they're on to us!

It seems that word of our little experiment with an "alternative economic model" is beginning to get around... have a look at the articles here and here...

I just finished reading the new book by Paul Hawken (author of "The Ecology of Commerce" among others) - this one is called "Blessed Unrest: How The Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being And Why No One Saw It Coming." More and more of these kinds of books are coming out - the next one on my list is "The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need" by Chris Turner. And a number of years ago I read (and have been enormously influenced by) David Suzuki and Holly Dressel's "Good News For A Change: Hope For A Troubled Planet."

Story upon story, example upon example, of people, communities, businesses of all kinds taking concrete and creative steps toward living in ways that are more sustainable and better for the earth. We need to tell and hear and celebrate more of these stories, it seems to me, and to help our children to see themselves as joyful and ingenuous partners and co-conspirators in this kind of process, this "movement" if you want to call it that.

I have blogged about this before, but it seems to me that this is also an opportunity for the church to re-discover and embrace its vocation.

In the inimitable words of Pete Seeger (inimitable, but paraphrased from my memory because I can't find the quote):

They can stop any old big idea they want to. But what are they going to do about 10,000 little ones?

feedback

I ask for feedback. A lot. Maybe too much.

I'm getting better at learning what kind of feedback to expect from different people. I know who will respond thoughtfully and helpfully to long, meandering e-mails that attempt to put a finger on what I'm actually thinking. I know who will never read more than 3 lines, but is generally open and available for long phone calls that chase ideas around like bargain hunters on Boxing Day. I know who can be counted on for careful and exhaustively critical analysis of this or that piece of writiing. And I know who will always think that whatever I've done is just great, a work of unsurpassed brilliance that will only be challenged by future bursts of my own indomitable genius. (Thanks, Mom!)

I'm also getting better at paying close attention to feedback and then sometimes going and doing the opposite. Better at letting the feedback sharpen my thinking and help me see things from different angles, but not letting it paralyze me or overwhelm my own instincts and judgment.

There are times when I'm feeling pretty good about things, overall, and really need some critical ears and level heads to help evaluate an idea. And there are times, let's be frank, when my call for "feedback" is little more than a cry for SOME kind of affirmation from SOMEWHERE... "Ok, I really need some strokes now, people, so if you don't mind, a few comments about my astonishing brilliance would be great... or, failing that, even something along the lines of "general competence" would do at the moment..."

The trouble is, how are people to know what kind of feedback I need? Maybe I should use some kind of code system... But then, how am I to know what I need at any given time?

Hmmm... let me think about that, and maybe get some feedback, and I'll get back to you.

how does it feel...

... now that the new CD is done and "out there"?

Exhilarating? Euphoric? Exhausted? Relieved?

The reaility, when I first picked up the discs and started letting them go...

Terrified, mostly.

Hmmm...

Oh, and thankful too. Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!