HumanKindMedia

Day 1 of HumanKind Challenge #4

Hooray, it's June 1, the first day of HumanKind Challenge #4. I'm pondering the little personal idiosyncracy of mine that made me have to start the 29-Day Giving Challenge at the beginning of the month. If I look back at my week, I "gave" my time, my energy, stuff, and love all week long. So did you probably. But, somehow, today, waking up with the intention of being generous, I feel a different lightness and connection, and I feel a little happier. I can't wait to hear how it's going for you. I expect the 29 days will be filled with ups and downs, dids and didn'ts, but most of all a sense of shared community and fun.

If you're on the fence about joining us, I'm invoking Mother Teresa here to give you encouragement:

"If you can't feed 100 people, then just feed one."

and

“We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.”

If I needed a reason or a "goal" to do a giving challenge (which, apparently I did), my goal would be to help Cami, the amazing person who started this, meet her goal. She's looking for 2000 people to do the 29-Day Giving Challenge by the end of July. My goal is to help her by encouraging as many people as I can to join with me. I'm #349, and there are already several after me. Wouldn't it be cool if you all joined, and then invited 3 or 4 friends to join (who invited their friends?). More than 2,000, or 20,000 would be good. Not impossible. (You know my stance on "impossible".)

I guess the reason I waited until June 1 was so I could invite my HumanKind readers and my friends to join me. Now you've all received your invitation. I hope you'll jump in. Some of you already have signed up, I see, and I applaud those of you who started right away (thanks, Audrey) without that artificial June 1 hang-up I had.

Liz says informs me that signing up is a two-step process. If you've signed up at the 29-Day Giving Challenge community, but not the HumanKind Challenge #4 group yet, you have to click on our little "globe-in-the-hands" logo on the main page (on the lower right) or on the group page and "join" the group. You'll read our daily updates there, and can share some of your experiences, too, once you're in the giving-your-comments mood. If your browser is different and you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, e-mail me and I'll try to explain it differently.

I woke up pretty excited about my ideas for my first day of giving. You can read my recap on the 29-Day page. I'll just say that already before noon, I'm filled with that special kind of gratitude for the world that comes from doing a small thing for someone else.

Coming up on Tuesday Links: a myriad of links and ideas for your 29-Day Challenge. Stay tuned.

If you're a new reader, welcome to HumanKind. You can get free updates here. Wonder what we're up to? Click on the links on the upper right, or scroll through the topics and archives on the left. If you're a regular, thanks for your support! Let us know what HumanKind can do to keep the media you'd like to see coming your way. You can e-mail chris (at) humankindmedia dot com. And please do share HumanKind with your friends.

Lamed Vovniks redux

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself. ---Thomas Carlisle

Some bloggers get a little obsessed with their blog stats--how many people visit, how many subscribers actually read the blog, percentages of newcomers, length of visit, and on and on. I'm hoping that over the next several years mine keep going up, but I'm happy with slow, solid growth and trying not to be too affected by the sky-high days and the low trough days. I do watch the stats to see which links people visit and I really enjoy the wild searches that lead to HumanKind Media. In fact, if you're a regular reader that found me from an accidental search, I'd love to hear about it (begging for comments, again.)

I am intrigued by a mystery, though, and the most mysterious and wondrous of all the stats for HumanKind Media are the "lamed vovnik" hits. Way back in the fall I wrote a rambling piece about the Jewish legend of the Lamed Vovniks, the 36 Just Men (just, meaning righteous or good). You can read the whole post here In it, I performed a complex set of steps toward reasoning that, if the Jewish scholars hundreds of years ago thought there were 36 wise men (translated to "humans" by me), we should be at millions or billions of wise humans by now (using math, genetics, and Jewish scholarship, none of which I'm proficient in).

It was my way of saying we all have the potential for goodness and contribution to changing the inequities in the world, and that the prognosis for doing so was getting better every day. "Unabashed optimism" could have been the tagline for the post.

Anyway, it's historically the most visited page on the site--several times a week. It's a complete mystery. Maybe there are more Jewish scholars out there than I could imagine. Maybe somewhere in the world every day, a few people just google "wise men" and up pop the vovniks, or maybe the word "vovnik" means something in every language in the world, and I'm just lucky I put that word in a title.

