Rants | The Direction of Intention

Read To The End

Posted on August 27, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

When I was a kid I was baffled when the characters in children’s fables and stories opened their doors to the wolf. The little pig would peep through the spy hole and the wolf, not cleverly disguised as an old lady, would ask for a cup of sugar. I’d think, “Even I know a wolf when I see it. Don’t open the door!” And the little pig would always open the door. So did Red Riding Hood’s grandmother. “Oh! Another little pig goes down the hatch!” I’d say, closing the book. The pictures were always my favorite part even if the story seemed implausible.

9 months ago I received a letter from the IRS congratulating me on my random selection for an audit. The nice letter told me the audit was for instructional purposes only. “How nice.” I thought until my accountant screamed, “Don’t be like the little pig in the story. This is the wolf at your door.” Oh, how I wish I’d paid attention to the story! What did the pig do when it was eaten? How did the pig emerge whole and happy from the belly of the wolf? I closed the book too soon! I enjoyed the pictures but ignored the lesson. Is there a nice woodsman in my future that will recognize that the large bump in the antagonistic wolf’s belly is me – and cut me out of this dark chamber?

As I sit here in the belly of the wolf I’ve had plenty of time to ponder the national debt and also learn the patterns and practices of my wolf host. I’ve added together the hours my wolf has spent on this audit and have realized the poor thing is truly starving to death: not only has he not found in my meager account any delicious hidden food morsels but the amount of money he may or may not recoup from me will never come close to meeting his enormous energy output. My wolf is losing money, our money. Additionally, every time there is some communication I receive no less than 9 letters, each letter comprised of 3-5 sheets of paper with legalese (single spaced) – each telling me that we’ve communicated – something I already knew; I actually read the first wave and although my inner lawyer was thrilled with so much language used to say almost nothing, I was left wondering how brevity and sense-making escaped the tax collection arm of the government. And, best of all, I now have some concrete suggestions for how to solve our budgetary woes and still maintain social security, medicare, and host of other worthy social programs.

I told my story of woe to my pal Patricia the photographer and she rolled her eyes; she has been engaged in a prolonged battle with her IRS wolf who insists her daughter is not her daughter; she has a birth certificate and dna to back her claim – not to mention a daughter who looks just like her – and yet her audit also continues into perpetuity. Like me she, too, receives 9 letters of of 3-5 single spaced communication affirming that communication has occurred with each communication. How many people-hours does it take to manufacture so many duplicate letters? Artaud could not have written a play this absurd.

Even though I have learned the error of closing the fable book too soon, I’ve gleaned enough to know that the wolf always gets his due in the end (the pictures made that abundantly clear). It is the wolf’s greed and hubris that brings its demise and I take comfort from my dark belly chamber knowing that we must be very close to the inevitable end of this insipid fable.

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Take Off Your Blindfold

Posted on August 24, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

We were talking about illegal immigration. He is very conservative and was adamant that “illegals are breaking the law!” He exclaimed, “The law is the law! They’re breaking the law and should feel the consequences of their actions.” He made his proclamation about the black and white nature of the law and its consequences as he was lighting a joint – and the hypocrisy of his actions did not occur to him, not even for a moment. And although I found the moment absurd I did not think it was remarkable. As a successful white male he has always had a different relationship with the law and power than, for instance, the person trying to sneak across the border to find a better life. Things look differently at the top of the pyramid than it does at the bottom. When you are at the top, claiming a moral authority is part of the gig even though it requires holding others to an absolute code that you have never held yourself. I suppose it is the nature and necessity of power-over-others to excuse your self from participation; the need to control is a specifically exclusive act.

Of course he is not unusual. Tom taught for many years, long enough to see his students become adults – some with families, some even became teachers themselves. He used to laugh at the maniacal adults who wanted to impose strict rules on their children and students, rules that they would never have adhered to themselves. I’m fairly certain the proponents and makers of our current culture of testing never experienced nor would tolerate the madness they are now imposing on the nation’s children. Tom used to say, “Are their memories so short or is there another agenda entirely?” It was a rhetorical question.

One of my favorite Mad Magazine cartoons was of two hippies beating each other with signs, one read “Peace” and the other, “No More War.” What is it that allows us the peculiar blindness to afford ourselves consideration that we refuse to extend to others? When I am driving and inadvertently cut someone off I think, “Whoa! I didn’t see them.” When someone cuts me off, I am certain they are, “Trying to kill me!” Or making a statement or pulling status or…. I will never grant them the same specificity that I grant myself until I deem that they, too, have a story. Until then I do not see “them;” I see the story I project on their action.

