Podbean Podcast Site Category :   Society & Culture   Tags :                             
1
August
2008

Interview with Scott Parsons

ScottParsons.jpg

At an old-fashioned soda-pop style lunch counter in Bowman, North Dakota, I met Scott Parsons. He was eating pie in black, white and pink spandex with a smattering of corporate logos across his chest. After he had learned that his friend’s daughter Mikyla had been diagnosed with Rett syndrome, Scott quit his job as Western VP of Sales with Georgia Pacific to ride his bicycle from San Francisco to Boston to help raise money to fund medical research for Rett Syndrome.

Our conversation covers:

• Scott’s motivations to ride • Information on Rett syndrome and the hope of a cure • Highlights of the great American landscape • Impressions of the American people • The goals for the ride and beyond

Learn more about Scott, his trip, and the cause for which he’s riding at Mikyla-Cure.org

Enjoy the show and please add your comments! These interviews are presented in audio format only–sorry no transcripts at this time! You may download the mp3 file, which will play in iTunes, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and other media players or listen to it right here by double clicking on the purple media player below. (The interview is about 25 minutes.)

Listen at your convenience! Use this link for download, not the one below the player. Download this episode (right click and save)

Instructions for Windows Right click on the link that says “Download this episode (right click and save)”. Click on “Save Target as”. The file will start downloading. A window will pop up and the name of the file will be filled in, as well as the file format. Just choose to save it to your desktop in the left bar.Then you will have an mp3 file sitting on your desktop. Right click on that and choose Open with: iTunes (or your chosen player). Or, alternatively, open iTunes and just drag the mp3 into iTunes.

Instructions for Mac Control click or right click on the link that says “Download this episode (right click and save)”. Either “Open with iTunes” to listen now or “Download link file as” and save to your desktop. Open with iTunes later or just drag the file into iTunes and play it whenever you like.

DakotaRoad.jpg

Listen Now:


icon for podbean  Standard Podcasts [26:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (59)

jari interviews, future, human potential, culture, financial reward, creativity, meaning, body, environment, values, empathy, heroic, enthusiasm, money, solitude, solidarity, vision, freedom, Native American, America, fitness 1 Comment » | *****(0 ratings)  | Email it

      digg:Interview with Scott Parsons      newsvine:Interview with Scott Parsons      del.icio.us:Interview with Scott Parsons      Y!:Interview with Scott Parsons      reddit:Interview with Scott Parsons      furl:Interview with Scott Parsons

28
March
2008

Are We In a Crisis of Faith?

j0436547.jpg

The celebrated psychiatrist and author, Alexander Lowen, says that “the loss of faith is the key problem of modern man.” Are we in a crisis of faith? If we are, what are we supposed to do about it?

The astonishing scientific discoveries of the late 19th and 20th centuries have repeatedly shattered the ideological and theological constructs that guided human life for centuries. There’s no solid world out there anymore, no objective world; we now know the world only as we engage it; and so, as a people, we are unsure of ourselves and cynical about trusting or accurately evaluating anything.

In this sense, faith is an absolutely essential part of the life of an artist, a creative person, if his or her work is to successfully address the needs of our culture. But what kind of faith are we talking about here?

Notice the network of relationships among the words etymologically related to faith (from the Latin fides): fidelity, fealty, fiancé, fiduciary, confidant, confidence, defiant, diffidence, infidel, infidelity, perfidy, Fido.

A consideration of these words reveals that the issue of faith is one of trust; and trust is essentially tied to truth. You will trust an idea, a mode of being, an activity, a person, or life itself, if you trust its underlying reality and believe it to be true.

So, what is true for you? And how do you know it to be true?

If we are upset, bored, depressed or self-destructive, it is perhaps because we don’t know where to begin with ourselves, what to do. You can discover what to do by knowing what is sacred to you. So, the first move is to allow for more enthusiasm in our lives (from the Greek “en theus,” infused by God). Through genuine enthusiasm we find ourselves reeentering a state of grace, and of faith. In that state we don’t have to question what and who is sacred to us.

Now is the time to place greater trust in the truth of your own enthusiasm and to follow it with greater faith. You must keep faith with yourself now, to do what you feel enthusiastic about: what you set out to do in those finest hours when you know the energy in your mind and body is right. Have faith in the creative process and in the life force that pulses in you. Nurture it and draw upon it continuously.

jari psychology, maturity, culture, wisdom, creativity, meaning, self-destructive, values, enthusiasm Comments (0) » | *****(2 ratings)  | Email it

      digg:Are We In a Crisis of Faith?       newsvine:Are We In a Crisis of Faith?       del.icio.us:Are We In a Crisis of Faith?       Y!:Are We In a Crisis of Faith?       reddit:Are We In a Crisis of Faith?       furl:Are We In a Crisis of Faith?