Barack Obama Speaks my Language

I'm up early and the toddler and man are still asleep so I walked down the driveway, retrieved the LA times (what's left of it with all the layoffs!) and read that Barack selected Joe Biden as his running mate. I didn't do a "yippee" or a "darn" as I don't know enough about the man, but I was excited to read it first.

When I say "read it first", you are probably feeling sorry for me, as the whole world probably knows by now. What I mean is that no one else TOLD me. I know this is old news to most, but I am in this sphere where we don't have TV, I don't check my emails at work (I did sign up to be the "first to know" on Barack's mailing list), and I only go online to read the news when I get home--and last night we had double social events, which means I went straight to bed when we finally arrived home.So this morning, I was the one who "discovered" the news. But then the news started spinning.

As I concluded the front page article, I flipped to page A14, where a parallel article on Obama entitled "Political stagecraft is a high-wire act" spinned in a different direction: speculation and criticism of Obama's whole approach as "theatrical" and risky. The reporter criticized Obama's approach of keeping his 2nd a mystery. I personally loved it.

Obama's campaign strategy takes ordinary, predictable political events that are traditionally dreary, business as usual steps in a campaign and transforms them, infuses them with excitement and peaks the interest of the public. Okay, that may be theatrical, but I've got to say, it works! Obama is speaking my language when he pulls me in, tactics or not! Why the hell should it all be mundane? We're sick of that! If anything, he is staying true to his promise of "change" on every level, including how he strategizes in his campaign.

I think Obama is pulling upon his years as a law professor, where he actively engaged his students so their minds were receptive and open. I never took a class from him, but if he was a talented professor, then he must have engaged his students to teach a topic as old as our country--constitutional law. In his book "The Audacity of Hope" he does speak about making the class relevant and stimulating. Thank GOD he's using these tactics in his campaign.

WE ALL KNOW Obama is campaigning for president. We ALL KNOW that means strategizing to engage people, get their attention, get them involved. If he is a master of media attention grabbing, then that's a GOOD sign, as long as it's being used in a way that is good for the country--and so far, he is a stunning success.

Roots Organic Farm

We're back from Indonesia and I must say it was a life changing trip. Since I only have a moment, I will save the Indonesian tales and pictures for another blog session. For now, I wanted to post a link to the latest article written by Kristin Anderson.

http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jul/17/introducing-los-olivos-roots-organic-farm/

I love organic farming and I am so thankful to live in an area where year round produce is a reality!

If you haven't stopped by Roots Organic Farm at the Santa Barbara Farmer's markets--or any of the other 5 markets in Santa Barbara County, you won't be disappointed to give it a try. The carrots are our favorites.

The New Kindergarten for Society?

"Everything I need to know I got for free on the internet."

Gap Fire and the 4th of July

For the past two years, our country's birthday has coincided with fire. This year's fire is making its way toward communities where friends live. Several friends within our sphere of community have already been evacuated and so far, everyone we know is okay. So far.

The sky is brown and orange. Beautiful. Ominous. I won't say apocolyptic, because that's just silly. Watching the sky turn brown and orange from smoke is like being out on a boat in an ocean; it puts things into perspective. We are small compared to teh 30-60 foot flames shooting up in the air. One site I read a bit ago reported the flames to be 100-200 feet.

We go along every day in our humdrum routines. We stress about the boss, or the co-worker who annoys us but we must tolerate them to keep up appearances. We talk about trifling matters. Some seem like the essence of life. Yet a fire, a storm, a sudden encounter with nature shifts your perspective in a way that says "You have been sleeping! You are now awake. Really awake!"

I often talk about the idea of being happy when the pest otherwise known as the human race is finally wiped out. Yet, when anything real happens within close proximity, such professions disappear.

I hope that my entry tonight will be just a little commentary about a fire that seemed big and went away. May the Gap Fire go away soon!

What Makes You Happy?

