A disturbing trend

The recent violence in North American schools is setting a sad and unprecedented trend that may be scarring young people everywhere.

Some experts suggest that today's youth are exposed to much more violence than previous generations: it's in films, in videogames, in television news coverage and scripted drama, and - unfortunately - also present in real life in some neighbourhoods. Places that were once considered safe, like schools, now can become scenes of unpredictable, random acts of terror. Normal life is turned instantly on its head.

Sandy, a friend and colleague of mine, alerted me to an interesting story on WebMD about how the rash of school shootings may actually be marking an entire generation. The story is here.

I'm sure some very intelligent people are studying these events in depth and are going to give us a better idea about why some young people choose such outrageous and tragic ways to end their lives and to take the lives of others. I don't know if we can group these individuals into one category, but again I have to wonder about what kind of pain or perceived pain they are responding to, and what role deeply-wounded, tortured egos and runaway thought-processes are playing in this insane behaviour. We need to solve this mystery.

My admittedly amateurish post on theories about the ego from last Sunday is here:

A long flight back to earth

If you like the sight of paper planes floating gently to earth, you will love the experiment being prepared by a Tokyo University professor: he's building 100 original origami planes, with specially-coated sheets, in a bid to record the longest flight ever for a paper airplane.

The plan is simple, but the execution is difficult. The plan goes like this: build the paper airplanes, ask an astronaut to take them into space, get him to launch them and then see how long it takes for them to come back down to earth.

The attempt is scheduled for later this year when a Japanese astronaut is scheduled to head to the International Space Station. Tokyo University's Shinichi Suzuki estimates that the 400-kilometre trip for the floating planes making their gliding descent through the earth's atmosphere will take several months. He hopes at least one or two will make it back and not get lost in one of our oceans.

I don't know about you but it seems like a really long shot to me.

The story was reported by the Times of London and you can read it here.

For a related post on oddities, see this item about a planned hotel in space

Instituting "quiet time" at work.

Today was a very busy day all around. Then, to make things more interesting, during the afternoon, evening and into the night we had another snowstorm pass through and dump a lot of snow all over our area. Driving was a real challenge.

Anyway, let's talk about office work for a minute. If you feel completely submerged by e-mails, voice mails and other messages that require your constant attention, you'll be interested in an experiment underway at Intel and at a few other companies. An engineering group at the tech firm is trying a so-called "quiet time" project, encouraging employees to avoid answering phones and reviewing any e-mail at certain times so that their energy can be devoted instead to creative thinking, the core skill they were hired to exercise in the first place... Sounds very appealing to me.

An Intel group talks about it here.

Wired magazine also looked at this experiment. You can read their perspective on it here.

The graphic above is courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/.

Can humanity evolve to a new level of consciousness?

Some time ago, I found a great amount of help in a book by Eckart Tolle called The Power of Now. Tolle and other spiritual leaders opened my eyes to the covert and often destructive way in which our own minds and our egos take control of our lives and determine our behaviour. These two aspects of ourselves very often smother and distract us from the true essence of our being.

Tolle stresses the importance of awareness and how we must work daily to stay focused on the present.

One could argue that many sad and painful events in our world are related, in one way or another, to egos influencing people in negative ways. I'm thinking of things like wars, murder, and abuse of all kinds. These are all related to two things. First, a lack of real consciousness. Instead of focusing on what's actually happening around us, we focus on the pseudo-life that plays itself out in the mind. Secondly, we have a tendency to allow bruised egos to determine actions.

Egos demand protection and gratification. They demand revenge, action, retaliation, "honour" and a host of other entitlements. Think of something like the Gollum character in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. (The pictures in the link give you a very good idea.)

And of whom do egos ask these things? Actually, of us, the very people who "own" them.

Tolle says humanity hasn't evolved to its true spiritual potential. He believes this has not happened yet because we have not reached a fully conscious state in which we can separate our thoughts, our egos and our underlying life energy. He argues our true selves are to be found in that underlying authentic essence.

His ideas aren't all that new; they've been around for thousands of years through the words of Abraham, Mohammad, Jesus, the Buddha and of the Hindu masters. However, Tolle presents them in a modern context and reminds us of the value of these teachings.

Now, Tolle's new book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, has caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey, who has made it one of her monthly picks. For the first time in Oprah's media world, an author's work will also be the basis for an on-line course that will be presented on her website, beginning in March.

Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, offered a primer on the main messages of Tolle's latest book and the structure of the course. I found it interesting.

For a short overview of Tolle's ideas of the "egoic self," see this article.

Last October, a related post appeared here, called "The present is the only thing that's real."

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Thanks to Tibor Fazakas of Romania for his photograph of the park benches in that quiet winter setting.

The aim of the creative mind

The other day I was thinking about art in a general way, about how one could define what it is, when, seemingly out of the blue, I saw a quote from American novelist William Faulkner in an industry newsletter sent to me by e-mail.

There it was; clear and perfect. How can anyone describe it better?

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by
artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when
a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life."

Pretty good, huh?

Illustration courtesy www.sxc.hu

Happy New Year!

Today marks the beginning of festivities for the Lunar New Year, celebrated in many Asian countries. Canada's Chinese community is celebrating in a big way, with family get-togethers, parties and lavish meals. The festivities will continue for fifteen days.

For more information, see here.

Best wishes for good health and good fortune to everyone!
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The photo of Chinese lanterns is courtesy of Yee Wong, who captured this scene in New Zealand.

Italians heading to the polls

As expected, (see posts in previous days) Italy's parliament was dissolved today, following unsuccessful efforts to form an interim government. Italians will go to the polls on April 13 and 14 for new national elections, three years ahead of schedule.

The campaign will see former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party begin with a slight lead in the public opinion polls, facing Walter Veltroni's centre-left party as his main rival.

Since World War II, Italy has had 60 different governments, a very high number that points to the need for electoral reform.

Thanks to Marco Caliulo for his photograph of the flags hanging outside the Italian parliament building, Palazzo Montecitorio.

A thorny time in Italian politics

An update to the post of January 26th ("Government in trouble"):

Italy's political crisis remains unresolved. After another round of negotiations, Senate Speaker Franco Marini has gone back to the country’s Head of State, President Giorgio Napolitano, and reported he cannot find the consensus needed among the country's parties to form a caretaker government.

Now it seems likely that the country will head to early elections, probably in mid-April. It's not a surprise. With over 25 political parties represented in parliament, and so many fragile coalitions, legislative work has consistently ground to a halt. The country needs an effective electoral system that will streamline the number of parties, eliminate needless bickering and allow lawmakers to govern effectively.

Everyone agrees. But the solution is proving difficult, as many party leaders appear unwilling to accept any formula that would result in their parties being dissolved or absorbed into larger parties. Individuals are reluctant to give up their seats and their parties are reluctant to give up the valuable government subsidies and many other privileges that come with representation.

The question this week is: are the leaders of the major parties willing to work out some rules for electoral reform before a general election is forced on them, or will the country wait until after general elections and a new government is formed to tackle this problem? It's a very thorny issue either way. The President doesn’t have many alternatives: most groups want the parties to once again go to the people and ask for their support.

And no matter what's decided this week, Italian citizens will either watch the unfolding of another painfully slow process of negotiation or they will be subjected to a fresh barrage of campaign advertising and the vague promises that come with it. Meanwhile, the country's problems, sadly, fester.

For another summary, you can refer to the following article in the International Herald Tribune, located here.

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Thanks to expatriate Canadian Sam Veres for his close-up shot of cacti needles. He made it available through the stock.xchng.