A Thread for Humanity

October 6, 2025

A Thread for Humanity

Sunset over the ocean: Sun peaking through dark clouds, creating orange and gold hues, reflecting on the water.

The world economic fabric can only work if there is a thread for humanity,

or we are:

justifying the unjustifiable.

We must find a way to make our human experiment on Earth a success.

With our combined intelligence we can figure out a solution that does not involve wars and poverty.

I had a conversation this morning at breakfast with an individual who just boarded the ship in Japan. He was offended by the English language account of the US involvement in Japan that he read at the Hiroshima memorial. He felt it was inaccurate and unflattering. This appeared to me to be the wrong thing to be reacting to so strongly. There is no way people are going to flatter a country that inflicted unprecedented violence and tragedy on them. Governments start wars and people suffer.

We have to stop trying to justify the unjustifiable.

There is a human part to war; it is not a virtual experience. No government has a right to maim and kill its citizens, or those of another country.

We have come to a point where no person or country is so remote that it is unaffected by whatever wars and economic oppressions are presently happening, either directly, indirectly, physically or emotionally. An agreement is necessary to make sure every individual has a road to self sufficiency. Like a seed placed in the ground. Agreement on a good course of action will grow a little at a time. One conversation at a time. Governments will not originate this kind of agreement, they need to be guided by us.

We may feel discouraged because there is so much disagreement at this time. But we have done and still do difficult and seemingly impossible things together every day. Adjustments that make life possible. People just get on with it, in spite of governments, in spite of politics or money. We have a cohesive, intelligent, subconscious agreement to cooperate so we can move on, survive and continue, not to Nirvana or Utopia but to the evening, to the next day, and through that. For instance, the double line between two directions of traffic. We agree not to cross it as we travel at high speeds past each other. We are making a survival decision. We know that if we cross that line it may result in our death, the death of another person or both. Even in a traffic jam when patience is strained, we wait. Few people will break from the line and try to drive on the shoulder. We wait not because we are mindless followers, but because this is what a frustrating situation demands. Our turn will probably come. When we get near to escaping the congestion we often exhibit generosity. No one is to blame, we are ‘in the same boat.’ “You go, I will go next,” you think in your mind as the lanes blend and you let a vehicle taper in ahead of you. You don't care about what sticker they have on their bumper and whether you agree with it. This is how we progress till finally we are free to go our separate ways. This is freedom. Not the freedom that is promised in constitutions and propaganda. This is a kind of freedom formed by agreement with fellow humans. And you know it is real as you drive away from the congestion, open your window and the fresh air blows past your face.

This is the subtle kind of freedom we have cultivated together through careful evolution as we encountered obstacles, major and minor, for thousands of years. The result is that we have built enough safety around our humanity that occasionally individuals can have a chance to express themselves, meaningfully. Time to think and imagine. This is the ultimate freedom that is sometimes possible. A gift we can occasionally give with cooperation that relieves tension and conversation that builds acquaintance and familiarity. Made possible through consensus and our common ability to compromise and connect.

An important conversation people need to have now, so that further agreement is possible; is understanding how they are being affected by World Economics. Are things getting better for most of us? Or just a few. Why? Ask yourself, what is money? Is there a way to use money so that it provides essential basic human needs to everyone, food, shelter, education and healthcare, at no cost to them? This is the tread for humanity that is missing from our economic fabric.

Today, World Economies do not significantly value humanity or nature. They are both used only as resources that can make profit for companies, governments and countries.

Consider a Parallel Currency. Leaving the existing currency patterns in place, and adding a separate currency dedicated to basic human needs, food, shelter, education and healthcare. This sounds very simple and you might ask,”why hasn't this been done before?” Because our modern economic systems' main focus is profit making and because we have not had instantaneous communication for very long. Also, the need for this has not been as intense as it is now with populations more than quadrupling in a generation. Today, ideas can be introduced quickly Worldwide and considered by billions of people.

Profit from the basic human needs can only be made by making these things artificially scarce and their prices high. This stops a huge percentage of people from even surviving. Economics has become a danger to us all as we move through our lives. We are being forced into competition with each other for basic needs. Money in exchange for human survival has the long-term effect of stifling social development.

Poverty has only been thought of as a natural human condition for possibly several hundred years. For thousands of years we cooperated and made sure that everyone in a community had basic needs. There was not a word, poverty. Our populations were small and every person was valued. Now our populations are huge and through profit economics, basic needs are monetized. If you can't afford them you and your family don't survive.

