Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is an Emmy Award-winning composer, NY Times best-selling author and noted philanthropist. Currently, he is releasing socially-conscious music and touring his "Concert & Conversation" series in support of his book Life Is What You Make It . 



From Wikipedia, we see there are multiple definitions for the term "May Day:"

1) May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, etc…

2) International Workers' Day (also known as May Day) is a celebration of the international labor movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labor unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries. It is also celebrated unofficially in many other countries.

3) Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me." It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by mariners and aviators, but in some countries local organizations such as police forces, firefighters, and transportation organizations also use the term.

In this song, I attempt to combine elements of all three definitions. Because I see them as related.

“May Day” by Peter Buffett
 
Over time, it seems that many people in the “developed” world have lost their connection to the natural world, mostly through the belief that Man has dominion over nature. Instead of celebrating our connection and relationship to the changing seasons and cycles of nature—as in the original May Day—we have turned it into a spring holiday. Thankfully, it’s not as blatant as the coopting of many of the early pagan celebrations that have been converted into religious holidays—another variation on changing the story.

Changing the story can lead to confusion about what’s real. We feel the natural world working all around us. When events are shifted and renamed to achieve a different goal (like belief in a particular religious story or to reach any end that isn’t rooted in the true meaning of the event) the mind and body get confused. This feeling can disappear over time, but there’s something lingering, I think.

Consider Standard Time. It was established in 1883. Before that, there were hundreds if not thousands of local times. The railroad network in the US made standard time necessary. So suddenly a grid was placed over people’s sense of time. For many, time was marked by events—time to get up, breakfast time, time for lunch, etc.—marked by the placement of the sun in the sky. Now it was 8 a.m., 12 p.m. etc… no matter where the sun happened to be, the clock told you what time it was. People were very upset about this mandated shift in their sense of time.

Now you may think this is a stretch, but I believe that this grid—stretching from the clock to education practices to the economic system—while making “sense” for so many, actually stresses the natural rhythms of our true nature. Which leads to definition number two: social unrest. We’re seeing it every day, sometimes by groups ridiculed by not having a distinct plan or list of demands. But I believe it’s because the unrest lies in something so systemic that the system as we know it can’t respond to the changes needed. It needs to shift (back) in fundamental ways. This does not mean that all current aspects of life need to end (clocks, etc.)! But our relationships to these things do need to be reevaluated and put into perspective. And the story needs to change.

This is a process and a dialogue. I’m not claiming to have answers. Only some thoughts that I hope will lead to a conversation around how we make the world a more just and equitable place, and in better relationship to the natural world we inhabit.

Which leads to the last definition. The state that we are in is indeed more than life threatening—it’s taking lives every day. We are in a state of emergency on the planet. This does not have to lead to chaos ... not revolution, but evolution.

But I will confirm that the sinking ships had something fundamentally correct: Women and children first.

Visit www.peterbuffett.com andChange Our Storyto learn more. 

Image courtesy of Speculum Mundi, licensed under Creative Commons. 

Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is an Emmy Award-winning composer, NY Times best-selling author and noted philanthropist. Currently, he is releasing socially-conscious music and touring his "Concert & Conversation" series in support of his book Life Is What You Make It . 



This is a song about relationships:

“Without You” by Peter Buffett

It's about the fact that when we find truth in ourselves, we find it reflected in everything around us. We can only have authenticity if we ourselves are authentic. We will only see love and vulnerability when we allow the same in ourselves. 

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. - Martin Luther King Jr. 

Let’s look no further than Rush Limbaugh. Rush is clearly hurting. His need to name call is such a clear reflection of someone that is wounded from the very same thing. This doesn’t make it okay. But it makes it possible to have compassion – even as you may feel intensely that he should never be heard from again. I don’t respect his opinion, but I have respect for how it was formed.  Rush has shown us who he is.

I believe that we form our first line of defense from the center of our deepest wounds. Then, I find that compassion can come naturally. Imagine a light saber burning with intensity being powered by personal trauma. This power can also be used positively; Eve Ensler’s phrase, “pain to power,” and her body of work, show that this power can be an incredible force for good. But most of us are too afraid of being hurt—of showing vulnerability. Massive walls get built to protect us from reliving the pain that was created so long ago.  And we play this out on many levels. People that are in positions of power end up hurting entire social, environmental, political and economic systems—public destruction that starts with personal pain.

