Saturday's coffee chat notes and follow up.

Hi group, here are a couple links to what I was talking about in Saturday's morning chat. This link is one of many, many studies done on what they call "blue zones," places in the world with an extraordinary amount of people that live to be 100. A common theme of longevity is a strong community bond. What Blue Zones Teach Us About Strong Connections and Healthy Living - KVC Health Systems

Also, the America's Got Talent video from 2021, the audition for Jane (also known as Nightbirde) who sang a very moving original song that at the time, was what this world needed through the ugliness of the pandemic, and her message is powerful. Here is the link: America's Got Talent - Nightbirde "It's OK" Golden Buzzer Performance

I believe the walk for peace happening with the Buddhist monks right now is like Jane's song, it is a ray of light coming into the world when we need it the most in these dark times.

Also the "3rd place" theory I spoke of, coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, is the concept that as humans we live our lives in three main places. First is the home, second is work, and third historically was our places of refuge like churches, cafes, bars, clubs, libraries, gyms, bookstores, stoops, parks, home garage and theatres. It is a theory that states in our modern times, these places have largely been replaced by our phones and constant interaction with the digital world, and that is the cause of much suffering in our lives. Here is a link to that: Third place - Wikipedia

I will also leave a chapter from Enchiridion by Epictetus, written in the 2nd century ce. This passage stood out to me. Ch 51:

"How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself and in no instance bypass the discriminations of reason? You have been given the principles that you ought to endorse, and you have endorsed them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for in order to refer your self-improvement to him? You are no longer a boy, but a full-grown man. If you are careless and lazy now and keep putting things off and always deferring the day after which you will attend to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary.

From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer, and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day and a single event. That is how Socrates fulfilled himself by attending to nothing except reason in everything he encountered. And you, although you are not yet a Socrates, should live as someone who at least wants to be a Socrates.”

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