The Mumbai Story of Terror

Late Wednesday night, Mumbai, India found itself the target of a ferocious terrorist attack, and the situation remains unresolved even now, three days later.

Boston.Com has posted an amazing and graphic series of photos on its most recent edition of The Big Picture.

Mumbai Under Attack, The Big Picture, 28 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: One of the 35 pictures in the Big Picture Gallery.

On Believing in People

This is one of the many stories told by the master storyteller, F W Boreham, that are posted on The Official F W Boreham Blog Site:

The novelist Laurence Sterne was a member of an extraordinary family. They were incessantly on the move. They seem to have gone into a place; stayed there until a child had been born and a child buried; and then jogged on again.

He would be a bold historian who would declare, with any approach to dogmatism, how many babies were born and buried in the course of these nomadic gipsyings. They seem to have lived for a year or so in all sorts of towns and villages, and, with pitiful monotony, we read of their regret at having to leave such-and-such a child sleeping in the churchyard. ‘My father's children,’ as Sterne himself observes, ‘were not made to last long.’ Lawrence himself, however, was one of the lucky ones.

At the age of ten, having survived the jaunts and jolts to which the wanderings of the family exposed him, he was ‘fixed’ in a school at Halifax, and was profoundly impressed by the conviction of his Yorkshire schoolmaster that he was destined to become a distinguished man.

… On one occasion the ceiling of the school room was being white-washed. The ladder was left against the wall. ‘One unlucky day,’ says Sterne, ‘I mounted that ladder, seized the brush, and wrote my name in large capital letters high up on the wall. For this offence the usher thrashed me severely. But the master was angry with him for doing so, and declared that the name on the wall should never be erased. For, he added, I was a boy of genius, and would one day become famous, and he should then look with pride on the letters on the schoolroom wall. These words made me forget the cruel blows that I had just received.’

The words did more. They implanted a glorious hope in the boy's breast: they inspired efforts that he would never otherwise have made: they account, in large measure, for his phenomenal success.

If the schoolmaster who welcomed the awkward little ten-year-old in 1723 lived, by any chance, until 1760, he must have felt that his handful of hopeseed had produced a most bounteous harvest. For, in 1760, Tristram Shandy took the country by storm. It was chaotic: it was incoherent: it was an audacious defiance of all the conventions: but it was irresistible. Its originality, its grotesque oddity, its rippling whimsicality set everybody chuckling.

Immediately after its publication, Sterne went up to London. He was the lion of the hour. His lodgings in Pall Mall were besieged from morning to night. ‘My rooms,’ he writes, ‘are filling every hour with great people of the first rank who vie with each other in heaping honors upon me.’ Never before had a literary venture elicited such homage. And when, a few months later, he crossed the Channel, a similar banquet of adulation awaited him in France.

F W Boreham, The Three Half-Moons (London: The Epworth Press, 1929), 89-91.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: ‘I mounted that ladder, seized the brush, and wrote my name in large capital letters high up on the wall.’

Every Place Should Have a Recombobulation Area

Recombobulation Area
After travelers go through the security scanners at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport they are greeted with a sign (pictured) inviting them to use their Recombobulation Area.

It is nothing special—only a patch of carpet with a few chairs—but it is the thought that counts.

Meaning
Why does my word processor put a squiggley red line underneath the word ‘recombobulation? Mainly, because it is not a word, or not yet.

Recombobulation is about restoring all that occurs when we suffer from discombobulation which this word processor also doesn’t recognize.

Discombobulation is defined in more authoritative dictionaries as:
Becoming upset, confused, bewildered, an embarrassing feeling that leaves a person confused, frustrated.

Discombobulation
In short, discombobulation is the feeling we often experience when we go through airport scanners after taking off our belt, shoes and other garments and are then frisked, prodded and poked. You know the feeling? That’s discombobulation.

Recombobulation is a Gift
So what a gift to be able to take your shoes and belt and other personal items and sit down and be recombobulated.

What a wonderful gift at the Milwaukee airport!
What an apt word to describe the putting together that one needs at airports, shopping malls and after negotiating busy roads.

Create Recombobulation Areas
Recombobulation Areas. Why restrict these only to airports? Create a recombobulation area at your work, at your shop, in your place of worship, at your school and in your home.

Make Recombobulation Times
Take the recombobulation idea further and create some recombobulation time in the midst of your busy day, as a preventative measure against discombobulation or especially after you have been chronically discombobulated.

Source: Airport Draws Smiles with ‘Recombobulation Area’, JS Online, 9 July 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “What a wonderful gift from Milwaukee airport!”

