Cherish the timeless

Death occurs in every family. Its one of the few predictable events we can count on. Everyone knows what its like to lose a loved one and yet, everyone may also react differently to the idea and experience of loss. Some people grieve about lost relationships.  Other people aren't openly affected. They may think it marks a phase in a process of lives and celebrate their loved one is safely in another place.

This topic is on my mind because my 95 year old grandmother recently passed on. Her longevity astounded me. She lived through three major wars, and although in ill-health for an extended period, hung in there for her 72nd wedding anniversary. During her lifetime, she lived through daunting challenges including, moving and living in multiple countries as a refugee and immigrant. She set incredible examples of determination and resilience. Above all, I'll always remember her will and spirit.

Each of us are reminded people will come and go in our lives. We also feel more connected to some people than others.  We keep in more frequent contact with some people and not others.  As young people get older, they tend to move out of their parents' home to forge a life of their own. Since more people are moving, fewer people live in the same geographic area of their close families. Age causes you to perceive time and relationships differently. Priorities change.

I encourage you to reflect on the connections you feel with people you have loved. Consider what you gain simply because of having known them during their brief lifetime. To gain intangibles is what leads to those immeasurable memories you aren't meant to put a price on. To reach inside and reminisce can seem timeless.

Can we reverse prospective cultural extinction?

I encourage you to watch this video from TED. It features photographer Phil Borges shares his stunning portraits, documenting the world's disappearing cultures, from persecuted monks in Tibet to embattled tribes in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Note in the lifetime of an elder, the languages spoken in the world will half. (already reduced from 6000 down to 3000 over last 100yrs).

During his speel, Borges notes that a recent $2 million National Geographic survey reveals Americans aged 18-26 rated second last out of nine developed countries in terms of knowledge of what's going on in the rest of the world. 70% of Americans questioned didn't know the wherabouts of Iraq or Afghanistan on a map, let-a-lone India or the position of the Pacific Ocean?

How does this cause you to see yourself and how you think about the future? Can we reverse prospective cultural extinction? Are the on-line connections around the world in the program described a wave of the future? Or, do you foresee another international fate?

Howstuffworks "Phil Borges Talks at TED About His Photography"

Destination for the sake of it

Why is it that we dream of certain destinations? Is it mainly instinctual or, is there much more to it?  If you live a distance away from your family or long-time friends, then travel destination priorities may well involve bringing you closer to these people.  If you sense some connection to a place you've never been, you may feel driven to get yourself to these places.  The following were eleven reasons people gave me as motivations for choosing a specific travel destination:

1) Leisure/ vacation: lured by the exotic

2) Family live in the area

3) Wedding/ Reunion/ Funeral location

4) Work conference/ meeting setting

5) "Always wanted to go there"

6) Spiritual reasons (i.e., desire to witness miracles or to make a pilgrimage)

7) Random choice

8) "Someone recommended it"

9) "Why not?"

10) Seat sale

11) Heritage (i.e., gathering material for a family tree; visiting relatives' graves, retracing immigration path or finding/ reuniting with blood relatives)

Post highschool wanderer

I met a guy who was finishing highschool and opting not to attend university, at least not right away.  Instead, much to his parents' surprise, he signed up and paid for short-term language courses in Beijing, China and Paris, France. He bought a ticket to realize an overseas dream. He had learned basic Chinese and French during highschool, but he was impatient to apply himself and survive in the 'real world'.

In the back of his mind, he dreamed of adventure and nurturing transferable skills. They would surely assist whatever experiences would unfold in his future. He reminisced about his boyscout days and having been taught varied ways to "be prepared." He figured he still had much to learn and decided to move ahead.

As it happened, the evolution of a relationship with his girlfriend nearly caused him to change his travel plans. She didn't plan to accompany him. He was unsure if he should just up and go. Yet, after reflection, he decided the best thing for him at that point in his life was to test the relationship with distance and the passage of time. He was focused on his personal quest. His instincts re-oriented his life compass.

When friends heard about his plans, many tried to talk him out of it. Questions were thrown at him from many directions; How will you survive? Where will you get a job? Who will help you if you get into trouble? What will you do when your money runs out? Skeptics and pessimists nearly caused him to back out. Yet, somewhere, deep inside himiself, he felt the pull of his will to step outside of what he thought he knew in order to figure out who he really was. He felt he had to do that outside a classroom.

Although some people described him as a wanderer, he felt he was on a focused quest of increased self-understanding. He packed his copy of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and readied himself for the next chapter of his life journey.

To divert or not to divert

In Australia, access to adequate fresh water has been a dream.  Individual state governments don't all agree with the current federal government's proposed plan to take control of the major Murray-Darling River system.  The federal government's intention is supposedly to better control and distribute the water.  Citizens get views through media about how politicans from each side view water plans.

Historically, when governments took steps to control this water system, again during periods of severe drought, the consequences nearly led to the city of Adelaide losing its water supply.  Underground waterways reacted to the surface manipulation of water by human beings.  The result was anything but desirable.  Luckily, that catastrophe didn't evolve to the worst case scenario.

Questions have been raised as to whether or not the government should intervene at all.  Nature has a way of finding its own balance. As it stands,a large percentage of the Murray Darling River is used by industry in part because of government contracts which offered free use of natural resources. Agriculture is another big user of this fresh water resource. People use it for drinking water and for leisure activities.

The big question is, would it be wise to interfere with Nature and how it supposedly re-establishes its own balance? Would it make more sense to focus not on struggling to control what little fresh water still exists, but rather, to continue to shift attention ot desalination technology which is already a priority for Western Australia? NSW and Victoria are thinking seriously but have yet to confirm plans for and commit to build desalination plants.

If you think about it, the money which could be spent to fight a legal battle to control the Murray-Darling River could be better spent on other prospective solutions to the underlying problem.  Desalination plants have benefitted other parts of the world greatly already. As we evolve away from a confrontational mentality, we may be better off.  To divert mindsets from conflict-oriented to solutions-oriented is key.