Empathy for Growth

 "When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet, if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."

- Thich Nhat Hanh, from Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/866197-thich-nhat-hanh-no-blame-no-reasoning-no-argument-just-understa/

 

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/866197-thich-nhat-hanh-no-blame-no-reasoning-no-argument-just-understa/

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/866197-thich-nhat-hanh-no-blame-no-reasoning-no-argument-just-understa/

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/866197-thich-nhat-hanh-no-blame-no-reasoning-no-argument-just-understa/

First Lines of Cory Doctrow's "Walkaway"

 "Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie Edmund Eli Wiley Marvin Ellis Espinoza was too old to be at a Communist party. At twenty-seven, he had seven years on the next oldest partier. He felt the demographic void."

- Cory Doctorow, Walkaway

An entertaining novel depicting a technocratic future where people drop out of "default" society in order to build another based on more egalitarian and Eco-principles. It reads like a series of philosophical discussions inter dispersed with violent confrontations between the two societies. It's the ideas here that are the great draw - Doctorow knows his stuff, and his criticism of capitalistic societies are spot on. What I struggle with are his conclusions. I admire his idealism and ability to extract the optimistic visions out of the software developer mindset, but many of the solutions he proposes feel a bit naïve in their post-scarcity. For example, much of the Walkaway culture is reliant on 3D printing which assumes that there's unlimited machines, raw materials, and internet capacity. Regardless, it's a thought provoking book that paints an attractive picture of an alternative society that answers much of the criticisms and failures of late capitalism.

The Blue Girl

 An older acrylic painting - can't even remember from when, but memory serves to remind me that it's modeled off of an old girlfriend. I've always struggled with color, but found that a monochrome palate makes shading easier than one that's wide open. Of course, that didn't prevent me from going with blocks of color like in the shade, but here I think it works. I tried to get an icy effect on the window with mixed results. Seeing this one again makes me want to give it another go!