tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36896062011-07-07T23:37:37.242-07:00Ideas Worth SharingWe all have ideas worth sharing with others, and this is the place to do it. I am particularly interested in those ideas which, if enacted, might make a significant difference in the world in which we live. I'll start with a few of my own ideas which I've mulled over and nurtured for years. I welcome your constructive feedback and will post ideas from others that I think fit my criteria. Enjoy!Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comBlogger311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-43178283558245285622010-07-30T14:31:00.000-07:002010-07-30T15:01:43.632-07:00Can you believe? I actually had a couple of new ideas this morning that I think are worth sharing!As I was listening to OPB's "Think Out Loud" program this morning on PACs and Politics, I heard about the millions of dollars being raised by our gubernatorial candidates for their campaigns. At the same time, our state is millions of dollars short of revenues to meet its fiscal budget and cuts toBarbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-1088806418315214202004-07-02T15:07:00.000-07:002004-07-02T15:13:38.316-07:00Well, it's been a long while since I've posted to this blog and I want to see if it's still functioning. If this appears in it I'll know I don't have to start over again by creating a new blog. As for why I haven't been writing since March of 2003, let's just say that the invasion of Iraq took the wind out of my sails and turned my interests to the dawning presidential campaign. After months Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-911505472003-03-21T15:02:00.000-08:002003-03-21T15:02:18.310-08:00IDEA #22 Freedom Squares
After watching the coverage of the Portland, Oregon, anti-war protests last night, I've come up with another idea worth sharing. Every city that considers itself to be part of a democracy needs to have designated places where a substantial proportion of that city's population can gather to exercise their rights to free assembly and free speech without fear of being inBarbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-906844932003-03-13T18:46:00.000-08:002003-03-13T18:46:39.420-08:00IDEA #21 Mystery Initiation
In reading the readers' comments on Douglas Rushkoff's site, I came across this interesting thought: "...There is no mystery you're not already part of." --John Brodix Merryman
I believe this is wonderfully true. However, I think I see around me many people who have never become effectively aware of the mysteries we are all a part of. I, myself, have taken a Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-898747962003-02-27T18:14:00.000-08:002003-02-27T21:38:58.000-08:00IDEA #20 Retirement Community for Baby Boomers
My husband Jim and I were born in 1946, the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation. Since we are both oldest children in our families, we tend to have one foot in the staid, private '50's generation and the other in the anti-establishment, in-your-face '60's. At 56, we are starting to think about retirement but know we may not be able to Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-894720222003-02-20T19:04:00.000-08:002003-02-20T19:04:07.893-08:00For those of my readers who know me personally: Jim's back surgery went well; he returned home Sunday morning and is making steady progress. I am bubbling with relief and joy; I was just thrilled when Jim made a pot of tea for the two of us yesterday! I'm guessing I'll be back to my regular publishing schedule next Wednesday. See you then!Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-890586812003-02-13T15:29:00.000-08:002003-02-13T15:29:05.266-08:00Don't give up on finding new Ideas Worth Sharing at this web log. I've been busy taking care of my husband Jim who has a herniated (ruptured) disk in his low back and will be operated on tomorrow (Valentine's Day) at 2:30 pm PST. We're hoping he has a speedy and full recovery. If so, I should be back writing and publishing new ideas in another two weeks or so. Until then, you may want to Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-878657302003-01-22T15:05:00.000-08:002003-01-22T15:09:50.000-08:00IDEA #19 Voluntary School Integration
Yesterday I read in the New York Times that the nation's public schools are today more segregated than they have been in the thirty years since court-ordered desegregation plans were put into place. The final blow to the dream of integrated schools seems to be the rescinding of more and more of the court orders mandating the bussing of students to schoolsBarbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-875124022003-01-15T19:23:00.000-08:002003-01-15T19:23:33.023-08:00IDEA #18 Sharing Houses
SPRAWL--even the word sounds ugly. There seems to be an increasing public awareness of the downside of urban sprawl. Now an ecologist says that the diminishing number of people in the average household is driving the expansion of sprawl into natural and agricultural areas to an even greater extent than the increase in population (which has more than doubled in my Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-871443682003-01-08T18:56:00.000-08:002003-01-08T19:04:01.000-08:00IDEA #17 Responding to State Budget Crisis
I live in a state with a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit. How about you? My impression from my reading is that most Americans are in this same situation. In Oregon we are being asked to vote this month on an increase in our income taxes to avert some of the cuts in government services that will otherwise need to be made to balance the budget. Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-858600392002-12-11T14:27:00.000-08:002002-12-11T14:37:55.000-08:00IDEA #16 Sharing the Wealth
