Wow!  Have I learned a ton from conceiving, designing and writing www.goodoodles.com!   I only hope that in these couple of months, all of you who have whizzed in and out, or stopped  by and meandered a bit, have also gotten something from your visit. 

The world IS a good place.  People ARE filled with goodness.  We just forget that with all the focus on buying, having, selling, beauty, sex and violence.  We are still people that go to kids’ sporting events in the cold, with a steaming cup of coffee in our hands, enjoy sharing quiet time with a good friend, and feel good when we do something that helps someone else, no strings attached.  I hope Goodoodles has helped a time or two remind us of that, and that there is always a bright side, if we look for it. 

Live, reside, dwell in the positive, and spread it!  The world is by far a better place than we hear and read about…help share good news with more enthusiasm than the bad and maybe we can shift the focus!

As far as Goodoodles…I’m signing off for a bit.  Not necessarily a permanent sign off.  But some time to go out and make a lot of goodoodles, I hope.  But, Goodoodles isn’t over.  Far from it.  It’s just beginning.  And, really,  it’s been there all along, in each of us. 

Bless you all.  And may your days be filled with good outlook, ideas, discoveries, feelings, moments and memories!

April

The sun is shining on Madrid (and on the magnificent El Escorial palace, below left)!  What a winter we’re all having on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, and an oppressive summer you in the southern half are suffering through!  Yet, Spring and Fall are creeping ever closer.  Today, I took a long walk in the brisk morning sunshine in my challenge of renewing our Social Security Medical Cards here in Spain, where paperwork is always an adventure.  Last week, I went to present all the documentation and they informed me that I was, of course!, missing something they hadn’t previously mentioned.  The señora more or less told me where and how to get it.  This morning, I made the arrangements, got there, waited a half hour, only to be told that to get the form I needed with its necessary stamp, I first needed my husband’s signature on it.  Fortunately, the whole convoluted, ridiculous process made me laugh!  Last week, I was disgusted.  Today, amused.  Laughing it off helped restore my smile and, as I hiked back uphill the fifteen blocks to the parking lot I’d finally found a spot in, I was able to celebrate all my goodoodles.  The setback, in perspective, really wasn’t an important one in the scheme of things.  Laughter and putting things in perspective… goodoodles and onto today’s: 

1. Philosophers who help us understand ourselves and our society.  From Knowledge & Judgement, by Avi Nardia & Albert Timen, copyright © 2007 Kapap Academy:

There is old story a Zen teacher told me “In the Zen temple at the time of evening meditation the cat that used to live there made too much noise. So the Zen teacher asked a student to tie the cat up each time they would meditate. After years had gone by, the teacher and the student passed away and so did the cat. A new cat was brought to the temple and the tradition of tying the cat was maintained. 100 years later, many Zen philosophies were written around how important it is to tie a cat at evening meditation…” As you see, sometimes we do things and we don’t know the real reason we are doing it for.  

The importance of the field of philosophy is to clarify things, make sense out of it all so we needn’t blindly follow the guy ahead of us.  Who are our Modern Philosphers?  Certainly, many of us have studied Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.  Maybe some of us even remember what they believed??  However, who’s doing all that thinking now?  (If you’re interested in researching for yourself, check out the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/wittgens) and, if you have any good leads for the rest of us, please comment and share them.

One of the great philosophers of the 20^th century I read about was John Dewey, an American from Burlington, Vermont who contributed in most fields of philosophy and psychology and was a major proponent of pragmatism (being practical).  Dewey, who believed that people get knowledge by interacting with things (e.g., experimental logic), helped shape much of 20^th century education in America.  In School and Society, published in 1889, Dewey wrote, “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” Now, I lived many years in Argentina, where public schools are pathetic and the poor masses uneducated, and have seen how democracy indeed suffers when public education is purposefully neglected.  Philosophers that help us understand ourselves and our society, Dewey and his hands-on approach to learning, and the imperativeness of creative, well-funded, sound, public education…all important Goodoodles.

 2.  On-line Brain Gain.  Internet resources to help keep us thinking, while we are in, or long past, our school days, are worth checking out when you feel your neurons need a work out.  Investigate the mental gym at www.luminosity.com for a good exercise session, a Goodoodle for your brain.

