We each have issues that we find to be critical to the future well being of our country and society. The national debt of trillions of dollars is incredibly overwhelming and threatens our future solvency. Our immigration system is broken and needs to change as we witness children and families pouring across our border with no plan of how to receive them. There are over $1 trillion in student loans in a growing bubble that is a bound to burst. Public education has lost its competitive edge internationally as we become more and more average. Our prison system dwarfs those of any other country in the world including China, Russia, Iraq and Iran and our war on drugs has been a very expensive decades long lost war. Climate change threatens the entire living world yet many deny it is even happening despite the clear science.

No matter what issue you are passionate about chances are you have little to no confidence that our leaders in DC will do something about it. Obama, the Supreme Court and particularly Congress have abysmal approval ratings. The corruption and cronyism of our capital must end or nothing will change. In 2012 the winning Senators averaged $14k per day for the entire year in fundraising to get elected! On September 8th the Senate will vote on SJ Res 19 to overturn Citizens United (which opened the floodgates for corporate money) we must demand of our leaders that this needs to happen to send a mandate of reform.

Global warming IS happening. This is as close to scientific fact as you can get. The data is clear and over 97% of climate scientists present that it is in fact caused by us. The president, the Pope, and even the pentagon know that climate change is a real and present danger. There is NO debate ,despite the media often presenting doubt (see video below for very funny satirical look at how this works) we are being impacted now and the future predictions are frightening. As far as size of impact this is THE issue that matters. If you care for your own future or those of coming generations we must not bury our heads into the warming sands or in the plethora of digital worlds. Fortunately there is plenty each of us can do.

Here is just a sample of 20 things that each of us can do to help with a brighter greener future. Pick out 2 or 3 and start this week.

1. Educate yourself on the subject and commit to the truth (great place to start is an Episode from Cosmos)
   
2. also I'm taking an awesome MOOC from UCSD where I'm learning a ton!
3. Turn your beliefs into action
   
4. “Love the least of these” for now at least the poor of the world are bearing the brunt of global warming. Practice compassion and Christlike love.
   
5. Write your leaders and let them know this is important to their constituents
   
6. Join and/or support an environmental organization like http://citizensclimatelobby.org/
   
7. Vote with $, don’t support companies that are damaging our bodies and planet
   
8. Support green energy through local utilities, personally buying or investing
   
9. Use a search engine like Ecosia that will plant trees with the money used from searching
   
10. Be smart in how you get around Ride/walk/transit use an efficient vehicle
    
11. The old staples: Reduce, reuse, recycle (in order of impact)
    
12. Know your carbon footprint (use the EPA calculator to find out)
    
13. Pay to "offset" your carbon footprint
14. Unplug more often it’s good for your mind, soul and environment
    
15. Farmers markets: great food, community, support food that doesn’t travel far
    
16. Eat less meat, have “meatless Mondays” or more
    
17. Thrift...it’s like treasure hunting, cheaper and much better for the Earth
    
18. Consume less, connect more
    
19. Demand substantial change from ourselves and our leaders
    
20. ...and support baby steps that happen in your community and country
    
21. Personally commit to put future first over present toys and comfort
    
22. Talk about it...we are all apart of this whether we like it or not. Many of your family, friends, church community members and co-workers are unaware and all need to know and some might actually listen. (o:
    
23. This is an important issue and can be very overwhelming it is critical that we support one another so please let me know your ideas, thoughts, critics, questions and/or actions.
    

As a school counselor at a middle school (aka the best time in life) I find that many skills can be useful to adolescents. The application of soap and deodorant, how to use a locker, social skills, organization and much more. My school is very unique in that I have students that come from very tough backgrounds and also have a sweet gifted program that brings in some of the top tier students from across SLC. By far and away the most important thing I try to help my students learn is empathy.

Empathy is of course the idea that you can put yourself in someone else shoes, or see from their perspective or experience. A very important skill that is important for all stages of life. It combats bullying, loneliness, increases community, depression wins friends, decreases prejudice, racism and inequality. In a time when religiosity and spirituality have taken hits often replaced by Facebook, Twitter and their narcissistic crew empathy can be a force of good for all. In our society that’s ever more divided between rich/poor, progressive/conservative, east/west, nintendo vs playstation we need empathy to bring insight, understanding and dialogue. Can you imagine if our politicians practiced true empathy...good things my friends.

The two pillars of my moral and spiritual life have much to say on the topic. Jesus famously called for us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Gautama Buddha’s probably less well known saying has powerful insights. “Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of these.”

You and I can begin today. Actively try to imagine what others are feeling/thinking. Meditate. Read fiction and identify with the characters. Have a chat with someone with different views and sincerely listen. Next time someone pushes your buttons rather than react be proactive and push pause, breathe and see the situation from their perspective. Seriously what’s the downside? To get you started watch the fabulous empathy inspiring video below. (o:

Today I wanted to briefly look at an insightful quote by former senator Ted Kaufman.

