How to save the world

This is a really good (but openended) answer to the question of how to save the world. (It's a lot shorter than the Thirty Theses I linked to a little while ago (less than a half hour to read the whole thing), and I thought it was worth it. That's why I'm linking to it.) He gives a list of concrete things to do, which I really like (especially the last comment):

There are a lot of things that everyone can do, and should do, to make the world better. Here's my latest list of 15 things: Trust your instincts; Listen, learn and teach others; Learn and practice critical thinking; Re-learn how to imagine; Use less stuff; Stop at one child; Become less dependent; Become an activist; Volunteer; Be a role model; Be a pioneer; Find or create a meaningful job; Share your expertise; Be good to yourself; and Infect others with your courage and spirit and passion. It's the least we can do. It's necessary that we do these things to be clearer about what else we need to do, because these things by themselves won't be enough.

The answer to the question of how to save the world I tried to give a few days ago is just a small part of the picture, but it is also a very important part. Human population needs to greatly decrease. We can attempt to choose to do this gradually (and less painfully) or let it happen to us very quickly (which would be more painful). But for the most part (other than my own childbearing decisions), that is out of my control, and I'd be better off focusing on what I can control and what actions I can take to help regenerate the vitality of my home. Some ways I am looking to do that right now are are working with food not bombs. And in the future (perhaps this summer) I would like to get involved with an urban farm in north city. My mom has also suggested looking into an interesting place called Enota, an eco-village in Georgia. Hopefully, you can see how through these things I hope to pursue, I will be doing my best to fulfill some of those 15 things. Hopefully, I'll discover someday how my college education will help me in this way as well, because this is what I want to do with my life- save the world, or at least do as much as I can towards that end. I don't know how useful this will be in regard to that end, but I'm finding that I am most interested in taking those classes that will broaden, at least intellectually, my understanding of people different from myself. This is why I am taking intro to women's studies and intro to anthropology. And next semester, I want to take intro to african american studies. I don't know if something like that can be translated into a major, but I might just try. Or I might just drop out, because broadening my own intellectual understanding doesn't do shit. I need to hook myself up with some homemade internships and figure out how to apply myself usefully somehow somewhere. Because I have the somewhat irrational fear that I will not be useful somehow somewhere, and that kind of self doubt is rather disheartening. All I know is that I have gone through 13 years of institutionalized education, and I am not any closer to figuring out what I will be doing, in specific terms, during the course of my life. Again, the only thing I can control is what I am doing right now at this moment. The future is unwritten.

Edit [1/27/06 2:40pm]: This is another article by the same guy that goes into detail about the 15 things, if you are interested.

Pantheism links

Here is a general site about pantheism that I am currently exploring (which I found through Deb).

And here is a site linked within the above site that fleshes out my answer to the question I posed below.

Myopia

I was at Sts. Clare and Francis Ecumenical Catholic Community this past saturday with my family for the second weekend in a row, and I noticed how comfortable I still felt in that environment despite not even actively participating in the service. It is comfotable for several reasons. First, it is a Catholic liturgy at its root, which is what I grew up with. Second, all the little things that bugged me about the Roman Catholic Church are put right with ECC. Third, it is part of the fundamental function of religion in our society to comfort, and it is very successful at that.

As I was standing there during the liturgy of the eucharist, I asked myself why I couldn't just go along with this and believe.

If my primary concern was finding more comfort, I would most probably be able to allow myself to blindly believe again. But I am not concerned primarily with comfort. I am concerned with agency. I am concerned with action. I am concerned with honesty.

With my broadened perspective of what constitutes the history of the human species, I can't help but see ECC and all of the modern organized religions as faulty by their extreme myopia, the same myopia that shapes (or mishapes, rather) our version of history. The shortsightedness of each religion's salvation story is insulting to the majority of humans who have lived on this earth before us and were not privy to this supposed chance at eternal life or enlightenment or something or other. Religions of this nature developed along with civilization and are a product of civilization, both responding to some of the ills that civilization created and working right along side civilization to instill the importance of progress and justify all the shit going down as being part of human destiny. Religion and the notion of a special afterlife reserved only for humans, being so far superior to the rest of the world, is the epitome of anthropocentrism. The idea that there is something more to humans, that there must be some separation between humans and other animals (not to mention the rest of the non-human world), is the most fundamental belief that friends of mine who are christian hold onto when I am talking with them about the new story that I am trying to live in. I do understand that humans have the ablility to reason and that no animal quite equals us in that capacity. Yet. I contend that we developed the ability to reason by evolution, just as with every other aspect that makes up the human person. And there is nothing to keep other species from evolving in a similar manner eventually. The ability to reason allows us the ability to ask an infinite number of questions, to contemplate our existence, and to have and express complex emotions. I don't see how any of these things that supposedly separate us from non-human species actually prove some unique quality like an eternal soul.

