I was reading an NPR article that someone sent me today and this quote caught my eye. Speaking about social networks the author quoted 25 year old May Wilkerson:
"What that means is that you have contact with many, many more people, but each of those relationships takes up a little bit less of your life. That fragmentation of the social world creates a lot of loneliness."
I often find myself on Facebook wondering what I am looking for from that experience, and feeling that it doesn't bring me much satisfaction. I do think all these social networking sites have a purpose, but when they become the end in themselves, especially for long periods of time each day, I think the side effects include a lot of mental confusion and clutter, and perhaps some emotional emptiness. After catching myself on Facebook for a while, I will go take a walk, or exercise, or go to the beach, and it feels so much better than staring at the computer screen.
The article that this came from is actually about sexual encounters replacing dating, and can be found here.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
YES! Video
Here is a video I made recently with a friend of mine.
Last month, 5 teachers including myself, taught 180 kids at an inner-city school in Los Angeles, the Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES!).
I think these testimonials are wonderful.
See a larger size at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpO5-skgDM0
Last month, 5 teachers including myself, taught 180 kids at an inner-city school in Los Angeles, the Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES!).
I think these testimonials are wonderful.
See a larger size at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpO5-skgDM0
Monday, June 1, 2009
Risk
On Saturday I witnessed an amazing event put on by a handful of our local Art of Living youth volunteers called Trashy LA.
About 150 people came out to see recycled art, listen to music, eat some vegetarian food, and learn some breathing techniques, all as a fundraiser for our YES! high school programs, teaching breathing techniques and life-skills to inner-city kids.
The atmosphere was really nice. It felt like the attendees, the vast majority of whom had never met any of us or one another, were very comfortable with one another. You could just walk up to strangers and start talking about important things without much effort. So for me, whether or not this event leads to other measures of success, the atmosphere of belongingness we created, exemplified the purpose of the work we do.
So risk...
An event like this has lots of risk. What if you lose money? What if the event sucks, and the friends or artists or food vendors you invited think you wasted their time and money?
I have seen with lots of events like this that its a lot easier to stand on the sidelines where its safe, and to even be critical while you're there. It takes courage to throw yourself into an uncertain situation, and with hard work and a little faith, to plow ahead and hope for the best.
None of us know how to succeed until we try something, and its this willingness to fail, to risk something important, that separates those who create in life, and those who just watch. So for those that took a risk, I applaud you. You know the feeling of success, something those who just stand by in a safe place can never know.
About 150 people came out to see recycled art, listen to music, eat some vegetarian food, and learn some breathing techniques, all as a fundraiser for our YES! high school programs, teaching breathing techniques and life-skills to inner-city kids.
The atmosphere was really nice. It felt like the attendees, the vast majority of whom had never met any of us or one another, were very comfortable with one another. You could just walk up to strangers and start talking about important things without much effort. So for me, whether or not this event leads to other measures of success, the atmosphere of belongingness we created, exemplified the purpose of the work we do.
So risk...
An event like this has lots of risk. What if you lose money? What if the event sucks, and the friends or artists or food vendors you invited think you wasted their time and money?
I have seen with lots of events like this that its a lot easier to stand on the sidelines where its safe, and to even be critical while you're there. It takes courage to throw yourself into an uncertain situation, and with hard work and a little faith, to plow ahead and hope for the best.
None of us know how to succeed until we try something, and its this willingness to fail, to risk something important, that separates those who create in life, and those who just watch. So for those that took a risk, I applaud you. You know the feeling of success, something those who just stand by in a safe place can never know.
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