Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.
— Ernest Hemingway
I love stories.
I’ve been making my way, very slowly, through Michael Yapko’s Hand-Me-Down Blues
 Photo credit: Sugar Pond Photo credit: Alaskan Dude The kid on the board makes it look so EASY. I want more of that for myself… how about you?
My post last week celebrated a really mundane personal accomplishment. And while I respect my exuberant and frivolous rejoicing (regardless of how silly it makes me feel) I also feel confused… I find myself asking: If I were to just adopt a more casual, laissez-faire attitude, would that make everything easier? I like to think of myself as an optimist who prepares for possibilities. But I’m wondering if my creative optimism is still serving me well? Or have I inadvertently morphed into a pessimist? Should I shift drastically, adapt some, or just carry on as if nothing needs adjustment? As I think about the kid’s ease on the surfboard and about my friend JD’s ease at doing his thing, I wonder: Is it really as easy as they make it look or have they simply practiced past Continue reading » More About “Looks Easy” Photo credit: Sam Ilić
The US was a place where anything was possible, where we decided that we would send a man to the moon, and we did. And yet, these days we have lost our belief in the future. We look into the future and we just see more of the same. It’s not that on a personal basis, more of the same is bad, it’s on a societal basis that we get depressed. We assume that we can’t solve the problems that we face today. We extrapolate into the future and decide that there is no hope. The mistake we make is assuming that tomorrow will be like today when most of the data around us argues for exactly the opposite conclusion. If we just look at the electronics that we use today vs. what we used 10 years ago, we can see the huge leaps forward that have been made: pagers to cell phones to PDAs. One of my favorite books is Freakonomics and the follow-on Super Freakonomics. The reason that I like both of these books is the Continue reading » Creating the Future Photo credit: Unlisted Sightings
In marketing, there is a saying, “Perception is reality.” This saying explains the challenge that companies or politicians face when dealing with the public’s view of them. It is why they spend so much on public relations. No matter what a politician or a company does, if they lose the PR war, they lose. The same can be said for us. Most of us believe that what we feel is “true.” Emotions can make or break our day. If we “feel” that things are hopeless, then, for us, they are. This raises an interesting issue. How would you be feeling right now if you were an engineer working on capping the rig in the Gulf of Mexico? If there’s anyone saying anything positive about these people who are trying to solve the problem, it’s probably Continue reading » What Are You Thinking? How about you – what’s your attitude/approach to the holidays – and how’s that working for you?
Much as I hate to admit it, I generally approach Christmas rituals in a Grinch-like Call it pessimism, or realism. Definitely NOT optimism. Not yet at any rate. Somewhere on the way to Christmas Day I make the switch to some personal and perhaps, rueful version of the HO HO HO that seems to pervade almost everybody else’s Christmas celebrations. It’s a personal attitude struggle and then it’s a pleasure and then it’s back to the Grinch grind… |
 Take a short break and consider the following: “I would not know how I am supposed to feel about many stories if not for the fact that the TV news personalities make sad faces for sad stories and happy faces for happy stories.” Dave Barry 
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