Lawlady's Divorce Blog

Saw Inconvenient Truth, Now What?

A tiny little green card caught my attention at the coffee house yesterday:

First you stopped littering.  Then you started recycling.  Now become NET GREEN.  Offset your green house gas emissions today.  Be part of the solution. 

This was a card for gwef.org.  A local area group helping people reduce their carbon loads on the environment.    Here is an excerpt from their website. 

The Global Warming Reality

We all produce green house gas (GHG) emissions – it is simply a part of existing as an individual or a business in our society today. As people become more aware of the global warming issue, however, many are looking for a way to become a part of the solution in their every day lives. Unfortunately, the issue can be daunting, leaving many feeling helpless to make a difference with their limited resources and time. That is, until now…

Families in the U.S. could be neutral now for as little as $100 to $200 per year offsetting 10 to 20 tons of GHG ( Greenhouse Gas) emissions TODAY* If your yearly payment was $150.00, that would be just $12.50 per month or $.42 cents per day. *Based on average emissions per person.

Polygamists of Utah II

The most frequently read article on this blog is my first article on the Polygamists of Utah.  It gets about three hits every day.  They capture some people's attention. 

I think, from my certain vantage point, they share much in common with fundamentalist Muslims.  How does this idea sound?  What if we adopted a Muslim foreign exchange program and had fundamentalist Muslims move over and spend time in the towns where the Polygamists of Utah reside, possibly living with these Mormoms. It seems the two groups share some core values, dress in equally conservative ways, and have a more patriarchal family structure than most modern Americans. 

How would they receive each other?  Would it promote world peace? 

So, I want to save the world, where do I go?

Have you seen the movie Inconvenient Truth. Go see it. I think it's so well done it should be every American's civic duty to see it.  We are possibly killing the planet and making this an uninhabitable place if we don't change our habits, systems and culture. 

I wrote Steve Habib, a great connector in the local area, about ways a person could plug in if motivated to make a difference in saving our people and planet.  Here is his response:

Here are a few suggestions.  I'll send you more if I think of them.

The regional organization that comes to mind regarding the issues of
Global Warming is called Climate Solutions.  See
http://www.climatesolutions.org

Their offices follow.  I think their Seattle office would be one of the
best possible places to start in this area.

Main Office:
219 Legion Way SW, Suite 201, Olympia, WA 98501-1113
Phone: 360-352-1763; Fax: 360-943-4977
Email: info@climatesolutions.org

Seattle Office/Northwest Climate Connections
1601 2nd Avenue, Suite 615. Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: 206-443-9570; Fax: 206-728-0552

The World Urban Forum is occuring in Vancouver as we speak.  See
http://www.unhabitat.org/wuf/2006/default.asp  It will be followed by the
World Peace Forum.  See http://www.worldpeaceforum.ca/

The Omidyar Network may be doing a lot of things of interest to you and a
great way to connect with like-minded people.  Their public forum is at
http://www.omidyar.net/home/ and an overview of their organization is at
http://www.omidyar.net/

Phil Mitchell, a software tool builder and community organizer, has
started an initiative called 2People with the intention of building a
movement around these issues.  But, it is very much a grassroots kind of
thing -- don't know if that would be of interest to you or not.  Info at
http://www.2people.org

In Community,

Steve "Habib" Rose
habib@thegarden.net
Seattle, Washington, USA

I suggest that you plant a tree, motivate someone to see Inconvenient Truth, or figure out how you can best use your talents, skills and connections to make a difference.  What will you say about your behavior in 2006 when the next generation asks, "What were you thinking when you still had a chance to make a difference in the quality of life here on planet earth?" 

I hope you can say, "I got the message things were at the critical stage and did something."

Blessings to you.

Looking for Divorcing Couples for Interior Make Over Show

I got a call today from an A&E television producer looking for couples to star in a  interior design make-over show.   Just like Trading Spaces and other interior decorating make-over shows, this will be about divorcing couples moving from one home to two homes. They'll pay for new furnishings, if you'll let them into your lives.  They'll film you and your spouse while they move your stuff and decorate your new places. 

