The Spirit of This Weblog: Music in a Forest

This weblog is not about an individual. It is not about an isolated human being’s search for meaning and purpose in his life through existential musings. It is not about aspiration. It is not about ambition. It is not about vanity. If this weblog were about any of those things, it would be useless as a public document.

This weblog is about the forming of a new community. It is about a culture of sharing. It is about defining the positive potential of what it is to be human in the 21st century. It is about ideas, emotions, relationships, and systems in a world that is changing rapidly. It is about working together to understand ourselves as changes in the world outpace our intellect’s ability to adapt to them. It is about sharing because sharing is something we will all need to start making a habit of if we want children of the future to be able to enjoy the pleasures of living, not have to endure the suffering. It is about caring beyond the self in every direction, including inward. Get it?

Over time, this weblog will blossom to be about the things we all share in common. About curiosity, fear, and inspiration. About the ensuing exploration. About joy, sadness, and the bittersweet moments of living in a tumultuous world. About opportunities to learn from others' mistakes. About opportunities to expand your thinking. Essays. Practical knowledge. Stories. Quotes. Questions. Helpful lists. Interesting people. Interesting places. Links to a myriad of new ideas and discourse on living in the world today. In general, it will be about life - the resplendency and repugnance, the tranquility and turbulence, the cruising and crashing.

This weblog is about reconciling idealism with pragmatism and making real progress toward what we all hope for as humans. Peace. Living sated. Feeling cared about. Being able to enjoy moments, however fleeting and infrequent. More often then not, even when you might not realize it, this weblog will be about the manifestations of Love as an actionable principle.

So this weblog is also a call to conjure up the humanity in you and be introspective about it, but more importantly, to be human in your interactions with other human beings, animals, plants, and even inorganic things. What does it mean to you to be human? This weblog is about thinking and saying, but also doing.

It is about, "Please, feel something." It is about being moved and taking the risk to share that feeling. It is about consuming something – but with a deeper appreciation this time. This weblog is about after using something, then trying to give or create something toward Peace or sustainability, which go hand in hand. It is about a shift in attitude from overextended consumption, competition, and individualism to renewed, local and global efforts at conservation, cooperation, and community.

This weblog is about the heart of a planet and the universal soul that pulsates and runs through us all, living or dead, human or non-human. It is about how we are all connected in a universe that is greater than us. It is about humility, but also believing that anyone is capable of a constructive contribution to the parts of the universe that matter to us.

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I am one individual, here, writing. But my ideas and emotions are meaningless outside of the web of life. They are inextricably tied to other people and parts of the Earth, as yours are. As John Muir, the Californian naturalist, said in 1911, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

Yes, life occurs in the interaction between things. So if we do not share, if we do not cooperate and collaborate, if we do not listen and speak and feel with each other, if we do not respect the fragility of our natural world - things we must do in order to develop sustainable societies - all the trees in the forest will fall without making a sound.

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But this weblog is about a forest where life is still vibrant and hopeful, for now. It is about a forest through which music permeates mysteriously, the source undeterminable. But that doesn't matter. All you need to know is that the music is for you to feel inside. So let the vibrations find you. Let them resonate with a piece of your soul. And let this weblog remind you and me from time to time to not stop trying for a life rich with the sharing of beauty and bread and the beating of our hearts as we accelerate into the future.