Bookworm - Big Ideas for Busy People

The Story of Stuff

with Annie Leonard

Annie Leonard "spend(s) a lot of time thinking about stuff: where it comes from, where it goes, why it is designed the way it is and stuff like that." She is so fired up about this topic that she made a 20 minute movie The Story of Stuff to share what she's learned with the rest of us.

After I viewed the movie, I sent it to my 13-year old daughter and her friends.

To quote Leonard, "It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever."

Given that a company called Simply Self Storage is the #1 fastest growing business in America, according to Entreprenuer Magazine, proving that we have WAY TOO MUCH stuff . . . that's a very good thing.

Alexandra Robbins on The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids

Investigative journalist and best-selling author Alexandra Robbins visited Mercer Island High School on Monday, November 6th. She spoke to over 300 parents, staff and students, who braved the inclement weather and even chose the event over watching the Seahawks on Monday Night Football!!

MIHS Principal John Harrison opened the evening by reminding us that Mercer Island High School students, who take advantage of the myriad opportunities that are offered to them, have increasingly high expectations of themselves and put a lot of pressure on themselves. He acknowledged that "Mercer Island students face an incredible time management challenge as they prepare for life beyond high school. Our students take challenging college preparation course loads that include numerous Advanced Placement, college level, and honors course. Our students are involved in multiple student activities, athletics and performing arts. In the Mercer Island School District, high expectations apply to all areas of school life. When family time, non-school related activities, friends, religions activities, and part-time jobs are factored in, our students are incredibly time-challenged. This time management challenge can result in increased stress levels, sleep deprivation, compromise, and potentially lower levels of performance."

Both Principal Harrison and middle school Principal Sharon Gillaspie believe that, as a community, we can do a better job of managing these "competing interests." In doing so, Mr. Harrison says we can "support our students in continuing to achieve and accomplish in a way that is more conducive to continued success and healthy balance."  Alexandra's visit here was intended to kick-off a community dialogue about this very important topic.

Ms. Robbins, only 12 years out of high school herself, described her return to her alma mater, Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, during the year of her 10th reunion. She was stunned by the change in atmosphere since she attended the school. The stark contrast inspired her to follow nine Whitman students for three semesters and then travel the country, interviewing students, admission directors, high school administrators, etc., to develop a picture of today's high school experience and college preparation process. She shares what she experienced and learned in her latest book The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, which is essentially an examination of today's culture to succeed and "how it has changed the high school experience so drastically in even ten years that it has startlingly altered what it means to be a student today."

To read the complete summary, Download AlexandraRobbinsMI.doc.rtf.

I also recommend reading the book! It is full of engaging stories and in-depth commentaries, and reads quickly. Not your typical non-fiction book!

30 Days and The Omnivore's Dilemma

I'm excited that so many of you have signed up for Bookworm by Email! Thank you (: While I love to read and discover new things, it's particularly satisfying to read and discover knowing it's for our Bookworm community.

Speaking of discoveries . . . my 15-year old son sat my husband and I down to watch Morgan Spurlock's (of Supersize Me fame) new show called 30 Days. We are now the proud owners of the first season on DVD. The show's premise is that Morgan, or one of his colleagues, lives in someone else's shoes for 30 days and we get to watch. We viewed the segment where Morgan and his lovely vegan-chef fiancee live on minimum wage for 30 days. It's Barbara Eisenreich's Nickel and Dimed brought to life on film (Nickel and Dimed is summarized under the Bookworm category Social Commentary - see left column.) They walk to work, ride the bus, eat rice and beans, end up in the emergency room (twice!), live above a former crack house, work tirelessly, take a second job, and still end up at the end of the month with bills that would take them at least three months to pay - that is, if nothing else goes wrong. And they are young, healthy (at least going into the experience), articulate, well-educated and don't have children. It's an eye-opener. GREAT to watch with teenagers.

I am also reading a  book called The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. Here's what Dr. Andrew Weil says about the book:

The Corporation

I just watched the documentary "The Corporation" based on the book "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Power and Profit" by law professor Joel Bakan. I'm so glad they made a movie version! I'm not sure that's a book I would've picked up, even given my devotion to non-fiction. And yet it presents a truly mind-shifting thesis: that we have afforded corporations the status of a person with all the comensurate rights, yet if you evaluated the corporation through the lens of a person, it would be diagnosed as a psychopath.

Intrigued?

"The Corporation" is a must-see now that it's out on DVD. You will learn a lot while being entertained. Check out the website: www.the corporation.com.

It's a pretty balanced film too. The co-director said she approached every scene with the question "What would my Dad think?" (who's a businessman) -and her effort to have the movie speak to a broad audience shows.

