President Obama Inspires Children by Telling about J K Rowling’s Rejection

President Barack Obama, in his speech (8 September 2009) to Wakefield High School students in Arlington, Virginia, makes this statement about success and illustrates it with this story:

“Being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.”

“That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published.”

Link to Full Text
Barack Obama, Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event, White House Media Resources, 8 September.

More Stories about or by Barack Obama
Story for the US President about Gatekeepers, SFS.
Barack Obama and the Empathetic Person, SFS.
Ben Okri on Obama the Speechmaker, SFS.
Obama Tells Story of Anne Nixon Cooper, SFS.
Obama’s Speech on Election Night, SFS.
Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother, SFS.
Obama on the Cost and Struggle of Change, SFS.
Obama’s Tribute to His Grandmother (from book), SFS.
Obama Expresses Debt to Mother and His Humble Beginnings, SFS.
Al Gore on Obama’s Youthfulness, SFS.
Why We in the UAE and Arab World Like President Obama, ETE.

Obama Books
Reviewing The Audacity of Hope, RBM.
Reviewing Dreams of My Father, RBM.

More on JK Rowling
Amnesty International’s Influence on J K Rowling, SFSAW
J K Rowling on the Value of Imagination, SFWAW
J K Rowling on the Value of Failure, SFSAW
J K Rowling: Giving a Commencement Address, SFSAW
J K Rowling’s Commencement Address at Harvard, SFSAW
J K Rowling on Friendships, SFSAW

On Related Sites
Photo Blogging Abu Dhabi UAE, Experiencing the Emirates, 7 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published.”

Teddy Kennedy on Preparation, Practice and Perseverance

At the funeral for Senator Edward Kennedy, his son gave a very moving tribute.

He commenced his statement this way:

“My name is Ted Kennedy Jr., a name I share with my son, a name I share with my father. Although it hasn't been easy at times to live with this name, I've never been more proud of it than I am today.”

He shared this story:

During the summer months when I was growing up, my father would arrive late in the afternoon from Washington on Fridays and as soon as he got to Cape Cod, he would want to go straight out and practice sailing maneuvers . . . in anticipation of that weekend's races.

And we'd be out late, and the sun would be setting, and family dinner would be getting cold, and we’d still be out there practicing our jibes and spinnaker sets long after everyone else had gone ashore.

Well one night, not another boat in sight on the summer sea, I asked him, "Why are we always the last ones on the water?" Teddy, he said, "Well, you see, most of the other sailors we race against are smarter and more talented than we are. But the reason why we are going to win is that we are going to work harder than them and we will be better prepared."

And he just wasn't talking about boating. My father admired perseverance. My father believed that to do a job effectively required a tremendous amount of time and effort.

Link
Ted Kennedy Jr Remembers His Father, Full Script, Boston.Com, 29 August 2009.

Related Ted Kennedy Stories
Edward Kennedy Turns Bumbling into a Blessing, SFS, 5 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy: We Carry On, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

On Related Sites
Stop Off for the Finest Dates in All of Arabia on Your Way to Fujairah, Experiencing the Emirates, 6 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Edward Kennedy guides a sailboat up to a pier in Hyannisport, Mass., while sailing with his wife Vicky off the coast of Hyannisport.

Edward Kennedy Turns Bumbling into a Blessing

Three decades ago, Senator Edward Moore Kennedy ruined his last hope to be elected to the White House when a television interviewer asked him why he wanted to be president. He could not articulate an answer, offering instead a rambling, empty response that persuaded his party that he may not really have wanted or been suited for the job that his brother John had held and to which his brother Robert had aspired.

Yet as so often happened in an extraordinary life that careened from success to misfortune and scandal and back to success again, this bumbling moment worked to Mr. Kennedy’s advantage and, as it turned out, to the even greater advantage of the nation as a whole. Having failed in his insurgent challenge to President Jimmy Carter, Mr. Kennedy was finally free to focus with passion and political craft on his more natural calling as one of the master legislators and great reformers in the modern Senate.

Link
Senator Edward Kennedy, Editorial, New York Times, 26 August 2009.

Related Stories
Ted Kennedy: We Carry On, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Jnr’s Father Taught Him that Nothing is Impossible, SFS, 4 September 2009.

