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.
Stumble It!
Comments