The idea of sharing the wealth with members of one's own family, tribe, community, country and world is certainly one of the oldest and most venerable ideas. The winter holiday season is a traditional time for engaging in this practice in the form of gifts, feasts, volunteering, and donations to charitable organizations. It is certainly a time when those less Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-855120522002-12-04T17:25:00.000-08:002002-12-04T17:40:06.000-08:00IDEA #15 Reading Biographies
For five or six years my husband and I read biographies aloud to each other each evening before bed. He would select and read a biography of a man he wanted to learn more about; when he finished that biography I would select and read a biography of a woman I wanted to learn more about. We averaged one biography each month. Not only did we share time together and Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-851865532002-11-27T16:32:00.000-08:002002-11-27T16:36:01.000-08:00IDEA #14 Veteran Dads Teach New Dads
Not all of the ideas worth sharing come from me by a long shot. Every once in a while I come across an idea in the media that I think is well worth putting in this web log to share with others. The idea of training classes for fathers-to-be run by experienced fathers accompanied by their own babies is one such idea. I'm not sure how long this hot link Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-848445112002-11-20T17:24:00.000-08:002002-11-20T17:28:27.000-08:00IDEA #13 Recovery United Retirement Homes
While I'm on the topic of Twelve-Step Recovery groups and the need for a Recovery United (see IDEA #12 below), I'll write a bit about the need for retirement homes and communities where long-term Twelve-Steppers can live together with others who have spent a large part of their lives committed to living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of their Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-845107002002-11-13T21:22:00.000-08:002002-11-13T21:30:16.000-08:00IDEA #12 Recovery United
Most people have heard of Alcoholics Anonymous, that granddaddy of all Twelve-Step Recovery groups begun in 1935, and its Big Book or Blue Book or simply The Book titled simply Alcoholics Anonymous. If nothing else, they've seen spoofs of recovery meetings in which people introduce themselves, "Hi, I'm _______, and I'm an alcoholic." Perhaps they've even become aware Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-841331092002-11-06T12:40:00.000-08:002002-11-06T12:40:36.186-08:00I'm back. I usually post something new to this web log every Wednesday, so if you want to add it to your favorites list you can usually count on finding a new idea or commentary toward the end of each week. The last two weeks were an exception as I was on vacation, traveling to visit family in Michigan. I had a great time exchanging genealogical information and old family photos with some of Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-831482962002-10-17T19:28:00.000-07:002002-10-17T19:32:27.000-07:00I'm trying a new way to get word of my blog out in the blogging community. If you would like to help me out, follow the hot link to rate my blog: Is my Blog HOT or NOT?
src="http://blogg.hotornot.com/js/rate/?eid=NLNE&key=CDWQ">Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-830757952002-10-16T12:16:00.000-07:002002-10-16T12:21:38.000-07:00IDEA #10 War and Codependency
The debates and resolution authorizing war in Iraq reminded me of an insight I had 15-20 years ago when the country was awash in its first awareness of something called "codependency." The concept of codependency arose from the alcohol and drug treatment field where it was discovered that the family members of drug- and alcohol-dependent clients/patients had a Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-827588742002-10-09T14:38:00.000-07:002002-10-09T14:41:56.000-07:00IDEA #9 Reducing Greed and Selfishness
We read a lot these days about how greedy and selfish the CEO's and other top executives of our largest corporations are and how their greed has led them to commit crimes that have undermined the economy, bankrupted their employees, and may lead them to spend years of their lives in jail. I don't dispute this analysis, but I think greed and selfishness Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-824479792002-10-02T19:54:00.000-07:002002-10-02T20:01:33.000-07:00IDEA #8 A Balanced K-12 Curriculum
Few people would argue that our American way of life is satisfyingly well-balanced at any stage of life. I believe that our school system has a lot to do with that. In order to free up the maximum number of adults for productive employment outside the home and minimize the number of those adults employed to teach our children, we crowd 25-30 kids into a Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-821612242002-09-26T13:34:00.000-07:002002-09-26T13:34:49.490-07:00IDEA #7 NAPS--Neighborhood-Associated Primary Schools
Some years ago I wrote up a proposal for our local school district for starting Neighborhood-Associated Primary Schools--NAPS. The idea was to have Preschool-Grade 3 in home-like buildings located throughout residential neighborhoods. This would allow children to walk to school, to be near their familiar neighborhood surroundings, to know Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-817951472002-09-18T16:39:00.000-07:002002-09-18T16:39:58.033-07:00Posting the link below to an NPR radio report on Grandfamily House in Boston got me to thinking, and thinking is how I get my ideas worth sharing.
