Four Word Self Help

Patti Digh has taken an interesting idea and turned it into a delightfully rich little book.

The concept: compile self-help directives which are exactly four words long. How much insight can be delivered in so few words? When I first heard about her intention, I tried myself to concoct four-word sentences which carried valuable insights into living a life. It's not easy to do!

She has succeeded in not only delivering great, impactful statements of such brevity, she has also used those statements to invite a deeper level of reflection.

One of Patti's strengths is her ability to offer up new ways of considering our daily lives, to step back and feel the implications of the decisions we make each day and the cumulative effect not only on ourselves, but on those with whom we interact.

Her professional background in diversity training and consulting informs her more-personal work, what began as essays written for her daughters years ago, became a blog, then a book (Life is a Verb), and now is an ongoing and ever-enriching journey which she has offered to open to anyone wishing to walk along.

On a personal note, it was three years ago today that Patti and I began corresponding as a result of a comment I left on her blog, 37days. I had dived in for the first time a couple of days before and read many of the existing essays, works she was posting once a week. She responded to a comment I left, and we still are in contact to this day.

It was my great pleasure to be an attendee at the first Life is a Verb retreat in September of 2008 and to meet Patti in person and play with her Circle Project partner, David Robinson. I wrote about that experience here and here.

Four Word Self Help is a little book packed with a great deal of the Digh magic, a wonderful adjunct and a complementary eddy to the main flow which started with Life is a Verb and continues next month with Creative is a Verb. While it is a delight to read on its own merit, I do heartily recommend reading it as a companion to Patti's other books, as they set a philosophical framework within which this little book carries even more weight.

Besides, Life is a Verb contains within its pages the only published illustration I have ever created. That, alone, is reason enough to get a copy and become a fan of the work of Patti Digh!

Julia hits the big time

We are now almost two weeks into the life of Choosing Easy World, Julia's book which details her own journey into the magical realm where we are designed to thrive.

On the way to this, the 13th day since publication, we are having media adventures!

Early on the morning of the 11th, Julia was on TV.


Later that same day, Julia gave a talk and signed copies of Choosing Easy World at the venerable and much-loved independent book store, the Tattered Cover. It is the single-most-famous indie between Chicago and San Francisco. If you are an author and want to sign in the best book store in Denver, you seek to sign there.

Here's the exterior of this, the third edition of Tattered Cover, located south of town.

Julia, holding a copy of Choosing Easy World, awaiting the appointed hour at which she will give her talk.

And, the line forms for folks who want her to sign their pristine new copies of Choosing Easy World.

As you can imagine, since we were at the TV studio before 7 a.m. and did not leave Tattered Cover until close to 9 p.m., followed by a small celebration at Indulge Wine Bar, it was a day we enjoyed to the hilt and one we were ready to close so we could move on to a good night's sleep.

First, though, we had one more impromptu Easy World adventure to experience.

As we drove home on a route different than the one I intended--the freeway on-ramp was closed, so we chose to drive up a city street instead of looking for another place to get on the fast track home--Julia noticed that there was a patrolman partly hidden by foliage on the side of the road. I noticed I was going faster than the posted 35 mph limit. As we passed him, we saw his lights come on, so I immediately pulled over.

He was from the county sheriff's office and was very polite and patient as we searched in the dark for our insurance card in the glove compartment. I'm good at getting those important documents into the little place, but not so good at removing old ones. So, we kept pulling out more and more pieces of paper, all expired.

The officer finally said, "Let's just go with this one which expired last year." He went back to his patrol car and did whatever it was he did. In the six or eight minutes he was in his car, Julia and I sat. She was invoking Easy World, and I was simply resigned to whatever was to come. In a way, it is Easy World, too, just without any rainbow. Allowing is a huge part of moving into Easy World.

When he came back to my side of the van, he said, "I'm going to let you off with a warning. All you need to do is take your proof of insurance to the county office, and they will dismiss this citation for not having it available for me. There is no fine, and there will be no points once you prove you have insurance."

We drove home with big grins on our faces.

At some point in a couple of weeks--the deputy mentioned that it might take that long for the citation to be available on their computer system--I will need to drive ten miles to the office and get the ticket dismissed, but that's small potatoes compared to the impact my mistake of going too fast could have had. I'm happy to run the errand when the time comes!

Oh...and I have cleaned out the glove box. Only current documents are stored there now!

I live in Easy World

I have had a thought ripening in my head for a week, and I believe it is now time to let it burst forth.

Even as there have been times during the last month, as my wife and I have done all we know how to do in order to make the launch of her book Choosing Easy World as successful as our little Earth-bound selves could make it, that we have stressed out during the process, there have been long stretches of time when I have been flowing along without a care or concern, going about my chores in Easy World.

