Guideposts

A large portion of the effort which humanity has expended during our brief sojourn on this planet has been devoted to three basic questions:  “Why are we here? Where are we going and what should we do?” Religion and philosophy attempt to answer those questions and the explanations have grown so intricate and complex that, in many cases the original questions have been all but lost.

We perceive truth “through a glass, darkly.” For some of us, faith illuminates that darkness, but if we are attempting to navigate a labyrinth, the possession of a candle may light our way, but it does not guarantee that we will solve the puzzle.  

If we are determined to move consciously through life, we look for navigational clues. If we are spiritually inclined, coincidence and synchronicity can become indicators of “God’s will.” If we are scientifically or mathematically inclined, we may intuit an underlying structure or geometry in the relationship between cause and effect. For many of us consumed in the struggle to survive assuaged by the myriad material gratifications offered by our civilization, we are like the toy trains we had as children. These little trains would travel in one direction until they encountered an obstacle, at which point they would then turn and go in the first available direction until encountering the next barrier.

Humanity is at this point in time being offered some very strong clues as to the consequences of our collective choosing and we can see the guideposts of our chosen route in the international headlines as well as the local. We have chosen a way of life that is enabled by the expenditure of vast amounts of energy, and along that path we have emphasized convenience and profit over efficiency and sustainability.  We have chosen immediate gratification over the long term effects on future generations.  We have ravaged the land, poisoned the air and the water and disrupted the food chain so that we can watch television in our underwear. We complain about “global warming,” but we can’t be bothered to turn down the thermostat. We flood the night skies with wasted light while we sleep. We drive ten miles for a jug of milk. We pave farmland so that everyone can buy Chinese plastic at Walmart.  We destroy mountains and watersheds so that a privileged few can enjoy a pretty view for a few weeks out of the year and call it “economic development.” We blame the Japanese, the Americans, the government or the local power company for nuclear waste left to our descendants, for mercury in milk, for ugly steel pylons marching across the landscape – but we rarely if ever trace accountability back to the face in the mirror.

The Exxon Valdez was a clue. The Deepwater Horizon was a clue, as were Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.  The ongoing struggle at Fukushima is a clue. Together these clues are a gigantic billboard advertising the cost of our energy intensive way of life. The west is engaged in Libya, not in some noble sacrifice to protect civilians, but as an effort to protect the energy interests of the UK, France, Italy and the United States which, when mapped out, cover more than half of Libyan territory. Look no further than the main street of Hiawassee for towering steel indicators of the cost of unplanned, unregulated development at the local level.

An individual unaware of his connection to his fellow man, oblivious of obligations to his community, blind to his dependence on the earth which sustains us all, can make a bad neighbor.  The autonomous, independent egos of the Me Generation, taken individually, can be annoying. They can, among other things, cut you off in traffic and litter the sides of the road with fast food garbage tossed out of car windows. They can rob you at gunpoint, on a spreadsheet or in the halls of government. They can conceive more children than a family can afford to feed or add to the growing burden of individuals for whom the planet must provide food, clothing, shelter and manufactured widgets for entertainment.  Added together and magnified by our institutions, ego becomes catastrophic. The signposts we are being shown today are clear indicators of the destination to which our current path leads. Our choice is more fundamental than choosing fossil fuel, nuclear or renewable energy to empower our journey into the future. Our choice is about whether our energy intensive, materialistic, self absorbed trip is indeed the journey we wish to make.

Some Facts for the Hysteria

               Six thousand miles away on the other side of the globe today, the brave nation of Japan struggles to overcome a catastrophe.  The death toll is horrific. The damage to the infrastructure of Japan and to the Japanese economy is incalculable. I am compelled to express admiration for the level headed bravery with which the Japanese people are facing this disaster. Invariably, when a power blackout occurs in one of our largest American cities, looting also occurs. Nothing of the sort has happened in Japan. We have something to learn from the Japanese. 

Meanwhile, the media machine which makes its living speculating, inflating and inflaming is finding a receptive audience among many of us already primed by apocalyptic visions of 2012 and end times expectations. This morning we will attempt to inject some fact into the hysteria. First of all, despite the frequency with which the word “meltdown” is being used in the headlines, it is highly unlikely that a large release of radiation will occur.