Here is the information if you are interested in being on an episode of their show. If Survivor was too rigorous for you, Star Search too musically oriented, maybe this is the reality show for you. Here is the flyer the Producer sent me:

If you or someone you know is splitting up and moving out then consider this opportunity. “ Split"   is a new design show for couples on the rocks. We are looking for

Seattle couples to help move and decorate their new places. We are looking for people who will be moving in July or August, who have lived together for 5 years or longer, and who will have an empty apartment or home to move into about the same time. “Split" will help decorate, furnish and move this couple over a period of 6 days.

Contact: Anna Rodzinski
At  Screaming Flea Productions, Inc.

                                                    206-763-3383, ext 205
                                                       Cell: 206-660-4907
                                                     anna@sfpseattle.com

"Split” is a show that gives separating couples a fresh start. We want to help couples make the transition from married to single. Breaking up is hard to do and dividing your stuff makes it even harder. So - it’ll be up to our "Split"  designers to decide who gets what and to decorate their new places. It’s all about a new beginning.

This I Believe

Well, here is yet another plug for TEC, now known as Vistage, the CEO/Entrepreneur support group. It acts to support business leaders lead with confidence, courage, and integrity while avoiding costly mistakes and decreasing decision making time.  You meet monthly with your group and get the type of assistance that a private Board of Directors could offer you  if you were powerful enough to have a private Board of Directors. Here's the link if this kind of group sounds interesting: Vistage.com.

Last night I was writing about what you would say, if you knew the whole world was listening to you for ten minutes.  I thought, "wouldn't it be great if we could assemble all the stories together to find out what humans know to be true."

Well, synchronously, today at my Vistage meeting, the leader suggested I check out "This I Believe," an NRP show.  Well, I just logged on. Here is what the program is about per the NPR website:

This I Believe^® is an exciting national project that invites you to write about the core beliefs that guide your daily life. NPR will air these personal statements from listeners each Monday.... By inviting Americans from all walks of life to participate, series producers Dan Gediman and Jay Allison hope to create a picture of the American spirit in all its rich complexity.

This I Believe is based on a 1950s radio program of the same name, hosted by acclaimed journalist Edward R. Murrow. In creating This I Believe, Murrow said the program sought "to point to the common meeting grounds of beliefs, which is the essence of brotherhood and the floor of our civilization."

In spite of the fear of atomic warfare, increasing consumerism and loss of spiritual values, the essayists on Murrow's series expressed tremendous hope. ...

..."As in the 1950s, this is a time when belief is dividing the nation and the world," says Allison about life today. "We are not listening well, not understanding each other -- we are simply disagreeing, or worse. Working in broadcast communication, there's a responsibility to change that, to cross borders, to encourage some empathy. That possibility is what inspires me about this series."

For the full text:  link here: npr.org/thisibelieve/about.

I'm going to enter a submission before my next meeting.  I think you should too. 

 

My Ten Minutes

It's 10:46. I've got ten minutes to share my particular truth with the world. Here is what I know today that is important for all of you to hear.

The world is going to hell and a hand basket.  Ask anyone with any brains and he or she will cite you statistics horrible enough to make an old cowboy plump up like a juicy grape.  We are murdering ourselves; killing beautiful, riveting  places of indescribable natural beauty and wonder;  having a planet full of babies that we cannot support and raise in the dignity that those precious beings deserve; we are a planet filled with fear-based humans who aren't very evolved psychologically;  on the other side of the globe -and that doesn't necessarily mean north or south, east or west hemispheres, I'm speaking  metaphorically here, the others of us are so confident, so certain, so convinced that we know it all that we are hard for the rest of the inhabitants here on planet earth to tolerate.

So enough bitching. 

We're fucking it up. 

Pardon the tough language here. But tough times, call for tough words. 

The good news is:  for all of you who watched Star Trek; for all of you who cheered in ET or at the cool scenes in the Terminator when the good guys won; or when the even better guys in Star Wars won (the first one);  for all of you people who ever hoped to be on a truly meaningful spiritual path; or to be born into interesting times (you know the Chinese wish a blessing on people that they may be born in interesting times); or the people who think, or have thought, being on a really cool adventure would be amazing; or thought that the second coming of Christ (or the first coming) or any other version of resurrection, judgment day, or any other myth, story or religious prognostication that the world screeches forward to a new level of love and wonderment; well, for any of you: 

well, for you....

let's just pretend that day is here,

and act accordingly. 

In my mind, it's time for decisive right action, by everyone, on all levels; and what that means for you is yours alone to know.

