Cool Mind Warm Heart

Compassion by Addiction

Yesterday’s New York Times included an obituary of Wesley A. Brown, 85, a retired Navy lieutenant commander who endured intense racial hazing to become the first black graduate of the United States Naval Academy in 1949.  Mr. Brown was the sixth black man admitted in the 100-year history of the Annapolis military college but the first to withstand the kind of hazing that forced the others to leave within a year.  One upper-class man who encouraged Mr. Brown to “hang in there” was Jimmy Carter, the future president.

In that story is so much of my life.  Feeling the fear of those who persecute others, and how that same fear lives in me (with equally harmful results)––and freeing it.  Feeling the courage of those who choose love, and how that lives in me––and embracing it. 

Traveling at the Speed of Thoughtfulness

This is an edited transcript of the Baccalaureate address to the 2012 graduating class at the University of Pennsylvania, delivered by Nipun Mehta, founder of ServiceSpace.org, a nonprofit that works at the intersection of gift-economy, technology and volunteerism.  His popular TED talk “Designing for Generosity” provides an overview of their work and guiding principles.

Back in 2005, six months into our marriage, my wife and I decided to “step it up” and go on a walking pilgrimage.  Have you ever  thought of something and then just known that it had to happen? It was one of those things.  So we sold all our major belongings, and bought a one-way ticket to India.  Our plan was to head to Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram, since he had always been an inspiration to us, and then walk South.  Between the two of us, we budgeted a dollar a day, mostly for incidentals -- which meant that for our survival we had to depend utterly on the kindness of strangers.  We ate whatever food was offered and slept wherever place was offered.  
 
For us, this walk was a pilgrimage -- and our goal was simply to be in a space larger than our egos, and to allow that compassion to guide us in unscripted acts of service along the way.  Stripped entirely of our comfort zone and accustomed identities, could we still “keep it real”?  That was our challenge.
 
We ended up walking 1000 kilometers over three months. In that period, we encountered the very best and the very worst of human nature -- not just in others, but also within ourselves.

The Next Buddha

‎The next Buddha will not take the form of an individual.  The next Buddha will take the form of a community; a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living.  This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the Earth.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Still Being Mothered by Stones

My appreciation of motherhood has grown since I started wrestling stones a few years ago.  These jewels of the Vermont landscape remind me that life is a practice of bringing the kindest heart we can to every moment we have, and that to do so demands a very special relationship with the earth, the Big Mother.  Some stones are mothers at their best: fearless, relentless.  I’ve got the scars to prove it. 

The Essay...

 

Good Design

Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing.
~ Paola Antonelli