Costa Rica Guy

On Getting Real

January 6, 2015 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

As age creeps up on you, so can the trepidations about what the future might lay in store.

You probably should’ve had such worries a long time ago, but when you’re young and carefree, the future seems like too faraway a place to pay that much attention to.

Well, that was then and now is now.

“The future” has arrived and continues to arrive at ever increasing velocity.

The years seem to whizz by faster than Formula 1 cars at an Indy 500 race.

And when your present doesn’t quite comport with the illusion of your dreams, then those fears about the future become all the more foreboding.

Will it always be this way…

or worse?

Alone-ness can really intensify those feelings.

However, if you are even a remotely spiritual person (regardless of “religion”) and you look around with an open mind and see ample evidence of intelligent design and universal connection, then the idea of alone-ness doesn’t really make much sense…

now does it?

It seems the most compelling earthly evidence we have of that “universal connecting force” can be found in nature, it its purest and untainted form.

If nothing else, my 13 years in Costa Rica, especially the last 5 of them, have put me in closer connection with that force.

So, no, I don’t fear the future, since I’m not alone to face it.

The future is just a necessary component to getting real.

Sometimes it takes years to figure that one out…the joy of growing older…wiser.

I will leave this post with a blurb from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.

In this children’s story, two nursery toys, the Skin Horse and the Rabbit, discuss the issue of becoming real…

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful.

“When you are real, you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” Rabbit asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become.

It takes a long time.

That’s why it doesn’t happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.

But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real, you can’t be ugly…except to the people who don’t understand.”

How to Win a Facebook Debate

January 4, 2015 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I really believe that social networks, of which Facebook certainly dominates, can be great sources of social change.

A place where consensus can be found to solve the many problems faced by people and planet.

However, all too often what I will herein denote as “Facebook debates” tend to devolve into childish insult trading among the comments of the parties on opposite sides of the issue under discussion.

It’s as if each thinks that he or she can win the debate simply by being more offensive than the other.

That really doesn’t work.

I mean, what’s the real purpose of a debate?

Is it to demean your opponent?

Is it to make yourself appear more clever than your opponent?

I would say that the answer to those questions is NO, even though that tends to be the way we gauge the winners and losers of the televised political debates we’re accustomed to.

If you can just get that one-line zinger in that really causes your opponent to sweat a bit harder, like Bentsen did to Quayle back in 98, then we’ve got a winner.

I’m going to suggest a different tactic for how to win a Facebook debate, or any other, for that matter…

When I put forth a position in a debate, or a simple Facebook discussion, in the form of a solution to the issue at hand, or the problem posed, I then want to support my position in a way that causes the other side to accept or agree with it.

If I can do that, well, then I’ve won.

But what if the other side to the debate is so ideologically entrenched that getting him or her to agree on anything, even the most obvious point, seems impossible?

In that case, perhaps you can initiate the idea for some common ground that will move the other side closer to a mutually acceptable solution, idea, or position.

Because when it comes right down to it, we’re not all that different in our basic needs and desires as humans, are we?

The purpose of the debate should be, even though it rarely is, to move forward towards a solution…

No?

Simply playing a game of one-upmanship doesn’t accomplish that.

I believe that’s why those political debates are worthless…

It’s never about solutions. It’s a media-driven show to prove one candidate the winner, not because of the higher quality of his ideas, but because he’s somehow able to demean the stature of the other fellow.

That might help you popularity-wise, and maybe even vote-wise, but it doesn’t move society forward one iota.

The same goes for these Facebook comment back and forth’s that all too often degenerate into “dissing” matches…

Now, granted, there are some out there who’ve perfected the art of the insult, or the offensive comeback. I don’t know who invented the term “libtard”, but it’s pretty clever, in a sophomoric way.

Being offensive doesn’t make you a good debater, nor does it prove that your ideas, if you actually possess any, have merit.

And it certainly doesn’t produce solutions…it just moves the parties further apart.

So, my suggestion is this, “can” the insults and show us your ideas…

New Facebook Debate Rule: Ideologies and the ideas they degenerate are fair game…people are not. Tweet It Out

Of course, complying will require an activity that perhaps we could all stand to engage in a bit more…

It’s called thinking.

If that was an insult…well, then I apologize.

