May the spirit be with you.
'Tis the season for the spirit. In every long checkout line, in every overbooked airplane and every crowded terminal, the spirit lurks. In every late package and truly ugly lawn decoration, the spirit hides. Even in department store music and television holiday specials, the spirit is somehow there. Tis the season for the spirit.
What is the spirit? The spirit is the feeling of completion found when losing oneself in others. It is the joy of giving and it is the release and relief from taking. It is acceptance of others and of self.
The spirit resides beneath the surface, beneath the veneer, beneath the crusty outer shell, hidden away. It hibernates during the long year, trundling into its dark cave after New Year's Day to remain dormant until December comes around again. Then it emerges. That is the season of the spirit.
You may not feel that the spirit is with you, even in this season of the spirit. December brings even more stress, even more deadlines, even more obligations than the rest of the year. Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations require more planning and organizing and emotional challenges than ever. It is the season to compete even harder, to surpass your neighbor's decorations, to give the greatest gifts, to throw the best party, to appear the most generous. And it is also a time for end of year deadlines, for the approaching end of the tax year, for those difficult financial and personal assessments. It is the season for completion, the time to finish lagging projects, to make last minute investments, to pass a last minute national health bill, to try to save the globe. Yet it is also the season for the spirit.
Somehow, the spirit finds us. Long ago this time of year was set aside for the spirit and despite all the obstacles that we have increasingly placed in its path, it still somehow finds us. It finds us when we wish it to find us and where we expect it to find us. When we go to our place of worship, it will find us. When we perform acts of random kindness, it will find us. When we give generously of our time, talent, and wealth to those who need us, it will find us. And when we need it, then, too, it will find us.
After 9/11, the spirit found us. This was a spirit of togetherness, of renewed appreciation for one another, of compassion and generosity. The crusty veneer was briefly removed, the protective skin was pulled away, the spirit emerged from hibernation. There was connectedness, unity. And then, gradually, we let it trundle back to its cave. We are not practiced in keeping the spirit with us.
The spirit brings us together, but we need to be trained in keeping the spirit. Like the writer's muse, it is born out of practice. Like music, it is known through expression. Our children need to learn it in their schools and we need to practice it in our homes and our work place. Congress needs to release itself from self interest and practice it. Leaders around the world need to practice it to save the earth. We mustn't let it slip away.
Each December brings a clean slate, a new opportunity to find the spirit and then the challenge to try to keep it.
May the spirit be with you. And may you keep it with you all year long.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
What is it Really About?
A recent post by Jeffrey Sachs reprinted in the Huffington Post included the following warning:
"Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to mount, and will do so for years or decades to come. The Wall Street Journal, America's biggest circulation paper, rails each day against climate science. Backroom deals in the U.S. Congress with industrial lobbies threaten to eviscerate already watered-down proposals for limiting carbon emissions. A vote on the U.S. legislation has been postponed till next spring at the earliest, and a similar bill has just been defeated in Australia. The truth is that even if we reach a political agreement, we're not yet on track to achieve practical, significant and sustained progress. "
I have concerns about the increasing effectiveness of delaying tactics and disinformation efforts. I try to have faith that ultimately the American people will see these for what they are and make their own choices and act accordingly. And the choice, simply, is to take steps individually and collectively to clean up our own mess on the planet, or not.
In the end, the "debate" over global climate change must devolve into one of character and morality. Stripped to its most basic form, the arguments fall between those who on the one hand would do all they can to preserve some quality of life for those who follow versus those on the other who can not or will not relinquish any material possessions or comfort from the life they now live because that future does not involve them. For the latter, the only remaining solution is to rationalize away reality and to pretend that there really are choices.