I do the family grocery shopping, usually with the largest amount of it done early on Saturday morning. A week ago, I drove to the grocery store where I start the odyssey--I shop at three stores on the average Saturday--because it is the one which opens at 6 a.m. and is virtually deserted at that hour. Plus, they are not stocking shelves as they are at my main destination store so it is less of an obstacle course.

What was unique about that drive to the store was that I did not stop all the way there. It's about four miles, and the route includes ten or more traffic lights. One, in particular, is always red if I make the three lights just prior to arriving at that intersection (hey, a computer guy has to do something with all that spare brain power when he is out of work! I track traffic signals and remember the patterns). A week ago, it was green. Heck, all of them were green either in time for me to breeze through or in time for me to slow a bit but not stop and wait.

It's exactly the kind of thing many people would miss! I noticed it because of my, uh, unique passion for such things, and because when you are in Easy World, you are much more aware of RIGHT NOW. You are not trapped in your past or wasting energy worrying about stuff which probably won't erupt into your life at all.

[Editor's note: Rick gets carried away by stuff most people find excruciatingly meh. Skip ahead if you are not fascinated by parking-lot pull-thru's]

Last week, in addition to my "make all the lights" experience, I noticed at my first stop as I drove into the parking lot that the parking place I chose was a pull-thru, which is an opportunity to pull into a spot and keep going so that you are in the spot which would have been occupied by a car facing toward you...only, there is no car there.

I like pull-thru spots because you are heading out, therefore no backing up is necessary when it is time to leave. I really don't like backing out of parking spaces in grocery-store parking lots. It's just scary, as I have thousands of pounds of metal under my control, and the pedestrian I might not see is vulnerable to significant injury if they don't see me coming and I don't know they are there.

At the first store today, I had parked in a spot, a regular spot, and expected to need to back out of it when I came out of the store. In other words, there was a car in the spot opposite me, meaning I could not pull on forward.

Lo and behold, when I come out of the store, the car which had been blocking me was gone. I had a clear path to pull forward, and then head on out of the lot without any backing needed.

Look out! The Hammer is in Easy World!!

Next stop, I see the same situation, in that the parking spot I chose has an occupied opposite spot. No problem! I'll get my stuff in the store, come back out, and the person will have left. I'm understanding all of this now. I have this figured out!

When I finish shopping, I come out to discover that the car blocking me is still there.

Oh, the agony! The car blocking me is still there.

I have fallen out of Easy World!!

Thank goodness I was able to let go of that initial impression easily. I had fallen for a Difficult World Dictator trick, which is to lure us into thinking that we are able to control/drive/predict exactly how Easy World will deliver the goods for us. Of course, we are not. If we fall for the trick and think we are in control, our first conflict with reality will sell us that the DWD was right. Life is not easy! It is hard, hard, really hard.

Wrongo, moosebreath!

Easy World is totally autonomous when it comes to playing out how something happens when we are there to witness it. Think about it! If the way to Easy World is paved with ALLOWING tarmac, you gotta know that allowing is a required action in order to stay put in easy, breezy, lemon-squeezy, twice-as-nonsneezy world.

That's where I had booted myself to the curb. I had decided that my first experience of the day, where the opposite car was gone when I came out, would be replicated at store # 2.

When my expectation wasn't met, when the car opposite was still in the way and I had to back out, I doubted at first. Practice in this tricky "allowing" thing made it possible for me to get over myself and continue on my route. Before I had traveled even six blocks, I was rewarded with another light sequence made which normally is red, and I noticed a traffic policeman on the side of the road awaiting speeders in time to make sure I was at a legal speed (not that good, law-abiding Rick would *ever* exceed the posted limit!).

Every single item on the grocery list my lovely wife had made was found with ease and acquired without the slightest difficulty. This is not always the case! Do you think it is easy to find free-range, organic spring mix? Most of it is grown in captivity, not allowed to roam. [grin]

Bottom line: Easy World thrives on residents which allow it to do its work, to provide exactly what is needed at exactly the proper moment with exactly no drama at all.

We are the source of all of our drama! When we allow our lives to unfold while, at the same time, holding to our passions and seeking their expression, we are in a sweet spot, a divinely designated place, a matrix I like to call Easy World.

Allowing, allowing, allowing

Anyone who stops by here more than once a year is aware that my delightful and exquisitely beautiful wife, Julia Rogers Hamrick, finished writing her second book quite some time ago. Through the quiet auspices of the very reality matrix which is the subject of the book, we found an agent, and then a publisher, and both in record time and without drama or angst.