               The power plants at Fukushima are boiling water reactors and of a completely different design than the reactor made famous in the disaster at Chernobyl.  The Fukushima reactors are fueled by uranium oxide encased in zircaloy, which is an alloy of zirconium and other metals designed for its high absorption of neutrons. These encasements are the fuel rods of the reactor and they can withstand a temperature of 3992 degrees F. before melting.  The fuel rods are contained in a pressure vessel made of steel. The entire assembly of reactor hardware is positioned over a thick “core catcher” of graphite and concrete and enclosed in an air-tight third containment of very thick steel. The core catcher is designed and tested to completely contain a total meltdown of the fuel rods and the pressure vessel without releasing any of the nuclear fuel into the environment.  

               The explosions which have happened at Fukushima were not “atomic” explosions.  The nuclear material in a boiling water reactor is simply incapable of producing the kind of explosion which happens in an atomic bomb. These were hydrogen explosions most likely caused by water heated to a temperature where its molecules separate into hydrogen and oxygen – a very explosive mixture.

               Radiation has certainly been released into the environment outside the reactor, but it will not pose a danger to the west coast of America as has been speculated in some attempts to sell advertisements on websites.  Radioactive cesium and iodine are produced as a byproduct of the nuclear reaction inside the fuel rods. When the fuel rods begin to melt, the cesium and iodine isotopes mix with water inside the pressure vessel and will be present in small amounts in any steam vented from the pressure vessel.  Radiation is also produced outside the fuel rods when neutrons produced by the nuclear reaction interact with water or air inside the pressure vessel. When steam is released from the pressure vessel to avoid rupture, it contains N-16, an isotope of Nitrogen which becomes non-radioactive in seconds, and it contains small amounts of radioactive cesium and iodine which disperse to join the background radiation we all receive daily, due mostly to above ground nuclear testing done decades ago.

               We will move now from fact to interpretation.  Many of us are not big fans of nuclear power. Personally, I see it as a reluctant necessity in the long transition from fossil fuels to a solar based energy infrastructure. Up front, a nuclear power plant does much less damage to the environment than even the newest coal burning power plants. In fact, Scientific American reported in 2007 that “the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.” It is the highly toxic and dangerous spent nuclear fuel that must be transported across long distances and stored for thousands of years which becomes a growing problem for a short-sighted species living on a geologically active planet.  

               Those of us looking for signs of the end of time will have to look elsewhere than the horrible disaster being faced by the Japanese people. More to the point, there are some for whom every disaster, every earthquake, every hurricane is a sign of impending doom; this, despite the lack of any reliable evidence that there is a definitive increase in any of the normal processes of a dynamic planet.

               The thing that has changed, the essential factor in any “disaster equation,” is the number of people living on this earth. We are crowding every corner of the globe, along fault lines, in flood plains, in coastal areas susceptible to hurricanes and tsunamis. When there were fewer of us, we could choose to occupy areas less susceptible to danger. Hundreds of millions of the poor have no choice and no mobility. Those of us who do have a choice, choose for short term convenience or gratification and then act as if we have been personally offended when the earth does what it has always done.

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Updated 3/18/11:


In the four days since this was posted some new information has come to light, but the conclusion is still the same: The US has little cause for worry, even in a "worst case" scenario.

The Japanese, however, have every cause for concern: thousands of spent fuel rods stored in close proximity to partially melted cores and at risk of burning to release contaminants directly into the atmosphere - and the possibility that at least two of the thick containment walls have been cracked by multiple explosions. The fuel rods in reactor 3 also contain Plutonium, which is much more toxic than Uranium based fuel. An increasingly likely option will be to bury the plant in sand and concrete, as was done at Chernobyl. Power for pumps should be restored to at least two reactors within the next 24 hours. The situation is grave, but not desperate, and it is improving.

