10/24/16: (1) Posts have become worse than sporadic! Causes generally the same: House/yard projects often tackled manually and ‘creatively’ given limited resources. (2) I’m also slightly more involved in local group activities around food production and exploring societal needs/concerns. That’s good news – has been my plan since moving here and house/yard “surprises” effectively sent me on a 10 yr diversion. (3) The world indeed still moves along – nationally, globally with significant and frequently worrisome intermixing of the two. Progress on 3 challenging critical fields of understanding is decidedly mixed. Earth-care trouble spots are global and multiple with clashes we must expect. The Dakota Access pipeline is presently a key focus for Native Americans and Allies in US, with Canadian First Nations support, although Canada’s First Nations and Allies face equal and steady challenges there. A second, economic systemic failure to meet actual needs of human and other life forms, is related to land/resources exploitation. Profit remains the prime motivator. Social Darwinism – despite its frequent debunking – seems an unrecognized, unexamined, underlying belief for most of the world’s “successful” populations. As a species, we still don’t get it – cooperation, rooted in hardwiring, allowed our hunter-gatherer forerunners to survive. Withholding gains for private accumulation to any significant degree, and restricting access to essential resources or to knowledge/skill required to use them, would have been deadly not only to h-g but to our species. By late 20thC much on innate cooperative and empathetic urges had been explored. Research – both in hard (neuro) and ‘soft’ (social) sciences – has confirmed and furthered understanding that we best thrive in mutually supportive practices. Thus, the third challenging critical field flows from what I’ve laid out re economic systemic failure. We remain ignorant and unimaginative when it comes to understanding how our hardwired species psychology. Inborn, very normal, psychological needs drive human motivation , belief, and choice (action). Critical questions we do not yet routinely ask are “What do I believe?”, “Where/how did I learn this?“, and “Where did those who taught me learn these memes and paradigms?” (4) Editing posts/pages: Mega editing of neglected posts/pages needed – ‘links’ and ‘fridge door’ – especially, but not yet touched. No progress with this, it’s been back burner for a very very long time. (5) A reader might ask: “What’s this blog’s position on ‘spiritual vs rational‘?” Answer: First, I strongly appreciate arguments against ‘magical thinking’; Second, ‘staying blissed out’ is escape from active responsibility in issues like climate warming, poverty, marginalization, and war. Third, I make no claim to know Buckminster Fuller‘s insights well – thoughts, math, or science. But I imagine my understandings compatible with his: There is an ‘integrity’ to forces at play within natural laws that drive the cosmos; the integrity is profound enough to be recognized as ‘sacred’ in some sense. To me, ‘sacred’ applies to our species potential, and also to the natural world’s dynamic landscape, watershed, oceans, and all flora/fauna found within. ….. This blog’s overall theme? Questions, thoughts, and challenges that encourage us to know “who we are” and “how we can more closely realize deep human promise.” — WELCOME! Comments and share options on nearly every page or post!
Thoughts From The Well 