It's something to meditate over the weekend, before you re-enter the rat race: what is the difference between winning and success? It's the topic of a TED video with basketball coach John Wooden. Wooden's casual, grandfatherly style is a great way to relax and revisit what matters most. He speaks from a long perspective; he's almost 100 years old. Read more...
Video games have long been the bane of parents who wish their kids would study more or go out and exercise. The attraction to video or computer games is the lure of two things that children frequently lack in their own lives: instant, predictable rewards and control. Teachers, with finite attention to give to their students, frequently focus on trouble makers, and many good deeds go unrewarded. But in video games, objectives and rewards are clear. Get X amount of points and you get Y reward. Also, whereas many of kids' choices are at least guided - frequently controlled - by adults, games offer them tremendous freedom to customize a character, sans adult intervention.
The Humana Foundation capitalized on these two key issues to create a video game that encourages kids to exercise - outside. It's called The Horsepower Challenge. Read more...
In honor of Ode's travel issue, I thought it might be nice to highlight AirBnB. AirBnB connects people who want to let out a room (or couch) and those who are traveling. Not only is it a potentially inexpensive way to travel (you can find rooms as cheap as $20/night in New York), you have the chance to make a new friend from another city. Read more...
A dear friend of mine is offering a wonderful course this Spring which I would like to share with the Ode community.
We all experience challenging periods of loss, disappointment and anxiety. Buddhist teachings offer us concrete ways of addressing these challenges. On April 10-12 Gabriel Cohen and Mary Myers will be co-presenting a workshop that explores this topic at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The workshop will be based on Gabriel's book, Storms Can’t Hurt the Sky: A Buddhist Path Through Divorce. Read more...
During my first year in Japan, I hitchhiked for two weeks, visiting rural fishing villages on the west coast and relying on the kindness of the people I met. I visited tiny villages that had no hotels and very few tourists. Upon entering a village, I would find a kind-looking soul and pantomime that I needed a place to sleep. Sometimes my acting skills were not enough to get the message across, and sometimes I wound up in the house of a family willing to take in visitors for a small fee. I ate with my hosts and was then led to a simple room to sleep in.
In one village I had the privilege of staying with a remarkable man and his family. One night the man and I sat on a small wooden dock by the ocean. Using lots of gestures to help me understand, the man told me about his life. Read more...
Two years ago while flying home from a meeting in Chicago I was overwhelmed with a heavy feeling. I wrote these words in my journal: "I can sense a darkness building. It's not the darkness of some evil force coming toward us, but of the light disappearing within us. What can we do, my brothers, to rekindle the fires of creativity and inspiration?" With all the war and poverty and hatred... it began to feel overwhelming. Like mankind was running out of creative fuel - and fresh ideas that would take us to the next level. Read more...
With all of the charitable and governmental organizations designed to help people, there are still a lot of people who need help and most don’t know how or who to ask for it. That is why we have created Sent From Ebove.
Sent From Ebove is a website where people can post a wish and ask for help that they need, no matter how small or large the request, for their community or the world to see. There are many generous people who would love to give and help someone directly. We want to bring these people together. We are an online marketplace for altruism and informal philanthropy, connecting people in need with people that can help. Read more...
In a new documentary, Bill Clinton and Michael Dukakis, as well as architecture and energy experts, discuss the problems caused by suburbanization and horizontal development. The DVD, Sprawling From Grace
Getting held hostage inside the sweltering conference room, where it can easily reach one hundred degrees, is not an option. In Ganta, a small town in North-central Liberia, Karen Cheng and I heed the night manager’s warning about the electrical shutdown and building lock down. We gather our hospital administration team from Sierra Leone and establish a makeshift work station outside of the building that consists of basic benches and wooden chairs. For the next hour with computers in laps, we answer questions and walk the group through financial models on the last day of our Finance Workshop to promote transparency and accountability through good financial reporting. Finally, laptop batteries give-out as twilight descends upon the Liberian jungle. Our “students” prepare to head back to Sierra Leone and implement the skills they and 20 other delegates from Liberia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Guinea learned over the past three-days. Read more...
Donna Spector, a veterinary internist in New York, knows what creatures have the key to living the good life. Hint: They typically have four feet. Read more...
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