Addendum on Metaphor:
Recently, James Taylor has been covering a great Leonard Cohen song called Suzanne. In the second verse of the song, Cohen writes that "Jesus was a sailor..." Perhaps I love this song so much because I can't really fathom what is going on. The imagery and metaphor is so rich, I could hear it on a thousand runs and not get enough. Finding a decent recording of James Taylor doing the song on YouTube proved impossible. There is one live recording posted there in which he seems to have a sore throat. So isntead I will include here a recording of Cohen himself doing the song, along with Judy Collins, as recorded three decades ago.
Here is another song by James Taylor, the great bard of Chapel Hill, NC.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
I will write a book about metaphor.
Metaphor is a way to tell a truth that is hard to describe with simple definitional thinking.
If I tell you that I like you, you have gained a certain amount of information about the general vector of my feelings. But if I tell you that you are my sunshine, then I have told you much more. The metaphor allows you to tap into all of your personal connections with the notion of sunshine... lying on the beach and basking in its glow... just feeling warmth on your face, perhaps... or maybe you'll recall a moment you felt exultant and free. Sunshine is brightness, warmth, light, and, somehow, joy. The metaphor allows you to understand more deeply how I feel about you.
Jesus, the greatest truth teller of all time, often relied on metaphor to get his teaching across. It was as if he were saying, look, you'll never fully understand the fullness of God's creation, as it cannot be described with mere words. So let me give you some metaphors and imagery that will at least give you a glimpse.
In John 14, for example, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Reading this in context, the disciples are pressing Jesus for details... what exactly is the right path for us? And Jesus responds with not one, but four metaphors.
The way: a path, a road or lane, a method, a practice. So in seeking the way, you will find Jesus, and as he says a verse later, you'll better understand the Father.
The truth: Jesus is saying that in following him, in emulating his way of being in the world, we'll better understand the truth about creation and about ourselves. Truth is a larger thing than a rule. While the disciples may have pressed him for specifics, Jesus was saying look, you know how I feel about those Pharisees who put rules and laws above love and kindness. Just follow that one law I gave you about loving one another, and the rest will fall into place.
The life: although he was a man, Jesus was not talking about life in a literal, biological sense. I think he meant that matters of the spirit are the essence of what life is about. I love my life so much, and since Jesus has established this connection, it seems that I love Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit almost by transitivity.
So when we want to know who Jesus was, he suggests that we think about these metaphors and that in this manner we'll come closer to a true understanding. So I will try to understand and tell truth, I will seek the way by paying attention to everything around me and I will respect the ways that others seek God. And I will love my life, and all aspects of my life, because somehow that is loving Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Creator and his (her) creation.
Finally, we are so used to thinking of God as the Father that we forget this is a metaphor too. It is not too likely that God is a biological form, so I think fatherhood is suggested as a metaphor for thinking about the way God loves us. I know I can tap into that just by thinking of my own son.
The notion of "the Holy Trinity" is not directly addressed in the Bible. But I think it is a helpful concept. In John 14, Jesus is trying to tell us about his connection to the father. And here, more than anywhere else, I think, he explains about the Holy Spirit, and how the spirit is there to guide and comfort us.
My American Indian friends use many of the same metaphors in understanding God that we do in Christianity. They speak of the great spirit, or just the spirit, and use the flame or a piece of fire as a metaphor for thinking about the spirit. Sort of like we do in our story of Pentecost. And they speak of "the Creator," often using fatherhood as a metaphor for thinking about God.
As I read about other religions, I am struck by the similarity of metaphors that are used in hopes of clarifying meaning. Maybe it is sort of an archetypal thing, as it seems we were all born under the same God, and can understand things of the spirit by meditating on the metaphors of the way, truth, and life.
Here is the full text of John 14...
John 14
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
"Come now; let us leave.
Metaphor is a way to tell a truth that is hard to describe with simple definitional thinking.
If I tell you that I like you, you have gained a certain amount of information about the general vector of my feelings. But if I tell you that you are my sunshine, then I have told you much more. The metaphor allows you to tap into all of your personal connections with the notion of sunshine... lying on the beach and basking in its glow... just feeling warmth on your face, perhaps... or maybe you'll recall a moment you felt exultant and free. Sunshine is brightness, warmth, light, and, somehow, joy. The metaphor allows you to understand more deeply how I feel about you.
