the truth. Getting the whole story on any issue is key to long term solutions.

The Power of Story

In an article in National Geographic magazine called KARMA OF THE CROWD ( FEB, 1014) the Kumbh Mela is described.  This is the festival in India where millions of people gather to become spiritually and physically revived. In the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, is a spot where one can drink and bathe the ‘amrit’ the nectar of eternal life. At the last Kumbh Mela 70 million descended on this sacred spot in a festival that lasted 56 days. In spite of below freezing temperatures at night, unheated tents and the river’s ghastly pollution, the mostly elderly pilgrims report being healthy and invigorated from their experience in the makeshift tent cities.  If a non believing westerner, like myself,  would join in this ritual one could only hope that there was a way to get to an emergency room in time to be pumped full of antibiotics. Their strong centuries-old beliefs in the story of sacred waters obviously transcend the scientific realities of their surroundings.

If we want to make any progress to refocus the world in a more positive direction we need a  more powerful story. We can’t even begin to hope that well-assembled facts alone will do the trick. This story needs to transcend current realities and create a world of possibilities. To keep our planet livable into the future we need a story that is as powerful as magical waters that arise out of a pollution saturated river.