Integrity

    A few years ago, mathematicians from the University of Exeter developed a model which explained the mystery of traffic jams that occur for no apparent cause.  In this mathematical model, a driver near the front of a line of heavy traffic reacts late to a potential problem and applies the brakes. If he brakes hard enough, he can cause the driver behind to apply the brakes even harder. A backward traveling wave is formed which can eventually cause traffic several miles behind to grind to a halt.
    The theory is logical and the mathematical proof is elegant, though I’m not sure that the mathematicians at Exeter ever navigated the 285 at rush hour. Those of us who have might insist on adding more variables to the equation, but the gridlock around Atlanta might best be explained by Chaos Theory or, abandoning math altogether, in sociological or psychological terms.  Witness the tailgating, the lane changing and the altogether reckless driving which occurs while jockeying for position in an intensely competitive (for what reward I do not know) environment. Consider the inattentiveness due to distractions inside the vehicle. If we include these variables, traffic jams might also be understood as the cumulative effect of thousands of individual acts of selfishness or self absorption. They might also be considered to be the result of a systemic breakdown in the driving ethos.
    Leaving the highway for a moment (if that is possible in this culture) let’s consider for a moment what happens when we experience a breakdown of ethics in other areas of life, when seemingly insignificant acts of selfishness accumulate to affect the entire system.  “No one will notice if I steal this pack of gum.” “Everyone cheats on their taxes.” “The company will never miss these office supplies; besides, they owe me.” “You’ll never get ahead in this life if you don’t look out for number one.” The backwards traveling wave of the traffic jam then moves forward and outward like ripples on a pond. The neighborhood store closes because shoplifting destroys its profits. The government levies new taxes or prints money to pay its bills. The company adopts draconian security measures which destroy morale. The nation’s system of jurisprudence becomes an overgrown jungle of laws, rules and regulations impossible for the average person to navigate.
    In the past month alone I have witnessed so many examples of the inability to make and keep commitments , examples of what a friend in frustration referred to as “systemic incompetence,” I had to run this warning flag up the flagpole to see if anyone else recognized it. In discussions with a small group of only half a dozen people we identified, within just a thirty day period, 5 examples of appliances and electronic equipment from American companies which failed right out of the box. We counted 4 examples of raw fish and raw beef served in local restaurants. We heard an example of one company which instituted a policy of closely monitoring its employees in order to “discipline” more production out of them. We heard of a health care professional who forgot about an appointment and blamed staff for the oversight. We heard about a transmission in the shop for over two weeks and counting for a “guaranteed” three day job, and within that small group we compiled a list of a dozen elected officials from the local to the national level who were implicated in some form of malfeasance.
    There is a theory, albeit not a mathematical one, that the decline in the quality of goods and services in America, the decline of the nuclear family and the increase in non-violent crime, can all be explained, at least in part, by the rise of moral relativism.  Relativism holds that ideas have no absolute truth or validity, only subjective value based on differences in perception. Notwithstanding the struggle of a large number of conservatives to infuse the national ethos with a very particular interpretation of Christian belief, I believe it is accurate to describe a large segment of our population as practicing no strict interpretation of any belief system.
    Over the centuries of human history many different forces have inspired or intimidated an adherence to a system of ethics and a moral code. Fear of punishment produces compliance in totalitarian regimes. Theocracies such as the Holy Roman Empire are held together by a combination of devout inspiration and fearful intimidation.  The unique experiment of the American Republic has been an ownership society wherein the responsible acts of its citizens guaranteed security and prosperity. We grew, and we continue to grow, out of a diversity of cultures, but our system emphasizes our similarities while it respects our differences. As a people (and not including the “personhood” of our amoral corporations) we have prospered the most when our work ethic was infused with honor and integrity, no matter from what race, religion, creed or national origin it derived.
    Examples of honor and integrity are still abundant in America. It is abundant in the professionals of public safety. It is widespread among the sacrifices we make to raise our families and educate our children. It is particularly abundant along the hard edge of the young people serving in our military.  Nevertheless there is a soft underbelly of relativism and complacency in our society that could use some conditioning.
   
   

Might As Well Face It, We're Addicted

               When we hear the word, “dependency,” we may think of drug and alcohol addiction, which are the forms of dependency most often depicted in popular culture. Dependency is defined as being “abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming.”   This definition covers an extensive territory.

               Some researchers have followed dependency and addiction into the realm of the complex chemical reactions which take place inside the brain and the endocrine system. They have identified neuropeptides, chemicals inside the brain, which are produced in response to certain drugs. In the addictive response, brain cells flooded by the same neuropeptides develop specific receptors for those molecules. When these receptors do not receive the chemicals for which they were designed, withdrawal symptoms occur.

