Once again, the NYTimes [“Happy Days” blog](http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/) has a great story about what **being** is all about. Philosopher and shrinks talk about being and happiness, but the place to find either is out there in real life. Linh Dinh, a writer living in Philadelphia, authored [today’s column.](http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/get-together-slim-down/?ref=opinion) The lines that I found most illuminating were these coming after a lot of talk about the seamy side of Philly. > Economically, my life is one long depression, punctuated by rare episodes of relative affluence, which to me is the cash to buy any entrée costing more than 10 bucks. But am… Read More
Continue ReadingMoving to a New Server
For the next few days, I will be unable to post new material. The site may become unavailable for a short period. I should be back in full swing by mid-week. Everything you need to link to the site stays the same.
Continue ReadingContinuous Partial Attention
I have become much more conscious lately of the omnipresence of Blackberries, iPhones, and other smart phones. (Disclosure, although I am a techie in most realms, I still hold on to my most basic cellphone, in spite of all sorts of incentives to upgrade.) Couple this awareness to the many articles on the web discussing, extolling, and critiquing the use of Twitter, and I land squarely on Linda Stone’s concept of continuous partial attention. Here’s what she says about it. > To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to… Read More
Continue ReadingTry Living Without Emotion
The hubbub over Judge Sotomayor centers as much on her mental processes as it does on her legal positions. Fueled by the remarks of the President stating that he was looking for Justices that could put themselves in the shoes of others and by his use of the word, empathy, a few earlier remarks of Sotomayor’s has created a firestorm. Credit David Brooks with [writing his column](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/opinion/29brooks.html) arguing for a sensible way of understanding empathy and the role of emotion in the way we think and act. If you can put the immediate political context of this subject aside for… Read More
Continue ReadingBe Careful with Adaptation
In Environment 360, the Yale Environmental Journal, Bruce Stutz [writes about adaptation](http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2156) as an increasingly legitimate response to global warning. The begrudging acceptance of this strategy reflects a growing beliefs that we are moving too late to prevent significant temperature rise along with all its consequences. > “My view is that we’ll be lucky if we can stop CO2 at 600 ppm,” says Wallace Broecker, a geoscientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “There’s no way we’re going to stop at 450. Impossible. If we’re going to double CO2, we’d better prepare what we’re going to do about it.” > >… Read More
Continue ReadingFinding Happiness Under a [Philosopher’s] Stone
A few days ago, I started to follow a blog in the New York Times called *Happy Days*. My first [post](http://www.johnehrenfeld.com/2009/05/happiness-continued.html#comments) features an article by Daniel Gilbert about how people react to uncertainty. The bloggers at the Times publish articles that look at how people are finding or not finding contentment in their lives under today’s difficult circumstances. While contentment does not equate exactly to flourishing, it suggests the same sort of positive reflections. Enough of what I have read in the column so far depicts a realization that contentment is not tied to having, but rather to Being. *Happy… Read More
Continue Reading. . . and the Art of Motorcycle Mechanics
Every so often, I read something that reminds me that I can’t quite shake off my academic leanings when I write. Today I ran across just such an article in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine section. In many fewer and more evocative words, “[The Case for Working With Your Hands](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all),” by Matthew B. Crawford captures much of the concept of Being that I was painfully able to write about. Crawford turned his back on a hard-earned Ph. D. to become a motorcycle mechanic and in doing so found a deep satisfaction that was missing from his short career in the “information/knowledge”… Read More
Continue ReadingGood Bubbles
We have all learned that bubbles in the market make us feel good while they grow, but then become the cause of our economic woes. I discovered another kind of bubbles that seems to have only a positive effect–homemade ginger ale. Champagne can do the same if drunk in moderation (Champagne–the drink divine; A dollar’s worth of bubbles and a dime’s worth of wine). I suspect that ginger ale’s contribution to sustainability is vanishing small, but it sounds like a step in the right direction. The Dining and Wine feature of the New York Times reports this: > At Stand,… Read More
Continue ReadingSustainability by the Numbers
The Greener by Design conference has produced a stream of reportable articles. I plan to post my thoughts on these from time to time. Today, a presentation by Rand Waddoups, senior director of business strategy and sustainability at Wal-Mart popped up to the toop of the pile. Reported by Amie Vaccaro in a post titled, “[A Metrics Driven Approach to Sustainable Business](http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/19/a-metrics-driven-approach-sustainable-business),” Waddoups described a system Wal-Mart is using to drive their whole system toward “sustainability.” > [Waddoups] described Wal-Mart’s four part journey to sustainability, beginning with consensus building around need for sustainability, moving into an evangelist phase, and then… Read More
Continue ReadingFear and Trembling in America
I just noticed the the New York Times has started a blog devoted to discussing the impact of the recession on people’s psychic and other parts of their lives. Here’s their own description. > The severe economic downturn has forced many people to reassess their values and the ways they act on them in their daily lives. For some, the pursuit of happiness, sanity, or even survival, has been transformed. > > Happy Days is a discussion about the search for contentment in its many forms — economic, emotional, physical, spiritual — and the stories of those striving to come… Read More
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