3.  Really good books for kids.  My kids are avid readers, thank goodness and all the hours and dollars, pesos and euros invested in bedtime reading!  For our family, finding good books can be a challenge, just because they are devoured so quickly.  So, I’m always on the lookout for researched reading lists.  Suggestions welcome!   One source I’ve come to depend upon is the fantastic recommended reading lists for fiction, non-fiction, history, fantasy, mystery, etc., for lower, middle and upper school at the Greenwich Country Day School library in Greenwich, CT, USA. (http://gcds-lib.gcds.net/cataloging/servlet/presentviewpubliclistsform.do?l2m=Resource%20Lists)    They have been kind enough to leave their reading lists open to public access, and while the school is private, the generosity of sharing their researched reading lists and the service they provide to their community and the internet community around the world to promote a more educated future is invaluable.  Thanks GCDS!   YOU are Goodoodles!

1.  Unexpected patterns.    Okay, so I told you I was a sometimes artist, at least for now.  And I can’t help but see art in everything.  I guess that’s why I am a huge camera addict!  And while I won’t barrage you with cute photos of my kids with Minnie and Pooh, I did want to share these… patterns which were fun to spot and catch on film.  Challenge yourself to see patterns around you.  Some patterns may be momentarily stressful, like the crowds at Magic Kingdom!, at right, but others may be relaxing… particularly those found in nature. 

Did you know that there is a field called ecopsychology involving therapies to reconnect people with nature …taking us humbly in the direction of the Na’vi of Avatar?    According to Project Nature Connect (http://www.ecopsych.com/index.html),

As demonstrated by a quiet walk in a natural area, the grace of nature’s flow corrects, restores and balances life.  In contact, it also does the same with the thoughts and feelings of our psyche.

So, look around, see if you enjoy finding patterns, and while you’re at it, listen to a roaring brook or breathe in the scent of wildflowers…it can’t hurt (unless you are allergic to pollen, in which case, skip the flowers.)   Taking a moment to find unnoticed art all around us; communing with nature; and, Disney, on its uncrowded days!…Goodoodles.

2.  Black swans.  A very good friend gave me a fantastic book, albeit a studied read, called The Black Swan, The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  Taleb asserts that the great events which have changed the world have been those which we have not been able to predict, primarily because we tend to look at the past, at the normal, at what lies within the bell curve, rather than the extremes which we ignore.  The result is that, by focusing on the normal, the known, the abnormal throws us for a loop.  I remember as a kid in Arizona, how real estate agents showed us residential lots with the positive selling point that they lay on 100 year flood plains…flooded only once every 100 years..now that’s reassuring, right?  Or at least it might be, provided you aren’t in year 100, or worse still, when statistics are based upon historical and not future rainfall…not much comfort as your home and worldly goods go floating downstream…a sad lesson learned in New Orleans.  The good side is that we can try and alter our thinking.  The Black Swan gives guidance.  Taleb notes “read books are far less valuable than unread ones.”  Except perhaps in this case.  Helping us think out of the box, Nassim Taleb, and the black swan which no one believed existed until one was first spotted…NEVER say never.  Goodoodles and a fabulous day!

Preparing all our suitcases last week got me thinking about trips and hotel stays and I thought I’d share one simple goodoodle:

1.  Sleeping under the stars.  Back in my banking days, one of my clients was Caesar’s World and for our bank meetings at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, we used to be awed by the fantasy suites, like the Pompeii suite.  Here, the high-rolling guest would arrive to find his or her rooms filled with all his or her favorite flowers, food and drink, etc.  Then the lights would dim and a deep recorded voice would welcome the guest by name to the times of ancient Pompeii when lava flowed across the earth, and thus began a sound and light show, giving the impression of lava flowing down the rock staircase leading the guest into the living room of the suite overlooking the Las Vegas Strip.   It was really fantastic…extraordinary, really. 

Whether it’s special hotel experiences like these, a simple inn on the beach, a rustic cabin in the mountains, a clean motel room to rest a weary body while on the road, or a tent under the stars, getting away from home for a bit can be very regenerating. 

