Reflections

I've been in a contemplative mood lately... I'm at that point where it's time to start thinking about what comes after grad school. Iowa seems like a good place for many reasons, despite what my Californian classmates think... though I must say that mountains do possess a certain attraction.

Much of my contemplation revolves around the big questions -- what are we here for, what's life all about, yada yada. While I can't claim to have made a great deal of progress in answering those questions, I can say that taking the time to slow down from the rush of so many other pressing deadlines to think about the questions... well, it's been a good thing that has lead to much insight and I'd highly recommend it.

I'm trying to think of recent breakthrough thoughts that I've had... but there haven't been many. Lately, it's been more of a time for other ideas to simmer together. New thinking about the economy -- how it works, what it means, what it's for -- merge with new understanding regarding human needs, which ties into a changing mindset brought on by a skyrocketing human population combined with an increasing level of affluence - and thus stress on the planet - around the world.

The number of people thinking in new ways -- writing books, articles, blogs. And much of that thinking is turning into new ways of doing things from new perspectives -- and that truly gives me hope. People are beginning to really solve problems -- to create a desirable future -- rather than to simply patch things up long enough for us to hobble on. It's exciting. And yet there is so much work to be done.

I believe that we, collectively, have the ability to create the future of the world. We are the ones that will shift the balance toward or away from the kind of world we all desire to live in - and we do so whether or not we are conscious of it.

Lemmings have been of interest to me recently -- yes, the little rodents that are known for following the pack over a cliff to fall to their death... while that's a myth that was perpetuated by Disney in the 1950's, lemmings are still interesting creatures. Did you know that one month after a female lemming is born, she can give birth to as many as 11 lemmings. This causes dramatic fluctuation in lemming populations. One specific lemming population that has been studied goes in 4-year cycles. The population skyrockets... then they eat all of the food that is available, and they go off in search of new food supplies, often moving in groups of hundreds or thousands... and this is where we get our mythical image of them. When they can't find enough food, there is a massive die-off, and population drops dramatically. As the population drops, the food supply is able to regrow. The few surviving lemmings in the area then start the cycle over...

The human population on earth is doing an interesting thing lately: it's skyrocketing. Clearly, people aren't lemmings. But we have to choose whether we want to be different than lemmings or not. We have the capacity to 1) realize this dramatic increase in population, and 2) understand how it's going to affect us, and 3) do something about it. We need to have a big-picture view of what we are doing while there are still good opportunities to do something: we have to exercise our mental capacity to understand what's going on... and climate change is a great example of that.

And that's why you should come to see one of the presentations that I'll be giving in Iowa during the week of March 4th. Bring your questions - let's talk.