When What’s MOGO Is Looking Within

Posted on August 31, 2011 by zoeweil

My husband is a big Bob Dylan fan, so for our anniversary I bought us front row seats to a Dylan concert in Bangor, Maine. It was exciting to have such great seats, so close to the stage and with an unobstructed view. But when the concert finally began with Leon Russell opening the show, the woman next to us chose to stand and dance, blocking our and many others’ view of the stage. My husband and I were able to lean forward and peer around her, but others behind us couldn’t. And so after the set, a woman behind us asked a staff member to ask her to sit once Dylan started playing.

But when Dylan came out, she stood up and never sat back down. Even when she wasn’t dancing, she stood. In a crowd of thousands, she was the only one. The woman behind me asked if I would tell her to sit down, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing so. My husband, however, was really irritated, and even though he’s normally an easy-going man, he asked her if she would please sit down. She refused. And so we spent the entirety of the concert leaning as far forward as we could to see around her. At least we could do that, since we were in the front row. People in the rows behind us didn’t have that option.

Now, I’m a dancer. In fact, I often find going to concerts difficult because when I hear music I want to dance. With singers like Dylan – who are more folk than dance musicians – it’s easier to sit and listen; but more often than not I gravitate to dance concerts rather than sit-down concerts. So I know how it feels to want to get up and move when music is playing. What I don’t understand, however, is the kind of narcissism that compels someone to ignore everyone else’s wishes; to think one’s own personal pleasure justifies wrecking other people’s experiences; to believe that it’s okay to prevent others from even seeing the artist whom they paid quite a lot of money to enjoy.

I spent quite a bit of time during the concert pondering the MOGO (most good) thing to do. Would any good come from trying to talk to this woman? Would I be able to speak to her compassionately and respectfully when what I felt toward her was a combination of indignation, anger, and disgust? I wondered how she became this way. She was dressed to the nines in a slinky black dress with 5-inch spiked heals, a jaunty hat, and bright red lipstick. She often danced erotically, appearing to relish being seen and admired. She knew she was blocking people’s view and knew others were upset, but she didn’t care. What was it like to be her?

I never did say anything to this woman. My feelings toward her were unremittingly hostile, and even though I knew better, I found myself wishing bad things for her. All that did was further impact my own ability to enjoy the concert. In the end, what seemed MOGO was to focus on the music and practice letting go of my own anger and irritation, to better myself rather than focusing on bettering her.

Still, was there anything I or anyone could have said that would have made a difference for either her or those of us whose view of the stage was blocked?

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

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Making MOGO (most good) Choices: The True Price of a Cheeseburger

Posted on August 29, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for One Green Planet, a blog dedicated to ethical choices. Here’s an excerpt from “Making MOGO (most good) choices: The True Price of a Cheeseburger”:

“We eat many times each day, and there is no other daily choice that has a bigger impact on ourselves, other people, animals, and the environment than what foods we put into our bodies.

One of the staples of the western, industrialized diet is the ubiquitous cheeseburger. Many people know that cheeseburgers aren’t the healthiest of food choices. Some have heard that cheeseburgers take a hefty environmental toll. Animal protection advocates are aware of the cruelty in the beef and dairy industries. A few know about the human rights abuses that occur on industrial farms and in slaughterhouses. So what is the true price of a cheeseburger?

The effects on you

Let’s start with the positive effects of a cheeseburger. Most people eat cheeseburgers at fast food restaurants. They are convenient, tasty (at least to many people), inexpensive (because we pay for them through subsidies financed by our tax dollars), and filling.

The negative impacts on us occur over time, so we don’t notice them when we consume a burger, but eating a diet that regularly includes cheeseburgers can lead, over time, to heart disease, strokes, various cancers, weight gain and obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, and even impotence. Regular intake of high fat, high cholesterol foods such as cheeseburgers has been implicated in the major diseases of our time, killing around half a million people every year in the United States according to numerous epidemiological studies.”

Read the complete post.

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Image courtesy of Hotels in Eastbourne.

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Teaching: The Greatest Responsibility and Opportunity

Posted on August 26, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for Common Dreams, a progressive news site. Here’s an excerpt from “Teaching: The Greatest Responsibility and Opportunity”:

“In 1987 I taught several week-long humane education courses to twelve-year-olds in a summer program offered at the University of Pennsylvania. I’ve spoken about the experience of watching those kids turn into activists overnight through in my TEDx talk, “The World Becomes What You Teach,” but what I haven’t spoken about very often is the long-term impact of something as seemingly fleeting as a middle schooler’s summer course experience.