P.S. I am in need of some recombobulation time after writing recombobulation and discombobulation umpteen times!

Barack Obama and the Empathetic Person

In writing about the need to walk in another person’s shoes, Barack Obama makes this statement:

I am obligated to try to see the world through George Bush’s eyes, no matter how much I may disagree with him.

That’s what empathy does—it calls us all to task, the conservative and the liberal, the powerful and the powerless, the oppressed and the oppressor.

We are all shaken out of our complacency.

We are all forced beyond our limited vision.

No one is exempt from the call to find common ground.

Source: Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Edinburgh, London, New York, Melbourne: Canongate, 2007), 68.

A review of this book is published at Reviewing Books and Movies.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “I am obligated to try to see the world through George Bush’s eyes, no matter how much I may disagree with him.”

Thanksgiving Generosity When Vegetables Are Free

New York Times reports (23 November 2008):

A farm couple received a big surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to take away vegetables left over from the harvest: 40,000 people showed up.

The fields of the couple, Joe and Chris Miller, were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of harvesting was canceled Sunday, The Denver Post reported.

“Overwhelmed is putting it mildly,” Ms. Miller said. “People obviously need food.”

She said she expected 5,000 to 10,000 people to show up Saturday to collect potatoes, carrots and leeks. Instead, an estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked around cornfields and backed up more than two miles. About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm, 37 miles north of Denver, became a parking lot.

“Everybody is so depressed about the economy,” said Sandra Justice of Greeley, Colo., who works at a technology company. “This was a pure party. Everybody having a great time getting something for free.”

Ms. Justice and her mother and son picked about 10 bags of vegetables.

Ms. Miller said she and her husband opened the farm for the public harvest for the first time this year after hearing reports of food being stolen from churches. It was meant as a thank-you for customers.

The farm’s operations manager, Dave Patterson, said that in previous years the Millers had allowed schoolchildren and some church groups to harvest their own food on the farm in the fall.

He estimated that about 600,000 pounds of produce was harvested Saturday.

Philosophy of Abundance
Now read Harry Cook’s Thanksgiving essay inspired by the above story that begins:

“Having just finished an article about yet another prospective multi-billion dollar federal bailout -- this time of Citibank -- I turned the page of my New York Times and noticed tucked away near the bottom of a column this headline: "Farm's Open Harvest Draws 40,000 in Colorado."

My spoonful of Shredded Wheat was held, poised between bowl and lip, as with amazement I scanned the story's nine terse paragraphs…

To continue, here is the link.

Thanksgiving Stories
More Thanksgiving stories are at this link.

Dr Geoff Pound

Norman Vincent Peale Tells of Building Others Up

Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) for more than 50 years was known as the Apostle of Positive Thinking. His books have sold into the millions. He was an incredible human being himself. He was full of life and enthusiastic.

Reading his life, it appears that when he was young he was not like that. He was diffident, shy and doubtful. He tells a significant story about one of the things that helped him grow out of that.

The night before his graduation at Ohio University there was a banquet at one of the fraternity houses. The guest of honor was the President of the university, Dr John Hoffman, a very great educationalist. When the banquet was finished, he said to Peale, “Norman, come walk with me home”, which was not far away.

On a beautiful June night, these two walked along, the famous educationalist and this young, very diffident, rather nervous university student. They talked about all kinds of things until they got to Hoffman’s home then, Peale said, “Hoffman turned around and put his hand on his shoulder and said, ‘Norman, I have got a great admiration for you young man. I think you have got great possibilities. I am sure we are all going to be proud of you. Goodnight.’”

He disappeared into his room and one very young, self-doubting student was left with his heart in his throat. A great man believed in him and that can be a marvelous therapy for people who are unsure of themselves.

Peale wrote this, “I have never forgotten that night, all these long years. Hoffman was the kind of person who built people up, not just me but all his students. There must be thousands of us who revere his memory.”

Source: Scott McPheat in an address, “How can we be more likeable people?” NZ circa 1985.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Norman Vincent Peale.

Alistair Cooke on Doing Your Best When You Don’t Feel Like It

There were many times when Alistair Cooke did not feel like writing one of his almost 3,000 Letters from America over his marathon 58 years of reporting on life in the USA.

Like in the week when JFK was assassinated or after Bobby Kennedy was shot and Cooke was particularly shattered because he was close to the area when it happened.

Several times Alistair Cooke would say in his BBC broadcast that he was speaking to them in a state of shock.

Cooke believed he was a professional and according to him “a professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it!”

Source: Alistair Cooke, Reporting America: The Life of the Nation 1946-2004 (London: Allen Lane, Penguin, 2008).