I've grown up believing that I am an eternal being. It is, to me, a very new idea indeed that this might not be true, so I am just trying to explore the concept and perhaps invite responses from others to see why people believe they are eternal, or why they don't. Thanks in advance for contributing to the discussion.

[What follows is an emotional response, not a reasoned argument, but I stand by it just the same.]

When I was at the Food not Bombs serving today, a couple approached us to compliment us for what we were doing. So we were talking to them. I was talking with Maggie in particular, and she very quickly led the conversation to the topic of religion, inquiring about whether I was Christian. Before I realized her intentions, I responded by saying that I was seeking and wasn't sure about anything anymore but that I had been Catholic since the cradle- up until pretty recently. She asked what I meant by seeking. It's a hard concept to describe to someone who has such a firm grasp on the truth already. I started out going from the opposite direction- that I'm not an atheist, that the closest word for my faith in a god is pantheism, which I described for her by relating it to the Christian concept of God being both immanent and transcendant, and pantheism being pretty much solely the immanent part. God is in everything and is everything. God is what causes movement, God is what moves. God is life. That, of course, was not what she wanted to hear. She was very glad that I was seeking (I must guess that she assumes I am bound to eventually find Jesus again by this method. At least I'm not stationary in my lack of acceptance of the saving word of Christ...). So she went on to deliver a very passionate apologetic session. It was very interesting to actually be on the other side, to have been where she was and to now have it delivered back to me as if I wasn't aware of everything she was saying. Apparently, the key to all my spiritual troubles in the past is that I didn't read the bible enough. Apparently, if I read John and Acts, I will find the truth that I must be searching for by the fact that I'm human.

Two things stuck out that were not in the least persuasive to me. She claimed to know or have access to the Truth because of her personal relationship with God (or something to that effect) and that all the variations of religious sects within Christianity can't all be right or all have the Truth. I tried to show her how there are a lot of different people with differing (if only slightly) beliefs who believe they have the Truth and that other people should adopt their version to have the actual truth. There is nothing to say that one version of the truth in this situation is truer than another. Her response seems circular and did not touch on answering my question at all- something about her knowing that this is the truth because of her personal relationship with God. The other thing she said, which is a fundamental feature of christian faith, is that Jesus came to save us from our sins so that we are able to join God in heaven in his perfection. When I questioned the eternal nature of our souls, she again gave a circular and vague answer about being able to "just know" by such evidence as the fact that we can reason, because "animals are great, but we're clearly not like them."

Socrates (or Plato, or through Plato...) argued that death should not be feared because either death is an end or a change. If death is an end, then it is good (basically because you don't have to suffer anything else anymore), and if death is a change, then it is good (supposedly because that means he can philosophize with all the great philosophers that have died before him for eternity). I am at a point spiritually where I am (or at least I think I am) okay with the idea that death is an end, for my particular consciousness at least. It is never really an end because I will pass on the fire of life to other living things to come after me, just as other living things are passing on their lives to me that I may live (this is food we're talking about). I don't feel that I need to be saved from this world. This world is where I find all of my meaning; it is the only real thing to me, and I want to immerse myself in it deeper and deeper, not be wisked away from it by a savior. You may say that death as an end will do the same thing, but all life is interconnected, and my life will go on long after the "my" part falls away, because that is just an illusion. Whoa, that sounds very buddhist to me, partially. I better watch out- nirvana is just another interpretation of salvation and heaven.

She was a very nice respectful lady, just a little pushy with her own beliefs (because, of course, her way is the one right way...). Of course, I write all this realizing that earlier tonight I had a sort of evangelical session of my own, talking with my friend Justin about my own spiritual journey and my current thoughts about civilization. The difference is in that situation was that Justin came to me with questions, wanting to have a dialogue, and we did. Justin was respectful about the thoughts I was expressing even when he differed in what he believes, and my intent was not to convert him but simply explain myself. Well, perhaps my intent cannot be free of all such malicious intent, but when he stated that he flat out thought differently in some area, I was at least willing to accept that and accept him. The lady this afternoon tried to set me up on a path to become exactly like her (I'm supposed to read John and Acts (they're right next door, you know) and then journal my prayers to God, and then eventually I'll notice God speaking to me through those journals and recognize that God is working in my life. My rhetorical question- how is that different from me talking to a tree?). She said that she was going to be around there (hobo park) on fridays in the future (I guess to make sure the homeless people are all christian too), so I guess she'll be expecting to see progress in the future. You know what- fuck progress. Progress says that now isn't good enough, that I need to work for some future goal when all will be well. The problem is, the future is always the future, and the present moment is always now, and every moment is what actually matters- being present to experience and live every moment. Progress is the great myth of civilization- we must keep moving forward to find meaning, even though the goal keeps receeding before us. What is good and what is the goal must be what is. What is beautiful is what is. What is sacred is what is. The world is "simultaneously sacred and profane, but above all, alive." And that's my fucking religion.