I’m simply suggesting an alternative to the normally venomous political diatribes masquerading around social media under the guise of “debates.”

image credit: claireteat via Compfight cc

A Decade of Indulgence

December 26, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

This blog is all about inspiring an impactful life.

But sometimes I write personal things about myself…like this post.

It’s relevant because, basically, I’m pointing that bony finger of indignation back at me!

Using myself as an example of what not to do.

Because in terms of actually living an impactful life, I’ve failed in many respects.

I often talk about my 13 years in Costa Rica. But the closing of this year marks a decade of actually living here. The first couple years I was still residing in the States, traveling back and forth frequently in pursuit of my Costa Rica deal.

2004 was the year of my divorce. A lost year that I really have pretty much blocked from my memory.

So, actually it’s been from 2005 until now that I can legitimately consider myself a “resident” of Costa Rica.

And if I had to choose a phrase to describe it, I would say that it’s been a decade of indulgence.

I would venture to say most gringo expats come to Costa Rica in order to live an indulgent life. It’s not that difficult to do that here, as there are so many things to indulge in…

The women are beautiful and sexy (sorry if that sounds sexist, but it’s simply true).

The weather is always warm.

The landscapes are breathtaking.

You can indulge in many of the “controlled substances” that pass through on their way to the great demand centers up north.

The natives aren’t “restless” at all, but quite friendly and welcoming…as long as you mind your manners.

Living is simply much easier in Costa Rica.

It’s easy just to sit back and…indulge.

Much easier than in, say, Duluth, Des Moines, or Detroit.

In fact, I would say anywhere between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, at least in the Americas, the temptation of indulgence is an irresistible force.

But as I sit here writing this, only a few days away from the close of this decade of indulgence, I can finally say, OK, enough is enough.

There’s work to be done…in the rapidly diminishing time that I’ve got left to do it.

I know it might sound weird to a lot of folks, especially my fellow expats, many of whom have already given me comically puzzling looks upon learning of my “outrageously stupid” repatriation plans, but…

I’m just tired of it…tired of living the indulgent life.

It’s become, well, boring.

Listen, now don’t go confusing “indulgence” with luxury.

Since I barely have a proverbial pot to piss in, my life here has been anything but luxurious.

But the cool thing about Costa Rica is that you can indulge to your heart’s content on a shoestring budget.

Lately I’ve faced some cognitive dissonance concerning my life here.

Because, truthfully, a life of indulgence is the opposite of a life of impact.

And since that’s what I’m supposed to be all about, I’ve heroically decided it’s time to get the hell out of Dodge.

Where am I going?

Well, if you’ve read anything I’ve written lately, you should know that I’ve chosen Portland, Oregon.

Why Portland?

Why not?

You see, let’s face it, I’m kind of a weird guy…right?

And Portland is a place where weirdness is, well, sort of embraced.

The motto of the city is “Keep Portland Weird”, so I thought I’d lend a hand to the effort by moving there myself!

Got it now?

I once thought that simply by living as a poor, yet remarkably indulgent, U.S. expat in Costa Rica, I would be that guy, that Costa Rica Guy, who could show the world the happiness of living with less.

However, there’s more to impact than that.

There’s more to living impact-fully than minimalism, sustainability, hydroponic gardening, meditation and recycling. There are grave problems in the world that need fixing. And somebody’s got to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

So, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work I go!

Goodbye Costa Rica…

Hello, Portlandia!

On the Need for a Bigger Boat

December 23, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I once heard the quote…

Capitalism rewards the owners of capital.

I’m not sure where I heard it. But it is true, isn’t it?

Throughout human history we’ve rewarded the hoarders of capital with luxuries that the rest of us can hardly imagine.

It’s like what Chris Rock said recently, “if poor people knew how rich people [live], there would be riots in the streets.”

I was thinking, wouldn’t it be more appropriate, rather than reward capital accumulation, that we reward people according to their impact?

That is, we create these luxurious experiences, but then only allow those who’ve impacted humanity to the greatest degree to enjoy them, from time to time.

Because the problem with trying to live an impactful life is how to do that and still just get by…to make a living…to put a roof over the head and food into hungry dependent mouths.

And maybe even indulge in a luxury or two, from time to time.

There are guys like Scott Harrison of charity:water who seem to have figured it out.

So, I guess it’s not impossible.

But, it’s damn hard.

And, really now, does that make the slightest bit of sense?

