During a massage, while I was floating in other dimensions, I met an entity who explained to me that she was the spirit of a complex and populous world. I was even seeing images of a very busy citadel, full of many interacting forms of life.
As we conversed, she explained a little about how every civilization has its own spirit. How diverse her population was. How the ruling class is outnumbered 10 to 1 by the helper class. She said, "We are very much alike, you and me."
The meeting illustrated and underscored the facts that I had been talking about only a few hours earlier. Our body consists of 100 trillion cells. Of those, less than 10 trillion have our dna. The other 90 trillion cells belong to other life forms; bugs that inhabit our body, doing the basic work that keeps us alive.
It was kind of a fun trip.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Perfect Rant
Perfection is an evil spirit that, if not used carefully can devour happiness.
Perfection is the enemy of good.
I never thought I would write an essay putting down the concept of perfection, but here I go. I was raised with the concept that striving for perfection was (mostly) a good thing. As a young man I struggled with the concept and definition of perfection.
I tried to achieve perfection in my crafts. It drove me to work harder, but it never made me happy, because it never was truly achieved. Over the years, I observed that some of the best perfectionists were also alcoholics who were struggling to keep their life together. Eventually I picked up the hints that perfect is an ego driven fantasy. Perfect is a narrow point of view.
What is better than perfect; more practical, more productive, more mature, more inclusive?
Excellence. The careful balance of the many dimensions that enter into any real life challenge.
Willingness to make mistakes in the pursuit of that excellence.
Dedication to truly getting better.
Accepting that you are getting better.
Sticking to it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. ~Harriet Braiker
A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~John Henry Newman
Nothing that is complete breathes. ~Antonio Porchia,
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
~Leonard Cohen
Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. ~Henry van Dyke
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. ~Confucius, Analects
When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. ~George Fisher
You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out. ~Martha Graham
A good garden may have some weeds. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being. ~Anatole France (Jacques Anatole François Thibault), The Garden of Epicurus, 1894
Perfection is the enemy of good.
I never thought I would write an essay putting down the concept of perfection, but here I go. I was raised with the concept that striving for perfection was (mostly) a good thing. As a young man I struggled with the concept and definition of perfection.
I tried to achieve perfection in my crafts. It drove me to work harder, but it never made me happy, because it never was truly achieved. Over the years, I observed that some of the best perfectionists were also alcoholics who were struggling to keep their life together. Eventually I picked up the hints that perfect is an ego driven fantasy. Perfect is a narrow point of view.
What is better than perfect; more practical, more productive, more mature, more inclusive?
Excellence. The careful balance of the many dimensions that enter into any real life challenge.
Willingness to make mistakes in the pursuit of that excellence.
Dedication to truly getting better.
Accepting that you are getting better.
Sticking to it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. ~Harriet Braiker
A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~John Henry Newman
Nothing that is complete breathes. ~Antonio Porchia,
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
~Leonard Cohen
Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. ~Henry van Dyke
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. ~Confucius, Analects
When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. ~George Fisher
You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out. ~Martha Graham
A good garden may have some weeds. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being. ~Anatole France (Jacques Anatole François Thibault), The Garden of Epicurus, 1894
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
If attention is the currency of life, why?
That question popped up (It may be the first time) while I was easing into the bathtub.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Guest Editorial
original story from la times
Dear United States, Welcome to the Third World!
It's not every day that a superpower makes a bid to transform itself into a Third World nation, and we here at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund want to be among the first to welcome you to the community of states in desperate need of international economic assistance. As you spiral into a catastrophic financial meltdown, we are delighted to respond to your Treasury Department's request that we undertake a joint stability assessment of your financial sector. In these turbulent times, we can provide services ranging from subsidized loans to expert advisors willing to perform an emergency overhaul of your entire government.
As you know, some outside intervention in your economy is overdue. Last week -- even before Wall Street's latest collapse -- 13 former finance ministers convened at the University of Virginia and agreed that you must fix your "broken financial system." Australia's Peter Costello noted that lately you've been "exporting instability" in world markets, and Yashwant Sinha, former finance minister of India, concluded, "The time has come. The U.S. should accept some monitoring by the IMF."
We hope you won't feel embarrassed as we assess the stability of your economy and suggest needed changes. Remember, many other countries have been in your shoes. We've bailed out the economies of Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea. But whether our work is in Sudan, Bangladesh or now the United States, our experts are committed to intervening in national economies with care and sensitivity.
We thus want to acknowledge the progress you have made in your evolution from economic superpower to economic basket case. Normally, such a process might take 100 years or more. With your oscillation between free-market extremism and nationalization of private companies, however, you have successfully achieved, in a few short years, many of the key hallmarks of Third World economies.
Your policies of irresponsible government deregulation in critical sectors allowed you to rapidly develop an energy crisis, a housing crisis, a credit crisis and a financial market crisis, all at once, and accompanied (and partly caused) by impressive levels of corruption and speculation. Meanwhile, those of your political leaders charged with oversight were either napping or in bed with corporate lobbyists.
