Archives for December 2013

On a Not Playing it Safe Vacation

December 28, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Impact Mindfulness is a full contact sport.

You might get hurt.

Change generally does not come about without risk. Impact is rarely made without taking a chance…stepping out into the unknown. Getting the finger-nails a bit grimy perhaps.

I believe travel is one of the best ways to remove impact blinders. Well, then again, that depends on the type of travel.

I am currently in Medellin, Colombia. Granted Medellin is not the lawless place it was in the days of Pablo Escobar, but then again, it certainly ain’t “cushy”…at least not in the places that I generally frequent.

I’ve been in the vacation organization business for ten years…designing and managing third world experiences for first world customers. And I know what they generally want…a risk-free vacation.

But I’m here this morning to tell you that an eye and mind opening vacation experience is not a risk free one.

If you really want to know how “they” live, you’ve got to rub elbows with them a bit. That will change your perspective about people and about planet…for sure.

And that can be a very good thing.

You’ve got to worry less about catching this or that, getting robbed, accosted, confused, kidnapped or even killed…than you do about really knowing what life is like for someone else.

And there is no better impetus for impact than that realization.

I know what you’re thinking…are you friggin serious…killed? Well, we’ve all got to shed that mortal coil at some point. Might as well be while living, learning and striving for impact than overexposure to the sun while laying out at a posh resort on the Mexican Riviera!

But we Americanos don’t like “risk” unless it is the kind that leads to copious financial returns.

The risk I am speaking of in this post can certainly lead to returns…but not in the financial sense. In the sense of a deeper and truer experience of what life is all about.

You see, there is a lot of life being lived out there on this planet and the majority of it bears little resemblance to the one you’re living.

Learning about real life outside of the confines of your personal soap opera is risky and uncomfortable, but also intensely rewarding.

As I sit here this morning on another Christmas answering customer complaints about the length of transfers from one location to another in a place where the roads and driving conditions are a far cry from the U.S. experience, as well as how this or that hotel is only a “step above camping”…an exaggeration borne of a first-world mindset to say the least…

I will offer this advice from an impact mindfulness perspective…

Take a risk on NOT playing it safe the next time you plan that vacation.

Impact Mindfulness Heroes – Francis of Assisi

December 26, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Well here we are, another Christmas past and another year on the verge of a similar direction.

It has been quite an eventful year for me…but I won’t bore you with a list of those events (that seems to be every year end’s most popular post theme).

Once again I am passing the holidays in Medellin Colombia. I like it here. The air, especially this time of the year, is thick with crazy Colombian culture. This morning I am emerging from the last two days of “culture overdose” to try and get something meaningful posted. So here goes…actually I am cheating a bit since most of the words below are stolen from an old CRG piece…

I just finished a book by Ian Cron entitled Chasing Francis. The book is about an evangelical pastor of a very clubby christian church in New England. He goes through a spiritual crisis and ends up in Assisi, Italy on a pilgrimage to retrace the spiritual steps of a Catholic saint, Francis of Assisi.

My interest in Saint Francis was peeked by reading a lot of Shane Claiborne a couple years ago. Although I am sure you are familiar with the name and image of Francis, perhaps I can fill you in on a couple details of this remarkable christian. Francis grew up with wealth and privilege, but one day discarded all that. He literally disrobed in the town square, renounced the divisiveness of materialism, and took off for the woods.

And became one of the most beloved religious figures in history…a saint of saints.

I feel in part inspired and in part ashamed of myself when I read about Francis of Assisi. His example breathes life into Christ’s words. He did not intellectualize those words. He just lived them.

My reality and perhaps yours has been one of slicing and dicing the words of Christ to make them fit well with my own version of the purpose of my life. One that is all about me, about my self-actualization, and about reaching my “god-given potential.”

But reading about Francis helps me see things a bit differently. Taking Christ’s words at face value, I don’t hear him talking about my potential. His words do not promote the rugged individualism that our modern society seems to cherish. His words promote caring for one another.