Twenty-two years after teaching that first course, I invited one of those students, now an HIV/AIDS activist working for the mayor of New York City, to come to a talk I was giving in Manhattan. I hadn’t seen him in 18 years, and now the boy I remembered was a 35-year-old man. After the talk I introduced him to friends explaining that he was in the first humane education course I ever taught, and before I could even finish my sentence he interjected, ‘That course changed my life!’

During the many years I’ve been a humane educator, teaching about the interconnected issues of human rights, environmental preservation and animal protection in an effort to inspire solutionaries for a better world (and now through my work training others through the Institute for Humane Education’s, www.HumaneEducation.org graduate programs, online courses, workshops and resources), I’ve received many letters from students saying the week-long course they took ‘will stay with me for a lifetime’ and ‘was the most inspiring five days of my life.’ But it’s not simply week-long courses. Many times, even a single 45-minute presentation has stuck. I’ve run into several teenagers who’ve told me they remember a specific activity we did or something they learned from one brief visit to their classroom years earlier.

All this is to say that teachers have a profound, life-long influence on their students even through the briefest of interactions. Virtually all of us have memories of a teacher who changed our lives. And since teachers are generally with their students not for 45 minutes or a week, but an entire year or more, that impact could (and should) be tremendous. Which means that teaching may carry both the greatest opportunity and the gravest responsibility of any profession.”

Read the complete post.

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

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Everyone Can Be an Activist: Pairing Your Passion & Skills for a Better World

Posted on August 24, 2011 by zoeweil

For many of us, the image of an activist is an angry, sign-toting, slogan-chanting protester. Those are the activists the media often portrays. But there are many different ways to be an activist – that is, someone active on behalf of others, a changemaker. If the opposite of an activist is one who is passive, then all who endeavor to create a better world, rather than passively accepting the status quo, are activists.

When I expanded my own definition of activism, and discovered a way to mix my passions and talents in service to a greater good, I was able to give more than I’d imagined. Each of us can assess our talents and passions, and find the place where they meet. Here are 4 questions that can help you direct your life toward choices that are not only deeply fulfilling to you but which will make a difference for others.

  1. What issues or problems most concern you? Beyond your family and friends, who and what do you care most about?
  2. What skills and talents do you have that could be combined with your concerns to enable you to make a difference?
  3. What specific steps could you take to bring your talents and concerns together to achieve your goals?
  4. If you are already an activist or changemaker, are you best using your time and talents to make sure that you are as effective as you can be? What might you be doing that would better utilize your skills and maximize your impact?

If we realize that we have talents and experiences that we can bring to bear, and if we then witness the good that can come when our skills are appropriately focused, we also discover the joy that comes in solving entrenched problems.

(This is excerpted from my book, Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life.)

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Want support in pairing your passion and skills? Find the freedom, support, tools, and motivation you need to bring more joy, balance and satisfaction to your life and to make a positive difference in the world through IHE’s month-long online course, A Better World, A Meaningful Life. Sessions start September 2, October 3 and November 4. Sign up now!

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Helping Youth Become Solutionaries: The Rockville, Maryland Proposed Deer Hunt:

Posted on August 22, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I wanted to share a letter I wrote to the mayor and council members of Rockville, Maryland, regarding their proposed deer hunt. While they are hearing from many people and experts, I specifically wanted to address the issue as a humane educator.
____

To the mayor and council members of Rockville, Maryland:

I am the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education, and it’s come to my attention that Rockville is considering a deer hunt. I wanted to write to express my concern, specifically about the effect on children of a deer hunt. As a humane educator – someone who teaches about the interconnected issues of human rights, environmental preservation, and animal protection in an effort to provide students with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to be solutionaries for a better world – I believe that a deer hunt would represent not only a poor solution to the problem Rockville faces, but also be detrimental to youth.

At a time when it’s so important to foster reverence and compassion among children and to increase their “nature literacy,” a deer hunt has the potential to quash that empathy and appreciation and dull their creative and problem-solving capacities. We are capable of finding safer, more humane, more peaceful methods for addressing local challenges with wildlife, and if Rockville simply resorts to a hunt, the message that healthy, humane solutions are possible is lost. And because it is lost among youth who most need to cultivate these critical thinking skills for a changing world, there is the likelihood that many young people – especially the brightest and most creative – will lose a tremendous opportunity for innovation.