Jesus, the greatest truth teller of all time, often relied on metaphor to get his teaching across. It was as if he were saying, look, you'll never fully understand the fullness of God's creation, as it cannot be described with mere words. So let me give you some metaphors and imagery that will at least give you a glimpse.
In John 14, for example, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Reading this in context, the disciples are pressing Jesus for details... what exactly is the right path for us? And Jesus responds with not one, but four metaphors.
The way: a path, a road or lane, a method, a practice. So in seeking the way, you will find Jesus, and as he says a verse later, you'll better understand the Father.
The truth: Jesus is saying that in following him, in emulating his way of being in the world, we'll better understand the truth about creation and about ourselves. Truth is a larger thing than a rule. While the disciples may have pressed him for specifics, Jesus was saying look, you know how I feel about those Pharisees who put rules and laws above love and kindness. Just follow that one law I gave you about loving one another, and the rest will fall into place.
The life: although he was a man, Jesus was not talking about life in a literal, biological sense. I think he meant that matters of the spirit are the essence of what life is about. I love my life so much, and since Jesus has established this connection, it seems that I love Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit almost by transitivity.
So when we want to know who Jesus was, he suggests that we think about these metaphors and that in this manner we'll come closer to a true understanding. So I will try to understand and tell truth, I will seek the way by paying attention to everything around me and I will respect the ways that others seek God. And I will love my life, and all aspects of my life, because somehow that is loving Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Creator and his (her) creation.
Finally, we are so used to thinking of God as the Father that we forget this is a metaphor too. It is not too likely that God is a biological form, so I think fatherhood is suggested as a metaphor for thinking about the way God loves us. I know I can tap into that just by thinking of my own son.
The notion of "the Holy Trinity" is not directly addressed in the Bible. But I think it is a helpful concept. In John 14, Jesus is trying to tell us about his connection to the father. And here, more than anywhere else, I think, he explains about the Holy Spirit, and how the spirit is there to guide and comfort us.
My American Indian friends use many of the same metaphors in understanding God that we do in Christianity. They speak of the great spirit, or just the spirit, and use the flame or a piece of fire as a metaphor for thinking about the spirit. Sort of like we do in our story of Pentecost. And they speak of "the Creator," often using fatherhood as a metaphor for thinking about God.
As I read about other religions, I am struck by the similarity of metaphors that are used in hopes of clarifying meaning. Maybe it is sort of an archetypal thing, as it seems we were all born under the same God, and can understand things of the spirit by meditating on the metaphors of the way, truth, and life.
Here is the full text of John 14...
John 14
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
"Come now; let us leave.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
I will write a book called How to Have a Good Idea.
In the movie Working Girl, Tess, the lead character played by Melanie Griffith, comes up with a creative idea for how to accomplish a corporate merger, but as a mere “working girl” she is not in a position to get her idea heard. Katherine, the villainess of the story played by Sigourney Weaver, does have a position of influence and puts Tess’s idea forth as her own. In the pivotal scene of the movie, Tess gains access to the company CEO (through Harrison Ford’s kind assistance) and tells him how she conceived of the idea: she was reading a gossip column in a tabloid newspaper, turned to the business pages, and had an epiphany. She saw a connection of ideas that she realized would apply to the strategic situation confronting the company.
When confronted, Katherine cannot account for how the solution occurred to her. She has no “epiphanal moment” to share. She cannot point to any preparation of mind or to any trigger or stimulus that would plausibly lead to the conception of an idea. The lack of a trail of thoughts “proves” that the idea was not hers. The wise CEO recognizes this, gives Tess a desirable job, and bumps Katherine out of the company as the movie moves to a satisfying Hollywood ending. That ending is believable because the notion of a trail of thoughts as a prerequisite for an idea—a period of preparation followed by a burst of inspiration—is consistent with the way people replace old thinking with new.