Tomorrow is the culmination of the long journey from "We're under contract!" to "Look! You can buy the book at that store, right there, that very store!!"

August 3, 2010 will be a date which will be deeply embedded in our memories forever.

Choosing Easy World.

It's not only a book title, it is being in the very heart of an action, of choosing. Easy World is our phrase for being in the zone, being in the flow, being your Self and shining your light full-on. Choosing Easy World is deciding, consciously, to go to that place where flow is normal and miracles are everyday occurrences.

That's the coolest part of what Julia discovered three years ago, when she heard Easy World whisper to her at 4 in the morning as she tossed and turned. We can consciously choose to be there!

It is a good juncture at which to mention that Julia makes no claim to having created this stunningly joyful and peaceful reality. She simply rediscovered it. It has existed forever. In fact, it is the very infrastructure which supported the Garden of Eden.

When the Garden was no longer available to men and women, it was not gone or lost. It was waiting patiently for us to return. In Julia's first book, she discussed exactly how we can do that.

Now, with Choosing Easy World, we are given the tools and techniques, simple ones anyone can use, to facilitate that return.

I'm happy to point out that you can still sneak a peek at the book. For a few more days, you can read the first three chapters for free by giving us your name and email address. If you want to sign up, get the free chapters, and remove yourself from our mailing list, we're fine with that! Just click the link which we include in every message we send which allows you to remove your info from our list. We will be sad, but we will get over it.

It's up to you now. You can choose Easy World, even doing so at no cost whatsoever, or you can choose to keep doing things the way you have been doing them. If that's been working for you, great! If not, give Easy World a shot.

Julia Rogers Hamrick interviewed by Káren Wallace

Check this out!

My good friend Káren Wallace, she of http://thecalmspace.com and my buddy from Joyful Jubilant Learning, sat with Julia in a virtual space filled with joy and laughter.

This is the resulting chat.

Enjoy!

Easy? Not easy? Who chooses?

I was struck this morning by the delightful juxtaposition sent to me as a result of a Google thingy which tells me when the phrase "Easy World" is discovered on the internet.

Take a look.

As you can see, two different folks have quite different opinions. Jill says it isn't an easy world to live in. Greg, on the other hand, finds that it is an easy world to live in right now.

Who is right?

They both are.

Here's how it works.

Every single one of us has a choice to make, each moment, about what kind of experience we are going to have. If we choose to see things as hard, harsh, dangerous, and scary, that's what we will find as we live out our day.

If we choose to see the entire universe as our creative playground, a place we can make fun stuff and meet fun people and flow Love all day long, that's what we are going to see.

What do you choose, right this instant?

Choosing Easy World

As we kick off the last two weeks preceding the launch of Julia Rogers Hamrick's new book, Choosing Easy World, we have created a contest which will result in some random entrant winning a $300 gift card. Lots of other prizes, too!

If you like to play on Facebook or Twitter, you can get additional entries in the contest by helping us get the word out.


Twitter, enter via this link -- http://wildfireapp.com/twitter/233/contests/46677 -- and then tweet using the special link which will be yours alone and is given to you on that page. When your tweeples enter, you get additional contest entries, too! 

Facebook: go to Julia's fan page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Rogers-Hamrick/355243384767) and you can enter there. You can also invite your friends from the same entry page.

Come play with us!

Life, explained (7)

Saturday, the day before yesterday, started out as many Saturdays do, with me preparing for my early-morning trips to the grocery stores.

We frequent several stores, and I usually shop at two each Saturday. It was three this time. It's all about which store has sales on items we need, and which stores we know have particular produce we are seeking.

As I came out of the first store, a new chain which just opened in Denver, I saw a sight not seen in Denver: a rainbow at 6:30 in the morning. Since the great majority of our rainfall comes from afternoon storms and we otherwise have so little cloudy weather, it's unusual for the conditions needed to birth a rainbow to happen early in the morning. In fact, I cannot recall seeing a morning rainbow so soon after sunrise.

Since I did not have my camera with me, I hustled home to get this photo before the rainbow was gone.

The day itself was fairly typical, other than the USA playing in a World Cup knockout round game--we don't usually get that far, and it showed. I watched some of the game, and I did what I usually do on the weekends, getting chores done and goofing off.

As early evening arrived, so did a storm. It was not violent, just a gentle rain which lasted half an hour, and then the sun broke through. I was sitting at the dining room table when I looked out the window to the east. Dark clouds. I could also see the sunshine lighting up the back yard from the west, and I knew! I grabbed the camera and got outside quickly to get this shot.

I didn't do a great job of panning the camera so as to create stitchable pieces for a panorama, but that's not what matters. If you get past the amateurish photography and dive into the scene, you can be where I was in that moment, enjoying it with a great big grin on my face. The rainbow was a stunner, with the main bow intensely colored and the second rainbow fully visible from one end to the other.

