We Are All Connected–WWF

Amazing images here. Amazingly peaceful feeling from watching it. Hopefully amazingly inspired to support the World Wildlife Fund (their old name but still used in the US and Canada) and their great work.

 

 

The Evil That We Do–Sacred White Buffalo Killed and Skinned

Photo: LightningMedicineCloud.com

Lightning Medicine Cloud didn’t even make it to his first birthday before he was taken out. The incredibly rare white buffalo, born last May, was seen as a symbol and one of the most sacred beings to the Lakota people. It is believed a non-albino white male buffalo birth might happen once in ten million births–it is one of the most renowned messages from Creator in recent history…and the calf was found killed and skinned, it’s mother also slaughtered. Lightning’s father, an 8-year-old male, was struck by lightning and killed last month. (more details here)

It is tragic to me, and shows the grain of evil too many have running though them, when cowardice and ignorance make people try to destroy the spirituality of others. You have to be so damaged to kill a living sacred symbol…or burn the Q’uran or Bible…or decimate graves (like today’s story of a sacred Sufi site in Mali being burned by Tuareg extremists who had been fighting in Libya)…or somehow seek to raise yourself by having to weaken others.

Isn’t that the true marker of weakness, when you are so threatened by another’s strength that you seek to end it? Pathetic.

Operation Paperback–Military Families Receive Free Books

Photo: Operation Paperback

I’ve posted a few entries over time about creative recycling of your gently used belongings. If you’ve got a pile or box or garage full of books you gobbled up and read, but they’re not the titles you want to pass on to future generations in your household (not a judgement on their quality, simply your plans), think about donating them to Operation Paperback, a non-profit organization that collects books nationwide and sends them to troops that are deployed overseas. More than 1.7 million books have already been sent, and yours can be next. Usually, the recipients of the books re-lend them to others in their unit, and a good read can make the rounds through entire platoons. In addition to general reading books (they provide you with the recipient overseas address, and you ship directly, using media mail postage rates–very inexpensive) there are targeted book requests that you might go purchase to send as well, including things like Iraqi and other language phrase books, children’s books that deployed service members read via web-cam to their families back home, professional books that support development goals, books for unit chaplains that are specific titles to support those who are being re-deployed, and more. You know how much sinking into a fantastic story can make time fly, so providing that experience to those who are on duty for us is a pretty brilliant reason to clean out your attic.

Unified in the Fight Against Cancer

I’m so proud to be an alumnus of UC Santa Cruz. Every time I learn more about what the university is up to, even in the face of a crippling public education budget and slashing finances, I think of how pretty much every single Banana Slug (our school mascot) was a whole bunch smarter than me. The UCSC Cancer Genomics Data Center is about to revolutionize cancer research and treatment.

It is no great secret that one of the greatest enemies of treating disease is the medicine business–fights over patents for drugs stop meaningful research from progressing the way it should. The science is there for us to be light years ahead of where we are in fighting disease, but the money grubbing, profit protecting corporations controlling patents are like spoiled schoolchildren vehemently protecting their own research and data, trying to keep progress a secret form every other researcher, so they can corner the market and obtain exclusivity on any new drugs or treatments. It is exactly the opposite recipe from how progress can be made. We learned this in kindergarten, people…but no. To make a buck, they try to keep everyone else in the dark.

David Hausler, a Distinguished Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, is building the biggest data base of cancer research in the world. Currently, each medical center and research hospital or lab works like a lone wolf, only studying their own data. With this Data Center, pooling the world’s research moves the cause ahead exponentially. Every tumor is different, and every cancer must be treated individually–by having an enormous amount of comparative cases, the scientific community is about to have a ton of additional information to help fight in more targeted, EFFECTIVE ways. It’s like, if you spent your entire life only reading The Sun Also Rises, and then one day, someone says to you, “Just open that door there. Through there is the entire New York City Library. Go to town!”

GO BANANA SLUGS!

Volunteer at Every Age

Today is my mother-in-law’s birthday, and she is one of the most inspiring travelers I know. She’s been just about everywhere and the places still not ticked off her list are sure to fall soon to her voracious travel appetite. I travel for a living and I’m STILL trying to catch up! It has me thinking about volunteer vacation opportunities specifically geared toward those who have already seen and lived a lot–and have a LOT more to see and live. ElderHostel has an entire category of service learning trips geared toward their clientele, from archaeology digs, caring for rescued animals, and surveying wildlife in remote locales to feeding the hungry, tutoring disadvantaged kids, even historical memory and preservation projects at Auschwitz. The range of interests engaged is enormous, and the trips are peopled by like-minded colleagues (so you don’t have to spend every night around the campfire discussing acne and Junior College final exams). The organization’s commitment to lifelong learning is something we can all rally around and take to heart. Since 1974, they have been creating spectacular experiences around the world for their “Road Scholars” that unite experts in the field and communities with in-country teams that provide unique access to connect to the culture and local institutions and projects.

There are, of course, plenty of other organizations that cater specifically to service travel-minded retirees–what, and where, are some of your favorites?

