Four tips to help you change the world

Ode Magazine (which is my favorite publication) has a great spot this month on helping us avoid "burning out" while we tirelessly work to make the world a better place. Here is the whole article from this month's Ode:

www.odemagazine.com
Leonard Felder | September 2008 issue

Burn bright, don't burn out

When you think of someone standing up to battle the status quo, you probably envision a lonely individual facing insurmountable odds. After all, in films like Norma Rae, Erin Brockovich and To Kill a Mockingbird, the passionate change-maker is usually teetering on the edge of burnout.

When I was counselling a gifted change agent who was using art to raise awareness on important issues, I noticed she assumed that feeling burned out-after having difficulty raising money for her non-profit organization-was a natural consequence of being slightly ahead of her time.

I believe burning out as an isolated martyr is old school. I was thinking about that when I was driving my son to school. He loves to watch the engine/battery diagram on the screen of our Prius to see when we’re burning petroleum and when we’re recharging the energy supply without a drain on the fuel. I realized recharging ­constantly like a hybrid vehicle is the way to avoid burnout.

Here are a few key steps I’ve found effective for any change-maker who doesn’t want to become another burnout statistic:

Step 1: Ask yourself if you’re breathing.

If you tighten up or forget to breathe fully during stressful moments, your brain doesn’t get the oxygen it needs, and your shoulders, neck and back muscles will conspire to shut down all your valuable efforts at changing the world. So just keep breathing; your body needs it.

Step 2: Make sure your humour, purpose and sense of decency keep you healthy.

During World War II, the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and his relatives were captured by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps, where Frankl lost his wife, brother, mother and father. After the war, he taught that the best way to stay sane and committed to repairing the world is to search for moments of integrity even when others around you are giving up on their humanity. In the concentration camps, Frankl made sure to find purpose, kindness, humour and inner mindfulness, which gave him strength, endurance and creative problem-solving ideas each day. He always looked for ways to be of service to at least one person every day. Whenever I’m in a tough situation, I bring Frankl to mind and I explore how I can be of service.

Step 3: Turn each setback into wisdom.

Those who burn out tend to see each setback as an indication that they or their ideas are bound to fail. Yet if you think of each setback as a prized gift of wisdom—as one more mysterious clue that needs to be opened and explored to reach the next ­triumphant moment—your body and emotional resiliency won’t be depleted as often. You’ll be able to say to yourself, “This setback is an important missing piece of information about what I now need to include in my vision for change. I’m very fortunate for this chance to learn something so valuable.”

Step 4: Find allies in places you never imagined.

Often, change-makers only talk to people who agree with them, and feel frustrated or impatient with anyone who has a different point of view. Yet the most effective agents of change are those who can build alliances with people who see things otherwise. In my work, I’ve witnessed a ­coalition of pro-choice and anti-abortion groups built to help improve the birth-control decisions used by sexually active teens; Muslims and Jews working together to find solutions to water shortages in the Middle East; and edgy artists and conservative business owners collaborating on solutions to the pervasiveness of urban graffiti.

Like a hybrid car that knows when to sit quietly at a traffic light using no fuel and when to speed up to 65 miles an hour in a few seconds, we change-makers need to learn how to conserve and recharge our energy moment to moment, day after day. Otherwise we’re likely to burn out, and what needs to be changed and improved will be ignored or perpetuated.

© Ode Magazine USA, Inc. and Ode Luxembourg 2008 (further information in Privacy & Copyright)
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Is medical botany the answer to 'Silent Spring'?

In the book that is credited with triggering the American environmentalist movement in the 1970s, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) claimed that the widespread use of chemical pesticides and herbicides were having an irreparable effect on our natural environment and our health. The New York Times reports on Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a research scientist studying medical biochemistry and botany at the University of Ottawa school of medicine.

The article opens:

Diana Beresford-Kroeger pointed to a towering wafer ash tree near her home.

The tree is a chemical factory, she explained, and its products are part of a sophisticated survival strategy. The flowers contain terpene oils, which repel mammals that might feed on them. But the ash needs to attract pollinators, and so it has a powerful lactone fragrance that appeals to large butterflies and honeybees. The chemicals in the wafer ash, in turn, she said, provide chemical protection for the butterflies from birds, making them taste bitter.

Many similar unseen chemical relationships are going on in the world around us. “These are at the heart of connectivity in nature,” she said.

The main focus of the report is on the many uses of trees and the many effects they have on our health and environment. Ms. Beresford-Kroeger has a somewhat radical idea in how we can incorporate medical botany into our urban planning and sustainable development. Again, from the NYT:

She favors what she terms a bioplan, reforesting cities and rural areas with trees according to the medicinal, environmental, nutritional, pesticidal and herbicidal properties she claims for them, which she calls ecofunctions.

Wafer ash, for example, could be used in organic farming, she said, planted in hedgerows to attract butterflies away from crops. Black walnut and honey locusts could be planted along roads to absorb pollutants, she said.

This theory, if researched and implemented correctly could spell the end of the need for chemical pesticides and herbicides, if the same result could be achieved by creative foresting.

Ultimately, the article leaves the reader with the notion that we really know very little. "Dr. Wilson, at Harvard, said that more research into the role of trees in the ecosystem was imperative and that it was alarming how little was known. 'We need more research of this kind to use the things we have, such as trees, to their fullest,' he said." "We," of course, are urban westerners. Indigenous peoples, have incredible knowledge of their native botany and its medical uses.

