Hope For The Fun Of It

I’m one of those people who takes “fun” seriously. When I look at the world’s troubles and what it’s going to take to get through these dark times and actually create a world that works for all, I think I may have stumbled upon a novel solution, or at least a necessary if not sufficient part of the answer.

I’ve coined a phrase to make my point: “If you want to create a new culture, throw a better party!” You’re probably thinking that I can’t possibly believe that we can party our way out of this mess, that I’m in denial at best and probably suffering from delusional escapist fantasies. It’s just a metaphor, but one that I believe contains a powerful truth about human creativity, and may in the end offer us a realistic path to a positive future. Here’s a rough outline of my case:

We live in a time (the 21st century) when humanity has a much clearer picture of what doesn’t work than what does. We know that all life on planet Earth is interdependent, beautiful, and fragile. In terms of creating a just and sustainable future, we know that war and violence will not work, nor social and economic injustice... nor environmental destruction, unchecked global warming, rampant greed and consumerism, military empire, totalitarianism, fascism, fundamentalism, mass extinction, overpopulation, etc.

While the sheer number and complexity of our problems seems overwhelming, it just may be that this painful and scary breakdown of the old world order is a necessary stage in our evolution toward a healthy, viable planetary civilization. My strategy is to “play” to our innate strengths as a creative species, while letting go of our maladapted values, beliefs, and fear-based behaviors. The question is: “What is our essential nature as human beings? Who are we, and what do we have the potential of becoming?”

I don’t want to ignore or deny the dark side of our nature -- evil exists. We’re obviously capable of horrendous, destructive, violent actions, but it’s clear to me that our salvation lies in the higher reaches of human nature. We have huge untapped capacities for love, compassion, kindness, altruism, transcendence, joy, play, and creativity, which, if developed to their maximum, can transform the world as we know it.

I truly find hope in the playful nature of our species. Human play tends to be joyful and fun, and it’s a big part of our lives throughout the life cycle. More importantly, play is at the heart of our creativity -- it opens us to new possibilities, actually making us smarter and better able to adapt to our rapidly changing world. The latest scientific findings show that play, like nutrition and sleep, is a central element in determining an individual’s health, well-being, creativity and intelligence. The National Institute for Play believes that as play is woven into the fabric of social practices, we will dramatically transform our personal health, our relationships, the education we provide our children and the capacity of our society to innovate.

Anthropologists point out that throughout human history most cultures and tribes worked a little and played a lot. The desire for collective joy expressed through dancing, singing, feasting, celebration, festivity, games, and ecstatic religious ritual seems to be at the heart of all human community. Mythic figures like Dionysus, Bacchus, Shiva, Krishna (among many others worldwide) were all fun-loving gods who could bring communities together to share in transcendent experiences, a feeling of being a part of a larger whole. Did I mention that the most enthusiastic participants in these rites were women and nature worshippers?

In “Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy,” Barbara Ehrenreich shows how the rise of social hierarchy (i.e. patriarchy) goes hand in hand with the rise of militarism and war -- people who wanted to party all the time didn’t make very good soldiers because the evolving weaponry required disciplined armies. Social elites feared that collective festivities could undermine social hierarchies (which they often did). The suppression of traditional festivities reached its zenith with the rise of Calvinism and capitalism. All embodied pleasures were to be suppressed as sinful, and money and material wealth became our most cherished gods. The hedonic vision of community, based on egalitarianism and the joyous immediacy of human experience, gave way to the agonic reality of cruelly unequal and war-loving societies... like our own.

In this context, the revival of the Dionysian in our time -- e.g. the hippie culture of the 60s (sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll), carnival in Brazil, mardi gras in the US, sports spectacles, rave and hip hop youth culture, neopaganism, deep ecology, mass protest movements, etc. -- can be understood as a healthy swing of the pendulum away from the Apollonian warlike aspects of human culture. As Ehrenreich says, “Why not reclaim our distinctly human heritage as creatures who can generate their own ecstatic pleasures out of music, color, feasting, and dance? We are innately social beings, impelled almost instinctively to share our joy, and therefore able to envision, perhaps even create, a more peaceful future.”