The bookends of my Saturday, these ethereal markers were.

Life is funny. It offers up such moments as these, and we can decide to pause and note them or to just glance up and move on. I considered enjoying the early-morning rainbow by standing in that grocery-store parking lot until it faded, but I'm glad I decided, instead, to leap into the car and hurry home so I could capture it. I'm relieved, in retrospect, that no traffic cop saw me in my mad dash. Can you imagine explaining my speeding to some grizzled veteran policeman?

"Yes, officer, I realize I was exceeding the speed limit. You see, I was hurrying home to get some pictures of that rainbow."

He could have told that story in the precinct house for weeks.

But it was not a day for funny stories or unusual human events. No, it was a day for Nature to show off silently and beautifully in the early-morning light, the evening sun, and in my mind's eye.

It was a mundane Saturday. I loved every minute, and I really loved the day's bookends.

Yes! We have a volunteer

A bit more than two years ago, I wrote in this space about a pansy, one we had not planted but which sprung up on its own. In fact, I made that essay one I pointed to in my email signature ever since.

If you are interested, feel free to visit that post. You will see why it is that I am so thrilled that, only yesterday, my wife discovered just under the protective branches of the big evergreen in our backyard another pansy volunteer.

This year, circumstances prevented us from putting out the half

dozen or more pots of pansies which we normally display in our yard from April through the beginning of the summer heat when the flowers give up and expire. Of course, this only made the volunteer that much more surprising to find.

The celebrated volunteer from two seasons ago was right up against the edge of the concrete patio, a spot which was very hot in the afternoon as it baked under the unrelenting Colorado sun. It survived, though, for weeks after its tame cousins in pots had gone.

The one we just found is also vulnerable to the sun, but not nearly to the extent the earlier one was. In fact, it would not surprise me if this volunteer makes it to August. It is partly sheltered by the lowest branches of the tree which it found itself under when it poked its head up.

All in all, it has a better situation than did the pansy two years ago. That doesn't change the lesson one bit. It's still, "Start where you are."

Lighten up!

Is it just me, or is the world going to hell and heading there at an accelerated rate and by the most direct route possible?

It's not like the signs have not been obvious. We've been doing our level worst to ruin our home here on this planet for a thousand years. Lately, we have gotten so good at it that we can wreck entire portions of the planet in a matter of months. If we are not careful, we could end up firing off weapons which will finish us all off, and in a matter of weeks or less.

What to do, what to do?

Worry doesn't help. Fretting is not a productive pursuit at any time, so it sure isn't the way to go now.

Anger is a great way to pump up the blood pressure, but other than releasing lots of hormones which can make one feel alive, it isn't a path to solution.

Deep depression? Falling into a black hole is an escape. While removing oneself from the immediate problem, you tie yourself up with inner demons which can ruin everyday living as it turns everything gray.

All of these responses are lining up your energy--your vibrational self--with that of the disaster, the most recent being the Deepwater Horizon massive oil plume threatening a way of life in four states and recreation areas potentially all the way up the Atlantic coast of the USA. Such an affiliation does absolutely nothing to move us toward an answer.

Einstein famously pointed out that it is impossible to solve a problem while remaining in the same conscious space where the problem came into being. To quote him directly:
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

So far today, we have determined that worrying, getting angry, becoming depressed, and working from the same mindset we were in which birthed the problem are, none of them, methods out of this madness.

What if we decided to treat it as a grand puzzle, one which we all work on from a place of play and creativity? And, what takes us into that creative space faster than finding something to lighten our spirits? Laughter is a powerful path to a lighter spirit, although there are many who find it appalling that anyone would dare even hint at a smile in such dire times.

Of course, we have already decided that the doom-'n-gloom attitude is appropriate only in order to remain stuck in this problem.

Consider the case of laughter therapy in current use for all manner of serious medical problems. Everything from terminal illness to Alzheimer's to chronic-pain conditions now have practitioners who find humor used therapeutically to be a positive for the patients involved.

It's not a cure, but it can result in a better quality of life for those who are dying, those who are in pain, and those who are gradually disappearing before their bodies give out.

Why not apply this technique, this prescription, to the largest problem we face today? It is already happening in an unorganized fashion as illustrated by the fake BP Twitter account which has entertained millions even as the disaster has broadened in scope.

Find humor today. Giggle, chuckle, snort and chortle.

It's not an instant cure, but it is a way out of the "we're doooooomed" mindset. And that's the first step, isn't it, to recognize that we actually can solve this one, too?

