Seeds of Peace Summer Program

We just got an email from SuperForester Blair, who works with an amazing summer camp, Seeds of Peace.

"Superforest,

I love reading your blog, and I thought that you might find a summer program that i did in 2007 interesting. It's an international camp in Maine that has teenagers from the U.S., Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, India, and Pakistan. We were placed in bunks, table groups, and dialogue groups that blended people from different sides of a conflict (either the Middle East of India and Pakistan). We had dialogue sessions for two hours almost every day and then played sports and did team building workshops. I found it to be an incredible experience, and it could certainly prove to help creating real peace in the Middle East. Applications for it are due sometime in January, and it is really only for teenagers, but it would be great to get the word out as the organization could use any contributions to the cause.

http://www.seedsofpeace.org/

Thanks,

Blair Hunt"

Sweet! Camp plus conflict resolution.
Special thanks to Blair for the intel.

Peter Tosh - "Equal Rights"

great song, greater message.

Love.

SuperForester Jon Presents: Thich Nhat Hanh - "The World We Have"

Good Morning SuperForesters!

Just got an email from the unstoppable Peace machine that is SuperForester Jon, who highly recommends Thich Nhat Hanh's new book - "The World We Have - A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology"

Take it, Jon.

"Jackson, take a look at this article when you have a chance. I read the book when it came out and really wanted to write something about it for Superforest. I haven't had the chance, but here's a great excerpt by Thay himself. In particular, I urge you to look at the Fifth Mindfulness Training.

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family and my society by practising mindful eating, drinking and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being and joy in my body, in my consciousness and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programmes, magazines, books, films and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger and confusion in myself and in society by practising a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society."

Thay says, "The fifth mindfulness training is the way out of the difficult situation our world is in."

I urge urge urge all Superforesters to read this book.

Enjoy!

Jon

Great! Thanks Jon.
Here's "The World We Have" on Amazon.

I Met The Walrus

If you like Peace, John Lennon, and animation... and have never seen this video, then you must take 5 minutes out of your life to watch it now.  In honor of John Lennon's birthday, and legacy:

The story: "In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry turned that interview into this animated film."

Happy Birthday, John Lennon!

Happy Birthday, John Lennon.

You wild, Peace-loving, Maverick of positivity!



Love,

Jackson and Team SuperForest

SuperForester Iman Presents: Hello! My Name is Peace.

Howdy all!

Iman here.

First off, I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to SuperForest's collective genius. A blog radiating with such positive vibes is something the world needs to see more of. Thanks to all the readers and writers, you are loved and appreciated. For my first post, I wanted to alert the world of a little peace campaign I started earlier this year. Hopefully, all you beautiful people will feel inspired to help me continue.

“We create peace by being peace. “-Reads the first line of Gabriel Cousen's Sevenfold Peace.
Earlier this year, in a mad craving for something New Age, I went to my local library’s bookstore and picked up a pre-loved copy of Sevenfold Peace. Upon reading the seemingly simple yet oh-so-revolutionary first line, my world view was shifted and my personal peace campaign began.

Originally, I had thought to buy packs of normal stickers and hand them out at my school, complimenting each person I gave them to in an effort to redirect their teenage minds to something a little more positive. However it soon became evident to me that a sticker could go so much farther in augmenting someone’s life. A simple sticker could be a message of peace. A simple sticker could be the symbol of my revolution.

And so it began, armed with little more than a few sharpies and a pack of “Hello My Name Is” stickers, I set about on my “quest”, handing each person a sticker for themselves and a few extra for friends instructing them to explain to their friends that “We create peace by being peace”. Before I knew it, kids I didn’t even know were wearing my peace stickers and I was fully content knowing that a few pieces of sticky paper with a single word could change the world.
Words are powerful things and the word “Peace” transcends them all. Be the Peace. Be the Change.

So please, help me continue my “Be the Peace” campaign! Go to your local office supply store and pick up a pack of “Hello My Name Is” stickers, let your creative juices flow in the act of making them, and spread the love that this Universe so freely emits.

"S" is for Peace.

War is Over (via NASCAR & Coors Light!)

Wow!

Seems we can all just get along.
It's great to see companies like this shaking off the whole "Red state/Blue state" nonsense.

After all, more Peace = more beer drinkers and NASCAR viewers, and that's a big plus.

Sweet.

A huge SuperForesty "Congratulations!" to NASCAR and Coors Light for promoting Peace.

Love to All,

Team SuperForest

The Inspiring Philosophy of Bill Hicks

Bill Hicks was an American comedian who died of cancer at the far-too-young age of 33.

His work is ribald, profane, and thought-provoking like all get out, and if you've never heard of Bill Hicks, we strongly recommend checking out some of his stuff on the ol' Truth Box.

I was watching a Bill Hicks DVD and something he said really stuck with me.

What he said was this:

"I had a vision of a way we could have no enemies ever again, if you're interested in hearing this. Anybody interested in hearing this? It's kind of an interesting theory, and all we have to do is make one decisive act and we can rid the world of all our enemies at once.

Here's what we do:

You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense every year? Trillions of dollars.

Instead, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded... Not one... We could as one race explore outer space together in peace, forever."

Dang, kitten. That's out of sight.
Those words sum up fairly well what SuperForest is all about. Enthusiasm and prosperity allowing we humans access to the stars. And by extension access to greater knowledge.