My book club decided upon Deep Economy by Bill McKibben for our June 2008 meeting. It's my first McKibben book and, 45 pages in, I'm on fire. Intelligently written without too much doomsday (yet), with a hint of hope unfolding in the form of solutions to the problem. Although the book is only 232 pages long, I can't read more than a few pages without wanting to form a set of cards of wise sayings to share with everyone I know. Not everyone I know reads this blog, but for those of you that do, here are some choice words that make you think (hopefully out of context they still wield power and contemplation of the basic question "is more better?"

"You can't get richer, at least for long, by impoverishing the world around you." This thought is inspired by economist Eban Goodstein's Economics and the Environment, where he says "Ecological economists argue that natural and created capital are fundamentally complements" that is, that you actually need to think about the planet."p.29 Deep Economy

This quote resonates so clearly in my mind, like the perfect pitch I always desired. The rate of consumption, the insane drive for more more more that inundates us day in and day out does more harm than good. You may argue that all that consumption creates jobs and keeps the economy going, and just plain makes people happy. But at what cost, and at what illusive definition of happiness?

Aha! Onto another inspiring quote from McKibben. In a passage where he discusses people's reported measures of happiness in relationship to increased wealth, he says the following: All that material progress--and all the billions of barrels of oil and millions of acres of trees that it took to create it--seems not to have moved the satisfaction meter an inch. (p.35 Deep Economy). He goes on to say that "In 1946, the United States was the happiest country among four advanced economies; thirty years later, it was eighth among eleven advanced countries; a decade after tht it ranked tenth among twenty-three nations, many of them from the third world. (Stats garnered from "Happiness" by Layard).

Okay, its too late in the evening for me. Barry, if you are reading this, know that I plan to follow the instructions in your email about your video short (very cool!) as soon as I get another block of time!

Good night, but Good luck is over rated. How about belief in happiness as something that can't be bought, but that resides in time with friends, family, meditation, contemplation, viewing of art and Happy Hour with friends? Okay, so maybe a $3.50 pint accompanying a group of friends and good conversation is a small price to pay for a lot of real happiness :)

Noelle Aguayo

How Many Places Do you Live?

I rarely visit FaceBook, because I just don't get the appeal. I have my GMAIL, and email my friends occasionally, but better yet, I like to see them in person. FaceBook is an effective connection tool for friends in far flung places, and it really does give you a sense of the networking capabilities of meeting friends of friends--but really, where are people getting all of this time? Last time I checked, there were still only 24 hours in a day, and sleep is still essential, as is the work day, and then for those of us with family, there's family time, then hobbies, reading, friend time, etc, etc. So HOW do you all keep up?

I suppose I also have this bloggy presence, and my work email--so I live in four places online. No Avatars yet. Does anyone I know have an avatar? Come on! I want to know if you do!

That's my mid day rant!

Noelle

I've been memed and all the bloggers I know have already been tagged!

Here are the rules:
A) The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
B) Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
C) At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) Ten years ago I was...

Hanging out on the banks of the Metolius, watching someone I didn't like much fly fishing.

2) Five things on today's to-do list:

Read "Good Night Gorilla" again.
Buy a t-shirt in Santa Barbara that was made in Honduras to send to our sponsor child in Guatemala for his 6th birthday.
Cook dinner
Respond to my emails
Research Java


3) Things I'd do if I were a billionaire:

Save a small portion of the world (or large if a billion goes that far)
Design and build an ecovillage
Cook dinner at leisure
Enjoy oodles of time with Ezra & Arie Jan
Write a novel or five

4) Three bad habits:

Whining (and not in the good way, like George does).
Checking my email at work
Leaving the peanut butter jar on the counter in the morning (but I'm getting better)


5) Five places I've lived:

Solvang
Hilo, Hawaii
Waltham, Mass.
Amsterdam
Bend, Oregon


6) Six jobs I've had in my life:

Newspaper reporter, Farm stand girl, Marketing Director, International Travel Assistant, Mom


And now to choose five people: Who's left?