If my actions mean anything, love means everything. Discover what’s driving political violence in America and eight ways to stand up to hate. NASA celebrates Insight landing NASA made history on Nov. 26 when the InSight Mars lander touched down on the plains of Elysium Planitia. The lander represents a spectacular technical achievement—and serves as a reminder that humans (and Americans) are capable of doing great things when we pool our resources and work together. Find out how a feeling of awe stimulates cooperation and curiosity and makes you feel more connected to other people. The women in the elevator Credit: Matt McClain / The Washingt... posted on Jan 27 2019 (9,171 reads)

officers—what some scholars are calling an epidemic. Jan. 1 marked 10 years since the 22-year-old father was fatally shot by the Bay Area Regional Transit officer in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day. In the decade since his tragic death, Grant’s family has helped to create a police citizen review board of BART, established a foundation, and launched a campaign to not only help bridge the gap between police and the community, but also to build a nationwide network of families affected by such violence. “That’s a club that nobody wants to be a part of,” says Grant’s aunt, Beatrice X Johnson. “We can offer them love, support,... posted on Mar 16 2019 (3,603 reads)

following is an excerpt from The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martín Prechtel. In his book, Prechtel explains that the unexpressed grief prevalent in our society today is the reason for many of the social, cultural, and individual maladies that we are currently experiencing. He goes on to show how this collective, unexpressed energy is the long-held grief of our ancestors manifesting itself, and what work can be done to liberate this energy so we can heal from the trauma of loss, war, and suffering. -- Marina Snyder Grief expressed out loud, whether in or out of character, unchoreographed and honest, for someone we have lost, or a country or home we have lost, is... posted on Jun 1 2019 (40,939 reads)

a company public as a CEO. I actually think we would be better served if we had more people in leadership positions in public and private life who have known what it’s like to be broke, to see the tragedy of a grandfather reaching the end of his life not knowing how to read, to win admission to a fancy school and feel like you shouldn’t be there at first but then dig deep and carve out your place there and in the world beyond. Any leader of any organization of sufficient size will work with a diverse group of people and having a diverse set of experiences can only help build empathy. In my personal life, I get invited to fancy dinners and such. Sometimes when introducing the... posted on Mar 9 2019 (9,767 reads)

to psychiatrists that involved psychotherapy dropped from 44% in 1996–1997 to 29% in 2004–2005. * In the analytic psychology of Jung, the image of the one-eyed giant holding a golden sword conveys the archetype of the “deep” (non-egoic) self. [1] Rubel, A., O’Nell, C., & Collado-Ardon, R. (1984). Susto: A Folk Illness. Berkeley: University of California Press. [2] Kraepelin, E. (2009). Lectures on Clinical Psychiatry. General Books LLC (Original work published 1904). ... posted on Feb 20 2019 (10,721 reads)

of her humble gratitude. I immediately wanted to gift her a new pair of shoes, but realizing this wasn’t feasible, I thought about giving her a warm pair of socks. Upon further reflection, I quickly surmised that she wouldn’t be the only one struggling to keep warm this winter, and she certainly couldn’t be the only person whose feet were hurting. A few days later, I emailed friends and family to share that I’d be leading a winter sock drive. I hung up a sign at work and reached out to neighbors. I set up donation bags and waited for pairs of two to trickle in, and gradually, they did. Over the course of 8 weeks, I had collected 84 pairs of new winter sock... posted on Mar 6 2019 (9,195 reads)

you can create more intimacy even with a bigger class. It helps to divide activities into small groups, or do more pair-sharing. Of all the factors listed here, I firmly believe that class size is the most important in terms of determining what you teach and how you teach it.  If you can, keep the class small. 2. Foster intrinsic motivation If students are voluntarily taking the course, it means they actually want to be there. And this means that you have to do less work to convince them of why it is important; they are already bought in to a certain extent.  However, most of the classes I taught were compulsory. The key for teaching compulsory classes is... posted on Mar 15 2019 (11,111 reads)

out over the grass, without a road being there. I couldn’t believe that we could simply head out hiking across hills and rocks and meadows in any direction, without a trail. I couldn’t believe that the grass would grow and the bison would eat and reproduce, and the birds would sing and the snakes would slither and the creeks would flow… all without human intervention.             At the time of this visit, I had been working as a faith-based climate advocate for several years. I had spent a lot of time poring over charts and graphs of projected greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts, and to tell you the trut... posted on Mar 7 2019 (8,597 reads)

day. Sages highlight the value of silence for more constructive reasons. They say it helps us use our personal resources judiciously. Talking expends energy and takes up time. I make a point of staying in close touch with friends, but I also know that hours can fly by in long talks on the phone. And although I love to go hiking with a friend and catch up on our lives, I notice a difference when I walk quietly with my dog. I feel refreshed from the exercise, and my energy is focused for the work I need to do.  Silence also helps me express what is important rather than any old thought that flits through my mind. Sometimes, in the middle of a disagreement with my husband or to avo... posted on Apr 14 2019 (12,483 reads)