Ethnocentricism

I want to briefly make something clear. When I say that there is no one right way to live and attempt to show deference to other ways of living (such as civilization), I am, of course, not attempting to exempt myself from the very human emotion of feeling that my way is the right way. Of course that is how I feel. How could I go about acting on anything unless I personally believed it was the right thing to be doing? My point is that this is simply a feeling- not based in fact. There is no one to say in absolute terms that one way to live is better than the other (unless you create an abstraction to do that for you). This feeling is the basis for all ethnocentricism and definitely anthropocentrism. It is absolutely fine for a culture to feel like they have it down. They have figured out the way to live. But they have only figured out the way that they are able to live successfully, not the way for everyone to live. Regardless, every culture believes that their way is the right way for everybody. Our culture just has the unique trait that we have equiped ourselves with the means to actually force other cultures to assume our way of living (it's agriculture, if you haven't figured out by now). So when I try to defer to other people living as they wish, it is not in an effort to be unnaturally perfect, just respectful.

listen to trees

About a year and a half ago, I changed my internet identity because I was "trying to define my identity less on the institutions and other various groups of humans with which I'm involved, focusing more on the bigger picture: universal concerns, God." Well, I'm redefining myself, yet again, as my focus on universal concerns has shifted such that I'm now much more concerned with very local things, still with a broad understanding of my position in the world around me though. In an effort to both convey that and shorten my dreadfully long previous email address (tomcampbell.manofpeace), I have chosen a phrase that is more a reminder to myself and perhaps an invitation to other people- listentotrees. It may be pretty transparent to you that this is meant to align with my revitalized take on religion. The world is alive and speaking, but we perceive it to be silent (for we must silence (ie deny the dignity of) our victims). The thought of expressing this with "listen to trees" actually came with an experience late at night a few days ago when I was pretty down. I don't deal well with mental stress, but I couldn't shake it. I was trying to go to sleep on the living room sofa, but I was wide awake and thinking (and the thoughts weren't happy ones). Randomly, I took note of the fact that the only other living thing in the room (that I could see with my eyes) was the potted miniature palm plant at the end of the sofa. I was just staring at it, or through it. I was carrying a mental load, and the plant was the only living being immediately available, so I decided to talk to it. Or with it. It wasn't a conventional conversation by any means. I didn't speak out loud. I just thought my thoughts to the plant, attempting to be telepathic, I guess. Then I quieted myself and tried to feel whatever response the plant had for me. I say feel because it was more like I was interpreting emotional vibes as opposed to listening to the plant respond. The first emotion I felt from the plant was anger (at being stuck in a pot, I suppose). I relayed to the plant my emotions of lonliness over Sara being gone for the semester, and I either realized for myself, or projected on the plant, or received from the plant the message that I was simply focusing a little too much on myself. I need to turn outward and interact with the people still around me instead of feeling sorry for my abandoned little self. It's good advice, whether it came from the recesses of my mind or from the good will of the plant (despite being stuck in a pot). So that's what inspired the "listen to trees" thing. But in general, I want it there as a reminder to just be present to here and now. I've focused more in the past on the now part. Now I'd like to focus better on the here- what is surrounding me, the beings that directly affect me and that I affect without ever normally being aware. I guess I'm trying to describe the interconnectedness of things, but I'm not being too eloquent about it. And it's not like what I'm saying is anything new, except for the part where I have a new email address.

It's listentotrees(at)gmail(dot)com, so update your contact list!

Happy Birthday Blog!

This is the second anniversary of the start of this blog. I missed celebrating the first anniversary because I had my hands full with poopy diapers, my arms full with kids to hug, and my heart full of love for people I had only met two weeks prior. I'm pretty jealous of the seniors in Honduras right now. I wonder how Lita and Angelica are doing.

