~Vaclav Havel

And, isn't this the real message of the Christmas story?

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed...the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head...

New friends on Google Plus have been sharing some truly compelling stuff this morning. Stuff that's got me thinking. Oh dear... 

Besides the facts attached to the 11-year anniversary of Robert Scoble's blogging career, today I learned about 50 Economic Numbers Almost Too Crazy to Believe and saw a stunning drawing of a human brain enmeshed in the trance of everyday life in the USA (see below).

Having just spent a week getting my own brainwaves further optimized at the Ashland Center for Brain Harmony, this morning I'm still feeling like I got my windshield cleaned 360 degrees around. Maybe I'm crazier than ever... but I'm feeling great about being alive. Even in a world that's pretty darned ca-ca right now.

Having that 360-degree-clean-windshield- feeling gives me a direct route into my personal creativity. Dangerous, I know. But fun, fun, fun 'til Daddy takes my T-Bird away...

So, here's a Christmas present for you. I hope you like it. If you don't, it's just electrons and you can easily recycle it by closing this tab.

Meri's 50 Facts Holiday Game

Are you feeling ill-equipped to talk about anything of substance as you're heading into holiday partys and family reunions? 

Thinking up things to talk about that won't bring other people any farther down is tough. But there are only so many times any of us can repeat  'Happy Holidays' before we just want to puke.

And the truth is, there are serious things for us to talk about this holiday season. Things that we have to talk about if we're not going to just throw up our hands at climate change and the domino collapse of both the US economy and the US political system.

If we can't speak productively with friends and family about stuff that's going on around us, we're going to loose the ground right under our feet, friends. You know this is true... We all know this is true. 

And neither fantasizing about the Rapture nor sharing cute cat pictures is going to help us turn things around and get them going in a better direction.

So, here's what I'm thinking:

There's a list below of 50 Economic Facts Almost Too Crazy to Believe.

How about printing off a copy of it and carrying it around with you?

When you're stuck for something productive to talk about at a holday party, you can take it out and share one fact. Or ask your friend or family member to close their eyes and point to one fact on your sheet. Then spend 5-10 minutes - no more -brainstorming 1, 2 or 3 tiny steps the person thinks they could take to start moving the numbers in the opposite direction. 

These steps may not be BIG things. They must be TINY steps. Sustainable, fun acts. Maybe even funny acts. Things that the person you're talking with could complete in 5-10-15 minutes a day. And repeat for a few days in a row. Maybe even a week. 

That's it. Easy. You can play this game as much or as little as you like. 

I'm thinking that playing it myself will give me hours of holiday fun. And maybe a few more laughs than talking about Uncle Mervyn's progressing Alzheimers disease...or how Sister Sue is losing her home... or about the toll that Cousin Frank's third minimum wage job is taking on him as he struggles to keep his one-bedroom apartment.  

So, if you'd like to join me, and share your tiny lists of things you discover playing this game here as comments, I'd be delighted.

If you'd rather be more public about it, feel free to share anything that comes up for you on my stream at G+: http://gplus.to/meriwalker. I'll continue to be active on G+ throughout the holidays, sharing what I learn as I'm playing this game myself. There are TONS of people there following me and I'm having a lot of fun learning with and from them.

Hoping this Meri's up your holiday party season... Will you let me know?

What We Don't Need Any More of in 2012:

50 Numbers We Need to Move in the Other Direction in 2012:

 #1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006.  Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job.  In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages.  According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percentof all U.S. adults were married.

#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 monthsin a row.

#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant.  That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980.  Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse.  According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.

#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever.  The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.

#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America.  According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.  Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit ofnearly 1.3 trillion dollars.  That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars.  When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

To be affectionately detached - that is a power. That is a wisdom. That is a love greater than any emotional love, a love born of understanding.

~Gurudeva

Making new friends in the later years of my life seems to take a different kind of energy than making friends took in my younger years.

On the one hand, I seem to have gotten a little smarter than I was back in the day when I imagined that friendship meant "helping" others see and do things they said they wanted - but weren't doing on their own.

On the other hand, I seem to be growing somewhat more compassionate than I was back when I couldn't see past my own story about reality. Back when I really believed that if people would just do what I advised them, they'd get along better. And that it was my job, as their "friend," to give good others advice.

I notice I'm taking a lot of long, deep, relaxing breaths this morning, thinking about a lovely dinner I had with Eve last night. And looking forward to getting to know her better. Getting to see myself through her eyes and sharing, dispassionately, how I see her through mine.

Sometimes I notice I'm telling myself I wish I could recover my youth.