Whimsy, woo-woo, and wow

I don't know what instigated it, exactly, but about 15 years ago I started becoming more aware of, and developing more interest in, the stuff of which this experience is made.

Yesterday, I introduced you to Burt Harding, a man I only came to know was on the planet one day before you did. He clearly has taken woo-woo way past what I can portray, and it is great fun to listen to him speak.

A week ago, I did a short bit on Bernie DeKoven, easily the most-engaging man I have met (well, we haven't met, but we have spoken on the phone) who devotes his life to the serious business of fun.

So, we have Bernie as Whimsy, Burt as Woo-woo, and today I'm bringing to the mix the Wow of Zach Anner.

Zach is a young man in Austin, Texas who auditioned when Oprah Winfrey invited everyone to try out to become a new talk show host on her new network which debuts next year.

Rather than ramble, I'll let Zach take it from here.
That, my friends, is WOW.

I can't wait to see Zach's new show. In the meantime, he has posted some other videos on Youtube. You can catch his channel here.

What ties these three gentlemen together is the delightfully diverse elements of life they illustrate. What attracts me to them is their joy and passion for what they are doing. Burt has a gentle smile on his face about 90% of the time. Bernie has the most infectious laugh I have heard lately, and Zach...he is just a force of CP sexiness!

Remember, folks: there is no Atlantis too underwater or too fictional.

Fundamental disconnect: our needs vs our institutions

Yesterday, I watched a TED presentation by Rory Sutherland. He is an ad man from Great Britain, but more to the point of this presentation, he is an innovative thinker who doesn't allow the obvious to escape him even when it is hidden behind the assumptions of all the large institutional entities in the world.

What I love about hearing him, other than his great sense of humor, is how cleanly he presents these obvious facts. When he does so, it becomes almost impossible to imagine how the government or the national charitable group could possibly have been blind to it.

Of course, they are blind to such things for the same reason we are sometimes blind to aspects of our own lives which our friends can see clearly. Yet, when they try to help us, we deflect and deny. There is no resistance stronger than the resistance to changes in our own story, the one we have lovingly crafted of our own lives. Stress and tension are the signs which warn us that the story doesn't fit with the facts. If you are feeling stressed out, consider how you may need to allow your story's arc to gradually bend toward the one which everyone else has communally agreed to.

In the case of the institution, it sees every problem as, first, being large enough to require their action. Then it chooses, always, the 30lb sledge hammer as the tool for the job. As you will hear from Rory, small changes made for little or no cost can be hugely effective where the large, expensive answer failed. But institutions don't exist for that reason! Their raison d'être is to spend all the resources at their disposal. Inexpensive, innovative answers are not on their radar.

Please watch and listen to Rory. You will have a great time!

Make your own magic

Is magic something inexplicable? Are miracles beyond the capability of man to understand?

What I have come to believe is that there are realms beyond the mundane and visible which we can influence. It's nothing dark or forboding, but simply elements of the Universe which are not immediately obvious while we are journeying in these flesh-and-blood outfits we're wearing at the moment.

It is beyond the scope of today's discussion to get into, but suffice it to say that there is far more going on beyond what our senses can detect than is happening in our daily lives which we clearly see and think we understand.

Let's see if we can leverage what we do know so that the unseen is brought to bear in ways which we can enjoy today.

First Important Idea: the Universe is predisposed to support action. That's not to say that any random act will result in help from the miraculous or magical, but that right action--what my wife refers to as "inspired" action--is not only supported, it is magnified.

This is where it becomes fun! If we are able to determine what action we can take which is in line with the direction the Universe is going, we will discover that our power to drive results is multiplied many times over.

The well-worn phrase Ben Franklin wrote, "God helps those who help themselves," is nothing more than an acknowledgement in pithy terms of my point.

Second Important Idea: miracles tend to flock.

I'm not sure why this is so, only that it feels right to me that miraculous events often occur in clumps rather than being randomly and widely scattered.

This means that, if we are able to learn how to invite miracles into our lives, we are likely to have these welcome houseguests around for a long time.

Third Important Idea: gratitude, childlike awe, and joy in being alive are engraved invitations to the Universe, inviting it to bring all manner of fun stuff to us in the realm where we can see it, touch it, smell it, love it.

Listen to your heart and take the action which is supportive of the next step you know you need to take. Be open and willing to accept anything which comes into your life, knowing that miracles are plentiful and looking for a place to stay. Touch the place inside yourself where there is an innocent, wide-eyed and very curious child who seeks nothing more than to be stimulated by life. Be grateful for this chance to walk around and explore with eyes and ears and other senses which bring the world into your experience.

Feel the amazingly gentle yet astonishingly powerful Love which flows through us.

