This is Joe's World

"How might we unlock hope in an expansive spirit of democracy for present and future generations in this time of upheaval? This new conversation series on "The State of American Democracy" invites us to explore this question with some of our most creative thinkers and public intellectuals. The first episode on September 17, 2020, focuses on the moral foundations of democracy we can draw for guidance." The article that follows is about the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and highlights the early roots of democracy in the United States."
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Experiencing wonder and awe in nature has many benefits, new studies find.

You might enjoy skiing or hiking. But do you feel at home in the mountains? Do you feel connected to the wilderness? According to a new study, that sense of being “home” in nature could be linked to your life satisfaction and personal growth, at least for young people. Another new study of older people finds that a connection to nature seems to make them happier and more willing to help others.

By Teja Pattabhiraman In the first study, a team of researchers in Norway followed a group of college students who were training to lead wilderness expeditions in one of two settings: either in a forest in the middle of a storm or across a high-altitude plateau. The students agreed to complete a pre- and post-adventure questionnaire, which assessed their life satisfaction and personal growth.

A portion of these students also answered prompts every evening of their five-day excursion. They were asked to…

What if the tension and conflict you experience with your loved ones or your co-workers could be explained in terms of time! Your perception of time may be entirely different than somebody else, but knowing how this works could leave you with a lot less conflict in your life. This simple test will help you get started!

Could the person next to you understand time completely differently? Could this be a reason you and someone you love find yourself having trouble communicating? If you’re an English speaker, there are two ways that you could perceive time, and the way to determine that starts with this statement: “Wednesday’s noon meeting has been moved forward by two hours.”

By Liesl Ulrich-Verderber
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"Everyone has a deep story," says Arlie Hochschild. "Our job is to respect and try to understand these stories." Hochschild is one of the most distinguished sociologists of our time. Considered the founder of the "sociology of emotion," she examines some of the most urgent challenges our societies face: work-family balance, shifting gender roles, alienation, globalization, and the ever-widening political divide. Throughout these issues, she studies how we feel about things, what we think we should feel, and why. Why do people choose what they choose? What are the invisible forces behind our actions? What are the emotional costs, if any? And most recently, why does it seem like people vote against their own interests? What follows is an excerpt from her book, "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right."
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A new report looks at how schools have been grappling with the challenges imposed by COVID-19.

Starting in March, education leaders have been working furiously to create a school experience that must satisfy a dizzying list of public health, education, economic, and labor concerns. Now that classes have begun, educators face the daunting task making up lost ground from COVID-19-related learning loss, which hit low-income students and students of color particularly hard, against the backdrop of high-profile police violence and anti-Black racism. Students are being asked to learn an atmosphere of prolonged stress and anxiety, often through a Zoom call or a plexiglass partition. In a situation like the one we all face, how can educators possibly meet students’ needs?

By Frances Messano, Jason Atwood, Stacey Childress

Our new report, “How to Meet Students’ Social-Emotional and Academic Needs When Schools Reopen,” adds to the existing research base in ways that are ti…

A novel changed the life of Francesca Lo Basso—and there’s scientific evidence that she’s not alone.

I started college in the fall of 2003, when I was seventeen years old. I’d spent the last year dissecting news articles with my AP Government class on the U.S.’s escalating tensions with Iraq. War had moved beyond theory and into inevitability—yet I didn’t know how to express my horror and had even less of an idea of what to do with it. Then, six months after the first time the U.S. invaded Fallujah, I read Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.

By Francesca Lo Basso In this award-winning novelization of his experiences as a soldier in the Vietnam War, O’Brien tells the story of Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon. Rat and Curt are best friends—inseparable—until the moment when, during a game of catch, Curt steps on a hidden landmine and dies instantaneously. The abruptness of the incident and its placement in the middle of a scene of languor tells one kind of truth about th…

"It's been 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment secured voting rights for womensort of. In She Votes: How U.S. Women Won Suffrage, and What Happened Next, author Bridget Quinn and 100 female artists survey the complex history of the struggle for women's rights, including racial segregation and accommodation to White supremacy. They celebrate the hitherto under-recognized efforts by women of color to secure voting rights for all Americans, and BIPOC-led, diverse, and intersectional movements for equality. In this excerpt, Quinn describes how White leaders of the womens suffrage movement were influenced by Indigenous political structures and culture..."
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Could the TV shows you watched when you were younger influence who you are today? Researchers have been looking into this since a certain popular fictional character hit the mainstream and sparked a movement that changed the world of science forever!

We know that the media we watch has a knack for swaying what we buy, what we wear, and how we act, but how influential is it, really? Studies of the impact of one fictional character, in particular, give us a clue to how we can harness our TV habits for good!

