Common(s) Sense

Garrett Hardin’s famous essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” argued that individual self-interest would always destroy any land or resource collectively held by a community. Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics last year, thinks otherwise. Citing examples from Swiss peasants to African farmers, Ostrom argues that community property often does flourish and people do come together to solve communal problems. Read more in an interview with Ostrom.

Global Oneness Project

Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee discovered the power of “oneness” in jazz music. An accomplished bass player who was performing and teaching jazz by his mid-20s, he recalls with reverence those rare moments when an ensemble melds into something special that transcends the skills of the individual players. For the past five years, Mr. Vaughan-Lee has put that concept of “oneness” into practice on a larger scale: The musician has become a filmmaker. He has traveled the world producing short films that, while honoring diversity, seek to demonstrate the underlying bonds of humanity.

Palestinian Translating an Israeli Book

Six years ago, Elias Khoury’s 20-year-old son, George, was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack. The Khourys are Palestinian, so the murder of George — who was out for a jog and shot from behind by gunmen in a car — produced an apology. Sorry, the killers said, we assumed the jogger was a Jew. Now, in memory of his son, Mr. Khoury did something that shocked many in his community. He paid for the translation into Arabic of the autobiography of Israel’s most prominent author and dove, Amos Oz — A Tale of Love and Darkness.

Meditate Like a Marine

The moments just before deployment can be highly stressful for those in the military, but a new study published in the journal Emotion finds that meditation improved mood and bolstered working memory — the short-term memory used for managing information, controlling emotions, problem solving and complex thought. By just meditating 12 minutes a day, the Marines were able to boost their scores on mood and working memory evaluations.

Dreams of a Mild Mannered Hero

The crowd, straining every muscle to get a brief touch of his robe, was violently thrown back by Indian police as the Dalai Lama passed. It was unlike anything I had experienced before or have since: such extreme fervor of religious devotion for a single man. How, I wondered, could this gentle, mild-mannered monk support such a high level of expectation? “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. How do you deal with it?” I ask. He thinks for a few moments, apparently oblivious to the small riot developing from this brief delay (and much to the aggravation of the Indian police and a wandering cow). “I’m carrying Buddha’s message,” he finally replies. “People have affinity for Buddha, and therefore they have affinity for me.” The humility was characteristically disarming.

CEO Gifts His Company To Employees

Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his name: Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods. Moore, whose mutual loves of healthy eating and old-world technologies spawned an internationally distributed line of products, responded with a gift of his own — the whole company! By unveiling a new Employee Stock Ownership Plan, Moore’s 209 employees now own the company and its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes. “In some ways I had a choice,” Moore said of what he could have done with the company he founded with his wife, Charlee, in 1978. “But in my heart, I didn’t. These people are far too good at their jobs for me to just sell it.”

Solution to Poverty: Women!

Why do microfinance organizations usually focus their assistance on women? And why does everyone benefit when women enter the work force and bring home regular pay checks? While violence against women is one of the greatest and most under-recognized global phenomena, there’s a growing recognition among everyone — from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations — that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. Read on for Saima, Abbas, and Tererai’s tales of empowerment.

Your Brain on Income Inequality

The human brain is a big believer in equality — and a team of scientists from Caltech and Ireland’s Trinity College has become the first to gather the images to prove it. Specifically, the team found that the reward centers in the human brain respond more strongly when a poor person receives a financial reward than when a rich person does. The surprising thing? This activity pattern holds true even if the brain being looked at is in the rich person’s head, rather than the poor person’s. O’Doherty notes: “The fact that these basic brain structures appear to be so readily modulated in response to rewards obtained by others highlights the idea that even the basic reward structures in the human brain are not purely self-oriented.”

48 States in 48 Weeks

Some of us get our best ideas in the shower, but they don’t usually change the course of a year of our lives. Not so for Idaho resident Drew Johnson who “had an epiphany one morning in the shower.” The epiphany? To travel around the country volunteering — one state per week for 48 weeks. Since his journey began in South Dakota, he’s done everything from building houses for Habitat for Humanity to working with hospice caretakers to supporting environmental initiatives. But on his trip, which is supported by gifts from strangers, Drew is also promoting a lifestyle that focuses on “STO” — service to others.

Asking Better Questions

Everyone has a need to connect honestly with others, and a very expedient way to foster improved connections is by asking good questions. Whether you are talking to customers, interviewing job candidates, talking to their bosses, or even questioning staff, we often need to draw people out. And so often, it is not a matter of what you ask, it is how you ask it. John Baldoni suggest that being curious, open-ended, and engaged.

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