Thursday, September 13, 2007

VOICES SELECT | GREATER GOOD MAGAZINE: NEW SOURCES OF HOPE

Hillary and I have been looking for a great magazine of real giving and I think Greater Good might just fill the bill. I usually don't look at or read what I perceive as junk direct mail campaigns. This time I opened up the bright sunny package and began reading the appeal, "For too long studies of human emotion have focused on the roots of violence, aggression, and selfishness rather than kindness, compassion, and love. Scientists have charted the "fight or flight" portion of our nervous systems, but they're just starting to map out the pro-social brain. We know more about anger than compassion, more about causes for divorce than what makes long-term intimacy."

I was immediately compelled to further investigate the magazine and what I found is that it's from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. According to Co-editors, Jason Marsh and Dr. Dacher Keltner, the Greater Good, "fuses ground-breaking research with inspiring stories...on human happiness, virtue and well-being." Here's the best part, "it explains how to convert the research into action." Greater Good is tailor-made for my interests and clearly speaks to me.

They are now on their 7th issue and the website is terrific, with podcasts and a lot of great information.