FootprintsintheWind.com

What do you value? What do we value?

:- Doug.

It takes a certain hubris, maybe subtle, to insist upon a use value for everything—What good is it? is a way of asking What good is it to me?

How do we move ourselves beyond use value? Even the How question is based at least in part on use value—this use is better than that.

So we move ourselves there by continually bringing our attention back here. Maslow says that other ways of seeing the world do not make sense to the fully human. They either do not see, are not attracted to, or consciously ignore dichotomies, use-based thinking. We think in B-values—Being & Values.

:- Doug.

What are the most rewarding moments of being a grandparent?

:- Doug.

What in the world would you love to do?

:- Doug.

How can we have conversations that matter?

:- Doug.

Can we see the wisdom and power of our own life’s story?

Why is this important? Because then we can act upon that wisdom for good. Because that discovery asks the question, What can we do with it? What shall we do?

:- Doug.

We’ve got 30 years: How can we Boomers improve the world?

:- Doug.

Speak to me the words
Of poetry beauty mystery
Of what is possible for humankind
Of the sacred just possibly arising from the profane
Then I am lifted
To being
To action

:- Doug.

There are things which are too large for individuals and small groups, so government or corporate efforts are necessary, for example enforcement of regulations, bailouts. There are things that are too big for governments that require small groups, for example peace.

:- Doug.

“What’s out there?” I can almost hear the ancients saying as they look out upon the seas. “There is just a line, but there must be more there, there.” It is the same looking at a path in the woods, the mountains, the caves—“Where does this lead?”

Indeed, it leads to us, for we are the ones ever exploring and exploring—for us. To see what is possible, where we can do, what we can do then and there. More is possible—there. And the frontiers are also here—within as well as without. What is possible?

The new frontiers are pushing us together and we are there brought face to face with others—ourselves in different skins. And what then, what now, is possible between us? We have explored the outer world and are heading into—space. We have explored the psyche and the human spirit.

It is soon time to explore what lies between and among.

:- Doug.

How have we experienced the wisdom of our years?

:- Doug.

Are the “golden years” an outmoded concept? What fits our generation?

:- Doug.

What are the larger roles of Boomers in the future of the world? Are we here merely to spend our money? Or is there something more?

:- Doug.

People are lovely when they smile (If I smile more, the same may be true of me?)…even if they look boring or menacing before they smile. Have you noticed this?

:- Doug.

The vacation ads have lots of pictures—of people looking at landmarks, of airplanes, of people on jet skis or doing solo fun things—of animals and space shots, of people getting their pictures taken beside astronauts, or sailing ships, of food and surfing and fishing. But no connecting with each other. That too could be pictured—people leaning in, people listening (the exact opposite of the videos of politicians—forever mouth flapping), people getting excited, flip charts filling.

:- Doug.

I see on screen but cannot hear a man in a spotlight singing: lots of emotion in his face and gestures.

Why do we love music? Because it appears something from way inside. It might be something someone else felt; it might be a universal. For a moment we are released from the arid connection-less world we inhabit.

:- Doug.

Watching the sea crashing
Is like watching a campfire
Always different
Always inviting our eyes
Always entrancing

:- Doug.

What are we going to do about
The magic we have?
What is the good of our magic?

:- Doug.

We are the genies in the bottle
The ones who see the connections
Between remembering our dinner companion
Saying “I do” to our observing
“You have a heart for these people”
And the rainbows appearing just now
in the sea mist

We are the ones
Who have grown through magic
& arid rationality
To full humanity
Seeing the all in all
And the genie in every bottle

:- Doug.

Our protection is in being friendly, open with people, not closed, ignoring them. On a dark city street we share a bus stop wind shelter with young people dressed in their disaffected way: if we treat them as objects, things in our way, “they” will have little desire to help us should we need help. Indeed, if we become real persons to these real persons, and if they had intended us harm, we are making it harder for them to do their wrongs, easier to be kind to us. Safety in vulnerability!

:- Doug.

Do we give up on people who have low grumbles? Or do we talk to them about the places in their lives where they have high grumbles? Is it possible, even likely, that we will get to the higher if we start where they are? If we talk about times when they were at their best, when they were hurting, when someone was kind to them—and if we share our real selves—is it not likely that the conversation will flow to the richness we seek? Even if it is not the subject we seek, we in flexibility can admit that we received copiously.

:- Doug.

Maslow says that our grumbles tell us where we are on the hierarchy of needs—people who are at lower grumbles still have lower needs to be met. He almost categorizes them only in two levels: low and high grumbles. This certainly is in line with what I have noticed—he says that people with lower needs cannot even see the higher needs—and this is precisely the eyes-glaze-over I have been getting when talking with 30-something people about community work—they are so focused on the needs of their children and making a living (so was I at that stage) they cannot see the “higher grumbles.” Nor could I at that age—I remember not being able to understand the chapters in books which went into environmental issues. Usually these chapters were at the end, so I had gotten my meat out of the book. Now I wonder if this was a recognition—whether conscious or otherwise—by the authors that the higher needs come later?

:- Doug.

Conversation is the growing tip of humankind. How green and strong is it?

:- Doug.