The Direction of Intention

Learn From Margaret

Posted on August 25, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Margaret died today. She had an epic and courageous journey through Alzheimer’s and just before dinner she closed her eyes and passed. I met her 10 years ago, 5 years into her disease long after she was capable of living on her own. She was in the phase where she put magazines in the toaster and if left to her own devices might wander off into the Tucson desert. Even so, she still had a wicked sense of humor and was filled with mischief and this was true long after she was in the advanced stages. I loved her immediately because, even in her ravaged state, she had more life than most people have in their prime. When I met her she winked at me and with her eyes filled with mirth she told me to “leave the babe (her daughter).” She was a remarkable flirt.

I learned that everyday of her life, at sunset, she stopped what she was doing, went outside and watched the sun go down; a ritual of gratitude and appreciation of life.

Now that she has passed into memory I will keep her life burning in my remembering and these are just a few:

In the Arizona Wildlife museum she vigorously rubbed her breastbone trying to make herself purpose-burp. She’d done it earlier and I’d howled with laughter. She got such a rise out of me that she spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get me to laugh again (I am an easy mark and her endless attempts were more precious than the initial burp. I laughed louder and louder at her misses – we created a lovely feedback loop).

Near the time when we could no longer take her out we cruised the streets of Tucson, Lora and Margaret in the front seat of our rental car singing; Margaret no longer had the lyrics but her commitment to sound was prodigious. Every time she saw a red car she’d stop her song and say, “Now, there’s a red car!”

I will always carry those few luscious gem moments when, as we watched her slowly slip farther and farther away, she would, just for a moment, came back, her eyes sparkling, and exclaim, “Really!” as if her simple joy of life called her from the depths because she simply could not contain her awe.

Filed under: Love, Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »

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.

Filed under: Power, Rants, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: control, justice | Leave a comment »

Take A Radical Step

Posted on August 23, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

532. 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 had a revelation today as Alan Seale and I facilitated a Transformational Leadership Coaching forum discussion. Our topic was the power of taking a radical step. Here’s a quote from Alan’s newsletter:

“Many people equate radicalism with violent extremism. However, if violent acts of extremism are at one end of the “radical” spectrum, the constructive power of radicalism lies at the other end. Religious movements as well as great social and scientific advances started out because someone was willing to take a radical stance…. The word “radical” comes from the Latin radix meaning “root.” A radical thought, position, or act is born out of a powerful root belief or value. It is the outward expression of a conviction rooted in the core of one’s being. Conviction turns to action when it can no longer be held silent.”

A radical act is seen as doing something counter to the main stream, going against what is popular. The kid who said, “The Emperor has no clothes!” was most likely shushed by his parents. The neighbors probably glared and the kid learned that speaking truth was not tolerated in polite society. His comment was not a radical act; however, when, as an adult, he is once again in polite society and can no longer hold his tongue, when he speaks the truth and knows that he might be ostracized…, that is a radical act. Rosa Parks knew that sitting at the front of the bus might get her killed and she did it anyway. That is a radical act.

Here’s my revelation: radical acts often look small in the doing. I coach people and everyday hear stories of immense courage and the necessary action, from an outside observer, appears small but the impact is enormous. Speaking your truth, putting down a cigarette for the last time, saying “no” (or “yes”), changing the-story-you-tell-yourself-about-yourself, seeing opportunity in an obstacle, allowing yourself to be seen: Rosa Parks sat on a bus. Every avalanche begins with a single pebble.

Filed under: Perspective, Power, The Direction of Intention, Truly Powerful People | 4 Comments »

Let Go Of “It”

Posted on August 22, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

531. 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’ve started drawing again. Each day, every day, I flip the elastic band off my moleskin sketchbook, open to a new page, and draw. Or scribble. I make marks and circles. I draw mostly from my imagination; sometimes I look at things and sketch what I see as a starting point and then rearrange the elements: I compose. I don’t see much difference between drawing from imagination and infusing my imagination into what I see. They are the same action; the direction is slightly different.

I am no longer interested in “capturing” reality – primarily because I don’t think there is a reality beyond what I perceive. In a sense there is nothing to capture. There is only interpretation. There is only imagination. To be clear: what I call reality is what I perceive; there is stuff out there (and you will waste a lot of breath trying to convince me that “it” is separate from me: I will giggle if you tell me that there is an objective reality) and I assign “it” meaning; simply by assigning a word to “it” I have abstracted “it.” If I describe “it” I have interpreted “it.” If I describe “it,” I no longer see “it;” I see the word that I’ve attached to “it.” So, when drawing “it” why not go with the flow – interpret, compose, imagine. Scribble, scribble, play. Sharpen the pencil and repeat.