“In the months after 9/11, Vice President Dick Cheney repeatedly invoked the principle that if there’s even a 1 percent chance of a terrorist attack, we must prepare as if it were a certainty.
Can a rational human being who doesn’t believe in climate change at least agree there is a remote possibility that 95 percent of climate scientists are right? Maybe a 1 percent chance? If so, shouldn’t we prudently prepare ‘as if it were a certainty?’” (full text)

This is one of the better framings for climate change that I have encountered. Since 9/11 the United States has essentially followed the doctrine that VP Cheney outlined and thankfully we have not had a repeat of that fateful day. Unfortunately for the most part we have ignored the impact of climate change which potentially may have vastly greater consequences. Why?! I believe there are a couple of primary reasons.

1) Deep entrenched interests
If we were to take climate change as seriously as we do a terrorist threat we would need to make some serious changes in the way we do things. Change is tough. Our government, corporations and all of us as individuals don’t want to make sacrifices when the sun is shining outside and our lives seem unimpacted. Not only this but there is money to be made and potentially lost and thus the misinformation and climate change doubters are well financed and organized. And we as individuals and communities don’t take much persuading to go on living as normal. This is all despite that fact that even the pentagon, by all accounts a very conservative department, has been saying for eight years now that climate change is real and an absolute threat. You think if any voice would have an impact in implementing the 1% Cheney doctrine for mobilization toward climate change it would be the pentagon!

2) No enemy
When facing Hitler and the Japanese during world war 2 americans made amazing sacrifices as a united front. The Rosie the riveters and GI Joes in every American were brought to the forefront. We knew there was evil doing harm out in the world and something had to be done about it and we, with our allies, rose to the occasion. Unfortunately with climate change there is no Hitler or Stalin or Osama Bin Laden for us to unite against despite climate change having global devastating implications.

In fact we all are partly to blame and if we are to seriously “prepare as if it is a certainty” we must demand more from our government, our corporations and yes especially from ourselves. It is always much more difficult to confront the beams in our own eyes than to find the mote in some distant “enemy” but yet we must.

If the government knew there was a 75% chance that North Korea was going to nuke the south we would be there in heartbeat with most Americans’ support. Yet here we have a 95% chance that something far more destructive is in fact happening let us take charge and bring out the Rosie and Joes in all of us to sacrifice and demand change.

Every year the Oscars are one of the top viewed television events that highlight many of the best and brightest films from the previous year. Usually these are not summer blockbusters full of explosions that make $ millions but rather topical or dramatic movies that deliver a message. For all of you that have missed out I’m going to give you my rankings with brief spoiler free reviews.

1. Nebraska
My personal favorite movie of all the best picture nominees. It is about an older man played by Bruce Dern who has won the mail order sweepstakes for a million dollars and aims to claim it by making his way from Montana to Nebraska and bonds with his son in the process as well as reconciles his past. I loved it because it is all about relationships which can be ugly, sweet, bitter, humorous and loving just like life.

Content Advisory (from the always useful IMDB page)

2. 12 Years a Slave

Is the pick for best picture nominee and I believe would be a major upset if it did not win. It is the true story of a free black man  (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) living in the northern United States in the mid 1800’s who is a professional musician and family man who is abducted and sold into the south as a slave for twelve long years. This is a very difficult movie to watch as it looks at slavery in all of its gruesome details. Yet it is important at the same time for us a country to remember how far we have come and of course the many areas we still have to grow for racial equality. Tough and powerful, definitely not a date night movie but rather fosters empathy and soul searching.

Content Advisory

3. American Hustle

Out of all the best picture nominees for 2013 this is easily the most fun. It is a crime scene comedy drama loosely based on real events from the 70’s and 80’s. The is a star studded movie with Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence bringing outstanding performances across the board. Bale and Adam’s characters are former con artists who are busted and forced to work for the FBI confronting politicians, petty criminals and the mafia. See it for the stars, great acting and fun.

Content Advisory

The middle of the pack:
4. Philomena: True Story of a faithful catholic woman who had extramarital child taken by the Catholic church and the journey to reconnect decades later. Happened to thousands. Insightful, emotional and surprisingly funny.

5. Dallas Buyers Club:True story,  McConaughey, insight into scary times of the 80’s for people with AIDS and big pharma.

6. Captain Phillips: true story, Tom Hanks and Somali Pirates dueling at sea. World wide inequality and suspense.

7. Gravity: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney alone in space! Claustrophobic and suspenseful.

My bottom two movies out of the nominees are not bad movies in the sense of bad writing, acting, directing etc. but rather the subject material they take on.

8. Her
A futuristic sci-fi movie starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Scarlett Johansson’s voice. In a not too distant future technology is completely immersive so much so that Phoenix’s character develops an unlikely relationship with his new advanced AI operating system.

The reason I did not love this film is because it hits too close to home for what the future may hold. I am not the most optimistic about the future primarily due to climate change but if that does not have the feared dramatic results this movie seems like a very realistic possibility especially as we live more and more of our lives online and people in Japan are already marrying video game characters! It may be a brighter future than global economic crash and mass extinctions but I am not loving it.