Consider the remarkable mind of the nineteenth-century French mathematician Henri Poincaré. His work set the stage for many of the profound theories of the twentieth century in applied mathematics, physics, and celestial mechanics—indeed, Poincaré sketched out a preliminary version of the special theory of relativity, later fleshed out by Albert Einstein. During a period in which he was working hard on a vexing mathematical problem, circumstances led Poincaré to do some travel and to get his mind off of his mathematical work. Following a whim, he decided to board a bus, just for the ride. As Poincaré says, “I entered an omnibus to go to some place or other. At that moment when I put my foot on the step the idea came to me, without anything in my former thoughts seeming to have paved the way for it, that the transformations I had used to define the Fuchsian functions were identical with non-Euclidean geometry.” That is, Poincaré experienced a jolt from the blue, a sudden insight and answer to his intellectual questions that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Strategy-making begins with an idea, and yet many articles and books about strategy do not address the question of how to generate ideas. The typical tome provides a new way of analyzing and understanding the strategic situation without showing ways to conceive of new and profitable directions to take. An old Steve Martin gag comes to mind. “You say to me, Steve, how can I be a millionaire and not pay taxes? It’s simple... first, get a million dollars.” Unfortunately, the little step at the beginning can be the hardest part. To understand just how to derive ideas for solutions to strategic problems, let’s look at the creative process itself.
Before the moment of illumination can arrive, though, the brain needs to “let go” of concentrated effort, engaging the less structured thinking of the right brain in a manner called incubation. During a relaxed theta brain state, new connections can be formed. Once illumination, such as the flash of insight as experienced by the mathematician Poincaré or the working girl Tess, has occurred, the left brain must take over to verify, or evaluate, the efficacy of the idea at hand.
In the movie Working Girl, Tess, the lead character played by Melanie Griffith, comes up with a creative idea for how to accomplish a corporate merger, but as a mere “working girl” she is not in a position to get her idea heard. Katherine, the villainess of the story played by Sigourney Weaver, does have a position of influence and puts Tess’s idea forth as her own. In the pivotal scene of the movie, Tess gains access to the company CEO (through Harrison Ford’s kind assistance) and tells him how she conceived of the idea: she was reading a gossip column in a tabloid newspaper, turned to the business pages, and had an epiphany. She saw a connection of ideas that she realized would apply to the strategic situation confronting the company.When confronted, Katherine cannot account for how the solution occurred to her. She has no “epiphanal moment” to share. She cannot point to any preparation of mind or to any trigger or stimulus that would plausibly lead to the conception of an idea. The lack of a trail of thoughts “proves” that the idea was not hers. The wise CEO recognizes this, gives Tess a desirable job, and bumps Katherine out of the company as the movie moves to a satisfying Hollywood ending. That ending is believable because the notion of a trail of thoughts as a prerequisite for an idea—a period of preparation followed by a burst of inspiration—is consistent with the way people replace old thinking with new.
Consider the remarkable mind of the nineteenth-century French mathematician Henri Poincaré. His work set the stage for many of the profound theories of the twentieth century in applied mathematics, physics, and celestial mechanics—indeed, Poincaré sketched out a preliminary version of the special theory of relativity, later fleshed out by Albert Einstein. During a period in which he was working hard on a vexing mathematical problem, circumstances led Poincaré to do some travel and to get his mind off of his mathematical work. Following a whim, he decided to board a bus, just for the ride. As Poincaré says, “I entered an omnibus to go to some place or other. At that moment when I put my foot on the step the idea came to me, without anything in my former thoughts seeming to have paved the way for it, that the transformations I had used to define the Fuchsian functions were identical with non-Euclidean geometry.” That is, Poincaré experienced a jolt from the blue, a sudden insight and answer to his intellectual questions that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Strategy-making begins with an idea, and yet many articles and books about strategy do not address the question of how to generate ideas. The typical tome provides a new way of analyzing and understanding the strategic situation without showing ways to conceive of new and profitable directions to take. An old Steve Martin gag comes to mind. “You say to me, Steve, how can I be a millionaire and not pay taxes? It’s simple... first, get a million dollars.” Unfortunately, the little step at the beginning can be the hardest part. To understand just how to derive ideas for solutions to strategic problems, let’s look at the creative process itself.
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These steps illustrate the variety of thinking modes necessary to generate and nurture useful ideas. The creative process begins as an individual immerses him or herself in a field of interest or in a problem to be solved. As Malcolm Gladwell has shown in Outliers, mastery of a field generally takes 10,000 hours of concentration in that knowledge domain. With time and practice, the individual learns to recognize patterns where others don’t and begin to recognize gaps in knowledge and begin to make new connections in order to solve or fill in these gaps.