Extended Peace will allow us as a race to spread our wonderful consciousness throughout many worlds, if only we can settle our differences and quit blowing one another up.

This is a goal we believe can be achieved in our lifetimes.

Love to all, and especially to the late, great Bill Hicks, for his foresight and the depth of his love for his species.

-Jackson

"B" is for Peace!

The whole alphabet, one letter at a time, out of order.

What do you like better: "Peace Alphabet", or "The A-to-Z's of Peace."

I leave it up to you.

Love,

Jack

Roger Cohen: Why Can't Old Media Handle Good News?

Just found an Op-Ed piece in the Times about traditional media's inability or unwillingness to cover good news.

This is a very interesting article for us here at SuperForest, because if you read this site regularly, you know that all we're about is good news.

Here's a taste:

Roger Cohen

"I got an e-mail the other day from a friend at the New America Foundation, a Washington public policy institute, inviting me to participate in a panel on “whether the media can handle good news — whether it’s on Iraq” or whatever.

I accepted, although there’s not much to discuss: the news media are lousy at good news (a virtual oxymoron).

In my lifetime, conditions have grown immeasurably better, freer and more prosperous for a majority of humanity, yet hand-wringing about the miserable remains the reflex mode for most coverage of planet earth."

We totally agree! From where we're looking from, things are getting better all the time. Calamity and strife make for "more exciting" cover stories, but there are a lot of stories that go unnoticed and ignored because they are simply too positive.

Here's the full article.

Like Peace, news need re-branding.

That's what we're working on.

Love to All,

(and take a nice deep breath.)


Team SuperForest

"A" is for Peace

Peace branding is so much fun!
For now I'm giving up on the idea of creating one single, solitary image for Peace. Now I'm thinking the new way might be to create thousands. I might do the whole alphabet!

That's the thing. Peace is complex. War is quite easy. Pick up a rock, throw it, you're at war.

Peace requires skill and diplomacy, as well as compassion. So why not try to create a multitude of images that signify the many facets of what makes Peace so sexy?

That's what I'm thinking.

War may have the guns and the money, but Peace has the tools and the talent. Plus, Peace gets to laugh and fall in love. War can't beat that.

-Jackson

Peace is Sweet.

Today will be spent thinking about Peace, and how best to advertise that wonderful noun.

Love to all,

Team SuperForest

Peace Accessories

Hello All,

Jackson here.
I was just sitting, watching "Imagine" and I had a thought:

War and Peace are both products.
The reason that War is always more popular than Peace is that War has better merchandise, cooler accessories.
Peace has no chance until it gets better accessories.

War has guns and tanks and jets and aircraft carriers.

What does Peace have?

Then I thought: Prosperity.

The problem with prosperity, where people are living happily, free from violence and oppression, is that it's very hard to icon-ify. You put a gun on a shirt and everybody gets it.

Besides the peace symbol, what does Peace have going for it, visually?

I put it to you...

What are Peace's Accessories visualized?

How do we icon-ify Peace?

It's tough, truly. War has a lot going for it. But Peace is smarter in the long run.

So we work for Peace.

Lets put our heads together on this one. How do we symbolize prosperity and goodness? How do we symbolize sustainability so that it has the same impact graphically as an AK-47?

What are the objects that to us represent this brave new age we're just beginning?

The solar array? A wind turbine? The sun? WALL-E?

These all seem way to soft.

This is a very difficult exercise.

Maybe if anyone out there is a graphic designer, or knows one, or is an enthusiastic amateur willing to take a stab (bad choice of words!) at it. Why not email this on to one of those people?

Yay!


Love to All,

Jackson

Jill Bolte Taylor @ TED

Good Morning All!

This is a truly extraordinary Ted Talk.
Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuro-anatomist who had the good fortune to have a stroke, one that she could study from the inside out.

Supermen. Superwomen.

Humanity seems to be waiting for a Superman.

A shining God/King to alight on Earth from the heavens and solve our collective problems. Save the Rainforests, save the Polar Bears, save the Imperiled, the Downtrodden, the Hopeless.

Who can defeat Genocide? Who can stop Terror?

Superman could.

But Superman ain't real.

The good news: SuperMEN is real. SuperWOMEN is real. (I will just use the masculine form from here on so as not to be tedious.)
There is no one single entity that will be able to address the myriad of issues we face. No flawless Immortal to put fear and suffering back in its box.

No, there is not one. There are hundreds of thousands.

I speak of the private citizen, working together with other private citizens to bring about equity and balance.

I'm talking about the spirit of ALTRUISM.

Altruism: Noun. "The belief in or practice of disinterested or selfless concern for the well-being of others."

Everywhere you look, there is a Bono, or a Bill and Melinda Gates, or a Bill Clinton, or a Desmond Tutu, or any of the many others who believe in altruism and are hard at work to make sure that others enjoy the same freedoms that they enjoy. Breath clean air like they breath. Be free to criticize their countries leaders, like they are free to do.

What to call this emerging conciousness? The New Way? Neo-Optimism? Pragmatism Plus?

Whatever you call it, it is hard at work, and it is winning adherents.

The new way is not to fight. The new way is to relentlessly support.

We are the Superman. We together are the great shining God.

Together we can move mountains and conquer death. Alone we can only continue to struggle.

Love to all,

Jackson