I'm going to host a house party to show the movie sometime this summer - it's that important. If you live in the Seattle area, stay tuned for date and time.

Here's a brief summary of the movie (and book, if you're so inclined):

"One hundred and fifty years ago, the corporation was a relatively insignificant entity. Today, it is a vivid, dramatic and pervasive presence in all our lives. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the corporation is today’s dominant institution. But history humbles dominant institutions. All have been crushed, belittled or absorbed into some new order. The corporation is unlikely to be the first to defy history.

In this complex and highly entertaining documentary, Mark Achbar, co-director of the influential and inventive "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media," teams up with co-director Jennifer Abbott and writer Joel Bakan to examine the far-reaching repercussions of the corporation’s increasing preeminence.

Based on Bakan’s book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, the film is a timely, critical inquiry that invites CEOs, whistle-blowers, brokers, gurus, spies, players, pawns and pundits on a graphic and engaging quest to reveal the corporation’s inner workings, curious history, controversial impacts and possible futures. Featuring illuminating interviews with Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn and many others, "The Corporation" charts the spectacular rise of an institution aimed at achieving specific economic goals as it also recounts victories against this apparently invincible force."

Odd Girl Out and Odd Girl Speaks Out

by Rachel Simmons

Our public school district recently hosted Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out and Odd Girl Speaks Out. She spent two hours in the afternoon with a group of District administrators, principals, counselors and teachers. Rachel then spoke that evening to about 700 parents, staff, community members and students. Rachel did an amazing job of skillfully speaking directly to the parents while connecting in a very authentic way with the 5th -12th grade girls in the audience. Her witty, often irreverent comments filled the room with laughter, but her direct and honest approach to her topic held listeners’ attention and provoked many raised hands (mostly from students!) when it was time for questions.

One of Rachel’s key messages is that when we think of bullying we predominantly think of boys and physical bullying. She asks us to broaden our definition to include girls and psychological bullying.  Rachel also acknowledged that girl’s bullying often takes place within their friendships and typically operates under the radar screen of parents and teachers.

What does psychological bullying look like?   There are four major categories.

• Relational bullying occurs when girls use friendship as a weapon (If you don’t play on the bars with me at recess, I won’t be your friend anymore.)
• Social bullying involves damage to a girl’s social status or reputation, for example, when a rumor is spread that impact a girl’s reputation or effects her relationships with her friends.
• Indirect bullying takes place either when the perpetrator is anonymous or when hurtful things are said, quickly followed by comments like “just kidding” or “no offense.
• Negative body language is the province of eye-rolling, mean looks, certain forms of exclusion and the silent treatment.

One of the reasons for this hidden aggression is that girls do not have the tools to engage in assertive direct conflict where they can actually say what's in their hearts to each other. In our culture, girls are taught that a good girl is a nice girl, which means not being in conflict, and being everyone's friend.

Rachel also warned that the internet has become the “new bathroom wall” and believes parents should monitor and regulate internet use, just like with other forms of media. In her experience, too many parents have left control of this technological domain to their kids, creating a sort of “Lord of the Flies” social environment on the internet.

Rachel was also honest about her own roles as both victim and perpetrator of bullying and reminds us that there aren’t good girls and bad girls, but rather good girls who have done bad things. She encourages adults to create an environment where it is OK to make mistakes and learn from them. At the same time, she asks us all to take personal responsibility for the inevitable mistakes we make with our friends, learning to say, “I’m sorry. Here’s what I’ll do differently next time, because I care about you.”

In her talk, Rachel shone the light of understanding on a perplexing, persistent and too often painful issue and, perhaps most important, has given us the words so we can talk about it and work together to make it different.

Here are a few things you can do at home:

• Model conflict as a part of life in your home. Help kids see that conflict is part of healthy relationships and doesn’t threaten the future of those relationships.
• Teach conflict as a process
  • Affirm the relationship (I really like being your friend, I have fun playing soccer with you, etc. to communicate that you want this relationship to continue)
  • Say how you feel and what specifically has happened using “I” statements (I felt left out when you whispered to Sally in front of me after music class yesterday)
  • Ask what you specifically need to change (I need you to not whisper to other people in front of me)

• Develop and share your family’s expectations regarding behavior on the internet. Here are some examples:
  • Never send something you wouldn’t say to the person.
  • Be consistent in who you are in “real life” and on the internet. Be the same person with the same values.
  • Never send messages pretending to be someone else.

I highly recommend reading Odd Girl Out. It is wonderfully written and is full of stories and insights that simply can’t be conveyed in a summary. Also, Odd Girl Speaks Out is written specifically for girls and is a great resource.

