a long life of gradual rejuvenation – unlearning everything they know – they would end as a twinkle in their parents’ eyes. That’s time as represented in a novel by science fiction writer Philip K Dick but, surprisingly, time’s direction is also an issue that cosmologists are grappling with. While we take for granted that time has a given direction, physicists don’t: most natural laws are “time reversible” which means they would work just as well if time was defined as running backwards. So why does time always move forward? And will it always do so? Does time have a beginning? Any universal concept of time must ultimat... posted on Apr 7 2021 (7,605 reads)

leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars,” the young Walt Whitman sang in one of the finest poems from his Song of Myself — the aria of a self that seemed to him then, as it always seems to the young, infinite and invincible. But when a paralytic stroke felled him decades later, unpeeling his creaturely limits and his temporality, he leaned on the selfsame reverence of nature as he considered what makes life worth living: After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains;... posted on Nov 30 2020 (5,732 reads)

Story One year it seemed we were having the worst Christmas ever. That autumn my husband had been in a car accident. His broken neck was healing, but it left him with severe migraines and what doctors thought might be a seizure disorder. Because he wasn’t medically cleared to return to work, we had to pay for health insurance through COBRA (which cost more than our mortgage) while not receiving a paycheck. In addition, my mother was fighting cancer, my brother-in-law was recovering from open heart surgery, and my son was struggling with asthma so severe that his oxygen intake regularly hovered at the “go to emergency room” level. We were broke and worrie... posted on Dec 25 2020 (6,461 reads)

the door behind him in the little room he used as a study. He set up a music stand, sat down in his chair, and assembled the clarinet. It would need refurbishing, but for now, it would do. He leaned into his music. Playing again was remarkably easy, as if the instrument were a friend he’d met for coffee every day of his life. He practiced that afternoon for hours, without realizing. In his world, clocks no longer mattered. For the first time in months, he had something purposeful to work on. Elsewhere in the house, Pat marveled, having never heard him play. She relaxed, listening to his music, happy not only for him, but for herself. So long as he was playing, she knew exactly... posted on Dec 28 2020 (5,838 reads)

of civil rights in America in history books differed greatly” from his own experience. That exhilaration wound up fueling a life’s passion. Spike Lee's film, Do The Right Thing, premiered the summer before Dr. Joseph turned 17, and quickly became his own personal touchstone. “The movie's coda, which drew quotes from Malcolm X preaching black dignity and Martin Luther King Jr. promoting black citizenship, remained stamped in my soul and is reflected in my work as a scholar to this day,” Joseph says. To most Americans, Malcolm X and Dr. King represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword... posted on Jan 12 2021 (2,774 reads)

varying levels of support and collusion from those in power) and the ways in which organizers and communities have confronted this violence over time. Teach the dark topics but shine a light on agency and resiliency in movements for justice.This knowledge can help students process and prepare for challenges they may face in movements for justice today.  4. TEACH THE MOVEMENT: OUR RIGHTS WERE WON BY ORGANIZING, EVEN IN DARK TIMES. Our rights, the rights of African Americans, workers, women, LGBTQ folks and more, were not handed to us by benevolent politicians, but were in fact won by many years of militant, sustained, grassroots organizing by oppressed people. Students mu... posted on Jan 13 2021 (6,446 reads)

a covid survivor gets wheeled out the big doors into the sunlight Like exiting a dark tunnel Into Their families arms in those sweet moments, i think This is the year of resilience the year of I won’t let you go my Navajo friend tells me with confidence The navajo people will walk in beauty once again And she repeats it again We will walk in beauty once again The first time for me The second time I think she says it to convince herself *** For more context on the work Dr. Shamasunder and the HEAL Initiative are involved with on the ground in Navajo Nation check out these links: Three minute segment on NBC evening news live On Democracy Now ... posted on Jan 17 2021 (7,685 reads)

all in this together and therefore have to help each other. “If there isn’t at the core two human beings who have agreed to be in a relationship,” he says, “where one is trying to help relieve the suffering of another, which is love, we can’t get to the right answer.” His article, "Choices for the 'New Normal'" published in the early months of the pandemic outlines "6 properties of care for durable change: tempo, standards, working conditions, proximity, preparedness, and equity." In addition to teaching, he serves as President Emeritus and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and was the for... posted on Jan 26 2021 (5,342 reads)

Yamil Rivera - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79424399 I had never been good at practicing mindfulness, or being mindful—period—until I got a dog. Observing your breath, extolled as the surefire way to become present, left me in such a deep state of hyperventilation I quickly wanted a break from taking a break. I was in constant, anxious movement, starting projects but never finishing them, leaving things halfway done, forgetting items, moving from one thing to the next, constantly apprehensive. But then I got George Lucas: a miniature schnauzer that was the doppelgänger of the Star Wars director, down to the salt-and-pep... posted on Jan 30 2021 (7,190 reads)

a part of my life in the 3,000 days since.    Thank you. I love you. Here’s to 3,000 more! She ends by quoting: "It just comes down to what little things you can do with what time you have and what skills you have, it doesn't have to be about money, it doesn't have to be about age or experience, just about making the effort to make someone's day and I think we all have the power to do that. We can’t always see each other’s hurts. But we can work on love.” ... posted on Feb 2 2021 (6,216 reads)