Two minutes to go:  here's the final one, two punch:

It's time we step up and start being as smart as we have been trained to be;
and as loving as the most kind-hearted, spectacular  loved-ones have taught you to be;
and it's time for every person on this planet to be an army of one
in the crusade to make this place- planet earth-
one great location to reside.

If we don't,
I do believe in our next incarnation we'll all be back
to being a bunch of ants starting over,
trying to get it right for once.

We've waited too long in human evolution to not start getting it right.

We're too smart for that.

Wake up and start doing things the way you know you should be doing them. 

From your heart, mind, and with that terrific, stubborn will you were given at birth.

10:57.   Ooops.   One minute over time.

The Truth from Everyone

Tracking blogging stats and charting data becomes addictive if you do it enough.  I'm starting to get strangely excited about checking  my visitor hits every day.  Is this some techy-fetish thing?

Today I had 45 hits. What is amazing to me is that you are not visiting for the same reason. I have a diverse readership is my guess.  I'm rather excited to know who you mystery readers are?  Who are you?  Why did you stop by this blog?

I am such a new-comer to the technology realm, I may be noticing odd on-line behaviors that others of you have known and accepted as normal for years now.  This emergence of on-line communities is so futuristic to me. It's hard for me to reconcile that this level of sophistication and inter-relating exists on the same planet where starvation, child infanticide, and genocide is occurring.  There is extreme diversity of reality on this planet.

Here's a large thought:

What if, ...

what if...

(This literary technique is supposed to get you to slow down. Really slow.  Slow way down so that this next question hits you when you are calm, slow and most open.)

So here is the the very important question of the day:

What if  every single person on this planet knew something very important for everyone- every other person on this planet- and that person was given a place to post that information; and then we created a new book, sort of a living new encyclopedia, or a new bible, or new science text; and then some super brilliant statistician, or computer geek with access to the world's largest computer, coded and digested the entire 6-billion (is that how many of us are on this planet?) entries.  What would that look like, read like, sound like, move like?  Would that much truth  in one (enormous) place shift the magnetic poles of the planet?   That would be one powerful book wouldn't you agree?

What an amazing project.  Maybe that is what the Internet is supposed to be.  The collection of our best. The new world library.  (Did Bill Gates already say that?)

What would be your contribution to world truth?  What would be your most important message if you had one 10-minute block of time to broadcast to the world?

I'm going to go do my 10-minutes in the following blog.  Join me please.  Ladies and gentlemen, start your clock...  What do you, and only you, need to tell this planet right now?

Let's Reclaim the Color Khaki

I heard the reader comment about the fact the present theme of the week does not print out.   Yes, I tried it on my printer, and the lighter font will not print out on a regular printer. I've asked the powers that be at typepad to let me change the font color.  Hopefully, this will work and if not, we'll move on to another color schematic.   I was digging this para-American palette.  Just like I'm simultaneously into wearing khaki t-shirts with my navy work suits.  I think it is important that the army is not the only one wearing that color. The color needs to be preserved for other uses.  I'm not sure what it reminds me of besides the military, but that's why I wear it.  I want to recall other things besides war. The color must have other natural purposes in nature. It's not quite the color of desert plants.  It's not exactly pine tree color.  I'm not sure where I remember the original color from. Maybe it's a color that doesn't happen much in the northwest. 
What does Khaki remind you of besides the Army, and paint-ball outfits?

Thank you to the reader who pointed out my printer problem.  We're on it here at lawlady.blog.   I'll respond to your email off line.  It' s been a busy week. I have a Vistage presentation tomorrow.

Here's a mini-commercial and then I'll sign off: 

Vistage:  The best business decision I made all last year. It's a monthly executive support group acting as the board of directors for small entreprenurial companies,  and CEO support for CEOS and other top company officials. You'll be pushed by other amazing business professionals to take your work to the next level. Completely worth the price (both time and $). Check it out at at vistage.com.

What I have to Say

When I was in the 10th grade, I took a speech class.  I was very nervous.  Extremely nervous, which seemed stupid because I had been in harder classes before.  I had stood up and given book presentations in English class before and did fine.  I had starred in school plays, and hogged the stage in the school musical performances. And don't get me started on ballet. My mother said that when I was young, I might not have a clue about what dance steps I should be doing on recital night, but I carried myself like I knew what I was doing so even when I was wrong, I just looked like it was part of the choreography.  The dance teacher used to use me as an example for the really good ballerinas in my class.  He would say that I didn't have the talent that the other girls did- the thin, taller ones- but he said I carried myself like I knew what I was doing and that confidence was appealing.  After ballet ended for me when I got boobs (it that word allowed on a professional website?),  it wasn't long before I ended up in the speech class. 