If you are interested in having Rachel speak to your group or community, she is represented by American Program Bureau. Ask for Nancy Eisenstein - she was terrific to work with.

The Tipping Point

by Malcolm Gladwell

This book has created its own tipping point phenomenon. In the last week, someone mentioned or I read the phrase “the tipping point” in at least five different situations. The following interview with the author is a great summary of the book:

What is The Tipping Point about?

It's a book about change. In particular, it's a book that presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does. For example, why did crime drop so dramatically in New York Cityin the mid-1990's? How does a novel written by an unknown author end up as national bestseller? Why do teens smoke in greater and greater numbers, when every single person in the country knows that cigarettes kill? Why is word-of-mouth so powerful? I think the answer to all those questions is the same. It's that ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an examination of the social epidemics that surround us.

What does it mean to think about life as an epidemic? Why does thinking in terms of epidemics change the way we view the world?

Because epidemics behave in a very unusual and counterintuitive way. Think, for a moment, about an epidemic of measles in a kindergarten class. One child brings in the virus. It spreads to every other child in the class in a matter of days. And then, within a week or so, it completely dies out and none of the children will ever get measles again. That's typical behavior for epidemics: they can blow up and then die out really quickly, and even the smallest change -- like one child with a virus -- can get them started. My argument is that it is also the way that change often happens in the rest of the world. Things can happen all at once, and little changes can make a huge difference. That's a little bit counterintuitive. As human beings, we always expect everyday change to happen slowly and steadily, and for there to be some relationship between cause and effect. And when there isn't -- when crime drops dramatically in New York for no apparent reason, or when a movie made on a shoestring budget ends up making hundreds of millions of dollars -- we're surprised. I'm saying, don't be surprised. This is the way social epidemics work.

For the full summary Download the_tipping_point.doc

The Cultural Creatives - How 50 Million People are Changing the World

by Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson

Since the 1960s, 26 percent of adults in the United States– 50 million people – have made a comprehensive shift in their worldview, values, and way of life – their culture, in short. These “creative, optimistic” millions are at the leading edge of several kinds of cultural change, deeply affecting not only their own lives but our larger society as well.

My experience reading the book was as follows: First, I was overjoyed to read about people whose values were so closely aligned to my own. Then, I was flabbergasted to find out how many of those people are out there. It’s like discovering you have 49,999,999 kindred spirits. Finally, it made me feel really hopeful about our future and the part I can play in helping it unfold.

More details from the Cultural Creative website:

“Does the religious right have a hammerlock on values in America? Is the new American dream really about getting and spending, and being the first zillionaire on the block? At the turn of the millennium, fifty million ordinary Americans emphatically disagree. They are the Cultural Creatives - the leading edge creators of a new culture in America.

In this landmark book, sociologist Paul Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson draw upon 13 years of survey research studies on over 100,000 Americans, plus over 100 focus groups and dozens of depth interviews. They tell who the Cultural Creatives are, and the fascinating story of their emergence over the last generation.

The Cultural Creatives care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, and about self actualization, spirituality and self-expression. Surprisingly, they are both inner-directed and socially concerned; they're activists, volunteers and contributors to good causes more than other Americans. However, because they've been so invisible in American life, Cultural Creatives themselves are astonished to find out how many share both their values and their way of life. Once they realize their numbers, their impact on American life promises to be enormous, shaping a new agenda for the twenty-first century.

Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson tell how people departed from Modern or Traditional cultures to weave new ways of life. Three Americas are struggling to define what the country should be: Traditionals (25% and declining), Moderns (50%) and Cultural Creatives (25% and growing). The authors show how each one emerged historically, and how the Cultural Creatives in particular grew out of the social movements of the Sixties right up to Seattle's WTO demonstrations, and from the consciousness movements in spirituality, psychology and alternative health. They conclude that all the different kinds of movements are converging now, with the Cultural Creatives at the core.

What makes the appearance of the Cultural Creatives especially timely today is that our civilization is in the midst of an epochal change, caught between globalization, accelerating technologies and a deteriorating planetary ecology. A creative minority can have enormous leverage to carry us into a new renaissance instead of a disastrous fall. The book ends with a number of maps for the remarkable journey that our civilization is embarked upon: initiations, evolutionary models, scenarios, and the elements of a new mythos for our time. The Cultural Creatives offers a more hopeful future, and prepares us all for a transition to a new, saner and wiser culture.”

Are you a Cultural Creative? Fill out the on-line questionnaire and find out!

On February 6, 2004 I attended a talk at Town Hall in Seattle by Paul Ray entitled “The New Political Compass” where he discussed the political implications of his work on the Cultural Creatives.