And not just within the confines of one’s immediate family, or close relatives. Christ’s words rather denote a collectivist theory of life…a life not of independence, but of interdependence. That we all need each other and to turn one’s back on his brother or sister (and I use those words broadly) is to turn one’s back on the author of life itself.

Christ’s words rather denote a collectivist theory of life…a life not of independence, but of interdependence.

But for a long time I felt convinced that God’s will for my life was for me to “maximize my potential.” That being created in His image was the prime motivation for that pursuit. But I believe Saint Francis would tell me bluntly that a more proper, saintly, motivation would be to maximize “your” potential.

Think of it. If we all were about helping others maximize their potential and leaving ours up to God, then maybe our life would resemble a little more of that of Christ himself. After all what did Christ strive for? What did he die for?

Saint Francis was the first environmentalist. His love of nature was renowned. Why? Because he saw that nature was doing what he yearned to do…rely exclusively on God. To live like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, who do not strive for self, but live in interdependence on God and each other.

If we read Christ’s sermon with the innocent heart of a child, I believe we will hear the message that Saint Francis heard and then emulated.

That’s what makes Saint Francis of Assisi one of my favorite impact mindfulness heroes.

image credit: Seoirse via Compfight cc

Duck Dynasty Diatribe

December 20, 2013 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

I have yet to watch an episode of Duck Dynasty. It looks like the typical Thanksgiving at Grandma’s back in the day from the brief snippets I catch sometimes while channel surfing. So, maybe I don’t need to watch it…I’ve lived it (even though I’ll admit that I’ve never shot a single duck in my entire life).

But I did hear about the show’s main character, the paterfamilias, Phil Robertson, being let go for some comments about gays during a GQ interview. First off, it seems kinda odd that he would be doing a GQ interview in the first place…doesn’t it? GQ…isn’t that like a fashion magazine?

He basically said, paraphrasing profusely, that God hates homosexuals…and used some well-warn scripture to back it up. And now legions of free-speech loving fundamentalists are rallying to his side and threatening to put the show off the air if Robertson is not immediately reinstated.

Funny, I didn’t see a similar reaction when Charlie Sheen was let go from Two and a Half Men for his comments. Well, then again, Charlie’s rant wasn’t about queers and he didn’t quote the bible.

But that’s really what the bible is for isn’t it?…I mean, to thump. And condemn.

Or, at least it would seem that’s its most ubiquitous utility for the fundamentalist ilk.

I once tried on fundamentalism, but the clothes never fit me that comfortably. I was in this group called BSF (for Bible Study Fellowship). It is a world-wide organized bible study…I think it’s still around. After being in the group as a regular attendee for about a year, I was asked to be a group leader. Group leaders serve for 7 years, which is how long it takes to get through the entire bible in the BSF systematic method of study. And, yes, I made it through all 7 of them…not without stirring up a bit of controversy here and there.

One of the rules for being a group leader is that you must never have been divorced in your entire life. At that time I made the cut…I wouldn’t now.

Divorce is bad…God hates it. Just like the queers. Well, maybe not quite as bad as the queers.

We couldn’t drink alcohol either…not in public anyway. God frowns on that one too. I have to admit that I didn’t do too well at complying with this rule.

I know that the evangelical message is supposed to be all about God’s love. It’s about faith in that love…and giving up trying to earn salvation. Just accept His love in the person of Jesus Christ and you will be given your coveted set of keys to the pearly gates.

But after saying that with the typical vacuous smile that makes you wonder if there’s really any there…there, they take that same book of compassion and turn it into the world’s most lethal weapon.

Why do I say it’s the world’s most lethal weapon…isn’t that a bit hyperbolic, you ask? Well I can only tell you about the havoc it…or this fundamentalist interpretation of it…has wreaked in my own life.

You see, in addition to many other things that I’m not proud of, I’m an adulterer. And that’s another one, like the queers and the divorcees, that God is not all too fond of. What’s worse, I’m a caught red-handed adulterer. That’s the kind that everyone else hates too…especially in the Christian circles that I revolved in back then.

I had (no, have) a sin problem…and sin problems are dealt with rather harshly. I was basically told in no uncertain terms how I would live the rest of my life if I expected to be restored to my previous standing in the club, which would include a fresh set of keys to the newly installed locks on the doors of my own home. In short, I was rather severely “bible whipped.”