Since I have this regular Lamed Vovnik reminder in the stats, I've begun looking around for vovniks in my daily travels. We've written about some of the more famous, obvious candidates: Paul Farmer, Jeffrey Sachs, Mohammed Yunus. I think Randy Pausch, the Last Lecture professor, certainly has my vote, and I'd put my Sweet Husband Jeff on the list because he knows just what to do (which is normally nothing) when I'm off balance (or schizoid) and because he has the wisdom to enjoy life to its fullest while I'm over-thinking it sometimes. My friend and meditation teacher, Pam, is one of the wisest humans I've ever met, and, of course, I'd put the Dalai Lama and Jimmy Carter on the list--and all the older, wiser leaders working tirelessly and patiently for peace and understanding around the world.

But, if I knew you, I might put you on the list for saying something to someone who needed just what you said last week, or for being quiet when it was the right time to be quiet. Or, if you reached out and helped a stranger, or if you're thinking about voting this year for your love for the world rather than your fear of the future, I'd put you on the list for your courage--that's got to be a Lamed Vovnik trait. I might put someone on the list for tutoring children, or drilling water for villages that have none. I'd put anyone on the list who had learned to forgive, or let go of a bias. If you've felt that longing to make a difference, and haven't turned away at what seems like the impossibility of it all, you're on the list for sure.

I do think we're all Lamed Vovniks. Every Lamed Vovnik search hit I see in the stats makes me wonder--is it you? What's the wise and just-ness in you up to these days? Do you see yourself as a Lamed Vovnik, a just , good, wise person? I hope so. Imagine the possibilities.

Got any candidates you'd add to the list? Send me a comment! (2nd begging for comments in one post--new record!)

----

Tomorrow, June 1, is the first day of the HumanKind Challenge #4, 29-Day Giving Challenge. Everyone is invited to participate. Invite your friends, too. What could be more fun than practicing generosity together for a month? Here's the post with the details, and here's our group page (where I'll post my daily updates and hope you will, too) on the 29-Day Giving Challenge community page. For those of you still absorbing your possible Lamed Vovnik status, it's a great place to start.

If you're a new reader, welcome to HumanKind. You can get free updates here. Wonder what we're up to? Click on the links on the upper right, or scroll through the topics and archives on the left. If you're a regular, thanks for your support! Let us know what HumanKind can do to keep the media you'd like to see coming your way. You can e-mail chris (at) humankindmedia dot com. And please do share HumanKind with your friends.

Theme Tuesday: Friends we haven't met yet

New Plan: Theme Link Tuesday. When I was stuck last week, I let go of my fixation on themes for series of blog posts. Now, I can throw caution to the wind, and just write about anything, I told myself. Well, I could, but that much freedom might cause paralysis--too many choices every day. I've had about 8 different things rumbling around in my head for the several weeks after Pangea Day, that I've just wanted to share without creating a big essay. Oddly enough :--), they all seem to have a theme. So the new plan is themes on Tuesdays, where if you like the theme, you can follow the links.

I love the new abundance of stories and news with a different narrative than what I found troubling in the mainstream media. I picked the name HumanKind Media for this blog because I was dismayed at the amount of "us vs.them" and "right vs. wrong" stories in the media. I thought a "humankind" perspective helps tell a different story every time, whether it's a city council meeting someone's writing about or a national election, education or travelling to Mars.

In his decades of work as an anthropologist, Donald Brown has been researching and documenting human universals, the traits that every human on the planet has in common. In this talk on Pangea Day he talks about what he's learned during his years of studying humans.

In his list of human universals are weapons, and agression in males, but also disapproval of violence. He found we all form collective identities (I vote for HumanKind), we all look for mediation of conflict and all disapprove of stinginess. All humans share food. We all share the same facial expressions for the same emotions. Just tripping through the list is a reminder of how little difference there is from me and my 5 billion+ other fellow humans I haven't met. Also, good to remember when you're mad at your boss, disagreeing with someone's beliefs, or stuck in traffic.

Here are some of the wonderful, artistic, beautifully conceived places online you can visit to get a reminder of all those friends you haven't met. What's possible in a world where we look more to our similarities than our differences? Is there someone in your life to tell a different story about?

onBeing Listen to someone's story

one sentence Write your sentence, hit skip (unless you want to publish your sentence), and read the other sentences

6 Billion Others Pick your language first (you can skip the intro if you're in a hurry), wait for a load, and hear what some of the 6 Billion others have to say

We Feel Fine Click on the "Open We Feel Fine" at the top, let it load, then click the dots (or you can select "murmurs" on the left and see what happens.)

