The Direction of Intention

192.
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Sometimes I think it is helpful to look at the world through the principles of design, as if all of life was a composition. Principles, in this sense, are the overarching truths of this profession called “design.” They form the “code” that we point to when we say, “that was a great design!” They can also help identify what makes a great life. They are useful principles in identifying and making life’s compositional choices.

Listen to these words as principles for a life well lived: Balance, Rhythm, Proportion, Emphasis, and Unity. These tasty words are ripe with promise! Balance asks, “Where do you place the weight?” It is a question of distribution that can be symmetrical or asymmetrical. Where do you place the emphasis in your thinking? Are you seeing the hardship? Do you focus on the obstacle or the possibilities? Where do you choose to place the weight of your thinking?

All of the principles are descriptions of relationship. For instance, the concept of unity describes the relationship between the individual parts and the whole of a composition. Rhythm creates a sense of movement, and establishes pattern and texture. We story ourselves according to the patterns we create, patterns that are regular, organic, or progressive – all are questions of relationship.

One of my favorite principles is “The rule of thirds.” This rule recognizes that the most interesting compositions (lives) are those in which the primary element is off center. Divide any visual frame into thirds and place the compositional element on one of the dividing lines. What is it to compose a life that is intentionally off center? It is to create movement. I work with lots of people seeking greater meaning in their lives and inevitably they need to leave their seat of safety (stasis), they must step out of the secure center to create movement, and walk into uncertainty.

No one awakes in the morning and says, “This is the day I will knock myself off center.” However, if you are feeling stuck in your life or that there must be something more, you might remember the rule of thirds. Leave your comfort zone for an hour and see what happens. Movement and relationship are at the heart of good design and a good life. The good news is that symmetry (balance) is available even when you are consciously moving off center. It’s a paradox, to be sure, just as stillness is available while you are in action. Paradox always makes for good design!

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190.
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I believe we are living in a time when THE OLD STORY is colliding mightily with THE NEW REALITY. It is an opportunity for change but like most times of great potential change, we hold on with white knuckles to THE OLD STORY. Change is frightening precisely because it is unknown. It is easier to hold onto the monkey bar than it is to fly toward the next place. Our circumstance is dire because the pace of change is blistering so the immensity of the denial necessary to maintain THE OLD STORY is…absurd.

As Marshal McLuhan wrote, we humans are great at stepping into the future with our eyes in the rear view mirror. It’s as if we live life in a rowboat, pulling for a future with our backs to where we are going. The occasional glances over the shoulder help us spot a destination but our eyes are fixed on the shore from which we came. Safety lives on the shore behind us (we think).

As Roger once said, “I believe among a human beings greatest capacities is the capacity for denial.” Denial often looks like this: “Things are okay just as they are,” “I wish we could return to the good old days,” “Let’s get back to basics, return to our family values, do what we know works.” Or, just listen to our education, political, and economic conversations. Denial also likes to pretend that these things are happening to us; waking up is simply the acknowledgment that we are the creators of it.

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188.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

The first time I stepped over a person sleeping on the street I was horrified. I grew up in the burbs; if someone was collapsed on the street it meant they needed help. It was early in the morning, my first day in San Francisco. I was 22 years old. I rushed to the man laying on the cement and my friend Roger grabbed my arm, “Keep walking,’ he said, “There’s nothing you can do.” I stepped over the man and kept walking. It was unnatural. I didn’t believe that there was nothing to be done. And, I kept walking. Roger was quick to point out the people asleep in doorways, on benches, beneath cardboard,…; once my eyes were opened I saw people scattered all over the city, hundreds of people asleep on the street. It was as if an earthquake hit the city and its residents were afraid to go back into their homes. “What happened?” I asked. “Reagan cut funding for the shelters,” Roger said. “The economy sucks.” Even then those answers seemed too simplistic, completely void of responsibility. This is how we learn the rules of community.

That was 1983. Today I walked by the courthouse in downtown Seattle. The park next to the courthouse was like a refugee camp. Every park bench served to support makeshift cardboard shelters. People slept beneath every tree and formed a line adjacent to the fences. Sleeping in the day is necessary if you have no home to return to at night. For a moment I thought it was a performance art piece, the actors having placed themselves on the ground in an orderly composition. They were so still. I felt no horror and had no impulse to help. Instead, I was more concerned with looking at them for too long; I am supposed to not notice. I am a man of my times and have internalized the rules of community.

Earlier in the day I’d read a passage about Marshal McLuhan and how he often wrote of the human tendency to dismiss an idea or experience by naming it. Neil Postman called it “label-libel.” Attach the right label to it and you needn’t think about it any more.

“Homeless,” I said, feeling nothing. “The economy sucks,” I intoned. “Nothing to be done,” I whispered, wishing for the days when I had access to my horror.

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186.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

This is an old theme revisited. The word of the day is “belief.” For the past few days I have been with Lora at her class reunion in Tucson and I’ve listened to many conversations about belief: belief in self, belief in fate, belief in fortune, belief in friendship, belief in future, belief in love. We give this word, “belief” a lot of power!

Like all words, “belief” is an abstraction. Just as the word “tree” is not a tree (the word is an abstraction of something outside of you), the word “belief” is also an abstraction; it points to something that you decide/create with in you.

We play as if we need belief before we act. The notion that belief precedes committed action is a misunderstanding, an inversion. This misunderstanding is used as a reason to keep both feet on the brakes, “I can’t act before I believe….” Just watch a toddler explore the world! Curiosity is the name of the game, no belief required.

Belief in your self has nothing to do with fulfilling your dreams or bringing 100% of your self to your life. Curiosity is all that is required and the good news is that curiosity is natural to all human beings. Explore to explore. Act to see what happens. Color outside of the lines. The only thing necessary is to take your feet off the brakes.

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184.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

My friend Arnie and I had a great debate today. He is conservative and I am liberal. I appreciate my debates with Arnie because neither of us feels the need to negate the other. I try to see things his way and he mine. We explore ideas, check realities, and ask questions. We discuss and debate – we rarely justify and defend.

It is amazing to me how much conflicting data we bring to our debates. Of course, his sources are different from my sources and that is the point: we are talking about the same sequence of events and his sources report the exact opposite of what my sources report – and both sources call themselves “news.”

How can “news” have opinions about who is culpable in the actions of government or why did this or that happened? News, to be effective, does not ask the question, “why.” News, to be useful, has to divorce itself of opinion.

I might point to deregulation while Arnie points to too much regulation – it is what we heard on the news. Our histories do not line up at all. I suspect the truth is, neither of us really knows what we are talking about – our opinions are reinforced by news sources and pundits that are biased at best. We are too quick to pull data and statistics from our holsters but if you made me bet my life on the substance of my data I’d pause – I know my news source is more vested in entertaining me than informing me – but I use their data anyway! I want to be right! I am left with a feeling that neither of us (none of us) really knows the truth of anything. We defend our point of view because… it is ours and we heard it on the “news.”

Todd, my Canadian friend, told me that Americans are too quick to claim territory; we are too quick to defend because we skip over the dialogue phase. Today, what Arnie and I did, according to Todd’s observation, was definitely un-American . We listened to each other.

There is one thing to which we both agree – and are absolute in our facts: this country is off the rails.

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