Categories
general

The Delicate Strength of the Social Contract

social_contractHave you ever wondered why someone doesn’t just steal all those Christmas lights? Or what’s really stopping people from slashing our tires or breaking into our houses? Or worse? Yes, we lock our doors and some people have alarms—and we live in a type of police state, so certainly the fear of getting caught curbs a lot of negative behavior—but I find myself imagining all sorts of mayhem that I don’t think anyone would get caught for. Luckily for my fellow humans, and especially my neighbors, I’m a standup guy and tend to be more on the side of “neighborhood watch” than “neighborhood terrorist.”

Still, I wonder…

Categories
general

The Landfill Harmonic

“People realize that we shouldn’t throw away trash carelessly. Well, we shouldn’t throw away people either.”

~Favio Chavez, Orchestra Director

Just saw this article on NPR about the Landfill Harmonic, a documentary on a community in Cateura, Paraguay that’s building instruments for its kids out of trash who then can play in the local orchestra led by Favio Chavez. Seriously brought tears to my eyes.