Politics, Morality & Civility :: Summer Meditations :: By Vaclav Havel

There are some sharp parallels between what Vaclav Havel is writing about in the first chapter of his book "Summer Meditations" - what was happening during the Velvet Revolution in the new Czech Republic - and the current state of "things", politics, life, capitalism in the United States. Oh, and don't forget civility. I suppose we can throw in morality in a fundamentaltruthoftheUniverse sorta way, as in right vs. wrong do the right thing and do the thing right.

It's the first time I'm reading it, and thought I would share.

Summer Meditations :: Chapter 1 :: Politics, Morality and Civility :: by Vaclav Havel

Connection and The Power of Vulnerability

Good stuff in this one. Very good stuff. Poignant, in that I am one of the ones with vulnerability issues, which I have been unaware of, or numb to, until watching this. Interesting how things we need to hear and discover about ourselves come along http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifjust in the nick of time...

Here's the TEDx intro: Brene Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share.

http://www.brenebrown.com/

I sometimes feel like an alien creature for which there is no Earthly explanation

Some poignant words/thoughts from Woody Harrelson on the current state of humanity, which happens to be my favorite subject these days...

To paraphrase with a cliché: "If we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem."

The Miniature Earth

What would the Earth look like if you took all of today's demographics and applied them to only 100 people (instead of 6,808,615,758, as of today) - on the planet or in a village...?

Sometimes, the obvious is lost in a "can't see the forest for the trees" scenario. Maybe not the obvious, but the obvious boiled down to something the human brain can truly comprehend. All it takes is one person to present the numbers, or the situation, or whatever, in a slightly different and creative way, and BINGO!

Houston, we have comprehension.

Thanks to Miss E for the find...



Text verbatim from YouTube:

http://www.miniature-earth.com/

Description:
"The text the originated this movie was published on May 29, 1990 with the title "State of the Village Report", and it was written by Donella Meadows, who passed away in February 2000. Nowadays Sustainability Institute, through Donella's Foundation, carries on her ieas and projects. The Miniature Earth project was first published in 2001, since then more than 2 million people have seen this website.

The statistics have been updated based on specialized publications, and mainly reports on the World's population provided by different resources, like UN publications, PBR.org and others. Bear in mind that these are only statistics, and consequently changes might occur after a few months or only after years.

Please see them only as a tendency, and not as accurate."

Piano Song By:
Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre été
Beginning/Ending song by:
Celtic Women- You Raise me up.