good humor

             You probably know that laughing is good for your health and wellbeing.  I love good, gentle humor - especially the kind that is self-deprecating because it's not done at someone else's expense.  Dressing someone down in order to elevate yourself - look at that garish dress, haha - creates a win-lose situation.  When you humor yourself on the other hand - oh, dear, hopefully stepping into that dog pile will bring me a whole bunch of good luck - nobody else gets emotionally hurt because you pointed out the irony in something you yourself did - then everyone can laugh freely and without guilt.  It's a win-win.

            Because I'm a bit serious by nature I have always admired people who can humor themselves, who don't take themselves too seriously.  But as I'm maturing I'm getting a little better at it, more easily in writing, when I have some time to think about what to say, although I will never be a stand-up comic. 

            Self-deprecating humor doesn't offend anyone but the humorist, so it's safe and harmless.  I heard someone say that it only works well if you're confident already.  Then it can be put to good use - as a speaker to loosen up an audience, as a teacher to lighten the classroom atmosphere, as a boss in a meeting.  Self-deprecation makes us human and approachable.  How is your sense of humor?

no waste

         Nature leaves no waste, only people do. Nature's waste is sustainable because its decomposition follows a sustainable cycle in which every part feeds the next step in the cycle endlessly.  Animal waste and dead plant material compost back into the soil, carrion eating birds and little critters take care of animal carcasses, trees absorb the carbon dioxide that animals and humans exhale.  It is only us humans who have devised production processes that transform natural materials into stuff that is either itself not recyclable (think plastics) and creates trash that way, or whose manufacturing produces side effects in the form of waste and pollution (any industrial process).

            Worldwide many towns and cities strive to become zero-waste by 2020.  The goal of zero-waste is to recycle and compost everything so nothing goes into the landfill.  It takes a strong commitment from the city and a persistent education effort to overcome people's initial resistance and learning curve - take a look at this video of a Japanese town that's almost there.  Then take a look at your household trash and recycling logistics.  Can you do better?  You may also want to re-read an older post - trash-free?    Since Nature leaves no waste let's remember that we, actually, are Nature, too.

the glue of relationships

              Profit and trust are difficult to reconcile.  It's easy to lose trust when money enters the picture, especially in the business world.  When profit, our highest cultural value, reigns over trust or compassion or mutual benefit it undermines a relationship.  But trust is the glue of all good relationships.  When we lose trust in someone because they value their company's or their own financial benefit over a cooperative and open relationship we tend to tread backwards, withhold from ourselves, and close up. Business relationships often display a certain level of distrust or cautiousness because a business's ultimate goal by definition revolves around profit.  

            However, once we become aware of the tie-in between money and trust, it's possible to work for the mutual benefit of both parties by consciously working towards a win-win situation, a scenarios that benefits both parties or partners.  Trust is the ultimate glue of any relationship.  Build trust and you create a bond.

so exquisite

             Is there anything more beautiful than these water drops that glitter like Swarovski crystals in the sun?  Nature creates this kind of perfection effortlessly, without trying - naturally.  So different from us, when we try to create beauty.  We have to apply skill and technology.  We need to work at it, spending years of practicing and perfecting a skill, before something becomes naturally beautiful without trying too hard.

            Here - another blog post - on nature's effortless perfection.

money co-ops

             If there were a credit union in my town I'd transfer my money in a minute. The difference between a credit union and a bank is that banks are for-profit.  That means that the more fees they charge you and the less interest they give you the wealthier they become.  Credit unions, on the other hand, are non-profit organizations working for and on behalf of their members.   In a way a credit union is something like a banking co-operative.  In general their fees are lower than banks' fees, their interest rates tend to be slightly higher, their executive salaries are lower, they have fewer branches, and they are more locally oriented.   Their purpose is to work with and for you, as opposed to for their own self-preservation.  

            With social changes and tendencies towards more cooperation and more transparency, credit unions are becoming more and more popular because their practices are more customer oriented.  It is millennials that are driving the credit union growth trend,  and credit unions are growing faster than other financial institutions.

           Do you have a credit union in your town?

the joys of weekday grittiness

            I usually look forward to the weekend, especially going to sleep knowing that my night will not end with the sound of the alarm clock, but that I can wake up slowly, whenever, and linger luxuriously in bed. 

            But I am in a very creative period of my life and lots of stuff is happening, and most of it happens during the week.  So, believe it or not, there have been some weekends when I've been looking forward to resuming doing my stuff, to the grittiness of the week.

            Grittiness of weekday life?  By that I mean being deeply engrossed in my work instead of coasting, my weekend modus operandi.  There is great satisfaction in being intensely involved in something that has meaning to me.  Weekend life puts that work on hold, it places me on hold, it makes me pause, it interrupts my creative flow.  Sometimes the truly mundane is what's most meaningful; not the special spa manicure, not the special restaurant meal, not the lingering in bed, but the submersion in work you like doing, the feeling of accomplishment and getting something important done.  Which mundane tasks do you truly enjoy?

             See also an earlier related post Monday, Monday.

unconditional love

Why do we love our pets so much?  Or why do we love animals in general so much?  Look in the eyes of these animals - the wolf, the fox, the raccoon.  I think we love animals so much because of their unconditional love.  Animals have no hidden agenda. 

Wild animals may not show their love in the way our pets do; nevertheless their eyes convey a genuineness, a certain innocence, a truthfulness, a vulnerability, a transparency we admire because we don't necessarily see it in ourselves and our fellow wo/men.  We humans are so much more complicated.  We interpret, we judge, we evaluate, we question, we wonder, we manipulate, we doubt.  Why can't we be a bit more like animals?

fun learning

            Curiosity motivates us to learn, encouragement inspires us to thrive.  If I were independently wealthy I would take classes all the time.  But - and here's the caveat - it's got to be fun.  More so than the all-season gray skies in Belgium, I left Brussels because I was fed up with the dusty post secondary academic system that seeped all the way into creative fields like my design studies.  I felt inhibited and put down, instead of motivated and inspired.  That's how I landed on the shores of this country where I found a much more open learning environment (I'll leave the financial picture out of the conversation because that's a whole other discussion).

            I find that in general college education here encourages inquisitiveness, individualism, creative thinking and doing, critical-analytical thinking, and is practically oriented.   Many institutions have beautiful facilities with new buildings, great lab and studio spaces, well designed sports and communal facilities, all of which foster a positive learning environment.  I have experienced encouraging, nurturing, personal relationships with professors who work with, not above, the students - a totally different atmosphere than I knew from Europe where I encountered condescending professors on pedestals assured of their superiority.

            A Parisian friend said to me a while ago that France's dusty, staid, academic environment discourages exploring and voicing novel theories and inhibits innovation in research.  The best learning environments foster an inquisitiveness of seeing the world through children's eyes, full of wonderment and curiosity and of "what if?".  I love learning.