Thoughts: Get unstuck. Ouch. Whew.
Thoughts: Getting back to nature (and getting out of nature’s! way!) with tropic cascade
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” – John Muir.
I love this idea of re-wilding.
When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent for nearly 70 years, the most remarkable “trophic cascade” occurred. What is a trophic cascade and how exactly do wolves change rivers?
Wolves were once native to the US’ Yellowstone National Park — until hunting wiped them out. But when, in 1995, the wolves began to come back (thanks to an aggressive management program), something interesting happened: the rest of the park began to find a new, more healthful balance. In a bold thought experiment, George Monbiot imagines a wilder world in which humans work to restore the complex, lost natural food chains that once surrounded us. (Here’s his TED talk; and here’s Sustainable Man’s mixdown, below.)
Thoughts: Sex & violence, sure…but there’s more, much more of what we do best
One of the pieces that’s often left out of discussions about Darwin’s thought, which often (in western society) centres on the “survival of the fittest” mantra, is that he also made the case that people, tribes, and groups that work together can thrive, not just survive.
Agustin Fuentes, an anthropology professor, says the urges to pursue sex and violence are basic parts of being human, but they are not the key to humanity’s evolutionary success.
Check this out. It’ll lift you up, about our possibilities.
Thoughts: Don’t be shy. Take it.
Thoughts: Dive in!
You have been walking the ocean’s edge,
holding up your robes to keep them dry.
You must dive naked under and deeper under,
a thousand times deeper. Love flows down.
~Rumi
About Brother Ian
Over the centuries, Brother Ian has been collecting stories & information & discourses for the purpose of elevating the human condition as needed, dissecting it when necessary, and building the case for hope.
In the spirit of noting that organized crime, organized baseball, organized labour, and organized religion tend to engender controversy & occasional discord, I promise to be neither organized or critical of those who are.