Some days, like today, I hear myself chuckling as I feel deeply just how lucky I am to have lived long enough to begin entering the reality of Love.

Kathyrn Schulz studies mistakes and mistake-making. What a brilliant topic!

Her thoughts here about the futility of allowing ourselves to ruminate - negatively - about our mistakes just might be some of the best information you get this week.

It was for me.

Our true selves exist whether we acknowledge them or not, often buried under fears and learned behavior.

Identity is an elusive concept. We feel we must define ourselves using a relatively small selection of roles and conscious character traits, even if none accurately represents our notion of "self." The confusion surrounding our true natures is further compounded by the fact that society regularly asks us to suppress so much of our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual vibrancy. Yet we are, in truth, beings of light—pure energy inhabiting physical bodies, striving for enlightenment while living earthly lives. Our true selves exist whether we acknowledge them or not, often buried under fears and learned behavior. When we recognize our power, our luminosity, and our divinity, we cannot help but live authentic lives of appreciation, potential, fulfillment, and grace.

At birth and throughout your childhood, your thoughts and feelings were more than likely expressions of your true self. Though you may have learned quickly that to speak and act in a certain fashion would win others' approval, you understood innately that you were no ordinary being. There are many ways you can recapture the authenticity you once articulated so freely. Meditation can liberate you from the bonds of those earthly customs that compel you to downplay your uniqueness. Also, communing with nature can remind you of the special role you were meant to play in this lifetime. In order to realize your purpose, you must embrace your true self by letting your light shine forth, no matter the consequences.

Rediscovering who you are apart from your roles and traits takes time and also courage. If, like many, you have denied your authenticity for a long while, you may find it difficult to separate your true identity from the identity you have created to cope with the world around you. Once you do find this authentic self, however, you will be overcome by a wonderful sense of wholeness as you reconcile your spiritual aspect and your physical aspect, as well as your inner- and outer-world personas. As you gradually adjust to this developing unity, your role as a being of light will reveal itself to you, and you will discover that you have a marvelous destiny to fulfill.

I've been enjoying The Daily OM since way back before I moved to Ashland (where it's published). I loved this post today so much that I want to save it here. It's a wonderful experience for me to finally be having regular glimpses of what this piece is pointing to. Ahhhhh....

[For the last year, I've been in a torrid love affair with my iPhone camera and little pocket studio and trying to just keep the lid on it. I've lost the battle... and I'm declaring publicly. Oh well. Next chapter...]

I've started the process of buying a home (found one that I'll need to rennovate) to give me and the iPhoneArtGirl enough space to live AND have a studio inside as well as a place to make a real mess outside - in a shop.) It's time for us to reintegrate - making social art in businesses and organizations and 3D art-making.

Over the last month, I've been having new conversations with galleries and assembling things so I can share my excitement about iPhone camera art and digital printmaking - both exhibiting again and teaching others what I've been discovering over the last year.

In the last 72 hours I've found a ton of new friends - both old photographer friends and new iphoneography enthusiasts and I can hardly contain myself.

This morning, I just stole this image from +Sion Fullana 's Flickr stream because I just discovered his work and he was there on Wall Street in October and I wasn't. Sion is a serious iPhoneographer whose work inspires me and I hope he'll forgive me for reposting an image he's got locked down with a copyright on Flickr. If not, I'll take it away...

I love this image because I can see it at the bridge between the social/poltical change we're stepping into - the creative re-do of our social compact - and the fight I'm in on the inside, coming out in direct creative self-expression one more time.

It was always I who was the enemy of my creative self-expression, not the galleries, the patrons, the editors, or the critics. It was I who sold my soul to the corporatocracy for a paycheck, hoping it would help me take better care of myself and my son as a single mother.

It just didn't work. Not for Aaron and not for me. But man, I learned a lot!

It's taken 15 years to find my way through the jungle in my own mind... and quit blaming anyone or anything else when I'm just believing some innocent thought. (Now thanking Byron Katie every day of my life for The Work.)

Soon, I'll be jumping into the photography streams on G+ and elsewhere as a participant, not just a lurker.

If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without holding back, then you suffer. Every moment is the most important moment of your life. No future time is better than now to let down your guard and love.

~David Deida

Noticing this morning - in the soupy grey fog - that there's no place better than right where we find ourselves to go on and have the adventure we long for.

Guess that means I don't have to climb in my car, drive up to Medford, shove my way through crowds and buy something else before I can have a great holiday season.

Seriously...

There are two kinds of freedom in the world: the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounce possessions.

~Anais Nin

You want to know
what these words
are like?
I am the rose bush of
Certainty's rose garden:
My words the fragrances
of its roses.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi