2015
Bridge-builders Light Paths to Each Other, Human to Human
Tuesday, 22 December 2015
The future is not
some place we are going, but one we are creating.
The paths are not
to be found, but made.
And the activity of
making them changes both the maker and their destination.
~ Johnn Schaar
We are all at once
both a composition and a composer.
We have the
ability not only to compose the future of our own lives, but to
help compose the
future of everyone around us and the communities in which we live.
~ Maya Angelou
Life is not about
waiting for the storm to pass.
It's about
learning how to dance in the rain!
~ Anonymous
Out of
proportion and betraying humankind, stories of human failures irresponsibly
dominate news
to excite and awaken exaggerated fear among citizens and policy makers.
Citizens are deprived of great acts of courage, goodness, and reconciliation,
while print and broadcast journalists profit.
"If it bleeds, it leads" guides many editorial and marketing
decisions.
Yet conscientious broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) pleaded for
citizens to be aware of news reporting that would only "entertain, amuse,
and insulate" us from a whole view of life events.
In this 2015 Season of Light "If it succeeds, it leads" can be a
balancing standard to adopt, thus helping to more wholly illuminate the
greater reality-on-the-ground of human imagination, compassion, and coexistence
with one another and Earth.
Here are stories to lift us to our best and highest --- beyond passivity
and despair, beyond fear and war -- lighting our way onward and upward
together.
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Shining Light on Better
Communication Together
Faced with
toxic videos and virulent online attacks, we can still create the world of
engagement.
A troubled Jerusalem resident -- like many others -- pleads for civil
conversations.
She says: "We can choose the kind of words that allow for shades of gray.
"We can choose to say, 'I respect you even though I disagree.'
"Words create worlds.
"We can succumb to the world of yelling people, or we can create
the world of the tent."
READ more:
Talking
our way to a better world
The Times of Israel -- 18
December 2015
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/talking-our-way-to-a-better-world/
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Middle East Tour Guides to Shine Light
On Many Places and Multiple Human Narratives
During the
December 2015 Season of Light Holy Land darkest of times, many say 34 women
and men tour guides and six hosts eagerly arrived at the Dead Sea.
They came from the West Bank and Israel to face one another with the
intention to become agents of change.
Only two weeks earlier, a sole Israeli citizen had broadcast an invitation to
Palestinian and Israeli tourism professionals to meet at the EcoME Center http://ecomecenter.org
to invent how they might maximize their tour guiding to expose travelers to
more diverse voices and places, and humanize everyone for those thousands of
tourists they lead every year.
The carefully planned, facilitated day allowed the Muslim, Christian, and
Jewish tour guides to discover one another, increase their own communication
skills, find new meaning for their own personal and professional lives, and see
themselves as bridges of understanding.
Participants said: "Why did no one think of this before?" "Today
was like water in the desert." The facilitator said: "It was
all about being together, feeling one in our shared vision, collectively
inspiring each other, believing we can influence change. We tour guides
experienced Light." SEE PHOTOS and more:
Tour
Guides as a Bridge Between Humans
A Historic Meeting at the
Dead Sea
Monday, 14 December 2015
http://www.tour4change.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Tour_guide_as_a_bridge_Report_2015.pdf
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Easy Internet Technology Lights Up
Living Rooms Worldwide
December 7,
2015, easy-to-use Internet communication technology was maximized by citizen
relationship builders meeting face-to-fate around the planet.
The personal
hour to meet, speak, and listen to one another for mutual international
learning and inspiration was Zoom-facilitated from a California home during the
281st meeting of the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue on the San
Francisco Peninsula.
2015
Season of Light Global Video Bridge
December 2015 -- Story and
65-minute video
http://traubman.igc.org/light2015.htm
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Enlightened Youth
Teach Us New Songs
With Kids4Peace
Jerusalem -- http://www.k4p.org --there is
more happening than sensational headlines tell.
There are sensational young Jews and Palestinians who refuse to be enemies and
insist on engaging.
And there are extraordinary parents who permit and inspire their youth to keep
moving toward one another and staying together.
Keep
Hope Alive
Kids4Peace - Jerusalem
2-min video -- 25 November
2015
During August,
2015, 14 young Israeli and Palestinian women from Creativity For Peace -- http://www.creativityforpeace.com
-- came together in Jerusalem.
In a safe space, they co-created an original song -- I Saw It Through Her Eyes
-- about their experiences of meeting, communicating, and living as young
leaders in the region.
Powerfully refusing to be enemies, these and other young adults are
creatively lowering walls and closing distances between the people.
I
Saw It Through Her Eyes
by young Palestinian and
Israel youth of Creativity for Peace
3-min music video
https://www.facebook.com/CreativityForPeace/videos/932668553475141/
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Choosing Light by
Pre-deciding About Violence
"As
loving parents who raised two children during the era of the Vietnam War, we
were inspired by the work of child psychologist Haim Ginott who observed:
Misbehavior and punishment are not opposites that cancel each other.
On the contrary, they breed and reinforce each other.
"We asked ourselves: Is it possible that spanking smacking, some
say has a ripple effect into our community and inter-nationally?
And so we challenged two rarely-questioned, often-implemented axioms of our
times:
Violence is a good way to get
what you want.
You can end violence with
violence.
Pre-deciding
About Violence
December 2015
An unpublished article for a
needed conversation about child discipline at home and the "war
button" that is pushed to quickly and often.
https://www.academia.edu/19725618/Pre-deciding_About_Violence
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This message is on the Web at http://traubman.igc.org/messages/690.htm
Hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm