Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/635319
BOOKS art & soul N ot just a single video, Nature Is Speaking is a whole series of short videos that are actu- ally a public awareness campaign attempting to make young people realize that drastic action must be taken to save the human species. Speaking through top Hollywood talent and visually gorgeous cinematography, the individual videos convey the message that nature, in all her magnifi cence, doesn't really give a damn whether the human race survives, and in fact might prefer if we don't. Nature doesn't need people. But we rely on a healthy ecosystem for our food, water, health and life. When we contin- uously take more from nature than nature can give, we weaken the earth's ability to provide what we need. Julia Roberts, speaking as Mother Nature, issues an almost hostile challenge: "I don't really need people, but people need me… I have fed species greater than you and I have starved spe- cies greater than you. I'm prepared to evolve. Are you?" In other words, we've created a crisis and we need solutions. The mission of series producer Conservation International (CI) is "moving entire societies toward a healthier, more sustainable development path—so that we don't use up today what we're going to need tomorrow." M. Sanjayan, CI's senior sci- entist, notes that the series isn't necessarily calculated to brighten your day. "The ocean is angry, Edward Norton is edgy, Kevin Spacy drips with sarcasm," he says, but in the suddenly popular culture of anger and sarcasm, maybe this is just the approach our planet needs to seize attention from the generation that is going to inherit it. #NatureIsSpeaking, www.conservation.org Conservation International Nature Is Speaking FILM By Robert Moss Y ou know a book is good when you see it start to infl uence your thoughts and patterns. About midway through Sidewalk Oracles, I noticed that my dream life had suddenly become not only more active, but often exquisitely clear in what I perceived to be the meaning of various dreams. As I started paying more attention to my nighttime ramblings, and thinking about the threads they might represent in the whole of my life, I began noticing other clues in my daily activities, considering what relevance they had and how they could explain things that were puzzling me. I've even pulled out old journals to use as sources in what the author calls "kairomancy," the art of observing and appreciating "messages in special moments when synchronicity is in play." Robert Moss has made his reputation in the study of dreams, but this new guidebook weaves dreams with journals, snatches of random conversations, bits of trash and a host of other small objects, and incidents that are no less effective than tea leaves or the I Ching, but rather, since they mine the user's own history, perhaps even more so. At the very least, Sidewalk Oracles has brightened my interest in daily neighborhood walks, suggested an entertaining and useful homemade oracle and restored my sense of continuity in the universe. Perhaps most important in the long run, it's also reinvigorated my neglected habit of scribing dreams, knowing they may prove useful not just in solving today's puzzles, but possibly those of a decade or so hence. (New World Library) —Abigail Lewis Sidewalk Oracles Playing with Signs, Symbols, and Synchronicity in Everyday Life 34 wholelifetimes.com