So, there you have it. Your prescription for a joy-filled, miracle-producing life filled with Love.

Any questions?

Technology: amazing, empowering, and driving us into the shallows

Just a couple of minutes ago, I tried to open Twitter to check out a tweet someone had linked to in Google Buzz. Instead of the Twitter UI, I saw the Fail Whale. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the whale is the centerpiece of a graphic which Twitter displays when it is suffering any kind of outage or over-capacity situation.

(Here is an interview with Yiying Lu, the person who designed the graphic as an "I'm sorry I can't come to your event" card, the image named "Lifting a Dreamer")

The whale has become iconic enough that some are offering artistic riffs. Check out Swiss designer David Pache's homage.

There's even a fan club.

Lots and lots of people have discovered that Twitter allows for all manner of fast, short bursts of communication, and does so while also supporting serendipitous connections among the people who are connected to the messenger.

Facebook is similarly supportive of the new connections people make as a result of both knowing a third person, or having a passion for the same music or cause.

Not surprisingly, given the half a billion people who have Facebook accounts, an entire niche industry has sprung up which offers expertise in marketing to those people.

We all see that technology, in this case the technology of social media, is amazing. Just yesterday, I became acquainted with someone 1800 miles away and had a short exchange of ideas which helped her cope with a technical issue, so her problem was solved by someone she did not know existed one minute prior, that person being more than halfway across the country, and it cost her nothing. There is great power in this kind of communications capability.

Conversely, it can be disempowering for those of the old paradigm where knowledge was delivered by the elite. Now, direct connections between those with the expertise and those needing it can happen almost instantaneously. Disintermediation, thy name is social media.

There is, as there always is, another side to the story. In this case, it is the impact on our ability to think deeply, to ponder at a level which requires a quiet space and an uninterrupted span of time. Nothing about Twitter is supportive of uninterrupted time! It is all about speed, instant judgment, and audacity.

Similarly, Facebook can suck one in and not allow an exit until lots of friends have been touched. My daughter, a college student, was wise to simply stay out of Facebook altogether the last two weeks of her semester. She even announced she was doing it, thus increasing her liklihood of compliance.

In our day-to-day lives, are we missing out on life's richness which is right in front of our noses in order to invest hours in a virtual world? Are we no longer able to be in touch with the softest voice, the one inside ourselves, because we are too busy, a sense only aggravated by the pervasive invasion of social media?

It is ironic that the very idea of being driven to shallow thinking is discussed at great length in recent days by some very thoughtful and smart people whose thoughts are published--or links to them are--via the very social media tools which may be wreaking havoc with our ability to think deep thoughts.

Don't consider this my attempt to bemoan change. Not at all--I embrace it. I enjoy Facebook for the information and sense of community, for the chance to be more part of friends' lives than I was before Facebook. I heart Twitter for its requirement for terse speech. It's great fun cooking up a witty response and keeping it under 140 characters.

Change is simply another word for life. Without it, there is no life. Still, as conscious beings, it is a responsibility we share to seek change which leads us to greater and richer places, even as we must acknowledge that we don't know what the heck we are doing in that regard.

Major Fun

Some time back, I stumbled upon a man named Bernie DeKoven. It's too bad I don't remember how it happened because I may owe a debt of gratitude to a kind soul who knew how much I would benefit from coming to know Bernie.

I'll just thank it forward.

Bernie has had a full life (to this point! this is not an obit, as he is still kickin') invested in the entertainment and

enlightenment-through-fun of all of those he meets.

He is a teacher, a game designer and developer, a Laughter Yoga guru, the owner and presiding crazy person of a big old barn full of real-life games of all kinds, a fun coach, and the keeper of a thriving internet presence where he is Major Fun, reviewer of games of all kinds. Because he is a trained professional, his reviews touch on lots of aspects of the games he looks at, even as he keeps the Prime Directive in mind: Must. Be. Fun.

He also captains deepFUN.com where he talks about fun in sometimes esoteric ways, yet without losing his great sense of the absurd. But Bernie has his serious side, as well.

Yes, friends, this is Bernie showing us all his serious side.

Bernie notes all kinds of cool stuff on his blog at deepFUN.com, and I would estimate I have invested about eleventy-four man-years of my time in following the links he has posted and investigating things like the Rock/Paper/Scissors-like game which someone designed which has many more than three choices you can throw during the game. How about, oh, 101 possible plays? I cannot imagine anyone learning the correct way to gesture for all 101 possible plays, much less learning the 5,050 outcomes which result from 101 different choices.

Most of all, though, I love Bernie because he loves life so much. He loves life so much that he is willing to devote his to the furthering of fun in the lives of all of us.

