Katherine Phelps

Our culture tends to worship the past and fear the future. We make statues to people who are gone, but fear the changes the future represents, and so tell stories about surviving a bad future where nothing about ourselves has changed. We need more stories where we represent ourselves as caring and mature people who […]

So many practical things we can do to repair our living world. So many things that don’t get done properly when people don’t connect with each others humanity, or every being’s desire to live and to thrive. “Funktionlust” is a characteristic behavioral scientists talk about all animals sharing: they enjoy doing the things which keep […]

We have many pressing issues that require international cooperation. Issues to do with the environment, pandemics, refugees, and more need to be addressed collectively by humanity. Having a body such as the United Nations is important for people’s ability to think of ourselves as in partnership for creating a more peaceable world. The United Nations […]

I believe in the value of human life in all its diversity.I believe in the value of our living world in all its diversity.I understand we live in a world that includes violence, cruelty, and unfairness.We also live in a world where peace and compassion have created change.From my experience the means by which you […]

I am seriously concerned going into 2021. I hope I am wrong. We seem to be descending into greater and greater hostility. My sense is that people are rightfully feeling endangered. However, their solution is to hit at easy targets rather than coming together to create culture change. For instance those who are suffering from […]

A friend made a comment this morning that resonated with me. “How is it that people’s minds are so fragile right now?” How is it that people we have known to be friendly and kind have slipped into hatred? How is it that people who were once willing to reach out a hand to those […]

Stand up to those who are behaving in harmful manners. Refrain from hating them…stay focused on the behaviour. Support and applaud those doing life-affirming actions. Do what you can to amplify the example of life-affirming action, so that it is seen more as the norm and thereby becomes more of the norm. Don’t worry so […]

I object to “nanny state” on the same grounds as I object to “throws like a girl” or “screams like a girl”. The formula is: “this is bad, therefore it is like a female because females are laughably low status.” However, as a metaphor “nanny state” is revealing. Traditionally, nannies have been servants in wealthy […]

So many of us were raised by people who were damaged and who controlled, judged, and manipulated us through physical and/or emotional violence. So many of us are damaged and relate to the world through that damage. To survive others of our kind we resort to the strategies used to protect ourselves from predators: fight, […]

We need to think about many things for when our pandemic quarantine is over. Here are two I would like to mention. Many small businesses have or will go under, leaving us more fully in the hands of the mega-businesses who are non-democratic and tend to be answerable to no one. We have been granting […]