This morning, I was enjoying my walk on the Greenbelt trail in Scottsdale, Arizona. This trail is a long one that winds through the city and forks in different directions at times. It consists of a concrete path, with large areas of grass on either side. Scottsdale (which is near Phoenix) is part of the desert. That means all this grass has been artificially implanted here, along with an underground sprinkling system to sustain it.
As I was walking, I noticed there were a number of large puddles on the concrete. I realized these puddles were not due to rain, but rather the sprinklers. I became dismayed by the fact that so much water is being wasted, not just on the path, but on the implanted grass. I admit that the grass looks appealing and feels good to walk on with bare feet. However, we need to also consider the negative ramifications of our actions. Water is a valuable resource that should not be wasted.
The other night I watched an amazing YouTube video titled Home. The scenery and narrative were compelling. The objective of the video was to protect our planet, to understand how much damage we humans have caused. Watching the movie reminded me of Al Gore's work on global warming. His movie, The Inconvenient Truth, was also compelling. Even great movies, such as Avatar, The Bee Movie and The Last Unicorn convey similar ideas. Will we finally start listening to these messages and take appropriate action?
After I contemplated the movies further, I remembered some thoughts that Eli Goldratt shared in his great book, The Choice, explaining his philosophy of life. He pointed out that Newton stated that nature is exceedingly simple and harmonious with itself. Eli used lessons and methods from the hard sciences to apply to developing his approach to teach the world to think (his goal in life).
My conclusion is that we need to take actions to not only protect all life on Earth (plants, animals, ...), but more importantly to ensure that the harmony is restored and sustained in the future. Nature has much to teach us about life.
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Eli also teaches not to be distracted by chupchiks - trivialities. Is water on the path the core problem or a chupchik?
ReplyDeleteEli taught about not wasting time on chupchiks. When we want to improve, we can first begin by defining the ambitious target or pot of gold we want to achieve. Then, we must make sure that the changes we decide to make address obstacles that are not chupchiks in order to not waste valuable time and other resources.
ReplyDeletePart of our (Illuminutopia’s) goal is to light the way to utopia for society in general. As a result, our efforts address such issues as nature, animals, groups of people and energy, just to name a few. Addressing the topic of water is important for improving society. This topic is not necessarily related to a core problem (conflict) being addressed though. The core problem is identified based on the system being evaluated for improvement. For example, the system could be a department in an organization or the entire organization.