Thanks you for your support! It looks like by tomorrow I will be posting my first podcast where I take the act of consious choice to the next level on Podcast for Peace.

Shelby – good catch I wrote a little something about Mr. Cooney in this blog http://drivingsocrates.com/it-smells-like-smoke-to-me-%e2%80%93-i-mean-like-cigarette-smoke . I do concur that things are feeling pretty discouraging, but we must stay the course both in creating something different in our minds – but also in the immediate world around us. What we buy, what we watch, what we read, what we spend our time doing. All of these have an impact. Not to mention blogging – I personally thing it will continue to play an important role in our getting the message out and changing minds. Blgo on!

Shelby, Danny Boy, Andrei, everyone — This issue of how to contribute to change in today’s society where the vehicles of the 60s and 70s are not there to support us is a huge one, and I am exploring the personal implications very heavily lately after returning from the Bay Area visiting my wonderful son, goddess daugher, and daughter. Spending a day with conscious people got me re-evaluating how to contribute to making change in everyday life. I already recycle, compost, avoid buying products that pollute, etc. But now I am thinking more carefully about food that I eat, looking for organic and natural products more actively, cutting back on beef (which I unashamedly love) and buying meat from animals who had a life (free range, dirt scratching) and were not fed hormones. Looking for more opportunities, trying to always respond actively to emails from MoveOn, etc. None of this is as high drama as marching for civil rights, women’s rights, etc., but I think it is immensely successful, especially as we continue to raise consciousness in our communities. I teach in a university and love to watch the changes in my students after a semester with me. This coming semester I am going to try to get our grad students involved in “The Green Team” to examine ways that we can improve on our recycling and paper use in the Department. Blog on, sister!

I know. It’s disgusting, the level of impunity and corruption in which the “good old oil boys” go about their prominent positions in our government; “editing” at what is essentially our future, the lives of our troops in Iraq for their personal gain… This is our tax dollars hard at work; American Gothic. But here we are here–speaking truth to power. We will not allow this to continue.

And then I read stuff like this:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/08/10/notes081005.DTL

And I think MAN! Right ON! Let’s get pissed off! But really, what good does it do? But maybe it does do good. Maybe we should all be getting pissed and joining rallies and screaming our fool heads off. Why is it that we’re not doing that like they did in the 60’s? Seems like certainly a more fulfilling venue for the protestor, at least.

But then, in my own life, I have learned the wisdom of waiting until a person is ready -at least a little ready – to hear the hard stuff that I might have to say to them. And the wisdom of saying it in a way that will make sense to them.

So then, how do we chip away at the armor of those who understand differently than we do, so that there is that little crack in the foundation – that little readiness – that will allow some of our words to seep in. And do we start hiring PR company after PR company so that we can speak in a language that everyone will understand??

Ugh.

Shelby, good info here. We are speaking and discovering the language needed to communicate to people with different world views at DS. Other incarnations of DS will no doubt take the form offline, on the streets, but we need to discover and experiment with how best to channel our energy and ally ourselves with people ready for change. It seems daunting, but it’s the old one step, at a time, until we can all step forward, so to speak…