The Global Event Trend

Yes, this blog design has changed. I was tired of pink.

I just learned of Live Earth, a music show set to take place over 24 hours in seven locations around the world on July 7, 2007, featuring top artists and sponsored by the people behind An Inconvenient Truth such as Al Gore.

I think the global event trend is picking up speed. That makes sense, given the state of the planet.

I can tell that some people I connect with are not especially impressed by this kind of thing, among them many socially active people. I respect that. A global happening is not everyone's cup of tea. Certainly the "Think globally, act locally" movement has immense value.

Yet some people, myself included, are fascinated by thinking globally and acting globally. When a bunch of us around the planet organize ourselves with a shared intention and express ourselves to that effect, connecting in realtime or near realtime to do it, this rivets me. I feel as though this is why I'm on the planet at this time. And it's practically a cliché now: global connecting is more accessible than ever before.

I remember being a child of five growing up in Wisconsin, imagining I had a friend in China, an exotic place I had never been to. I saw in my mind's eye a little girl wearing what I thought was Chinese clothing, and she was thinking about me at the same time. I felt so connected with her. This was probably inspired by the conviction held among neighborhood kids that China was on the other side of the planet, and if you dug a hole deep enough, say with a spoon, you would get there. I would see that hole and walk through it to meet this girl. Maybe my friend is out there somewhere, now age 42, wondering when we will meet in person. Please come say hello if you're reading this!

My first conscious fascination with global community experiences came a few years ago when I participated in a Planetary Dance of Anna Halprin's on Mount Tamalpais in California. That event started in the late 1980's.

Clearly the Beauty of Water design is influenced by predecessors such as these.

Wikipedia informs me that in the mid-80's, the first Live Aid concert was held in a manner similar to the Live Earth concert, raising funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. I was in college at that time and the concert wasn't on my radar. Indeed now the Live Earth concert doesn't draw me to participate. But I'll enjoy reading about it, and I am excited it is happening.