Category: Social Change

Tremendous Spirit is moving today!

Women and men rising and dancing in the streets.

You can see it on the Internet at onebillionrising.org.

What is it?

-A global strike
.

-An invitation to dance
A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends
.

-An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers.


-A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given.


-A new time and a new way of being.

I like what Alice Waters has to say about what today is about.

Watched a panel of social entrepreneurs speak tonight.

First, what is a “social entrepreneur”?

I’ll go with the definition from the Ashoka Innovators for the Public:

“Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems.”

The panel narrator at this meeting of the Commonwealth Club was Dr. Ruth Shapiro, who edited the book, The Real Problem Solvers: Social Entrepreneurs in America.

In the book thirteen social entrepreneurs are featured and four of them were present this evening.

One of my favorite quotes of the evening was from Kriss Deiglmeier of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University, “Execution trumps ideas.”

I left inspired to figure out something so brilliant as d.Light’s Solar Lantern that has empowered the lives of 10 million people!

My image for today is a sandwich of several images: a daisy, the palm of one of my friend’s hands, and the ceiling of the San Francisco Opera at the War Memorial Opera House.

The magic is in what you execute!

From the d.Light website here’s a very short video about their creation that has brought light to school kids so they can now study at night.

“These will heal you.”

“Henri Matisse, 1945. (a promise about the beneficent radiation of his color as he placed his paintings around the bed of a sick friend).” – from Art in Healing Spaces

Like Matisse, organizations such as Art Heals spread the word about the power of art.

I enjoyed Heather Rodale’s site, Healing Through the Arts.

On the Art and Healing page of her site, she mentions a book I’m going to look for. It’s called Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul (2004), by Shawn McNiff.

One of my personal goals is to create art that heals. I’m sending lightness and joy to you today and the days ahead. Catch the vibe in today’s piece! 🙂