It's a big job, and Bernie is taking on the challenge a few people at a time. I don't have the heart to tell him that he is falling slightly behind in his quest. Instead, I'm becoming a student so that I, too, can spread the gospel of fun as a lens which, when life is viewed through it, makes life richer, more precious, deeply satisfying,  fully engaging, and worth every single bit of frustration we endure on our way to our next fun adventure.

I figure we only need a few hundred thousand of us, assuming we spread ourselves efficiently around the world, to properly introduce and inculcate fun into the lives and culture of everyone else. Let's face it--it is catching. So, just as Bernie is infecting people today with his viral Fun message, those of us who get it from him can pass it on. And, there is no treatment other than laughter!

"Never" is a really long time

While I don't intend to make a habit of conversing on issues related to science or math--my buddy John Ptak does a marvelous job covering not only the sciences, but art, history, ephemera, and about everything else you could think of--I happened to have this thought pop into my head. Yes, the one there ^. Up there in the title line.

How many times have you heard someone proclaim something or the other, saying it was either never going to happen, or it would be forever before they allowed it again?

Me, too. Heck, me as the speaker more often than I would like to admit.

There are lots of problems with the concept of "never" not least of which is that we can't possibly prove that anything never happened (beyond the obvious: we have sound reason to believe the Earth never exploded, at least not in this reality).

As with any time-related absolute, our comparatively short span as witness is a problem, as well. Take anything related to our planet and its own history. Earth has been around for many millions of years...probably several billion. Mankind, even if you get generous and allow early predecessors to count, has been around for hundreds of thousands of years.

You see where I'm going: we cannot have witnessed more than some tiny fraction of our planet's history. Just as bad, we are lousy at taking notes and passing them to kids in the next class. It is quite common for important aspects of daily life to be completely lost in a matter of only a couple dozen generations. Say, 500 years.

When you think, today, about something as pervasive as the 8-track tape player was when I was a teenager, you are unearthing the unknown as far as my kids are concerned. That's a simple but relevant example. That kind of change--technology-related--is accelerating. In other words, items which are considered a vital part of the daily lives of people today will not be in mainstream use in 10 years.

There is a museum in San Jose (actually, Mountain View but close enough) which has collected many examples of early personal computing equipment. The Computer History Museum was only getting started the last time I was in that part of the country, a visit I remember fondly for my trip to Winchester House. But I digress.

Today, I'll bet you can see at the museum a relic much like the early Compaq portable computer I wrote software on for a couple of years. I toted that thing back and forth from home to work, and it may well be that my arms are slightly longer as a result. The darned thing weighed 33 lbs. That keyboard you see closes up over the the screen and diskette drives. You end up with a portable-sewing-machine-looking thing. It was no fun carrying it around, but it beat the heck out of spending stupidly long hours in the office. At least I could spend some of my stupidly long hours at home.

(aside: here is John Cleese advertising a slightly more-advanced model, then down to a featherweight 22 lbs)

It is obvious that we are only moving with greater speed away from who we were, making it even less likely that we can make proper use of that wisdom now. It is a problem with acceleration: you leave the past too fast to have gained all it had to offer.

Here it is in a nutshell: never is a long time, matched only by forever. It is foolish to pretend we have even the slightest notion of either, meaning we are equally foolish to make use of the concepts in our daily discourse.

The perfume that's way over the top

It is that time of the season, one week every other year, when our ornamental lilac tree bursts forth with beautiful bouquets of off-white blossoms.

The tree is quite demure, understated and shy most of the time, but right now, she is a French whore. Well, not really, but she smells like one. Um, so I've been told, anyway.

The overwhelming nature of that perfume, coupled with the fact that the tree is right by our front porch, makes any passing through the front door an invitation to being knocked over by the powerful olfactory experience which is the lilac right now.

I've discovered that the perfume is at its strongest in the middle of a sunny, hot afternoon such as we had yesterday in Denver. Then, it is take-a-step-back, shake-your-head strong.

As you can see, there are lots of blossom groups on the tree. And, as you can see here, the individual blossoms are tiny. Every single one of them is giving off that “come to me, little bee” aroma, too.

If only I had the smell-my-blog plugin.

Life, explained (5)

In this haltingly continuing story, we have discussed much and resolved little. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what this whole thing is about, though--discussing, interacting, flowing into and out of each other's stories--so I don't feel at all unhappy with where we have gotten to.

Rather than continue to link back to the previous episodes, I'm going to create a label, Life Explained, which all of the posts related to the tale will be assigned. By clicking on the Life Explained label in the list of labels to the right, you will be able to have the entire group open in a list of posts. Keep in mind that the oldest episodes are at the end of the list, not the top of it.

