I’ve been reading eaarth, by Bill McKibben, and it’s a very scary read for the first 3/4 of the book, which is why I avoided reading it for the last year or so since it came out. It took some regular and vigorous urging from Jeanne Mayell, the intuitive counselor who helped guide me safely through the wild and crazy last 4 years (see my memoir Beyond the Great Abyss), to get me to read it. I knew it would be upsetting and depressing because it’s about global warming and you’d have to be an ostrich with your head in the sand not to have noticed that our weather is going crazy. Epic rains and floods, droughts and fires, millennial hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, snowstorms, etc., and then the resulting crop… [Read More]
Archives for June 2011
Kindness, Love and Empathy…
… make the world go round. In just the last week, in two separate places, I have seen the same message, and it’s the same message as in my book; nothing matters more than love, kindness, empathy and compassion. A Boston Globe article headlined: How kindness built civilization, (Cook, K10, June 5, 2011) sums up what Duke University scientist and researcher Brian Hare concludes is the “Wisdom of the Dog: to be smart, first play nice.” He goes on to say, civilization developed because of “the ability to tolerate each other, to be kind enough, and patient enough, that we could cooperate more deeply. This led to language, tools, and civilization.”
Extreme nutrition, or common sense?
A new documentary film, “Forks over Knives,” argues the virtues of a vegan diet. The benefits to your health and for the planet are well studied and undeniable, as this informative and entertaining movie demonstrates in a dramatic way. Graphs, charts and experts intermix with personal stories, such as that of Joey Aucoin who is on numerous drugs battling diabetes and hypertension, depression, fatigue and allergies. After switching to a diet of fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes, plus exercise Joey is off all drugs and has never felt or looked better. In one of the best moments Dr. Calwell Esselstyn, a nutrition expert in the movie, replies to criticism that a plant-based, whole-foods diet is too extreme with the shocking but hilarious… [Read More]
