Take a Risk and Become Who You Were Meant to Be

Posted on March 18, 2013 by zoeweil
Image courtesy of epSos. de via Creative Commons.

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent essay I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from  “Take a Risk and Become Who You Were Meant to Be”:

“I grew up in Manhattan during the most crime-ridden years in New York City. Despite the dangers, my parents – like the parents of all my friends – allowed us quite a bit of freedom. At six I regularly roller skated and rode my bike around the block by myself. By eight I took public transportation to school alone, walking to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, and crossing two big avenues by foot in the process. At 12 I took the often dangerous, graffiti-covered, pee-smelling subways solo.

I no longer live in New York City, but plenty of friends with whom I grew up still do, and they do not let their children do these things, even though they all did them.

… And then there were car rides with no seat belts, no car seats for babies and toddlers, kids in the back of station wagons. My son would probably be dead were it not for the car seat that protected him when I spun out on black ice and nosedived over a 12-foot embankment, crashing vertically, when he was three years old.

So all things considered our protectiveness is a good thing.

But we risk something else if we extend our protectiveness too far.”

Read the complete essay.

~ Zoe

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 TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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Sam Chaltain’s Art (and Science) of Great Teaching

Posted on December 6, 2012 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I wanted to share educational changemaker Sam Chaltain’s great new TEDx talk, “The Art (and Science) of Great Teaching.” Enjoy and share!

~ Zoe

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 TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxYouth@BFS “Educating for Freedom”

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Reach and Teach: Media Literacy

Posted on November 8, 2012 by zoeweil
Image copyright Institute for Humane Education.

I was excited when Reach and Teach, a peace and social justice learning company, shared my new TEDx talk, Educating for Freedom, taking the ideas in the talk about media literacy and analyzing ads a step further. Here’s a brief excerpt:

“When you see an advertisement for a store that’s offering the VERY LOWEST PRICES, for example, taking some time to think about how that store manages to get things at such low prices could provide a great lesson in suffering, cruelty, and destruction.

Lower prices might make you happy, but what damage do they do to get those low prices? Child labor? Slave labor? Bankrupting suppliers by making them sell the store products at a price lower than it costs to produce? ”

Read the complete post.

~ Zoe

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 TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxYouth@BFS “Educating for Freedom”

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Filed under: critical thinking, humane education, media literacy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

High Heels, Media Literacy, and Reclaiming Our Freedom to Choose

Posted on August 13, 2012 by zoeweil
Image courtesy of heatheronhertravels via Creative Commons.

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent essay I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from “High Heels, Media Literacy, and Reclaiming Our Freedom to Choose”:

“When I was in my twenties, I thought that some day, in the not-too-distant future, there would be no more high heels, except perhaps for costumes in shows about the past. I figured that emancipated women who had finally gained rights and freedoms (at great effort over many centuries) would be unwilling to wear shoes that compromised their safety, health and mobility. So the revival of high heels – including the extreme high heels of the past decade – has come as a bit of a shock; though it probably shouldn’t.

Having just watched the documentary, Miss Representation, about women’s depictions in the media, I know how manipulative and destructive the messages can be for both girls and women, as well as for men and boys. While women’s depictions in media have always included sexist images and messages, the sexualization of women and their bodies seems to have hit a high (or rather low) point. And we see the effects in our sexualized children, the provocative clothes worn by little girls, and, yes, the persistence of high heels, which cause harm to our bodies.

It is so challenging to resist the manipulations from advertising which insidiously compel us to fulfill our deepest desires – for love, happiness, security, power, etc. — with products. If high heels promise to ensure that we are desired and powerful agents in the world, and if everyone around us wears them, many of us find ourselves compelled to wear them, too.”

Read the complete essay.

~ Zoe

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 TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed. 

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Real Liberty Means Protecting the Commons

Posted on July 26, 2012 by zoeweil

In the United States, liberty is a core principle and a core value; but have we debased the real meaning of liberty? We seem more concerned with our freedom to make money at any cost, to pursue materialism at any cost, to manipulate through advertising at any cost. And we appear more committed to resisting any and all regulations and restrictions on such freedoms – as if protecting the commons isn’t tantamount to protecting other, vastly more important freedoms.

No one actually believes in unlimited individual freedom. We all agree that our personal freedom mustn’t tread on another’s personal freedom to be safe from abuse, harm, theft, and so on. And yet, we often forget that there are core freedoms we take for granted and therefore often fail to protect. For example, shouldn’t we all be allowed to breathe unpolluted air, drink water free from toxins dumped into it by another party, and have the ecosystems upon which we and all life depend protected from destruction? Shouldn’t we be free from the devastations that come from a planet that’s warming rapidly due to human impacts?

While some argue that regulations to protect our shared environment are limits on freedom, a different, and I believe more accurate, interpretation, is that they are true protections of our freedoms. Freedom within society is a complex affair. We depend upon one another and an intricate web of ecological balance. This, in fact, is the basis for any other freedoms (speech, religion, congregation, and so on), but we are currently treading on the very freedoms that underpin all other liberties. Ultimately, the pursuit of profits will mean little in a desecrated world, and such freedoms we once held sacrosanct will seem flimsy at best and ultimately foolish if we fail to protect the commons upon which we all rely.

~ Zoe

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 TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed. 