This book is reviewed at Reviewing Books and Movies.

More from Cooke:
I am a Reporter not a Prophet says Alistair Cooke, Stories for Speakers.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Alistair Cooke.

Thomas Merton’s Laughable Idea on the Streets of Louisville

This sign (pictured) stands at ‘the corner of Forth and Walnut Streets in Louisville’ as a reminder of the insight that Thomas Merton had on 18 March 1958 about waking up from the dream of human separateness.

He shared this experience in a letter to Boris Pasternak the next day and later wrote about it in one of his books:

I Loved All These People
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate existence is a dream… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud….”

God Became a Member of the Human Race!
“It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: yet, with all that, God glorified in becoming a member of the human race. A member of the human race! To think that such a commonplace realization should suddenly seem like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake….”

There are No Strangers
“There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun…There are no strangers!...If only we could see each other [as we really are] all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other…the gate of heaven is everywhere.”

Source: Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1966), 140-142.

More on Merton:
Thomas Merton on the Real Journey of Life, SFS.
Thomas Merton Identified, SFS.
Thomas Merton on What We Seek, SFS.
Becoming More Ourselves, SFS.
How I Got to be a Success, SFS.
Holy Earthiness, SFS.
Who Am I? SFE.

Dr Geoff Pound

The Most Googled Statement in My Online Book 'Making Life Decisions'

Most Googled Statement
This quotation from Frederick Buechner (pictured) is the most Googled statement in my online book, Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment.

“Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Frederick Buechner

Over 7,000
Since I launched the book online one year ago (November 2007) more than 7,000 people have ventured on this site. I am not claiming that all 7,000 have read the book but the online mode certainly gives wide international circulation and cuts down on the cost of printing and posting.

Currently Being Published
You might be interested to know that Making Life Decisions is in preparation for traditional publication and will hopefully be available early in 2009.

Heaps of Stories
I mention this book on Stories for Speakers and Writers because in addition to stories from Frederick Buechner, Making Life Decisions contains stories and statements from these people:

Karl Barth, Joan Didion, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Carl Jung, Thomas Merton, John Claypool, Judith Viorst, Sam Keen, Joan Chittester, Augustine, Richard Foster, Richard Rohr, Albert Schweitzer, Teihard de Chardin, Mrs Betty Bowers ('America's Best Christian'), Parker Palmer, Warren Bennis, Robert McAfee Brown, Abraham Hershel, Chaim Potok, Charles Handy, Neil Armstong, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Kosuke Koyama, Gregory Peck, F W Boreham, Graeme Garrett, Umberto Eco and Stephen Covey.

Even if you choose not to use the book for the purpose for which it is intended you will find in it more than 25 great stories.

Link: Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “The most Googled statement in my online book, Making Life Decisions: Journey in Discernment.”

Sharing the Burdens of the Heavy Laden

Dr F W Boreham shares a story about his mentor J J Doke moving from New Zealand to South Africa and collaborating with Mahatma Gandhi:

After granting me seven years of such happy intimacy, Mr. Doke [Boreham’s mentor] left New Zealand and I saw him no more. It was a year or two later that he and Mr. Gandhi met. Mr. Doke had recently settled as minister at Johannesburg; and Mr. Gandi was in South Africa as the legal representative of the Indian population, who, just then, were involved in a serious clash with the authorities. Mr. Doke's sympathies were with the Indians, and he immediately got into touch with Mr. Gandhi. Each was astonished at the other's diminutive stature. They did not look like a pair of champions. Mr. Doke says that he expected to see ‘a tall and stately figure and a bold masterful face’. Instead of this, ‘a small, little, spare figure stood before me, and a refined earnest face looked into mine. The skin was dark, the eyes dark, but the smile which illumined the face, and that direct, fearless glance, simply took one's heart by storm. He was only thirty-eight, but the strain of his work showed its traces in the sprinkling of silver in his hair. He spoke English perfectly and was evidently a man of great culture.’

On the wall of Mr. Gandhi's office hung a beautiful picture of Jesus; and, the moment that Mr. Doke's eyes rested upon it, he felt that he and his new friend were bound by a most sacred tie.

‘I want you’, he said to Mr. Gandhi, ‘to consider me your friend in this struggle. ‘If,’ he added, with a glance at the picture on the wall, ‘if I have learned any lesson from the life of Jesus it is that we should share the burden of those who are heavy-laden.’

F W Boreham, I Forgot To Say (London: The Epworth Press, 1939), 140.

The full story about J J Doke and Gandhi is written by Boreham in The Man Who Saved Gandhi, a book which has been republished as F W Boreham, Lover of Life: F W Boreham’s Tribute to His Mentor. Available from these places.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “Friends in this struggle.”

