Saturday Links for the Week – December 22, 2007

If you want to love me…this is how: An astonishing, raw, articulate piece of writing by my friend Michelle on what we want from love. I quoted a few weeks back from the movie The Last Kiss: “Telling someone you love them is not enough. Loving someone only really matters to you. It is what you do for those you love that matters.” Michelle tells us what to do, to matter.

Where to get locally grown foods: My friend Paul Sawtell pointed out this excellent directory of local farms and food markets across North America. If you’re interested in the 100-mile diet, this is an excellent place to start.

Show up like magic: Jen Lemen writes: “There are moments when you absolutely need someone to show up like magic, not because you need something nice, but because you need your world view transformed. You need some hope to be born in you. You need to know in one moment that someone believes in you. You need a kindness midwife to hold the space so you can show up like magic for someone else the next time around.” Increasingly, as I think about what models to build of a better way to live, I fill in the spaces of my time trying to do this. It’s the least I can do.

Help make an abandoned dog’s or cat’s life better: You don’t have to rescue or adopt every stray yourself. Karen Shanley relays 100 other ways you can help.

More food –> more people: A rather leaden presentation of a very important idea, first espoused (I think) by Daniel Quinn: Human population growth is directly proportional to the increase in human food production. As long as we keep producing more food, and contrary to the ‘population projections’ of the experts, human population will continue to soar. Population will never level off until we run out of the oil that is now essential to food production in our massively depleted and exhausted soils. Thanks to Lugon for the link.

Iranian cleric calls for death of women who don’t wear headscarves, along with the death of their husbands and fathers: A religious extremist in Toronto recently murdered his daughter for not wearing a headscarf. I guess killing women is now an act of self-preservation. The world has gone insane.

Thought for the Week: A Lokoffian idea, author unknown, cited by Dale Asberry: