For

I was driving south on I-95 on my daily commute, pondering the imponderables, when I couldn't help but notice a car in front of me with half a dozen "anti" bumper stickers on it, you know, the ones with a circle and bar through them (started, I believe by the movie Ghostbusters). This driver was against everything from abortion to school vouchers. Then I began to notice dozens of other cars sporting bumper stickers that were against all types of people, places, issues, things, sports teams, whiners, Fords, etc.


It got me to thinking...


I don't want to waste my energy by being against something, I want to focus on being FOR something. So here's a list I jotted down of things I am for:


(And yes, I am FOR proper grammar and I know that I should not end a sentence in a preposition, but I am trying to make a point here.)

1. Love -- I am for love. All types, mostly unconditional love, but also romantic, platonic, unrequited love, free love, paid love, puppy love, self love -- if it's got love in it, I am for it. On my death bed, I will not say "Gee, if I'd only loved just a little less."


2. Change -- Whether or not I am for it, change happens. Change is natural. Stagnation is tantamount to death, and nature is never for death. Nature is for life. Many of the people closest to me are fearful of change, in whatever form it comes. As adults, we have lost much, so I guess that we equate change with loss. But for everything that I have missed, I have gained something else, and for everything I've gained, I have lost something else. The doors I open and close each day decide the life I live, and sometimes the smallest of decisions can change my life forever. Whenever I worry that changes I am making may impact how my children, family or friends think of me, I am reminded of something Pericles wrote: "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."


3. Self Reliance -- I am SO for self reliance. Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward. Few things are more liberating than, for example, being alone in some God-forsaken shit hole of a place, not speaking the local language, night approaching, low on the local currency, and having to figure out how in the hell you're going to get out of whatever situation you're in at the moment.


4. Knowledge -- I am for knowledge. It cures many ills, lightens dark corners, and warms the soul. Knowledge is pure; it is neither good nor bad. I think perhaps that my love of books is rooted in my love of knowledge.


In my favorite book, The Once and Future King, by T.H. White, the young Arthur (Wart) is sad about something and pours out his sadness to his tutor, Merlin:


"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."


I love that there are such a lot of things to learn, and I am for trying to learn as many of them as possible and for learning "why the world wags and what wags it."

5. Nature -- I am for the Earth, nature, the world, whatever you call it. The natural world is astounding and breathtaking. Just think: in all the millions of years that snow has fallen, no two snowflakes have ever been alike, just as no two people ever have or ever will be the same. The awe inspiring stillness and beauty of sunrise, the humming of insects in the gloaming of a summer's day, the intricacy of a spider's web, the majesty of a mountain, the smell of pine needles, the feeling of sea mist on your face, the hint of snow in the air on a winter's night -- we are presented with all of these wonders every damn day, for free. Nature is a gift, and I am for unwrapping it every day.

When Geronimo was held prisoner in Florida after living six decades in the mountains and deserts of the Southwest, he was asked what he missed most about living free. He replied, "The sound of the wind in the trees." I know exactly what he means.

6. Honesty -- I am for being honest, although I don't always practice it. I quote Larry McMurtry's iconic character Gus in Lonesome Dove, "I'm about half honest." (To which the unrequited love of his life replied "Yeah, and I know which half.")

I've learned that when you lie, you have to remember that lie forever. Tell the truth, and you never have to worry about what you've said. Moreover, I think that this all ties back to love. If you truly love someone, you can't lie to them. That's why I put love at the top of my "for" list. If I just do that -- love -- everything else, like being honest, should fall into place. (I just learned that recently...see point no. 4 above about knowledge...)

7. Service to Others -- I don't know what my destiny will be, but one thing I do know: I will only be really happy if I have sought and found how to serve. I find that I must obey my compulsion to help all life that I am able to assist, and shrink from injuring anything that lives. Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world -- that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me -- is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other life.

8. Music -- Music is what feelings sound like.

9. Laughter -- I am for laughing much and often. But I am most for laughing at myself, and I give myself plenty of ammunition there.

10. Forgiveness -- It takes so much energy to hate, and so little to forgive. I find that when I hold resentment toward another, I am bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way I can dissolve that link and get free. And going back to my "For" point about love, I think that there is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love. To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love.

Many years ago -- it now seems ages ago -- I taught Sunday School. When I think of forgiveness, and when I believe someone has wronged me, I am reminded of a bible passage from one of those long ago Sunday School lessons

Matthew 18:21, 22

Then came Peter to him, and said, "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?"

Jesus saith unto him, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."

Wow. Oh yeah.

Greentech Investing Soars

The latest data for venture capital in green technology investing are in and the numbers all point upward, with the category now attracting more money than software or biotech.
Research company Cleantech Group and media company Greentech Media on Wednesday each released third-quarter data for venture capital in green technologies, showing that government stimulus spending and signs of a recovering economy have helped restore confidence in the sector.

Green tech has been one of the fastest-growing technology sectors over the past few years, but it now outpaces biotech and software in size as well. Data from the Cleantech Group and the PWC MoneyTree Report show green tech at 27 percent of venture capital investing, compared to 24 percent for biotech and 18 percent for software.

Although the numbers from the two reports vary slightly based on research methodology, the trend line is clear: up.