Global warming is a serious thing. There is much that needs to be done - so much, that it is hard to even know where to start. Everyday I learn about something new that needs to be fixed. Another crisis has erupted. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are being destroyed. And it is only just beginning. With the alarm bells blaring, it is easy to become immobilized by feelings of fear and powerlessness. Another response is to become desensitized, denying the importance or truth of information that is presented. I have and continue to use these coping mechanisms when I feel overwhelmed. But one of the few things that always works to cut through these moments of paralysis is humor. When something or someone makes me laugh, it breaks through the walls that have built up and it allows me to see things from new perspectives. Which is why I really appreciated seeing the trailer about YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip):
It really inspired me and made me able to laugh at all the crazy things we need to do to create change. It is good to find the humor in experimentation and the failures we may have on the way to figuring out the right path to take forward.
I would rather laugh than cry to get through this crisis
Wednesday July 8, 2009
Categories: Interdependent Activism & Politics, Right Lifestyle
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Welcome to One City. You've lived here your whole life, whether you know it or not. One City blog is an outgrowth of The Interdependence Project, a Buddhist-inspired nonprofit organization led by Ethan Nichtern, dedicated to teaching the insights of Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness, and interconnectedness in the 21st century world.
If you're interested in how your mind works, are interested in meditation (but don't want to pretend you live in ancient Asia), care about the world, are into media, love contemporary culture, and above all, really dig the truth of interdependence-that nothing happens in a vacuum--then this blog is for you.
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Glad you like the trailer! We haven't discussed much about the spiritual roots of the YERT project, but we did talk to a variety of people about the spiritual side of sustainability along the way, including Krista Tippett (Speaking of Faith) and Calvin DeWitt, to name a couple.
Many of the ideas for the project surfaced during meditation, too...
Enjoy,
Mark from YERT
The set-up to this short clip was misleading to me; there is, after all, nothing funny about watching species dying all around us, and wasn't interested in laughing at it. Then I watched the video and began to smile...not at the situation, but in the delight of watching joyful people look everywhere -- in even the most ridiculous places [a favorite Buddhist slogan: "Do not be afraid to be a fool!"] -- for the joy of solutions!
Thanks, and MORE MORE MORE MORE! ... from ALL of us!!
Hey Mark - great to hear from you. I really did enjoy the trailer and I hope you guys get what you need to finish and distribute the movie. I really want to see all your crazy adventures across 50 states. There seems to be so many exciting innovations going on that it is great to be inspired to do new and crazy things, no matter how weird they seem at first.
Kirsten
There is another response and that is to realize that it really is not much of a crisis if the media says it is and then simply go about one's life without giving it a second thought.
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