Mallette. CC0 1.0. “Can we dare to think people are kind, and shape organisations around this view?” That’s the question Rutger Bregman examines in his latest book Humankind, and it’s one that anyone involved in youth and community work like me wrestles with on a daily basis. But is Bregman’s optimistic analysis grounded in reality? For anyone who’s read this piece on the “Real Lord of the Flies,” the gist of the first half of Bregman’s book will be familiar. His premise is that despite news reports, social media, politics, religions and ideologies that suggest otherwis... posted on Mar 8 2021 (4,631 reads)

and family members, for precious little money, but enough to help the women support their families. They were made from fabric scraps, mostly worn out dresses, sheets, and aprons, and were more functional than beautiful. But the warmth they provided, and the visible hand stitching, spoke to me of the hard work that went into their making, and of a powerful connection to their creators since each stitch was a direct link to the work of their hands. Some years later I was inspired by the images of the AIDS Quilt, which consisted of countless numbers of large, quilted blocks, each representing a loved one who had died of AIDS, made by friends and family. I saw a section of the AIDS Qui... posted on Apr 29 2021 (7,149 reads)

the quiet of the mind that would tell me many things about my life; nothing was off-limits. It told me what to eat, who to interact with, and where to make efforts in my life. It even prefigured my moving to the islands of Hawai’i, twenty years later. After a little while, the voice said, “a twenty-six day personal workshop.” And sure enough, from that day forward for twenty-six days, my inner wisdom led me to places and precise moments where the scene and the photographic images I made had something valuable to teach me. I could not have conjured up these images and their precise symbolic language had I tried—nor did I fully understand them. Yet, after many years... posted on Aug 10 2021 (2,834 reads)

have overheard pale-skinned visitors to this refugee camp speak of windows as large as a cow and covered by glass that slides wide open. Those stories sound absurd. Such windows would be completely impractical! We Dinka windows allow in some air, of course; but first and foremost, we are designed for safety and comfort. Look at my size and shape: a triangle smaller than a cracked plate. No thief or rapist or looter could pass through me! If I were large, what sense would that make? A cow-sized window could not block the constantly blowing sand. Grit would cover the cooking pot and the sleeping mat and the faces of the children. Grit would tangle their hair and stick in their teeth ... posted on Sep 16 2021 (4,864 reads)

following is excerpted from Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing. Trauma comes to all of us, and its consequences can be terrible.  That’s the truth and the bad news. The good news is that all of us can use tools of self-awareness and self-care to heal our trauma and, indeed, to become healthier and more whole than we’ve ever been.  If we accept the pain that trauma inflicts, it can open our minds and  bodies to healing change. If we relax with the chaos it brings, a new, more flexible, and more stable order can emerge. Our broken hearts can open with tender consideration and new love for others, as well as ourselves. This is the time... posted on Nov 30 2021 (4,760 reads)

excerpt from Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good, by Chuck Collins (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2016) Have you ever lived in a mobile home? Not me. Until the age of 24, I had never set foot in one. But two years later, I’d been inside hundreds. My first job out of college was to work with mobile home owners who rented their home sites in private parks around New England. The goal was to help them organize and buy their parks as resident-owned cooperatives. On an April day in 1986, I was sitting at the kitchen table of a spacious double-wide owned by Harlan and Mary Parro in Bernar... posted on Dec 6 2021 (6,733 reads)

us as sensory beings. It reveals messages and meaning, it can create comfort through a colour palette, a chord, a poem, a photograph. Art can enhance an environment or soften it. It creates space, it allows room to breathe and connect to the present. "I think art helps us acknowledge our own humanity, and remind us that we are all in this together, all deserving of the kindness of strangers." Which is why the Super Power Baby Project has had such an impact I guess. The images in the book shine back at you with so much life! Photography was my tool for communicating how amazing the children are. I was able to capture them, and their personalities and spark in a way t... posted on Jan 16 2022 (3,905 reads)

Masque for the Four Seasons. Walter Crane, 1905-1909. Oil on canvas. Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany. Wikimedia Commons. Source: Daderot Time speaks in many voices, many different images and sounds. For the Neolithic builders of Stonehenge, sacred time was marked by the Summer and Winter solstices, particularly the Winter solstice, when, at around 3:50 pm the midwinter sun would set in the southwest and its rays flood through the center of the monument, dropping down onto the altar stone. Thousands of years later, for the medieval farmer time was the changing seasons and the saint’s days, as well as the monastery bells ringing out over the fields, marking the monk&... posted on May 2 2023 (3,445 reads)

you grateful for your partner’s household labor? Him: Uh, yeah, I guess so. Q: How do you express it? Him: She just knows. —From a focus group conducted by the authors The division of household labor is one of the most frequent sources of conflict in romantic relationships. As couples researchers Philip and Carolyn Cowan have shown, when partners feel that the division of labor (a combination of housework and paid work) in their relationship is unfair, they are more dissatisfied with their marriage and more likely to think they would be better off divorced. However, even an equitable division of labor may not be enough to ensure that partners are s... posted on Apr 24 2011 (15,353 reads)

a regular guy found some super power.   So many of us have good ideas for helping the world. But we tuck our ideas away. I did. I’d tell myself that if the idea were any good someone else would have already done it. That I’m not capable of making a difference. I’d sit on my ideas, get on with my “life,” and then feel angry at the world because the problems I cared about didn’t get solved. I had that fear of going first. Then I took my first hapless step into what I call accidental activism. In 2006, I started a project where I lived as environmentally as possible for a year—with my little family, on the ninth floor of an apart... posted on Sep 2 2011 (9,223 reads)