In our family, our four year old is the most passionate about hotel stays.  For her, that IS the vacation.  She had the luxury this past year of sleeping under a five star roof in a Spanish beach resort near Cadiz.  The other day, when we passed a hotel sign with five stars, she commented ¨Mommy, you know why the hotels have five stars, don’t you? ”  No dear, why?   “Because they give you chocolates by your bed!”   Right you are.  Sleeping away under any kind of star that you can afford, just for the break; creative, over-the-top Las Vegas, and little girls who have it all figured out.  Goodoodles and a great week, everyone!!

I had my site analytics checked and was thrilled to see that with all the growth in readership of Goodoodles, there’s also been a huge geographical expansion.  Not only are you reading Goodoodles from spots all over the U.S., but from Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and even the Falkland Islands!  That’s incredible!  If you are from one of those exotic places…or from lovely Seattle, Garden City, Cabot, Mountain View, Scottsdale, Luxembourg, London, Toronto or Tokyo, let us know!  This Madrid-based blogger is amazed that you’ve found your way here!  Yay!  So, wherever you are hailing from, here are today’s goodoodles and I hope they inspire:

1.  Team sports that teach.  My husband was a rugby player as a young man.  As an adult, he is an executive with vast experience in leading teams to meet and surpass objectives.  He credits his success, among other things, to his years playing on a rugby team.  When we first met, one of our early dates was to a rugby match in Argentina.  I asked him if he wanted me to root for his team, or the opponent, to which he replied, ¨The opponent.  It will be more fun that way!¨  In case you were wondering,  my team won the first rugby match I’d ever witnessed, and was champion for many seasons thereafter, which annoyed my husband no end!  Team sports that bring good health benefits and practice at teamwork to help throughout life, my rugby team, and having a little fun competition from time to time…Goodoodles. 

2.  Sending out select messages to help.   I received an email yesterday from my osteopath (I’m a huge fan of osteopathy but that is another topic altogether.  If you aren’t familiar with it, check out the good explanation on www.//kidshealth.org/parent/system/doctor/osteopath.html).  The email message was a forward from a woman looking for homes for five dogs with a brief description of each.  It was a short, clear message and I can’t help but think at least some of the dogs will find homes because of it.  It was kind of my osteopath to send the message, kind of the woman working to save these animals, and a great use of the social connections of the web to, in this case, connect would-be pet owners with very needy pets…Goodoodles.

3.  Figuring things out.  I ran across a terrific site the other day;   http://www.howstuffworks.com/ has the information you may have always wondered about regarding how things work.  The site is segmented into categories and is a great resource for kids for school (or for you Southern Hemisphere folks, to help fill those lazy summer days).  It’s also fabulous for grown ups who just needed to know, for example, if they were stranded in the wilderness with no McDonalds in sight, what insects are edible.  Why, termites and worms…ugh!  Sites that inform in an entertaining way; finding the answers to questions we didn’t know we had; and, when you’re starving in the woods, termites and grubs (do you think that is where the expression, got any grub? came from?)…Goodoodles and a good meal!

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s!   Even if you don’t celebrate, bah humbug, do we really need a special day to say “I love you!”?  It’s one of the greatest feel-good Goodoodles of all.  Go for it!

1.  Lobbying to save unforgettable faces.  Okay, so imagine yourself anchoring a gleaming white sailboat in a quiet cove off the Australian coast.  It’s a glorious summer day.  You peel off your scant layers of clothing down to your bathing suit or swim trunks and dive in to the sparkling blue waters, instantly refreshed.  Upon opening your eyes, you come face to face with:

