A R C H I V E

Over the break, I had the chance to read Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance, and Elie Wiesel’s classic Souls On Fire, Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters.

I keep wondering what is the common thread among Rumi and Shakespeare, Mozart and Beethoven, Edison and Musk, who all seem to have connected to a source I understand intellectually but struggle to experience practically. Who are these people and what source are they connected to that allows them to live fearlessly and channel knowledge most of us are not tapped into?

Reflecting on these lives, I am reminded of Neil Diamond’s quote “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” In fact, this is the essence of the classic Sufi analogy of the moth and the flame: get too close and you burn by merging into the flame; maintain a safe distance and you miss out on the essence of life.

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Last year is history; this year is a mystery; now is all that counts.

Since we are all tired of hearing how terrible last year was, and since it is not clear how much longer our personal and global pain and suffering will last, let’s take to heart Eckhart Tolle’s advice to focus on where we are now, and take appropriate action.

Faced with 40-to-1 odds against the British, George Washington, instead of worrying or complaining, crossed the Delaware River in the middle of the night, during the dead of winter, once again proving that courage does not mean we are not afraid. Instead, courage means we proceed despite being afraid.

Our City Club community is facing its fair share of challenges, but instead of freezing in the face of fear, we are building and expanding in anticipation of a bright future, launching what we hope to be a global institute, and offering to help any member who needs it in any way we can.

Best wishes for a healthy, meaningful, and prosperous year ahead.

— Sina.

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Such a memorable year! A deadly pandemic, riots in the streets, shootings by police, a contested election, and a harsh economic climate, all added up to make this a memorable year everyone would rather forget.

Adopting the adage that there is opportunity in adversity, when the pandemic hit in March, we chose not to be ruled by fear; instead, we decided to launch two major projects that may influence who we are and what we do for decades, if not generations to come.

Built 130-years ago as a state of the art elementary school, Highland was an abandoned and dilapidated shell when we bought it 42-years ago to convert it into a luxury office building. Fifteen years ago we started City Club on the south side of the basement, but the building always had the feel and function of an office building until four years ago when we renovated the top floor into a Shared Workspace.

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Winter descends. The nights are long; the days are cold; the pandemic crests.

Before Madison Avenue marketed the season as one of indulgence -- to eat, drink, be merry and celebrate by shopping, folks used this sacred time of the year to slow down, take refuge, eat less, think more, and reflect on the past, while planning for the future.

Philosophers, mathematicians, economists and religious leaders all remind us of the cyclical nature of the universe. What goes up, must come down. Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream by saying, Egypt will have seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of famine.

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Last week, we received a variety of feedback on the topic of Good & Evil, so I would like to expand on it.

Black and White, Masculine and Feminine, Liberal and Conservative, Yin and Yang, Genius and Madness, Joy and Sorrow are all opposite sides of the same coin, and the essential building blocks of the universe.

While it is important to strive for unity by overcoming duality, the reality is, it takes two to tango as One. E pluribus unum.

I can continue waxing poetic on the topic, but instead, I will let Kahlil Gibran, one of my favorite poets, more elegantly make the case using Joy & Sorrow as an example.

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It’s a jungle out there. It’s a dog eat dog world. Kill to eat, or you may wind up as someone’s lunch.

Humans harbor the capacity for unimaginable evil. Read Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables; Read Victor Frankel’s Man’s Search for Meaning; Read Howard’s Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. To this day, children are born, live, and die on the streets of Kolkata. From Stalin to Mao Tse-tung, from Genghis Khan to Hitler, history is full of people believing "one death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

Knowing this, how is one to stay sane and function effectively amongst such cruelty? How did Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi do it? What’s the best strategy to survive, and thrive in this seemingly unjust, bat-crazy world?

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By Leondard Cohen:

If you are a dealer, I’m out of the game

If you are the healer, it means I’m broken and lame

If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame

You want it darker

We kill the flame

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“Without Tradition we’d all be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.”

Tradition is the bedrock of every culture and religion. We celebrate America's independence every 4th of July and let freedom ring, not only during the easy times, but even when we are faced with unprecedented internal and external challenges like we are today. And so it is with Thanksgiving, we adopt an attitude of gratitude at this time of the year even when it seems hard to find something to be thankful for.

And so it is this year. Call it what you will -- "A Hinge in History" or the classic "Fourth Turning" -- all around us we see a looming Coronavirus threat, foreboding climate change, profound economic disruptions, and impotent politicians putting their own interests ahead of our country's.

My personal credo is centered around the adoption of “ An Attitude of Gratitude," first when it comes to health, second to family, and all else in succession, continually focusing on the many things I am thankful for, including the privilege of living in the United States of America.

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What a year this has turned out to be!

In January, none of us expected 2020 to be the year of a deadly pandemic, street riots, impeachment, unemployment, contested elections, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires and murder hornets. I am keeping an eye on Boulder Creek to see if the water turns red, in which case we'll know we are dealing with historic changes of biblical proportions!

But are things really that bad? Are we not enjoying our basic human needs like food, shelter, and security? Do we not feel more alive today despite all the challenges we face, or are we acting like a deer in headlights, killing time while time is killing us?

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In 1859, before he became president, before the Union tore itself to pieces, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at a Wisconsin State Fair, sharing the story of an Eastern king who asked his wisest court philosophers to provide him with advice that would be true regardless of the situation.

After 244 years and 58 often difficult and uncertain elections, once again our country is bitterly divided; our forests are burning; a new virus is humbling us, damaging our economy, and making us question the strength of the foundation our country is built on.

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To manage and maintain a large functioning civil society, we must have laws and enforce them; unless they are unjust, in which case we must change them. Not enforcing laws because some think they are unjust leads to lawlessness and the breakdown of civil society.

