Dear LO
A few reflections:
Commentary by Jeff Gates goes something like this, " We've reached the
point where we can best look out for our own good by contributing
wholeheartedly to a common good. Indeed, we may yet discover as all the
world's wisdom traditions avow - the greatest happiness flows from acting
out of concern for others in the realization that the distinction between
self and others is in some sense an exaggeration. For those who find this
concept idealistic, I suggest that ideals have always been the engines of
progress. Certainly that was the case with the founding of the nation."
Charles Handy the British businessman and philosopher wrote years ago of
the ethic of "proper selfishness" of finding self through service toward
others. But as you remarked long ago to me in relation to dear May, she
does it and will continue anyway, and not for the payday. As you have said
At, it so I have found it true, 'when the 'pay' stops the caritas stops.'
I could go on and on citing appalling figures, but what is the point At,
LO? What is the pointy-point?
Jeff Gates again, " - embedded wisdom, what (the) poet Alexander Pope
calls, 'consulting the genius of the place.' This is not 'cookie cutter'
solutions exported around the planet in the name of economic growth,
usually with a high dose of hydrocarbon intensive industry as its core
component. (Rather), each country needs support for identifying its own
formula for development that's consistent with traditions."
He points to artandcreativity in something he calls 'Demonstration
Projects' in the Spirit of Sustainability,
For example then, " Environmental artist and activist Betsy Damon traveled
on her own initiative to the Sichuan province of China to propose and then
lead a project resulting in a six acre 'Living Water Garden'. This was
constructed by the side of the filthy and polluted Fu-Nan rivers, where
60,000 cubic meters of raw sewage are dumped every day, the park is
designed to underscore the link between water and health, (health and
latent wealth.) The polluted water is circulated (loopingly;-) through
inter-linked pools, so that at each station of the journey it is purified,
aerating flow forms, wetlands, and fish ponds before flowing into a stone
fountain where children play and drink from the cleaned up water before
returning it once again to the river (in little streams fo their own
making;-). Like all good designs it links aesthetics and practicality, it
becomes a living model to successive generations of how water works in
healthy urban environments in a renewable cycle. It has since been
designated a national tourist centre, creating pride and income to the
local economy of nine million souls of the city of Chengdu." As you now
know I have committed part of my creative output to May. I have asked Rick
to share with LO a picture montage with words that fit. I hope he will do
that for us. Time is of the essence. Maybe At you have a picture you can
share of where these people live, the conditions. I expect that the image
of that sewer water being purified appeals to me because I see something
profound in the way the water passes through a variety of 'other systems'
to become purified, and at each stage it is bringing new benefit that
links a whole chain, from start to end. Another bright bracelet;-)
Love,
Andrew
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