The line becomes less black-and-white; the world becomes less absolute when I consider the human; when I factor in the circumstance, the necessity, the emotion, and the need; with personal story comes nuance and consideration. Lady Justice (both the inner version and the one standing before every courthouse) has never been as blind as she pretends.

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Truly Powerful People (477)

Posted on June 29, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

477.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I am meditating on rage. Call it fire in the belly or call it “enough already.” This is not a meditation on simple anger; it is an internal forest fire. It is nature cleaning away the debris, opening channels of blocked energy, and making way for new life.

Rage, at first might look destructive – the forest fire rages out of control – and the aftermath of this rage is nutrient for the soul, rejuvenation of a landscape, and the long-term health of an ecosystem. The fire serves a purpose. The rage is an energy released. It is the fire of alchemy. It is a natural cycle.

I am not talking about road rage – people snapping because they feel so powerless that they explode – that is not the rage, I mean. My meditation is on the ferocity of love, the mother bear protecting her cub. The rage I am pondering assumes power is already at the center, it is the forge and hammer. It is the love of self sufficient to say, “This is the line and you will not cross it.” It is the love of self to say, “This will not stand.”

Where is our rage? Where is your rage?

I recently watched an interview Bill Moyers did with Thomas Frank about money in politics. The question implicit throughout the interview: where is our rage? What happened to the people in these United States that we now so willingly participate in the rape and pillage of our political system? Rather than rise in our rage like a fire and burn away the clutter and abuse, we took a seat, turned on our televisions and asked for more. We sighed, “Oh, Well,” when our supreme court sold our political souls in the Citizens United ruling. We tuned into Fox News or MSNBC and divided ourselves, turning our impotence on each other. It’s an old strategy of control called the giddy masses: If the people turn their rage on each other they will cease to focus it where it will do any good.

I was a little kid in the 60’s and my first memories are of a neighborhood with no fences. There was one big backyard commons where people talked and watched over other people’s children. There was rage stomping around the adult’s conversations – and their love had teeth. I had the sense that my parents cared for their neighbors and I know the neighbors certainly cared for me (literally). It seemed to me that we were in something together; agreement was not a requirement of the community; disagreement was catalyst for conversation and action. I’m certainly romanticizing a childhood memory. There were 4 billion less people on the planet so perhaps it was easier to talk to your neighbor – though that equation makes no sense. People are spatially closer and communally farther apart.

It leaves me wondering where’s the rage? What happened to our self-respect?

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Truly Powerful People (476)

Posted on June 28, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

476.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I am paraphrasing an email from Megan-the-brilliant. She recommended a book to me, “Take The Lead,” by Betsy Myers.

Megan: “It’s about how leadership in the 21st century is much different than our ideas about traditional leadership – and this includes parenting, teaching, etc., as “leading” opportunities.

“Myers writes about this guy, Warren Bennis, who understands leadership as self-knowledge… She goes on to write:
‘That successful leaders are those who are conscious about their behavior and the impact it has on the people around them. These leaders are willing to step back from the fray and get an accurate picture of what is working in their organizations–and in their lives–and what is not. Moreover, they want to know the why. They are willing to examine what behaviors of their own may be getting in the way. Successful leaders understand that if we don’t lead consciously, it’s easy to repeat patterns that could be keeping us from achieving the results we are hoping for. The toughest person you will ever lead is yourself. We can’t effectively lead ourselves, which starts with knowing who we are.’

This makes me think of the work that you’re doing in the world. Powerful People, yes?”

Yes. Lead first yourself. And you can’t do that if you don’t know yourself. You can’t do that if you are invested in the idea that others are responsible for how you feel, think, see, etc.

More from Megan: “The other thing I noticed this week? In how many places have we disconnected the “word” from it’s “meaning”…. the language from the action…! We talk about teaching as though it is separate from learning…. but

If they’re not learning, we’re not teaching.”

And to Megan’s thoughts I would add: when teachers are not allowed to teach, no one learns. What does it mean, “to learn?” What is the purpose of “learning?” Hint: information transfer is not learning. As any bumper sticker will tell you: information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom. Why would we shoot for anything less than wisdom? Hint #2: you can’t test for wisdom.