When I was a kid, I remember my cousin telling me about how terrible the Soviet Union was. They were the enemy. My response was, “Don’t we need them so that we’re the good guys?” It seemed so obvious that the relationship was critical to keeping things in balance.

So, where to begin healing these wounds? With a new respect and understanding of what it means to be in relationships, with ourselves first, then with each other, and extending out to everything in the world around us. 

“And when I touch you I feel happy…. inside” - Lennon and McCartney 

Beyond just one of the five senses, touch runs deeper. Being in touch with our inner selves means being connected to what makes us feel, and feel things in others. When you’re “touched” the feeling starts in the heart. And it allows—maybe for just a moment—vulnerability. Which is the key and necessary ingredient to being in open, honest relationship. Once it’s clear that being vulnerable is a courageous act. It allows for interaction in empathic ways that neutralize artificial boundaries created out of fear. “Us and them” melts away.
 
“I wouldn’t be without you
nothing to see without you” 

“Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone.” - Margaret Wheatley  

Visit www.peterbuffett.com andChange Our Storyto learn more. 

Image courtesy of josie lynn richards, licensed under Creative Commons. 

Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is an Emmy Award-winning composer, NY Times best-selling author and noted philanthropist. Currently, he is releasing socially-conscious music and touring his "Concert & Conversation" series in support of his book Life Is What You Make It . 

 

This is a song about safety:

“I Won’t Let Go” by Peter Buffett

From the moment we’re born we rely on someone else for our very survival.

If carbon is the basic building block of life, I believe that safety is the most elemental component in a relationship. It’s what we needed first – and what continues to be necessary in order to grow into who we become. “You’re so becoming” is my favorite compliment.

When safety gives us a bed to sleep in at night and animates us during the day we’re allowed to live with our hearts open.

And safety comes in many forms:

• Knowing we’re going to eat (at least 17 million children in the US don’t know where their next meal will come from, and 17,000 children die of starvation every day worldwide). 

• Knowing we’ll be safe from physical and/or emotional abuse (the numbers regarding how many people are subjected to abuse in its many forms—and its effects—are staggering).

• Simply feeling heard, knowing that your thoughts and feelings matter.

• Knowing that someone will always be there, which is comforting to say the least.

What’s keeping us from these feelings of safety? I would look to what generates and perpetuates fear.

Again, these things come in many forms, and range from topical saturation (the way we get our news and are marketed to) to systemic (taxes required to sustain the military industrial complex – a double dose of fear: higher taxes and annihilation). Meanwhile, pharmaceuticals are there to numb the fear and stress, which is very different than feeling safe.

How can we change the story—individually and throughout society—so more people feel safe and secure?

If the song’s ending surprises you, think of it as letting go—a “trust fall.” I remember doing that with my dad as a kid. Falling backward and believing he would catch me (he did!).  That is transforming fear (falling and getting hurt) into safety ... in the form of trust.

Visit www.peterbuffett.com andChange Our Storyto learn more. 

Image courtesy of genvessel, licensed under Creative Commons. 

Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is an Emmy Award-winning composer, NY Times best-selling author and noted philanthropist. Currently, he is releasing socially-conscious music and touring his “Concert & Conversation” series in support of his book Life Is What You Make It. 

Since “Independence Day” just passed, I thought I’d offer up aspects of that story that we sometimes forget in all the celebratory activity.

When a business wants to show that they’ve been around awhile they, quite naturally, display how long they’ve been established. You’ve seen the signage: Est. 1897… Est. 1974… whatever the number is that will give the business some heft. And, of course, the date chosen is the very earliest they could possibly make the claim. Longevity translates to stability, and you can trust stability.

So July 4, 1776 is America’s date of establishment (even though most historians agree that the Declaration of Independence was signed August 2 of that year - a month is not such a big deal). However, a declaration is just a declaration, much the same as me declaring that my crush in junior high was my girlfriend. If the other party disagrees, does it still make it so?