greet the new year, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton provides the best research-based tips for overcoming our differences. Tis the season for countdowns—of the past year’s best movies, albums, news stories, and more. In that spirit, I’ve compiled a list of my own: the top ten strategies for reducing prejudice and improving intergroup relations. Here they are. 10. Travel (somewhere that challenges your worldview) The word “prejudice” can literally be broken down into “pre-” and “judgment.” Aptly, much of prejudice stems from our pre-judging other people’s habits, customs, clothes, ways of speaking, and values. We often do this with... posted on Sep 10 2011 (17,578 reads)

not what you know but who you know,” the saying goes, suggesting that social connections breed success. But it seems there’s at least one way that the rich are less socially connected: New research finds that upper class people have more trouble reading others’ emotions.   In a series of studies, researchers examined how well participants could judge the emotions that other people were feeling, a skill known as “empathic accuracy.” In each study, the researchers (including the GGSC’s Dacher Keltner) compared the empathic accuracy of people of higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES). In one study, they showed 200 adul... posted on Jul 24 2011 (11,738 reads)

consumption, or what lunching ladies have to do with social web karma. Stuff. We all accumulate it and eventually form all kinds of emotional attachments to it. (Arguably, because the marketing machine of the 20th century has conditioned us to do so.) But digital platforms and cloud-based tools are making it increasingly easy to have all the things we want without actually owning them. Because, as Wired founder and notable futurist Kevin Kelly once put it, “access is better than ownership.” Here are seven services that help shrink your carbon footprint, lighten your economic load and generally liberate you from the shackles of stuff through the power of sharing. ... posted on Aug 11 2011 (91,887 reads)

event - a foul-shooting contest for top academic students at Compton High School in Los Angeles - was created with a simple premise: Organizers wanted to show the kids at Compton how to create community spirit with college scholarship money as the incentive.   Allen Geui won in front of a packed house. Following a tear-jerking gesture from the winner - it appears the true lessons learned were by the adults.   The kids in Compton are more than alright. Three months after winning the $40,000 top prize, Allan Guei donated all of his winnings to the seven other finalists. Guei, a... posted on Jul 8 2011 (14,370 reads)

to fix the economy? Next time you buy coffee, purchase a cup for the person behind you. Or as you grind your way through the morning commute, pick up the tollbooth charge for the driver behind you, draped over his steering wheel and ranting at the long delay. You've heard that famous Gandhian quote about being the change, well these are good measures to start with, packing more punch than you might imagine. This approach to life starts with the following premise: What exactly did I (or you) do to deserve to be alive? If you can process that question and come out thinking it was a gift that you can't ever pay back, then beginning a life of greater giving is the only logical and remote... posted on Jul 9 2011 (31,911 reads)

the old days, no one ever stole. Those who were well off always shared what they had. If there was any thing someone wanted, that person had only to ask the owner and that thing would be given. And no one minded if someone borrowed something and then brought it back to its owner later. But when the sacred elk dogs, the horses, came, they brought with them new problems. It was not so easy to give away a horse, unless it was a special occasion. As a result, some people began to borrow horses that belonged to others without permission. They would bring them back, but sometimes many moons passed before that horse was returned. So the matter was brought to the Elk Society and they put fort... posted on Aug 16 2011 (36,410 reads)

comes a curious look at where they sleep. That’s exactly what Kenyan-born, English-raised, Venice-based documentary photographer James Mollison explores in Where Children Sleep — a remarkable series capturing the diversity of and, often, disparity between children’s lives around the world through portraits of their bedrooms. The project began on a brief to engage with children’s rights and morphed into a thoughtful meditation on poverty and privilege, its 56 images spanning from the stone quarries of Nepal to the farming provinces of China to the silver spoons of Fifth Avenue. From the start, I didn’t want it just to be about ‘needy child... posted on Sep 9 2011 (44,933 reads)

da Vinci, the Internet might be giving us a glimpse into the future of our species. Even in its infancy, the Internet is helping each of us to synthesize the two hemispheres of our brain. Clicking through the explosion of textual information activates the left hemisphere, while linking from page to page and video to video stimulates the right hemisphere. I believe that the Internet is literally changing the way we think, moving us through a constantly evolving landscape of words and images at the touch of a keystroke, which synthesizes the two hemispheres of our brain. If this rewiring is happening on an individual level to each person who uses the web, imagine the cumulative glo... posted on Oct 3 2011 (21,294 reads)

already had you nominate an everyday hero and vote on our favorite nominees. Today it's time to crown Tonic's first-ever Hero of the Month. Without further ado, March's hero is ... Katelyn Eystad, a 14-year-old in Pitman, NJ, whose kindness far exceeds her years. In 2009, Katelyn founded the Angels of God Clothing Closet to provide clothing, diapers, deodorant and more to people in need in her community. Already she has served 1,500 families. As the admirer who nominated her explains, "What a blessing this child has been to many. Katelyn is always volunteering and giving back to others." We loved hearing her story and we love that the nomina... posted on Nov 25 2011 (9,045 reads)

parents, sometimes the greatest lessons come unexpectedly, and from the smallest moments. 7-year-old Owen Shure’s heart-warming letter to a football player is a perfect example. The Twittersphere buzzed with reactions to the San Francisco 49ers’ Kyle Williams fumbling the ball in a tight moment in the playoffs. Some responses were downright vitriolic. But hopefully Kyle also saw this touching story from Ben Mankiewicz on the Huffington Post Blog: He was crying, saying of Kyle Williams, with the distinct sobs of a seven-year-old between each word, "But... why... did he... have to... fumble?" [...]   Trying to get his son to... posted on Jan 31 2012 (22,501 reads)