A blobfish!  Is that a face that makes you smile or what?!  He’s just fantastic not to be a goodoodle all by him (or her?)self, don’t you think?!   Thanks to http://science.discovery.com and http://weirdimals.files.wordpress.com for sharing.  Unfortunately, blobfish are very rare and getting rarer.   They live off the coasts of Tasmania and Australia at depths of 800 meters, where the gelatinous body mass is perfect for surviving intense pressure.  Sadly, deep sea trawling (fishing by dragging very damaging heavy nets across the ocean bottom in search of a few valuable species like the orange roughy) was doing away with the blobfish, as well as coral reefs and many other precious inhabitants of our oceans.  Happily, environmental organizations such as the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (www.savethehighseas.org) and Oceana (www.oceana.org) have worked with and for us all to lobby for change.  In 2005 and 2006, legislation was finally passed by countries around the world to begin to limit deep sea trawling, particularly in areas with sensitive ecosystems.  Sending a letter to lobby for a cause, supporting groups that do, life in our oceans, and the unforgettable face of the blobfish…Goodoodles.

2-  New ways to stay connected.  What on earth is Twitter?  I know everyone is doing this Facebook thing, but I don’t know what it’s all about.  You may or may not be into social networking on the internet, but to stay up with the times, you may want to be aware of what it is and how it works.  For a brief overview of the top ten sites and what they do, check out 

 http://news.discovery.com/tech/top-ten-social-networking-sites.html.  

It may not be sharing thoughts with a friend over a cup of tea or a long talk at the end of a rocky pier, but its connecting all the same.  Let’s face it.. life is hectic and time is of the essence.  These sites offer people ways to stay in touch, make new acquaintances and interact with others any time of the day or night, anywhere in the world with only a few clicks on the keyboard.  It’s up to us users to ensure that we don’t let them infringe on our face-to-face relationships, productivity, work, exercise or hobby time, but grant them the time and space that makes healthy, happy sense.  So, dear blog friends, here’s to tweets and Goodoodles. 

3.  Getting at the heart of the matter.  Nanotechnology.  Sound like something out of Star Trek?  Actually, as defined by www.wikipedia.com, it’s the study of controlling matter on an atomic and molecular scale.   That means, that rather than building things by assembling parts, top down, we’re going to be building from the bottom up…and WAY down, up.  To give you a clearer idea, the size of a nanometer to a meter is that of a marble to the size of the earth (Wikipedia).  Now that is getting to the nitty gritty! 

Nanotechnology is exciting because it has the potential to create many new materials and devices with a wide range of industrial and medical uses to better our world.  Like any new invention or technology, there are obstacles and challenges in the road ahead.   Nano science requires great minds to think ahead to foresee all the risks and dangers if the technology is misused…offering all kinds of new careers and opportunities.  Technologies that can improve our lives, visionaries who can help us ensure their safety, and, millions of imperceptibly small bits of good… Nanodoodles?   Happy Monday, guys!

I’ve felt just like that entering those awe-inspiring, dark groves of redwoods in Northern California, and I’ve felt like that ever time I wander lost and helpless, with a daunting task or tasks ahead, when I can’t fathom what the bigger picture might look like, or see any light at the end of the proverbial  tunnel. 

We all have our own ways, often many different ways, of pulling ourselves up and out, taking a step back for a better view.   Blogging, I’ve come across some fantastic personal improvement websites which offer helpful tools for trying situations.  I’ve added some of them to my blogroll at right.  If you’re feeling lost deep in the woods or just want to stock up your survival kit for the next time you are, give a few a look through. 

And with that, today’s goodoodles! 

