Goodness52

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth." It was impossible not to listen when Muhammad Ali spoke. So I heeded his wise words about volunteering during a week spent in service to others. I'm going to start by telling you about a company called Benevity . Besides being my employer for the past 4 years, it's also my constant source of inspiration. We're in the business of developing "goodness software," which allows people to make donations to the charities of their choice through their employer. They can also volunteer their time and get rewarded. In our case, we earn donation currency valued at $20 per hour for our volunteer work, which we can then use to donate to any charity we want. It's pretty much the ultimate win-win. Putting in the occasional volunteer shift is fairly easy. A lot of people do. In fact, more than 4 in 10 Canadians volunteer for a charity at least once a year. I'm guessing there aren'...

"I've got one word for you, Benjamin: plastics." Even way back in 1967, when Mr. Maguire pulled Benjamin Braddock aside and shared his famous wisdom in The Graduate, plastics already had a bad rap. It was codespeak for easy, lazy access to wealth - and also to the kind of people Dustin Hoffman's character was trying desperately to avoid. Fast forward 52 years, and plastic is now Public Enemy #1. We shoulda seen it coming. We shoulda known it would overwhelm our landfills, clog our oceans and strangle baby dolphins. Scientists now say that, within 5 years, there could be 1 ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish in the ocean. We all share the collective guilt of that, and I am no better than the next guy. So here we are, in a world filled to bursting with this lousy stuff. But just trying doing without it. Try going a full week with not a scrap of it. I did! Here in Victoria, we tried to ban single-use plastic shopping bags, but that attempt failed in court...

"If God had meant us to do yoga, he would have put our heads behind our knees." I can see why Rod Stewart is down on yoga. In his rock 'n' roll autobiography, he talks about trying it once and falling into the fireplace. So I took that as a fair warning during my week of karmic exercise and stayed well away from Rod Stewart. Despite what you may have heard or imagined, I am not flexible. I am almost anti-flexible, if that's possible. The few times I've tried yoga, my body shouted out with pain as I tried to hold one pose after another. This from a guy who regularly tortures himself with endurance running and considers himself a bit of a fitness nut. So I knew this would not be easy, and it wasn't. Still, I soldiered on day after day, using a handy website to walk me through the various poses for beginners. I began by learning that yoga is not stretching . That was an insight all on its own. I tried to focus on the weird stuff I'd heard yoga i...

"The car has become an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad and incomplete in the urban compound." Not only is Marshall McLuhan probably the smartest person ever to come out of Edmonton (maybe a low bar since I'm also in that group) he also had a lot to say about our modern way of life and what it's doing to us. Enter the not-so-humble automobile, which we ooh and ahh over like a newborn baby. We simply can't imagine a life without our four-wheeled friend. So, how about a week then? What would it be like to go seven days without getting in our adorable little VW hatch? This experiment would have been a lot easier when I was on vacation, cycling down the California coast . So I intentionally waited for a week when I thought I might "need" the car. It also turned out to be a week of fairly constant rain here in Victoria, which made it that much more challenging. Besides our buddy McLuhan, much has been written about how perso...

"I went to the bank and asked to borrow a cup of money. They asked what for and I said I wanted to buy some sugar." Doesn't Steven Wright just crack you up? In his super-dry jokes, there's always a hint of some truth lying underneath. Like the thing about sugar. I think there's a subtle comment in there about our maniacal addiction to the sweet stuff. This week, I decided to forego all processed sugar. Every time I was offered something sugary and lovely, I politely declined. Turns out that was a LOT of saying no. You may have heard the news that sugar is as addictive as cocaine. While the debate rages on about that one, there's enough to suggest that sugar is plenty bad even if you're not a complete junkie for that sweet white powder. Besides the fact that sugar is empty calories, we know all too well about the potential of weight gain and even Type 2 diabetes, which is now at an all-time high in our world. Throw in a little tooth decay and hea...

"When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships." Few people have had more to say about popular culture, either in words or in images, than Andy Warhol. He understood the impact of moving pictures piped into our living rooms, both on our own psyches and in our connections to other people. And despite reports of its demise, TV is still alive and kicking with binge-watching addicts everywhere. I am definitely one of them. So, what would it be like to simply click the Off Button on the remote and avoid TV for a whole week? Sounds simple enough, but it ain't! Since I also have a smartphone – and access to YouTube on my laptop – I decided to watch no video of any sort for those seven days. So, with nothing to "rot my brain" as my mother and countless psychologists had warned since I was 12, I set out to plant a fertile garden of goodness in my cranium. On Day One, Val decided it was time to start watching B...

"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed; the ballot is consent. Why should woman be governed without her consent?" The words of Susan B. Anthony inspired a generation of women to join the struggle over the vote. More than 130 years later, they still resonate and still have the power to prompt action. So imagine my delight when I discovered an opportunity through the Library of Congress website that allows everyday folks like me to transcribe the writings of that legendary suffragette. It was a fun week of diving into her speeches, her letters and even her shopping lists. This is not the first time the Library of Congress has reached out to the general public to help transcribe, edit, and tag its holdings. Previous projects have done the same for Abraham Lincoln's writings, Clara Barton's diaries and even memoirs of Civil War veterans. This one struck a chord with me, though, having been schooled by my grandmother at an early age...