Vinceland

Things are moving pretty fast these days. I think they’re moving faster than they did even in the early 1900s. My parents have seen TV go from the earliest crappy picture boxes to thousands of channels in HD, ITV delivered wirelessly through multiple devices.

I’ve realized, though that there are some changes going on around us that we’re just going to have to accept, adapt to and adopt into our every day lives. There are trends, movements and important theories that are controversial to many, annoying to most, and obvious to few. But they are god damn important so get used to it. Note that I, more than most, am guilty as sin of not completely adhering to these ideas. So listen if you want, because I am just starting to understand and that’s what this is about.

Do as I say, not as I do… yet.

Sustainability. Any business that has not figured this out is just ignoring the most important message they need to adhere to. Everything needs to go green, as much as people and corporations want to resist. A movement that was on the fringe is working for everyone now because it simply makes sense. Forget the buzz words, forget hippy attitudes, it’s about living here as a human.

When people get past their egos and eventually decide that they can agree with sustainable living, it becomes such an obvious choice. But people, including me, need to make this idea their own, because no one wants to admit they were wrong. If only the current government could adopt new ideas in this way, and admit they were wrong. Amazing results. Honesty.

The idea behind sustainable products, organic produce, and generally making less of an impact in our lives and processes is the simplest of all ideas. It’s one that made more sense to the earliest settlers here than it does to us, which is totally backwards.

Evidence: Bamboo, cork and organic cotton are some of the heaviest trends in the clothing industry. People are building their own bio-fuel vehicles. It’s a garage movement that’s slowly becoming a mainstream trend. I know there are people who don’t even know it yet, but they will.

Digital Servers of Life. Accept that your entire life (personal data, bank accounts, mortgage, job history, love life) is being backed up on a hard drive and served up to the world by machines. Invest in server farms and networking now. Accept that smaller and more powerful processors will facilitate everything from your safety in a car or airplane, to your ATM card. Not sure about the robot thing yet, I think Terminator may have scared people and set the robot industry back a few dozen years. Arnold’s making up for it in Cali by giving money to stem cell research, so we can develop humans for humans, instead of robots for humans.

Universal Humanity. This is a big one, so hold onto your hats. I heard a quote the other day, (or read one) that might have been from Bill Clinton. It was in reference to the biggest problems in the world. It said something like: “Our differences are eclipsed by our common humanity.” Common Humanity. That means everyone you think is weird, ugly, poor, annoying or evil is just like you. They’re going through life on Earth as a human. They got a place here one way or another, and you gotta live with them. Get over it, do the right things.

Think about how easy it would be to convince someone who hated you that their hate was pointless because we’re both human, living on this planet, in the same situation. We all have hair on our butts. We all live, breathe and think. We all have a mom and smell funny in weird places. You can live in a box on the street or you can plastic-up your ass from head to toe. Underneath, there’s a commonality that is the most basic law of the land.

I think this is something that needs to be understood when we’re children, and untainted by corruption in the media and books. Before a child has an opinion about anyone, imagine if their opinion was: I want the same thing for them as I want for me. It’s not that hard to realize, it’s a close revolution, because it’s such a simple concept and makes universal sense.

Smooth Jazz. Recently I added 105.9 Smooth Jazz to my radio presets. It’s made my life smoother. I believe music could have a profound effect on people’s attitudes, which is everything. Much of today’s popular music is just rehashed smooth jazz. Take Gnarls Boring for example. That damned “Crazy” song is just some smooth jazz beats reinterpreted with some tech sampling and over-hype. The best smooth jazz slides on by and doesn’t ask for much, barely says anything, you might never hear the tune again. But it’s soothing background music for almost anything, especially driving around Portland, where people drive like shite. On a good day, Smooth Jazz could save the world.

Eating Out. Eat out more and live happier. I’d even offer this: Eat out more and save money. The advent of Whole Foods, Wild Oats and New Seasons in my life means that we spend MORE money on groceries than we ever did at Price Chopper, Grand Union or even the Co-op in Burlington. I think we spend less in terms of total costs, on average, to eat out.

Who has time today to make a list, purchase the raw ingredients, read a cookbook, prepare the food, THEN eat it, THEN clean up, THEN repeat. I believe that’s enjoyable a few days a week, maybe 1-2. But it’s totally unrealistic to think you could do that and eat healthy and live your life every day. There’d be no time for video games, golf, a lil’ loving. I’d rather have someone cook, land it on the plate in front of me, and clean up behind me. And even though it’s a little pricier at first, I’d argue that the time saved is more than worthwhile.

I believe the prices for organic, whole foods from the new breed of markets is making eating at home every day on-par with eating out in terms of total costs. (NOTE: I count total costs in time spent, hassle dealt-with and dollars.) I also think businesses are doing a wonderful job of catering to people like me. Everyone knows time is more valuable than cooking and eating at home every day. How boring can you get? Eating out is the spice of life. Get used to it and spend your time reading the dictionary instead of doing dishes.

Life Origins. The most important research happening right now is on the subject of the origins of life here and in space. Bottom line: nothing matters more than finding out how (and why) we’re here. Imagine what happens when people find out the EXACT process the world went through, in simple terms, and how we ended up here. Nothing else matters after that. Trivialities of life mean less, and more at the same time. Things that were important, like war, become pointless. (See Universal Humanity above.)

People ought to get used to the idea that this is what matters and where science efforts should go. At least most of them. What’s pathetic is how little these stories make it into the mainstream consciousness. I dug and found a story about the rovers on Mars. These little wheeled scientists have been running for hundreds of days, with completely new findings and insights on a red planet in space, and very few of us even care. Those people know more than us about Mars, and they’re willing to tell you about it. Look and listen.

Open Up. Whatever you believe, prepare to modify it. Accept the inevitability of the trends you see that make sense for everyone, and join in a day sooner than you want to. Stop mentally blocking ideas that you group together with attitudes or styles. For example: Sustainability is for hippies. Accept generally good things as good, even though you did not think of it first. Ego has no place in big decisions and movements. Humble thyself to admit you’ve been wrong for dozens of years, and your whole family was wrong too, and everyone you know is doing things WRONG.

Many of the things people in this country believed in the past 100 years has been or will be proved partly or mostly wrong. The most important of these things are listed above. It will continue to happen.

I know I missed stuff, I know this is not complete. I know I am completely to blame and I fit in with the closed-minded idiots. I admit I am living horribly out of tune with my own body, enlightended societies and the environment. But when I have time, I try to understand what’s right. And eventually, I’ll change my mind and do the right things. Hopefully sooner than later.