Thoughtful and artful video

Here's a short and entertaining video about remembering perspective: that we're human and can choose awareness.  We don't have to default to boredom in routine; we have the capability to snap out of it and choose.

Rethinking development, an inspiring quote

From a reading (specifically: http://web.idrc.ca/openebooks/470-3/) for a graduate level course on Gender Relations in International Development I'm currently taking.

"A speech given by Robert F. Kennedy on 4 January 1968, encapsulates the limitations of GDP as a measure of what makes life valuable:

The Gross National Product of the United States is the largest in the world, but that GNP, if we should judge our nation by that, counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear the highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails that break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder and chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead and armoured cars that fight riots in our streets. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

Hell yes, science!

A scientific article:

The Interpersonal Power of Feminism: Is Feminism Good for Romantic Relationships?

Laurie A. Rudman & Julie E. Phelan (Click for full text)

Published online: 6 October 2007

Abstract Past research suggests that women and men alike perceive feminism and romance to be in conflict (Rudman and Fairchild, Psychol Women Q, 31:125–136, 2007). A survey of US undergraduates (N=242) and an online survey of older US adults (N=289) examined the accuracy of this perception. Using self-reported feminism and perceived partners’ feminism as predictors of relationship health, results revealed that having a feminist partner was linked to healthier relationships for women. Additionally, men with feminist partners reported greater relationship stability and sexual satisfaction in the online survey. Finally, there was no support for negative feminist stereotypes (i.e., that feminists are single, lesbians, or unattractive). In concert, the findings reveal that beliefs regarding the incompatibility of feminism and romance are inaccurate.

Keywords Feminism . Close relationships . Feminist stereotypes . Intergroup relations . Gender attitudes

Citation: Rudman LA & Phelan JE (2007). The interpersonal power of feminism: is feminism good for romantic relationships? SEX ROLES: Volume 57, Numbers 11-12, 787-799.

"Huge Eco-Possibilities"

I like efficiently using small spaces, but this guy takes it to a whole new level. Check it out:

I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.

I read this today for the first time:
"I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees."
I love this!

It reminds me of another Neruda morsel I have written in my room:
Eres para mi suculenta | You are for me succulent
como una panaderia | like a bakery.             

Here's the full poem including the title quote:

Every Day You Play

Every day you play with the light of the universe.
Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water.
You are more than this white head that I hold tightly
as a cluster of fruit, every day, between my hands.

You are like nobody since I love you.
Let me spread you out among yellow garlands.
Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the stars of the south?
Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.

Suddenly the wind howls and bangs at my shut window.
The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish.
Here all the winds let go sooner or later, all of them.
The rain takes off her clothes.

The birds go by, fleeing.
The wind. The wind.
I can contend only against the power of men.
The storm whirls dark leaves
and turns loose all the boats that were moored last night to the sky.

You are here. Oh, you do not run away.
You will answer me to the last cry.
Cling to me as though you were frightened.
Even so, at one time a strange shadow ran through your eyes.

Now, now too, little one, you bring me honeysuckle,
and even your breasts smell of it.
While the sad wind goes slaughtering butterflies
I love you, and my happiness bites the plum of your mouth.

How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me,
my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.
So many times we have seen the morning star burn, kissing our eyes,
and over our heads the gray light unwind in turning fans.

My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want
to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.

Pablo Neruda

on happiness, part II

i feel like i should write about this somewhere or other, and i'm feeling the blog over the journal for this one - it should at least be available for someone to read sometime. i suppose that is the purpose of all this nonsense, anyway, right?

well, here goes, happiness, part II:

i'm in a class about "Conceptions of Human Nature" - basically talking about how/if humans are unique, and what we should do about this. we talk about rationality and the potential for "happiness" a lot.

about a month ago i came up with this:

if -
the goal of human life is happiness
and -
we've been knowingly evolving

why aren't we all the happiest yet?

either we're confused: happiness isn't our goal (maybe it's the pursuit that we want), or we've never explicitly set out and consciously evolved with this aim, or there are other forces that have come between our evolution and ultimate happiness.

why are they called "intentional communities"? what are the rest? would this suggest that evolution (social evolution) is not guided (i.e. by people)?

it seems like we're lacking an explicit collective social consciousness, but [[i think]] we rely on it nonetheless.

today, march 5th, as i was walking to my spanish class i was thinking:
this place makes my stomach hurt. it makes me sad - but i don't even know what that means anymore. walking to class all i see is destruction, sadness, death. i see no value. i see a system where replace this notion of value with an idea of money, a set of numbers and unintelligible rules. i am ashamed. i am ashamed of my part in it all. for i no longer know what to say - how to relate - how to relate to someone so used to being left alone, blinded and convinced that consumption, an iPod, a cell phone will solve these problems. institutions have become the community. they must - how else will we find ourselves, others? who works for whom? am i a slave to institutions - or otherwise? why is it this relationship: master & slave? in communities there is no such thing, no such potential.

later, we were talking about nihilism in class. basically it's like "why don't we all just kill ourselves..." and there is no answer. or, well, the answer is like this: if we killed ourselves it wouldn't matter anyway, so what's even the point of that. if it happens it happens.

right.

and in the class right after that, Social Cognition (300 level Psychology class), we're talking about "Subjective Well-Being" (the measure psych'ists have come up to approach what normal people call happiness)...

here's some scary shit:

-in 1940, only 40% of houses had showers or baths, and only 35% had toilets.

between 1957 and 1998 in America:
-"real wages" (i.e. spending power, adjusted for inflation) doubled

-but subjective well-being basically stayed the same. 33-35% of people report themselves as, "very happy"

what does this all mean? that money, and/or quality of life doesn't make us happy?

what is the purpose of life, if not the pursuit of happiness? are we moving closer to this ideal collectively? do we have any hope as a species?

needless to say, today was kind of a depressing day.

why is doing what makes you happy crazy? why do we wait until we die to realize that living in the present moment is what we want to be doing, and until then live only in false hopes of one day becoming self-actualized? i can't possibly be the only one to realize these things, to face unhappiness, and to struggle with it. do other people do this? i suppose, yes, other people are unhappy, and do fix it - either through prozac, other drugs (i.e. alcohol), or other means of consumption - all different ways of some way or other losing oneself. why are we afraid to recognize our unhappiness? are we scared we won't be able to address it? i guess patch was right when he said that most people are depressed because they feel alone. maybe one day, together we can figure out why.