When we first started thinking about our HumanKind Challenge #3, where we asked people to mark themselves on a map as a sort of peace demonstration, I had a nightmare that we finally got the map published and only six people put dots on it. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I checked in on the HumanKind Media Peace Demonstration and found more dots than I would ever have imagined, all posted during five days of a holiday week. Many thanks to those of you who put your dots on, and double thanks for sending the link to friends.
What is most surprising is that Wichita, Kansas, seems to be the hub of peace lovers round the world, in our little poll, at least, with more (anonymous) dots than the rest of the map combined. (If you haven't looked at the map lately, you can click on the bottom to go to the big map and zoom in and out to see if your friends are on.) If that's true, I'm booking my flight right away to do some interviews so we can all learn the secret. We've got a note in to Frappr to see if it's a glitch, just in case there aren't that many HumanKind readers in greater metropolitan Wichita. Send us a note and tell us what happened to you (so we can adjust the instructions) if you tried to mark your spot and inadvertently ended up in Wichita. We'd love to know where you really are (in the general geographical sense). And we love those pics -- kids, dogs, flowers, cartoons, and your smiling faces.
To all of you who really are in Wichita, I salute you. Please add a name to your dot, if you will (you can edit by clicking on the white bar at the bottom of the map below and then clicking "edit this pin" when your dot flashes).
It's been exciting watching our fun demonstration of peace growing, illustrating the kinds of connections that are happening to us and to our little blog about healing the world. We hope you'll keep sending to the people you know, near and far. Seriously, we want to cover the map. Know anyone in Africa? Canada? Montana or New Mexico? L.A.? (Yeah, what happened to L.A.? I hope they're not all the dots in Kansas.)
***
It's New Year's Day. I haven't searched around yet, but I bet you can find a million tips on resolutions. As silly as it sounds, you already made a resolution by taking the small action to put a dot on the map for peace. Change, I think, is about small daily actions by ever-growing numbers of people. We'll have more on resolutions, whether you love 'em or dislike 'em, but for now here is my recent favorite post from Gretchen Rubin over at the Happiness Project blog. Gretchen's resolution reminds me of the bit of Buddhist or Sufi (someone can correct me here) wisdom called the Three Gates of Speech: Is it kind? Is it true? Is it beneficial? If it doesn't pass all three gates, don't say it. You'll feel like you're being awfully quiet the first few days, but it grows on you. Another small action towards peace.
Once again, the map directions:
Here's how to add yourself:
1.Click on the gray "stats, pics, members" bar at the bottom of the map, which will take you to a larger view of the map.
2.Click on the blue link that says "Hi! Please add yourself" in the bubble that appears over the pin.
3.Type in your first name or alias, and if you like, add a picture. (We really like the pics!) You don't have to enter your real e-mail (you'll get an e-mail from Frappr if you do.)
4.If you're on, but don't like where you are or want to add a pic or something, click on the blue "edit" link.
After you're added, you can zoom in and out, look for new and old friends, and of course, click on "Email this" at the bottom of this post to invite even more people (FAR and NEAR) to add themselves to the map!
Stumble It!
Great project.
I'm in LA, I added myself.
Posted by: list of philosophies | January 02, 2008 at 04:42 PM