President Obama used this quote in his speech in Cairo, Egypt today. I
am glad he chose to use this quote, it is a truth not just for America, but for
any government, and any leader, to take into account.
I happened to like President Obama’s speech. If you saw or heard the whole
thing I would like to hear what you thought of it as well.
“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.” – Thomas Jefferson
>
Sometimes my drawings are just weird.
Here is my process of creating the napkins. Each morning I start with
a quote. I think about the day before or that morning and see if there
is a particular idea that comes to mind. Then I go looking for some
good quotes about that idea, either in the many quote books I have
or online. Sometimes I make the quote up, but not too often.
After I write the quote on the napkin, then I think about what the drawing
might be. I don’t take a long time with that decision, since I originally was
drawing these while I was making lunches for my daughters and had to work
fast.
I usually trust that I will come up with something interesting and just go for it.
But trusting your mind, your eye, your choices, also means you are sort of
walking a high wire. You have committed to do this thing and even if half way
across a big wind blows, you still need to finish. Sometimes my ‘big wind’ is a
odd color choice, or a pretty bizarre creature or person I have drawn into the napkin.
I like the challenge of figuring out how to make something work within the
limits of that odd thing I have in the drawing already. In this case the idea
of having a mind stretched was obviously the starting point. But I didn’t
want a bald person so I chose to have the hair stretched out to signify the
mind being stretched. B the funny hand/bird lips/sucking stretching things
on either side were a bit of a mess. Then I added the volcanoes, which I
always like as signifyers of something momentous and powerful. But the lava
turned out to be sort of confusing and dark, obscuring the volcanoes a bit
more than I wanted it to. I just kept going until I felt it looked interesting
and stimulating to the eye.
Sometimes this process can lead to beautiful images, and sometimes to
very strange images and sometimes to failed but interesting images. I am
not sure if this one is in the 2nd or 3rd category, but it doesn’t seem to
belong in the 1st, as best I can tell.
What do you think?
“A man’s mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. – USA, Supreme Court Justice, 1841-1935
A Vintage Napkin from 2003, originally given to one of my daughter’s in her school lunch.
Which one are you?
Experienced athletes understand there are always different ways of doing
the same thing. Different motivations, different purposes, different
techniques. The know their golf swing could change if it isn’t working
well, their kick could have a different technique if they need to adjust.
Just as often they ask themselves ‘why am I playing this game’. They
need to find new motivation, new reasons. It used to be ‘love of the game’
now it might be ‘secure my financial future’ or ‘the camaraderie of
my fellow athletes’.
Why can’t we do that outside of athletics. Be aware when a reason isn’t working
any more. Be able to find new reasons, new purposes for living and doing and
acting in the world. Asking, searching, looking, paying attention, being open,
those are the elements that can help you find those new reasons when you
need them. Be an athlete whose sport is living.
“Distress about life might mean you are living for the wrong reasons, not that you have no reason for living.” – Tom O’Connor
Can anyone think of anything more stupid than to hate someone because
of the melanin level of their skin? I have.
Some competitors for the Stupid Hate Award are:
What do you think? Is the list accurate, what else would you
add or subtract and why?
Give your opinion and you will be helping me out by testing
my comment box. I think it is working well but I need people
out on different machines and browsers to check it out for me.
“Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for the minimum of reason.” – Abraham J. Heschel, Jewish theologian and philosopher, 1907- 1972
Today is ‘Follow my own advice Friday’.
I am bad at this. Not as bad as I used to be, but worse than most I think.
I learned how to deal with this in actual teaching, long ago. I realized
what the student didn’t know, the student didn’t know. They didn’t know
what I couldn’t get in the presentation, they didn’t know how much I
still needed to learn about the lessons further down the road, or even
the lesson I was teaching that day. I realized I only needed to prepare
for that day, and prepare enough to give them the best information I
could in that time. And it worked. I always had enough to give, even if
I didn’t have the entire topic figured out. Less is more is the motto.
But when it comes to the relational and conversational arena, there I still
struggle. Once again, I have made progress, but still have an inclination
to try to cover every angle, every argument, every idea, all at once.
I think of myself like a very curious and energetic dog. Yes, you can teach him
or her to heel and stay and sit and come, but underneath all that learned behavior
is still a dog that wants to run and roll and bark and jump and splash and lick.