(oh, man…here comes a rant): Here’s an example of Megan’s observation that we separate word from meaning: excellence is never achieved through standardization (think about it, please). Yet we blather on an on, decade after decade, pouring our energy and our resources into standardization of education as if it were the holy path to excellence. If you want to dumb down your society, race to the bottom of the education ladder (and we are doing it), define excellence according to a notion of standardization. Better yet: make a test of standardization, position it as the central driver and definer of the verb, to learn. Structure your system around the passing of the test, refuse to acknowledge the disparity of resource (meaning, of course, only standardize the expectation but do nothing to standardize the circumstance, i.e. fund your schools according to the property values around the school – an excellent strategy for keeping the wealthy schools fully funded and the poor schools very poorly funded) while simultaneously binding available resources, teacher’s pay, etc. to the score on the test. Place the accent on failure (always a good strategy for making fear the driver of the system). Being so short sighted it’s no wonder we are so willing to offshore our economic health and outsource our thinking.

Forcing people to follow is not leadership. Lying to people so they might follow is not leadership. Leaders – true leaders – lead; they do not manipulate. True leaders can see beyond their profit motive and bottom lines. True leaders are dedicated to empowerment in others because they are seekers of self-knowledge (end of rant).

One of the many reasons I believe Megan-the-brilliant is brilliant: she’s awake.

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Truly Powerful People (471)

Posted on June 23, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

471.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Quinn once told me that the downfall of western civilization began with 1) the salad bar and 2) attaching the garage to the house (he called it “inviting the car into the home”). To Quinn’s list I would like to add leaf blowers as evidence of the downfall of civilization. Other than to create the illusion of tidy – and I apologize profusely to the word “create” for using it in association with something that does nothing – what do leaf blowers actually do? If I did the same work with a broom, if I swept all the little bits of leaf and grass into the neighbors yard and left it there, wouldn’t you find me offensive? Why is it that blowing stuff into the neighbors yard and leaving it for someone else is considered appropriate?

If I planted a tiny microphone in your ear and recorded a mosquito buzzing in and out and then amplified the sound a thousand times, it would be the sound made by a leaf blower. If I ever have state secrets and you want them from me, no need to water board me or pull out my finger nails, simply turn on a leaf blower and rev the engine a few times – or better yet – blow stuff from here to there and back again and I will tell all. I will spill the secrets, reveal the mystery, give you the code and betray the nation. Just turn the damn thing off.

I am not good at digging holes and filling them in again –literally or metaphorically. It is the chief reason why I was worthless working in an office setting; or working anywhere, for that matter. Leaf blowers achieve nothing. They move stuff around. They shift the pile from here to there and then it is someone else’s responsibility to blow the stuff down the line. They are very loud abdications of responsibility.

I’ve decided leaf blowers are metaphoric of Wall Street. Blow the crap down the line, make a lot of noise doing it, and the user gets to walk away feeling like they’ve done good work because they’ve cleaned their space by sullying their neighbors.

And now, it occurs to me that in this rant I, too, am a leaf blower. Now that I have blown my leaves onto your lawn I think I will retire to the couch and have a congratulatory snooze. I feel so much better having vented. I hear my dear Albert’s voice in my head saying, “That guy looked in the mirror today and thought, ‘I look good!’”

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Truly Powerful People (445)

Posted on May 28, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

445.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I’m given to idealism; I know this is true. And, although I’ve harbored serious attempts to cure myself of my idealism, in the end I always come to this thought, “I do not wish to see the world through the eyes of “realistic.” There are too many dashed dreams in this world. There is too much lost hope. Too many people sit in front of the television and think, “There is nothing I can do.” I’ve tried that, too and it works if you can give up any desire for deeper meaning in your life. Numb is numb through and through.

Once, a client wanted to change the culture of his organization. He sought complicated interventions to cure the pathology of his business. He’d fostered a culture of negation; “Yes, but…,” was the standard reply to any request. All he need do was change one word: “Yes, and….” Building a culture on acceptance instead of negation was, to him, pie in the sky. “It can’t be that easy,” he said. He entertained it when I pulled my systems lingo from my pocket: “Complex systems are not changed through complexity. They are changed through local simplicities.” He entertained it just long enough to realize that he’d have to relinquish control and instead empower his employees. “Yes, and,” is surprisingly powerful. Change one word and the world can change. He wrote it off as too idealistic. Negation is negation through and through.

If you want to weep about the abuse of power (control wears a mask and we call it power) read Howard Zinn’s The People’s History of the United States. There is a nasty little theme lurking beneath the economics of the past 150 years of our history: the sale of weapons drives the health of the economy. War is not only profitable, it is necessary to float the boat and to unite an otherwise economically divided nation; we are not the first generation to recognize that 99% are pieces of a larger game; the 1% play a different game governed by different rules. It’s a national theme, a defining characteristic that when married to another defining characteristic – the easy distraction of the 99% – guarantees that future generations of the 99.9% will awake for a moment and say, “Hey! What about democracy and the ideals chiseled into the walls of our monuments! No fair!” Eisenhower warned us and that was a long time ago.

