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I love this guy.  I have been listening to this all weekend and can’t stop thinking about the “Less is more” lyric and the measuring stick we use in our society. Sorry for the video but it was the only way to get the song on the site.  I just really like what he is saying.  I was bummed to find out that Eddie Vedder didn’t actually write this one, but he sure can sing it well.  Anyway just listen to the lyrics.  It is a reoccuring theme here.

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Eugine V. Debs in a speech given in 1908

Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man’s business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked; ”Am I my brother’s keeper?” That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.

Yes, I am my brother’s keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death.
— Lyndon B. Johnson

The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual’s dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today.

I am proud to be waking up today to a new era in American life. I like many in my generation have not experienced what it meant to feel patriotic. I can remember all of the times in my life an inauguration has taken place and none of them were reason for more than a short recap at the end of the day on the news. But today I am proud of what we have accomplished and proud of moving forward to a new day. Not solely because of what we leave behind although I feel that Bush will only be remembered as the President who was in office when our country was attacked, but instead I am proud of our ability to choose someone to lead who admits our faults as a nation and is willing to take them on. Someone who is willing to humbly lead.

I searched around and found the text from the inaugural speech yesterday and am going to repost it here. Partly because I want you to read it and partly because I want to know that its somewhere I can come back and read it again. After you read it answer this question. Did you ever think you would see this in your lifetime?

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition. [Read more →]

We’ve got a big City Council meeting next Wednesday night that is critical for our projects in the Washington neighborhood of West Sacramento. If you are bought in to the vision of what we are doing there (urban/green/good) we would love to have you come out and help support it – especially if you live nearby! There are quite a few neighbors that are objecting to the limited parking we are proposing, we are making the case that society needs to move beyond a car only transportation scenario and that not every house needs to have space for 3 cars. I once heard a really neat quote by Jamie Lerner “The car is kind of like your mother in law. You need her around but if she is the only woman in your life you have problems”

If you are interested in coming out and supporting good sustainable development let Steve know if you could make it and he will tell you about what time the topic will probably come up! He’s at 329-3727 or steve@ljurban.com

“Why don’t we create a committee to research the concept and have them report back to us in 6 months?” Anyone want to be a part of that committee? Anyone…..”

It was nearing the third hour of a four hour meeting I was at early today and I was starting wonder what I got myself into. You see, a few weeks ago I was asked to become a part of a Board on a certain local organization and I said yes. And sitting there today made me wonder why I did.

Not that there were not good people in the room, because there really were, but board meetings are a whole other side of the business world that I am not at all used to. And if any of you know me you will know that I squirm and move around in meetings worse than a 2nd grader, especially the four hour kind.

I have to stop here for a second and say something just in case anyone who was there this morning is reading this. I am not against what is being done by this group or others like it. They (or should I start saying we) are there for a good reason and can help a lot of good happen in the world. It’s just that I am not used to that sort of meeting and it’s all a little new to me.

It’s interesting to watch something like that from an outsider perspective. You have all these well meaning enthusiastic people sitting around a table ready to engage. I was truly blown away by all the accomplished people who were taking half their day to talk about the group we are all in and its future.

But despite all the good intentions I think that if you get that many people together and they all care a lot about what you are there for, it may be best to just throw away the agenda and dig into what needs fixing. Having not grown up in a committee sub-committee world I am a bit shocked by all that goes on in the group decision making setting and quite frankly it just seems like its better to take the structure out of things and dig right into business.

But maybe that’s just me.

Levi

I want my children to be able to meet and play and communicate with many other children on their own, not only when they are driven somewhere. I want them to grow up in an environment that is not just a place where people sleep but where people work… and where people enjoy themselves.

- Moshe Safdie

Someone asked me to write in a few short sentences what LJ Urban is passionate about…Here is what I came up with.

Despite centuries of innovation in technology cities remain the single greatest sustainable innovation we have. If more people live in them we consume less resources and have better places to live. At LJ Urban we are passionate about making cities better, starting here in Sacramento we set out to prove that there is a better way for people to live and that urban infill is not just a passing fad but rather the core of where we need to look to house the next generation.
We are committed to redefining urban development both on the industry side and for the consumer. Our aspiration is not that we simply build great houses for people to live in but that we inspire others to live small dream big and do good.

I cant find who wrote this but its a great quote.

IF…..

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.

Update: by Rudyard Kipling  (Thanks guys!)

This is my favorite line…. If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

Levi

Often I hear people say that you should never give up. I could not agree more. However I think it’s worth looking at why people give up. In reality many times we give up not because we did not have the fight in us to keep going but because we picked a fight that was not worth fighting. Consider this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was hitting on something huge here.

“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.