For my expert speech, I chose to give a make-over to Metta the exchange student from Norway.  As a sophomore, I knew make up, in the I-read-17-Magazine kind of way. It was the 1970's and I was good with the dramatic three-shades of eye-shadow thing.  You could say I was a make-up expert, if glam rock was your thing. 

I did the entire speech to a dead audience.  It was frigid.  It was painful.  It was like opening up the freezer and burning a layer of skin off my face.  Although at the time, the words lacked the same meaning as they have to me today, I vowed I would never subject myself to that experience again.  In my 10th grade mind, the thought went more like this:  That was terrifying and awful.  I'll never do that again.

And I didn't.  For years.  Now, I got up and spoke lots of times to lots of different groups.  But not in the same way, talking about something I was passionate about and something I was a self-proclaimed expert in. 

I wish now that the teacher could have scene my brilliance and pulled me aside to encourage me to try again, this time with a greater eye on what this audience needed to hear that I was uniquely poised to tell them.  Or, she could have shared her story of hearing a fabulous speaker talk about his first failed speech.  Or anything that would have let me know I actually had some talent in public speaking. I assumed I didn't have much and moved onto art that next year. 

After a year of art and feeling mediocre in the  first real art class I'd ever taken, I moved on to concentrate on Honors English, but knew I was never as good at the students who got into Stanford.  Then, in college, I followed up my high school introductory class in psychology, only to hit Freud who ruined the whole subject for  me.  The class in college had so many students, I never got close to the teacher, and even if I could have. I wouldn't have known how to put into words the concept "I loved this subject so much the first time I heard a lecture in it in high school. How come I hate it so much after having to learn about Freud and the guy with the dogs (Pavlov)?"

I tried to learn computers at UW, but knew so little I signed up for computer science 101.  I didn't know that if you wanted to use the software, you took classes in the business school  Surviving that first semester class filled with future programmers of America left me frozen about computing.  So I changed majors. 

The writing instructor was so awful, I couldn't write for years.  I wrote about fake stuff that I barely cared about just to get good grades.

I stopped sewing when my first dress turned out only so-so. 

What I didn't know is that the things you love take time.  The first time I was a hostess I sucked.  With the things we love most, it is terribly painful to watch ourselves a drift and inept.  We hold the master's level of excellence in our genes, and must grow through the baby steps.  I wish I had encountered wiser teachers with an eye for what I should try more of.  But that places must blame on other people, which isn't helpful. 

What I know now that I didn't know then, it that if I loved a subject at the beginning, I should give it a few more tries before I'm convinced that it is not for me.  If we love something it often times kills us to be terrible at first.  We must find our way into the mastery. Humor will help.  It feels yucky to work through the ugly duckling stage.  Be kind with yourself.  Same things just  take practice to become great.  Awful first tries don't mean give up and let it die.  All great things have a feeble, beginner's side.  Keep trying. 

Don't let ugly first steps keep you apart from doing what you love. 

That's my advice if I have a stump to pump my chest on. 

What Would you Say if You Had 1 Hour?

My cousin asked me a good question the other day when we were talking about alternative careers for me.  She thinks I would make a great motivational speaker.  We were talking about a key note.  She suggested that I think over my life and come up with the very most important things I have to say to people. 

If I had an hour when the world was going to listen to me, what would I say? That was powerful.  What would you say if you had the entire world listening to you?

I thought of JFK, Martin Luther King, Lucille Ball, and  the acceptance speaches at the Academy Awards.  So many stars blow their opportunity in the sun.  They waste their precious world attention doing dumb dating stunts and wearing dark glasses. 

Do you believe you have a message worth broadcasting?  I think we all do. It's just a matter of finding that which is most unique about you and extrapolating those stories or lessons the world most needs to hear. 

If you were in my classroom, I would suggest that we call come together next week to tell our highlights. Maybe not our 1 hour presentation, but at least our 15 minute post-breakfast networking event keynote. 

In 15 minutes, what is it that you want to share with folks?