My proverbial cup runneth over with optimism.  It’s not just because Barack Obama finally took the oath of office, but boy did that help! His inaugural speech moved me deeply and it feels as if we have palpably turned a corner in history. The problems are still there but our capacity to meet them has changed. We have turned a corner but now we face a precipice.

The paradigm has needed to change for a very long time. Paradigms have changed throughout history. That’s what makes up history. But as David McCullough has said, “History didn’t have to go the way it did. Nothing is inevitable.” Our choices now are crucial.

And it was Margaret Mead who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

I see evidence of the paradigm shifting on political, environmental, societal and spiritual levels. Who doesn’t feel it? The financial crisis is a major paradigm shift, hopefully one where we remember  (or learn) how to save up before we spend and contract our consumption to a level that maybe approaches one that’s sustainable.

When it comes to food, I come across many, MANY indications online that people are on the same page as me, thinking that things need to change.

We can’t have sustainability without a local, sun-based agriculture system. The future of humans on the planet relies on this. When we choose otherwise and eat processed, depleted, industrial-commodity food, we literally can’t think clearly enough to transcend the old paradigm. Our bodies and minds get clogged, our children get addicted, then sick.

I keep coming across videos on the web that are telling me about concurrent evolution of thought. People in distant places are having the same idea; to peek behind the curtain, think clearly and independently, and to see the human race as part of a larger biosphere.

Check these out:

Here are two powerful films about the scourge of obesity and what it means for us:

Killer at Large

Food Matters

Here are two more films-in-progress about our food supply and the first one is by a local Maine filmmaker!

Coming Home to Real Food

We Are What We Eat

This is a presentation by the “renegade lunch lady,” Ann Cooper, about why it’s madness that we are feeding our kids what they are eating;

Ann Cooper at the TED conference

I literally could go on and on. I collect videos like these here, in my learning center if you’d like to see the whole collection.

Who says the revolution won’t be televised?

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