Take John McCain, your Republican presidential nominee, whose senior staff includes half a dozen prominent former lobbyists. As he recently put it, "I was chairman of the [Senate] Commerce Committee that oversights every part of the economy." No question about it: Your leaders' failure to notice the damage done by irresponsible deregulation was indeed an oversight of epic proportions.
Now you are facing the consequences. Income inequality has increased, as the rich have gotten windfalls while the middle class has seen incomes stagnate. Fewer and fewer of your citizens have access to affordable housing, healthcare or security in retirement. Even life expectancy has dropped. And when your economic woes went from chronic to acute, you responded -- like so many Third World states have -- with an extensive program of nationalizing private companies and assets. Your mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now state owned and controlled, and this week your reinsurance giant AIG was effectively nationalized, with the Federal Reserve Board seizing an 80% equity stake in the flailing company.
Some might deride this as socialism. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
Admittedly, your transition to Third World status is far from over, and it won't be painless. At first, for instance, you may find it hard to get used to the shantytowns that will replace the exurban sprawl of McMansions that helped fuel the real estate speculation bubble. But in time, such shantytowns will simply become part of the landscape. Similarly, as unemployment rates continue to rise, you will initially struggle to find a use for the expanding pool of angry, jobless young men. But you will gradually realize that you can recruit them to fight in a ceaseless round of armed conflicts, a solution that has been utilized by many other Third World states before you. Indeed, with your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you are off to an excellent start.
Perhaps this letter comes as a surprise to you, and you feel you're not fully ready to join the Third World. Don't let this feeling concern you. Though you may never have realized it, you've been preparing for this moment for years.
Dear United States, Welcome to the Third World!
It's not every day that a superpower makes a bid to transform itself into a Third World nation, and we here at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund want to be among the first to welcome you to the community of states in desperate need of international economic assistance. As you spiral into a catastrophic financial meltdown, we are delighted to respond to your Treasury Department's request that we undertake a joint stability assessment of your financial sector. In these turbulent times, we can provide services ranging from subsidized loans to expert advisors willing to perform an emergency overhaul of your entire government.
As you know, some outside intervention in your economy is overdue. Last week -- even before Wall Street's latest collapse -- 13 former finance ministers convened at the University of Virginia and agreed that you must fix your "broken financial system." Australia's Peter Costello noted that lately you've been "exporting instability" in world markets, and Yashwant Sinha, former finance minister of India, concluded, "The time has come. The U.S. should accept some monitoring by the IMF."
We hope you won't feel embarrassed as we assess the stability of your economy and suggest needed changes. Remember, many other countries have been in your shoes. We've bailed out the economies of Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea. But whether our work is in Sudan, Bangladesh or now the United States, our experts are committed to intervening in national economies with care and sensitivity.
We thus want to acknowledge the progress you have made in your evolution from economic superpower to economic basket case. Normally, such a process might take 100 years or more. With your oscillation between free-market extremism and nationalization of private companies, however, you have successfully achieved, in a few short years, many of the key hallmarks of Third World economies.
Your policies of irresponsible government deregulation in critical sectors allowed you to rapidly develop an energy crisis, a housing crisis, a credit crisis and a financial market crisis, all at once, and accompanied (and partly caused) by impressive levels of corruption and speculation. Meanwhile, those of your political leaders charged with oversight were either napping or in bed with corporate lobbyists.
Take John McCain, your Republican presidential nominee, whose senior staff includes half a dozen prominent former lobbyists. As he recently put it, "I was chairman of the [Senate] Commerce Committee that oversights every part of the economy." No question about it: Your leaders' failure to notice the damage done by irresponsible deregulation was indeed an oversight of epic proportions.
Now you are facing the consequences. Income inequality has increased, as the rich have gotten windfalls while the middle class has seen incomes stagnate. Fewer and fewer of your citizens have access to affordable housing, healthcare or security in retirement. Even life expectancy has dropped. And when your economic woes went from chronic to acute, you responded -- like so many Third World states have -- with an extensive program of nationalizing private companies and assets. Your mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now state owned and controlled, and this week your reinsurance giant AIG was effectively nationalized, with the Federal Reserve Board seizing an 80% equity stake in the flailing company.
Some might deride this as socialism. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
Admittedly, your transition to Third World status is far from over, and it won't be painless. At first, for instance, you may find it hard to get used to the shantytowns that will replace the exurban sprawl of McMansions that helped fuel the real estate speculation bubble. But in time, such shantytowns will simply become part of the landscape. Similarly, as unemployment rates continue to rise, you will initially struggle to find a use for the expanding pool of angry, jobless young men. But you will gradually realize that you can recruit them to fight in a ceaseless round of armed conflicts, a solution that has been utilized by many other Third World states before you. Indeed, with your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you are off to an excellent start.
Perhaps this letter comes as a surprise to you, and you feel you're not fully ready to join the Third World. Don't let this feeling concern you. Though you may never have realized it, you've been preparing for this moment for years.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Why live resiliently?
Resilient Living isn't just about surviving the storm.
Resilience also lets you dance in the rain.
Resilience also lets you dance in the rain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)