Guns from classic movie scenes, reimagined as thumbs up/s.
- Casey Caplowe in Gun Control, Living and The Internet
As the header on the Thumbs and Ammo blog says, Real tough guys don’t need guns, they just need a positive, can-do attitude.
Citizenship Building Block #10: Take an Alternate Route
- Joshua Neuman wrote in Living and Cities
Even though Robert Frost was writing in 1920, he might have been a contemporary urbanist when he suggested that taking the road less traveled can sometimes make all the difference. This week, ditch the car, pump up the tires of your bike, hitch a ride with a friend, take an alternative route, try public transit, or, dare I say, walk! Opt for the commute-not-taken and see if you can design better ways to get from here to there. You don’t need to be Robert Frost, to create poetry in motion.
Building Block #9: Become a Member of a Culture Institution
- Joshua Neuman wrote in Creativity, Living and Culture
You walk into a contemporary art museum and spot two doting parents hovering above a child in a stroller parked right smack dab in front of a sprawling Jackson Pollack canvas. “Look at the silly painting!” says the daddy. “Look, at all the pretty colors!” extols the mother. The kid’s eyes wander off to the adjacent, bright red fire extinguisher. The couple sees in the action painting an opportunity to foster their child’s appreciation of culture—and they’re right in doing so. All of us need help integrating a steady diet of art and culture into our daily lives. That’s why obtaining a membership to a cultural institution is such a good thing. Unlike the mug and/or tote bag they might send you as a token of your commitment, you cannot put a price on supporting culture and the arts—especially in an era of austerity measures. So, don’t just stand there pointing at action painting, this week take action by becoming a member of a local museum or cultural institution.
Are stress and time-crunched days resulting in the more-than-occasional cold pizza breakfast or bowl of cereal dinner? Perhaps it’s time to freshen up your diet. In the GOOD Guide to Healthy Living & Eating, we outline all kinds of healthy and delicious ways to make sure you’ll get more nourishing meals in your life.
Because half the battle is just getting the good stuff on your plate, learn how to find (and afford) the most delectable fruits and veggies at the farmers’ market, keep them fresher for longer, and then get ideas for stretching one tasty, nutrient-packed ingredient into five different dishes. And, because most of us are parked on our caboose in front of a computer for hours a day, we even have the stretches and snacks that will allow you to extend your newly found healthy habits right on into your office.
- Healthy Recipes: One Ingredient, Five Ways
- 11 Fresh Ideas for Storing Produce
- How to Shop at the Farmers’ Market
- Easy Ways to Stay Healthy at Work
Illustrations by Matt Chase
WATCH: Strangers Philosophise in a Ball Pit
- Pete® Karinen wrote in Living, Creativity and Soul Pancake
The fine folks over at Soul Pancake find yet another unique way of spreading joy, connecting people, and tackling life’s big questions.
Welcome to the Global Citizenship Project
- Mary Slosson wrote in Technology, Living and Poverty
Welcome to the brand-new GOOD Global Citizenship project, a space where people who give a damn connect around issues of global health, poverty, and development.
Whether we live in Los Angeles or Lagos, Seattle or São Paulo, we are all part of the movement to creatively engage with each other and our surroundings to improve and strengthen our communities and our world.
Our mission is to uproot the idea that knowledge flows from global North to South, and that poor equals helpless and needy. We are more alike than the way we talk about power and poverty implies.
That’s where you come in.
We are looking for a truly global community of contributors from all walks of life. We encourage anyone to contribute to this conversation by posting relevant things you’re discovering online and simply tagging them with “global citizenship.” But we’re also looking for a select group of experts to contribute original thoughts, reporting, and help us identify key stories going on in your area. If you want to get involved with this growing Global Citizen Network let us know by applying here.
We hope you can join us in the celebration, and we’ll be in touch soon with exciting new ways of working together and bringing more GOOD to life.
Max Schorr posted in Living, Design and Home
Graham Hill’s personal account of learning to live with less and finding more happiness.
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We live in a world of surfeit stuff, of big-box stores and 24-hour online shopping opportunities. Members of every socioeconomic bracket can and do deluge themselves with products.
There isn’t any indication that any of these things makes anyone any happier; in fact it seems the reverse may be true.
For me, it took 15 years, a great love and a lot of travel to get rid of all the inessential things I had collected and live a bigger, better, richer life with less.
Illustration by Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch for nytimes.com
Celebrate International Women’s Day With the Ladies of Skateistan
- Skateistan wrote in Living, Creativity and Skateboarding
On March 8 Skateistan will join the global community in celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD), with events at Skateistan’s project sites in Afghanistan and Cambodia. Worldwide, Women’s Day is a celebration of respect, appreciation, and love for women and their achievements.
