Hello there. :)

I cannot believe it's been almost a year since my last post. Oh, all the things that have happened. Instead of going into all of that, though, I'm going to recommend a book. It sounds a little extreme [and the project really was], but the author is very grounded, funny and brought me much hope. 


 A few excerpts from No Impact Man: 


     They say a peaceful mind makes a peaceful man. A peaceful man makes a peaceful family. A peaceful family makes a peaceful village. A peaceful village makes a peaceful country. A peaceful country makes a peaceful world. 
     What does this mean? That if I want to change the world, I have to change myself. 


     After the Industrial Revolution’s two hundred years of inventing more and better products, we may have come to a point where certain products have reached their zenith. We may have come to the point of diminishing returns. We may have reached perfection. We may have reached the point where using more resources may actually make us less happy- where there may not be any more progress to be had. 
     Continuing to do what we’ve done for the past two hundred years is not progress. It’s more of the same. Staying on the same path is not the definition of progress. 
     I simply feel that now that we’ve so utterly perfected the walkie-talkie to the point where it has become the iPhone, maybe we could turn the great minds that brought us the Nintendo Wii to, say, getting fresh water to the 1 billion people on our planet who don’t have it. 


 ...if we rely on technology alone, then we miss the tremendous opportunity for lifestyle improvement that we find in this crisis. If we build electric cars, we will still be stuck in traffic jams. If we keep building suburbs, we will still be isolated and lonely. If we put improving cell phones first, then our best minds will still be distracted from getting clean water to the billion who lack it. If we use technology, in other words, to rebuild the current system so that it can last forever, then we miss the opportunity to ask whether the current system really delivers the good life. We miss the opportunity to have happier people as well as a happier planet.