Rick Ingrasci M.D., M.P.H.

We All Need Good Food

Family-farm agriculture is flourishing; living more harmoniously with each other and the earth is nourishing.



Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young, Clinton, WA

Traditions Lighting Our Way Forward

November Traditions for 2008, from LIGHT TRAVELS II
by Veita Jo Hampton

We plea to All Sacred Universal Entities
For strength, relief, truth,
Courage, confidence, compassion.
We acknowledge our differences.
We celebrate our common goals.
We seek patience, tolerance, and endurance.
Grateful for laughter, beauty, surprise,
Wonders we cannot explain,
We celebrate love.
We are thankful for homes, space, place,
People gathered with us, those alive, and
Those who grace us with their spirits.
We acknowledge our quaint place in the universe.
We are grateful to be free to choose how we gather, for
Whom we vote, to whom we pray, where we share opinion,
We are thankful for the Constitution of these United States.

Photograph by Scott Charles Clarkson, California State Democratic Convention, April 2008.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

My dream is that more people will finally feel empowered to act on their own dreams, to act as their own best selves in shaping any of the the worlds they live in. A long-time activist in my tiny community, I've found that an attitude of hope--grounded with some degree of common sense--will take you a long way toward your goal. This is no time to be an Eeyore. Dream little, dream big, but take that dream into the real world for a test drive too.

One of my dreams for health care is working in my own community right now. Given our current and future economic circumstances, I wish more and more communities would start something like our Friends of Friends Medical Support Fund. It began more than a decade ago when I asked 75 acquaintances if they'd give me $100 a year to help people in our community with uncovered medical expenses. That first year--while I was just piloting the program on a small scale--$7,500 came in, and 11 people were helped with doctor, hospital, prescription, and medical-travel expenses. It's a very simple, low-red-tape program that doesn't even have an office, but last year Friends of Friends helped more than 200 people with more than $75,000 in medical bills. It wasn't a grandiose dream, to be sure, but it has provided a measure of emotional and financial relief to more than a thousand people over the years now.

Something like Friends of Friends can be adapted to the needs of your own community, no matter how you define it--your town, your neighborhood, your block, your congregation, your affinity group. Neighbors helping neighbors: It's what America has always been about.

Lynn W, Whidbey Island WA

"Oui, On Peut - Yes, We Can"

Obama ZYDECO from Louisiana 2008 - A lilting tune that will keep your spirits bright and your feet dancing.

A Wealthy and Wise America

I have a vision in which outdated beliefs, attitudes and old money paradigms have shifted into a new conscious prosperity. It is a world where wealth is used with wisdom for the good of each person, where individuals thrive. Money is simply a window into the soul -– a metaphor for how you are living your life –- with dignity and respect for your self, your money and for others. My vision is of unlimited thriving with money used for good, as the rudder that drives each American's vision ship.

I have a personal vision (one I have no idea of how to accomplish) of giving my book FREE to each and every person who wants to change their relationship to money to thrive with wealth and wisdom. They read it and are inspired to take action towards their prosperous future.

This is my work, my mission and vision that gets me up in the morning.

Marilyn August

Thriving Malls

Shopping malls are among America's most well-used public spaces, but do they really serve our needs? In the future I see them thriving by integrating more fully into our lives in two important ways. First, they will broaden their spectrums of activity by adding residential space above the shops. Second, they will join with the surrounding neighborhoods by adding transit centers and replacing swathes of parking lot with open green space. With these basic changes, and the new patterns that will inevitably emerge from them, our malls will truly become centers of community.

See also: The Future of Shopping Malls: An Image Essay at Worldchanging.

- Ian G, 37, Seattle