The word “it” provides a perfect example: use these two little letters in the proper sequence and all the magnificent motion and moving beauty of the universe is frozen – “it” fixes flow in time: I can convince myself that a verb is a noun, a river is a thing, a person is knowable, all because I squeeze the miracle into two tiny symbols and think I know “it.”

Alan suggested that I do a self-portrait. It has been over a decade since my last serious attempt. He said, “Peer into those eyes for a while before starting and then ask yourself, ‘Who is this person?’” He asked me to draw with my heart and not my head. Alan is wily and that is why I love him so. He knows what I believe and why I draw. He caught me in a net of my own making. How can I now look in the mirror and possibly believe that I can “capture” what I see?

Filed under: Art, Perspective, Seeing, Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »

Get Tired

Posted on August 21, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

It is very late and I am too tired to write. It is a surprisingly yummy feeling to be this tired, to know there are thoughts in there somewhere – some might even be coherent – but the layer of fuzz wrapped around my brain makes the thoughts just slightly out of my reach. There are many paths to illumination and I will dub this route “stupid Zen.” Of course, the problem with stupid Zen is it’s not trustworthy: life is, according to the Balinese, a shadow puppet play. We only see the shadows, the illusion, so riding the horse of exhaustion into the illusion of illumination seems counterproductive.

It is not so much an altered state as much as…a state. In the absence of coherent thought there is no need for alteration. With reason tucked in for the night, thought is more apt to go off the trail and lose itself in the forest. The cool night air, the sound of the waves against the seawall are more available; I am more able to give myself over to the little things which, I know, are really the important things: when I am this tired I can be no where else but here.

I heard this quote today, I can’t remember where, but it just bubbled to the top and I’ve just decided that for sheer tenacity this will be the first verse in the book of stupid Zen:

“I prefer to be wrong, it is so much more interesting than thinking I am right.”

Filed under: Perspective, Random, Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »

What’s At Your Feet?

Posted on August 20, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

For the past several months I have been interested in the marks we make on the ground. I often wander the streets with my camera and take photos of the ubiquitous marks at my feet. City engineers spray alien looking symbols in green and orange paint on sidewalks and streets. There are symbols everywhere if you pay attention: the universal walking man to demarcated crosswalks and walkways, bicycle shapes indicating lanes for things with wheels, “stop here” in bold letters, lane lines, curb lines, crosswalk stripes, chalk drawings, sprayed messages, stencils, scratched names and dates. I imagine I am an alien from another planet gathering samples of culture and ponder what does this overwhelming impulse to make marks, to define and apply symbol on the ground say about earthlings in the USA, 2012? They are beautiful when you pretend that you don’t know what they mean. My inner alien has sometimes exclaimed, “These earthlings like to draw on everything. They have an extraordinary impulse toward beauty and expression!”

Someone once told me that the unique challenge facing our culturally diverse democracy is that we must constantly define ourselves; we do not share a common narrative, we certainly have wildly divided ideas even about the simplest of terms like “marriage” and “patriotism,” so each day we must work hard to know where we fit, we must daily reinvent ourselves to know who we are in the absence of really knowing. We debate, not to clarify, but to know what we believe. The good folks on Madison Avenue, working so hard to sell us stuff, would have a miserable job if we truly knew who we were (secure in our identity, we would laugh at the notion that red shoes or a new car would make us more appealing).

The marks made by the engineers are practical: the sewer line goes here. The crosswalks, bike lanes, lane lines, directional arrows, etc., are also practical if not highly revealing; my inner alien eventually comes to recognize, much to his chagrin, that these marks are not art but rules: walk here, ride here, go this direction, look both ways; the earthlings in the USA, 2012 are an ordered bunch! Despite their rhetoric and emphasis on individualism they like their rules. They prefer the pre-determined path; they like to know which way to walk and when. They value conformity and compliance; this, at least, does not warrant a debate: all the evidence you need is waiting at your feet.

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Sit In The Most Comfortable Chair In The World

Posted on August 19, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Just off the pier jutting into Lake Winnisquam in southern New Hampshire, sitting in 3 feet of water, is the most comfortable chair in the world. I know because Drew told Lora about the chair’s status as she considered sitting in it. “Oh, you have to sit,” he said, “It’s the most comfortable chair in the world.” How can you let a thing like that go by? Lora sat in the chair, only her head remained above the water and she immediately giggled with pleasure.