Before the moment of illumination can arrive, though, the brain needs to “let go” of concentrated effort, engaging the less structured thinking of the right brain in a manner called incubation. During a relaxed theta brain state, new connections can be formed. Once illumination, such as the flash of insight as experienced by the mathematician Poincaré or the working girl Tess, has occurred, the left brain must take over to verify, or evaluate, the efficacy of the idea at hand.
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A little Dave Matthews seems to fit here:
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Sunday, July 26, 2009
I will write a book that teaches people over fifty how and why to run.
The book will start out with a nice bit of text about how to get ready for your run.
Twenty five years ago, you just needed two things to run... a right shoe and a left shoe. You could get up from the couch during the opening shots of Miami Vice.... where they showed the water and the speed boats and the apparently pastel city of Miami... and be out the door in seconds. You'd be back at your couch before the guys wrapped up their latest drug bust.
Oh, how things have changed... Now you must get up from the blog you are writing and make sure the orthotics are in your running shoes. You sure don't want to get that plantars fascitis again...
Then you've got to find your iPod/iPhone. The point of being out there is, after all, the chance to find and think your own thoughts and those are much easier to come by with some good music.
The book will start out with a nice bit of text about how to get ready for your run.
Twenty five years ago, you just needed two things to run... a right shoe and a left shoe. You could get up from the couch during the opening shots of Miami Vice.... where they showed the water and the speed boats and the apparently pastel city of Miami... and be out the door in seconds. You'd be back at your couch before the guys wrapped up their latest drug bust.
Oh, how things have changed... Now you must get up from the blog you are writing and make sure the orthotics are in your running shoes. You sure don't want to get that plantars fascitis again...
Then you've got to find your iPod/iPhone. The point of being out there is, after all, the chance to find and think your own thoughts and those are much easier to come by with some good music.
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Then you need your reading glasses so you can see what it says on the iPhone.
Some cookies should be in your pocket in case you took too much insulin... you'll want to have an emergency supply of glucose after all. When you are smart, you put the cookies in a little plastic bag so they don't get your pocket all crumbed up...
Some cookies should be in your pocket in case you took too much insulin... you'll want to have an emergency supply of glucose after all. When you are smart, you put the cookies in a little plastic bag so they don't get your pocket all crumbed up...
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Some swear by a watch, but I just use the iPhone. Consider this optional.
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Oh, don't forget to grab an arm band with a place to fit the iPhone so you won't have to hold the thing in your hand.
Thank goodness you don't need a cell phone anymore. Like your new iPhone, cell phones are handy in case you have to call 911 on yourself in the event of a sudden collapse from heat stroke or something... (none yet, thankfully).
If you are running in the sun, do some sunscreen before you go. Tan is no longer as cool as it was for the Miami Vice guys. Maybe a five dollar bill in your pocket, in case you want to stop somewhere for gatorade.
Oh, get your sun glasses of course...
and a baseball hat...
and one of those shirts that is supposed to wick away the sweat...
And that should do it. You're ready to go and you should be back before Letterman.
There will be no chapter in the book about stretching before going out. There is never enough time to do that anyway.
Thank goodness you don't need a cell phone anymore. Like your new iPhone, cell phones are handy in case you have to call 911 on yourself in the event of a sudden collapse from heat stroke or something... (none yet, thankfully).
If you are running in the sun, do some sunscreen before you go. Tan is no longer as cool as it was for the Miami Vice guys. Maybe a five dollar bill in your pocket, in case you want to stop somewhere for gatorade.
Oh, get your sun glasses of course...
and a baseball hat...
and one of those shirts that is supposed to wick away the sweat...
And that should do it. You're ready to go and you should be back before Letterman.
There will be no chapter in the book about stretching before going out. There is never enough time to do that anyway.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
I will write a book about the greatest books of all time. I'll have to do a lot of reseach and will need some friends... a book club of sorts... to help me figure out where to start.
Here is a link to 100 good ones.
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
Here is a link to 100 good ones.
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
Saturday, July 18, 2009
I will write a book about time. How it goes by, but doesn't really. James Taylor says that the thing about time is that time isn't really real. I think he is right because I have noticed lately that for the things that are most important, the passage of time doesn't seem to make much difference at all. To paraphrase Faulkner, the past is ... never really past. The moments of my life that matter most to me are right here, just under the surface. They are hardly past at all. And hardly buried. There is no question these moments will be with me as long as I live.