Stories on Related Sites
Freej: The Bright Star in the UAE Film Firmament, Experiencing the Emirates, 4 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “Free to focus.”

Winston Churchill and the Puddings He Despised

This brief story came via a Status Update on Facebook:

“Winston Churchill is reported to have once sent a pudding back to a chef complaining it lacked a theme.”

“How many lives (stories, talks, jobs…) lack a theme?”

Link
Thanks to FB Friend Leonard Sweet (good name for a story on puddings), 4 September 2009.

Freej: The Bright Star in the UAE Film Firmament, Experiencing the Emirates, 4 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Pudding with a theme—bread and butter. I'm sure Winston loved this theme. Can’t you imagine him tucking into this pud? Washing it down with brandy and enjoying the afterglow with a cigar? No wonder he could fight them on the beaches after a pud like this one.

Ted Kennedy Jnr’s Father Taught Him that Nothing is Impossible

At last week’s funeral for Senator Edward Kennedy, his son gave a very moving tribute.

He commenced his statement this way:

“My name is Ted Kennedy Jr., a name I share with my son, a name I share with my father. Although it hasn't been easy at times to live with this name, I've never been more proud of it than I am today.”

He shared this story:

“But today I'm simply compelled to remember Ted Kennedy as my father and my best friend.”

“When I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with bone cancer and a few months after I lost my leg, there was a heavy snowfall over my childhood home outside of Washington D.C. My father went to the garage to get the old Flexible Flyer and asked me if I wanted to go sledding down the steep driveway. And I was trying to get used to my new artificial leg and the hill was covered with ice and snow and it wasn't easy for me to walk. And the hill was very slick and as I struggled to walk, I slipped and I fell on the ice and I started to cry and I said ‘I can't do this.’ I said, ‘I'll never be able to climb that hill.’ And he lifted me in his strong, gentle arms and said something I'll never forget. He said ‘I know you'll do it, there is nothing you can't do. We're going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day.’”

“Sure enough, he held me around my waist and we slowly made it to the top, and, you know, at age 12 losing a leg pretty much seems like the end of the world, but as I climbed onto his back and we flew down the hill that day I knew he was right. I knew I was going to be OK. You see, my father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable and it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event, that is one of my father's greatest lessons. He taught me that nothing is impossible."

Link
Ted Kennedy Jr Remembers His Father, Full Script, Boston.Com, 29 August 2009.

Related Ted Kennedy Stories
Ted Kennedy: We Carry On, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

On Related Sites
Freej: The Bright Star in the UAE Film Firmament, Experiencing the Emirates, 4 September 2009.

Coming Second or Losing in the America’s Cup, America’s Cup in the UAE, 4 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Ted Kennedy Jnr. delivering a eulogy for his father (Photo courtesy of C J Gunther, Getty Images and Boston.Com at the link above).

Coming Second or Losing

In a discussion with Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post and the chances of the Redskins, the question of how satisfied sports people are about coming runner up is debated:

One commentator makes this statement and tells a story:

“I promise you that to Nicklaus and Woods, finishing second IS losing.”

Or the classic quote attributed to a Royal Navy officer standing by Queen Victoria as they watched the first America's Cup race in 1851.

As the yacht America crossed the finish line to win the cup that would bear its name, the Queen supposedly asked who was second. “Your Majesty,” the officer is said to have replied, “There is no second.”

Link
Thomas Boswell, Ask Boswell: Nats, Orioles, Redskins and More, Washington Post, 3 September 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: ‘America’ the winner of the first America’s Cup, 1851.

Ted Kennedy: We Carry On

President Obama had this to say in his eulogy about Edward Kennedy’s personal care and pastoral wisdom:

In the days after September 11th, Teddy made it a point to personally call each one of the 177 families of this state who lost a loved one in the attack. But he didn't stop there. He kept calling and checking up on them. He fought through red tape to get them assistance and grief counseling. He invited them sailing, played with their children, and would write each family a letter whenever the anniversary of that terrible day came along. To one widow, he wrote the following:

"As you know so well, the passage of time never really heals the tragic memory of such a great loss, but we carry on, because we have to, because our loved one would want us to, and because there is still light to guide us in the world from the love they gave us."

We carry on.