A brief article – very worth reading - about  "The New Political Compass" written by Paul Ray in Yes! Magazine.

Paul Ray said the single most important thing we can do to impact our political arena is to stop being consumers and start being citizens. He advocated entering into conversation with other “citizens” as a powerful way to start. A great resource for making conversation happen is www.conversationcafe.org.  They offer support for open, hosted conversations in cafes and other public places and offer “a simple process that helps to shift small talk to BIG talk, and to make sense of our world.” I’m eager to try it.

The Progress Paradox - How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse

by Gregg Easterbrook

In The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook draws upon three decades of wide-ranging research and thinking to make the persuasive argument that almost all aspects of Western life have vastly improved in the past century – and yet today, most people feel less happy than in previous generations.

He reports that American life expectancy has dramatically increased in a century, from 47 to 77 years. Our great-great-grandparents all knew someone who died of some disease we never fear; as recently as 1952, polio killed 3,300 Americans. Our largest public health problems arise from unlimited supplies of affordable food.

The typical American has twice the purchasing power his mother or father had in 1960. A third of America's families own at least three cars. In 2001 Americans spent $25 billion -- more than North Korea's GDP -- on recreational watercraft.

Factor out immigration -- a huge benefit to the immigrants -- and statistical evidence of widening income inequality disappears. The statistic that household incomes are only moderately higher than 25 years ago is misleading: Households today average fewer people, so real dollar incomes in middle-class households are about 50 percent higher today. Poverty is down. In 1960 22 percent of Americans lived in poverty; by 2001, the figure had dropped to 11.7 percent. Although Easterbrook adds, the current situation, in which one person in eight lives in privation in a country as wealthy as the Unites States, should be seen as a national shame. He has equally harsh words for what he sees as a number of truly unacceptable situations in our world today, from the lack of universal health care, to business leaders who steal from shareholders and employees, to the deplorable state of hopelessness many live in around the world

But back to the good news. Since 1970 the number of cars has increased 68 percent and the number of miles driven has increased even more, yet smog has declined by a third and traffic fatalities have declined from 52,627 to 42,815 last year. In 2003 we spent much wealth on things unavailable in 1953 -- a cleaner environment, reduced mortality through new medical marvels ($5.2 billion a year just for artificial knees, which did not exist a generation ago), the ability to fly anywhere or talk to anyone anywhere. The incidence of heart disease, stroke and cancer, when adjusted for population growth, is declining.

The national crime rate increased slightly in 2001 following nine consecutive years of reduction, the longest-ever U.S. drop in crime.

America soon will be the first society in which a majority of adults are college graduates.

So why do people report a sense that things are getting steadily worse and that even fear that catastrophe is imminent? Why do we not live in state of gratitude that we (anyone living at middle class standards or above) now live better than 99.4 percent of the humans beings who have ever existed?

Easterbrook presents a few rationales. One is the unsettled nature of progress. Progress causes some problems to be truly solved, like polio thanks to vaccines. But often as not, problems exist in a chain of cause and effect.  One problem is solved, and a new one crops up. We can now travel anywhere in the world but we’re dealing with the resulting problems of energy consumption and its environmental impact.

The author also contends we have an active preference for bad news. He observes that news organizations love the word “crisis” and use it as often as possible. Also, in the United States, highly speculative bad news is often given considerable play while confirmed good news is barely reported. The media creates an impression of a country getting worse by obsessive focus on smaller and smaller risks. Easterbrook says “Today we have the knowledge necessary to detect small risks, the leisure in which to notice them, and the wherewithal to act against them. But everyone misses the larger point that big risks are in decline.”

He speculates about the psychological reasons for feeling bad in the midst of progress. Both "choice anxiety," where the vastness of society's options is a burden, and "abundance denial," where people somehow manage to convince themselves that they are deprived of material comforts have an impact on our feeling of well-being. We have also blurred needs and wants. Almost every man and woman of history ordered life around needs, and usually this meant a hard, meager existence. Today there are millions of people who rarely lack for anything in the needs category. Yet wanting is insatiable, though you can placate it now and then.

What’s the whole point of worrying about our state of dissatisfaction? Studies show that the percentage of the population that is happy has not increased in fifty years, the truly harmful aspects of unhappiness, depression and stress, have become ever more prevalent. Easterbrook also believes the sooner we accept how good we have it, the better off the whole world will be because if we would just realize that we have this wealth and good fortune, we could be using it to alleviate hunger, provide health care for the millions who lack it, and otherwise address the ills that actually do exist. For example, he believes we could radically improve the lives of the poor (see “Nickel and Dimed” ) through the free market via “living wages” that raise the American minimum wage to $10 per hour. It would mean accepting slightly higher prices which we would only be willing to do once we embraced the notion that the vast majority of us are wildly prosperous relative to history and the rest of the world.

