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Frances' Blog

Frances' Blog

May 9, 2013
Break the Ban: Tell a Solutions Story Today!
"If it bleeds, it leads"... ever hear that maxim of journalism? If you want readers, go with the scary, gruesome story -- that's what gets hearts pumping and grabs attention. Yeah, but what grabs our attention can also scare the heck out of us and shut us down. Scary news might "sell," but we can...
April 30, 2013
After Boston, Eyes-Wide Open Hope?
This is the fifth of a five-part, weekly series celebrating Earth Day featured on Huffington Post How do we know the difference between head-in-the-sand hope and eyes-wide-open hope? One is a killer; the other, a life-giver. First, it helps to ask, what is hope? Some of my Buddhist buddies pooh-...
April 24, 2013
Mind Your Metaphors: Words Have Power
This is the fourth of a five-part, weekly series celebrating Earth Day featured on Huffington Post. "We've hit the limits of a finite planet!" How many times have I heard this dire warning and felt myself banging against a wall -- ouch! Or, I've read that endless growth is killing our planet, and...
April 22, 2013
On Earth Day: Speaking to Our Nature
This is the third of a five-part, weekly series celebrating Earth Day featured on Huffington Post. Earth Day is really People Day, isn't it? The fate of Earth is now in human hands. And, recognizing this truth, some have named our era the Anthropocene. So it's high time that we get a grip on what...
April 9, 2013
Commons Care: How Wrong Was Garrett Hardin?!
This is the second of a five-part, weekly series celebrating Earth Day featured on Huffington Post. Honduras watershed management, Photo by EcoLogic The biggest question facing our planet might be this one: How do we protect, not what we own individually, but those indivisible goods we inherit,...
April 4, 2013
'Instant Gratification' -- My, How You've Grown!
This is the first of a five-part, weekly series celebrating Earth Day featured on Huffington Post. David Pogue in the New York Times not long ago extolled the wonders of LED lights, but lamented that the all-too-human weakness for "instant gratification" -- killed by LEDs' higher price tag -- will...
March 27, 2013
Fear Kills
We see fear's face everywhere, whether in a Congress debating assault weapons or in schools introducing lock-down drills. And for most species fear is, of course, key to survival. Sensing danger, a healthy animal experiences instantaneous physical changes that enable it to escape; then, once the...