Link
Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

Related
Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Ted Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy Remembered Most for His Giving Heart

President Obama had this to say in his eulogy about how Edward Kennedy’s personal love and pastoral care will be missed even more than his legislative skill:

But though it is Ted Kennedy's historic body of achievements we will remember, it is his giving heart that we will miss.

It was the friend and colleague who was always the first to pick up the phone and say, "I'm sorry for your loss," or "I hope you feel better," or "What can I do to help?"

It was the boss who was so adored by his staff that over five hundred spanning five decades showed up for his 75th birthday party.

It was the man who sent birthday wishes and thank you notes and even his own paintings to so many who never imagined that a U.S. senator would take the time to think about someone like them. I have one of those paintings in my private study -- a Cape Cod seascape that was a gift to a freshman legislator who happened to admire it when Ted Kennedy welcomed him into his office the first week he arrived in Washington; by the way, that's my second favorite gift from Teddy and Vicki after our dog Bo. And it seems like everyone has one of those stories -- the ones that often start with "You wouldn't believe who called me today."

Ted Kennedy was the father who looked after not only his own three children, but John's and Bobby's as well. He took them camping and taught them to sail. He laughed and danced with them at birthdays and weddings; cried and mourned with them through hardship and tragedy; and passed on that same sense of service and selflessness that his parents had instilled in him.

Shortly after Ted walked Caroline down the aisle and gave her away at the altar, he received a note from Jackie that read, "On you the carefree youngest brother fell a burden a hero would have begged to be spared. We are all going to make it because you were always there with your love."

Link
Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

Related
Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish, SFS, 1 September 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Ted Kennedy sharing a joke.

Ted Kennedy Legislating with Principle, Mutuality and the Luck of the Irish

President Obama had this to say in his eulogy about how Edward Kennedy became ‘the greatest legislator of our time’:

“We can still hear his voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature, in support of health care or workers' rights or civil rights.

And yet, while his causes became deeply personal, his disagreements never did.

While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that is not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw him. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect -- a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.”

“And that's how Ted Kennedy became the greatest legislator of our time. He did it by hewing to principle, but also by seeking compromise and common cause -- not through deal making and horse-trading alone, but through friendship, and kindness, and humor.

There was the time he courted Orrin Hatch's support for the Children's Health Insurance Program by having his chief of staff serenade the senator with a song Orrin had written himself; the time he delivered shamrock cookies on a china plate to sweeten up a crusty Republican colleague; and the famous story of how he won the support of a Texas committee chairman on an immigration bill. Teddy walked into a meeting with a plain manila envelope, and showed only the chairman that it was filled with the Texan's favorite cigars. When the negotiations were going well, he would inch the envelope closer to the chairman. When they weren't, he would pull it back. Before long, the deal was done.”

“It was only a few years ago, on St. Patrick's Day, when Teddy buttonholed me on the floor of the Senate for my support on a certain piece of legislation that was coming up for vote. I gave him my pledge, but expressed my skepticism that it would pass. But when the roll call was over, the bill garnered the votes it needed, and then some. I looked at Teddy with astonishment and asked how he had pulled it off. He just patted me on the back, and said ‘Luck of the Irish!’”

“Of course, luck had little to do with Ted Kennedy's legislative success, and he knew that. A few years ago, his father-in-law told him that he and Daniel Webster just might be the two greatest senators of all time. Without missing a beat, Teddy replied, ‘What did Webster do?’”

Link
Text of Obama’s Eulogy at Kennedy’s Funeral Mass, Associated Press, 30 August 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Ted Kennedy.

Let Your Soul Live its Own Life!

This is an old quotation from Samuel H. Miller, the Dean of Harvard Divinity School but its truth comes with power:

“Let your soul speak for itself. Some souls hold conversation with God in music, and some in the sowing of seed, and others in the smell of sawed wood, and still others in the affectionate understanding of their friends. All souls are not alike. Utter your own prayer, in the language of your own joy. Repent of your own sin and let your lament be your own sorrow and not another’s. When you worship, thank God for whatever has given your joy, though it be so slight that no other soul would think it worthy of mention . . . Quit dressing your soul in somebody else’s piety. Your soul is not a pauper. Let it live its own life!”