This knowledge is not lost and we can learn it from others. The important research that Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger is incredibly important for the future of our food production and could be key in producing urban farming as a reality.

Millions of pounds of synthetic chemicals are dropped on our food supply, and therefore into our soil and water, to protect crops from bugs. These chemicals are not harmless. 'Bioplanning' provides an alternative to the wasteful and harmful practice that utilizes our natural ecosystems instead; cycles and processes 'built in' so that our planet functions in balance and order.

Check out the article, it's a good read!
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"It takes a school, not missiles"

When I attended the presidential inauguration in 2004, I (and a number of others) managed to get into seats that had been set aside for Republican attendees (how that is American or legal, I don't know). One gentleman had on a leather jacket with duct tape writing on the back "build gardens, not bombs". A security guard told him he could leave or take off the jacket... in January in D.C. He took off the jacket, or turned it inside out, either way, he stayed. But the idea seemed offensive to people, and that is mind boggling.

I was happy to find a positive op-ed piece in the New York Times about a very special man who lives by a similar sentiment to the message on that jacket named Greg Mortenson. I had never heard of Mr. Mortenson, but I am surely inspired by the story I read. Simply put, he builds schools in Afghanistan, rather than blow them up.

Read the op-ed piece and his website for a good idea of what he does. For a concise understanding of what he has done, enjoy this quote from the op-ed piece:

"So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration."

Author and activist, Greg Mortenson is making real and substantial difference in a small and fractured part of the world. According to his wikipedia site, "Greg Mortenson (born 27 December 1957) is a mountain climber, former United States Army medic, and humanitarian from Bozeman, Montana." Mr. Mortenson also has a blog which seems to not have been updated recently but is a wealth of great and inspiring information.

Here is a transcripted segment of a recent CNN International report, from March '08, on Greg Mortenson and his work:

Greg Mortenson brushed his tears away. His body sagged when he saw it happen. The prize he had sought for 78 agonizing days was slipping from his view. from the top, blocking his path to the summit.

Now more than his vow was at risk. His life was in danger, too. His climbing party had started out with 12 men. Five would die. He was lost and alone at 25,000 feet with an empty water bottle and one protein bar.

"I felt as if there was an angel holding my hand, trying to take me to the top," he said. "When I lost that hand, I decided I better go down. "

What Mortenson found on his descent would test his will as much as K2. He would stagger into a remote Pakistani village, have his heart "torn out" by an unexpected encounter, and meet a girl who altered his life with one question: "Can you help me build a school?"

He didn't know it at the time, but he was about to take another dangerous journey.

Mortenson shared the details of that journey in "Three Cups of Tea," a best-selling book he wrote with journalist David Oliver Relin.

Since 1996, Mortenson has helped build 63 schools for children in Pakistan and Afghanistan through the nonprofit group, the Central Asia Institute. The group's premise: books, not bombs, are the best weapons against extremist groups like the Taliban.

"The real enemy is ignorance and ignorance breeds hatred," he said.

The schools encourage girls to enroll. The ultimate goal: produce educated girls who, when they become mothers, will teach tolerance to their sons.

"You can drop bombs, you can build roads, but if you don't educate girls, the society is not going to change."

That message has made Mortenson popular man. He lives in Montana with his wife, Tara, and their two children, Amira and Khyber. But he's constantly on the road, giving speeches and traveling to Asia.

That message has also made him a marked man. Mullahs have issued death threats against him. In the book, he described being kidnapped and held hostage by the Taliban. He's also received hate mail from Americans who don't think he should educate Muslim children.

Yet he shrugs off any notion of being a hero.

"I see girls walking three hours to school," he said. "I see girls who are being threatened at home by the Taliban still trying to go to school."

This man is one of many people who came out of the military who clearly recognize that violence provides no paths to freedom. Since his vision and those whom Mr. Mortenson has inspired and touched make the world a safer place, I feel strongly that we all should together be saying-Thank you, Mr. Mortenson, for making real difference in the lives of people in a scarred nation.
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Ode to Ode

There are two magazines that I read--one to scare me and one to make me feel better. The one which I read to make me feel better is Ode Magazine.

Ode is one of the few publications dedicated to promoting good news. You can't describe their magazine better they they did:

"Ode is a print and online publication about positive news, about the people and ideas that are changing our world for the better."

The magazine started out in the mid-90s in Rotterdam, the Netherlands by Jurriaan Kamp and Helene de Puy. Four years ago they moved to San Francisco and began publishing in English. I was introduced to this positive publication by the person who has introduced me to most of the positive things in my life a couple of years ago.

My absolute favorite thing about Ode is that it covers a diverse array of news that you wouldn't find in a magazine like Newsweek or even Utne Reader or Mother Jones. Mainly because of its international scope, but primarily because of its dedication to positivity.

Just give a quick glance at the table of contents of this month's issue. There's articles about practical solutions for global warming, non-toxic cancer treatment, an interview with the inventor of the defibrillator (the heart machine, you know... from ER and Grey's Anatomy "ready... clear!"). This is all in addition to their fabulous regular columns from the likes of Paulo Coelho (brilliant author of the Alchemist, one of my all-time favorites; and I recommend everything else I've read by him, too.)

I like this magazine so much I tend to read each issue two or three times. Read it. Highly recommended. Sure beats the fear-mongering newspapers (not that I don't read those, too...)

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