The cartoon shown above by Matt Collins is from the current issue of Scientific American and was used in association with an essay by Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The Earth is in danger, and in the essay Jeffrey Sachs describes some of the governmental action required throughout the world to help shift the balance. You will see in the cartoon, that the people are from many countries. The important thing to note is the application of the hands to the rope. It is not enough to be brain-smart and have knowledge. And as the cartoon shows, it all comes down to the hands on the rope.

The beginning of the New Year is a time for resolutions, most of which don't last through the first week. But I have a simple one to offer and if you keep coming back to the blog, I'll remind you. Think more of your own hands. Challenge them to learn and to participate more in the process of thought. Move them more freely as you speak. Use them more consciously in every aspect of your life.

In our upbringing, in our education, and in our culture, the hands have been marginalized to the degree that we sit complaisantly as things come apart. In schools, knowledge has become separate from action. We are taught patience, boredom and complaisance. We fill our brains with circling thoughts and idle fantasy. The hands offer fulfillment, but we have become unused to their conscious use. We have become trained as “brain centered” finding our identity in our own interior dialog. The yes, no, maybe of the brain state leads to immobility, isolation, and incapacity. To consciously relocate one’s identity toward becoming “hand centered” restores the ability to act.

So do this simple thing. Just take notice of your hands. Provide them the challenge of doing new things. Allow them to move more confidently as you speak. Think of your hands as ground zero from which the course of renewal can commence. Rub your hands together and warm them for a good grip on the rope. Allow them to lead you to join others in actions that restore quality to our lives, hope to our hearts and security to the planet and its resources.

Happy 2008. May it be a great year for your hands and heart.