The Art of Doing Nothing

In instructing us as to the best way of catching bream, [Izaak Walton] says that, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, we must repair to the bank of the stream, and, as soon as we come to the waterside, must cast in one-half of our ground—bait and stand off. ‘Then, whilst the fish are gathering together, for they will most certainly come for their supper, you may take a pipe of tobacco; and then, in with your three rods!’

Now why that pipe of tobacco? There is a certain interval to be filled in; a period in which it would be disastrous to say anything or do anything.

…. Now half the art of life lies in being able on occasions to do nothing—and to do it easily.

Newman found this grace so difficult of acquirement that he gave it up as a bad job. ‘He filled up,’ says Mozley, ‘his whole time, taxed his whole strength, and occupied his whole future. He reduced retrospection to a very narrow compass, to a few faces, to flowers on a bank or a wall, to a fragrance or a sound. He never took solitary walks if he could help it. He would not be alone and left to his own thoughts when he was neither studying nor writing nor praying.’

Darwin was as bad. His one defect was an utter incapacity for idleness. ‘I wish,’ writes his wife, ‘I wish he could smoke a pipe or ruminate like a cow.’ There is such a thing as a genius for repose. It is a great thing for a man to be the captain of his soul; to have every faculty under command; and to be able to drop anchor and be perfectly at ease when nothing is to be gained by continued activity. Here, then, is the problem—how to be still?

…I shall never be satisfied until I can possess my soul in perfect poise and restfulness; until I can do nothing, and do it well, and do it easily…

F W Boreham, The Other Side of the Hill (London: Charles H Kelly, 1917), 248-251.

Dr Geoff Pound

The Last Three Feet

Former US Foreign Service Officer to the Middle East, John Burgess, shares this story:

Back in the early 1960s, when I was getting my first experience living outside the US, US Information Agency Director Edward R. Murrow, gave a speech in which he said, “The really crucial link in the international communication chain is the last three feet, which is bridged by personal contact, one person talking to another.”

That, in a nutshell, is the role of Public Diplomacy.

Source: John Burgess, ‘The Last Three Feet,’ Crossroads Arabia, 19 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “Bridged by personal contact, one person talking to another.”

Stories for Thanksgiving

Stories for Thanksgiving
Stories of gratitude in Geoff Pound’s new e-Book, Talk about Thanksgiving. Follow this link for information.

John Broadbanks Publishing
To purchase this book for only $US7.00 (no added post and packaging charges) from John Broadbanks Publishing at AbeBooks.Com—Dalton Books, follow this link.

Geoff Pound

I am a Reporter not a Prophet Says Alistair Cooke

A big part of Alistair Cooke’s skill and popularity as a writer was because he had a clear idea of who he was and what was his job.

When Cooke was asked about his task he would give a variation of this reply:

“I am a reporter of the facts and the feelings that go into the American life I happen to observe. I mention ‘the feelings’ if only to stress a belief that there is no such thing as an objective reporter. But the way to be as fair as possible is to notice that no fact of human life comes to you uncoloured by what people feel it means.”

Acknowledging the limits of objectivity, committing himself to put aside preconceived notions and an aversion to rush to a premature judgment were important convictions that shaped Cooke’s practice and literary style.

Believing that he was ‘a reporter’ gave to Cooke a certain freedom from the expectations of people as evidenced in this statement:

“I was urged to deliver some missionary message. But missions are for bishops. I am a reporter. And I can’t say where America is going. I am a hopeless prophet. One book I will never write is: Whither America?”

Source: Alistair Cooke, Reporting America: The Life of the Nation 1946-2004 (London: Allen Lane, Penguin, 2008).

This book is reviewed at Reviewing Books and Movies.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Alistair Cooke.

Play Classical Music to Calm Yourself and Your Elephant

The Science Correspondent for The Guardian reports:

“The rousing, patriotic sweep of Elgar's Nimrod, the mournful tones of Nessun Dorma and the urgent eight-note allegro con brio opening to Beethoven's fifth - they have all been helping animal behaviour experts make life more comfortable for the elephants at Belfast zoo.”

“The researchers have discovered that playing classical music to the animals reduces abnormal behaviour such as swaying, pacing and trunk tossing, although they said that the elephants do not seem to have a favourite composer.”

Next time you find yourself pacing the floor, wringing your hands and tossing your trunk, try putting on some classical music and soothe yourself with Elgar or Beethoven.

Source: James Randerson, Elgar Hits Right Note for Elephants, The Guardian, 17 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Looks like the elephants are dancing to “the urgent eight-note allegro con brio opening to Beethoven's fifth.”