I am not so idealistic as to think that something other than a profit motive will drive our national action plan. I am, however, willing to entertain the pie in the sky notion that peace can easily be more profitable than war. What if we actually set aside our imperialist shadow side and walked our talk? War as we practice it is akin to digging a hole and filling it in again so we can dig a hole – all to wildly support the makers of shovels. I’m not kidding when I assert that the potency of life is found in what you bring to it, not in what you get from it. What do we bring? Numb is numb and negation is negation. Imagining the impossible (idealism) is at the heart of every innovation. Imagine what might be possible if we woke up!

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Truly Powerful People (423)

Posted on May 6, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

423.
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 state of Tennessee recently past a law making it a crime for young people to display affection. No hand holding allowed. Kiss the cheek of your sweet baboo in the movie theatre and you’ll be arrested. Hold his hand as you stroll across campus and you’re off to the klink. The reason: legislators believe the new law will significantly decrease teen pregnancy. And some people said Footloose was far fetched!

The state of Arizona is erasing its ethnic studies programs. They’ve de-funded the classes. They are “boxing” books by Hispanic authors. “Boxing” is a way of banning the books without using the word banning. The books are removed from the shelves and boxed; the books are still there, the students just can’t read them. The reason: ethnic studies has been deemed un-American. Apparently banning books by authors with brown skin is what defines us.

A major oil company is throwing its weight behind a campaign to raise the standards of science and math programs in America. We rank 17th and 25th in the world in math and science. At one time in the not-too-distant past, California had some of the best public schools in the world. The state gutted funding for education and their public schools soon ranked 47th in the 50 United States. The reason: Don’t get me started. It was a great strategy for the decades long impotent campaign to raise standards instead of addressing the challenge.

Legislating behavior is a great strategy for not dealing with the challenges. Why not address the social issues behind teen pregnancy? Oh, yeah. That means we’d also have to talk about sex. Or, we’d have to talk. We’d have to look at who we are instead of flinging propaganda bombs loaded with the illusion of who we say we are.

As Luis Urrea recently said in an interview with Bill Moyers, ethnic studies is a way into American culture, it is expansive and not a door out (education is expansive – that must be the problem that Arizona has identified). In a society comprised of many ancestral lines it might be useful to consider our origins. That would mean we’d have to talk about it so, of course, it makes sense to box the books (we wouldn’t want people to think we banned stuff!). Shhh. No talking.

And, of course the epic and endless conversation about raising standards in education without first addressing how we educate or why we educate guarantees that we’ll do almost anything rather than address the real challenges in education. We’ve managed to ignore 40 years of data and deny the most potent brain research in the history of human kind. Why start now. Shhhhhh.

When did we become afraid of our voices? When did we slide into this epic failure of imagination?

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Truly Powerful People (419)

Posted on May 2, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

419.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Wikipedia tells me that poiesis is derived from a Greek word meaning “to make.” It is the root of our word poetry and was initially understood as a verb: an action that transforms and continues the world. It implies a reconciliation of humans with the world in which we inhabit.

A word like poeisis can only come from a people less abstracted from nature than are we. Many indigenous people sing the sun to rise each morning; that is an action that transforms and continues the world. There is a different kind of relationship implied when a community believes their actions have the power to continue the world. It is a story of relationship and participation; reconciliation, not dominance. It’s a different kind of story.

Last night I watched a National Geographic special about what would happen to the earth if humans were somehow eliminated. The theme running beneath the disintegration of our cities, collapse of our dams, and disappearance of our roads was how long it would take the earth to recover. How many years would pass without humans before the air cleansed itself of carbon and acid. How many years were required before fish populations recovered, ecosystems transcended our attempt to control things are returned to balance. The message: we are transforming the world and working hard to discontinue our participation.

Earlier in the day I listened to an interview with an ecologist and nature photographer talking about their new book about the signs of collapse in the eco-systems that they’ve been studying and photographing for the past several years. Their message: there is still time, but not much.

This odd word poiesis rolled out of the archives and into my mind. What would we do if we believed that ours to-do was to transform and continue the world – if we chose our actions each day based on our capacity to transform and continue rather than consume and dominate? Poiesis is the root of our word poetry; a verb that implies a reconciliation of humans with the earth we inhabit. Poetry: how to express in language that which cannot be expressed in language. Denial: the refusal to acknowledge the existence of something; the refusal to face unpleasant facts.