Samuel H. Miller, The Life of the Soul.

Via Walter Shurden, Walter B. Shurden’s Preaching Journal, Vol. 2, Number 16, August 2009.

Walter ‘Buddy’ Shurden is Minister at Large, Professor Emeritus of Christianity, Mercer University, Macon, GA, USA.

For his bio and email to request Walter’s monthly journal follow this link.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “Some souls hold conversation with God in music.”

Walter Shurden Discovers Why He Cried in this Chapel

Several years ago Kay and I visited beautiful Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

Flowers, trees, grass, butterflies, birds—all dressed in their spring best.

It was an incomparable April day. Stepping high, my life was light and airy.

We walked into the little Gothic chapel in the midst of the woodlands. Beautiful, gorgeous music came from the Moeller pipe organ. Only four other people were present. We sat in silence. We listened. We prayed.

Suddenly, unexpectedly tears formed in my eyes. Then I began to cry. Quickly my crying became uncontrollable sobs. After a couple of minutes of my “where-in-the-world-did-this-come-from” sobbing and not a little of embarrassment, Kay whispered, “We have to go, Buddy.” She led me out of the chapel and away from whatever it was that had churned my soul.

For years I had no idea what happened to me that day in that little chapel, how or why my spring joy birthed such sobs.

Only recently did I get a sliver of insight into that experience. It came in a line from a sermon of William Sloane Coffin, and I thought, “That’s it!”

Coffin: “There are moments of grace in this world so deep and true and painful that tears come to the eye not for grief, but because the universe is so true at that moment.”
(The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin: The Riverside Years, 439.)

Happiness—a universe that was so true at that moment—made me cry.

I want more of that, a happiness that makes you cry, in the time that I have left.

Source
Walter Shurden, Walter B. Shurden’s Preaching Journal, Vol. 2, Number 16, August 2009.

Walter ‘Buddy’ Shurden is Minister at Large, Professor Emeritus of Christianity, Mercer University, Macon, GA, USA.

For his bio and email to request Walter’s monthly journal follow this link. This is only one of many stories with rare insight.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Images: Glimpses of Callaway Gardens and the chapel.

Australia’s Best School Answering Machine Message

Aussie Humour

Here is an automated voice recording that you may enjoy and pass on to others.

It is the message from the Maroochydore High School in Queensland Australia.

The staff voted unanimously to record this on their school telephone answering machine.

This is the actual answering machine message for the school.

It came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children’s absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children’s failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough school work to pass their classes.

Making Excuses/Taking Responsibility
It sounds like a joke but it is a stinging counter to the unwillingness of many to take personal responsibility and the tendency to blame others.

This is a great story for us and others when we are prone to making excuses.

Tune In
Listen to the voice recording at this link.

If you cannot hear it or you want the text, here it is:

Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:

To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1

To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2

To complain about what we do - Press 3

To swear at staff members - Press 4

To ask why you didn’t get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5

If you want us to raise your child - Press 6

If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7

To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8

To complain about bus transportation - Press 9

To complain about school lunches - Press 0

If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behaviour, class work, homework and that it’s not the teachers’ fault for your child’s lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!

If you want this in another language, move to a country that speaks it.

Link
Message on School Answering Machine in Australia, Devin’s Posterous, 9 August 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “Here is an automated voice recording that you may enjoy and pass on to others.”

Glenn Hinson on His Life-Changing Encounter with Thomas Merton

Glenn Hinson, who taught church history and spirituality at Southern Seminary in Louisville for more than thirty years, wrote recently of his encounter with Thomas Merton.

He said, “Merton was one of my happiest ‘accidents.’ I took students to the Abbey of Gethsemani on 7 November 1960, to introduce them to the Middle Ages. Merton was our bonus. He changed the lives of every one of us and continues to do that for countless others.”

Hinson wrote earlier of one of the episodes that occurred on this history ‘field trip’ to the monastery in the hills of Kentucky. The class came primarily to develop their awareness of the communities that developed in the Middle Ages, not to learn about a life of prayer.

The host,Thomas Merton, gave the class more than they expected. After talking about the rise of the monastic life in the Medieval period, Merton asked if there were any questions.

One student asked what Hinson most feared would be asked. The student said, “What’s a smart fellow like you doing in a place like this?”