I was wandering around a used book store the other day and came across so many treasures... from Shakespeare to Sherlock Holmes to Jane Austin... about the brain, strategy, nature, the civil war. I had a use for this one and a person for that one. Each book seemed to be a portal from where I stood to somewhere I wanted to be. As I laid my hand over the books, I could almost feel the connectedness from all I have experienced to the moments and people I long for.
From neurologist Richard Restak: “James Joyce described walking into a library in search of inspiration and aimlessly wandering around, fully expecting to encounter by chance a book relevant to the subject he was thinking of writing at the time. He expressed a basic trust in this seemingly chaotic method. I think it perfectly complemented his intensely methodical and detailed approach to writing.”
Joyce, it seems, was looking for just the right portal that would take him to where he needed to be.
My friend Restak is a neuroscientist, not a poet, so his words can be a little didactic... But let me quote him anyway... "If you want your brain to function optimally, eliminate the tendency to deal with everything in strictly chronological terms. Allow events from different times of your life to coexist in your memory. As philosopher Immanuel Kant and others have suggested, time, space, and chronology are essentially only creations of our brain. Therefore, it’s important that you do away with the idea that the world must correspond to illusions of sequence and rational order. "
Decidedly unpoetic... But I know that when I interact with my son, he is there in all his ages. I might throw my arm around his broadening shoulders, but simultaneously, I hold him in my arms as I did when he was a baby, and laugh as he plays with a hose on the driveway as a toddler. To me, the moment at hand is just the portal to so much more. These moments are there for me whenever I want them. I could not live without these times that mean so much to me. My life is all right there... in a seamless unity.
In this song (link just below), the writer deals with these issues of past, present and future. He wonders and wishes about the future, but simultaneously longs for the past and desperately wishes that he could "turn back time." As with any good art, the listener can draw his or her own connections. Some parts of this song don't relate directly to my own situation, but the theme of past, present and future, and where I'll be in the context of those I love, is one that matters to me a lot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRCNZ8JALms
As Jason Mraz says, "I am lucky to heve been where I have been." Even now... just this instant, I am somewhere far far away. No worries though, I'll be back in just a sec'.
I was wandering around a used book store the other day and came across so many treasures... from Shakespeare to Sherlock Holmes to Jane Austin... about the brain, strategy, nature, the civil war. I had a use for this one and a person for that one. Each book seemed to be a portal from where I stood to somewhere I wanted to be. As I laid my hand over the books, I could almost feel the connectedness from all I have experienced to the moments and people I long for.
From neurologist Richard Restak: “James Joyce described walking into a library in search of inspiration and aimlessly wandering around, fully expecting to encounter by chance a book relevant to the subject he was thinking of writing at the time. He expressed a basic trust in this seemingly chaotic method. I think it perfectly complemented his intensely methodical and detailed approach to writing.”
Joyce, it seems, was looking for just the right portal that would take him to where he needed to be.
My friend Restak is a neuroscientist, not a poet, so his words can be a little didactic... But let me quote him anyway... "If you want your brain to function optimally, eliminate the tendency to deal with everything in strictly chronological terms. Allow events from different times of your life to coexist in your memory. As philosopher Immanuel Kant and others have suggested, time, space, and chronology are essentially only creations of our brain. Therefore, it’s important that you do away with the idea that the world must correspond to illusions of sequence and rational order. "
Decidedly unpoetic... But I know that when I interact with my son, he is there in all his ages. I might throw my arm around his broadening shoulders, but simultaneously, I hold him in my arms as I did when he was a baby, and laugh as he plays with a hose on the driveway as a toddler. To me, the moment at hand is just the portal to so much more. These moments are there for me whenever I want them. I could not live without these times that mean so much to me. My life is all right there... in a seamless unity.
In this song (link just below), the writer deals with these issues of past, present and future. He wonders and wishes about the future, but simultaneously longs for the past and desperately wishes that he could "turn back time." As with any good art, the listener can draw his or her own connections. Some parts of this song don't relate directly to my own situation, but the theme of past, present and future, and where I'll be in the context of those I love, is one that matters to me a lot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRCNZ8JALms
As Jason Mraz says, "I am lucky to heve been where I have been." Even now... just this instant, I am somewhere far far away. No worries though, I'll be back in just a sec'.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I will write a book about the greatest movie scenes of all time. Here is a sample...
