THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2005
Peace, Wind, and Monasteries
My Mom loaned me this really really great book called "Simple Abundance" by Sarah Ban Breathnach. It's a year full of essays - one for each day - that speak to the soul. Here are a few of gems:
"Where there is great love there are always miracles." - Willa Cather. Haven't you always noticed that? When I soften and when I forgive and when I express love miracles always happen in my life. This happened to me just the other day. I made an effort to reconcile with someone that's close to me and as soon as I did a call I had been waiting for for weeks came in with good news. This always happens when I open my heart.
Here's another: "A sobering thought: what if, right at this very moment, I am living up to my full potential?" - Jane Wagner
On the possibility front, there's a great article in this month's National Geographic about wind power and other alternatives to fossil fuels. Every year the European Union installs about 6,000 new megawatts of wind power. The U.S. installs six times less than that. The story opens with a great picture of two nuns who decided they wanted to show the world what's possible, so they installed two wind turbines at their monastery in North Dakota, and have slashed their electric bills dramatically.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2005
Success
I had some coffee this morning with an old friend I hadn't seen in fifteen years. He's in his early fifties now, married with two kids, a practicing attorney and elected public official. Still, he has time for this incredibly rich home life. Grow grapes, peaches, tomatoes, herbs, figs, and apple pears in his garden. Has a coy pond. Has three chickens that lay fresh eggs every day. Just finished a six year project building by hand the most unbelievably detailed model sailing ship. He said to me today that our society's definition of success is a perversion. I agree. This friend of mine has achieved real success in his life - all around. It doesn't take the form of an $800,000 a year paycheck. It takes the form of the contented look on his face and his thoughtful perspective on life.
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2005
General Motors, the Space Shuttle, and Industrial Vision
General Motors is slashing prices because they cannot sell their cars at a price that earns them a profit anymore. They are already incurring huge losses because of the huge price cuts and 0% financing they offered a year and a half ago. The space shuttle is falling apart. These things are metaphors for the state of American industry. It is falling apart. This is what happens when people cling to old ideas, old cultures, and old approaches. This is what happens when people are stuck in the past. This is what happens when people choose the comfort of what is known over the discomfort of mystery and risk.
"Liberals" pay way way way too little attention to developing industry. The only time they are willing to talk about industry is when they are want to criticize it. But industry holds the key to all that liberals, and conservatives, for that matter, hold dear. Progress, better standards of living, better wages, a stronger economy, a stronger nation, and a national enthusiasm. There will be no way to help the poor or the arts or anything else if we do not embrace brave industrial vision. Any national vision that does not include an industrial vision is a failure before it leaves the launch pad. Any political platform that does not address an industrial platform is headed the way of General Motors.
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