We can create and spend money for whatever we choose. With a Parallel Currency dedicated to basic needs that is destroyed after use, inflation is not an issue. Taxes for these needs and services are not necessary. The money can be printed as needed and cannot be saved or invested. A Parallel Currency will provide basic human needs to everyone, not charge people for them as we do today. This is vitally important because our survival is at stake.

Communicate with each other about how you would like to see our future evolve. What people agree upon becomes a direction. Imagine how a Parallel Currency for basic human needs would change the economic equation and its results.

With a common direction we can go forward and recognize the obstacles to avoid. As momentum builds and we approach closer and closer, we will know we have arrived when, some fine day and into the future we will never hear again, “If I can't work for money, my family will starve.”

< Older Post

Chapter Sixteen – Japan Part 4

September 26, 2025

Japan Chapter 16, part 4, Looking back

Chapter Fifteen – Japan & S. Korea (8/25)

September 15, 2025

Japan Log, Part 3 General impressions, Japan and Jeju South Korea

Chapter Fourteen – Japan Part 3 (8/25)

September 9, 2025

I went to the Nagasaki Museum of Art. There was a special exhibit there called War in the Eyes of Artists; from Goya to several Nagasaki artists. Though I had deliberately avoided visiting the epicenters of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for reasons I have already expressed, seeing this exhibit at the museum was just as intense. For this log I am going to highlight a display I found most moving. I am including the youtube address where it can be seen and heard. Place address here The display starts with a poem and an illustration. Both commemorate the bombing of Nagasaki. After viewing the illustration and reading the poem you enter a small theater to sit down and watch an animation of the illustration set to music. All the children, adults, animals and Shinto like creatures that are in the illustration (in a huge tree) come to life and move to the rhythm of the music. A male voice sings overall, lyrics that may have to do with the poem, written by singer/songwriter Masaharu Fujiyama and entitled, “Kusunoki; Blown by the 500-year Wind.” The illustration is the work of an artist named Junaida. The lyrics were inspired by the Kusunoki (camphor trees), which survived the atomic bomb.

Chapter Thirteen – Japan Part 2 (7/25)

September 2, 2025

Shizuoka

Chapter Twelve – Japan (8/25)

August 25, 2025

We dock at Hakodate, Japan on the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That stands as a singular horror among the many horrors humans commit on each other and Nature and continue to commit to this day. There is no apology possible and unfortunately nothing may have been learned. We still threaten each other with nuclear weapons. No treaty has stopped the building of nuclear bombs. I wonder how the Japanese people keep the memory of this tragedy so that living can continue with some normalcy. Maybe it can be equated to a typhoon or earthquake, like a natural disaster having no morality or intention. It has influenced their imaginations ever since though, revealed in movies like Godzilla and in their Manga. Threatening creatures, imagined power that cannot be controlled or resisted. People can be like a natural disaster to each other. People can also be wonderful. We saw this as we left the city. A small group of dancers appeared on the dock to say goodbye. The dancing they did was so charming and touching. It was a traditional dance, maybe 15 dancers. About 8 people played instruments to accompany them, flutes, drums and other unique percussion. Watching from the top deck of the ship the dancers appear like exotical dolls. Three warriors pantomime their strength, emphasized with elegant gestures of their fans and their golden, brightly tasselled headdresses that bow and flash in opposition. Then the little children emerge, five of them. Their elders position them precisely and they wait for the music to begin. Their tiny movements are sweetly in time as they step then extend their fans to tap the air with it lightly, creating a feeling of certainty and control. Moving to one side with a gliding motion they unfurl their fan, flourish and close it, then glide to the other side and do the same. The dance continues with variations of these movements and some new ones punctuate occasionally. So intent and serious, each tiny performer dressed in elaborate traditional clothing, a magical, miniature display. The dance becomes hypnotic as it continues to the simple rhythms of the drums and flutes repeating and repeating an ancient significance remembered by a few. After they finish, our ship pulls away with several blasts from the horn. The tiny dancers wave goodbye, with their hands crossing again and again in front of their faces, for so long it seems as if they might continue until we are out of sight. Finally we are too far away to hear the children cry out. This experience was fleeting and very moving. A dancing gesture of dignity and friendship. People are not their military, they are not their government. They have to participate in their society but they are first of all human. They want to create understanding beyond language and country.