IDEA #6 Replicating Creative Solutions
Many organizations in this country and the world offer annual or periodic prizes for excellence in every conceivable area of accomplishment. Some of those prizes are for wonderful, effective solutions to the Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-817603502002-09-17T22:47:00.000-07:002002-09-17T22:47:36.113-07:00Toni Randolph from NPR station WBUR reports from Boston on the nation's only housing project designed for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. "Grandfamilies House" has been set up with on-site daycare and accommodations for both the elderly and the young. (5:06) This housing project opened with 26 apartments and on-site daycare in 1998 and as yet has not been copied anywhere else Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-814758212002-09-11T14:58:00.000-07:002002-09-14T11:59:27.000-07:00Because today is one year after 9-11 and the horrific and tragic events of that day in 2001, I've decided to take a break from sharing my accumulation of ideas with you and share instead some of the things that have touched me in my remembrance of that day. I have just returned from a commemoration held on the steps of the state capitol in Salem, Oregon, the city I call home. The focus of the Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-812204392002-09-05T20:51:00.000-07:002002-09-05T20:51:00.480-07:00Check out this web address for an article about one way states are beginning to compensate parents for their stay-at-home parenting. Is a paid parent a professional parent? Well, at least it's a step in the right direction, in my view.Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-811590432002-09-04T15:11:00.000-07:002002-09-09T20:30:05.000-07:00Last week I put "Ideas Worth Sharing" into the Google search engine (still my favorite) and found this website listed as the 9th entry out of 208! It looks as though my efforts to make this site accessible are bearing some fruit. However, I still don't know you are reading these ideas. To drop me a line and let me know what you're thinking, just click on the Click Here at the end of any of theBarbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-808410252002-08-28T14:33:00.000-07:002002-08-28T14:33:15.666-07:00I'm still working on getting the word out that this web log exists, but I don't know whether any new readers have been drawn here. If you're new to this site or returning for another idea, WELCOME. I'd love to hear from you--just click where it says Click Here at the end of today's idea and let me know how you found this site and what you think of the ideas presented here. I'd especially like Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-805884222002-08-22T15:55:00.000-07:002002-08-22T15:55:46.280-07:00Here's a bit of feedback on IDEA #3 printed on this site with the permission of the author:
This Nurturing Arts school sounds pretty "new agey" to me, but makes sense. Care would have to be taken to be realist enough to allow these people to work successfully or create viable businesses and programs that use their skills. Those unpleasant realities of business practices, fundraising, grant Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-805438042002-08-21T16:46:00.000-07:002002-09-04T15:05:39.000-07:00 This past week I've registered this web log on some directories so people who don't already know me can find this site, read the ideas posted here and send their own contributions of ideas worth sharing. If you are new or returning to this site, WELCOME. At the end of each week's idea you'll find a sentence inviting you to send in constructive feedback and comments and your own ideas--just Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-802407582002-08-14T11:32:00.000-07:002002-08-14T11:37:39.000-07:00This past week I've been busy learning how to add a hotlink to my weblog and how to link this blog to my email account so that you can quickly and easily send your constructive feedback, comments and ideas worth sharing to me from this site. I've also sent an announcement of the startup of this web log to those family members and friends whose email address I know. I plan to add a new idea (my Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3689606.post-799479662002-08-07T12:12:00.000-07:002002-08-14T11:42:19.000-07:00This is an exciting day for me--I have finally decided to go public with some ideas I've conceived and nurtured for years but have rarely shared outside the circle of my family and a few friends (and some not even there). What brought about this momentous decision? I sent one of my ideas (the one below) to NOW With Bill Moyers (PBS on Fridays at 9 pm) and it was selected to be read (in part) Barbarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710327965785400942noreply@blogger.com