"Believing is seeing"
visions about Holy Land come to life
Thursday, 07 January 2010
As I celebrated what was right with the world,
I began to build a vision of possibility, not
scarcity.
Possibility... always another right answer.
-- Dewitt Jones
"Begin challenging your own assumptions.
Your assumptions are your windows on the world.
Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light
won't come in."
~Alan Alda
We often see
only what's wrong with people and the world, and assume conditions and
human beings will not improve.
It's easy to see and be "against" crises and
darkness.
But it's more effective to see what's right with the
world -- what's working and excellent.
"By celebrating what's right, we find the
energy to fix what's wrong."
VIEW more:
What's right with the world
22 min. video
Dewitt Jones, National Geographic photographer
http://www.celebratetraining.com/
and
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=43381348
HAVE A VISION
Dewitt Jones, photographer and student of
life on Earth, used to think: "I won't believe it until I see it.
"I had it backwards," he says.
The way it really works is this:
"I won't see it 'til I believe it."
"That's the way life works," insists
Jones.
Vision determines what a person will discover and
create.
"Vision controls perception."
And our perception becomes our reality."
CHOOSE YOUR PERCEPTION
"We can choose to see the best in
people or the worst in people."
You'll see what you choose to see.
So, Jones recommends: "Begin by celebrating
what's right with any situation."
Because, "If we don't believe it, we
won't see it."
"When I started, I had no idea how powerful
that vision would be, how much it would change my life."
"If we hold a vision that fills us with energy,
that takes us to our own edge, that allows us to soar. . ." we can celebrate
and greatly expand what's right with the world.
Here are real-life exemplars:
Vision 1:
COOPERATING ACROSS MIDDLE EAST BORDERS
TO PRESERVE ONE, SHARED ENVIRONMENT
Israeli,
Palestinian, and Jordanian citizens envisioned then co-hosted a December
20-21, 2009, cross-border workshop on environment blogging to spur Middle East
change in response to a call from the United Nations (UN).
Since most countries in the Middle East have much to
improve in all areas of environmental protection, the UN has called for more
reporting on the environment in the Middle East to spur awareness and change.
Environmentalists and writers from Palestine, Jordan
and Israel met in Madaba, Jordan for the two-day
workshop: "Blogging for the Environment," sponsored by three
organizations that took on the UN challenge:
GREEN PROPHET-- http://www.greenprophet.com/
-- the most popular Middle East
environment news blog founded by Israeli Karin Kloosterman
( Contact@greenprophet.com )
THE MASAR CENTER,
a youth NGO in Jordan to improve regional relationships, environment, media,
democracy and human rights, coordinated by Khaled Shorman ( KShorman@nets.com.jo ).
VOLUNTEERING FOR PEACE,
a Palestinian NGO establishing a bridge between the different faith and
cultural groups in Palestine by spreading the idea of peace and non-violence in
the world, can be reached at VFPeace@gmail.com .
Funded by
the San Francisco-based United Religions Initiative -- http://www.uri.org/ -- 19 prominent
journalists and bloggers in Arabic, Hebrew and English met to brainstorm
new ways to report on and instigate environmental change in areas of activism,
design, urban health, religion and clean technologies.
"The environment is a leveler connecting
Muslims, Jews and Christians in this part of the world," says Karin Kloosterman of GreenProphet.com.
"By focusing on our shared challenges like
global warming, waterm and pollution, we hope to
encourage the crucial conversations and work in the field for a cleaner, more
rewarding and sustainable Middle East."
No one can argue about the importance of clean air,
fresh drinking water, and the pressing need for adopting new technologies like
solar power for clean and renewable energy."
Vision 2:
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WRITE, PERFORM
ORIGINAL STAGE PRODUCTION ABOUT
ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN RELATIONSHIP
BASED ON OSCAR-WINNING FILM
ACT 1
Ari Sandel studying film making at the University of Southern
California envisioned a musical comedy with serious undertones about the
Palestinian-Israeli relationship.
His professors told him it was too difficult, too
controversial.
Ari ( westbankstory@gmail.com
) was determined to follow his dream to create his film: WEST BANK STORY
-- http://www.westbankstory.com .
The 18-minute film earned him his Masters of Fine
Arts degree.
And an Oscar!!!
SEE and enjoy the whole movie:
WEST BANK STORY (on the screen)
18 min. Award-winning film
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8860670051621711477#
ACT 2
In 2008,
Maryland high school seniors Salah Czapary ( SCzapary@comcast.net ) and Mattia
D'Affuso ( PMattia.also@comcast.net ) saw the film.
The two Wootton High School
students were inspired by WEST BANK STORY.
They believed their own vision and followed it.
The high schoolers
wrote, produced, and brought crowds to their original stage production of WEST
BANK STORY --http://www.westbankstory.org/
-- based on Ari Sandel's envisioned film-sensation.
ACT 3
Not
satisfied with their personal triumph, Salah
and Mattia -- now college students -- have co-created
EYES CLOSED HEARTS OPEN (ECHO) -- http://www.eyesclosedheartsopen.org
-- to provide young adults and teens that love the performing arts the
opportunity to be a part of a summer theatre production to unite today's
youth and accelerate "the struggle for peace through the performing
arts."
ECHO's first 2010 step is to train new, young
student-artists to re-create WEST BANK STORY on stage once again:
WEST BANK STORY (on stage)
August 2010 invitation to participate
Rockville, MD
http://www.eyesclosedheartsopen.org/Upcoming.html
Citizens are seeing and expanding what's right with the world. . . possibility.
. . always another right answer!!!
You can, too.
-
L&L
- - - - -
These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm