Between Us Girls

A Movie-ng Message - Pixar's Plea for the Environment

WALL-E, the latest in a string of Pixar spectaculars, opened this past weekend and we thought it would be a fun movie for the whole family. Who doesn't love a story about a cute little robot and his escapades in space? Well, it was a fun movie in some ways and it certainly provided the clever animation and storytelling that we have come to expect from Pixar. But I found it more disturbing that I did entertaining and, honestly, that made me love it even more.

The ads for the movie focus on the antics of a robotic E.T. look-a-like. What the movie trailers don't let you in on is that WALL-E isn't just any robot. He spends his days on what is left of the Earth after the “progress” of humankind polluted and depleted it to the point hat the Earth is no longer able to sustain life. The humans, having left to live “in space,” leave WALL-E behind to clean up the mess.

The bulk of the story revolves around WALL-E's relationship with a bot named EVE who is sent back down to Earth to search for signs of life. While the story on the surface appears to be about WALL-E's relationship with his new friend, the underlying story of the human destruction of the Earth is

The Earth Runneth Over - Musings on Birth, Death, Nature and Population Control

      Two Sundays ago we had the first beautiful day we have had in a long time...sunny and warm and just about perfect.  So we packed a picnic lunch, piled in the car and drove to Salt Springs State Park.

     Salt Springs is a rather rustic park in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  It's full of old growth Hemlock's, a variety of wildlife and some moderately challenging trails.  As we hiked, we paused occasionally to catch our breath as the beauty of nature (and some pretty steep trails) threatened to steal it away.  Then, tired and hungry, we sat by a lovely creek and listened to the sounds of water tumbling over rocks as we ate lunch.  All-in-all it was a beautiful day.

     I hope to spend more of my days in this way...exploring our beautiful natural world and having fun with my family.   There are still so many scenic, unspoiled places out there, but they are disappearing and rather quickly.  Can we continue to take them for granted?  Dare we assume that they will still be there for my children to bring their children to?  I wonder.

     While we were hiking we stopped to read the few educational plaques that were posted along the trails.  I already knew that when this country was settled, most of what is now the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was covered with forests much like the one I was standing in.  William Penn named the Commonwealth Pennsylvania for a reason ( it means Penn's Woods).  What I didn't know was that in the last 100 years of human progress, population growth and industrialization, the forests of Pennsylvania have been reduced to 1/10th of 1 percent of their original size.  Think about that for

Bee-ing a Good Citizen

      The idea of being a good citizen means different things to different people, but I think that, at it's core, good citizenship refers to doing not what is easiest or best for oneself, but focusing more on what will contribute most to the common good.  Some will explain it as being helpful to one's neighbors, others may describe it as loyalty to one's country.  What creates variations in our definitions of good citizenship is our individual perspectives of what larger context we are considering ourselves a part, and, what obligations we feel toward that larger context.

     My beliefs lead me to view the entire planet as the larger context of which I am but a small part.  I believe that we are all - the plants, the animals, all of humanity - part of an interdependent web of existence.  We are all part of one large ecosystem and our obligation is to ensure the well-being and continuity of that entire system and all of its members.  While I know that some may not share these beliefs or simply may not care enough to have given it any thought, I am happy to see that, little by little

Doing Less and Getting More Done - Taoist Secrets

     Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I like to read and that my reading tends to lean toward the psychological, ecological and the spiritual.  When I find reading materials that address all three, I'm truly happy.

     For those of you who share my interests, you might want to check out my latest read "Ecotherapy" by Howard Clinebell.  It's an interesting book on the theory of ecopsychology and suggestions for the practical application of that theory in the therapeutic or educational setting.  You can find a link to that book and many others in the same vein in my Amazon Bookstore.