Hinson said that he expected Merton to respond in anger or frustration that he’d not been heard, but Merton responded very simply: “I am here because this is my vocation. I believe in prayer.”

Links
Glenn Hinson, Thomas Merton Facebook Page, 29 July 2009.

E. Glenn Hinson, Spiritual Preparation for Christian Leadership, Nashville, Upper Room Books, 1999, 151.

This ‘vocation’ story is one of the many stories from the book by Geoff Pound, Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment, Eureka: John Broadbanks Publishing, 2009, 54-56.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Thomas Merton.

Cory Aquino on ‘The Only Thing I Can Offer’

Leader of People Power
Corazon Aquino who was swept into office on a wave of “people power” in 1986 and then faced down half a dozen coup attempts in six years as president, died of cancer on 31st July 2009 in Manila, at the age of 76.

Bearer of Hope
Demure but radiant in her familiar yellow dress, Mrs. Aquino brought hope to the Philippines as a presidential candidate, then led its difficult transition to democracy from 20 years of autocratic rule under her predecessor, Ferdinand Marcos.

Popular Will
That initial triumph of popular will — after a fraudulent election in which Mr. Marcos claimed victory, though most people believed that Mrs. Aquino had won — was a high point in modern Philippine history, and it offered a model for nonviolent uprisings that has been repeated often in other countries.

An observant Roman Catholic who sometimes retreated to convents for contemplation, she attributed much of her success to a divine will.

Only Thing I Can Offer
“What on earth do I know about being president?” Mrs. Aquino said in an interview in December 1985, after a rally opening her election campaign.

But that was beside the point. For many Filipinos, she embodied a hope of becoming a better nation and a prouder people.

“The only thing I can really offer the Filipino people is my sincerity,” she said in the interview.

It was what they hungered for, and what she delivered as president. Although often criticized as an indecisive and ineffectual leader, Mrs. Aquino combined passivity and stubbornness and an unexpected shrewdness to hold firm against powerful opponents from both the right and the left.

Greatest Triumph
Her survival in office was one of her chief accomplishments.

Link to full story.
Seth Mydans, Corazon Aquino, Ex-Leader of Philippines, Is Dead, New York Times, 31 July 2009.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Corazon Aquino.

Parker Palmer on the Rosa Parks Decision

In an interview Parker Palmer speaks not only of individuals choosing to live integrated lives but about what happens on a larger scale when people decide they will no longer live divided lives?

Rosa Parks Decision
“In political/social terms, I call this the Rosa Parks decision. She essentially said, ‘I'm no longer going to behave on the outside as if I were less than the full person I know myself to be on the inside.’

“How do people find the courage to bring inner convictions into harmony with outer acts, knowing the risks involved?

I think in Rosa Parks' story there's a clue: When the police came to Rosa Parks on the bus and informed her that they would have to put her in jail if she did not move, she replied, ‘You may do that.’ It was a very polite way of saying, ‘How could your jail begin to compare with the jail I have had myself in all these years by collaborating with this racist system?’”

“When you realize that you can no longer collaborate in something that violates your own integrity, your understanding of punishment is suddenly transformed.”

Purpose of Communities
Parker Palmer went on to speak of the value of communities:

“The first purpose of these communities is mutual reassurance; people help each other to understand that the ‘normal’ behavior expected by the institutions they are part of can be crazy, but that seeking integrity is always sane.”

“In the movement sparked by Rosa Parks, the Black churches provided gathering places for people who needed to know that they were not alone in choosing an integral life.”

Read more of this fine interview:

Sarah Ruth van Gelder, Integral Life, Integral Teacher-An Interview With Parker Palmer, Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures, 2 November 1998.

Related
Parker Palmer on Living and Teaching with Integrity, Stories for Speakers and Writers (SFS), 12 August 2009.

Rosa Parks and the Power of a Committed Person, SFS, 19 May 2009.

‘Everybody Can Be Great,’ SFS, 15 January 2007.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound@gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Rosa Parks.

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over A Lazy Dog

Testing! Testing!
This sentence (or variations) is an English Pangram (a phrase that contains all the letters of the alphabet).

We sometimes type this sentence to test out a computer keyboard or trial a new font which we might use on the computer.