Malcolm Gladwell on Why Leaders Need Colleagues Who Challenge Their Decisions

Author and roving cultural ambassador, Malcolm Gladwell, has been praised for his ability to synthesize huge slabs of material, translate arcane research into everyday language and repackage research into tidy and attractive formulas.

In his latest book Outliers, he shares many anecdotes, one of which is this one, summarized by a reviewer:

“He begins with a puzzle: Why did so many Korean Air planes crash between 1988 and 1998? We eliminate various red herrings: bad morale, procedural violations, flight crews smoking on the tarmac. At last comes the pleasantly shivery moment when Gladwell pulls open the curtain to reveal the solution. Korea's exceptionally deferential culture prevented first officers from challenging captains' decisions in the cockpit. The whole story has been so ingeniously constructed that, as soon as you're done, you want to call someone and tell him what you just learned.”

Source: Louis Bayard, Malcolm Gladwell’s Secrets of Success, Salon Books, 17 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Author and roving cultural ambassador, Malcolm Gladwell.

Kiwi Image for Educators and Parents...

In an address to pastors and their spouses at the New Zealand Baptist Annual Gathering (6 November 2008), Paul Windsor, who is Principal of Carey College, spoke insightfully about the New Zealand koru (pictured). He spoke of the koru as a rich image for theological educators and others [You may have seen a stylized version of the koru on Air New Zealand planes]. Here is an excerpt:

Animating Image
The first image I want to draw to your attention is the koru. I think whether it is as a husband or a father, or a pastor, a lecturer or a Principal, the koru is the most animating image that I know.

I have planted one outside our front door and I love to go off to work citing it and allowing it to be part of the motivation for the day ahead.

Watching a tight, embryonic, furry ball gradually unfurl into something that is supreme in its elegance, its beauty, its perfection, its fullness and its breadth—I just think it is so animating in terms of working with people.

Mandate Wrapped in Furry Ball
And I think it is the Kiwi picture of one of the mandates for the church today. I think if the Bible was being written today in New Zealand it would be full of references to koru as it is a symbol of becoming fully unfurled.

Pleasure of People Unfurling
I love watching people unfurl and within the communities of people to which I belong I like to see the people—the students, the staff—as a club of koru that are at different stages of unfurling.

Leadership is about setting up ‘Operation Unfurl’. It’s the great blessing. Here are two observations:

Unfurling from Pain and Failure
Sometimes that furry ball is more crushed than it is embryonic. It is not just packed with potential but it is wrapped with pain, fear, failure and insecurity. It hasn’t opened up for those reasons and it is not uncommon in my life with students to see people in a fetal position as adults in terms of their growth.

One of the great joys is watching older students reengage with study having remembered their time at school to be full of failure and discovering that they have a brain. It is such a joy!

And then in more recent years the students have been younger and I sense that some come to training and they are crushed in spirit. Things haven’t gone well with parents and teachers and to be part of believing in people more than they believe in themselves is something that my wife and I have talked a lot about.

There are aspects of our cultural context that are rotten in my opinion—the fear we have of giving people big heads, the obsession about not allowing tall poppies to grow and the value of [being] close enough is good enough. I think for me the joy of visualizing what the end could be in someone’s life and then to be a small part of the means by which that end might be reached through encouraging and believing, advocating, praying, correcting—that’s the great joy and the great blessing.

Don’t Steal God’s Job Description
The other thing I would say is that the unfurling of the koru is not actually something that we do. I don’t go in there and reach into that tight, little furry ball and pull out that branch.

In our hyper-competent, over-resourced world, which is what we are, it is easy to steal God’s job description, get in there, feel the power and take control of people’s growth. I don’t think that this is part of our job at all….

I try to create the conditions for unfurling. I try to make space and margins for God to do His thing…

There is so much richness here that can help us to be part of people’s unfurling.

Source: Paul and Barbie Windsor, The Good, the Bad and the Blessed, New Zealand Baptist Annual Gathering, Palmerston North Central Baptist Church, 6 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: The koru. (Click to enlarge)

Tim Pawlenty Has a Revelation While Looking in the Mirror

The International Herald Tribune reports this story from the Republican governor’s post-mortem of the Republican presidential campaign:

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who was very nearly Senator John McCain's running mate this year, told the decidedly subdued, post-election conference of the Republican Governors Association about a revelation he had recently while looking into the bathroom mirror at his home in Minnesota.

Pawlenty said that after returning from the campaign trail, he looked at himself in the mirror and complained about what he saw to his wife, Mary.