By Sam Burns
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"No one who met her [Vimala Thakar] could fail to be moved.For she was a great spiritually enlightened revolutionary and activist; a notable Indian figure of the 20th Century who boldly forged a radically independent approach to spirituality and the search for truth. Freed from all religious tradition, she brought the timeless wisdom of the East to the modern egalitarian West without the baggage of religious terminology, endeavoring to awaken people through deep rational inquiry. Fiercely independent, beholden only to her own burning passion for liberation, she crisscrossed the world for many years, traveling to 35 countries through the sixties, seventies and eighties, exhorting all who would listen to wake up to what she would term the 'totality of Life.'" Chris Parish shares more in this tribute, that also includes an excerpt from Vimala Thakar's book 'Spirituality and Social Action: A Holistic Approach."
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Making friends isn’t necessary for solving political polarization.
Amid two crises—the pandemic and the national reckoning sparked by the killing of George Floyd—there have been anguished calls for Americans to come together across lines of race and partisanship. Change would come, a USA Today contributor wrote, only “when we become sensitized to the distress of our neighbors.”

By Francesca Polletta

Empathy born of intimacy was the prepandemic solution to the nation’s fractured political landscape. If Americans could simply get to know one another, to share stories and appreciate each other’s struggles, civic leaders argued, we would develop a sense of understanding and empathy that would extend beyond the single encounter.

But after studying how Americans cooperate, both in moments of political upheaval and in ordinary times, I am convinced that tackling America’s political divide demands more than intimacy—and less than it.
Ordinary people, talking

Sci…

What if there were a new place to look for a sense of security in these times of turmoil and uncertainty, and it did not involve inventing something new or forcing ourselves forward? Instead, what if the answer to our thriving, right now, lies with remembering how our ancestors thrived!? Here’s how they’re doing it in Hawaii.

Blending into the ocean floor is a predator hunting for their dinner. She looks a lot like you and me, because, well, she is! This huntress is just one of many in Hawaii who are finding a new way forward to protect themselves and their communities by looking into the history of their home. Their way of life has a lot for any of us to learn from and may have you looking at your own skills with a bit more love!

By Sam Burns

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"Watching the sun rise over the wetlands, the mist fading, even here in the midst of nature there is the strange stillness of a world in lockdown waiting, wondering, anxiety, and fear its companions. I am writing these words in the time of the great pandemic, when for a few brief months our world slowed down and almost stopped; when as the stillness grew around us there was a moment to hear another song, not one of cars and commerce, but belonging to the seed of a future our hearts need to hear.This song comes from a place where the angels are present, where light is born, where the future is written." Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee shares more in this timely offering.
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These five adolescents are finding a sense of purpose in helping others.

Many people in the media and government have painted an uninspiring portrait of adolescents facing COVID-19. Young people, we are told, are either indiscriminately spreading the virus by failing to follow public health guidelines, or are at risk of stifled social and emotional growth because of restrictive social-distancing guidelines that hamper key tasks of adolescent development, such as developing a clear and coherent sense of self.

By Michael T. Warren Pathologizing adolescence in the West stems from deeper historical roots. Inaugurating its scientific study in 1904, G. Stanley Hall characterized adolescence as a period of inevitable “storm and stress,” a time of upheaval when young people transition from inhumane childhood to civilized adulthood. Fifty years later, Anna Freud remarked that “to be normal in adolescence is abnormal” and advised parents that if their teen was doing well, the…

Turn your utility bill into a swooshing supply of endless fun! John Collins, a man who flew one of his folded paper creations hundreds of feet through the air, smashing the world record, shows us the world of wonder we can all find in a few simple creases.

When was the last time you actually had fun with your phone bill? I’m guessing approximately never. But it turns out, there’s good old-fashioned fun waiting for us in the most simple, yet overlooked places. So, settle in, dear reader, because that bummer phone bill could not only be the source of hours of fun, but it could also be a world record-breaker!

By Callie Burkey
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Mark Redding survived a devastating traumatic brain injury in an auto accident when he was in his early 20s. Almost 30 years later, Mark met Doug Kline through the PALS (Providing a Link for Survivors) program at Brain Injury Services, a program that enables clients and community volunteers to connect in a mutually enriching friendship to build skills and combat isolation through community integration. The two became instant "bros." In this video, Doug reflects on the beautiful friendship they shared together for 6 years.
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"Every time some new evidence of plant-based intelligence intrudes on my awareness, it confronts perspectives about the world that I inherited from my culture or my family or my schooling, and some portion of that received worldview crumbles, and something new takes its place. The world is a great deal different than we have been led to believe. In fact, we know very little about what goes on here. The ancient Athenians had a word for that moment when some intangible part of ourselves leaves our bodies and touches a living intelligence in the world: aisthesis. There is an exchange of soul essence accompanied by a gasp of recognition, a deep breath, an inspiration." In this compelling interview Stephen Harrod Buhner shares profound insights into the spirit and science behind plant intelligence and natural healing.
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"The journey from self-hatred to self-love involves learning to meet, accept, and open to the being that you are. This begins with letting yourself have your experience. Genuine self-acceptance is not possible as long as you are resisting, avoiding, judging, or trying to manipulate and control what you experience. Whenever you judge the experience you're having, you're not letting yourself be as you are. And this puts you at odds with yourself, creating inner division and conflict. The way to free
yourself from shame and self-blame is through making friends with your experience, no matter what experience you're having." John Welwood shares how a process of acknowledging, allowing, opening and entering can bring us into our own unconditional presence.
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