P2P Foundation, and Sharing Cities Sweden. Others were recommended to us. Take a look at what we’ll be reading and let us know what you think. If you have ideas for other books we should check out, let us know at info@shareable.net. We’ll consider your submission in the next edition. Below are summaries, excerpted from each book’s website: Better Work Together by Anthony Cabraal and Susan Basterfield “Ready to embrace the future of working together? Here is your creative field guide. Enspiral is a community of impact driven entrepreneurs experimenting at the edges of ownership, governance, decision making, resource sharing and o... posted on Apr 28 2019 (8,972 reads)

social conflict brings out an additional and unique hormonal response that is not stimulated by other forms of stress. This unique pattern of hormonal stress response predisposes socially stressed mice to herpes infection. The hormone that does this, which is secreted in saliva, is called nerve growth factor. Those who are prone to herpes virus “cold sores” will find this situation all too familiar. It is exactly when we are stressed — perhaps with lack of sleep and too much work, but especially with prolonged anxiety over personal or workplace situations — that we invariably get a cold sore. In the remainder of the wholly illuminating The Balance Within, ... posted on Mar 2 2020 (6,564 reads)

on it. I suspect now that the Treasure was Earth itself and the light and warmth of the sunbeams ; yet sometimes I fancy that I have been searching for it ever since.     Nature as Last Consolation  Buried deep in me, I fancy, is a tiny Wordsworth or Thoreau, crying reedily to be let out. For when I imagine all else failing me, always I see myself finding my last delight in Nature herself. We will say that the world I have known is in ruins, my work is done, my family and friends are scattered, and I am a shambling old wreck of a fellow living on four-pence; nearly the worst has happened. But Nature, I tell myself, will still be there, and a... posted on May 2 2019 (6,602 reads)

with Mary for the last week of her life. A small team of friends shared the privilege of washing her hair, holding her, singing to her, and reading her own amazing poems to her. We played some rock and roll when we needed to. Lots of coffee. Lots of cookies. Lots of tears. In the days following Mary’s death, as we slowly tidied up the bedroom and tried to get used to the startling absence of her tiny body, surely we each took our own inventory of that spare room where she slept and worked for the last three years of her life—the work table and the typewriter, the twin bed and the night stand with her well-worn copy of A Year With Rumi, and the small yellow legal pad o... posted on May 26 2019 (32,218 reads)

since its inception, Mother’s Day continues to be a day of protest. Women have taken to the streets to call our attention to the injustices of war, poverty, inadequate healthcare, child labor, gun violence, and more. These are the fierce, socially engaged underpinnings of Mother’s Day. So this Mother’s Day, we invite you to honor the mother-figures in your life and also to marvel at the intricate web of dependence and care that holds us all. May we honor the work of taking care of each other. It is in the recognition of our profound interconnection with one another that we can rise up to protect what we hold most sacred. Let us be moved too by t... posted on May 12 2019 (8,482 reads)

barrels pressed tightly into his stomach — the militia of the rebel forces had snuck up on him under the veil of the dark and captured him in “solemn silence,” staring at his tie — “such a luxury was not fashionable in an anarchist area” — rather than his face. He recounts: My skin tightened. I waited for the shot, for this was the time of quick trials. But there was no shot. After a complete blank of a few seconds, during which the shifts at work appeared to dance in another universe — a kind of dream ballet — my anarchists, slightly nodding their heads, bid me precede them, and we set off, without hurry, across the lines of j... posted on Jul 7 2019 (7,856 reads)

to smoke, in part because they do not want to be criticized or reprimanded.” In other words, the power of a popular law is due partly to conformity. But conformity also carries with it the power to make human beings ignore their own consciences, sometimes to the point of committing atrocities. The book points to Stanley Milgram’s infamous experiment in which participants were told to deliver a series of electric shocks to another participant (actually an actor working as the researcher’s confederate), slightly increasing the intensity every time. While the experiment was a ruse, the participants didn’t know that. Milgram found that all of the pa... posted on Jun 17 2019 (4,007 reads)

the wider socio-economic decline that surrounds them? What is it about political life that turns so often and so quickly to violence instead of love? I think there’s a missing link in this equation that’s best described as cultivating equanimity. Equanimity runs deeper than the attitudes of non-judgmental acceptance and open curiosity that are advocated by most contemporary enthusiasts for mindfulness. It can buffer people against the harsh political and economic frameworks within which they live and work by offering each individual a unique intelligence. With more equanimity, mindfulness turns increasingly towards the needs of others, but why, and what exactly is ... posted on Jul 8 2019 (6,094 reads)

sit for 20 minutes to cultivate compassion. If we were to do so, our mind will change, our brain will change. What we are will change. So those are skills. They need to be, first, identified, then cultivated. What is good to learn chess? Well, you have to practice and all that. In the same way, we all have thoughts of altruistic love. Who doesn’t have that? But they come and go. We don’t cultivate them. Do you learn to piano by playing 20 seconds every two weeks? This doesn’t work. So why, by what kind of mystery, some of the most important qualities of human beings will be optimal just because you wish so? Doesn’t make any sense. I have a friend who is 63 years o... posted on Jun 19 2019 (9,072 reads)

for who we are. We can even set down many of the confines of how we have learned to identify ourselves in the world. We do not need to do, have, or be anything to be worthy of receiving our own acceptance and kindness. Instead, we can turn towards ourselves, extending the gifts of more merciful appreciation for every aspect of who we are, exactly as we are. All of it. Here. Now. Perfectly imperfect. Imperfectly perfect. It is hugely human – and culturally encouraged – to want to work on, change, refine, and try to “better” ourselves. But before any efforts toward self-improvement, personal transformation, or transcendence, there is great wisdom in first learning t... posted on Jul 28 2019 (9,082 reads)

questions rather than giving quick answers. We’ve also spent many years listening to others mainly to determine whether we agree with them or not. We don’t have time or interest to sit and listen to those who think differently than we do. It is very difficult to give up our certainties -- our positions, our beliefs, our explanations. These help define us; they lie at the heart of our personal identity. Yet I believe we will succeed in changing this world only if we can think and work together in new ways.  Curiosity is what we need. We don’t have to let go of what we believe, but we do need to be curious about what someone else believes. We do need to acknowledg... posted on Jul 9 2019 (9,704 reads)