Quick Foxes
There were no foxes in New Zealand when I was growing up but I was surprised at the number of foxes I saw in the inner city of Melbourne when I lived around Princes Park (Carlton). The foxes were always quick and would escape from public gaze into the grounds of the cemetery. Any foxes where you live?

I have never seen a fox jump over a lazy dog.

Slow Brown Fox
Here is a video clip of a slow brown fox jumping over a lazy dog.



Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: The phrase shown in metal moveable type, used in old printing presses. The image is mirrored for readability. Thanks to Wikipedia.

Carol Smith on What You Learn Eating with People

In a New York Times interview about women, Presidents, managers and handling time, Carol Smith, Senior Vice President and Chief Brand Officer for the Elle Group, shared about the importance of meals before hiring new staff:

Three Meals
“I am living by something I read in Cathie Black’s book [“Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)”] which I sort of instinctively knew — that you’ve got to meet someone three times, and one of them better be over a meal.”

You Learn So Much in a Meal
“You learn so much in a meal. It’s like a little microcosm of life. How they order, what they order. How are they going to give instructions to a waiter? Are they sending back the meal eight times? Can they keep the conversation going, especially if you’re hiring someone who is in sales? Are they asking smart questions?”

Subtle Ways Emerge
“Throughout a meal, the personality comes out, I think. Are you going to connect with us? Are you going to be part of the team, or are you going to be one of these independent players who wants to take all the credit? Are you good with assistants? Those are things you can find out in some subtle ways when you eat with someone.”

Link
Carol Smith, No Doubts: Women are Better Managers, New York Times, 25 July 2009.

Related
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen, RBM, 21 September 2007.
Three Cups of Tea in A thousand Splendid Suns, SFS, 24 October 2007.
On Making Your Own Lunch, SFS, 11 August 2009.
Crap Coffee, SFS, 1 May 2006.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: “You learn so much in a meal.”

Parker Palmer on Living and Teaching with Integrity

Parker Palmer’s Story
“What I know about living a divided life starts with my training as an academic. I was taught to keep things in airtight compartments: to keep my ideas apart from my feelings, because ideas were reliable but feelings were not; to keep my theories apart from my actions, because the theory can be pure, but the action is always sullied.

“For the teachers I meet around the country, the decision to live divided-no-more means teaching in a way that corresponds to the truth that they know, rather than according to the latest pedagogical fad or to whatever pressures the institution may be putting on them. These are teachers, for example, who are integrating emotional work with cognitive work in the classroom.”

“At a certain juncture, some people find they must choose between allowing selfhood to die or claiming their identity and integrity. What I mean by divided-no-more is living on the outside the truth you know on the inside.”

Choosing to Live ‘Divided-No-More’
Parker Parker:

“Let me tell you a story about two teachers, a story I tell in The Courage to Teach.”

“Alan and Eric were born into different families of skilled rural craftspeople. Each grew skilled in working with his hands and developed a sense of pride in their respective crafts. Both also excelled in school and became the first in their families to go to college, eventually earning doctorates and choosing academic careers.”

“Here their paths diverged. Eric, who attended an elite private college, suffered culture shock and was always insecure with fellow students and later with academic colleagues. He learned to speak and act like an intellectual, but he always felt fraudulent. This insecurity didn't draw Eric into self-reflection; instead, he bullied his way through his professional life, made pronouncements rather than probes, listened for weaknesses rather than strengths in what other people said. In his classroom, Eric was critical and judgmental, quick to put down ‘stupid questions,’ adept at using trick questions of his own, and merciless in mocking wrong answers.

“Alan's is a different story. He attended a land-grant university where many students had backgrounds much like his own. He was not driven to hide his gift, but was able to honor and transform it by turning it toward his work in academia. Watching Alan teach, you felt that you were watching a craftsman at work. In his lectures, every move Alan made was informed by attention to detail and respect for the materials at hand.”

“Beyond the classroom, students knew that Alan would extend himself with great generosity to any of them who wanted to become his apprentice.”

“Alan taught from an undivided self – an integral state of being in which every major thread of one's life experience is honored, creating a weave of coherence and strength. Such a self is able to make the outward connections on which good teaching depends.”

