On December 21st, 2012 [my birthday if you must know] the world is going to end.
We like to call them "freshy's" and if they survive to their second year, we call them semi- pros.
It's an audience in a well lived in, well loved room.
I call them the future. I call me, the faint and fragile passing leaf of time. I am no mystic. I am no scholar. I am no expert. I, am only a fellow traveler.
I call them babies.
I've been on panels before- student panels. But this one is different. It has yet to take place. All the other times I've done this, it didn't feel right. I wasn't thinking clearly. I wasn't thinking of hope. You aren't worth much if you can't think of a life and a world without hope. I wasn't worth much.
So I rehearse and rehearse- in my head. And this is what came out.
This life isn't meant for everyone. I'm not trying to discourage you. I'm being honest. This place is unforgiving if you don't have hope. If you don't have fight. If you aren't willing to exile yourselves from your loved ones, your home, your land, then you have no business being here.
Learn to love from a distance. Learn poetry because it will help you communicate your love- one mile away or a thousand miles away, it helps make that love real.
Learn to cope. Allow yourself to daydream- to fall in love. To fall out of love. practice those first lines. practice poetry. Learning to fall in and out of love is the beginning of any dream and it's epic-ness.
Learn to smile at people even you don't feel like it or are in too much pain. Everybody has to be the perfect stranger at least once in their life. You never know you could be helping to save someone's life.
If you haven't cried yourself to sleep, wept bitterly, yelled at God/ the Creator, inexhaustibly lonely, felt piercing pain while in college- that says something about your passion and character. It says that you aren't ready to fight, you're distracted, and that you have no business being here right now.
Men- learn to cry. It's the manliest thing you could ever do.
Learn the art of the hug, the high five, and self depreciation, and you'll find that surviving is bearable.
This is my story.
And for now it's a good story.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Listening exercises Kouzes ch. 6
1. generate power
"I think. . . that you are a better writer than Sherman Alexie..."
There's a statement.
It made me highly uncomfortable and somewhat insecure. But to this day, it gives me strength and confidence.
"You shouldn't count on writing to make a living."
Talk about killing a dream. Talk about no faith. I didn't know how to respond so superficially I agreed, fighting the spite and intelligent thoughtful rebuke only to shrug and whisper "yeah you're right."
It was Christmas Stroll 2009. It's an ungodly -something something degrees below zero, frybread frost, and milky butter fill our lungs with warmth- not very pleasant after rifling a 10 hour day reinventing a sweat- shops flipping dough. Then Crisis hit. Our demand wasn't keeping up with the demand. We had more frozen dough than product and the line is swelling. Our adviser's blood pressure alone is shooting the earth's temperature more and nobody gives a rip beyond the natural misery already dealt. As thimble and clumsy as we are, exposed and exhausted- we all begin to scramble. The lot of us is about to get vicious and go back to our savage demonic ways of yesteryear. We begin plotting about who's business establishment and who's stands' circuits we're gonna blow out. We hop scotch around establishment after establishment and even into local bars where the Snaps and Egg Nogg look far more appealing to inquire about the use of their ovens.
The spirits were not with us.
Then I happened upon the portable heater- powered by a cord and propane and possessing a wicked mean fan. calculated and with the little composure I had left I tried to flicker on the propane. I can't do it. My adviser comes over and activates it. Then we're back in business. I risk limb and health to run the huge industrial aluminium baking pans padded with the frozen dough patties over and over the propane heater. Everyone else catches on and soon enough all the helping hands come into play. one comes to hold the pan. one comes to navigate the heater. one even comes to warm my hands and dump hot cocoa down my throat. The kids up front have a extra bounce in their step and even are laughing and trying to rendition Christmas carols now. It's still a priceless scene.
I didn't know any better than anyone else and I wasn't going to get hyper masculine stupid to try to prove it. Any idea was the best idea. There wasn't any type of micro- managing [or coercive leadership] we let everybody try to go into the bar to hit up their uncle Pooky to try to allow us to use their outlets if not their ovens. It was a solve the problem as quick as possible and I wasn't about to tell anyone they were stupid for trying. In the end it's just that we all tried too hard. Everyone felt empowered and apart of streamlining the whole process. We all accepted equal responsibility and weight on trying to solve the problem. In the end, it just turned out that I took one extra breath than everyone else.