9. The Wolf of Wall Street

If Her is a future that frightens me The wolf of wall street is a present that enrages and scares the hell out of me. It is rare that I will not sit the entire way through a movie but I made it a little over halfway through Scorsese’s take on wall street which is based on actual accounts. To summarize Wall street is a boy’s club fueled by greed, testosterone, crack and prostitution. It used the F word over 500 times and in many cases is glorified pornography that I am sure was close to receiving an NC-17 rating.

The terrifying thing about this is that many of our “best and brightest” have gone into this industry rather than something less soul crippling because of the promised rewards. Jordan Belfort the character who Leonardo takes on served 22 months in prison but now walks free while our prisons swell to record amounts with non violent poor. WTF!?

Also it is worth noting that five of the nine movies pass the "Bechdel test". For those of you unfamiliar to this term it is very low bar used to measure movies to see how they value women characters. Essentially it asks three things: Does the film have at least two named women? Do they speak to each other? And do they speak about something that isn’t a man? Doesn't seem too tough right? You can probably guess which ones do NOT: Wolf, Her, Captain Phillips and Gravity (not many characters).

I didn’t want to end with the Wolf of Wall Street so instead I’ll share my two favorite movies from 2013 neither of which were nominated for best picture.

About Time
Has it all romance, time travel, great acting, a lil cheese, and funny moments mixed with the tear inducing. It teaches us to cherish the most important things in life which are relationships with those we love. Time is always slipping through our fingers and you never know how long we have with those who really matter.

Content Advisory

Before Midnight

The end of a dramatic trilogy 20 years in the making. Before Sunrise (1995), and Before Sunset (2004) set the scene for this movie where Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy’s characters now have children but are still an everyday intriguing couple in love. See all three! Be forewarned though these are almost completely dialogue driven movies if that’s your cup of tea dive in but start with the first one.

Trailers for all three

So what do you think!? Do you agree? What are your picks out of the nine nominees or faves from all of 2013?

It can be argued that as the human race we are more connected than ever before. The number of Facebook members globally is estimated to be right around 1.2 billion people. Students, ages 8-18, spend more time online than in school or with family as they are growing up as the first native generation in a digital world. At any given moment I can essentially be face to face with friends and family through snapchat, skype, facetime, google hangout and a host of other apps made to bring us closer together. I personally use an ipod, ipad, two computers (one for work), a 3ds, PS3, and WiiU that regularly connect to the internet in all sorts of exciting ways that would not have even been thought of one decade ago. Every year more classrooms are “smart” and even our churches are wired. Yet with all these amazing advances are we better off?

Does this constant connection enrich and enlighten, or distract and create dissatisfaction, or some measure in between? I fear it is all happening much too fast. For aeons humanity has evolved as analog creatures in an analog world but in the short space of one generation we are transitioning to the digital. It entertains, distracts, gives us instant gratification, makes our lives easier and much more. Yet…for all that it does there is SO much disconnect.

Inequality in America is the greatest it has been since 1929, the capital is divided and impotent at best, totally bought and sold at worst with 70% of Americans feeling like we’re heading in the wrong direction. Climate change and US debt are extreme critical threats but the politicians are concerned with what will happen next election NOT with coming generations. Often we don’t even know where our food comes from which averages a 1200 mile trip to your plate! Community involvement is down and church attendance is alarming. We are losing important connections.

Over the last twenty years rates of serious mental illness have increased by two and a half times for adults and alarmingly have had a thirty-five fold increase among children! Obviously something is happening here and we don’t know what it is. Yet with all the amazing technological advances I would hope for some progress in the way of emotional well being which is just not happening in most cases.

The most meaningful, fulfilling and memorable moments in my life are those of deep connection. Can that be enhanced by technology? Of course! But as much as I enjoy playing Borderlands 2 online with my friends it just cannot compare to the simple yet powerful moments. Some that enrich my life and truly make it worth living:

• staying up late on Saturday nights cuddling and talking with my best friend about everything from future plans and climate change to movies and kitty cats
  
• at my work (middle school counselor) when I am able to really help a student and show that there is at least one person that sincerely cares for them
  
• those moments at family occasions that you never want to end where you feel at peace and completely accepted
  
• rare divine moments when you commune with God and on some spiritual level know His/Her presence
  
• after an argument/disagreement with a friend or family member when you realize how important that person is to you and set aside your pride and reconcile
  
• trees, go touch a tree and think about the connection you have. They provide oxygen and you provide CO2. Breathe it in and see the interconnection of all life
  
• moments of silence to sit in sunlight and just think...soaking up some vitamin D
  
• leisurely walks holding hands

It is critical that we find those moments to unplug and connect to life and loved ones around you. Feed your soul with deep connection then when you go back to the hectic pace of everyday life you will have an enlightened perspective to reference what really is important.

Next time Oscar movie thoughts...

Fabulous song by Andrew Jackson Jihad and fun little video someone made. Song available for free download by AJJ

Also recently acquired a bunch of old Adbusters at a freecycle event. Loved this picture.