For the richest of the rich, the oft maligned 1%, to be grossly rewarded for their exploitative excellence.

While the rest of us can barely afford a decent one-week vacation every 365 days?

They are the ones raping and pillaging the planet, grossly underpaying labor, and concentrating all the earth’s stores of wealth into fewer and fewer hands…

They create, by sheer effort, the situation of the haves and the have nots.

And we reward them for that?

And they decry any attempt at reallocating that wealth downward in the slightest degree as being contrary to the hallowed laws of capitalism.

As if those laws were brought down from Sinai by Moses himself.

At certain times in history wealth has indeed been allocated downward, but it always takes wars, depressions, and other horrible human calamities for that to happen.

Why?

I guess we just live in a broken world.

We look for material solutions to our problems.

And the human impulse, when it comes to stuff, is bent towards greed.

We look upon all that bright and shiny shit and want more, more, more…

Capitalism tells us that we can have more…

Hell, we can have it all!

So we strain and strive to accumulate.

We focus our efforts on the need for a bigger boat, because we’ve been deluded into believing that in it we’ll be sheltered from all of life’s stormy woes.

No storm (or shark) will be big or strong enough to capsize my personal Titanic.

But then that tiny unexpected iceberg appears and tears a whole in our expectations.

And down we go…

Capitalism, or at least the strain of it that has run amok, has planted the idea in the mind of our society that the bigger boat solution is the only one that is realistic.

So we sit back and allow “our” capital, the capital that the earth offers to all of its inhabitants, to just flow like a river and concentrate directly into the hands of…

the Koch brothers.

But the reality is that there’s only one boat, or one planetary ship, that we’re all doomed, or blessed, to be riding on…depending on your perspective, I guess.

It’s developed a few holes in recent decades and is rapidly succumbing to the risk of capsize…

What are we going to do about it?

The Koch brothers reassure us not to worry…

they’ve got it all under control…

But they’re the very ones making the holes.

Should they really be rewarded so handsomely for that?

image credit: lacountyfed via Compfight cc

A Fresh Look at Impact Mindfulness

December 20, 2014 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

Every year brings both the good and the bad…this one hasn’t been all that stellar for me, I’ll readily admit.

But, it’s been a learning experience!

Next year will mark some really big changes in my life. I plan to move to Portland, Oregon.

Isn’t that big enough?

I plan to take the Oregon bar exam and re-enter that profession, albeit with a far different motive, after a decade long hiatus.

OK, now we’re really talking.

Oh and I’m sure some other big and unexpected changes will come along the way.

I’ve been writing in this blog now since January of 2013…two complete years.

It’s been a slow go.

I still believe wholeheartedly in the message, but it’s hard, damn hard, to attract the attention of anyone else.

I guess what with the 152 million other blogs out there, that’s completely understandable.

Nevertheless, I believe the message of this blog can and should resonate with someone…in fact, a whole lot of someones.

So, I’ll keep slugging away until it does…pissing off some and, hopefully, delighting others with the message of Impact Mindfulness…

What’s that you ask?

A-ha, thanks for that invite to provide a fresh look at Impact Mindfulness!

It’s not that mindfulness is anything new or novel…

everybody’s talking about it.

And if you follow almost any of the lifestyle blogs out there, they usually get around to talking about the importance of an impactful life… as an afterthought.

But, I don’t know any of them who are putting it all together in the way this blog does.

Supplying the why…as I like to say.

Here I write about this “mindset” of impact mindfulness as resting on three foundational principles…

#1 Prioritizing Impact Over Interest

I think this is where I might lose some people…and since it’s the first and perhaps most important principle…

that’s not a good thing.

So, let’s flesh it out a bit for a better understanding.

You see, I believe that many, perhaps most, of the problems faced by people and planet are self-interest oriented. We’re just too caught up in this overly materialistic world in satisfying the cravings of the self, or this ethereal entity we call ego.

Of course, these days you read a lot about minimalism and living sustainably as lifestyles that are less materialistic.

But the reasons often given to live such lifestyles tend to turn on self-interest. It’s all about me…my pleasure, happiness, fulfilment, dreams and desires. It’s about me having the good life.

Great! Nothing wrong with all that…unless it’s your primary focus for being.

Because I believe it’s not…our primary reason for being.

I believe that we’re here to make life better for others, i.e., impact. And in so doing, we enhance our own enjoyment of it.