This week leading up to IWD, Skateistan has been running a series of small workshops at our facilities so each class can learn what IWD is all about. Although the IWD events will be exclusively for our female staff and students, these workshops will include the male students in Kabul and boy’s groups from our partner NGOs Friends International, Tiny Toones and PSE in Phnom Penh.
The event will provide the girls and women of Skateistan a chance to meet other women involved in Skateistan around the world, both at their local project site and through a live video interaction. The video will make it possible to connect with the women of Skateistan internationally—sharing greetings and smiles across borders.
Citizenship Building Block #8: Be an (Un)Simple Pilgrim
- Joshua Neuman wrote in Living, Spirituality and Citizenship
Last Thursday not only marked the end of Benedict XVI’s papacy, but also ushered in the somewhat conspicuous beginning of his journey as a “simple pilgrim.” Benedict, the first pope to resign in 600 years, ended his tearful farewell by pledging, “I am simply a pilgrim beginning the last leg of his pilgrimage on this Earth.” Benedict’s farewell address and his passage from pontiff to pilgrim, points to the enduring value of the religious sojourn. It’s unlikely that Benedict has too many Zen chapels, Muslim shrines or Hasidic shtebels on his itinerary, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t! Sojourning to an unfamiliar religious site can be inspiring, confusing, and educational. Gaining a perspective on what someone else calls “holy” can also make you a better global citizen. So visit one otherwise unfamiliar religious site this week.
Illustration by Jessica De Jesus
‘What Good Shall I Do This Day?’ Asked Benjamin Franklin Every Single Morning
- Yasha Wallin wrote in Living, Creativity and Lifestyle
We all have different ways of working. Some make lists of their day ahead, others charge right in and see where that takes them. Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the lighting rod and the odometer to name a couple, not to mention his work as a author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat, was a list man. How he managed to get everything done in 24 hours still seems like a miracle, but clues to his productivity lie in looking at his daily schedule.
Socially Conscious Style Is on the Rise
- Juana Colon posted in Design, Living and Fashion
The good news and bad news is that socially conscious fashion is no longer news. It’s undeniably wonderful that so many designers are paying closer attention to how, where, and by whom things are made.
Host a Dinner Party with More Guests Than Ingredients
- Zachary Slobig wrote in Food and Living
We live in complicated times. Let’s make supper simpler. This month cook a Friday night dinner where the meal contains fewer ingredients than names on your guest list. We’re calling it “Fewer Fridays.” Even better, make this a one-pot meal with thoughtfully sourced, real food—we’re not telling you it has to be local and organic, but you get the picture. Then, give us the picture. Send us your recipe and photos to community@goodinc.com and you might make it into GOOD’s Fewer Fridays cookbook.
Travel Like You Give a Damn: Paying a Conscious Visit to Fiji
- Kelsey Barrett wrote in Environment, Living and Citizenship
Over the last 30 years industrial farming practices have stripped and compromised the fertility of their infamous, nutrient-dense soil, partially through the overuse of Agent Orange and other pesticides employed to exterminate jungle-sized weeds. As farmers’ soil fertility declined, they have been known to slash and burn sections of forest to access more land. Fortunately, however, there’s still a modest group of conscious individuals and small-scale gardeners who honor old world concepts of keeping their virgin or ‘sa solia na kalou’ (god-given) forests intact. Fueled by these people and the land’s deterioration I began crafting a framework for the retreat.
Illustration by YesFantastic
Why Travel Makes Us Better Designers (and Chefs and Scientists)
- Shaun Ellis wrote in Design, Living and Travel
Oddly enough, there is an intense beauty in these moments of travel. Or maybe more to the point: Part of what makes travel special is that it can yield so many moments that are beautiful almost purely because of their intensity. Here it’s a will-we-or-won’t-we-make-it-across moment. Another day it’s an I’m-not-sure-if-I-can-survive-this-bus-ride moment. Or perhaps a seasick-ferry-ride-to-somewhere moment. Or an unscheduled-pit-stop-in-nowhere moment. Threshold moments, you might say.
This post is part of the GOOD community’s 50 Building Blocks of Citizenship. This week: Get a Passport. Follow along, join the discussion, and share your experience at #goodcitizen.
Clever 8-Bit Video Game Style Promo for Blood Donation
- Eli Kaufman wrote in Health, Living and Video
A retro video game-era campaign raises awareness about just how little plasma it takes to make a difference.
This post is part of the GOOD community’s 50 Building Blocks of Citizenship. This week: Give Blood. Follow along, join the discussion, and share your experience at #goodcitizen.
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