1. Elevators that take us ABOVE the treetops.  A box with a view!  A chance to see the forest, the neighborhood, the city!  Elevators, invented by mankind in the 3rd century BC, took off when Elisha Graves Otis figured out, in 1853, how to stop them!  Thanks to Otis’ discovery of the safety brake, and some inventing in between, we have the modern skyscraper.  Can you imagine how different life would be without it?  Not only would we be sprawled across the earth, having destroyed far more of its natural resources and green spaces (like these gorgeous lupines, photo above right), but our lifestyles would also be incredibly different.  (For an ecological opinion on the greatness of skyscrapers, see  http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/the-lorax-was-wrong-skyscrapers-are-green/ by E. Glaeser).  Great inventions that have positive effects even the inventor may not foresee, views from up high, and taking groceries up oodles of stories with a push of a button…all goodoodles!
2. Vertical farming.  Just as the safety break led to the skyscraper, thinking about elevators led me to vertical farming.  Guys, I am so excited about vertical farming!  Vertical farming, now in developmental stages, is a concept whereby tall buildings are designed to incorporate the space, light, and recycling of water resources necessary to have floors of agriculture within the buildings (or hey, how about on them, like the wall of this building in Paris, at left).  The indoor greenhouses in the sky would bring enormous benefits:  a controlled growth environment that wouldn’t require pesticides, limited ecological damage from transporting produce, employment of local labor to meet local needs, and the ability to leave our earth unscathed by the ever growing demand for farm land to feed our sky-rocketing world population.  An informative opinion, coincidentally also from the New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24Despommier.html?_r=2.  And vertical farm buildings create new design challenges and opportunities to let architects get their creative juices flowing!  Projects have been presented for major cities all around the world.  Check out this site with designs for one in New York shaped like a dragonfly!:  http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/05/18/dragonfly-urban-agriculture-concept-for-ny/.   Endives and escarole from the 23rd floor, more neighbors with jobs, limiting our ecological footprint by returning to smaller circles of production and consumption, and thinking out of the box to make better boxes….goodoodles.
3. Spicing up your passion, and your health, with cardamom.  While chatting with the owner of a local tea shop, I learned that cardamom, popped into tea, has terrific health benefits.  And, according to websites like  http://www.thefoodpaper.com/features/health/cardamom.html, it’s true!  The article notes that while Greeks, Romans and Egyptians used cardamom as an aphrodisiac for love potions, taken in the right dosages, it also rids our bodies of caffeine, cleanses kidneys and bladder, stimulates the digestive system, reduces gas, acts as an expectorant and is great for asthma and bronchitis…. So, instead of cuddling up with your guy or gal over a glass of wine, try a cup of tea with cardamom!   The pendulum is helping us move back to natural cures.  Informative chats, caring for our planet so it can care for us…goodoodles and an inventive, discovery-filled day to all!

(P.S.  Loved the photo below which I was lucky to capture in Salzburg last summer, with the three modes of transit, as they evolved, shown left to right.  Funny how today, with more emphasis on health and the environment, we wonder if it was an evolution?) 

Now, I was a bit surprised by this, but in reflecting, I somewhat sadly realized she may well be right.  I do want to give you guys good things to think about, enough mind-opening facts to give you the basics and links to more info if you’re interested.  That is how I see my end of  goodoodles.com.  Yet, I’ve received emails in which readers have told me that they love to read the blog, but don’t have wise, witty, worldly comments to post.    

And it’s here I’ve failed.  This blog ISN’T about standards or expectations or formats.  It’s about sharing good things, good ideas, good outlooks, good views, good news.  I share them in my way and I enjoy thinking up new goodoodles and researching them for all of us.  But, it was and is my hope that you’d feel comfortable, at home enough at goodoodles.com, to share your goodoodles in your way.  Goodoodles are goodoodles…unresearched, simple, straight from the heart….however you want to share them.  How about:  “Hey!…

• I’m happy because I studied hard this weekend and I aced a test I thought I never could.
• Got a promotion!
• Got a raise and boy, did I need it!
• Saw a really cool looking cloud with sunlight on it today on my drive home and it made me believe tomorrow will be a better day!
• Baked a cake and everyone loved it, especially my dog, Fido, who ate half of it when no one was looking! 
• Gave a speech and people applauded.  It made me feel good!
• My cat had kittens!
• Helped an old lady down her front stairs!
• Took some quiet time today to think about things.  It helped ease the pain.  So did the note my friend sent.  And the phone calls.  Knowing I’m not alone…goodoodles.