Two years. Wow. I have changed quite a bit in those two years. Hey, even in the last year. And especially since the start of college. I've experienced a lot in those two years (at least relative to the rest of my life), and I've learned a lot too. Sara asked me a couple weeks ago what I had learned this past year of 2005 (I think she was journaling about it for herself when she asked). I didn't have much of an answer for her then. I'd like to answer that question more fully, in honor of the blog's birthday. I'll start off with the one lesson I told Sara about that night:

• I've learned, to a degree, to take risks. I have acknowledged the benefit of taking risks for quite some time, but it wasn't really until '05 that I started taking them. I've gone to Honduras without really knowing what I was getting myself into. I've been brutally honest with my family and friends about where I now stand. I've begun a beautifully romantic relationship with my best friend, Sara. I've questioned things like I've never questioned before- and actually found out that my old answers didn't hold up anymore. And I've begun to explore the world of possibility that is available to the ex-worker, not fully but cautiously taking my first timid steps into a world very foreign to the one I grew up in.
• I've learned that even when it's readily available, alcohol is still not very appealing to me at all.
• I've come to realize that even with all of the reasons not to, I'd still really like to be a father some day.
• I've learned how to save the world (and I'm happy because it doesn't involve converting Uncle Dan to my viewpoint) and that I don't need to be saved from this world. This world is living and breathing, and I am living and breathing. And it is wonderful. And the world will go on living and breathing after I've died. And that is wonderful.
  
• I've learned to lose any shame I had about the appearance of my body.
• I've learned to express my love for other people more freely and to be more spontaneous and free spirited.
• I've learned that wage-slavery sucks hardcore (and that wasn't even a full dose. that was probably more like a vaccination shot for the disease)
• I've learned to somehow survive in America as a teenager without a car or a cell phone. Like, oh my god!
• I've learned to speedread, kinda.
• I've learned to enjoy reading on my own again, even while school is commencing.
• I've learned (or rather confirmed) that with the education I've already gained with high school, I can coast for most of a semester and still pull off 4 A's and a B+ (of course, I realize that this is dependent on the classes I'm taking, but one of my teachers was definitely known for giving out C's, and I definitely slid right through that class with an A, whatever that means.)
• I've learned that grades mean nothing, just things people made up and believe in, like money- and made up for the sole purpose of motivating you to do something you wouldn't be interested in doing otherside, also like money.
• I've learned even more fully just how little I know, how much I have yet to figure out, how much farther I have to go to get where I'm going (or to even be able to start the journey), and how to begin to accept that as a constant in my life for pretty much the rest of my days.

I might add in more later.

Thirty Theses

I'm still in the process of reading all of them, but they're really good and concise, and I have trouble disagreeing with anything he says (of what I've read so far). So yeah, that's it.

Man of peace?

I was just having a conversation with a friend on instant messanger, and my screen name (pacis vir (man of peace)) came up, as it often does. My attitude towards the ideal of peace has changed since I first created that screen name (and my email address, for that matter).

I don't really ever expect for there to be world peace. The lion will never lay down next to the sheep. The lion will always be hungry, and the sheep will always be yummy. The object most often refered to when talking about world peace is war, war of the scale that it is carried out today, war that is never called war anymore, unless its against some abstract concept like drugs or terrorism, never against the people actually dying because of it. And I could see that the total war, or war aiming at the total destruction of the enemy, could come to an end at some point in the future, along with the collapse of civilization itself (our culture's total war against the earth). Even then, it's not like earth is suddenly going to be devoid of all conflict. Conflict is okay- natural, if you like. Personal skirmishes happen. Humans aren't perfect. They can work little stuff like that out, and it's not going to threaten the continued existence of the rest of the planet. My call for world peace in this sense is by no means utopian or idyllic. But I'm not going to idly stand by waiting for "world peace" by means of a collapse of civilization. That can come whenever it wants to. But I'm going to make a space for peace in my own life here and now, and in that way, I can still be a man of peace. I am not a confrontational person, to a fault; I crave having right relationships with everyone around me, and in the past this has led me to feel the need to be perfect for other people, tailoring myself to their needs and expectations. Somehow, I would like to get over my fears of confrontation (anything more than the debate going on through this blog (like in person) would totally fluster me), and still be able to find a balance between having right relationships with people and being true to myself all the time as well. Perhaps this is the first period in my life that I am able to have actual right relationships with people, as I bear my soul for others to accept as they will. Honesty is a virtue I highly prize. On the other hand, several people in my life over the last few years have tried to describe for me the value of anonymity in being able to go about one's business without anyone taking notice or caring what you are up to, and there is something in that that is attractive as well, having as well a craving for solitude as a basic part of my personality.

I'm babbling now. I don't really know what I was trying to say, but at least these are my own thoughts and not regurgitated from a book I've read. At least.