Chapter Eleven – Alaska Part 2 (7/25)

August 12, 2025

Alaska feels like a different country; not like one of the United States. Maybe its vastness and extreme climate have created this unique presence. People who adapt themselves to living half the year in darkness and half in light, in a lot of cold and rain with magnificent beauty all around, this has an impact. The unique environment of Alaska transforms people. The Tlingit were one of the aboriginal Alaskan groups. They crossed the Bering Strait from Asia, approximately 9,000 years ago. There are also some theories about individuals island-hopping from Polynesia. Both scenarios may be true. Nonetheless, they formed a highly complex social, legal and political structure along with extraordinary creative arts and oral culture. Before European contact their population reached approximately 20,000. Status was based on birth and wealth, creating a hierarchical social structure. There was a noble class (determined through hereditary) followed by medicine men and women, warriors, traders, commoners and slaves. The Clan House was home to three resident classes; nobles, commoners and slaves. The construction of the Clan House was a sacred event involving rituals for the dead. The two ritual groups (moiety) were Raven or Eagle/Wolf, and they were expected to marry outside their group (exogamous). Tlingit followed a matrilineal clan system. Children inherited the clan side of the mother. All rights were through the mother; these include fishing, hunting and gathering places, the use of certain clan symbols, totem designs, house decoration and ceremonial clothing designs. The Clan had spiritual, psychological and medical protection from a medicine man or woman. They were also known to control weather, bring luck, predict the future, expose witches and speak to the dead. They did not cut their hair in order to keep their power strong. Their power would pass to a younger relative when they died.

Chapter Ten – Alaska Part 1 (7/25)

August 4, 2025

Some context for this trip and log. The ship we are traveling on is the Villa Vie Odyssey. It is a small cruise ship with about 300 passengers and 300 crew. We have bought a cabin aboard. My plan is to document one circumnavigation. This will take about 3 and ½ years. So far this has been a record from when we boarded in Barbados, going through the Panama Canal, up the western coast of Mexico over to Hawaii then up the western coast of the United States to Alaska.The following is an account of Alaska. After this we will travel to Japan. Thank you for your interest. I was unprepared for the profound beauty of Alaska. The more you see, the more it astounds. How is it possible that people could hunt seals, foxes, wolves and beavers to extinction, log evergreen trees to bare brown ground - as if a massive electric shaver was used to mow the mountains- that grow back in patches and trails made for giants? Vastness is not endless. The harsh environment, remoteness and beauty did not protect them. Still, how was it possible? Only people caught in a frenzy of commerce could do this. The same frenzy that brought thousands of men with dreams of making fortunes in gold to remote outlands of Alaska. They became insane devourers. Luminous white water rushes from a cleft at the top of the mountain sliding in and out of evergreens to the river below, pinched along the way by grey rocks. This was the land of the Tlingit for at least 10,000 years. Theirs was a highly developed social structure equal to those found in Europe. Spanish contact in 1775 dropped their population by about 80 percent, with typhoid fever, scarlet fever, and measles. The Russian fur trade changed their lives even more. It began after Vitus Bering’s 1747 expedition and “discovery” of the Bering strait. Sea otter pelts were the incentive. Other fur was also sought but sea otter pelts were the most coveted. It is the warmest fur. It has the most hairs per square inch of any animal fur. An adaptation that allows it to live in the extreme environments of Alaska. Unfortunately for the otters its fur can be made into the warmest of coats. By 1799 the fur trade was thriving. It involved the forced labor of the indigenous people. Their local knowledge of the animals and their hunting expertise were essential. This industry brought significant change to the native communities, disease, dependence on trade goods and inter-tribal conflict. Russia traded furs to China and Europe. When competition for pelts and political factors involving Russia affected their ability to continue the trade, Russia sold Alaska to the United States. The US had been pressing westward and getting involved with trapping, fishing, mining, logging and homesteading. In 1867 the US bought Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. In 1788 the US entered the maritime fur trade; sea otter furs for Oriental goods. By 1801 the US controlled the fur trade at its height and Boston was at its center. When a major discovery of gold was made in 1896, Alaska became the gateway to the Klondike gold fields. Purple mountains are passing by my window as we glide to our next port. I can watch this ‘movie’ before I go to sleep. It stays light till around midnight and never becomes completely dark. The sun is up at 5:00. Locals describe the endless darkness of the winter months as depressing. “What do you do?” “Watch movies, watch TV.” Native people used the long dark Winters to create. The memories of summer beauty and important events, documented in beadwork, carved figures of animals from walrus bone, charms for hats and masks, hand made fur garments beautifully beaded with flowers, leaves and animals, scrimshaw pipes of bone, a crown for a baby beaded and decorated with carvings, two white pom poms hanging from thin leather strips on either side. The intensive summer hunting over, food dried and stored. Time for handwork, music, story telling and conversation. While the mountains and sky silently hover near in all their variety and beauty.

A Thread for Humanity