Things We Can Do

I haven't written in this blog for quite awhile. There simply is not enough time. My digital life while deeply amusing is definitely getting a little out of control. I Stumble, which informs my delicious which I have yet to connect to my Facebook, so I took down my My Space Page, which was only getting spammed by people who wanted to be "friends" with Mom's anyway and don't get me started on Twitter...which is all in addition to checking the Ad sites and the politco sites and the news sites and of course one of my favorite sites Digg, why I barely have time to watch my favorite sci-fi videos on Afterworld and I do want to know why Robert is the last man on earth. Even as I write I am trying to type this while Lila my 1 year old is trying to figure out how it works, she just hit F11, which on a Mac is, i forget what it's called but I call it, Clear Your Desk Now! all the open windows hide. The thing is...and the thing we can do is to stop...just a little bit. I

I am writing today to get a hit on the We feel fine site. http://www.wefeelfine.org/mission.html But honestly I feel like macaroni trying to come to a boil in luke warm water for like 5 hours. And the things you can do with that! I don't know. have a great day! -elena

On starting a new job yesterday.... "Always we hope someone else has the answer. Some other place will be better, some other time it will all turn out. This is it. No one else has the answer. No other place will be better, and it has already turned out. At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. There is no need to run outside for better seeing. Nor to peer from a window. Rather abide at the center of your being; for the more you leave it the less you learn. Search your heart and see the way to do is to be." -Lao Tzu i hope i can remember this 3 weeks from now, 6 months from now... -elena

This is so true. Excerpted from Jane Smiley's Blog: Some years ago, I was talking to a man about guns. At the time, I didn't really know anyone with guns (still don't), but he did. He had had guns himself. He said, "I gave my gun away, because when I had it, every time something happened that made me mad, my mind would start circling around that gun, and I would be thinking about using it. So I got rid of it and I'm glad I did. " Right up front I will say that I am opposed to casual gun ownership, but I also realize that Americans will always have guns. Period. It's a national fetish. But the mental state my interlocutor was describing years ago is the price we have to pay, along with, of course, the accidental deaths of children and other unprepared and careless people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and in proximity to the wrong gun. What I would like is for the gun-toting right wing to admit that there is a price we pay, that sense

Hello, It's been about a billion years since I last updated the site and a lot has happened but a lot has stayed the same too. We, our little tribe of 7, me, Lee, Michale, Stephen, Nina, Miles and Lila, all hopped in the mini-van for a mini Spring Break Tour to St, Louis MO, it was much better than it sounds. For one thing it was warm, and being here in the snow flurries of Chicago on April 9 is just not where it is at. Anyway, like the rest of us I still work too much, run around too much and conseqentially drink way too much coffee. I like to get my caffeine levels up to the point of just before a headache but often misjudge and blow right past waking up into full bore need two aspirin. But the real reason I am writing today is to tell you all about my new favorite site of the day: http://stopglobalwarming.msn.com/ It has a little bit of a Sheryl Crow promo vibe - but please look past that to the content...it's like 4 simple things you can do TODAY to fight Global Warming..mo

It's almost midnight I been up since 5:30am my eyes hurt and yet I am fired up. I just read this thing that is really important, it's about the future and how we can make it sustainable by making it profitable and how there are already young entrepreneurial companies that get this and are already doing it, which is fabulous because it gives me hope. In my market laden world it is absolutely inspiring to read about companies who are bringing together heart felt interest and desire to change together with the all American drive to make money at all costs and ending up someplace fabulous. So hooray! I will be more specific tomorrow. much love and hope elena

It's so weird to have a blog. For one thing I never get to write in it. For another when I look back and read what I just read I want to delete everything...it sounds so pompous and high handed, so forgive me, I really must try harder... So I am still slogging through Howard Zinn's People's History, one friend told me about a sort of 'highlights' of Zinn book that really might be easier. The thing is this really is a very good book but I gotta take it in small pieces because it really is a record of one small group of assholes oppressing a large group of less well armed/informed/organized group of others...kind of depressing. I read this book and I really start to think that ever since there was like 2 people and 1 spoon someone had to hit someone else over the head with a rock to get the spoon. Oh and then I read about the Crusades, wow, pretty much blasted any shred of Christianity I was hanging onto for old times sake, right straight out of me...talk about peopl

"Hell is the place where nothing connects" T. S. Eliot I learn or re-learn so much everyday that it is really astonishing... This was the lesson of today. Hell is the place where nothing connects and this is just exactly how we are so easily manipulated. We all want so desperately to be connected and yet there is seemingly so much in the way. Time for one thing, none of us has enough time...we work so hard and for so long. Our families are so far away that our lives don't intersect anymore and the conversations that would be necessary to bring everyone up to speed would take more time and require so much personal exposure it's difficult to make the choice to risk it.... And after a entire day of half faking it with your co-workers all anyone wants to do when they get home is close the door and let it all go. In fact, you often find that it's quite a relief to be actually alone and much less draining than the quasi- aloneness we through every day in our public inte

"A hundred times a day I remind myself that my life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead and that I must exert myself in order to give, in measure as I have received, and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

Well here I am again. It turns out that once you start a gmail account you can't merge an old account with the new...who knew Ah so Howard Zinn, seems he's a new cult fav - everyones heard of him it seems but me. I am going to re post the first two post here to create a through line ..hope it helps... I really am hoping to get anyone who receives this post who has an idea about it or how to slow down or crazy push to annihilation to write me...us..so please do Also I have had a few great suggestions so far: From Michael; if you get those spam direct mail flyers that start with a heading shop local and then have your local grocery store ads in them and like me throw them directly in the recycle - call the 800 number on the bottom of the front page and cancel it, it takes 2 minutes and if enough of us do it they may in fact make less of them another from Ben but I have to go find the url -elena

Okay, so I wasn't so clear on what kind of action I hope to take place... I am really hoping all my friends who read this and pass this along can help link up a small community of people who are interested in really doing something about creating more sustainable, people- friendly, simple kind ways to improve our schools - public education in this country is in a terrible state of dis-repair, the environment, anyone for worm-power?!! And basically letting the government - local, state and national representatives know that we are really serious about changing the course of American policy, this running roughshod over any one who gets in our money's way has got to stop or at least be slowed down a lot. This is a place to document, dictate and rant about the socio- economic scene in your part of the world as you see it and to make suggestions however big or small on how to change things. peacefully, and respectively of course -elena

First let me say, that I am too impatient and too busy to get this going in any easy way. I must have started this blog 8 times today only to forget my user name or password or if I even started the blog and I still don't have the template I wanted, but alas, I am here at last. Second the impetus for starting this blog was action. I really want to do something, say something about us everyday regular people motivating ourselves into action. If "our "country - these United States, which I do love, by the way, started out with genocide and domination and 600 years later in the name of progress we find ourselves in the exact same place, then we must all begin to look at the price of progress and ask ourselves if there isn't a better way. I don't know, I'm open to suggestions. I don't even know what steps to take but let's start the dialogue once again, here and now, amongst friends. - elena