Do you care about the earth?

At the dinner table the father asks his children, “Who cares about the earth?” The son and the daughter announce in unison, “I do!” The father says, “What are you doing about it?” They quickly respond, “Recycling.”

The father inquires, “Do you care about the earth the way you care about other things?” At which point they begin to discuss the things they care about, the family, Blackberry the family dog, and they discovered the list was relatively short.

He persists with questions like the following, “Do you really care about the earth?”, “What is the earth?”, “Is it the magma you love?”, and finally he proposes, “I believe people say they care about the earth but really they don’t.”

The following morning as they leave for their respective daytime destinations, the father asks again, “Do you care about the earth?”
They answer in unison, “No.” As they enter their car and take their respective seats the son pauses and suggests the following from the rear, “It’s really about being grateful. If you’re grateful, then you will do something. The earth can’t care about you so how can you care about the earth. It’s not the same.”

“That's brilliant”, the father says as he reflects on how grateful he is to have children. He also realizes that he didn’t take time to acknowledge his daughter for being who she is and the father makes a point of rectifying this later the same day.

(The father makes a mental note about how the earth may in fact 'care about us'.)

Butoh

Is there something wrong with our math?

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Watch this video at the Rocky Mountain News. Clearly, this was more than a business idea (and no apologies are necessary).

It seems to me all of us have put too much emphasis on financial and physical capital. Where did our attention to social capital go? In the words of Robert Putnam "By 'social capital', I mean features of social life--networks, norms, and trust--that enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives." Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the first piece of the capital in the equation.

social capital + (financial capital + physical capital) = value

The financial crisis has become a social crisis because the latter is distinct and contingent on the former. I'm not proposing socialism, I am just suggesting that social capital is worthy of being part of the real value equation. Economists would like to interpret jobs as a measure of 'the social', when if fact 'the social' should be some kind of measure of the job. For example, I would like to think that writing is an important social act, first and foremost.

So if the numbers don't make a business, if I can't get a bigger car, if the newspaper doesn't get enough advertisers because of an economic downturn, if inflation makes premium education inaccessible, if you can't pay me..., then the idea is by definition "of too little value", it fails and another good thing comes to an end.

Tuba's rock

The concert is a half an hour away and the children are in chaos in their makeshift playground. Parents are trying to accommodate the anxious children when a man with a tuba appears out of nowhere with a stool in his hand and he proceeds to position himself at the top of a low rise in the hallway. The children are fluttering at his feet like butterflies on a branch as he readies himself. My 4-year-old son is perched on my shoulders, he is the head and I am his legs, and I walk toward the musician in anticipation as he puts his lips up to this gleaming monster. Deep uncommon tones, soft and deliberate caresses, each one begins to fill the expansiveness of the space as if the rooftop is beginning to breathe with each new note. As he plays I can feel the sounds on my chest and the vibrations are resonating as if from the inside of my heart out into the room. Instantly I think of my son and I look up at the wonderment on his face. I knew he could feel what I could feel, it was the first time for both of us. I thought, this is what it is to be alive my son and I cried in the lobby of Roy Thompson Hall.

Cute baby

Watch this video at your own risk. If you begin to feel viewing this will cause you permanent psychological damage I have included the full transcript below.

Oah. Oah.
Come heeeere.
Stand up again.
Yeaaaah.
Aahahaha.
Yeaaaaah. (adjustment for safety)
Big boy.
Yeaaaah.
Hehehe.
Heeee’s walking.
Do it again.
Whoops.
Hehehe. Getting’ tired huh?
You can do it.
Ooooooh.
Yeaaaah. Come heeere.
Look at you.
Hahahahaha.
Oooooeeee.
Hehehehe.
Oh that’s a most efficient way of getting here.
Come here (unintelligible)
Come on. Come on big boy.
Yaaaaah. So exciiiiting.
Yeeees. (clapping)
Yeaaaaay.
That’s Camilo walking for the first time by himself.
It is June 29th, 2008.
Hehehe.
He’ll be 14 months old next week. Mhm.
Ooooh. What a big guy.
Hahahaha.
You’re makin’ us proud.
Hehehehe.
Whoop. (adjustment for safety)
Hahahaah.
He stands up by himself.
Good boy.
Hahahaa.
Your so gooood.
That’s exciting. (mother hugs and kisses him)
Hmmmmmh. (check out the mother’s toes)
You got bit by the bug Camilo. Now you’re gonna wanna walk all the time. We’re gonna have to be on guard.
Hey smiley guy. You gonna walk over here.
Come on let’s walk.
Oh ya. Heheheh.
Hmhmmm.

I count 51 phrases/sounds of encouragement give or take a few, 2 actions of care and safety, 1 overt display of physical affection and 1 indication of empathy over the course of 4 minutes and 5 seconds.

Parenting aside, here’s my point. When was the last time someone encouraged you? When was the last time you encouraged someone else? Why is this thought so unfamiliar and so uncomfortable? For those of you who are still pondering these questions, may I suggest that you make a point of encouraging one person, once-a-day. For those of you who already do, my hope would be that your words of encouragement sound nothing like this baby’s father.

window seat