The pastor of our church is teaching a sermon series using Juicy Fruit gum as a metaphor for the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Ken Kesey, the novelist who wrote the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, also seized on Juicy Fruit for its symbolic value. The novel uses a huge Native American as the protagonist who tells the story of "Mac" who arrives at 60's style insane asylum as a messianic figure ... of sorts. Mac is full of life, vim and vigor; his mental illness appears limited to a lack of tact and a disrespect for rules. To the other, truly injured patients, Mac carries a message of freedom and hope. In this scene, "the Chief" as he is called, opens up to Mac in an exchange over a stick of Juicy Fruit gum.
In the scene above, we learn that the Chief is not deaf and dumb, but just hiding in the asylum as a defense against his fears of an outside world that has treated him, and his people, with cruelty and disregard. In the scene below, you'll see the Chief in an earlier sequence, still in disguise, looking on as Mac tries to lead the group in an escape toward the pleasures of the outside world.
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kPrfpDDlMX8&hl=en&fs=1&">
The pastor of our church is teaching a sermon series using Juicy Fruit gum as a metaphor for the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Ken Kesey, the novelist who wrote the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, also seized on Juicy Fruit for its symbolic value. The novel uses a huge Native American as the protagonist who tells the story of "Mac" who arrives at 60's style insane asylum as a messianic figure ... of sorts. Mac is full of life, vim and vigor; his mental illness appears limited to a lack of tact and a disrespect for rules. To the other, truly injured patients, Mac carries a message of freedom and hope. In this scene, "the Chief" as he is called, opens up to Mac in an exchange over a stick of Juicy Fruit gum.
In the scene above, we learn that the Chief is not deaf and dumb, but just hiding in the asylum as a defense against his fears of an outside world that has treated him, and his people, with cruelty and disregard. In the scene below, you'll see the Chief in an earlier sequence, still in disguise, looking on as Mac tries to lead the group in an escape toward the pleasures of the outside world.
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kPrfpDDlMX8&hl=en&fs=1&">
In the final scene of the movie -- perhaps the best movie ending I've ever seen -- the Chief is horrified to find that Mac has been given a frontal lobotomy, effectively killing off the essential aspects of his personality. Watch as the Chief decides to carry Mac with him in a long-awaited quest for freedom, just as we carry the Holy Spirit inside of us in our own life journeys.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I will write a book that will help young people make life decisions. At the end of this blog entry, I will list some "facilitative questions" that I would ask the young person in hopes of elucidating the decision process. Warning, the notes below are a little jargony, and they were intended originally to relate to organizational decision making. So all of this must be adapted. When the book comes out, I will try to make it practical rather than theoretical.
The power to choose. To decide the course our lives will follow. What a remarkable privilege! We make an extraordinary number of decisions in our lives—from the direction of our next step to the place we’ll reside, work, and play. Abraham Maslow said, “Let us think of life as a progression of choices, one after the other.” Indeed, the story of our lives can be told as an account of the decisions we have made. We are afforded the opportunity to craft the days of our lives just as the artist enjoys the freedom of creation.
Despite this freedom, many of the things we do in life do not spring from deliberate choices; they are simply a matter of follow-through on earlier decisions. Most of the smaller, tactical decisions we make are pre-ordained to some degree by the larger, strategic decisions that we have made, or that others have made, in the past.
Then there are the decisions we make in our business, family, and political lives that begin to feel like Hobson’s choices. Thomas Hobson was a liveryman in the seventeenth century who, legend has it, offered his customers this choice: take any horse you like as long as it’s the one nearest the door. We feel, in other words, that we are not really making decisions at all because there seems to be only one course we can take.
But there is another course open to us—and that is to become strategic, rather than reactive, in determining the course of our lives, businesses, and nations. Strategy is, simply, the art and science of options. It is a matter of understanding current options, creating new options, and choosing among them.
In the business context, strategic decisions always involve trade-offs, since it is axiomatic that no company or organization has unlimited resources.