So, just for today, I’ll give you my simple, straight from the heart, list…no research to ponder and no links to pursue:

• I had new friends over for dinner yesterday, including my insightful goodoodle-reading friend, and it felt good to be entertaining again, to have friendship fill the house.  I felt more settled here in our new home.  I also feel blessed to have these wonderful people as friends.
• I finished reading The Shack after breakfast this morning.  If my mom had told me it started with the kidnapping and murder of a little girl, I’d never have read it.  I’m glad I did.  I cried.  A lot.  But its messages were beautiful and inspiring.  Some of them even helped lift off some of the weight I carry around with me. 
• I finished a painting and like it.  It’s been a while since that’s happened.  I needed to be in a good place emotionally, with the right outlook and expectations.  I’m there and it feels really good.  As a matter of fact, thanks to another friend, I found an art studio which I’m going to check out tomorrow.  Hope I’ll find a new mentor there.  I’m optimistic.  At least I’m on the go again artistically.
• I prayed today and the sun came out while I prayed and then disappeared behind the clouds when I’d finished.  For me, it was one of those special moments explained by my faith.  My husband and kids looked out at the darkening sky and told me they’d planned to play some tennis and could I pray while they played?  Haha, guys!    
• Lightening the load, feeling your feet soundly beneath you, smocks and paintbrushes, friends that reach out to help, and good things straight from the heart…all goodoodles.

1.  The nose knows!  Ever notice that a whiff of a certain perfume, a scent from something baking, notes of a fragrant bloom, bring a flood of memories?  Of course, our culture is very tied to the optical sense.  If you’re asked to recount something, to describe it…you are inevitably being asked to share what you saw.   But, our experience of everything is far more than that!  How did it feel, sound, or taste?  And what did it smell like?   Maria Larsson and Johan Willander from the University of Stockholm, in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1170, Number 1, July 2009 , pp. 318-323(6), assert:

“Current evidence suggests that memories triggered by olfactory information are localized to the first decade of life (< 10 years) rather than to young adulthood (10-30 years) which is the typical finding for memories evoked by verbal and visual information. Further, empirical evidence indicates that odor evoked memories are more emotional, associated with stronger feelings of being brought back in time, and have been thought of less often as compared to memories evoked by other sensory cues.”

So, don’t forget to stop and smell the roses, and other things as well!  You may find yourself transported onto memory lane in a very rich and sensory way.  Personally, I can’t smell a gardenia without feeling like I’m standing in the fragrance isle of my childhood pharmacy selecting the first mother’s day present I paid for…a bottle of Jungle Gardenia perfume!  More credit to noses and scents that enrich our lives and our memories…goodoodles.

2.  Unexplained mysteries.  Dozens of perfectly formed stone balls, shown left, were found in the wilds of Costa Rica in the 1930s with no explanation of how or why they were created and left there.  Delving into unexplained mysteries broadens our minds, helps us question the boundaries and stirs our imaginations.  Thanks to http://www.akgupta.com/interesting.htm, you can quickly connect to articles about the paranormal and other mysteries you may find intriguing.  For more about the balls of Costa Rica with photos, as above, see http://paranormal.about.com/od/ancientanomalies/ig/Most-Puzzling-Ancient-Artifact/.  Bloggers who help us weed through content; real life (no crime involved) mysteries that cry out to be solved; and a willingness to open our minds to new ideas…goodoodles.

3.  And lastly, lasting impressions. Okay, so frankly, my dear, didn’t you ever get left speechless, wondering, pondering the last moments of an encounter? While first impressions get us in the door, how we exit can really leave its mark. Whether it’s an interview, a first date, or a good film, we want to leave our audience thinking about us. Take novels for example. For fun, pull down some of your favorite reads from the shelf. Read the first line. Read the last line. Let them work their magic. I found of few last lines in our home library that I thought were fun to share:

 • “Then there was only the ocean and the sky and the figure of Howard Roark.” (The Fountainhead, A.Rand);

• “My Darling,” said Valentine, “the count just told us that all human wisdom was contained in these two words: Wait and hope.” (The Count of Monte Cristo, A.Dumas);

 • “I tell them what I’m telling you: I’m not the messenger at all. I’m the message.” (The Messenger, M.Zusack);

• “There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.” (Walden, H.D.Thoreau); and, the fantastic:

 • “I’ll go on getting angry at Ivan the coachman, I’ll go on arguing, go on expressing my ideas inappropriately, there will still be a wall between the inmost shrine of my soul and other people, including my wife; I’ll go on blaming her because of my own fears, then repent; I’ll go on not understanding with my reason why I pray, and go on praying—but from now on my life, my whole life, no matter what happens to me, every second of it, is not only not meaningless as it was before, but it has the incontestable meaning of the goodness I have the power to put into it!” (Anna Karenina, L. Tolstoy)

Brilliant endings that open doors into the future and windows into the soul; authors we love; and making life meaningful by filling it with goodness…goodoodles!

