The Big Announcement

Winners of the How We Saved The World Essay Contest

I spent four years, in the late ‘70s, doing hijinks as ELF Enterprises, Unlimiting, where ELF stood for Enlightenment, Love, and Fun. I was Mrs. Elfinself, with my live-in partner, Mr. Elfinself, where we were “putting the elf back in self.” With our song, “We’re Making it All Up, So it Might as Well be Wonderful,” ringing in my ears, here are the wonderful winners of the How We Saved The World Essay Contest.

For a few comments, first, I don’t know any of the winners. And it pains me that others didn’t win. I’d have picked some that you all didn’t. But I’m happy to report that there weren’t any of the twenty finalists that didn’t get any votes. And there are others, besides theirs, that are outstanding -- some have brilliant ideas but didn’t follow the guidelines, with some of the stories being literary gems.  

There were elements repeated in a few submissions that weren’t in any of the winners:

The world becoming vegan combatting global warming

Taylor Swift liking some world-changing something

Marianne Williamson serving as an enlightened president

Psychedelics as the aha they were to me

Also, a number of the submissions have this essay contest, with praise for yours truly, as the impetus for the world getting transformed – what they wrote started it. That none of those won is testimony to how above board the selecting was!

Yesterday, on a Zoom, someone said, “People are committed to what they have a hand in creating.” In moving along, the comments are our think tank. Heads up. Not very long ones, please. Okay to say something about your essay with a link to it, and short quotes are fine. Say thanks by clicking a heart rather than making a post – that sort of thing, to make for good reading as we keep looking for how to turn this world that’s at the brink in a life-giving direction.

What to do with these pieces? I wonder about “a publication,” with all the good ones. All of the entries in the contest will be gone over to extract lines and ideas. Ideas and offers for how to proceed are welcome, with special attention here on having some say about the winning essays.

The floor is open…

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