dropped 44% and ​domino​ed​ throughout the city​. From 2004 to 2014​ we experienced ten consecutive years in a row of decreas​e in violent crime and murder in the city of LA,​​​ and I credit the peace movement with that wor​k​​. I have labored ​for sixteen years on the frontline​s​ of the movement​.​ â€‹A​t the height of Ameri​Can's work we were in 15 cities across the country saving lives​.​ I​'ve​ traveled around the world to war zones​,​ and I've shared my experience about how ... posted on Feb 19 2021 (6,444 reads)

there was 14 tumors and the radiation department zapped all of them. This time there were 11, and 7 of them were very tiny, like little pinpoints and then 4 were larger. We radiated the 4. They recommended whole brain radiation and that's when my attachment to my brain came up. I love my brain. I’ve used it to live and I've used it in service. I felt this resistance. Everyone was worried. And there were also two new liver tumors-- the immunosuppressive therapy was no longer working. I'm learning to use this experience as compost. My therapist once told me, “You’ve called me, and you've told me all these things -- and something stinks — coul... posted on Mar 2 2021 (8,751 reads)

similar stories from around the world. What does it mean for the future of the human species to keep the richness of our multiple languages alive? How does language tether the Soul to the wisdom of the Earth? Written specially for Vikalp Sangam and originally published on Dec 22, 2020 “In our faith there is no heaven or hell”, spoke Mayalmit Lepcha in the Janata Parliament – an Indian people’s parliament which happened online this year, on account of Covid. Her network is spotty. She’s in the mountains. I listen hard and try to piece together what she’s saying. Mayalmit is from the Lepcha tribe in North Sikkim, and she is among the people on the gro... posted on Mar 7 2021 (5,982 reads)

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 (4,783 reads)

around us. And there are profound and sometimes quieter losses piling up: parents forced to choose between being present to their children and making ends meet, relationships sunk by the weight of such stress, losses of identity and companionship and palpable community. We are living through a relentless constellation of loss, and I hear a near constant attempt to downplay just how hard it is. Asked how we’re doing, I utter such words too: “Of course it is impossible for me to work full-time and homeschool my children, but — but!” — I race ahead in the same breath — “it is a wonder to be so involved in their learning.” The gratitude is ge... posted on Mar 10 2021 (6,444 reads)

our power. We’re not accustomed to it and so we fear its consequences. To step into your power means to trust yourself, your instincts, and your intuition. To let the fear go and the shame and tell the stories which need to be told. Stephen Jenkinson Elder really first and foremost should be a verb and not a noun or an adjective, which is to say, it’s something that’s done. ‘Eldering’ now is kind of gone without a trace. I don’t mean that the work is not undertaken, but it’s fitful and it’s scarred and it’s wounded and it’s deeply not sought by people in their middle age or in their young age as a rule. The princ... posted on Mar 9 2021 (11,802 reads)

by tapping into a grassroots system of volunteers receiving and translating text message from people on the ground. And it began Patrick’s attempts to change the world in multiple ways, one map at a time, helping to revolutionize the power of ordinary citizens. Patrick now is using his various skills as a digital humanitarian and global-local activist to help silently transform the growth story of underdeveloped countries through technology. Over the past 15 years, he has worked around the world on a wide range of humanitarian projects with the leading international organizations including the United Nations, Red Cross and World Bank. In 2015, he authored Dig... posted on Mar 17 2021 (4,763 reads)

home from the U.S. with extreme suspicion. The students might even be in danger. Thankfully, he removed from their visas the requirement that they leave the country upon graduation. He granted them eligibility for green cards. That was Jihong’s first step toward becoming a U.S. citizen. He took it with gratitude, though it meant leaving his birth family behind. I met him only a couple years later. By then, he spoke and wrote English better than most homegrown Americans. He worked hard. He paid his taxes. He was law abiding. He was a living definition of “a good man.” After our marriage, when the crank calls were waking us in the night, we’d wonder: ... posted on Mar 31 2021 (4,629 reads)

chemical industry is enclosing the commons of our seeds and biodiversity through “intellectual property rights.” Led by Monsanto (now Bayer) in the 1980s, our biodiversity was declared “raw material” for the biotechnology industry to create “intellectual property”—to own our seeds through patents, and to collect rents and royalties from the peasants who maintained the seed commons.  Reclaiming the commons of our seeds has been my life’s work since 1987. Inspired by Gandhi, we started the Navdanya movement with a Seed Satyagraha. We declared, “Our seeds, our biodiversity, our indigenous knowledge is our common heritage. We recei... posted on Apr 19 2021 (6,844 reads)

call the sidewalk [6] Vijaya uses the translated adjective ‘lustrous’ in her book to explain what qualifies a kolam as exceptional and I believe it really hits the mark. The Tamil women she interviews tell her that it is something akin to the kolam exuding a soft grace, a sense of balance, proportion and shining beauty. [7] Sacred Plants of India, page 11; Nanditha Krishna and M. Amirthalingam [8] See https://www.cmi.ac.in/gift/Kolam.htm for an early example of this work [9] Ethnomathematics: A multicultural view of mathematical ideas; by Marcia Ascher [10] My art book consisted of several loose sheafs of white paper that I had hand-bound using needle and t... posted on May 20 2021 (18,012 reads)