I'm Like Whatever

Feet immersed in the next spa over, a woman who works at a university law school as job liaison talked of recent graduates who cannot successfully interview. With great credentials, good references, the new lawyers don't know how to talk with future employers. They cannot handle face to face business conversation. What to do? Who is supposed to teach these skills? Academics don't have it in the syllabi. If a curriculum is offered, in what school does it belong? Is it required or elective? There's no money to hire interpersonal tutors. Whose job is it anyway? I listen to the young people in my world, and regularly don't understand what's said. I love them, so occasionally I demand clarity. And speed control. I'm like whatever doesn't cut it. How did you feel about that? Did you make your position known? Namecalling on facebook is not the same as communicating. Texting is the new language. Their peers get it, but others in their orbit might not. A mentor will help them at many crossroads on the journey, and I hope it's not a long walk to realization. It's intriquing also that people older than 21 are adopting the distancing use of language and image. Photos are becoming obsolete - avatars are supposed to be representational. Have you noticed photographs cropped oddly? Eyes only, maybe with sunglasses. I drew myself as avatar, because I'm a drawer. I've drawn avatars for friends, too: we are all new to the age of having your stuff all out there. I wonder what else this depersonalizing might mean though? How are we defining ourselves? Am I my cat, my favorite sports team, my grandchildren, my car? Who are we?

Endless "End of the Day"

At the end of the day is overused. Why are we using it so much? 1) It's easy, like um or look. 2) It lends a sense of urgency to the speaker's words. 3) It creates an apocalyptic timeline. 4) It replaces the ubiquitous when all is said and done. It conveys false importance. We need to listen to words, and eliminate the chaff from the kernel. Our words are valuable. What we feel and think that creates the words is the essence of communicating. I hear words. I need to understand your meaning, then I can appreciate fully who you are. Do I understand you well? At the end of the day, appreciating each other - communicating deeply - is what words help us do.

Biodiversity

Yesterday I read the name of this little blue frog I've been unable to identify in Stephanie Mills' Epicurean Simplicity. Gray treefrog - Hyla versicolor. Ms. Mills, this tiny amphibian and I have homes in the Great Lakes bioregion. Stephanie Mills writes, speaks and lives environmental social change.

Today there is a BBC News article, with the results of the third Global Biodiversity Outlook. The article is titled "Nature Loss to Damage Economies." The second line reports ecosystems may become less useful to humanity.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project will quantify the monetary value of services that nature provides for us.

A chart from IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) of extinctions and near-extinctions puts our blue friend's family in the most endangered amphibian category. IUCN's site has three focal points. One claims 2010 the Year of Biodiversity, and while acknowledging that biodiversity is the foundation of life on earth, biodiversity "supports every aspect of human life and progress." Another focus notes that IUCN is working to make economic development more sustainable.

The language we use to describe the troubled marriage of economy and ecology contributes to the union favoring humanity over habitat. "You cannot manage what you do not measure," writes TEEB. Conceptual linguistic scaffolding. We must intuit the intention to save biodiversity, even as language usage reinforces the hierarchy of human domination over nature.

Today and tomorrow, the little blue frog and its descendants will live naturally. I will keep trying.