But like I have against most things I’ve been told to do throughout my life…I rebelled. And I never heard much more from that community…I am not even sure if for them, I continue to exist.

I’m likewise not altogether sure what motivated Phil Robertson to bible whip the gay community in a public forum like GQ. But it seems that the fundamentalist mindset is one that believes that since they alone hold the indisputable truth, which is their interpretation of what a very confusing book says, that they now have the right to speak for God to the rest of those who haven’t yet drunk the kool-aid.

And that speaking is all too often cast in judgmental connotations. And you know that part in the bible that says don’t judge, well it seems to just get glossed over.

And you know that part in the bible that says don’t judge, well it seems to just get glossed over.

Because the bible is such a powerful, pervasive and intimidating force in our Western culture…it’s use as a weapon is very lethal indeed. It hurts, maims, even kills (the spirit). It hurts where it can do serious damage…it shames us. And there are few things, maybe nothing, that hurt worse than shame…at least that’s been true in my personal life experience.

There are few things, maybe nothing, that hurt worse than shame…at least that’s been true in my personal life experience.

That is, I can remember shameful moments much more vividly and emotively than, say, breaking my collar bone, or even getting the shit kicked out of me.

But my question this morning, free speech and religious arguments aside, is do you really believe that’s the use that God wants made of “His” book?

I’ll end this Duck Dynasty diatribe by simply saying that I’ve recently decided to embrace a more progressive view of Christianity…one that interprets the bible more as a book about compassion than about cultivating hate towards anyone or thing.

image credit: Curtis Gregory Perry via Compfight cc

Why I Loathe the Lottery

December 18, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I really don’t like the lottery. Not here, nor there, nor anywhere…and it has nothing to do with religious objections to gambling.

I love animals. But here in Costa Rica, especially where I live, cockfighting is almost a national sport (even though a quasi-illegal one). And, yes, it is substantially about the gambling.

And you know what, I really don’t have a problem with it. It is part of the culture here…just read one of the greatest books ever written, One Hundred Years of Solitude…and you will see that cockfighting is deeply ingrained in Latin American culture, much like bull-fighting is in Spain.

But lottery tickets also seem to be so ingrained. Here in Perez Zeledon there are lottery ticket sellers at every street corner, with a couple in between. They will wave those damn tickets in your face as you walk by and it annoys the crap out of me.

Why?

Because I loathe the lottery. I hate the very idea of it. Always have. Always will.

And now I hear from the U.S. media that the, what’s it called?, mega-jackpot, or some similar bullshit, has reached ONE BILLION DOLLARS…that’s BILLION…with a B.

Big f’ing deal…

So, why do I hate the lottery?

Okay, I’ll tell you why…because it reduces people’s (generally poor people’s) hopes and dreams to the fake and fleeting hope for the acquisition of little pieces of paper with pictures of dead notables engraved upon them.

It reduces people’s (generally poor people’s) hopes and dreams to the fake and fleeting hope for the acquisition of little pieces of paper with pictures of dead notables engraved upon them.

But it gives them something to hope for some will say.

No, it gives them something to waste their very hard-earned and extremely scarce resources on that’s not worth it…not even close.

I guess one can make the argument that good things are done with lottery earnings (not sure if that argument holds true here in Costa Rica).

So, what you’re basically saying is that the lottery is a way to institutionalize the “conning” of poor people into helping themselves? Isn’t that what the argument comes down to? Really?

But someone does win…doesn’t it help that person? Oh sure…straight to the grave. I will venture to guess that the scarce few that actually do something good with lottery winnings were probably doing it before they won…just with less resources. The rest just get one giant greed fix.

I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life…and I never will. I don’t even want to win. I always tell the ticket sellers here (chanceros we call them), “no tengo suerte”, or that I have no luck.

I don’t really even believe in “luck.”

In my opinion, they might as well be peddling crack…they’d probably earn a bit more while doing a similar amount of societal damage.

So why do I feel compelled this morning to poo-poo on the lottery parade?