"I said, 'Mary, look at me,"' he said. "'I mean, my hairline's receding, these crow's feet and wrinkles are multiplying on my face by the day, I've been on the road eating junk food, I'm getting flabby, these love handles are flopping over the side of my belt.'

"I said, 'Is there anything you can tell me that would give me some hope, some optimism, some encouragement?"' he said. "And she looked at me and she said, 'Well, there's nothing wrong with your eyesight."'

As his fellow governors laughed, he came to the moral of the story: "If we are going to successfully travel the road to improvement, as Republicans, we need to see clearly, and we need to speak to each other candidly about the state of our party."

Source: Michael Cooper, Republican Governors Regroup and Plan for the Future, International Herald Tribune, 13 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “Pawlenty said that after returning from the campaign trail, he looked at himself in the mirror and complained about what he saw to his wife, Mary.”

Ben Okri Gives First Hand Assessment of Obama the Speechmaker

The Times reports that award-winning novelist Ben Okri flew to America to examine the Obama phenomenon at first hand.

He discovered ‘one of the most audacious and inspiring stories of our age’.

Obama’s Presence
“And then he was there. He is compact, defined and self-possessed in an easy way. His voice is rich and clear. Here is a man who has clearly followed his bliss, the thing that most gets your life juices going. He is comfortable in himself. He is a natural politician as some people are natural actors. It is his ease that is most striking….”

Nature of a Good Political Speech
“Allow me a moment’s meditation on the nature of a good political speech. A good speech is made before it is made. Excitement and expectation have to precede it. It should salute the time and the place. It should celebrate the common interests of the audience. It should start quite high and have a certain music, a certain rhythm. It is best delivered without notes. It is indispensable to have a good voice. A good speech rises, it justifies expectation, slows down in the middle and climbs again until it reaches higher than it began, and then it must peak. When it has peaked, it must be brought to a close. The highest point should be at the end.”

“Obama had made this speech before but it was nonetheless exemplary. He began with…”

Check out this fine essay at the following link:

Ben Okri, The Obama phenomenon: a dream can compel people to hold their breath in wonder, The Times, 1 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Ben Okri takes a first-hand look at Obama the speechmaker.

Tips from Terkel for Tellers of Stories

Studs Terkel, writer and radio personality, has died in Chicago and he is being remembered with great affection.

In a LA Times tribute Stephanie Simon says that “Studs Terkel … made his name listening to ordinary folks talk about their ordinary lives -- and …turned that knack for conversation into a much-honored literary career.”

The full account is best read but here are some excerpts from this article that has important implications for storytellers:

Popular Because He Spoke About Real Life
“The author of blockbuster oral histories on World War II, the Great Depression and contemporary attitudes toward work, Terkel roamed the country engaging an astounding cross-section of Americans in tape-recorded chats -- about their dreams, their fears, their chewing gum, about racism, courage, dirty floors and the Beatles.”

“With his loud laugh and raspy voice, plus his inept fumbles with his tape recorder, he set his subjects at ease and tugged from them memories, predictions and simple truths about their everyday existence.”

“Real was what Terkel always wanted to get at: real people, real lives and real emotions.”

“He did not claim to be a social scientist. He did not seek to conduct a statistically valid poll. He simply talked to people he found interesting.”

Incurable Curiosity
“He hit upon oral history as an outlet for his insatiable curiosity in 1967, when at the age of 55 he published ‘Division Street: America’ -- a series of conversations about race with Chicago residents.”

“And Studs Terkel wanted this as his epitaph: ‘Curiosity did not kill this cat.’”

Respect
“Terkel's longtime editor, Andre Schiffrin, added, ‘The key thing was his respect for them. He wasn't there to use them. He wasn't there to make a point. He really wanted to hear what they had to say, and he respected them.’”

Listening—the Secret to His Effectiveness
“He never prepared his questions. He interrupted his guests often. Yet Terkel was known as a master interviewer, able to establish an easy rapport with just about anyone. His secret, he once said, was simple: ‘It's listening.’”

“And listen he did: to sultry jazz singers and insecure housewives; to a repentant Ku Klux Klan leader; to Bob Dylan, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Marlene Dietrich, Bertrand Russell; to a parking lot attendant and a lesbian grandmother; to a piano tuner; and to a barber.”

“As the late CBS newsman Charles Kuralt once said: ‘When Studs Terkel listens, everybody talks.’”

“‘I think he was the most extraordinary social observer this country has produced,’ said Dr. Robert Coles, a Harvard professor of psychiatry who considered Terkel a friend and inspiration.

Fittingly, at his bedside was a copy of his latest book, "P.S. Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening," scheduled for release this month.

