Will is one of the many facebook friends I can now lean on to
post good and valuable information so that when I scan my
news feed I am enlivened with interesting possibilities and
informative opportunities. As I routinely selected and
eliminated the negative gripers and woe is me-ers from
my everyday interactions (yes I do indeed work my privacy
settings!) that news feed has become a source of information
that lightens and inspires me. I am now quite a fan of good
and judicious sharing through social networks.
Today I clicked on a TED video that Will posted about this
fellow who swam across a newly created lake on Mount
Everest...a lake created as the result of glacial melt.
At the end of his talk, Lewis offers a challenge to each and every one
of us - an opportunity to leave the world a better place for our children
as a result of our own choices today.
Highlighting the man, his acumen and his mission seemed
the right stuff for The Hundredth Monkey view.
Lewis Gordon Pugh loves to pioneer new swimming
routes around or between landmarks once thought unswimmable.
In 2006, he swam the drought-stricken Thames; also that year
he became the first swimmer to do a long-distance swim in all
five oceans of the world. The following year, he made the first
long-distance swim across the North Pole -- where climate
change made the ice temporarily disappear. Heading into the
second decade of his swimming career, he's regarded as the
greatest cold-water swimmer in history.
His swims have given him a sea-level view of our planet,
and inspired him to do his bit to help preserve it. He left a
career in maritime law to become a public speaker on
environmental issues with his group, Polar Defence Project –
and of course to plan more astonishing swims and treks.
In September 2008, Pugh and Robbie Hedgus kayaked
across the Arctic Ocean into the polar ice pack, to raise
awareness of the thinning sea ice and the dangers of
climate change in the Arctic and across the world. And at t
he end of May 2010 he swam 1 kilometer across Pumori,
a meltwater lake situated next to the Khumbu Glacier on Mount
Everest, at an altitude of 5300 meters, to draw attention to the
melting of the Asian glaciers. He completed the swim -- the
highest any person has undertaken -- in less than 23 minutes. He says:
"Glaciers are not just ice:
they are a lifeline,
they provide water to 2 billion people,
and we need to protect them"
Here's a link to the talk - an inspiring time out for you to view and ponder.
What did you come up with that you can commit to?
May it be a blessing to all,
namaste