In strategic circumstances, doing one thing often means that you cannot do another. In the 1990s, for example, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates made the strategic choice to bet the future of his company on the internet, redeploying the lion’s share of resources from such previous priorities as CD-ROM content. Families, too, are faced with strategic choices that set direction and have long-term consequences. Decisions such as where to live, where to work, and where to go to school mark pivotal moments in our lives.
History has been described as “a drama of uncertainty resolved by decision.” To resolve present uncertainties, leaders have often turned to the past for guidance. General Douglas McArthur looked to the past as he led American armies in World War II and the Korean conflict. In his memoirs, McArthur encouraged field leaders to study military history for insights and principles that could be applied to conditions of the present and near future. “These principles know no limitation of time,” he said. “Consequently the Army extends its analytical interest to the dust-buried accounts of wars long past as well as to those still reeking with the scent of battle.”
The study of decision itself is critical if we are to take optimal advantage of life’s opportunities as they arise. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, there is nothing more precious than to be able to decide. That is to say, the ability to control our destiny is a priceless privilege. And yet how many have squandered opportunities, making decisions that leave us shaking our heads? The mighty Coca-Cola Company released, with much fanfare, something called New Coke, with the intention of dropping their fabulously successful hundred-year-old formula for Coca-Cola. The Department of the Treasury issued the ill-fated Susan B. Anthony dollar to an unwilling public after deciding that a survey to ascertain public opinion was unnecessary. NASA has launched space shuttles in dangerous circumstances with disastrous results.
Most of us, of course, don’t have the opportunity to make decisions of this magnitude. Yet we are all confronted with strategic questions regarding the direction of our careers, our families, and the courses of our lives. Given the opportunity to decide our direction, it is incumbent on each of us to choose wisely.
The purpose of the website is to shed light on the art and practice of strategic decision-making. Like General McArthur, we will look often to the past for lessons for the present. We will turn to dust-buried accounts of wars and other human endeavors, drawing upon histories of business, science, the arts, politics, philosophy, and the military. Psychology—the study of the mind, thought, and behavior—will provide a crowbar with which we can pry out wisdom from the past to guide us as we go forward.
* * * * *
The strategic decision process begins with the introduction of a simple four-phase decision making model.
The elements of this model are:
§ Decision Framing
§ Information and Intelligence Gathering
§ Coming to Conclusions
§ Learning from Experience
My company, Strategy by Design, specializes in helping organizations with strategic decision-making. We offer consulting and training in a simple but proven method for making key decisions. Our process begins with some thought-provoking questions:
Do you understand that you are making a truly strategic decision? This means that it is very difficult to undo what you decide. The ramifications are felt for years to come.
Are you asking the right questions, and confronting the most important issues? Or are you avoiding a decision and hoping that things will work out. That is, are you deciding by not deciding?
Do you have strategic intelligence you need to make sound choices? Have you stated your assumptions for others to hear, and tested those assumptions? What info will you really need so that you can make a sound and wise decision?
Is your decision process effective, involving the right people? Who are you involving in the decision? What and whose advice have you sought?
What have you learned from your previous strategic choices? What are your tendencies in making long term decisions? What mistakes have you made in the past and how are learning from these past choices?
I believe that outside of God himself, the greatest and most remarkable
power in this universe is the power of decision. The power of a personal being— not the mechanical power of a galaxy, of a black hole, however great those may be physically—the power of a personal being to choose-- to effect eternal destiny -- is a unique reflection of the image of God.Jon Ortberg
The power to choose. To decide the course our lives will follow. What a remarkable privilege! We make an extraordinary number of decisions in our lives—from the direction of our next step to the place we’ll reside, work, and play. Abraham Maslow said, “Let us think of life as a progression of choices, one after the other.” Indeed, the story of our lives can be told as an account of the decisions we have made. We are afforded the opportunity to craft the days of our lives just as the artist enjoys the freedom of creation.
Despite this freedom, many of the things we do in life do not spring from deliberate choices; they are simply a matter of follow-through on earlier decisions. Most of the smaller, tactical decisions we make are pre-ordained to some degree by the larger, strategic decisions that we have made, or that others have made, in the past.
Then there are the decisions we make in our business, family, and political lives that begin to feel like Hobson’s choices. Thomas Hobson was a liveryman in the seventeenth century who, legend has it, offered his customers this choice: take any horse you like as long as it’s the one nearest the door. We feel, in other words, that we are not really making decisions at all because there seems to be only one course we can take.