     Now getting back to the topic at-hand, like so many people these days, I struggle to stay calm, focus on the positive and find (and maintain) some sense of happiness and contentment.  In our stress-filled world, this is no easy feat but find that reading and thinking about things like ecopsychology and various forms of spirituality helps to sustain me and keep me on track.  As much as my approach to spirituality may be non-theistic and non-traditional, it is perhaps a more important part of my life than I sometimes realize and I believe this is true for most of us.

     Whether or not we consider ourselves religious or non-religious, I think that we are all in some respects spiritual.  As I discussed in a prior post, The Meaning of Spirituality, spirituality is about feeling that we are each one part of a larger whole.  The whole may be defined differently for each of us - Christianity, Islam, the human race, all living things, the universe etc.  Or, for many of us, the whole may be indefinable.  As human beings, it seems to be in our nature to wonder about our place in the universe and our role or purpose.  We need to have meaning in our lives and this is what I am talking about when I talk about spirituality.

     As I read, I seem to find that Eastern Philosophies have the most to offer when it comes to practical spitituality.  In Taoism in particular, I have found a great deal of practical wisdom, some of which I have already shared with you in my post  Come On Get Happy.

     I've also written a guest post for the PositivityBlog about Taoist Secrets to Doing Less and Getting More Done.  Those of you who like my prior post on Taoism or who simply like practical spirituality might find my guest post helpful as well.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  And, if you have any spiritual reading suggestions, please share them.

    

Voice of the Earth

      The Earth is trying to tell us something...droughts, global warming, shrinking polar ice, more frequent and powerful storms, a rapidly increasing rate of species extinction.  Not with words, but with pictures and events...these are the ways our planet tries to communicate that things are changing, and not necessarily for the better.  Why aren't we listening?

     In the early days of mankind, we lived in harmony with nature.  We were born out of it and sustained by it.  The relationship was intimate and unquestionable.

     As time went on, we continued to rely on the earth for sustenance, but we organized into villages and societies and eventually into nations.  We progressed, people's duties became more specialized and our modern societies became more industrialized. Only those involved in agricultural endeavors continued their close association with Mother Nature.  The rest of us became more and more distant from her.

     Humanity as a whole began to see itself as separate from nature, and perhaps more disturbingly, as superior.  Our focus became less about honoring and respecting the earth and more about subduing it.  (Read more...)

Come On Get Happy - The Taoist Approach to Life

     It's no strange coincidence that so many of us are looking for happiness.  The more we have separated ourselves from nature and from each other, the more miserable we have become.

     We are struggling to find happiness, as if it is out there somewhere hiding from us.  But it's right where it has always been...we've just lost sight of it.

     Happiness is something within us, something that we create for ourselves...it is a way of being in the world...a way of living in harmony with nature (both our inner nature and the nature that surrounds and sustains us).  How do we find our way back?

     We can find our way back to happiness by looking backward in time and following the ancient wisdom of a people who truly understand how to live happily.  As I have begun to explore the basic principles of Taoism, I have been surprised by both their (Read more...)

Why Getting Back to Nature May Prove to be the Best Therapy

      Despite the technological and medical advancements of recent history, modern life is fraught with difficulties.  It seems that the more we attempt to simplify life, the more complicated it becomes.  Our preoccupation with more, bigger, and faster is taking us further and further away from the natural rhythms that once governed human life.

     Stress, obesity and mental illnesses seem to be on the rise not just among adults, but among our children as well.  A CDC study of US children found that 2 out of 10 children are obese and that there is a direct link between the number of hours spent in front of the t.v. or computer and the amount of body fat.

     Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) has become so common that every child has at least a few classmates that suffer from it.  A whopping 90% of children diagnosed with the disorder are prescribed drugs - drugs that interfere with sleep, often cause depression and can retard physical growth by as much as 1/2" per year.  (For more on medicating children with mental disorders see my earlier post: Psychiatric Disorders in Children)

     There was a time when we rose with the sun, spent our days living and working in the natural world and rested when night fell.  In an extremely short period of time (when you consider the entire history of man) we have completely changed our way of living from  (Read more...)