Imagine a Better World Journal

From the editor of Imagining a Better World Journal-  The model of "Visitor Parks," first tried in Santa Cruz, California has proved so successful, it is spreading to cities all over the country with remarkable effect. Cities large and small are dedicating land where visitors in motor homes or cars with camping gear may park overnight with stays of up to 2 months allowed. Basic garbage collection services and a resident security guard paid with voluntary donation fees make sure the parks remain in a clean and safe condition. A public hot shower complex, with locker space available and even a poste restante outlet for receiving mail is common in most of them.  Homeless service centers are generally within easy commute distance, providing not only service in finding permanent housing for the homeless but mental health and drug rehab services for citizens in need of them and a donation drop off area for clothing, bedding, or camping equipment. These parks have begun to be u...

From the editor's desk: In the past few years we have begun to see remarkable changes wrought by the new governmental philosophy of creating laws and policies based on the indicators of Gross National Happiness, especially now that it has been expanded to include all living beings, not only human ones. The idea was first explored to great effect in the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan , instituted by  His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan  in 1972. The idea was a well received at the time.  " Forty years ago  Robert F. Kennedy delivered a speech  challenging GNP as a measure of progress and growth for a nation. In his speech he stated, “Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neith...

I lean out my window and I am astonished to see how many California Oaks now line my once bare and practical street. There is a squirrel in the one outside my kitchen, two in fact. I see them deep in a lush cave of leaves, grooming themselves and pleased with life. I used to feed them peanuts on my bedroom balcony, assuaging guilt at the loss of wild habitats all around me, but I have not done so for a long time. There is no need, for acorns litter the ground now, and berry bushes and sunflowers crowd the lush grasses in the field across the street, now allowed by city law to go grow freely between the houses. There are more trees all across the state now, almost to the level they were in the California the Spaniards explored 250 years ago. The newspaper says the project has been so successful here and on the east coast, it is to be expanded. The young people are planting them. Hundreds of high schools have signed up to participate, many even making it a condition of graduation. Before...

In a world with so much bad news, I would like to invite us all to imagine what good news might look like, what it might feel like, how it might happen. Do you have ideas to add or share? I invite you to contribute links to this blog in the comments section. If I like them, I will add them to future posts. Meanwhile, sit back and enjoy with me images of a world not yet created, that could be. It is in our hands. The story we tell ourselves is so much of the story we live.