Because the whole concept is indicative of this materialistic mindset that I often rant about here…and that impact mindfulness is dead set against.

One that proposes that money…even the “hope” of possessing it via the infinitesimally small chance of purchasing a winning lottery ticket…can equate to happiness.

I don’t buy it…and that’s why I don’t buy them.

Am I saying that lotteries should be outlawed?

No, of course not…just that people should find better “tickets” to success and happiness.

That, in a nutshell, is why I loathe the lottery.

image credit: John Carleton via Compfight cc

It Takes a Thief

December 17, 2013 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Have you ever been robbed? I have and it feels like shit to be robbed…I mean in the criminal sense of some asshole relieving you of your hard earned possessions.

Sometimes it takes a thief to remind us just how much our material really means to us.

I glanced over yesterday at the corner of my patio and noticed something odd…there was only one bike where there should be two.

WTF?

HTF?

and finally just…F!

If you’ve ever had that experience you can probably remember first just getting inquisitive. How did they pull this off?

Then getting pissed…I’m gonna find’em and rip a new place for the sun not to shine.

Then the focus shifts from the act to the loss itself. That’s when the real emptiness hits.

You feel violated. As if a hole has been torn in the fabric of life…your life. Even though what was stolen is relatively easy to replace, you feel as if you’ve lost a family member. That was my favorite f’ing ______________, you know.

That’s kinda where I am now. And it makes me ponder about the real source of this queasy feeling that I just can’t seem to shake.

If I step back and really assess the possibilities…

Well, of course stealing is wrong and should never be condoned. But it is Christmas and perhaps a poor person stole the bike to give to his or her kid as a Christmas gift. Perhaps, otherwise, the child would receive little or nothing.

Perhaps he or she stole it to have transportation to a job, or at least a better mode of it.

Perhaps it was an addict who traded the bike for his next fix.

Perhaps a poor person stole it, pawned it and then bought groceries for his family with the money.

Whatever the reason, perhaps that person needed that bike more than me.

So, should I be happy about it? Well that would be a stretch, but perhaps, at least, I should not feel so down in the dumps about losing a scrap of metal and rubber. Perhaps I shouldn’t allow it to derail the deeper meaning of my existence.

But that’s exactly what we do.

Why?

Because our stuff matters way too much to us.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to me here in Costa Rica. I’ve had quite a few things stolen…from passports to puppy dogs. And no, it’s not because “those Mexican people steal.” Apart from the obvious geographical error, that’s even more stupid than saying that all bigoted rednecks in-breed….when we know good and well that ALL of them don’t.

When I was still an ex-pat greeny, I heard a saying that you shouldn’t tempt a poor person. I often use that little pith of wisdom in instructing my vacation customers on the dos and don’ts of visiting here…like not flashing your Rolex while amongst the chicheros.

The fact is, people are poor here…poor on a level that makes the poor of the U.S. look, well, not so poor! And they just want a little more of what I have (which ain’t much)…thinking, wrongly, that it will make them happier.

The other day I posted a piece written by Pope Francis that seems to be stirring up quite a bit of controversy in the U.S. One of the quotes that I am sure many would read as a shocking idea is where Pope Frances wrote…

Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.

Now hold on just one damn minute, Poper Dope, you mean to tell me that I’m the thief?

Well, maybe what the Holy Father means is that what has been “stolen” from the poor is not necessarily stuff in the material sense, but opportunity and dignity. They just want a little bit of more of that and sometimes make the mistake of thinking that the best way to get it is by, well, stealing it.

How have “we” stolen it from them, you ask? Well the Pope says via a culture of indifference perpetuated by rampant materialism and consumerism and if you’ve read much in this blog, you’ll probably note that I substantially agree with him.

A culture of indifference is one that always puts the self first…the ego. And nothing feeds and fuels the ego like our beloved stuff.

Nothing feeds and fuels the ego like our beloved stuff.

Our “brand” is thus signified more by the goods we can accumulate rather than by the good we actually do…the impacts we make.

And so I have to ask myself…this question…why do I REALLY feel so shitty to have been robbed?

