Hope

A Serious Possible-ist!

Filed Under: Reflections · December 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment ·

Recently I came across several presentations by Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Director of the Gapminder Foundation.

His analyses of global trends are based firmly on statistical data … and he demonstrates that, contrary to popular myth, the world is NOT going to hell in a handbasket! :)

Rosling says he is neither an optimist nor a pessimist – he’s a “very, very serious possible-ist.”

I really like that!

Watch the video below, visit the Gapminder website – or see links to more of his presentations in the recent December issue of our Starlink newsletter.

Holding the Centre

Filed Under: Reflections, Stories · September 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment ·

I’ve just finished reading Iran Awakening, by Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.

Subtitled A Memior of Revolution and Hope, it is an inspiring read!

As I read, I was struck by the way in which Shirin Ebadi ‘holds the centre’ – that sometimes painful space where we stand in the centre of contradictions and paradox, yet resist the always present temptation to ‘take sides’ – to retreat to the more ‘comfortable’ space of certainty that one ‘side’ is more correct or more true.

As a lawyer and a speaker, she works tirelessly in the name of justice and she is certainly ‘on the side’ of justice and fairness in all respects – that much is evident.

But, although she abhors the injustices done to people by the various governments of Iran as well as those perpetrated by US intervention in her country, she nevertheless manages to remain ‘at the centre’.
[Read more…]

How Many Times

Filed Under: Stories · August 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment ·

Through the work Chris and I do, we have the privilege of hearing the stories of people from all kinds of places, spaces and backgrounds.

So often I am humbled by their wisdom, resilience, humour and strength – often under circumstances that could leave them bitter, bowed or defeated. And I feel honoured they have felt able to open their hearts and share their stories with us.

It’s a reminder in this busy, media-saturated world of ours that the most powerful stories are not necessarily those of the rich and famous.

How often do we give our time, our spirits and our hearts to listen – really listen – to the stories of others? Ordinary people, with extraordinary stories.

Here is a song from one of my favourite Aussie singer-songwriters, Judy Small, which asks much the same question.

How many times do they tell their tales to strangers,

Who turn away in silence and pretend they didn’t hear.

How many times do we throw away such chances,

Never knowing what we might have learned with open ears.

(From How Many Times, by Judy Small)