To read the entire article:
Stephanie Simon, Studs Terkel, writer and radio personality, dies at 96, LA Times, 1 November 2008.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Terkel is honored on his 95th birthday at the Chicago History Museum during a broadcast on WFMT. He was on the station for 45 years and the program rebroadcasted a number of his interviews. (Photo courtesy of Charles Osgood / May 16, 2007 from the Chicago Tribune)

Rowland Croucher Reviews New Book by Storyteller F W Boreham

F W Boreham, A Packet of Surprises: The Best Essays and Sermons of F W Boreham, John Broadbanks Publishing, 2008.

I've been a Boreham collector for 50 years, and have often reflected on why he's still so popular. Yes, he's an outstanding wordsmith (how often have you alluded to 'rich clusters of tawny filberts' in passing?); yes, he's widely read (at least a book a week for most of his adult life); and yes he touches issues about which 'the common man' has a deep interest.

Boreham had a prodigious memory. I have in my possession a photocopy of one of his 10cm x 15 cm cards with hand-written headings from which he preached. His biographer Howard Crago tells us each sermon was preached from memory in almost the exact words in which it was printed.

But I reckon there's another reason for his popularity: respect. Frank Boreham had such an abiding respect for his audiences, that, bower-bird-like, he assiduously collected thousands of quotes, literary allusions, stories and ideas. This discipline produced some astonishing 'connections' in his sermons and essays.

This new volume of 'the best of the best' of Boreham's essays and sermons begins with Dr Geoff Pound's introduction/rationale for making his selection; then there's a profile of Boreham's life and work by Howard Crago (whom I was privileged to know, when I was his pastor for eight years). At the back there's a subject and name index.

From his first pastorate Boreham resolved 'never to condemn anything but always present a positive aspect. (As he put it) "the best way to prove a stick is crooked is to lay a straight one beside it".' His many hearers and readers obviously appreciated this softer irenic approach: in each of his three pastorates he doubled the membership. (But, if I might add a footnote to that, many drifted away from at least one of those churches - Armadale Baptist Church in Melbourne - when he left).

Each of these chapters is just long enough to develop a theme, to be read in a short sitting. (But they're never so long that you flip to see if you're near the end. People wonder about that with sermons in church too, don't they?). The longest chapter here (15 pages) is from his first major book - The Whisper of God - with its thesis: 'The truth of a whisper is as great as the truth of a shout. A whisper from God is enough to tell me that God is, it is enough to tell me that he cares for me... God never thunders if a whisper will do'.

Here are some examples of his wonderful 'turns of phrase':

* '... Our best Sunday clothes, with clean collar, brightly polished boots and finger-nails destitute of any funereal suggestion...'

* 'There are books that we bought by mistake; books that we know to be valueless; books whose room is of much more value than their company'

* 'I drew aside to collect my thoughts. But my thoughts politely, but firmly, declined to be collected'

And a rare mixed metaphor: 'No menagerie since the world began could hold a candle to it'

We meet Frank Boreham the man here: a couple of his favourite places were the Melbourne Art Gallery, and Melbourne Cricket Ground. He writes about one of his major detestations - 'ready-made clothes'; another was the telephone (he's in good company there!).

Some of his most famous sermons are here: 'He Made as Though' (on the story of the Emmaus Road); A Prophet's Pilgrimage (Jonah); The Powder Magazine (Paul and Barnabas's dispute over John Mark); and perhaps the best in the book - and maybe in all of Boreham - his great missionary sermon 'The Candle and the Bird' (with its thesis: 'a period of spiritual sterility invariably represents, not the extinguishing of a candle, but the frightening away of a bird').

He has an essay on the astonishing coincidences in his own life, and elsewhere (pp 245 ff.). I won't spoil it for you by mentioning them, but Boreham has the impertinence to suggest that any one of us will find 'a wealthy hoard' of similar coincidences stowed away in our memories. Well, most won't, sir, at least not on this scale!

The chapter on Interruptions is brilliant. I remember an experienced minister reminding me early in my pastoral career that most of Jesus' healings were the result of interruptions: 'Interruptions,' my wise friend said, 'are not disturbing your ministry-plans: they ‘are’ your ministry!'

Finally, a few insightful and/or memorable tid-bits:

* (The cryptic utterance of a parishioner): 'When I've shut the door, I've shut the door'

* 'Doubt is a very human and a very sacred thing...'