Perhaps the students in Rockville schools could address the challenge of deer proliferation in Rockville, studying the issue and using it as a real-life example in their science, math, social studies, government, and language arts curricula. Inviting youth to first study and then come up with ideas for solving local wildlife challenges would be wonderful pedagogy and help Rockville set a precedent for engaging its young population in solutionary thinking. It would also prevent the dulling of young people’s compassion and love for other species, a quality we should be nurturing at a time when habitat is being destroyed, species are becoming extinct, and humanity is threatening the ecosystems upon which we all depend.

Zoe Weil

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Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

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First World Problems

Posted on August 19, 2011 by zoeweil

Sometimes it takes a brilliant teenager to provide a little perspective. Watch this short YouTube rap:

and then consider how much further such a viral video could go toward diminishing kids’ sense of entitlement, rather than adults reminding them how lucky they are.

For that matter, I’m going to watch this video periodically to remind myself when I begin complaining about petty, unimportant things.

Pass it on.

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

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What the Teachers Are Themselves

Posted on August 17, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from What the Teachers Are Themselves:

“There’s a couplet by Rudyard Kipling that shines a sometimes too bright light on one of the biggest truths we educators must confront:

No printed word, nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be.
Not all the books on all the shelves – but what the teachers are themselves.

Mahatma Gandhi said something similar when asked by a reporter, “What is your message?” and he replied that his life was his message.

And my wise friend and the director of the Institute for Humane Education’s graduate programs, Mary Pat Champeau, has always reminded me that in our role as parents, nothing matters more than modeling the behaviors we hope to cultivate in our children. (In other words, we must not yell at our children to stop yelling.)

… There are few professions in which being a truly great human being and embodying the best qualities of humanity (compassion, wisdom, kindness, curiosity, generosity, courage, perseverance and so on) is part of the job description, but teaching is one of them.”

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Image courtesy of Gamma Man via Creative Commons.

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Do You Tune Out or Tune In to Atrocities?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by zoeweil

Zoe’s been busy with speaking & traveling and didn’t have time to write a blog post for today, so here’s a repost from 11/19/10. Enjoy!

I’ve always been struck by people saying that they don’t want to know about a particular atrocity or cruelty or problem in the world. It’s not uncommon to hear this from adults (though rarely from youth). I think the motivation to avoid new knowledge stems from people’s desire to live with integrity. That might sound like an odd statement, but if you learn something that calls into question choices you make, and you really don’t want to change, then you’ll be faced with the unpleasant experience of living without integrity. Better not to know. Ignorance is bliss after all.

But I’m struck by this head-in-the-sand behavior because it’s foreign to me. I’ve always wanted to know. Even if I am unready or unwilling to make a different choice, I’d rather know and live with my discomfort than not know. I’d rather have the opportunity to live more closely aligned with my values.

Over time, though, I’m beginning to understand the disinclination to know. I do get tired of all the bad news, of learning about more problems, of facing my own lack of integrity. This fatigue is helping me understand those people who say, “Don’t tell me about _______. I don’t want to know.” And understanding is a good thing. It helps me build bridges and offer smaller invitations. It helps me teach more wisely and carefully and inspire baby steps toward knowing. It keeps me from being self-righteous, and helps me maintain some humility.

Still, even when I get tired, I know there’s no other path for me. Maybe I’ll take a brief respite from the myriad books and videos that expose me to the grave and horrible problems in the world, but not for long. There’s work to do, and I don’t know how else to live with myself or to live in this imperfect world that needs our good work.

What about you?

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Image courtesy of Identity Photogr@phy via Creative Commons.

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Reflections on Sheep, Farm Sanctuary, and a Vegan Diet

Posted on August 12, 2011 by zoeweil

I spoke at the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down in Watkin’s Glen last weekend. It was such a pleasure learning from other speakers and sharing humane education with such an interested group of people. There were about 300 attendees, mostly vegan, with the rest comprised of mostly vegetarians or near vegetarians. If you’d asked people to notice anything different about this group of 300 (versus a random group of 300 Americans), most would probably comment on this: There were hardly any overweight people. It was the slimmest, fittest, healthiest looking group of people you’re likely to come across in the U.S. (There were also tons of tattoos, but that’s another story.)

