Sweet Saturday

Mareike and Miriam from Germany arrived at my place yesterday. Very sweet people. Couchsurfing is such a great thing - total Nobel peace prize material.

Today I'm gonna go to this place where I do deep breathing together with a bunch of people. It's wonderful. I'm gonna get that anger out of the way and make room for all that looove inside. Afterwards it's all dancing ...

Yeeeeah.

I am here

This day has been a real roller coaster. I was walking to the bank to shut down an account, when I met this Asian woman was walking in the opposite direction with a stroller in the street. The sun was shining and I had Oasis' Champagne Supernova in my ears when I saw her coming with her sunglasses on, smiling. Her smiling made my joy bubble up and that bounced right back to her and there was a moment of connection in joy, just as we passed each other. I was smiling around my head. It was a split second thing and it made my day.

Otherwise it's been heavy for me these last days. I was consciously nasty to a friend last weekend and I've felt bad about it since. I always do. That revenge stuff has never paid off for me, ever.

And so this old gem popped up on my shuffle today, and it woke me up for a moment. The opening line hit me stronger than ever before.

Cancer

Any organism that disconnects from the whole that keeps it alive has gone cancer. Every success for the cancer is a surer and faster step towards its own death.

Sound familiar?

Be the change

Here's a great thing about change: We don't have to fight the existing structure. We can just build something more beautiful and heads will turn. This is what the internet is here for. If we don't want to, we don't have to worry about the economy crashing, about big companies going out of business and people getting unemployed.

And how's that?

Because in the end, nothing real is affected when an economy crashes. Economies and organizations exist only on paper. The people who were in those organizations are still there. The buildings are there, the machines are there, the know-how is there. The infrastructure is there. This is the reality and it's where we can start. It requires that we do stuff on own initiative, but in the end ... that might be more fun.

What we do need is real infrastructure that keeps us alive. Heating, electricity, food supplies and the internet. When these go down, things happen, as with Katrina in New Orleans for instance. This is why it's valuable to have the basic survival infrastructure is as local as possible. Basic local energy, basic local foods = health and ease.

This also means that there is gonna be an increasing demand for grass-roots logistics. Imagine if Facebook was optimized for collaboration and co-creation.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller

What would you do?

If you were the mayor of Worldsville, a big town around the globe in which all human beings lived, and you were asked to decide on the prime issues to resolve immediately, which would they be?

For me it would be water, food, shelter and a functioning money system. I bet the systems could be built and implemented quite quickly if we really wanted to.

I'd make it an Olympic sport: Functional creativity. The best brains and magicians from each country compete in solving practical problems. Like designing an uninflatable money system. Or how to bring back ecologic food production on a massive scale as quickly as possible. Or how to use like-buttons for finding the best ideas for local community development.

I'd like to make saving the planet fun. Where are the World Championships in rapid innovation? Or the Eurovision Design Contest? Or Britain's got Democracy. Or ...

Who wants to be Mayor?

Life is Curling

I just watched the Norwegian curling team play in the olympics on tv. I always thought curling was such a nerdy sport. I still do, now that I think of it.

Anyway, I just sat there like a zombie when I saw the Norwegian captain saying something funny to his team mates. They were all standing in the target area among the whatever-they're-called, setting up the tactics for the decisive final shot. They all laughed and took their time.  The arena was packed with people and they didn't seem to mind. They were enjoying themselves.

Maybe it doesn't really matter if you're fixing the economy or wiping the shit out of ice, if you really enjoy it.

A positive blog is a nice blog

I know. But I'm only positive about being f*cking annoyed.

I'm fed up with stuff. I'm doing well enough to have that luxury. All crap in the media about the economy. All complicated stuff that only experts can deal with. All stuff about what the economy needs, year in and year out.

An economy doesn't need anything! Ever! If it does, it's not an economy.

And any company big enough to have bargaining power is too big to bargain. Now, dear gardeners, if a plant in your garden is too big, and you are not allowed to touch it physically, what do you do?

Stop watering it. Just stop.

Maybe I need to write a book about this. Things are getting too complicated. Here's today's secret: Things are uncomplicated. If they seem otherwise, drop them and start from scratch. Scratch is always simple.

Ok. Now I'm nice again.

Monday!

Dear parole officer,

I'm still here.

I woke up this morning at 6AM to go to the gym. It's a project I have right now: Early mornings.

I love early mornings. I don't necessarily love getting up, but I love being up early. And today I was.

I might write a press release.

The beauty of Poikkeustila

During the last weeks, the heavy snowfall has brought both chaos and joy here in Helsinki. Cars are parked (and driven) wherever. People help each other with getting their cars out of the snow. Neighbours talk for the first time. It's all about the snow. But there is something nice about it.

"Poikkeustila" is a Finnish word, which means "state of emergency". The literal translation would be "state of exception". Which actually makes it a, well, better word, because there is no panic involved. It's just an exception - the normal rules temporarily seize to apply for some reason.

Here's the beef: We need more poikkeustila, because it makes people open up and connect. It takes us to this moment. And all of life is a poikkeustila. We need not wait for a catastrophy or even heavy snow to screw the rules and connect and be authentic. And we need not be arrogant or unfriendly or trash places, just because the rules don't apply. Just go for it. Dance your dance. Talk to the neighbour. Kiss the girl.

Btw, here's one of my favourite ads, for many reasons - and it's about poikkeustila.