image by Roberto Garcia-S

Alright—so the biggest good news, affirmed again in an awesome talk I went to last night—is that evolution is real and happening. It is always good to think about this again.

The speaker was Michael Dowd, a self proclaimed “Evolutionary Evangelist.” He transformed from a fundamental Christian into a preacher of the awe-inspiring truth of evolution and the practical as well as spiritual significance of the knowledge of it. For example: We now know how our brains developed over millions of years, from the amphibian/limbic part, to the mammalian/emotional bonding section, to mind and interpretative capacities in the neo-cortex and finally to the anterior cortex, whose neurons light up when we make the effort to hold ourselves to a commitment—say, a marriage vow.

As we all find out on a daily basis, our center of gravity unfortunately is not yet located in this more evolved part of our brains, so even if we make decisions or commitments in one moment, we are thrown by uncertainty and desires, left, right and center in the next. But knowing about the differences in these parts of our brains we can interpret our own experience, of lust, say, or of our willingness to sacrifice our principles to get what we want in a very different context.

The most inspiring part of listening to Michael was to hear that his message of a synthesis of science and religion is finding a tremendous response both in absolutely staunch atheists and in church audiences of all denominations. It looks like he is on track to elevate a huge section of American society into a more deeply rational and open mindset, without sacrificing our need for the mystical dimension.

More about Michael and his highly acclaimed bestseller ‘Thank God for Evolution” here.

Today is Obama’s 100th day in office. This is just a symbol of course, but also, even though not everyone thinks he is doing everything right, a good moment to reflect on how much he has set in motion in this time. There is always the cynical monkey on my shoulder, waiting to be right about how things never turn out as well as we might hope. But now—it’s up to everyone to throw their own weight behind what needs to happen. Here is a comprehensive list of Obama’s actions concerning climate change on one of our favorite sites, Worldchanging.com (scroll down half a page or so…). There’s enough good news to inspire us for a whole month at least!

Check out the point about his high speed rail—if realized, we would actually end up with a public transport system like they are running in Europe and Japan, one that doesn’t require lengthy trips to airports, waiting times and enormous levels of pollution. If you have never experienced European trains—it’s a treat boarding the train from Hamburg to Basle, work on your laptop in a spacious seat, be able to walk around anytime and have a coffee at the kiosk or a nice meal at a proper table, and when you get there, you actually still feel like a human being. Maybe someone should try to convince the national airlines to begin investing in this and make themselves part of the future of rail!

On a more personal, close to home kind of note: The activist group that evolved out of the Obama campaign up here is planning an event in the town of Lenox on May 23rd. Our biggest goal is to get people interested and fired up about the possibility of having Berkshire County, MA become a net-zero energy community, meaning we will produce as much energy as we need. In a county that is fiercely trying to preserve its historical roots and houses and whose tourism depends on it, this is a big vision and ambitious goal.

Planning this event, wanting to make sure it is distinct from the hundreds happening all over at this time (a very, very good thing!), we are constantly faced with how challenging it is to lift our eyes to more than the daily little things we can do (instant gratification for the mammalian brain, see above) and keep them focused on a commitment to something that doesn’t exist yet – the frontal cortex, also mentioned above.

One thing keeps striking us: a lot of people are doing incredible things, but are finding it hard, if not impossible, to work together and cooperate—this goes all the way down from big initiatives trying to help in Africa to small scale inventors who have difficulty trusting anyone with their ideas. So our goal is to transmit a possibility of listening, not already knowing and allowing new solutions to emerge between us, rather than having to be the one, or the ones, who have all the answers. Wish us luck!