were able to build a more compassionate, cosmopolitan patriotism, such when Martin Luther King, Jr., argued in 1967 that opposing war is the “privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions.” Nussbaum draws on history and philosophy to make her case for a new brand of patriotism, but does her argument cut against human nature, as some allege? The answer is no—recent psychological research points to many steps we can take to extend the legacy of King. As we celebrate this Fourth of July, here are four for us to... posted on Jul 4 2013 (20,590 reads)

century ago, industrialists like Andrew Carnegie believed that Darwin’s theories justified an economy of vicious competition and inequality. They left us with an ideological legacy that says the corporate economy, in which wealth concentrates in the hands of a few, produces the best for humanity. This was always a distortion of Darwin’s ideas. His 1871 book The Descent of Man argued that the human species had succeeded because of traits like sharing and compassion. “Those communities,” he wrote, “which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.” Darwin was n... posted on Jul 15 2013 (37,934 reads)

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is just a language problem. But what you're pointing out is that a lot of our — the culture's glorification of will and triumphing by determination, that's also a form of mind-body, you know, we're asserting the mind-body connection without calling it that. Mr. Sanford: Right. It's a form of integration. Dominance over bodies … Ms. Tippett: Right. Mr. Sanford: … is what human beings have done for thousands of years, whether it be nature, whether it be each other. That it's — my whole point is that we also need — that's one thing we want in the tool belt, to use will when you need to have it. But we, I think... posted on Jun 29 2016 (30,313 reads)

was really created by stretching out black lawn bags, it felt personal, and they wanted to know more. After reading about how people clean up after an oil spill, students asked, “What can we do?” One boy suggested they put on their gardening gloves. Then they got to work, completely restoring the mock habitat they had worked so hard to create. When their work was done, they joined their teacher to discuss what they learned: why it was important to take care of nature, what they could do to help, and how the experience made them feel. “I could have cried,” Wright-Albertini says. “But it was so rich a life lesson, so deeply felt.” Inde... posted on Aug 14 2013 (47,125 reads)

secure,” but “imagine what our energy policy would look like if every person became more aware of their impact on the planet.” At least that’s the theory. There’s little evidence so far that mindfulness is sweeping through the corridors of power, and there’s an upbeat tone in Ryan’s approach that seems out of place with the realities of Washington DC: “Strip away the materialism, the marketing, the media and the technology and our fundamental nature is revealed,” he writes, “joyous, generous and courageous.” Still, given that US politics is soaked through with cynicism, “gotcha” tactics and manipulation, ev... posted on Sep 6 2013 (28,760 reads)

laugh ever, and he laughs because things really do touch him down to the core. He is kind and smart and sweet and a very important part of our family. He is the VERY BEST FRIEND to little man #5.....who is really equally special. I will never understand what I did to deserve the 5 children I have been blessed with, you would just have to spend a day with them to understand. Our last regular paycheck was in April of this year. Through so many incredible acts of kindness, acts of nature, acts of God, and lots of hard work in every form, we have made it month to month and day to day and week to week, and had absolutely EVERYTHING we have needed...but not muc... posted on Aug 29 2013 (28,769 reads)

that understanding to guide our actions. That makes it different from kindness or pity. And don’t confuse it with the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” As George Bernard Shaw pointed out, “Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you—they might have different tastes.” Empathy is about discovering those tastes. The big buzz about empathy stems from a revolutionary shift in the science of how we understand human nature. The old view that we are essentially self-interested creatures is being nudged firmly to one side by evidence that we are also homo empathicus, wired for empathy, social cooperation, and ... posted on Aug 25 2013 (231,098 reads)

translations, and concepts that cannot be properly explained across cultures. Somehow narrowing it down to just a handful, we’ve illustrated 11 of these wonderful, untranslatable, if slightly elusive, words. We will definitely be trying to incorporate a few of them into our everyday conversations, and hope that you enjoy recognising a feeling or two of your own among them. 1 | German: Waldeinsamkeit A feeling of solitude, being alone in the woods and a connectedness to nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson even wrote a whole poem about it. 2 | Italian: Culaccino The mark left on a table by a cold glass. Who knew condensation could sound so poetic. 3... posted on Aug 31 2013 (168,577 reads)

do people become leaders? What type of leadership interferes with or destroys the network?  What happens after a healthy network forms? What's next? If we understand these dynamics and the life-cycle of emergence, what can we do as leaders, activists and social entrepreneurs to intentionally foster emergence? What is Emergence? Emergence violates so many of our Western assumptions of how change happens that it often takes quite a while to understand it.  In nature, change never happens as a result of top-down, pre-conceived strategic plans, or from the mandate of any single individual or boss.  Change begins as local actions spring up simultaneously... posted on Sep 2 2013 (35,513 reads)

somewhere five minutes ago, she insisted on buckling her stuffed animal into a car seat. When I needed to grab a quick lunch at Subway, she’d stop to speak to the elderly woman who looked like her grandma. When I had thirty minutes to get in a run, she wanted me to stop the stroller and pet every dog we passed. When I had a full agenda that started at 6 a.m., she asked to crack the eggs and stir them ever so gently. My carefree child was a gift to my Type A, task-driven nature—but I didn’t see it. Oh no, when you live life distracted, you have tunnel vision—only looking ahead to what’s next on the agenda. And anything that cannot be checked of... posted on Sep 13 2013 (133,354 reads)