This global conundrum has been played out in microcosm on the rather innocuous pages of an unlikely source, the Costco Connection magazine. Costco undertook to volume-sell Al Gore's new book, "Your Choice". To maximize its promotion, the publishers placed Gore's picture on the front cover of the Costco Connection and published a piece by Gore as one of the magazine's product-hyping features. In addition, (and this was probably the last straw for many consumers), the Editor of the magazine wrote a column in which he attempted to reconcile the diverse thinking of Gore and Glenn Beck, whose paid advertisement had been included in the publication as well. The response was immediate and furious. So much so, that Costco backpedaled immediately in the next issue with an apology from the editor, two pages of reprints of the emails received, and a half page article supporting "the other side of the issue" as demanded by one of the emailer s, succumbing not just to the demand, but even to the degree of choosing the 'denial scientist' of the writer's choice, the well known climate skeptic, Fred Singer! The import of most of the e-mails seemed to be, "Stick to selling products and leave politics to the politicians". Wouldn't we love to organize our lives as neatly as our iPhones, with apps for food and home products over here, politics over there, religion on the weekends, and…oh,yes!…the polluting of our living environment way over there (we wouldn't have to go there much…)! And when the chips were down, Costco, a company I have come to admire for many other reasons, reversed its ground in the interests of commerce and reneged on what had started out to be a remarkably courageous and constructive role modeling for grassroots America.
This is a conflict with ethical roots, no different to my mind than the actions of lenders and bankers during the mortgage crisis, where there was no perception of wrong-doing because there was no effort to determine if anyone was being wronged.
"The fight against global warming isn't a fight to maintain the status quo. The status quo isn't ours to keep. Change is coming. The planet adjusts, always, and so must we." Marq de Villiers (The End)
The planet, as de Villiers says, will do what it has always done, but we have a choice. Why not leave a cleaner planet for our children and our children's children?
"Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to mount, and will do so for years or decades to come. The Wall Street Journal, America's biggest circulation paper, rails each day against climate science. Backroom deals in the U.S. Congress with industrial lobbies threaten to eviscerate already watered-down proposals for limiting carbon emissions. A vote on the U.S. legislation has been postponed till next spring at the earliest, and a similar bill has just been defeated in Australia. The truth is that even if we reach a political agreement, we're not yet on track to achieve practical, significant and sustained progress. "
I have concerns about the increasing effectiveness of delaying tactics and disinformation efforts. I try to have faith that ultimately the American people will see these for what they are and make their own choices and act accordingly. And the choice, simply, is to take steps individually and collectively to clean up our own mess on the planet, or not.
In the end, the "debate" over global climate change must devolve into one of character and morality. Stripped to its most basic form, the arguments fall between those who on the one hand would do all they can to preserve some quality of life for those who follow versus those on the other who can not or will not relinquish any material possessions or comfort from the life they now live because that future does not involve them. For the latter, the only remaining solution is to rationalize away reality and to pretend that there really are choices.
This global conundrum has been played out in microcosm on the rather innocuous pages of an unlikely source, the Costco Connection magazine. Costco undertook to volume-sell Al Gore's new book, "Your Choice". To maximize its promotion, the publishers placed Gore's picture on the front cover of the Costco Connection and published a piece by Gore as one of the magazine's product-hyping features. In addition, (and this was probably the last straw for many consumers), the Editor of the magazine wrote a column in which he attempted to reconcile the diverse thinking of Gore and Glenn Beck, whose paid advertisement had been included in the publication as well. The response was immediate and furious. So much so, that Costco backpedaled immediately in the next issue with an apology from the editor, two pages of reprints of the emails received, and a half page article supporting "the other side of the issue" as demanded by one of the emailer s, succumbing not just to the demand, but even to the degree of choosing the 'denial scientist' of the writer's choice, the well known climate skeptic, Fred Singer! The import of most of the e-mails seemed to be, "Stick to selling products and leave politics to the politicians". Wouldn't we love to organize our lives as neatly as our iPhones, with apps for food and home products over here, politics over there, religion on the weekends, and…oh,yes!…the polluting of our living environment way over there (we wouldn't have to go there much…)! And when the chips were down, Costco, a company I have come to admire for many other reasons, reversed its ground in the interests of commerce and reneged on what had started out to be a remarkably courageous and constructive role modeling for grassroots America.
This is a conflict with ethical roots, no different to my mind than the actions of lenders and bankers during the mortgage crisis, where there was no perception of wrong-doing because there was no effort to determine if anyone was being wronged.
"The fight against global warming isn't a fight to maintain the status quo. The status quo isn't ours to keep. Change is coming. The planet adjusts, always, and so must we." Marq de Villiers (The End)
The planet, as de Villiers says, will do what it has always done, but we have a choice. Why not leave a cleaner planet for our children and our children's children?
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