Read more of this Interview:

Sarah Ruth van Gelder, Integral Life, Integral Teacher-An Interview With Parker Palmer, Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures, 2 November 1998.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Ask him for details about advertizing and links on his sites.

Image: Parker Palmer.

On Making Your Own Lunch

There is an old story about a construction worker named Bob, who regularly took his lunch to work. However, everyday he complained profusely about the contents of his lunch box.

"A turkey sandwich again," he remarked one day, "I hate turkey sandwiches!"

After hearing his daily complaints, one of his co-workers piped in, "Bob, for crying out loud. I can't stand hearing you complain everyday. Just tell your wife to make you other food if you hate turkey sandwiches so much."

To which Bob replied, "Wife? I live alone, and make my own lunch."

Dumping Twitter Users
Tech blogger and ultra geek Robert Scoble, who was following over a whopping 100,000 users on Twitter decided to dump them all, and only add those of interest. He essentially realized that he could make his own lunch—and pick the users he wanted to follow.

Bill Gates Dumping Facebook
Bill Gates says he couldn’t keep up with all his friends let alone his fans so he has dumped Facebook. Bill is making his own lunch.

Make Your Own Lunch
Make your own lunch and decide what you want to eat and do.

Source
Soren Gordhamer, Keeping Twitter Relevant: The Art of Unfollowing, Huffington Post, 8 August 2009.

Check it Out
Check out the new site America’s Cup in the UAE.

Sister Sites to Stories for Speakers and Writers
Nissan's First Electric Car Could Be in UAE By 2010, Experiencing the Emirates.
Visit Al Bidya Mosque—The Oldest Worship Place in the Emirates, Fujairah in Focus.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “I hate turkey sandwiches.”

Bill Gates Tells Why He Never Got into the Hotdog Business

Ice Creams to Eskimos
You’ve heard it said about someone, “You could sell ice creams to Eskimos,” which is a tribute to a person’s gift of persuasion.

Bill on Hotdogs
Bill Gates was once asked about his drive to make Microsoft what it is today. The interviewer said:

“With your insatiable drive to succeed, it has been said that you would've been successful even if you were selling hotdogs.”

Bill responded:

“No, I don't think so. I'm not sure that I could sit in a room for sixteen hours straight talking about hotdogs like I do about the possibilities of new technology.”

Tapping Into Your Passion
One of the key things about entrepreneurs and others that have invested their talents wisely is this common denominator: they have all tapped into their passion and later their lives were defined by it.

Source
Sakiya Sandifer, Believe That You Can Do Anything…But Know Your Limitations, Huffington Post, 7 August 2009.

Check it Out
Check out the new site America’s Cup in the UAE.

Topics on Sister Sites to Stories for Speakers and Writers
Is a Marriage Campaign the Best way to Preserve Emirati Identity? Experiencing the Emirates.
Visit Al Bidya Mosque—The Oldest Worship Place in the Emirates, Fujairah in Focus.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: A young William Gates lying down among his passion.

Ponder Pablo Picasso When Achievement Seems So Long in Coming

Picasso Principle

Sean D’Souza recently published this story that he calls the Picasso principle.

It caught my attention because I read it while living in Barcelona, where Picasso did much of his painting, and soon after visiting the Picasso Museum.

Sean writes:

There’s a story (true or false, I don’t know) about the famous artist, Pablo Picasso.

It seems a woman came up to him and asked him to sketch something on a piece of paper.

He sketched it, and gave it back to her saying: “That will cost you $10,000.”

She was astounded. “You took just five minutes to do the sketch,” she said. Isn’t $10,000 a lot for five minutes work?

“The sketch may have taken me five minutes, but the learning took me 30 years,” Picasso retorted.

Sean goes on to write about the long hard work that goes into becoming successful at your craft and how this needs to be reflected in calculating the value and cost of our services.

Postscript from Picasso Museum
The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is designed in stages from his early work to his last. It is a great gallery but a little disappointing that many of his well known paintings are not there as they are displayed in cities such as London, Paris New York and Madrid.

What intrigued me was Picasso's vast output. It took him years, thousands of sketches and drawings, much experimentation, efforts that are nothing to write home about and collaboration with other painters to produce the art work that he has become known for—those paintings that are worth millions.