* 'The gravest mistake made by educationalists is [to suppose] that those who know little are good enough to teach those who know less'

* 'Ritualism [is] perilous. "Now abideth"... what? Altars? vestments? crosses? creeds? catechisms? confessions? Now abideth faith, hope love - these three; and the greatest of these is love'

* 'Orthodoxy and heterodoxy stand related to truth just as those wonderful wickerwork stands and plaster busts that adorn every dressmaker's establishment stand related to the grace and beauty of the female form'

A minor complaint: Boreham would not have liked his writing being 'corrupted' by American spellings (luster, favorite, gray, molded, behavior; but interestingly 'gaol' is retained). If we're going to fiddle with spellings, why not do the same with his sexist language? Now that would be a challenge!

Thanks to Rowland Croucher for this review and permission to reprint it.

Further:
Another article entitled ‘Ten Reasons to Read Boreham’s New Book ‘A Packet of Surprises’ is at this link.

Availability:
Check out Mike Dalton’s site to discover how you can get your hands on this book.If you live in the southern hemisphere you may want to order your books from Peter and the COC Online Bookshop which is based in Brisbane.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of ‘A Packet of Surprises’.

Hasidic Fable on Taking the Goat by the Horns

A fable from the teaching of the Hasidic the master Menahem Mendel of Kotzk:

Rabbi Yitzchak of Vorki knocked, entered Rabbi Mendel’s room, and said the greeting: “Peace be with you, Rabbi.”

“Why do you say rabbi to me?” grumbled the rabbi of Kotzk. “I am no rabbi! Don’t you recognize me? I’m the goat! I’m the sacred goat. Don’t you remember the story?

“An old Jew once lost his snuff box made of horn, on his way to the house of study. He wailed: ‘Just as if the dreadful exile weren’t enough, this must happen to me.’ Oh me, oh my, I’ve lost my snuffbox made of horn.” And then he came upon the sacred goat.

The sacred goat was pacing the earth, and the tips of his black horns touched the stars. When he heard the old Jew lamenting, he leaned down to him, and said: ‘Cut a piece from my horns, whatever you need to make a new snuffbox.’ The old Jew did this, made a new snuffbox, and filled it with tobacco. Then he went to the house of study and offered everyone a pinch. They snuffed and snuffed, and everyone who snuffed it cried: ‘Oh, what wonderful tobacco! It must be because of the box. Oh what a wonderful box! Wherever did you get it?’

“So the old man told them about the good sacred goat, and then one after the other they went out on the street and looked for the sacred goat. The sacred goat was pacing the earth and the tips of his black horns touched the stars. One after another they went up to him and begged permission to cut off a bit of his horns. Time after time the sacred goat leaned down to grant the request. Box after box was made and filled with tobacco. The fame of the boxes spread far and wide. At every step he took the sacred goat met someone who asked for a piece of his horns.

“Now the sacred goat still paces the earth—but he has no horns.”

Source: Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim: The Later Masters (Schocken).

Thanks to Alex Tang for recommending the story.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Is this the sacred goat?

Al Gore Says Puppies Must Have a Purpose

Speaking at a Web 2.0 Conference (November 2008) of people exploring the development of web-based communities, environmentalist activist, Al Gore, talked about the importance of clarifying your purpose.

He said that after buying a puppy for their young children many years ago, he and Tipper asked a dog trainer to come in and give them advice.

Her first question was "What is the puppy's purpose? Is it going to be a watch dog, is it going to get the newspaper in the morning, is it for the children to play with?"

Like puppies, any project, business or interest needs to have a defined purpose.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: “What is the puppy's purpose?”

Mark Twain on Travel and not Vegetating in One Little Corner of the Earth

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain

Source: Found on the blog Abu Dhabi/UAE Daily Photo.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Mark Twain in New Hampshire (Photo courtesy of New York Times).

Feathery Fable is For the Birds

A mother bird and her three fledglings came to the bank of a river, too wide for the young ones to cross on their own.

Taking the first fledgling onto her wing, the mother bird began to carry him across, and while over the middle of the river she asked him the following question: “My dear son, when I am old and too feeble to fly far, will you carry me across?” Promptly and respectfully, her son replied, “Of course, mama,” whereupon the mother bird dropped him into the water below to drown.

Repeating the test on her next fledging, she elicited the same response, and so dropped him, too, into the waters below.

Gathering up her last fledgling, the mother bird administered her test one last time: “My dear son, when I am old and too feeble to fly far, will you carry me across?” Unlike his brothers, the last fledgling slowly but thoughtfully replied, “No mother, I will not do it for you, but I will do it for my own children.” The mother bird, now happily assured of her future, flew her son across the river and lovingly deposited him on its distant shore.

Source: Anon. Thanks to Alex Tang for sharing the story.

Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Chicks have their uses.