So, the storyteller has now reached the stage in his life when the looking back is really fun, and the looking forward is not requiring so much energy.

It's the point at which there can be an ongoing investigation of what really happened, or, in other words, how one wishes to tell the story as saga, rather than just scenes from it.

For me, the hero's journey works best. This is a story form which requires a beginning in a commonplace setting with a seemingly commonplace main character, said character unexpectly jerked into a hugely challenging set of events and adventures which proof and anneal, then returned to normal life where his time away gives new perspective which can yield great benefit to all who know him.

We all experience this. Our world, at first, is small and generally safe and quiet. Gradually, as we grow from infants to toddlers to school-age children, we learn more of what is scary in the world--and what exactly that is varies widely from one of us to another, even at a very young age--and decide where we will choose to be. Some choose to stay far from the scary parts, others are attracted to them.

Even when children, the adventures begin for us all.

Leap ahead half a century, and the sheer volume of the saga makes Rumi's Masnavi seem a short story. I introduce Rumi quite by accident, sort of, but then there aren't any of those when one is seeking to reveal and make transparent. Here is a tiny bit of Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks:

I have lived on the lip of insanity,
wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door.
It opens.
I have been knocking from the inside!

Here is where we arrive at late-middle, at the part of the journey where we know almost for sure that we are more than halfway to wherever the heck we are going. Slowly, the journey takes on a sense and life of its own, and we see paradox turned into something more magnificent.

It is now that one can be gentle with the ego, soften the rough edges enough to make the memories palatable, perhaps kick up a tiny bit the amount of courage exhibited by our hero.

If, at the same time, the core truth remains, the story--the saga--becomes compelling.

More? Count on it.

Until you ask, you won't receive

I listened to a teleconference last night presented by someone I have great respect for, Christine Kane.

She is a wonderful singer/songwriter who has blossomed in the last couple of years into a powerhouse speaker, coach, presenter, and mentor.

The last point she made in her presentation of the seven steps toward real results is that we can move with far more efficiency toward what we want when we are willing to honor our own life by reaching out for support.

This is huge. For me, it used to be extremely difficult. The humbling experience of the last 18 months has burned that right out of me. Now, I don't hesitate. At the same time, I seek to ask for help by offering help.

It is by opening up and feeling the generous spirit within ourselves that we are able to attract that same energy, that desire others feel to be supportive and offer help.

It is a two-step process, remember. First, decide to be generous and open your heart so that you hear those who need help and can benefit from what you have to offer. Then, ask for help yourself!

Years ago, while I sat playing the guitar for a friend, she asked what I enjoyed most about playing and singing. I said that what I most enjoyed was touching people. Unbidden and unexpected on my part, I added, "If you want to touch someone, you must first be open to being touched."

The whole game, all of it, works this way. It is the Law of Attraction boiled down to its essence.

When you have decided your direction, be willing to seek out those who have blazed that trail. At the same time, listen for the requests from those behind you who need your help reaching where you are already.

When you go looking

I started out this morning much as I do every morning. It is crazy stupid "are you nuts??" early, and that means I can allow my inner wild-haired child to run free on the playground we call the internet.

After all, I can safely expect no phone calls from job leads at 4:30 a.m.

While I normally don't document these wanderings, today's were so interestingly rich and odd that I decided to clue you in on them.

I found an NPR article on the wacky tale of Einstein's brain postmortem. The dude has had almost as bizarre a trip after his death (or, his brain has) as he did while he was walking around on this big hairy ball of dirt and oily water.

In the article, we learn that the person who did the autopsy on Einstein's remains more than 50 years ago decided to keep the brain. It is not clear how he managed to do so, but he did.

Over the years, he allowed scientists slices of the brain--that was his mission, to promote the study of this brain which provided so much for us all--and we end up at the heart of the NPR article, which is the amazing discovery which came about, in part, because of a uniqueness in this particular brain which Marian Diamond of UC Berkeley found.

If what I have described is enough to entice you to read the NPR article, you will only be more enthused to learn there is a book which includes the description of a road trip in a rented Skylark with Einstein's brain as cargo, what was left of it stuffed in a Tupperware container.

Weird, huh?

A couple more in-the-moment, serendipitous twists and turns later, I arrived at a YouTube video which an enterprising person had first uploaded, then downloaded, then uploaded, then...well, the person continued cycling the video for 1000 round trips. As you can imagine, it ends up being quite deteriorated and distorted, but in a beautiful way. For those who are interested, the same person paused to retain the video at various stops along the path to 1000 journeys. I have not watched the earlier videos when the original was not nearly so distorted, but they are there if you decide to watch this one.

More tomorrow!