In fact, the only way that our world can get off the destructive path that it seems to be careening down at an ever-increasing velocity, is for plain folks like you and me to prioritize our impact over self-interest.

Self-interest taken to the extreme leads to greed. People and planet are suffering from the effects of rampant greed.

And I don’t think that there’s a government solution to this problem. You can’t legislate impact mindfulness!

I believe there has to be a mindset change solution…or…revolution.

One that prioritizes the impact of our choices and actions on the larger world over how those choices and actions promote our own self-interest.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Pogo daily strip, 1971

The change that will save this world is not out there…it must come from within ourselves.

#2 Embracing the Big US

We tend to see the world through the prism of group affiliation. We desperately want to belong there. We feel our very lives depend on that limited belonging. And that desire to belong causes us to adopt an “us versus them” mindset.

The people on the inside with us matter…those on the outside…not so much.

Anyone politically minded who reads just a little of my blog will readily identify me as a leftist progressive. I don’t like such labels, but I guess I’ll proudly wear that one. Because I believe those on the right suffer from an ideology that is isolationist and dangerous for the rest of the world.

It’s not just the right…you see it with groups like ISIS as well.

That is, the inability to recognize that it’s a big world out there and that you belong to it.

You are part of the whole…as opposed to the warped idea of being that whole with unrelated and undesirable parts on the outside.

We once viewed our world in similar terms, until science showed us it was untrue.

Take the recent Obama action with regard to Cuba. The harshest opposition came from the right. Why? Because of the us versus them mentality. Cuba is the communist enemy of the U.S., right? We’re the whole and they’re definitely on the outside.

But that’s not reality. Cuba is just as much an integral part of this planet as we are. And the people there are suffering. And it’s in their best interest for this change in policy to take place.

Why can’t the right just see things in those terms?

Because they are too wrapped up in the ideology of us versus them. That’s how they see the world.

When the fact of the matter is that we’re all on this planetary ship together and until we begin to see things that way, to embrace the Big US, we’re going to continue to witness grave problems in our world.

#3 Removing Impact Blinders

I mentioned ISIS above when talking about the Big US. But the ISIS mentality also dramatically reveals the impact blinder problem.

You see, they believe their religion requires them to do the utterly inhuman things we’ve witnessed before our very eyes over the last year.

Religion!

Something that’s a complete fiction that they’re willing to die, and kill, for. It makes no sense, until you realize that religion is an insidious impact blinder.

And ISIS is not alone. There are millions of folks who suffer under the same delusion because of religion. And it motivates them to take action that is impactful for sure, but in a negative way to people and planet. Or, to do nothing at all, as they wait to be raptured away from this sinful and fallen world.

Now, granted, there are some who’ve been motivated religiously to have great impact, such as Mother Teresa, or MLK…but those are exceptions. And while religion may have been a motivating factor for them, I believe it was secondary to the impact they sought to make in this world.

Another impact blinder is blind patriotism and intense nationalism. It causes us, again, to view the world in us versus them terms. When George Bush stood at ground-zero and pledged death and destruction to those who had knocked our towers down, he unleashed a nationalist fervor that we now know resulted in America sacrificing long-held values…like not succumbing to the barbaric impulse to torture your enemies.

It motivated us to invade a nation under false pretences.

It completely blinded us to the fact that some 150,000 Iraqis were killed in that effort…compared to the tragic loss of around 5,000 Americans…but we only focus on the latter statistic…

Why?

Impact blinders.

I believe it’s high time we take those off and see things as they truly are.

The idea behind impact mindfulness presents nothing new. All this has been around in one form or another for a long time.

What’s completely novel is this singular mindset that brings them all together.

A mindset that I believe is needed for the betterment of people and planet, who are in an increasingly worse situation because of greed, small us thinking and impact blinders.

A mindset I believe the universe has implanted in my heart and has given me the burning desire to do the same in others.

Cuba Unmasks the Ideology of the Right

December 18, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I’ve long been an advocate for a change in U.S. diplomatic posture towards Cuba…

and certainly for the ending of the asinine trade embargo of the last five decades.

Even though said embargo has had the unintended benefit of creating a country that is quite unlike any other on this planet.

I’ve not yet had the privilege of going there myself. I want to…desperately.

And I’ve heard things…good things.

So, finally we have a President who’s (sometimes) willing to step up and make change happen where it’s needed…

despite every attempt by Congress to keep him from doing it.