I am that dog when it comes to talking about something. My wives and kids have
been my main trainers and they have had some success, but they know they are
dealing with a certain type of dog, so most of the time they are understanding.
“Don’t try to teach an entire course in one lesson.” – Kathryn Murray
Work is always about the external and the internal. Externally what is it
that makes you love, hate or be indifferent about your work? Internally
how does your attitude, education, mindset, beliefs, assumptions, expectations,
and behavior make you love, hate or be indifferent about your work?
What do you have control over out of all those external and internal elements?
“The privilege to work is a gift, the power to work is a blessing, the love to work is success.” – David O. McKay
It’s Geographic Thursday again!
Here are all the cities ending in A that came to visit this past week:
Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA – 10 miles / 16 km
Wichita, Kansas, USA – 190 miles / 305 km
La Vista, Nebraska, USA – 352 miles / 567 km
Temecula, California, USA – 1,209 miles / 1,947 km
Doha, Ad Dawhah, Qatar – 7,691 miles / 12,377 km
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia – 9,508 miles / 15,299 km
Brazilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil – 4,770 miles / 7,676 km
Aurora, Colorado, USA – 539 miles / 838 km
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada – 1,079 miles / 1,737 km
Omaha, Nebraska, USA – 352 miles / 567 km
Cordoba, Andalucia, Spain – 4,816 miles / 7,750 km
I was raised in a fighting family (yes, mostly Irish). Not fistfights, but
verbal ones. We argued, fought, yelled and ‘expressed’. Alcohol played a
role but the fighting would have been there anyway at some level. My father
was the best, louder and angrier than the rest of us. He wasn’t only that,
he was charming and funny and adventurous and kind and encouraging.
He wasn’t a control freak, he didn’t demand my sisters or me go in a certain
direction in life. He was, and is, a good man. Which made his anger all the
more curious and odd in many ways.
Later in life I can look back on why he was so angry so often and see all sorts
of reasons that I couldn’t see then. But my number one reason I think led to
his anger was his dissatisfaction with himself. He had secrets, habits, events,
stresses that made him angry. Angry because he couldn’t be free. He couldn’t
say what he was doing or thinking or wanting. I am convinced it made him
lash out at others with more irritation and disagreement than he would have
otherwise.
And, of course, I see it in myself as well. I know that I am much more likely to
be bothered by someone else’s actions or ideas when I am most bothered by my
own life. So, it comes down to honesty and peace with yourself. Not an easy thing
to have and practice with success, but it really is the path to peace with others.
“We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.” – William Hazlitt, 1778-1830, England
Averages are always seen at a distance, and we are all average if looked at from far away. But get close enough and none of us are average. We don’t like to think of ourselves as average and the reason for that is we know that we aren’t. It isn’t a hopeful wish, it is a truth. Each of us have elements of the average, of course. But none of us is average in our totality.
The key is not to realize it about ourselves. We know that already. The key is to realize it about others.
“The average person thinks he isn’t.” – Larry Lorenzoni
At some point in time you realize most people people don’t look at the
world the same way you do. When I was very young I had no idea what
a shy person was or a worried person, or a scared person. I thought
most people were like me. I wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t worried and I wasn’t
shy. I was excited about trying new things, exploring vacant lots, riding
my bike to the town next door, swim in the surf, or something like that.
Eventually life gave me lessons and I learned about being worried and
scared and shy, but I still didn’t know that for some people it was something
they carried with them all the time. The first time I really understood
how fear ruled some people’s lives was when I started teaching drawing.
Some students were just PETRIFIED of taking the class, petrified of failing,
of not being able to learn, of looking stupid. The fear list always goes on and on.
Obviously, if they were in my class they had already taken the first step.
They had begun. They now had help. They had direction, encouragement,
progress to see. They all finished the class, they all were able to draw much
better than when they came in. None of them were made fun of, none were
embarrassed, none were left behind.
If you are one who is fearful of things, worried or shy, then get yourself into a
group or class. Get into a running group, or a reading, bird-watching, rock and roll,
dancing, skydiving, geneology, swimming, theatre, or something else.
Just take the first step, the rest will take care of itself. Don’t stay home alone,
don’t wish it were different.
Go, take the step.
“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is I had the courage to start.” – John Bingham