If you're a new reader, welcome to HumanKind. You can get free updates here. Wonder what we're up to? Click on the links on the upper right, or scroll through the topics and archives on the left. If you're a regular, thanks for your support! Let us know what HumanKind can do to keep the media you'd like to see coming your way. You can e-mail chris (at) humankindmedia dot com. And please do share HumanKind with your friends.

Pangea Day: stories told by the world for the world

What could be better for changing the world than meeting each other through stories? Hooray! Saturday's Pangea Day! Finally. A chance for all you global citizens to connect courtesy of a TED wish. Participate somehow!

See when it's happening where you are, find a venue near you, call some friends over to watch on the internet , or take your phone with you and watch. They've left no room for excuses for not meeting the world on May 10. Hope you can partake. I'll be watching from home between birthday preparations for the 15-year old. If you're watching from home, too, let me know and we can make it a HumanKind party, celebrating wonderful media for connecting us global citizens.

Post #101 - 4 things I learned in April about impermanence

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. --Nelson Mandela

I'm back. And as I try to think of a jaunty way to write about this past month of travels, I realize its not just geographical travels that have been working on me. It's the question of sustainability which was deeper than I imagined, and the ever-present reminder that time is long and short and what I do with it is what matters. It's this occasion of post #101. It's my 9-month anniversary of blogging at HumanKind Media (now without my buddy Liz who is recovering and moving on to work in her field of journalism). It's the impending graduation of my oldest son, and the rapidly-approaching end of the spring irises (already).

If I had to distill these recent experiences: travelling to a theme park with kids rapidly becoming adults, my road trip across New Mexico, feeling for and missing Liz, writing about Annie and going to a "Journalism that Matters" conference, I would say the theme is impermanence.

The Buddhists and others consider impermanence to be one of the big categories of suffering, and I certainly can take up the banner for that one from my travels in April. But as usual, a way out of suffering is to accept what is--nothing lasts forever, in this case--rejoice, and enjoy the flip side of what change has to offer. Here are four things I've been thinking about:

1. This time of my life, this time in our culture, this era of humans, even the life of this planet is a blip. The scale of time of the petrified forest and 25,000 years of humans at Acoma, Arizona, and our many billion-year old universe reminded me of that. In addition to experiencing the deep time of that landscape I also discovered my new favorite TED talk about what's beyond our corporeal sense of space and time. Jill Bolte Taylor's very personal exploration of the brain is the most e-mailed TED talk of all time. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out.

2. Learning to hold "what is" and await "what unfolds" can usually be a difficult experience that's full of gifts. Most of my pain and suffering around change resides in the trying to hold on to what I know or push away what I don't. Randy Pausch, the Last Lecture professor, is my most recent example of being with what is and watching what enfolds. If you haven't seen it (not the same as reading the book) please take some time out of your busy schedule to see someone who masters impermanence and rides the waves of its unfolding.

3. If you let go of something having to be the way you envision it, the real possibilities move into the space.
My latest example of this was the "unconference" format for the Journalism that Matters conference. Here's a great description PBS MediaShift's author Mark Glaser. For me, it was exciting to explore possibilities with journalists, technologists, professors, entrepreneurs, and fellow humans, all in service of telling good stories and contributing to a better world. Many amazing things will be germinating from these sessions and I hope to write about some of them. It was also an affirmation that if you create a space for possibility--it comes flooding in. Good news on the heal the world front.

4.The good news is that everything changes. If you didn't like the last president, this year's Oscar winner, what your kid wanted for dinner every night when he was 4, or the weather--it's ok, because it will change.
The bad news is that everything changes. I'm trying not to be dramatic about this but this last trip might have been the last time boys climbed the fort on the island at Disneyland together. But, there are oh, so many cool adventures ahead of us and our "newly grown" children.

On the future of journalism and creating a useful narrative for our society, I have not yet figured out the good and bad news, but I did meet many people who are in the same question this past week--many creative, intelligent, inspiring people who live to tell the stories we all should be so lucky to get to read or hear. Though much is changing in the journalism world, there was less "hand-wringing" and more highly committed, energetic people looking for new ways to create meaningful content in new ways.

I have been altered by my travels and experiences in April. At the NewTools 2008 journalism conference, I was classified as a "new media blogger". Ironically, one of the seasoned news guys kept calling me "Hope" instead of Chris. (Better than Polyanna, I guess.) I'm excited to explore many of the ideas, groups, and people I met as the possibilities unfold. Classified as a human, I'm happy to continue to hold "what's possible?" as my torch into the future. And, with my new reminders about how time is short, and people are good and infinitely resourceful, I plan to make use of my possibilities as long as I can.

