How can we stay resilient in tough times? Two recent articles on our news page (here and here) and David Cutter's ongoing series of essays, From the Piano, address this question. Participants at an upcoming panel discussion in Los Angeles will also grapple with the topic; the title of the event, which Zocalo Public Square and UCLA Anderson will co-host, is Can Individuals Be Happy in an Unhappy Time?

The group of experts on the podium includes UCLA Anderson School of Management marketing scholar Cassie Mogilner Holmes; Harvard Business School behavioral economist and co-author of "Happy Money" Michael I. Norton; and Sonja Lyubomirsky, UC Riverside social psychologist and author of "The How of Happiness." Warren Olney, host of KCRW’s “To the Point," has been asked to moderate.

Can Individuals Be Happy in an Unhappy Time? 
December 12, 7:30 p.m.
National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
111 N. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012​

For further event details and parking options go to the Zocalo webpage.

Indigenous populations live fewer years, have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and infant mortality, and among all minorities on Turtle Island (the Indigenous name for the US and Canada) have the highest rates of suicide. These afflictions, according to Rupa Marya, a physician and UCSF researcher, are generated out of low-level inflammation. This inflammation, in turn, results from poverty, racial bias and police violence.

Listening to Marya at the Bioneers 2018 Conference in October, I was struck by her simple explanation, yet she was to be one of many presenters who had highly essential things to say at this three-day, intensely informative gathering.

I had first heard of Bioneers from January Nordman, now deceased. January was a Transition member, designer and native-plant landscape artist; she was the driving force behind converting Throop Church’s grounds into a learning garden. Her team planted edibles with signs reminding visitors to “Take what you need and leave some for others.” She also designed a section of Altadena Public Library grounds.

Once, when she asked if I had ever gone to Bioneers and noticed my less than enthusiastic expression when I said I hadn’t, she persisted. “You’ll love it,” she said. “There’re all kinds of interesting people talking about stuff we like to do.” So, I promised her I would go — and thought not much more about it. Until a few months ago when my sister invited me to accompany her to this year’s conference.

I Googled to learn more, and among the many notable videos was one of Paul Hawken at a previous Bioneers Conference speaking on the essentials of a book I recently reviewed for Transition Pasadena, “Blessed Unrest.”

So, I found myself, on that first morning at the conference, listening to Doctor Marya’s talk titled Health and Justice: The Path of Liberation through Medicine. In it, she described decolonized medicine and the Mni Wiconi Health Clinic at Standing Rock which focuses on native medicines and techniques. The clinic is a beginning. In time, not only Lakota/Dakota people will be served by practiced generational healing, but all plains people, free of charge. 
 
Indigenous groups and demonstrations were everywhere on the conference grounds: A large tent at one end, called the Indigenous Forum, was devoted exclusively to First People concerns.

There I heard an informal question and answer session by two groups working together in Ecuador. The Ceibo Alliance, consisting of major tribes in the northern Amazon, had presented earlier that morning, together with an American non-profit, Amazon Frontlines, who live collectively with tribal leaders and assist the Ceibo Alliance. In deciding a case that had been argued for two years, the Ecuadorean courts denied 52 gold-mining operations that would have added to the despoiling of the Alliance’s environment. 

Near the Indigenous Forum, a group of native tribes from the southern Philippines and living in the Bay Area had decided to re-kindle an old tradition and build a bangka. The hand-carved and immaculately painted out-rigger canoe expressed the group’s reward after many weeks of labor — for both carvers and cooks — and at the end of each day, the different tribal members would sit down to eat, get to know each other, and celebrate their community.

The Bioneers Conference, which has grown into an instrumental expression of the global movement described in Hawken’s “Blessed Unrest," inspired me. By giving voice to the historically unheard — First Peoples, women, minorities and youth — the message and the messenger are one... and powerful. I came away energized to be more involved with the teams telling the stories and doing the work we urgently need.

Thank you, January. A deep bow and respectful gassho to you, old friend. 

—Greg Marquez

To learn more about the Bioneers conference visit their website (https://bioneers.org/) or watch this video: https://youtu.be/PTjHFrcc1RA

Transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gases , slightly greater than the sum of energy we consume to power our buildings and our “stuff.”

​Los Angeles County is looking at long-range planning options for all varieties of mobility and conducting a public survey on the topic. Here’s an opportunity to voice your preference for prioritizing mass transit and zero carbon footprint options such as bike safety and safe walkability. Consider the shared bike and scooter ideas which are still working out kinks in trials. There’s even mention of taxing single passenger vehicles.

I found one question in the survey quizzical and difficult to answer. “Do you enjoy your commute?” My Transition perspective is that I am becoming resilient by training myself to enjoy life while combatting increasingly dire circumstances. Some say that I am a victim of the boiling-frog syndrome, feeling resilient to ever-so-gradually increasing heat until the moment it is cooked in boiling water.

I prefer to see that the frog enjoys its life and continues to retain hope. I answered N/A.

Metro’s survey takes 5-10 minutes to fill out. You will be glad you did.

—Therese Brummel

The presence of ourselves on this planet is the major evidence that a transcendental process is underway. Not like evidence that will hold up in the world of rationality that we currently occupy. When I say evidence, it's about seeing patterns. 

For most of Earth's existence, 4.5 billion or more years, life has proceeded at a tranquil pace. It's only in the last 2 million or 3 million years that Homo sapiens shows up. Taking the long view, something is happening on Earth. Something counter to entropy. Novelty is being conserved. Every life form that is created, is saved at least in the DNA inherited by other living things. The scientific/rational view of this is that evolution is simply random mutation and natural selection. Entropy takes care of what's left. In other words everything falls apart. The idea of entropy runs counter to the idea that novelty is conserved. So which is true? 

Perhaps both are true. Certainly one can observe entropy when we consider the decomposition of a dead organism. On the other hand, is that really a falling apart? The building blocks of that former organism will become something else. They have only temporarily fallen apart. 

This brings up an idea from the philosopher Heraclitus. He said that everything exists in the presence of its opposite. The Coincidentia oppositorum. We have entropy at some level and the conservation of novelty at another, both occurring in the same universe. Consider childbirth. The appearance of new life occurs amidst the threat of death and certainly a lot of blood, pain and anguish.

I think the Earth is a special place, but why would entropy continue across the universe but reverse direction here on our Earthly system? Something bigger is going on in the universe. Something that looks a lot like gestation and birth. Perhaps entropy is not the end point as predicted by science.

In order to hope, you have to dump the scientific view of the universe. I don't mean discard all of the technology or cease believing what scientists say. I'm talking about philosophy. Philosophy is something that science has little to say about. Our techno society has, however, elevated science to the level of a philosophy. Science, despite its great achievements, is really just a technical art. The great thinkers, writers and philosophers all worked on a level that was not technical at all. 

You have a choice. You can think about our existence on Earth in one of two ways. Either you believe Macbeth ("'Life is a tale told by an idiot") or you believe that there is something afoot in the universe. It's not random. It's moving in a particular direction. Entropy is not the final outcome.

While I can't say where life is going, it is going somewhere, and that gives me hope. Despite all of the horrible news and obvious stupidity that passes for business as usual, life always finds a way, I'm convinced that life is moving toward something positive in the long run. Nobody really knows where we're headed so why not go with the more hopeful something. Stay tuned.

—David Cutter
Pianist
Pasadena, CA
Free Book Excerpt: "Artistry and Piano Students: Inspiring a Lifetime of Enjoyment"