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This is Our Moment in the Sun

Posted on June 25, 2012 by zoeweil

In the most recent issue of The Sun magazine, there’s an interview with Ran Ortner, an ocean landscape artist. It’s a powerful and thought-provoking interview, and in it Ortner says this: “… we come with an expiration date. We already know we’re going to break down and crash. There’s something liberating about that. This is our moment in the sun. Let’s dance.”

There are countless quotes about life and death; about our mortality; about living life to the fullest, but this one struck me — perhaps because Ortner describes our mortality as liberating. We are free to embrace our moment in the sun largely because it is just that: a moment.

In her poem, “The Summer Day,” Mary Oliver ends with this provocative question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?”

Wild and precious. Our moment in the sun. Our time to dance.

What does it mean to dance? What does it mean to plan to do something? To me, this combination of celebrating life (what else is dance but such a celebration?) and planfulness is key to seizing our moment in the sun; the recipe for a life of meaning and purpose and joy. Recognizing our brief moment in the sun and “dancing” our lives is a path toward living in the present moment, fully alive, fully grateful, fully here. And recognizing that there are things to do, things to plan for this brief time offers a path toward meaning and purpose without which the setting sun may come upon us one day and catch us unawares with regret for what we did or didn’t do.

Each of us has a contribution to make, and many of our contributions take time to hone and cultivate, years of preparation and study and hard work. Can we find that balance in which we live fully in the present, fulfilling the plans we make to ensure that to the best of our ability our moment in the sun is worthy of our talents, passions, and dreams? Can we dance with abandon even as we craft the vision of our lives and follow our course steadfastly? There’s no contradiction here; rather we can find in this seeming paradox the liberation I believe Ortner speaks of.

For each wild and precious 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“

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The Politics of Food: Freedom to Choose ≠ Freedom to Impose Costs on Others

Posted on May 23, 2012 by zoeweil
Image courtesy stevendepolo via Creative Commons.

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for One Green Planet, a website dedicated to ethical choices. Here’s an excerpt from “The Politics of Food: Freedom to Choose ≠ Freedom to Impose Costs on Others”:

“Although nothing Glenn Beck says surprises me anymore, it seemed rather unconservative to lambast Michelle Obama’s efforts to combat childhood obesity. Beck is quoted as saying, ‘Get your damned hands off my fries, lady. If I want to be a fat-fat-fattie and shovel french fries all day long, that is my choice.’

On the face of it, the statement sounds reasonable, if not overly bombastic. After all, this is supposed to be a free country. But those who express such sentiments are often the same people who oppose mandated health insurance. Ironically, if an uninsured obese child or adult faces years of health care costs they can’t afford, or winds up in an emergency room, the rest of us foot the bill through our increased insurance and health care costs. And when meat and dairy products, processed foods, and Big Ag are subsidized through our tax dollars, while organic, small farms are not, all of us wind up paying the costs of unhealthy diets, even if we personally choose to eat healthy, plant-based, organic foods.”

Read the complete essay.

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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Filed under: food policy, marketing, MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

When Desire and Will Compete

Posted on February 17, 2012 by zoeweil
Note: This is a repost from 10/19/2009. Enjoy!

I was reading an excellent essay by Eknath Easwaran in the Blue Mountain Journal, titled “Will and Desire.” He begins:

“Desire is the key to life, because desire is power. The deeper the desire, the more power it contains.”

The Upanishads say:

“You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

Ah, but we are filled with such conflicting desires! And the strongest-willed among us, those who might become dedicated changemakers, leaders, visionaries, and doers, may also be those who are driven to fulfill desires that do not further a better world. What do industrial tycoons and Mahatma Gandhi have in common? Powerful wills to achieve their passionate desires.

As Easwaran’s excellent article explored, our desires are manifold and our will to manifest them a double-edged sword. He quotes the Bhagavad Gita: “The will is our only enemy; the will is our only friend.” As someone who has been accused of being strong-willed since I was a little child, I know this well. My strong will made me a challenging child to raise because I was endlessly attached to my desires and often inflexible. Yet, my strong will also became my great ally in achieving my goals and living according to my principles.

Making MOGO (most good) choices in our lives requires a strong will. Inevitably we will have conflicting desires. We may desire a certain food or product that is produced inhumanely or unsustainably. We may desire certain pleasures that have negative effects upon other species, other people, and the environment. We may also deeply desire a life of integrity and purpose and the unfolding of a peaceful, restored, and compassionate world. These desires may compete, and this is where we must harness our will.

Recognizing the range and breadth of our desires allows us to focus on those that are aligned with our values and pursue these with tenacious wills while acknowledging, but not indulging, those desires that don’t ultimately serve our greatest goals and the world we hope to create.

This is no easy task. But the very struggle can be rewarding, because when we wrestle with our desires and direct our will consciously, we create more freedom in our lives – freedom from the incessant pursuit of pleasure; freedom to create the lives we want most; freedom from advertising, peer and societal pressures; freedom to choose with wisdom and compassion.

What is your greatest desire? Your most fervent hope? Harness your will towards this end.

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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Filed under: MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Freedom & Love: The Beagle Freedom Project

Posted on December 26, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I wanted to share this beautiful video of freedom and love. Enjoy.

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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Sam Chaltain and the Freedom to Learn

Posted on July 4, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I want to share an excellent, thought-provoking TEDx talk by educator, Sam Chaltain, “The Freedom to Learn.” Take a look and then ponder your own stories of learning:

Sam has just joined our board of advisors at the Institute for Humane Education, and we’ll be working with him on an exciting learning and storytelling event on October 14 in Portland, Maine. Stay tuned for more!

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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