Sustainability and Scrabble

Lately, since I've been following Saorise and his pilgrimage for FreeCommunity and reading my daily doses of generosity stories at helpothers.org, I've been thinking about everything in terms of different possibilities for the exchange of goods and services as a means toward a more sustainable world. Yesterday, this article in the New York Times touched on something near and dear to my heart: online Scrabble. I'll admit it, when I'm not working, writing for HumanKind or wearing one of my many "mom hats," I'm playing online Scrabble, most recently on the site in question in the article.

I'm hoping you're still with me after I gave you that Scrabble link. If you are, I bet you're wondering how I can go from sustainability and the freeconomy to Scrabble. So am I, but let's give it a go: For several years, I have "offered" my coaching services to private clients for whatever they can offer in return. I ask them three questions to help them determine what that is: "What is it worth to you? What would you pay someone else? What can you give?" After considering these questions, these wonderful, good humans find something they can offer. I don't turn anyone down. All have been generous both with their resources and their appreciation.

This is not a new practice. Exchange communities have been around since humans began interacting together in groups. Recent examples of this are RadioHead's online, pay-what-you-want release of In Rainbows, which, though it's over now, will generate ripples through the music industry for quite a while, and Open Source software, which has had its own evolution.

Maybe this classifies me as a Pollyanna, but my belief is that the majority of people are inherently generous and don't want to dupe anyone out of their fair share of profits, kudos, appreciation, or livelihood. My other belief, as you know, is that those few who might be the opposite get far more press than the generous ones (except, here, of course).

I would love to see Hasbro and the Agarwalla brothers reach some way out-of-the-box to offer the game as more and more people hook up world wide to waste their time (did I say that?) in the spirit of global gamery. I would be willing to donate (a small amount). I would love to imagine that Hasbro and the Brothers A would be willing to offer access to the game for whatever benefit they and the players think is fair -- without anyone getting too greedy.

Am I too naive or is this possible? "Possible," my favorite word, is a Bingo(a word that uses all your letters) in Scrabble if you can use one letter on the board. Big points for everyone.

Why the impossible needs to be considered in terms of steps, maybe 5 steps

If you haven't seen the Story of Stuff in Tuesday's post yet, or Liz's new column, check them out. Some of the ideas we've got for our upcoming posts are about sustainability--in the global citizen context. One of those ideas started way back when I got my Smile cards. When I was introduced to the giving economy through Charityfocus.org I had questions. It was so intriguing but seemed so impossible that we could shift our little human selves to a more equitable exchange of service, goods, resources, and caring.

One of the people I had planned to write about in the next few weeks is Mark Boyle, a former Glasgow business student who, after watching the movie Ghandi, was moved to study the man and his principles. Over the last few weeks his story has become even more compelling to me because, as is frequently the case with changing the world, it has become difficult--and touching--and I can't wait to share his story.

Many people we've covered have done this, created that or decided to change or are inspiring people to change. Mark has done , and created, has decided to change the world and is definitely inspiring people, but the most important thing about him is he's in the middle of doing it--not, "did it", yet, but in the mucky middle of doing the impossible, and it's gotten a little bumpy.

Mark started FreeCommunity at justfortheloveofit.org last fall as an experiment in making the transition from a money-based communityless society to a community-based moneyless society. Sounds impossible, yes? In his words,

Freeconomy is a manifestation of trust, kindness, community and love. Money and credit are a manifestation of fear, insecurity and greed. Freeconomy is the common denominator to all of its solutions; Money and credit are the common denominators of all the world's ills.

Right now freeconomies are the minority. This is unimportant. Soon they will be the overwhelming majority. Each one of us is a seed. The regenerative power of one seed cannot be underestimated. A forest can grow from the germination of a single seed, and similarly one simple act of generosity can give life to an infinite number of others.

Here's the 2-minute intro to Freeconomy--way cute and it made me sign up. :--)

Inspired by the work of Ghandi and longing to ease some of the suffering he could trace to economic systems, he wanted to create something different with more possibility for community and connection, less possibility for suffering and violence. Like Ghandi, he decided he wants his life to be his message. So, he decided to take a walk.

After setting up this amazing freecommunity web-based exchange, he embarked upon a pilgrimage to spread the word from England to India. The walking sounds impossible enough, but the condition is that no money exchanges take place.

