We don’t have anywhere else to go. No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings. It’s this world or nothing. That’s a very powerful perception and, so again we’re messing around the global environment in a very serious, very stupid way. It’s not enough to say that corporations can do whatever they want as long as they make a profit, not if they’re putting at risk people all over the world. They can’t.
I think there’s a certainly a chance of us getting out of this mess, but not by business as usual. Not by the idea that we shouldn’t plan ahead. Not by the idea that anybody can do whatever the hell they want and it doesn’t affect the environment. So, there has to be a new way of looking at the future and that is that we are all humans and that we are the same species on one fragile little planet.
We are all in this together, and we have to work together.
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| — | Carl Sagan (via cultureofresistance) |
Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not you go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
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| — | Bruce Lee (via heartmindspirit) |
Man Lives on cliff and talks down suicide jumpers for last 50 years
Meet the Australian Who’s Saved 160 People from Suicide
Don Ritchie lives across the street from the most famous suicide spot in Australia: A cliff known as “The Gap.” Most people would move, but Ritchie’s stayed for almost 50 years—saving an estimated 160 people from suicide.So what’s his big secret? Ritchie wakes up every morning and looks out the window for “anyone standing alone too close to the precipice.” If he sees someone who looks like they might be contemplating a jump, he walks over and… strikes up a conversation.
He just gives them a warm smile, asks if they’d like to talk and invites them back to his house for tea. Sometimes, they join him.“I’m offering them an alternative, really,” Ritchie says. “I always act in a friendly manner. I smile.”
Ritchie’s house might be the worst real estate ever. One person a week commits suicide at the “the Gap,” the cliff he lives across from. It’s protected only by a small, one-meter fence, despite its legendary reputation as a suicide spot dating back to the 1800s.
But the former life insurance salesman says he doesn’t feel “burdened” by the fact that people are always contemplating jumping to their deaths outside his house. In fact, he and his wife Moya see it as a blessing: “I think, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that we live here and we can help people?’”
Ritchie, who basically sounds like the nicest guy in the entire world, is 84, and has spent much of the last year battling cancer. But, as you might expect for a dude who’s managed to live across from a fucked-up, tragic place, and not become a casualty himself, he’s optimistic: “I imagine somebody else will come along and do what I’ve been doing.” I hope so.
“Although I personally believe that our human nature is fundamentally gentle and compassionate, I feel it is not enough that this is our underlying nature; we must also develop an appreciation and awareness of that fact. And changing how we perceive ourselves, through learning and understanding, can have a very real impact on how we interact with others and how we conduct our daily lives.”
— The Dalai LamaShe’s got the whole dark forest living inside of her.
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| — | Tom Waits on his wife Kathleen (via earlyfrost) |