This is worth remembering when excellence seems a long time coming.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Nude Woman with Necklace ("Femme nue au collier") by Pablo Picasso, Tate Gallery, (1968).

Henri Nouwen on Staying Alive When Nobody Is Waiting for You

Philip Yancey says that Henri Nouwen’s slim book with the wonderful title, The Wounded Healer, describes the lonely, abandoned people who have no one to love them.

Nouwen tells of a young minister who has nothing to offer an old man facing surgery, except his own loving concern.

“No man can stay alive when nobody is waiting for him,” writes Nouwen.

“Everyone who returns from a long and difficult trip is looking for someone waiting for him at the station or the airport. Everyone wants to tell his story and share his moments of pain and exhilaration with someone who stayed home, waiting for him to come back.”

Sources
Philip Yancey, Church: Why Bother? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998, 78.
Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer, Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd.

Related
Henri Nouwen: The Wounded Healer, SFS.
Henri Nouwen: Gift of a Free Space, SFS.
Wanting a Real Blessing, SFS.
Holy Earthiness, SFS.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “Everyone who returns from a long and difficult trip is looking for someone waiting for him at the station or the airport.”

Lessons from The Secret Life of Bees

Roy Petitfils (counsellor, speaker and author), told me he was using this quote from the movie "The Secret Life of Bees" in his work this year with students and teachers.

He said, “The teachers are framing it and putting it on their desks.” Here it is:

“Bee yard etiquette: ... the world is really one big bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places: Don't be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don't be an idiot; wear long sleeves and long pants. Don't swat. Don't even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates, while whistling melts a bee's temper. Act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”

Source: Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees (Penguin Books), 2002.

Link to Roy’s blog which is a treasury of useful and inspiring stories like this one, this beauty and a third for good measure.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: “The world is really one big bee yard.”

Albert Schweitzer on Practicing Love

Frederick Franck went to work as a dentist with Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene for several months, after which he wrote a book on his days with the great man. Here is an excerpt:

“Here was the extraordinarily gifted son of a small-town Lutheran pastor who has developed his immense potentialities to their utmost limit—as a revolutionary theologian, as a profound, yet practical philosopher, and as a great organist and musicologist who by the age of thirty had written a definitive study of Johann Sebastian Bach.”

“Then, suddenly, he gave up an uncommon multiplicity of brilliant careers, resigned from his professorate at the University of Strasbourg and decided to study medicine. This decision came after reading a plea from the Paris Mission Society for help in Equatorial Africa, where the people were in desperate need of a medical service that was totally lacking.”

“Becoming a doctor, he reflected, would enable him to ‘work without having to talk. For years now I have been giving of myself in words, but in this new commitment, I’ll not be a talker about the ‘Religion of Love’, but one who puts it into practice.’”

“Schweitzer gained notoriety as the unorthodox author of ‘The Quest for the Historical Jesus’ (1910) which shocked both liberal and conservative Protestants. Nonetheless, its concept of a ‘Religion of Love’ laid the foundation for the exceptional medical missionary he was to become. As the price for cooperation from the Paris Mission Society, Schweitzer had to accept its condition that he would neither preach nor officiate. In my understanding, this was precisely in line with Schweitzer’s intention.”

“He became the atypical missionary, who, in his fifty years of medical practice in the jungle, did not convert a single one of the ‘heathens’ he took care of day and night. He simply wanted to be a loving witness to the ‘Religion of Love’, render a limitless service of love and compassion in the spirit of its founder, and be a Christic presence, rather than a denominational ‘Christian’, in the heart of darkness and human suffering.”

Source
Frederick Franck, My Days with Albert Schweitzer (Unionville, New York: Royal Fireworks Press, 1959), xi-xii.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Albert Schweitzer practicing love.

Tailgating, Road Rage and High Ethics

A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard.

Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he probably could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the `Choose Life' license plate holder, the `What would Jesus do?' bumper sticker, and the `Follow me to Sunday School,' bumper sticker on the other side, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."

Source
Dr. Howard K. Batson, ‘Above and Beyond’, Ethics Daily, 15 June 2008.

Related
UAE: The Tailgating Capital of the World, ETE.

Dr Geoff Pound

Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Image: Getting too close by tailgating.