On January 30, on the anniversary of Ghandi's death, Mark, aka Saorise (meaning Freedom in Gaelic) for the pilgrimage, began a 7500 mile trek from Bristol to Ghandi's birthplace in India. About 50 fans and fellow freeconomists saw him off. Here's a nice interview from early in the trek by the Guardian. Blogging along the way, he shared the horrendous initiation of foot problems, his recovery, his voyage to France and then there was a week of silence followed by an announcement that a big decision was forthcoming. The big decision ended up being that he returned to England last week. In spite of the difficulties and the big decision, all along the way Saoirse kept his focus on his message: do something for someone, offer a kindness. He had people writing in from everywhere.

What I find especially courageous is his heartfelt, honest blogging to thousands of fans, followers, and friends, some now "polarized" about his decision, which I imagine was similar to what Ghandi found to be true during some of his decisions and actions. Now, he's back in England, determined to continue via Plan B (which was originally Plan A to begin with) applying the same wisdom as the site's inspiration page, which holds enough encouragement to get anyone started (if you haven't taken today's step yet) and keep them going on their own impossibilities.

I am so excited about this whole venture, (easy to say from sunny California) that if I could, I'd be over there to cheer him along. The coach in me comes out and I want to tell him about the 5 steps I just made up today, for doing the impossible. Click continue to see these 5 steps and hear what movie they remind me of:

A different kind of movie star

My earliest childhood memories are of lazy Saturdays down at the movie theater watching movies with my little sister when Mom would drop us off, back in the day when it was ok to do that, and the movies didn't need rating systems. Over the years films have thrilled me, scared me, informed me, and caused me to question. I know there are texts and tomes of research around the world examining the psycho-social impact of film, but for me, a good film moves me and often inspires me to think and do things in new ways.

Though I love films and many of the actors and actresses who bring them to life, I don't often love hearing about all the private details of their lives. One exception I take to that is reading about all the good they do in the world. I love that many actors and actresses choose to use their celebrity to call attention to causes, or to mobilize people and money toward efforts to help in every imaginable part of the world. So many examples of this, but recent ones Brad Pitt's Project Make it Right in New Orleans, and Ashley Judd for YouthAids around the world.

A few weeks ago I found my own movie star whom you won't read about in the entertainment magazines, but I wish you could. Stuart Farmer is my favorite latest example of someone who stumbled upon something they could help with, thought about what was possible and took action. Stuart's a leading man in the movies, but in the role providing stellar inflatable screens for FilmAid who provides entertainment and education films in refugee camps.

I first heard of FilmAid International back when we were writing about Karli's list and Braden's school. Until I was learning about African children and the people working to help them, I knew little about refugee camps. When I talked to Caroline Avakian, FilmAid Communications Director, she told me that over 33 million people are in refugee camps around the world, having been forcibly displaced by violent conflict. Of those 33 million, 80% are women and children. And, most amazing and heartbreaking to me, the average stay in a refugee camp is 17 years.

FilmAid was conceived by Caroline Baron, producer of Monsoon Wedding and Capote, who, in 1999, during the Bosnian war heard a radio program about the refugee camps in Macedonia. The doctor being interviewed was talking about the psychological trauma and boredom being the largest problems in the camps. Her immediate response: film. We've all be changed by film. After that Caroline mobilized friends and associates, they arrived in the camps and began showing entertaining films--Charlie Chaplin, at first. In addition, they did public service announcement films with critical messaging for the refugees: in this, case, land mine awareness.

Since then, Ms. Avakian says, they've learned a lot. In the past 7 years FilmAid has brought films for entertainment, inspiration, and information to millions of refugees in Kenya, Tanzania, Macedonia, Afghanistan and Lousiana. They have received recognition around the world for meeting this need for the refugee population.

Over the years and many refugee camps, FilmAid has developed a four-part, winning formula for the community: First, an evening screening of an entertaining film, usually with as many as 15,000 people watching, of an entertaining film. I wondered about the films: were we talking Disney or Die-Hard? Avakian says no, these films are selected by an advisory committee of community leaders, elders and underrepresented groups. The films are selected for appropriateness for the community and are frequently locally produced films featuring protagonists of their own ethnicity or from their region--empowered heroes and heroines. Also during the evening screening is a second part of the program: public service announcements. These are selected for relevance to the local communityand cover topics like cholera information, or hygiene, or HIV/AIDS prevention and gender-violence education. Third are the daytime educational screenings in small settings where "taboo" topics, such as domestic violence prevention, mostly targeted toward women and girls, can be presented and discussed openly.