               Those of us who are not addicted to drugs (including alcohol and nicotine) might easily set aside this cautionary tale from the frontiers of the human brain, but in doing so we would lose a key component in understanding our own behavior and the behavior of our children. Drugs are not the only things that produce an addictive response inside the brain. Emotions also produce neuropeptides which build receptors on brain cells.

               We can all in a moment’s time think of people we know who are habitually angry or negative, people who are “addicted to drama” or who always seem capable of creating a stressful situation where none existed before. We might look no further than the nearest mirror to find an example of someone who has modified their brain chemistry for dependency.

               Several times in this forum we have discussed the possibility that our way of life can produce addiction to constant external stimulation. Personally, I have looked with pity upon increasing numbers of young people (and adults) who feel that they must remain constantly “connected” to our ever growing matrix of communication. I have spent evenings with people who sent text messages during our conversation and who continued to do so during dinner and even while watching a movie at a theater. I have watched young people in a department store who exited their vehicle talking and texting and continued to talk and text during their entire visit, but not to each other. I thought myself immune to this type of addiction until a few nights ago when, in a rare instance for Windstream, my phone and Internet connections both went down for several hours.

               Surrounded by books, encircled by projects in need of completion, with a pile of dirty laundry to wash (some of which was parked on top of exercise equipment in need of attention), tax forms in need of filling out, not to mention an astounding wilderness of stars and a dusty telescope, I chose instead to fret over being “cut off” from the “world.” I didn’t realize my own addictive response before an hour and a half of unplugging phone lines, rebooting modems and routers and a four mile drive to the nearest hilltop capable of gaining the first bar of reception on my cell phone.

               As in all addictions, there is hope for those of us dependent on technology and information.  By practicing new behaviors we can build new receptors in our brains which support healthier choices. We can even choose to “not do,” discovering once again the practice of meditation and prayer and just “being” which is becoming so alien to our culture.  With these words I am shutting down my computer for the day and pulling on my boots for a hike.

A Lonesome Train Whistle in the Night

              

               “The Road goes ever on and on, Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can…”  -J.R.R Tolkein

The term “sentimental” is often hurled like a projectile, but I welcome it. The dictionary refers to a result derived from feeling rather than reason or thought, and that I do not deny, but feeling illuminates the path in a way that cold logic cannot.

               This morning the house I grew up in is cold and empty and dark but for the glare of the computer screen. The family is scattered. My mother has passed on and my father has moved to a nearby retirement community. I can now mark with certainty the last day that the whole family was under the same roof, the last time the house was filled with the warmth and light of family.  

If we live long enough we will experience many such “lasts.” It is a bitter irony of youth that we rush past the moments that we will one day try to hold on to, but will never again be able to reach. Last night a lonesome train whistle in the distance took me back to the time when, safe and warm under the covers, a child’s imagination could board that train and travel to undiscovered country. Many stops along that journey became real places later in life; became, in turn, new memories to cherish.

To live fully during our journey we must embrace each precious moment of this life as if it were our last, but to live joyfully we must release each moment to be able to grasp the next one. This is truth, but it is armchair truth. It is truth which is very difficult to embrace while we are in pain and it is truth almost impossible to communicate to youth.  

Each generation has experienced the truth of this journey and attempted to warn its successor, yet it seems required of each generation that we ignore the lesson so that every individual can discover it in their own unique way. As a child, a train whistle stirred my imagination to travel to distant lands. Like so many before me, I could not wait to grow up, to leave home and to discover life for myself. Had I known that there is no return ticket on this journey, I might have lacked the courage to take it and my life would not have been as rich or as rewarding. Knowing this lesson can leave a bitter taste, but without bitterness in its proper measure, the other flavors available to the palette begin to fade.

              

Band-Aids Are Not Enough

               We have grown weary of hearing about how our economy is improving, how the recession ended months ago and how we are going to “grow our way out” of economic hardship. We are equally weary of dire predictions of imminent economic and social collapse. These are half truths and political expediencies. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle of the extremes.