Maybe the fact of the matter is that the SOB that took my bike is just a little better off for it…

and honestly, I’m really not in the least bit worse.

So, get over it…it’s just stuff and god knows there’s plenty more of it out there.

photo credit: ruprictjr via Compfight cc

Ubuntu – Impact Mindfulness in a Word

December 15, 2013 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

There is a word in South Africa — Ubuntu — a word that captures Mandela’s greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.

President Barack Obama
during Nelson Mandela’s Memorial Service

Have you heard of Ubuntu? I believe it is a perfect one word description of the concept of impact mindfulness. So, if you haven’t heard of it, I encourage you to read on and learn with me what this interesting word really means.

Admittedly, until I listened to Barack Obama’s speech at the memorial service for Mandela last week, I had never heard of Ubuntu. Since then I have learned that it is a word in the Nguni Bantu language, a philosophy and also the name of a Linux-based operating system.

Mandela would certainly be very familiar with the term. After all he was born into the Thembu tribe of the Xhosa ethnic group. The Xhosa are part of the South African Nguni migration which slowly moved from the region around the African Great Lakes into South Africa some 2,000 years ago. Therefore, the term is buried deep within Mandela’s ethnic heritage.

Mandela was once interviewed (see video embed below) and asked about Ubuntu. I especially like what he said in the following quote…

Ubuntu does not believe that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is, are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to improve. These are the important things in life. And if one can do that, then that is something very important and to be appreciated.

I also remember hearing someone say (may also have been in Obama’s speech?) something to the effect that rather than the Western philosophical idea of Descartes, cogito ergo sum, or “I think therefore I am”, Ubuntu declares, “I am because we are.”

In other words, the individual draws his or her own unique expression of humanity from the very existence of the community to which he or she belongs.

It would seem, therefore, that Ubuntu is a one-word description of a philosophy that embraces collectivism, but does not do so at the expense of individualism, as long as individualistic action is beneficial to society at large.

And it seems to have been the philosophy that served as a driving force behind Mandela’s selfless action. Actions that freed the South African black community from the oppression of Apartheid, but also united the South African community as a whole, both black and white, together with all the other “colors” that made up the “Rainbow Nation.”

You see, Mandela didn’t have to do it that way, but he did…and maybe Ubuntu was the selfless idea that caused the angry man that entered Pollsmoor to emerge almost three decades later as one of history’s greatest reconciliators.

Tim Jackson, who is a British ecological economist and professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey and author of the book, Prosperity Without Growth, refers to Ubuntu as a philosophy that supports the changes that are necessary to create a future that is economically and environmentally sustainable.

And during the hate speech trial of the former President of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, Judge Colin Lamont expanded on the definition in his judgment of guilt by writing that…

Ubuntu is a concept which:

is to be contrasted with vengeance;
dictates that a high value be placed on the life of a human being;
is inextricably linked to the values of, and which places a high premium on, dignity, compassion, humaneness and respect for the humanity of another;
dictates a shift from confrontation to mediation and conciliation;
dictates good attitudes and shared concern;
favors the re-establishment of harmony in the relationship between parties and that such harmony should restore the dignity of the plaintiff without ruining the defendant;
favors restorative rather than retributive justice;
operates in a direction favoring reconciliation rather than estrangement of disputants;
works towards sensitizing a disputant or a defendant in litigation to the hurtful impact of his actions to the other party and towards changing such conduct rather than merely punishing the disputant;
promotes mutual understanding rather than punishment;
favors face-to-face encounters of disputants with a view to facilitating differences being resolved rather than conflict and victory for the most powerful;
favors civility and civilized dialogue premised on mutual tolerance.

Summing up the above in a way that is relevant to this blog, Ubuntu seems to be a philosophy that declares…

one should prioritize actions for sustaining the community (or utility, i.e., the greater good) over self-interest…
we are indeed all in this boat together and our actions should recognize and support that fact (The Big Us)…
and individualistic (or ego-driven) notions to the contrary should be discarded (removing Impact Blinders).

Therefore, it is a word, as well as a way of thinking, that you’ll be reading about more here in the future.

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