And onto today’s goodoodles:

1. Connecting with the past.  Isn’t it amazing that who we are, what we have, the life we lead are all due in part to our ancestors and the daily decisions they made.  I mean, just think that if some great, great, great, multi-great grandparent of yours hadn’t done one thing that he or she did, maybe you wouldn’t be here today!  And projecting that forward, all that we do, all the time, affects the future…who will be born, who won’t, under what circumstances ….  Mind boggling, isn’t it?  Two of my grandparents were immigrants to the U.S. around the turn of the last century.  Their tales are very different.  One grandfather, from a comfortable existence in the Netherlands, upped and travelled the world on his own, worked as a plantation manager in Borneo and on sheep ranches in California, lived as a free spirit racing around on his Harley when not on his sailboat in Cape Town, South Africa and, finally, squeaked through Ellis Island on a borrowed penny and set up a dairy farm in New York state.  And one grandmother, fleeing as a child from the persecution of the Cossacks in Russian-occupied Poland, struggled within the shelter of a large extended family to make a new life in a safer, more promising land.  By researching our family tree, connecting in person or by internet with relatives, we can piece together stories and better understand what’s made us who we are.  Last year, I took Mom to the Netherlands to see the house and town her father had spent his childhood in.  We also were able to visit with cousins; one my mother had not seen in sixty years.  The visit gave my mother a backdrop to understanding the man who had been so special in her life and was emotional and liberating.  Belonging to chain of humanity, knowing that how we live affects others now and in the future, and freeing ourselves by looking closely at the baggage we carry from those that have gone before and understanding how it affects the way we see the world…all goodoodles.
2. Ecological Intelligence.  We have to have it.  It’s just not an option.  It never really was.  But over the centuries, we’ve focused on making more and more things, faster, better and cheaper.  The effects of the production, distribution, consumption and disposal of all that we made were irrelevant.  Having those things in the present were all that mattered.  Threats to our well-being lay in innately perceived dangers…things imminent, tangible, easily identifiable (our protect-against-the-wolf instinct) and all collateral damage from our actions on ourselves and our world was left unmeasured, cheek turned.  Now, as the ecological age only begins to shed its light on what we’re doing, we are without resources to understand the impact of how we live.  If like me, you’d like to be greener, maybe like me, you’ve wondered what choices to make in what you buy, how you do things better, but had no idea how to get the information necessary to improve those choices.  I purchased Ecological Intelligence, an amazing and eye-opening book by Daniel Goleman, of Emotional Intelligence fame.  Goleman’s book is a gold mine. You can also check out his website at  http://www.danielgoleman.info/.  Goleman asserts that we, as consumers, must demand information, generating needed growth in a new field called Industrial Ecology which gathers information to measure in a very detailed way the impact on the environment (the earth’s environment or the geosphere, the human, plant and animal life or the biosphere, and the realm of human concerns such as working conditions or the sociosphere) of the production, delivery, consumption and disposal of every product and service and to generate a rating for each product or service that a consumer can use to make informed choices.  Wouldn’t it be helpful to look at a can of Coke vs. Pepsi, for example, and know the ecological impact of each from start to finish?  As we make the right choices for our world, companies would then be forced to make the right choices in order to retain and grow market share.  The green ball would be rolling in earnest.  Now’s the time….letters to legislators and politicians, requests for info to businesses and stores, merely spreading the word!  Ecological intelligence, Daniel Goleman’s book and website, people caring enough to push for measurability and accountability in everything we do, making choices that benefit the whole, and pioneers like Walmart (http://www.danielgoleman.info/2010/01/03/green-intelligence-toward-true-ecological-transparency/) breaking ground despite the upfront costs to make their goods ecologically transparent to consumers …very very BIG goodoodles…and, Happy Monday!