The most comfortable chair in the world is white plastic with a leaf pattern meant to give it the appearance of wrought iron; it looks heavy but is very light so it bobs and moves with the motion of the water. When sitting in the most comfortable chair in the world, you move as the chair moves; you are taken with the delicate motion of the water, you sit into a gentle rhythmic water massage. Go with it and your troubles, stresses, aches and pains disappear. Resist it, try to control it and you tip over backwards and dunk yourself. The chair seems to know whether you are capable of giving into the comfort, capable of accepting it’s gift, or trying to control your experience. It will toss you if are not ready to accept what it brings.

As I listened to Drew explain the perils and pleasures of the chair, I knew I was witness to an especially relevant life metaphor (they are everywhere!). Chose to sit in it or not. If you do, relax into the experience and ride the wave; it will massage you if you let it. Fight it and you will lose your balance. The dunking you get is, after all, a result of resisting the natural motion. The most comfortable chair in the world demands presence. It is fluid and ever changing and paradoxically, giving into it – living into a process – will tickle your tension away. You just might find yourself giggling.

Filed under: Awakening, Metaphor, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Be A Rejuvenation Fairy

Posted on August 18, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Dear Lisa,

A promise is a promise. Since I learned that your summer was absent of any real and lasting rejuvenation, you’ll remember that I volunteered and made a commitment to invoking rejuvenation on your behalf. Essentially I have dedicated myself to being your rejuvenation fairy.

I will not leave quarters, dimes, or dollars under your pillow – at this stage of the game it would be inappropriate for you to lose teeth to put under your pillow especially for such low rewards. No, my intervention will be more surprise oriented. You might, for instance, note that I spent the evening smearing paint on a very large canvas and then covering the canvas with tissue paper and Mod Podge. This was an invocation event. Therefore, you have, probably by now, experienced an undeniable desire to paint with your fingers; I take no responsibility for the friends, pets, or family members that might get in the way of your sudden imperative to slap Mod Podge on tissue paper with an enormous brush. It was exhilarating for me so I assume, now that the power is turned on, that you will collage electric! Prepare yourself for waves of inspiration that will overtake you for I plan to dance and fling paint like a happy Jackson Pollock (I apologize to Harry ahead of time for what you may do in the grips of your uncontrollable paint throwing to the newly painted walls in your newly painted house). Remember, rejuvenation fairies have a deniability clause in their contract so if you go too far and too fast into renewal you are on your own to explain it. I have never been able to explain it so, even without the clause I’d simply shrug my shoulders and say, “…don’t know.”

It is not beyond me to organize a collection to supply you with Liz dates (the most amazing massage therapist ever) and, as you know, your clan is not beyond kidnapping you and delivering you to Liz (she is formidable so struggling is not recommended). Consider yourself on notice that a rejuvenation kidnap event might happen at any moment. Liz may be warming up; she might already be ready for you.

Here’s the thought to keep in mind: Just like good deeds done in the world are for the benefit of all, just as one member of the community cannot improve themselves without the entire community benefiting, so it goes with rejuvenation. Deplete yourself and we are all depleted. Rejuvenate yourself and we will – each of us – feel the benefit of your brilliant and powerful light. Do it for yourself because you are doing it for us.

With great love and admiration (buckle up),

Your Rejuvenation Fairy.

Filed under: Random, Surprises | Tagged: rejuvenation | 3 Comments »

Prepare For Surprise

Posted on August 17, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Serendipity and a project brought me back to Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse. In rereading it I wonder why I do not read passages from this playful and profound book everyday. Here’s a snippet from passage 44:

“…Artistry can be found anywhere; indeed it can be only be found anywhere. One must be surprised by it. It cannot be looked for. We do not watch artists to see what they do, but watch what persons do and discover the artistry in it.

Artists cannot be trained. One does not become an artist by acquiring certain skills or techniques, though one can use any number of skills and techniques in artistic activity. The creative is found in anyone who is prepared for surprise. Such a person cannot go to school to be an artist, but can only go to school as an artist.

Therefore, poets do not “fit” into society, not because a place is denied them but because they do not take their “places” seriously. They openly see its role as theatrical, its styles as poses, its clothing as costumes, its rule as conventional, its crises as arranged, it’s conflicts performed, and its metaphysics ideological.”

Filed under: Art, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: Finite, Infinite, play | 1 Comment »

Old Meets New

Posted on August 16, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

525. 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 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…profound.

As Marshal McLuhan wrote, we humans are great at stepping into the future with our eyes in the rearview 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 values, do what we know works.” Just listen to our education, political, and economic conversations! Denial also likes to think that things are happening to us; waking up is simply the acknowledgment that we are the creators of the story.

[I’m be on the road and taking a break so I’m dipping into the archives and reworking and reposting some of your favorites. I’ll be back at it in the middle of August]

Filed under: Story, Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »

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