               A quick look at the numbers this week should make the case. Numbers can be used for deception when they are overlaid by punditry, but taken in undiluted doses they can bring us closer to the truth than most of the popular interpretations now being used to sell soap on television.  Here we go, and hold onto your hats:

               The number of people on food stamps is now approximately 43.2 million – an all time high at 14 percent of the population.  The U.S. Conference of mayors reports that visits to soup kitchens are up 24 percent this year and there are over 643,000 people seeking shelter in cities every night. The number of people on unemployment has dropped to 9.4 percent – because so many people have dropped out of the system completely. The percentage of working age men over 20 has dropped to 73.6, the lowest rate since this data began being collected in 1948. The percentage of unemployed who have been out of work for over six months now stands at 42 percent, a number we haven’t seen since World War II. Finally, the Gini coefficient, which is used to measure income inequality, has grown to 46.8 percent – a number we have not seen since the “Roaring Twenties,” right before the Great Depression.

               Former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, succinctly tells the rest of the story: “Corporate America is in a V-shaped recovery. That’s great news for investors whose savings are mainly in stocks and bonds, and for executives and Wall Street traders. But most American workers are trapped in an L-shaped recovery.”

               The student of history and economics may note that the Gini coefficient is a good predictor of social unrest. If we connect the dots we see that bank failures in the Great Depression were due, in part, to the expansion of credit to struggling farmers which was a political solution to the Populist movement of that era. As we have observed before, when history does not repeat itself, it often rhymes. The expansion of sub-prime credit of recent memory, whether or not it was a conscious effort to “buy off the poor,” has contributed to a dynamic similar to that seen just before the crash of 1929. What is different this time around is the extent to which Globalization has contributed to the declining fortunes of half our population.  Moving production to cheap labor countries has helped inflate corporate profits to all time highs, but it has trapped more and more people on the wrong side of the prosperity divide.

               We do not know what solutions may be effective in addressing our current economic and potential social problems, but solutions to address our wounds are unlikely to be found in speeches and in the Band-Aids of symbolic legislation which Congresses passes to sustain the illusion that they are doing real work.  Our system is out of balance and in need of correction, and to borrow a phrase from economist, Bill Bonner, we are in the midst of a "Great Correction.” We do not believe our current government has the wherewithal to, by way of example, “pull off the Band-Aid” all at once. Instead we foresee a slow, painful, “hair by hair” removal.

Leadership When We Need It

               “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.”

I didn’t want to write this article. The issues that it addresses sound a dissonant chord amongst the holiday music still echoing in my head. For many Americans, the shootings in Tucson, Arizona which occurred on January 8^th banished all memories of holiday cheer. Almost two weeks later the tragedy still dominates the headlines as the media does what it does best, which is to embrace the negative, dissect it and display it from every possible angle. On the information superhighway as well as on the Interstate, the only time we slow down and look is when an accident occurs.

               Monsters have always lived among us and for their victims it does not matter whether we find our explanations in the psychology of a diseased mind or in the spiritual realm of a lost soul. History is full of events which equal and exceed the horrors of Tucson. Events like this have occurred for as long as humans have occupied this planet and no amount of knee-jerk legislating or pulpit pounding will prevent them from happening again.

               Today we will leave the re-telling of the tragedy with its accompaniment of theories and explanations to others and focus instead on one positive development which has grown up out of the event.  It has been easy for us to criticize President Obama. His healthcare plans and his relationships with the financial industry invite criticism and for me personally, if the election were held today, the emergence of a qualified candidate from any political party would make it unlikely that Mr. Obama would get my vote. Nevertheless, credit must be given where credit is due. When disaster occurs the nation needs leadership.  In his speech for the victims of the Tucson shooting, President Obama provided that leadership. 

On the other hand, the pundits who make their living fanning the fires of hatred continued their efforts. Sarah Palin, whom some consider as the standard bearer of the Republican Party, made a pathetic attempt to inject herself into the discussion. Her comments about the tragedy in Tucson were, characteristically, all about her. If her irrational behavior and celebrity seeking have not yet served to divest any disenchanted voter of any illusions as to her qualifications for leadership, her response to the killings should do so.

We have not, in my opinion, always (or often) elected the best candidate to the office of President of the United States. Fortunately for our nation, if the man was not ready for the job, the job has many times made the man.  Witness the accelerated graying and wizening of everyone who has occupied the Oval Office. President Obama is no exception. And while his policies may prevent me from giving him my vote in 2012, it is a comfort to know that the country does, indeed, have a leader in the Whitehouse.

In closing, consider these words from President Obama’s speech in Tucson:  “So sudden loss causes us to look backward - but it also forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships with those who are still with us. We may ask ourselves if we’ve shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order. We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame - but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others.”