our mental lives. These processes allow for creativity, planning, imagination, memory—capacities that are central not only to our survival, but also to the very essence of being human. The key, I believe, is learning to become aware of these mental tendencies and to use them purposefully, rather than letting them take over. Meditation can help with that. So don’t beat yourself up the next time you find yourself far away from where your mind was supposed to be. It’s the nature of the mind to wander. Use it as an opportunity to become more aware of your own mental experience. But you may still want to return to the present moment—so you can come up with an answe... posted on Apr 18 2015 (152,743 reads)

movement has enormous potential to grow.... The Choice for Simplicity The circle has closed. The Earth is a single system and we humans have reached beyond its regenerative capacity. It is of the highest urgency that we invent new ways of living that are sus­tainable. The starting gun of history has already gone off and the time for creative action has arrived. With lifestyles of conscious simplicity, we can seek our riches in caring families and friend­ships, reverence for nature, meaningful work, exuberant play, social contribution, collaboration across generations, local com­munity, and creative arts. With conscious simplicity, we can seek lives that are rich with... posted on Oct 22 2013 (54,984 reads)

were almost 200,000 cases in India the year we began. To eradicate smallpox, we had to find every case in the world, every virus, without exception, and put a ring of immunity around it. So that's what we did. Over the next few years, 150,000 health workers visited every house in India searching for hidden cases of smallpox. We made more than one billion house calls. And in October of 1977, I went to the most remote bottom of Bangladesh to see what would be the last human infection in nature of Variola Major - the end of a chain of transmission of the disease of more than 5000 years, that had killed Pharaoh Ramses himself and might have scared the faces of many of Jesus', Moses... posted on Oct 25 2013 (18,224 reads)

the top. In the old world of work, good guys finished last. “Takers” (those in organizations who put their own interests first) were able to climb to the top of hierarchies and achieve success on the shoulders of “givers” (those who prefer to contribute more than they receive). Throughout much of the 20th century, many organizations were made up of independent silos, where takers could exploit givers without suffering substantial consequences. But the nature of work has shifted dramatically. Today, more than half of U.S. and European companies organize employees into teams. The rise of matrix structures has required employees to coordinate with a w... posted on Oct 14 2013 (5,894 reads)

the growth of the years must return—or be returned—to the ground to rot and build soil. A good local culture, in one of its most important functions, is a collection of the memories, ways, and skills necessary for the observance, within the bounds of domesticity, of this natural law. If the local culture cannot preserve and improve the local soil, then, as both reason and history inform us, the local community will decay and perish, and the work of soil-building will be resumed by nature.  A human community, then, if it is to last long, must exert a sort of centripetal force, holding local soil and local memory in place. Practically speaking, human society has no work m... posted on Mar 4 2014 (23,660 reads)

inherited from millions of years of evolution is both a gift and a curse, if not understood and used wisely. It is easy for us to get lost in our very basic emotions and motives, or become personally distressed by the problems of others. But evolution has also given us a very different type of attention—an extraordinary competency as miraculous as the ability to see light—that can sense and experience consciousness of consciousness itself. From here we can begin to see into the nature of the mind—and begin to make choices about what emotions we want to cultivate in our lives. This is what it means to wake up and to start to become enlightened. ... posted on Jan 26 2014 (25,411 reads)

for them, I do think it a lot, and do tell them much more often now. - I was kinder to others around me, at work and everywhere else, because instead of seeing the faults in everyone, I saw the good, and was grateful for them. - I needed less, because instead of thinking about what I don’t have, I was grateful for what I did have. - Little things bothered me less, because instead of complaining about every little thing, I would find things to be thankful for. - I appreciated nature all around me, smaller things that I might have missed before, beauty in everything. - Habit change became easier, because instead of focusing on how hard the change was, I found the joy in ... posted on Dec 14 2013 (84,068 reads)

possible in the developing world without using the Internet and the technologies around it,” says Werbach. “It’s not just a business phenomenon. It’s a central organizing platform for anything you can think of.” Werbach also says laptop computers, ranked number two, are related to the Internet thanks to connectivity in the digital realm. “The computer is not something that is in a specific place (i.e., your office),” he says. “It changes the nature of interaction.” And it connects with multiple devices that have been created in the last 30 years, including digital cameras, digital music players and wireless printers. Innovations ... posted on Nov 17 2013 (36,471 reads)

Bay Area, where she lived on a horse ranch south of San Francisco. The exposure to the beauty of the place—the coast, the hills, the redwoods—made a deep impression. One day, as she stepped out of her house, she looked up and saw a red-tailed hawk soaring above her. “As I stood looking up at the hawk, in a voice as clear as day, I heard these words: ‘Tell my story’.” Rosen’s drawings and sculptures are born from the perennial questions: What can nature show us? And what is seeing? Her work shows us something about that. I met the artist at her studio and ranch in San Gregorio, California to talk specifically about seeing… —... posted on Jan 19 2014 (24,730 reads)