When Life Gives You Lemons…Join Forces With Alex’s Lemonade Stand

The Founder: Alexandra Scott

Alexandra “Alex” Scott had cancer that was diagnosed before she was one year old, and throughout her brave battle until she passed at age eight, she and her family and friends held annual lemonade stands in their Connecticut front yard to raise money for cancer research. Her reputation spread far and wide, and soon friends, and then strangers, from around the world, started doing the same, inspired by this child who was dedicated to helping other children. Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation helps support you to do the same, and join the fight to eradicate childhood cancers. In Alex’s short life, she and her friends raised over a million dollars. While June 8,9, and 10 are “National Lemonade Days” you can jump in any time that suits you and the young people around you to get involved. A friend of mine and her kids are doing their own annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand this weekend. Funds raised by the foundation have supported 66 research projects at leading hospitals and research centers across the nation. If you are looking for a way to inspire your kids, this is a tangible, actionable course to take to talk about, learn together, and make a difference for kids everywhere. It was Alex’s dream to help to make a world without any kids with cancer. Isn’t it everyone’s?

MeetUp to Make a Difference

Have you started exploring the connection website meetup.com yet? It is a pretty cool tool where you plug in where you are, and your interests in connecting with other people. Not dating/romance interests, but practicing a foreign language, or a team of like-skilled running partners, or painting, or a writer’s group, or small business experience sharing, or design enthusiasts, or wine tasting, or a book club, or….volunteering!

Type in the keyword “volunteer” and see who is moving and shaking the community around you, who might need help planning or staffing a fundraiser or service day, who is looking for able bodies or minds to take their charitable organization to the next level, and who might be launching a new organization that fires you up–right near your home. Since all the MeetUp opportunities are location based, that means you’ll find people making a real difference in your community, and probably FOR your community. It’s another way to discover like minds and spirits all around you–and we all want to know who the other cool kids are, right?

Youth Photography Projects

We’ve had a friend visiting this weekend, so of course we’ve snapped some iPhone shots of the dogs and a few landscape views. That’s about as deep as I get into photography much of the time, using it as shorthand to great memories, but I have always loved and respected those who use the medium as art, and cut to a deeper level of understanding, exploration, and enlightenment via images. There are some outstanding programs that put the potentially powerful and earth-shifting tool of a camera into the hands of under-served youth, helping with expression and discovering identity, community, etc. Programs are different from one organization to the next, but usually involve a great, bonding connection with a mentor who teaches not only the technical skills of photography, but also how to see the world in a new way. Self esteem and creativity grow, and when the work is shared, public recognition of talent and ownership of a valid vision can completely change a young person’s life. Can you imagine the power in hearing, perhaps for the first time, that your perspective matters? To be able to proclaim “This is how I see my world” or “This is what matters most to me in my environment” or even “Your probably never would have guessed this about my life”…it is an enormous door swinging wide open.

Find a photography (or other field of creative expression education) program for youth near you, and get behind it…donate your underused camera, make a monetary/support donation, volunteer to mentor. If our schools find creative education dispensable as they need to slash budgets, let’s find ways to take a stand for never slashing it from our children’s lives. It is far too high a price to pay.

Here are a few photography programs to peruse–there are many, many more–and perhaps one waiting to be started by you!

Paterson Youth Photography Project (in Paterson, New Jersey)

FOCUS Youth Photography Project(in West Oakland and San Jose, CA)

Focus on Youth (in Portland, OR)

Rural Youth Photography Project (based out of East Tennessee University)

Green Spaces Alliance “Picture Your World” (in South Texas)

Youthlight Project (in Baltimore, MD)

Lapwai Youth Photography Project (in Lapwai, ID on the Nez Perce Reservation)

Ghana Youth Photo Project

Pedal Power for Earth Day

There are hundreds of ways you can celebrate Earth Day this weekend, and jumping on a bike is a great way to set the tone. On your way to your community beach or street clean up, recycling center or rally, double your no-impact impact this weekend with pedal power. You don’t have a bicycle? No problem. Just check out the free Community Bicycle Programs near you on the website of the International Bicycle Fund. Some loan out bikes for up to six months at a time, in a program as easy as checking out a library book, and some let you grab a two-wheeler for the afternoon. There are hundreds of free community bike programs throughout the United States, and the site has an International Directory as well. 

IOU Respect

In Chicago this summer, young people ages 18-23 will be gathering from many nations to explore cultures and belief systems with the Hostelling International program, IOU Respect. Youth hostels are the way stations around the world for young intrepid travelers (and older travelers as well), and this international gathering will bring young representatives from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Germany, France, and the United States for 12 days of understanding. They will engage in workshops exploring identity, discrimination and stereotypes, privilege, international conflict, communication, and religion. Focused on the ways cultures are alike, as opposed to different, can crack open new solutions to global unity. It’s not all academic, as they will also go on sightseeing tours, residence visits, and a retreat outside the city, as well as a “Culture Night” where they introduce and share their home food, music, language, and artifacts. It’s the perfect international relations summer camp for young adults! More cross-cultural solutions are the answer to this time of fractured societies, and this creative endeavor gets a thumbs up from me (and envy–wish I could go!)