So when were we actually free from Great Britain’s rule? Well, the war ended in October 1781 and the “formal abandonment of claims” happened with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.  Governance issues were finally settled on with the ratification of the Constitution in 1788 and the Bill of Rights in 1791.

On the other hand, historians pin the revolutionary era beginning when the French no longer had a hold on the country. This happened in 1763 after British victories in the French and Indian War. Or perhaps the date should be when fighting broke out by colonists under the yoke of British rule on April 19, 1775.

My favorite Mark Twain quote is, “history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

All agree that the revolution started because of a series of provocative laws (Citizens United, anyone?). One of the first was the Navigation Acts. As you might expect, it was all about the money; specifically that the colonies could only do business with Britain. This led to open ended search warrants (hmm...) and when a Boston lawyer, James Otis, argued against this in 1761, he lost. But James Madison is quoted as saying, “Then and there the child of Independence was born.”

My real point to all this history is that few things happen on a particular day. Of course, we need a specific date to celebrate. But we can’t forget that things develop over periods of time, and it takes time to settle back into a new paradigm. Even a birth started with conception, and before that some sort of attraction. And anyone that’s changed a diaper knows that it takes awhile to conform to the new reality.

I wonder if we’ll look back at the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2000 election ... the multiple wars that are sapping this country of its common wealth ... the Citizens United decision that corporations are people ... Occupy Wall Street; so many indicators that something is off track.

Maybe some new Thomas Paine will write an update—Common Cents—because there are so many in poverty in this land of opportunity.

One of the most curious things about the American Revolution is that it’s the only revolution that was fought so that things could essentially stay the same. Generally speaking, things were going very well in the colonies.

Only now are things feeling unjust for the majority. What’s becoming exceptional about America is its silence in the face of slow decline; its complacency in the face of the dissolution of so many things that are critical to a strong, vibrant community of people. What’s the story?

Visit www.peterbuffett.com andChange Our Storyto learn more. 

Image courtesy ofJimBowen0306, licensed under Creative Commons. 

Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is an Emmy Award-winning composer, NY Times best-selling author and noted philanthropist. Currently, he is releasing socially-conscious music and touring his “Concert & Conversation” series in support of his book Life Is What You Make It.    
 
  

“Bought and Sold” by Peter Buffett

I keep coming back to the question, “how much is enough?”

Now you may think that’s a pretty ironic question coming from the son of one of the richest people in the world. But actually, it might just make me an expert on the subject. You see, my dad is the poster boy for the question. He has all the money anyone could ever want and he doesn’t need another house, fancier food, more people around him telling him he’s important, more stuff on his shelves or the latest electronic gadget in his pocket. None of it would make him happier than he is already—doing what he loves.

So how much is enough? What are these CEO’s and hedgefund guys spending their money on ... or more importantly why? Who needs that much money? Their need to line their pockets and hoard as much as possible speaks to the larger question of personal responsibility, moral bankruptcy and a need to fill a bottomless hole caused by ... what?

The American dream is mostly just that—a dream. Which doesn’t mean it’s not worth believing in or working towards. But this country was built on domination and exploitation—it’s no wonder it’s in the fabric of our banks, corporations and government. It really couldn’t be any other way. You reap what you sow. You can’t start a declaration of independence with the phrase “all men are created equal” written by slaveholders and not expect a schizophrenic start to a republic.

So let’s take another comment from Thomas Jefferson:

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their ancestors." 

And one from Albert Einstein:

“You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. You must learn to see the world anew.” 

Jefferson expects our laws and constitutions to change as man becomes more enlightened. Are we there yet?

And Einstein reminds us that for this current crises—or any problem—to be solved we have to see the world anew.

It’s time for real change—difficult, messy, confusing, enthralling change.

Let’s look into the heart and soul of America. Accept that it was built on a shaky foundation and start very carefully dismantling the broken pieces until we have families and communities that are built on real trust; that can support business leaders and politicians that can sit at the table, look us in the eye and say, “we are here because of you, so we will honor your needs and protect what you hold most dear. Most importantly, we will make sure future generations are left with a better world.”

Visit www.peterbuffett.com andChange Our Storyto learn more. 

Image courtesy ofComputerGuy, licensed under Creative Commons.