In the mid-19th century, Boulder was settled along the shores of Boulder Creek near our current downtown commercial area. Since then, our city and its core have gone through many economic and political cycles, continually reinventing itself in accordance with the times.

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The American Civil War, and the two World Wars taught us there is no prospect for peace and reconciliation until the enemy formally surrenders.

In the arduous path of life, if we are lucky, we eventually realize we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. In that case, who do we surrender to so we can experience peace? How do we own and then integrate our own shadow?

Islam literally means surrender. Every religion and spiritual path tells us control is an illusion. We will find peace when we find a force, an idea or a cause greater than ourselves to surrender to, or when we find a guide, mentor, or guru we can trust…

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For the past six months, we have been blessed with access to our spacious gardens, allowing for natural social distancing to avoid Covid-19. However, with the arrival of Fall, the garden season coming to a close, and in anticipation of moving inside, we are launching a new phase in service beginning Monday, October 19th.

To set the scene, we have reduced the number of seats in our Dining Room to allow for proper social distancing, and we are serving lunch in other areas of the Club such as the Grand Room, Library, various Conference Rooms, and the new Carrara Marble Table on the First Floor. In addition, we will once again utilize glass and china.

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Next time you cross the covered bridge into Highland, look up to see, perched atop the townhomes, a massive sculpture of “Simurgh,” a benevolent mythical bird in Persian literature, made by local artist Will Kohler using rusted tractor parts.

Nearly eight centuries ago, Persian Sufi poet, Attar of Nishapur, a contemporary of Rumi, wrote a poem called “The Conference of the Birds”. In the poem, the birds of the world gather to decide who is to be their sovereign, as they had none. The hoopoe, the wisest of them all, suggested they should find the legendary Simurgh. The hoopoe leads the birds, each of whom represents a human fault which prevents human kind from attaining enlightenment.

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Did you watch the first presidential debate of this election season?!

Being at war used to mean fighting an enemy in uniform, dodging bombs and bullets, and dealing with food scarcity. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we could no longer even identify the enemy, let alone figure out how to defeat him. Instead of using bombs and bullets, today we fight our wars on multiple fronts: biological, trade, currency, cyber, space and military.

The Fourth Turning posits that every eighty years humanity spirals to a higher level in the aftermath of a major war and technological innovation: think American Revolution and the advent of the steam engine; Civil War and continental railroads; WWII and aviation.

Today America is at war again. With our country more divided than at any time since the Civil War, we are fighting a global pandemic, re-drawing the map of the Middle East, continuing to fight the Cold War with the remnants of the collapsed Soviet Union, and standing up to China to say ENOUGH!

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Let’s assume there is no such thing as absolute reality. Let’s assume we are masters of our own universe, capable of creating the reality we want. How then should we go about creating our reality?

Let’s start by looking at the glass as half full, instead of half empty. Let’s assume one is innocent till proven guilty; good till proven otherwise.

Instead of saying I’ll believe it when I see it, let’s start saying I’ll see it when I believe it. In the midst of the doom and gloom of the Coronavirus, social isolation and a pending economic collapse, let’s adopt the attitude of gratitude for all that we have, instead of all that we must have to be happy.

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3500 years ago Moses led the enslaved Jews to freedom and gave them Ten Commandments and 613 laws to live by. Over a thousand years later, the Greeks gave us democracy. Another 2000 years passed before our founding fathers combined the two ideas to build our nation, however imperfect at the time, to advance the cause of human evolution.

George Washington fought the American Revolution to birth our nation. Abraham Lincoln fought the Civil War to save our nation; and Franklin Roosevelt fought WWII to ensure that not only Americans, but humanity at large had the right to four basic freedoms -- Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

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A Securus Locus In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, right after food and shelter, we seek security, even before sex, knowing we must survive in order to thrive.

City Club strives to create a Securus Locus, a safe place, where we trust the quality of the food we eat, the cleanliness of the physical space we occupy, and feel safe to express our opinions without fear of being judged.

While science tells us ~11% of the population is gay or lesbian, until a few decades ago this population stayed in the closet due to the fear of being judged as different. Similarly, in today’s America, while 49% of the population identifies and/or votes conservative, few are willing to publicly identify as such, other than in the sanctuary of a private voting booth.

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Our reptilian brain is over three billion years old; our neocortex is only seventy thousand years old. A crime of passion is our logic’s inability to control our deep-seated reptilian urges.

Socrates encouraged us to "know our Selves." We know we are our own worst enemy, but we can’t help it! It is hard to see our own shadow, so we live unaware of it. Change is difficult, but we are forced to reinvent ourselves anyway. Take a look at this week’s article for guidance as to how to cope in these difficult times: Philosophy for a Time of Crises.

It often takes a massive outside force, an illness or a catastrophe to force us to abandon the past and embrace change. At the age of 17, I abandoned my home, family, and country to emigrate to America by myself.

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In his classic book, Power vs. Force, author David Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., discusses power and how to gain it. The Egyptian Pharaoh had force but Moses had power; the Romans had force, but Jesus had power; the British Empire was so vast, the sun never set on it, but by the end of his Salt March, Gandhi brought that empire down. How does power defeat force, and how can we tap into that source?

In his new book, The Square and the Tower, historian Niall Ferguson posits that throughout history, the power of networks have always defeated the force of the hierarchies represented by popes, presidents, generals and corporate CEOs. A dictator is in absolute control until one day the soldiers refuse to shoot the protestors. What’s good for General Motors is good for America, until one day, Americans decide they want electric cars.

Human evolution is the story of the pendulum swinging between power and force, networks and hierarchy, potential energy morphing into kinetic energy, and back.

— Sina.

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