How do we enhance our sense of well-being? Easterbrook highlights the findings from the emerging field called positive psychology, which has focused on studying what causes sanity and happiness rather than focusing on pathology. Here are some of his suggestions:

1) Cultivate learned optimism

Martin Seligman wrote a book called “Learned Optimism” which tells you exactly how to do that. One striking point, though, is that part of learned optimism is learning to expect tribulations and occasional blue periods. That way, when problems inevitably occur, dealing with the problem is just part of the normal course of life. Seligman has an entire website devoted to positive psychology at http://www.authentichappiness.org/.

2) Practice forgiveness

Research has found that people who do not forgive the wrongs committed against them tend to have negative indicators of well-being: more stress related disorders, lower immune function, and worse rates of cardiovascular disease. He makes the point that forgiveness can have either a spiritual or secular basis – they are equally effective at making people better off.

3) Make gratitude a part of your life

“Gratitude research is beginning to suggest that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress, and to achieve a positive sense of self,” according to Robert Emmonds of the University of California at Davis. Also grateful people tend to suffer less anxiety about status or the accumulation of material possessions. Grateful people tend to be more spiritually aware and appreciate the interconnectedness of all life. To be grateful doesn’t mean to take a naïve view of the world. But the grateful person may achieve the ability to be aware of life’s drawbacks and yet thankful to be alive, an attractive combination of views.

Download the_progress_paradox.doc

Nickel and Dimed - On (Not) Getting By in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich

This book was engrossing, eye-opening, and depressing. It is also an entertaining read because of the Ehrenreich’s enduring grace and wit in the most dispiriting of circumstances. Thanks to her captivating style and passionate message, the book became a New York Times bestseller and has illuminated the grim life of the working poor for all to see.

The following review in the Observer, a British daily newspaper, is a terrific summary of the book. It was written by Rachel Cooke. Although she conveys the gist of the book, the book’s most profound messages are really in the details, so I’d encourage you to add it to your reading pile. It is an easy read, despite the gravity of the topic.

Life on six bucks an hour by Rachel Cooke

Sunday July 28, 2002

Four years ago, the journalist Barbara Ehrenreich had lunch with the editor of a rather serious American magazine called Harper's (not to be confused with Harper's Bazaar; it is one place where you're unlikely to find Liz Hurley talking about the dastardly Bing). Over salmon, greens and fizzy mineral water, the pair discussed a few ideas. Soon, however, the talk drifted to one of her favourite themes - poverty. How, she mused, does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled? In particular, how were the four million women then about to be booted into the labour market by welfare reform going to survive on just $6 an hour?

It was at this point that Ehrenreich, who is in her fifties, said something that she subsequently had more than a few opportunities to regret (though, these days, she is pretty happy that she uttered the dread words, as we shall see). 'Someone ought to do the old-fashioned kind of journalism,' she said, fork in hand. 'You know, go out there and try it for themselves.' In her mind, she pictured some hungry 'neophyte' hack with, as she puts it, 'time on her hands'. But, no. The editor of Harper's, a man with the wonderfully Tom Wolfe-ish name of Lewis Lapham, looked at her and, a crazy half smile spreading slowly across his face, replied: 'YOU.'

And so it was that she abandoned her writerly lifestyle in tropical Key West and set about living on the breadline. Over the next two years, she waitressed in Florida, cleaned houses in Maine and worked in Wal-Mart in Minnesota.

First, though, she set some ground rules. During the endurance test ahead, she was not allowed to rely on skills learned in her old life; she had to accept the best-paid job available, then hang on to it for all she was worth; and she had to take the cheapest housing she could find. It was the last rule that proved the toughest; even the most drearily basic accommodation turned out to be so expensive that the term 'trailer trash' quickly became 'a demographic category to aspire to'.

Thanks to all this hard graft (luckily, Ehrenreich, the daughter of a copper miner, is a stubborn old boot), what started out as an article was soon a book, Nickel and Dimed - and, to its author's astonishment, it has taken America by storm, rushing up the New York Times bestseller list. A play based on Nickel and Dimed is about to open in Seattle and a documentary soon to be screened on TV. There is even talk of a film. 'I want Catherine Zeta Jones to play me, obviously,' she says. However, in the circumstances, it seems rather more likely that the role will go to the redoubtable Susan Sarandon.

For the full summary Download nickel_and_dimed.doc