Diamond-Cut Life

My carpool has naturally been discussing whether the government should bail out the Detroit automakers. The bailout question reminds me of the short story “The Lady Or The Tiger” in which a woman decides which door to send her lover to, i.e. death or a new life with a new lady.
Carpool opinions may be influenced [...]

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by Alison Wiley
Asking Linda Quirk of Run 7 On 7 to buy carbon offsets for her extensive air travel (see last post) reminded me and my husband to buy our offsets for 2008 (we can estimate the carbon we’ll burn for the rest of the year).
Note: while I think that buying carbon offsets is necessary [...]

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Governor Kulongoski of Oregon, my home state, has stated a vision of combating global warming with both a state economy and general Oregon lifestyle that is cleaner and greener than the rest of the nation.
“Climate change is the most important environmental and economic issue of our time,” Governor Kulongoski said (the added emphasis is mine). [...]

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The New York Times reports this morning  that stocks have now plummeted so far that they reached their permissible limits, and that data on the world’s (not just the U.S. ) economy is pointing to a profound slowdown.
Most agree that big changes are ahead. I assume the fabric of our lives will change a lot, [...]

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Today is Blog Action Day, I have learned from the popular blog Zenhabits, and the theme this year is poverty. As you may know, I’m a fan of solutions and ‘doing’ when it comes to any given problem.
I promote more joy and less consumption in the United States — but you need to have your [...]

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A 78 year old woman emailed Tom Brokaw yesterday to ask this question of  the two presidential candidates in last night’s debate (I’m paraphrasing):
“What sacrifices would you ask of the American people, given that we’re in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression?”
John McCain replied that as president he would probably have to cut [...]

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In the past month I’ve been writing energetically (raving?) about the economic crisis and the presidential race. They matter a lot to me. But I think it’s our deep inner lives, the lives of our souls, that guide us into wisdom, joy and what I term the diamond-cut life.
A few weeks ago I was at [...]

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Paul Krugman is my inspiration today with his editorial on what should be done about the current economic crisis. Mr. Krugman, who I had the pleasure of meeting here in Portland last year, is calling for a highly responsible, specifically “adult” crafting of a bailout. I embrace his analogy between good political leadership and [...]

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We’ve got lots of blame, anger and flat-out fear flying around in reaction to the collapse of giants like Merrill Lynch — and also the government/taxpayers bailing them out.  I’m feeling calm this morning, myself, which makes it a good time to write.  What does it mean that all these profitable companies, these diamonds, are [...]

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A short post on this morning’s headline before I head out to meet my carpool. Wall Street is bleeding, Lehman Brothers is folding, Merrill Lynch is collapsing into a Bank of America purchase, and the housing market remains on its knees.  Carnage all around. Why is all this happening to all these hard-working people?
I see [...]

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