If there is too much craving for certainty- I think it's legitimate to say that there is too much comfortable, no one will care to listen. This was for a good cause. There was excitement, and a bit of detriment, and everybody was forced to take action. The delegation was voluntary. I should say that this situation shouldn't be ideal for every event, etc.. but we just asked people to be creative and to act upon it.
3- 4 actions of enabling others to be successful:
1- keeping the vision/ bigger picture in mind
2- knowledge, ability to communicate purpose and goals
3- strong emotional intelligence to inspire/ articulate/ motivate [i.e. authoritative style of leadership]
6 questions to ask in first meetings:
1- who's your favorite Indian??? ok, no. . . where are you from?
2- who are your people?
3- what/ who is the most important person/ thing in your life and why?
4- what do you hope to gain from this?
5- what is your passion and what makes you come alive?
6- what are obstacles you think might get in your way on the path to success?
I would ask these questions because they implicate the heart and not the potential.
"I think. . . that you are a better writer than Sherman Alexie..."
There's a statement.
It made me highly uncomfortable and somewhat insecure. But to this day, it gives me strength and confidence.
"You shouldn't count on writing to make a living."
Talk about killing a dream. Talk about no faith. I didn't know how to respond so superficially I agreed, fighting the spite and intelligent thoughtful rebuke only to shrug and whisper "yeah you're right."
It was Christmas Stroll 2009. It's an ungodly -something something degrees below zero, frybread frost, and milky butter fill our lungs with warmth- not very pleasant after rifling a 10 hour day reinventing a sweat- shops flipping dough. Then Crisis hit. Our demand wasn't keeping up with the demand. We had more frozen dough than product and the line is swelling. Our adviser's blood pressure alone is shooting the earth's temperature more and nobody gives a rip beyond the natural misery already dealt. As thimble and clumsy as we are, exposed and exhausted- we all begin to scramble. The lot of us is about to get vicious and go back to our savage demonic ways of yesteryear. We begin plotting about who's business establishment and who's stands' circuits we're gonna blow out. We hop scotch around establishment after establishment and even into local bars where the Snaps and Egg Nogg look far more appealing to inquire about the use of their ovens.
The spirits were not with us.
Then I happened upon the portable heater- powered by a cord and propane and possessing a wicked mean fan. calculated and with the little composure I had left I tried to flicker on the propane. I can't do it. My adviser comes over and activates it. Then we're back in business. I risk limb and health to run the huge industrial aluminium baking pans padded with the frozen dough patties over and over the propane heater. Everyone else catches on and soon enough all the helping hands come into play. one comes to hold the pan. one comes to navigate the heater. one even comes to warm my hands and dump hot cocoa down my throat. The kids up front have a extra bounce in their step and even are laughing and trying to rendition Christmas carols now. It's still a priceless scene.
I didn't know any better than anyone else and I wasn't going to get hyper masculine stupid to try to prove it. Any idea was the best idea. There wasn't any type of micro- managing [or coercive leadership] we let everybody try to go into the bar to hit up their uncle Pooky to try to allow us to use their outlets if not their ovens. It was a solve the problem as quick as possible and I wasn't about to tell anyone they were stupid for trying. In the end it's just that we all tried too hard. Everyone felt empowered and apart of streamlining the whole process. We all accepted equal responsibility and weight on trying to solve the problem. In the end, it just turned out that I took one extra breath than everyone else.
If there is too much craving for certainty- I think it's legitimate to say that there is too much comfortable, no one will care to listen. This was for a good cause. There was excitement, and a bit of detriment, and everybody was forced to take action. The delegation was voluntary. I should say that this situation shouldn't be ideal for every event, etc.. but we just asked people to be creative and to act upon it.
3- 4 actions of enabling others to be successful:
1- keeping the vision/ bigger picture in mind
2- knowledge, ability to communicate purpose and goals
3- strong emotional intelligence to inspire/ articulate/ motivate [i.e. authoritative style of leadership]
6 questions to ask in first meetings:
1- who's your favorite Indian??? ok, no. . . where are you from?
2- who are your people?
3- what/ who is the most important person/ thing in your life and why?
4- what do you hope to gain from this?
5- what is your passion and what makes you come alive?
6- what are obstacles you think might get in your way on the path to success?
I would ask these questions because they implicate the heart and not the potential.
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