What is it that we are attempting to make? What is the story that we are trying to tell?

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Truly Powerful People (416)

Posted on April 29, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

416.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Sylvia and I talked this afternoon about a project and our conversation sparked a return to an old topic: place your focus on creating a great process and the product will take care of itself. You’d be amazed at how many organizations hire consultants to pull employees out of their working environment, give workshops about team building and expect the employees to return to their work and magically be a better team. Sylvia has a magic wand and we had a good laugh imagining the corporate change fairy dinging people on the head for instant “team-ness.” Team is not an outcome; it is a day-to-day process. Team is a relationship and relationship is not an outcome, it is a process that happens in the little choices we make together each day. The same is true of happiness. Or living with purpose. Or peace.

Here is a list of some of the other relationships that we’ve mistaken for outcomes: business, education, leadership, management, administration, governance, marriage, friendship, art, worship, nation, and community. These grand words are forms of relationship and are not achievable: they are created and recreated every day in the little practices that we practice together. They are the stories we tell and live each day through the actions we take, the agreements we live with each other.

We know how to make the trains run on time and we know how to produce stuff but seem utterly inept at being together in a generative, life-giving way. Our focus is glued on the outcome while things like meaning, happiness, and higher purpose are found in the relationships we create in the process of making stuff.

It seems so simple and that is probably why it is so difficult to see and embrace. So we seek for an answer. We hire consultants or watch the news or buy self-help books– seeking something or someone that will provide the answer. It is not until we surrender the need for an answer that we can fully taste the life that we are living now. Turn off the television, put down your book. Look at who might be in the room with you or in the next cubicle. What are you practicing together?

If we want to create something else, we need practice something else. And that implies a certain amount of responsibility and a new understanding of power created with others. Be your own magic wand and see what amazing relationships you are capable of creating.

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Truly Powerful People (346)

Posted on February 20, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

346.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

June, like most of us, is exasperated with congress and the political process in general. At lunch the other day she went on a rant about private money corroding and corrupting politicians, short term thinking causing long-term damage, wealth extraction strategies employed by the banks with the collusion of our public officials, the refusal of the justice department to prosecute the architects of the 2008 economic meltdown, and the lack of compromise in a two party system functiaonally designed for compromise. June is a fiery red head who actually turns the color of fire when she goes on a rant so I sat very still and watched the fire burn. “I know,” I said, nodding in agreement. “It’s awful,” I said.

Out of all good fiery crucibles, new ideas are forged. June said, in a fit of exasperation, “I ought to send my 92 year old mother to congress! She’d tell them what’s what and put an end to the stupidity!” It was such a good idea that it broke the spell of the rant and we laughed. What a great idea!

What if we sent our grandmothers to Washington to tell our elected leaders to cut it out? Behave. Play nice. What if the senate floor was invaded by a wave of sensible shoes, support stocking, floral print house-dresses and common sense? What if a wall of grandmothers stood between Washington and Wall Street?

Both of my grandmothers were short but I would not dare cross them; they saw through my lies, illusions and bogus arguments every time. Grandmothers can see through the nonsense and they aren’t afraid to call it out when they see it. “What are you thinking, boy? Do you have a fever or did you hit your head? I know you’re not that stupid!” Isn’t that the voice we are missing in our political debate? Aren’t those the eyes we want minding the financial gluttony? I was careful to be honest and respectful in their presence. I made different choices when I knew they were watching – and they were always watching. Wouldn’t our elected officials do the same? Can you imagine what our grandmothers and elderly mothers might do in a congressional session in which the members were debating whether pizza was a vegetable or not? After they wiped the tears of laughter from their eyes they’d send congress outside to play. “Go waste your time outside,” they’d chortle, “At least you’ll get some fresh air.”

I gave my grandmother my chair when she came into the room – it was expected of me – and I hope members of congress would do the same. As the wave of grey haired feminine wisdom poured into those hallowed chambers, I imagine all the expensive suits standing, “Please, take my chair.” Once the grandmothers were comfortably seated, they’d say to the now polite boys and girls, “Now, what’s this nonsense about health care (or taxes or political contributions,…)? Why can’t you youngsters get along? Lord, you’ve made a mess of things!”

The view at the end of life is much different than the view from the middle. The priorities change. When the end of life is in sight, the view of the pie is not nearly so limited and hoarding seems like so much nonsense. Grandmothers make enough pie for everyone and sharing is rewarded.

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