For about two hours each day, attendees were invited to visit the animals at the Sanctuary, each one with a gripping story of rescue and rehabilitation. I spent the most time in the sheep barn. When I was a teenager in New York City, there was a sheep at the children’s zoo in Central Park, whom I visited weekly. I considered this sheep a friend, and I named him Wooly Baba. Whenever I arrived and called his name, he came running over to me, placing his hooves on the fence to lean over and get petted. He ignored pretty much everyone else. I loved him, and I believed he loved me. I also loved lamb chops. In fact, lamb chops were my favorite food. A few times a year my mom cooked them, and I was in heaven.

And then one day I realized who I was eating. I didn’t stop eating lamb chops then. I rationalized eating sheep (and cows, turkeys, chickens, fishes, pigs, and so on) by saying that they were already dead. I didn’t understand economics at that point, or the concept of supply and demand, and my mother, eager not to disabuse me of my naiveté did not say a word. She simply agreed when I said out loud that I thought maybe I should be a vegetarian, but I really liked meat and the animals were already dead.

It took another two years before I understood that my choices were causing harm and suffering to beings I purported to love. I was, in essence, simply paying other people to do something I would never do myself. I could no more kill Wooly Baba than my dog, Timmy. Eventually I stopped eating mammals and birds, and later sea animals, and then dairy and eggs, becoming vegan.

And so when I was in the sheep barn, I had a clear conscience petting those sheep, each with his or her distinct personality: some pawing for more pets; others honing in on the petting scene and pushing the others away from my busy hands; still others nuzzling; a few too shy to come near. Like us, they had their likes and dislikes. Some were pushy; others gentle; others a wee bit belligerent; others skittish. They sought out pleasure and avoided pain.

It was a lovely weekend at Farm Sanctuary amidst great people and beautiful, grateful, happy animals. A vegan’s paradise, really.

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Image courtesy of Farm Sanctuary via Creative Commons.

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What a Difference Kindness Makes

Posted on August 10, 2011 by zoeweil

It seems as if I’m blogging about airport experiences after half of my trips (such as here, here, here, and here). Because of where I live in downeast Maine, I’m dependent primarily on two airlines, Delta and US Air, both of which have – to be generous – serious problems. Not infrequently flights are delayed or cancelled, and I’m unable to make connections. This happened again Sunday night after returning from speaking at the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down. The delay in Ithaca meant missing the last flight home to Bangor from Philadelphia.

The flight landed five minutes before the Bangor flight was scheduled to leave from a different terminal, but I tried to catch that flight anyway, running at full tilt quite a ways, only to find that the flight I needed to be a bit delayed had left on time.

So I headed over to Customer Service to wait in a line with twenty other people, prepared for an argument about having my hotel covered, and ready for a long haul before bed. When I finally got to the head of the line, I was blessed with Customer Service agent Nicole, who expeditiously rebooked me on a morning flight and got me a room at the Airport Marriott (so I didn’t have to wait for another 30 minutes for a hotel shuttle bus). She was kind, sympathetic, efficient, helpful, and she completely transformed my frustration into gratitude. I told her that in all my years of traveling she was the kindest and most helpful Customer Service agent I’d ever encountered.

The next morning I boarded my (on time!) flight home, and was sitting in a bulkhead seat. Because I had no seat in front of me to stow my backpack, I took out my food bag (I hadn’t eaten yet), Kindle, and water bottle. I was able to put the small bag of food under my own seat, and I just held my Kindle in my lap. Until the flight attendant told me I couldn’t. Nor, she said, could I put it in the compartment on the wall with the magazines. She took it and put it in an overhead compartment. When it was time to serve the passengers drinks, I asked if she could fill my water bottle, but she said she couldn’t. She told me she could bring me water in a cup, but because the whole point of bringing my water bottle was not to waste plastic cups, I said forget it. When the captain turned off the fasten seat belt sign and said we could move about the cabin, I got up to visit with Khalif Williams (IHE’s former director who, coincidentally, was on the same flight, returning from the AERO conference). After just a couple of minutes the flight attendant came up to me and said, “I know you already hate me, but I can’t let you stand here.” She told me I had to return to my seat.

I was feeling very judgmental and irritated, but then she came up to me and explained that someone was on the plane evaluating her and all the procedures, and she had to do everything by the book. She said she didn’t know who it was, and that she was sorry to have to be so nitpicky. Once again, my anger, frustration, and intolerance for a situation I was in was completely transformed.

We never know when we can be transformed, even in frustrating situations; but sometimes, almost magically, a bit of kindness or a simple explanation can make all the difference.

For a humane world,

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“


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