gm-reflection

  “They say I’m the poorest president. No, I’m not. Poor are those who want more... because they’re in an endless race.” — José Mujica In my previous post, I looked into the “black mirror”: power almost always wins. The revolution becomes the regime. The wheel spins back to hierarchy.  But what if… not everyone played that game? What if—amidst the palace walls and propaganda machines—there were a few who remembered what power was meant to be? A burden, a service, a duty! A good man recently passed away. His life gave me hope. His example inspired me to look for many others—well-known and lesser-known—who held power but chose to be servants of the people. We’re talking about José Mujica , President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. He walked into the office as a poor man. He walked away a poor man. Mujica lived on a small farm, drove a beat-up VW Beetle, and donated most of his salary. He governed with quiet resolve—legalizing marijuana, investing in the poor—not from a palace, bu...

  Blog 4 of the “Living in the Thoughtsphere” series (This post follows Blog 3: Quietly Showing Up , where I reflected on small gestures and quiet participation in a time of collapse.) There’s a weird kind of dissonance in scrolling through Amazon while thinking about climate collapse. You know too much. You’ve read the reports. You’ve seen the images. And yet, you’re clicking through pages of things you don’t need. A new flashlight. A better phone stand. Some product you never thought about until just now. And then, without thinking much, you buy it. I’ve done this. Not once or twice — enough that I’ve stopped keeping track. It usually happens when I’m tired, or frustrated, or vaguely uncomfortable in some way I can’t name. The purchase is a pressure valve. It doesn’t solve anything. It just gives me something to do with the discomfort. At one point, I convinced myself I was being responsible. I switched to eco-friendly versions of things. I bought reusable bags, compostabl...