here and there and everywhere

Let me begin by boasting about my hat-trick in Floorball tonight. I definitely carried the team, and it's nice to be competitive in sports again. So what if it's unorganized, co-ed pick up floor hockey??

I enjoyed a beautiful weekend in Gotland, a medieval island off the east coast of Sweden. It was very peaceful and reminded me lots of Lake Huron (possibly the best compliment EVER!)

Feeling nicely grounded, I was free to ponder some larger questions. Having accepted the Taoist notion that the only constant is change, I began to look at the various types of change. First, there is the active movement towards some end goal. Here, we call this 'backcasting' whereby you start with a vision (say the blueprints of a building, or an ideal situation) and then move deliberately, step-by-step towards this goal. The other type of change I recognized was a slow, gradual erosion, often perpetrated by forces of nature (wind, water, sun, etc). Since most types of real growth are predicated on the first idea, I started to wonder 'what is the Earth, with all of her intricate evolutions and complex cycles, moving towards??' If we humans could recognize the direction of this development, it would be much easier to join along!

Using my favourite analogy of the Earth as a mother, I began to wonder 'what is the goal of any loving caring mother?' I was stuck at this, but my good friend and Colleague Geoff Stack provided me with my much-needed response. He told me that he read somewhere that the best a mother could do was to provide a stable home in which her child could grow. This made sense to me, and after learning about the delicate balance that had to be found in creating an atmosphere that would allow for life to prosper, it occurred to me that this planet (our mother) has turned the chaotic extremes of space into a relatively stable, comfortable, inhabitable home.

The complexities inherent in her cycles and the vast diversity on her biosphere can be seen as measures to further safeguard life from diminishing. Like a safety net with a more complex weave and therefore fewer gaps, biodiversity prevents disease and the mass extinction of life. If one species or strain gets attacked and dies, a similar cousin will develop a successful response and replace the lost family member.

So basically, I think this planet is only trying to create a nice, stable home for everyone and we humans are actively mucking it up!?? What gives? Are we so egocentric that we'd openly degrade our mother for a perceived temporary personal gain?? We humans are such teenagers! We really need to grow up and develop a sense of responsibility!

Paddling the Canoe

I played Floorball tonight with a bunch of Swedes (and Geoff, my American sustainability compatriot). It's basically like street hockey, but with a much lighter ball and tiny little nets. It'll take me a few tries to get my stickhandling down, but I'm already a force to be reckoned with on defense and forechecking in the offensive zone. It was pretty funny, because Swedish people are quite reserved, so no one was celebrating after a goal. They'd just get back into position. I started questioning this, and when I scored on a sweet wrap-around (they call it 'the kitchen' here???) I did the airplane all the way back to my end. I told my team that I was proud of our play, but that we needed to work on our celebrations. They laughed!

I'm doing my best to get outside of the MSLS bubble that has so inevitably formed. I guess my days in FYP at King's has taught me that only hanging out with people from your own program will lead to insanity. The people in my program are all amazing, intelligent, conscious, and engaging, but it's nice to not talk shop and to get to know Swedish culture. I've started volunteering one night a month at the campus pub (just when I thought I was done herding drunk people....they pull me back in). I worked my first shift this past Thursday, and met some really kind locals. They've made me promise that I'll come out drinking this week, which might pose a problem as I have a group presentation Friday morning. Oh well!

Speaking of presentations, this week is chalk-full of them! Besides our group one on Friday, I'm also preparing for an individual one this Wednesday. I'm expected to explain (in 15 min) just what the hell sustainability IS, and how to utilize the Strategic Sustainable Development Framework that's been drilled into my head. Since the idea is that I'm supposed to be presenting to friends & family, expect an outline to appear on this blog shortly. I figure it will be a good way to inform everyone about what I'm studying, while helping me to prepare for the prez.

Otherwise, all is well in my world. I'm finding a delicate balance within all the craziness, and I'm feeling happy & healthy. My apartment is great, and I have 2 cool roommates. I'm skating to class while the weather is still nice, and I'm constantly stimulated by my schoolwork and the people that surround me.

Life is good.

Sept. 2, 2007

I sit on the eve of a new beginning. Tomorrow, I take my first natural step down the path to sustainability. I’ve been waiting on this event for months, and now that it approaches, I feel a strong sense of responsibility kicking in.

Am I really to believe that I will be a leader in establishing this new paradigm?? With so many problems being thrown in my face, how am I able to remain optimistic that humanity will overcome these obstacles?? I suppose that it’s encouraging to believe that no matter what evils our races have (will) wrought upon this planet, nature will endure. There have been numerous mass extinctions in the past, and life has lived. This one will be no different.
How egotistical for us to speak of ‘saving’ the planet. It was never ours to capture and it is not ours to rescue. Our duty is to our children and their children, to bestow upon them the blessing of a plentiful and beautiful planet that we were lucky enough to borrow from them.

How silly and insignificant is currency and money when viewed from the planet’s geologic perspective?? And yet that is what I’ve decided to dedicate my career towards. Since we have come to view financial gain as the end (instead of the means) of a successful existence, why not utilize this greed to further the goals of a sustainable society? If self-interest has allowed us to disperse throughout the planet and develop preposterous technologies, why not use it to reverse the damage and create a restorative economy?