Symbolic Themes - from Malayna Dawn

Economy and Environment Conspire to Change us for the Better

It seems to me that the environment and the economy are conspiring to force us to change...for the better.

An ethnography professor studying the effects of You Tube on society says that people are reaching out for connection and community, but because we’ve all become such individualists, it is increasingly difficult to find.

The environment has been encouraging us to grow our own vegetables, ride our bicycles, use solar power, and recycle. And the economy may be forcing us to do this by sharing expenses and resources by moving in with family members or friends.

Thoughts on Themes of AVATAR

I was fortunate enough to see the film AVATAR with an insightful chick from India, who explained to me at intermission (we have those in Sri Lankan movie theaters) that the word “avatar” still has spiritual meaning to people in India, and therefore when they’re referring to the movie, they might differentiate it by pronouncing it with an American accent!  

 

The definition for them is “The incarnation of a Hindu deity, especially Vishnu, in human or animal form.” She pointed out that Vishnu’s avatar is Krishna and both are blue.  And also that the Na’vi had tails, much like the monkey god, Hanuman. 

 

She also mentioned that the word “Na’vi” sounds like the Hindi word for “new” and she wondered how the Na’vi language was developed, so I found an explanation for her on Wikipedia.

 

The name PANDORA

EcoPsychology - Nature on my Mind

 

I’ve just taken a course in EcoPsychology!  This particular course was called Psychological Elements of Global Citizenship. 

 

I was trying to describe the combination of Ecology and Psychology to a friend at the beginning of the course. He said it sounded like it would be really interesting, if he understood any of what I had said. I told him maybe I’d be better at describing it by the end of the term, so let’s see.

 

I described the course in my final paper this way:

 

… a valuable tool in re-adjusting our worldview to one that is eco-centric. Most of us are well aware of the environmental, social and economic challenges of our day, but many of us do not see the ways in which they are connected. By using our own personal experiences, this course helps re-orient our thinking to see the connections between ourselves, all living things and nature itself. It offers a model for our society based on natural systems that have been successfully sustainable for eons. The term “natural resources” takes on a whole new meaning when we begin to understand how much nature can teach us about surviving and thriving on personal, professional, social and global levels.

 

Did that make any sense to you? 

 

For more info visit www.ecopsych.com .

An Ecological, Spiritual, Fabulous Book - A Year in Green Tea & Tuk Tuks

This book was given to me as a gift by a friend who knows me very well.  (Thanks, Meghana!) It’s the personal and true story of a British guy who decides that Sri Lanka is the place to build his ecological dream. 

I related to this book on so many levels—from the part of me who is an expat and understands the culture clashes to the part of me who sees Sri Lanka as a paradise that must be preserved, to the part of me that loves the connection between spirituality and ecology.  It’s all here!

With chapters like “Lanka or La-La-Land?” about his decision about whether to live in Sri Lanka or Los Angeles (to which I would answer “both!”) and passages like, “I found myself on a spiritual quest. I began to believe that the world was engaged in a transition, shifting our values from competition and greed to cooperation and synthesis, giving birth to a new vision, the ‘divine marriage’ of inner and outer, male and female, reason and intuition, Matter and Spirit,” Rory Spowers continued to strike very personal chords.

The beauty is, he’s done it. He has taken 60 acres in the South of Sri Lanka and dedicated it to organic produce, green tea, natural ecosystems, sustainable living, and marrying the best of nature and innovation.  I can’t wait to visit!  And I love the book, so I’ll be sharing more soon.

Written by Malayna Dawn for Symbolic Themes.com

GOOD flying creatures -- like me & my pilot hubby :)

Because of my recent flights to and across the U.S., I decided to look into carbon offsets.  I wrote an article about them for one of the Garments Without Guilt blogs. Here's the link to the story and here are some highlights:

For those who need more help in reducing their footprint, companies like Carbonfund.org can help. They help to calculate your current carbon footprint and then help you offset it by investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency, reforestation or a combination of the three. They even offer ways to offset the carbon created by shipping. In a global economy where our products are made in one country and shipped to another, it’s an important consideration.

Terrapass.com

and Be Green Now.com are other similar sites that offer a variety of offsets for individuals and businesses.  Be Green Now offers packages for frequent fliers that you can put on your luggage to let others know you’re flying carbon neutral.

Guess what my airline pilot hubby is getting for his birthday? "Look honey! You're carbon neutral!" (I'll get him something fun too, don't worry.)

Speaking of my flyboy, according to a Flight Global magazine blog , airline pilots rank as the sexiest job. Score one for me! I landed me one of them! Of course, I guess I should consider that the source may be biased.

So though I'll certainly get myself one of those frequent flier carbon offsets so I can  fly guilt free (Wheeee!), another Flight Global article said it might be greener to fly sub-orbital. I'll wait for that one, but I'm really waiting for someone to invent that Star Trek technology so I can just say "beam me up!" or over, or some other prepositional phrase. Will they need pilots for that? Maybe I should stick with sub-orbital so my hubby can continue to have a job and he'll get to fly in space! And I will be kept in the manner to which I have become accustomed. ;)