But there is another course open to us—and that is to become strategic, rather than reactive, in determining the course of our lives, businesses, and nations. Strategy is, simply, the art and science of options. It is a matter of understanding current options, creating new options, and choosing among them.
For every decision we make, there is the road not taken. The word decide derives from the Latin term decidere, from de- ("off") + cædere ("to cut"). That is, in making a decision, we cut off all the alternative options for action previously under consideration. Whilst we attempt not to “burn our bridges behind us” in making life decisions, truly strategic decisions involve just that. We commit a major life asset, such as our time or financial savings, to a choice that will be difficult or impossible to change. Individuals decide to marry, to embark on a career, to relocate—life directions that are difficult to undo. Companies commit irretrievable resources to their objectives. Once deployed, armies cannot be pulled back without severe consequences.In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the
next seven generations.From the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy
In the business context, strategic decisions always involve trade-offs, since it is axiomatic that no company or organization has unlimited resources.
In strategic circumstances, doing one thing often means that you cannot do another. In the 1990s, for example, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates made the strategic choice to bet the future of his company on the internet, redeploying the lion’s share of resources from such previous priorities as CD-ROM content. Families, too, are faced with strategic choices that set direction and have long-term consequences. Decisions such as where to live, where to work, and where to go to school mark pivotal moments in our lives.
History has been described as “a drama of uncertainty resolved by decision.” To resolve present uncertainties, leaders have often turned to the past for guidance. General Douglas McArthur looked to the past as he led American armies in World War II and the Korean conflict. In his memoirs, McArthur encouraged field leaders to study military history for insights and principles that could be applied to conditions of the present and near future. “These principles know no limitation of time,” he said. “Consequently the Army extends its analytical interest to the dust-buried accounts of wars long past as well as to those still reeking with the scent of battle.”
The study of decision itself is critical if we are to take optimal advantage of life’s opportunities as they arise. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, there is nothing more precious than to be able to decide. That is to say, the ability to control our destiny is a priceless privilege. And yet how many have squandered opportunities, making decisions that leave us shaking our heads? The mighty Coca-Cola Company released, with much fanfare, something called New Coke, with the intention of dropping their fabulously successful hundred-year-old formula for Coca-Cola. The Department of the Treasury issued the ill-fated Susan B. Anthony dollar to an unwilling public after deciding that a survey to ascertain public opinion was unnecessary. NASA has launched space shuttles in dangerous circumstances with disastrous results.
Most of us, of course, don’t have the opportunity to make decisions of this magnitude. Yet we are all confronted with strategic questions regarding the direction of our careers, our families, and the courses of our lives. Given the opportunity to decide our direction, it is incumbent on each of us to choose wisely.
The purpose of the website is to shed light on the art and practice of strategic decision-making. Like General McArthur, we will look often to the past for lessons for the present. We will turn to dust-buried accounts of wars and other human endeavors, drawing upon histories of business, science, the arts, politics, philosophy, and the military. Psychology—the study of the mind, thought, and behavior—will provide a crowbar with which we can pry out wisdom from the past to guide us as we go forward.
* * * * *
The strategic decision process begins with the introduction of a simple four-phase decision making model.
The elements of this model are:
§ Decision Framing
§ Information and Intelligence Gathering
§ Coming to Conclusions
§ Learning from Experience
My company, Strategy by Design, specializes in helping organizations with strategic decision-making. We offer consulting and training in a simple but proven method for making key decisions. Our process begins with some thought-provoking questions:
Do you understand that you are making a truly strategic decision? This means that it is very difficult to undo what you decide. The ramifications are felt for years to come.
Are you asking the right questions, and confronting the most important issues? Or are you avoiding a decision and hoping that things will work out. That is, are you deciding by not deciding?
Do you have strategic intelligence you need to make sound choices? Have you stated your assumptions for others to hear, and tested those assumptions? What info will you really need so that you can make a sound and wise decision?
Is your decision process effective, involving the right people? Who are you involving in the decision? What and whose advice have you sought?
What have you learned from your previous strategic choices? What are your tendencies in making long term decisions? What mistakes have you made in the past and how are learning from these past choices?
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