He gave us universal health care. Not perfect, mind you, but definitely an improvement over nothing.

He took action to help cure the “state of limbo” that 11 million folks suffer under, who’ve lived, worked, raised families and basically acted like U.S. citizens for a long time, with one problem…

they aren’t and never can hope to be…U.S. citizens…

until now.

He’s taken action against Global Warming, when the last President only hemmed and hawed, along with the majority of his right-wing constituents, about whether he “believed in it.”

And now this…

He’s reversed 5 decades of really stupid policy towards Cuba, an island nation of 13 million about 90 miles off the Florida coast.

A place where, up until now, Americans could only visit under threat of incarceration.

And why is that?

Because of the utterly awful regime of one Fidel Castro.

However, let me offer you the enhanced perspective of a ride in my time capsule…

in which we turn the dial back to around 1952, when a dude named Fulgencio Batista took over Cuba in a military coup.

Batista was loved by corporate America and even by a small minority of wealthy Cubans, but not so much by the rest.

For an idea of why U.S. politicians and corporations loved Batista, consider the words of John F. Kennedy…

At the beginning of 1959 United States companies owned about 40 percent of the Cuban sugar lands, almost all the cattle ranches, 90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions, 80 percent of the utilities, practically all the oil industry, and supplied two-thirds of Cuba’s imports.

Another group loved Batista as well, and the dictator definitely returned that affection…

the mafia.

You see, they loved Batista because of the gambling and prostitution that the dictator allowed into Havana and took for himself a big corrupt chunk of the action.

But the poor peasants working the U.S. corporate controlled sugar cane fields harbored little love for the dictator.

So, a band of leftists, led by a lawyer rabble-rouser named Fidel Castro, unsuccessfully tried to mount an attack against the Batista regime on July 26, 1953.

Batista made the mistake of allowing Castro to live to try again…

and try he did.

Castro, along with Che Guevara, ultimately led a revolution that took over from the hills of the Sierra Maestra all the way to Havana. Batista fled and the Castro regime was borne.

One of the first things Castro did was to take back some of the stuff mentioned by Kennedy above and give it back to the folks who had worked the land.

It was called agrarian reform and it was all the rage amongst many “communist” Latin American leaders.

Of course, those sweeping changes didn’t sit well with many wealthy Cubans, who fled the island in exile to Miami, Florida…

and there they live to this day.

In fact, the parents of Senator Marco Rubio were, arguably, part of that exile.

And that I guess explains why Rubio is so up in arms about Obama’s action.

Castro was faced with leading a tiny island nation with one huge and powerful enemy just 90 miles away…

So what’d he do?

He ran directly into the arms of Russia at the height of the Cold War.

Cuba quickly earned the reputation of America’s arch backyard nemesis. The Cuban Missile Crisis only heightened that perception.

But now the Cold War is over. Castro’s Cuba has been anything but perfect, especially from a human rights perspective, but they’ve been cleaning up their act very nicely lately.

Obama’s action was welcomed by virtually all Cubans on the island, even Raul Castro himself…

but not so much by the Little Havana contingent in Miami, Florida. They still have quite the bone to pick with Castro.

Nevertheless, this action is good for the people of Cuba. It might turn their nation into another playground for the U.S. rich and famous, but apart from that, it should work out fairly well for them.

It will also be a boon for many in the U.S. with their eyes on Cuba from a business opportunity perspective. I, for one, am eyeing the tourist potential and have already registered the domain, www.cubatravelunlimited.com.

So, why all the ruffling on the right about action that was long overdue from a common sense perspective?

Well, because, for one, an Obama legacy is beginning to take shape despite their dire efforts not to allow that to happen…

and because it offends their ideological sensibilities for this once Cold War backyard foe to now be greeted into the community of civilized nations…

and because many are still fuming about Castro once taking away their stuff.

I wrote a post recently about the right’s tendency towards ideological isolation and this is another not-so-shinning example of that.

You see, sometimes ideological idiosyncrasies can get in the way of just plain old common sense.

Recent news reports about some of the things that went on in the former administration, like “rectal-feedings” and the like, clearly demonstrate that.

Thankfully, we finally have a President who doesn’t suffer so much from those.

#1 Prioritizing Impact Over Interest

#2 Embracing the Big US

#3 Removing Impact Blinders

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