Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Corrupting Society's Divine Tissue

We who spend our lives in so-called First World countries have little idea how we got that way. We grow up in the lap of relative luxury and are not stimulated to question the luck of the birth lottery that had us being born where we were.

And as we grow up in that protected crucible, we seldom stop to question the system that gives us relative everything while millions more in other less privileged parts of our globe go without. Far from questioning, actually - we scramble frantically to carve out our little corner of paradise whee we can hunker down with families and fireplaces and frequent flyer miles in isolation so complete we rarely think about those little details like social injustice or economic imperialism.

In spite of giving a nod to the global imbalance through our sophisticated recycling programs, financial support to Third World charities and wholesome bike lanes, we don't want to rock the boat that much. In fact, it's safe to say the blame for our world's social crises can be partly laid at out feet.

Corrupting Society's Divine Tissue, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Going Beyond Sex and Passion

I was browsing through a friend's Facebook timeline the other day, and came across her New Year's message.

OK, so here we are in August and I'm looking at January, so I really was browsing. The point is, what she said really stood out to me - live with full passion is what she wrote.

And I get that. Do what you do with feeling. Imbue your activities with drive and verve. This is, of course, sage advice. Far too often we sleep walk through life, failing to grasp the magnificence that lays itself out before us at ever step. So I get her point.

But I also think it's a little more complicated than that. Passion, as the great Pablo Neruda said, is "as if you were on fire from within." And how could anyone argue against the merits of that? But it seems that perhaps passion unleashed without the tether of a good purpose can demolish rather than build. And it is here we need to explore more deeply. For a true human being must understand how to do what's really important. And that takes massive self-knowledge.

So let's go beyond sex and passion today, on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

Click here to listen to this episode.