Fourth, and most inspiring, is the PVP program which is the participatory video project, training community members to be videographers and create their own films, some of which have actually been featured in film festivals and later as evening features in their camps.

The actual showing the films is where Stuart comes in. In 2001, Stuart founded OpenAir Cinema via a business competition at BYU. OpenAir provides projectors and film equipment for outdoor movies anywhere using the latest technology in inflatable screens and digital projectors. In 2002, Stuart says, he was surfing the internet when he came upon FilmAid. "They were using old projectors and small screens. I knew I could help." Stuart placed a call the next morning and donated 3 screens, a 9' fold-out, a 15' and a 25' inflatable--that's screen size! Before he knew it he was in Tanzania, setting up for the largest outdoor cinema in the world, 15,000 people. He trained people to set up the equipment, and they trained people and off they went.

I asked Stuart what the personal impact of this experience was on him. He said he was "mostly incredulous that a majority of people live in near poverty in the world." He was also "blown away" by how effective the media is and what a nice gift psychologically this is for the refugees. When he returned to the US and "our consumptive dream" he vowed to participate more. Stuart hopes to continue donating a screen a year--he's talking about Burma and their refugee camps, next.

Read about FilmAid's mission and why it works or donate here.

For two inspiring, two-minute films about Stuart's gift and FilmAid click continue.

A Million Ideas for Peace...or the dog ate my homework

Today, I got up early so I could a) finish a really great post I was working on for you today, and b) make pancakes for the high school boys, who get really tired and grumpy by Thursday, so they need special attention, and c) put my exercise clothes on before everything started so there would be NO EXCUSES. But as they say, "The gods laugh when you make a plan."

I was just finishing putting in all the links on the post and making the pancake batter (yes, I can usually do things like this simultaneously -- I'm amazing) when boy A noticed I had a YouTube video running (I was getting the link). He sat down and watched the video. When he was done, while I was flipping the pancakes, he kindly CLOSED ALL MY LINKS. I was up early, I was focused, I didn't need to hit save every few minutes, did I? Well, so I thought. After the initial shock of losing the post, and as the pancaked boys headed to school, I asked myself, how can I make peace with this situation?

And, voila, "peace" was the answer. I decided to post today about A Million Ideas 4 Peace is the brainchild of Lucy Garrick, a management consultant in the Northwest. I discovered her blog last November when we were doing a series on Peace and Connection. As the blog says, "The heart of Million Ideas for Peace is about a new kind of activism based on change created by turning toward what we want rather, than opposing or fixing what is wrong in the world. We call it Active Peace." Standing for what we want not against what we don't want--that's our HumanKind mantra, so, of course, we love Lucy's blog.

When I first saw Million Ideas, there were six or seven wonderful entries. In her first entry, I read:

I began to wonder what it would be like if we humans, living in the 21st century, were able to see each other through the lens of peace-making, rather than defending ourselves against the fear of an uncertain future.

You are invited to share your stories about peace-making here. I hope you will join in and help us all to see how we are already making peace. And by seeing what we are already doing, we will be able to do more together. We may be able to find the inspiration and energy to pay a little more attention and invest a peaceful intention in what we do.

In January, when I went back the blog was up to #23. Yesterday she ran #53, an entry I wrote on Transforming your To-Do List. I can hardly wait to read to all the wonderful posts to come up to a million (or to infinity and beyond, as Buzz Lightyear would say.)

You can post to MillionIdeas4Peace, too, and check out the Million Ideas for Peace website, where you will see their own version of our Peace Map. (Put your alias and Pic on both maps for extra karma points.)

Now, I'm still in my exercise clothes and out of excuses...

Love and hip hop

Happy day after Valentine's Day, everybody! I hope you're still feeling that warm glow. I love spending this holiday in New York City because I get to see all kinds of New York men, from the brusque Manhattan business suits to the toughest Brooklyn dudes, carrying flowers. Awww. It makes the city a much nicer place.

Yesterday, in honor of love and peace, we put out the call for Challenge 3.5 -- our Peace Map became the Peace and Love Map. Hope you check it out, say hi to HumanKind readers all over the world, add yourself if you haven't already, and pass it on to friends. We've loved watching the map grow.

So now for the hip hop portion of this post: I went to a show a couple of weeks ago and discovered something surprising: The story is in this new column, my post-Valentine's gift to you. Hope you enjoy.

Wishing you a peaceful and lovely weekend,
Liz