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YOUR Soul Food for June 14th 2013: Inter Faces and What Fathers (and Mothers) REALLY Want for Father’s Day
Happy Soul Food Friday!
This Father’s Day Weekend: Touch and be touched by these inter faces…
Time travel back into the past with the images and faces-iconic photos both soul-filled and heart-breaking that irrevocably defined a generation
Time travel forward into tomorrow with futuristic advances in the present that will change the next generation
Finally, in tribute to father’s everywhere, Give the Gift of Time, as well as Finally Learn What a Father Really Wishes for on Father’s Day!
If this doesn’t float your boat, check for a spirit leak…
This deck of remarkable black and what photos, defined the 20th Century:
Super-Natural Technology Inter Faces:
By now we’ve gotten used to touch interfaces in our daily lives – from smartphones and tablets to kitchen appliances – and it’s clear that there’s something more natural, and more direct about interacting with technology this way. But if we’ve learned anything about technology lately, it’s that things move fast and the next innovation is just around the corner. Here are three examples that will take our interfacing with technology in entirely new directions:
Leap Motion – https://www.leapmotion.com This small device turns any desktop or laptop into a finger-aware computer that supports fluid, precise drawing and gestural interactions just by placing your hands in front of the screen.
Table Drum – http://www.tabledrum.com
Table Drum is an app that turns your table-top tapping into real drum kit sounds. Just teach the app what kind of tap should make what sound and you can start rocking the kick drum and high hat wherever you are.
Grab Magic
This interesting hack shows the potential of combining multiple devices – an Xbox Kinect and a smartphone, in this case – to pull off some some real magic and computer interactions typically reserved for Hollywood Sci-Fi movies.
Father’s Day Tributes:
Love = Time:
In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows.
Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one old photograph album after another.
Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly for the source that had drawn him here.
It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone, and somewhere in these albums was a photo of her he hoped to rediscover. Silent as a mouse, he patiently opened the long buried treasures and soon was lost in a sea of memories. Although his world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive in his heart than his present aloneness.
Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a journal from his grown son’s childhood. He could not recall ever having seen it before, or that his son had ever kept a journal. Why did Elizabeth always save the children’s old junk? he wondered, shaking his white head.
Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short reading, and his lips curved in an unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as he read the words that spoke clear and sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast in this very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.
Entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in his heart like the longing a gardener feels in the winter for the fragrance of spring flowers. But it was accompanied by the painful memory that his son’s simple recollections of those days were far different from his own. But how different?
Reminded that he had kept a daily journal of his business activities over the years, he closed his son’s journal and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that originally triggered his search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the rafters, the old man stepped to the wooden stairway and made his descent, then headed down a carpeted stairway that led to the den.
Opening a glass cabinet door, he reached in and pulled out an old business journal. Turning, he sat down at his desk and placed the two journals beside each other. His was leather-bound and engraved neatly with his name in gold, while his son’s was tattered and the name “Jimmy” had been nearly scuffed from its surface. He ran a long skinny finger over the letters, as though he could restore what had been worn away with time and use.
As he opened his journal, the old man’s eyes fell upon an inscription that stood out because it was so brief in comparison to other days. In his own neat handwriting were these words:
Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn’t catch a thing.
With a deep sigh and a shaking hand, he took Jimmy’s journal and found the boy’s entry for the same day, June 4. Large scrawling letters, pressed deeply into the paper, read:
Went fishing with my Dad. Best day of my life.
~~~~~~
What a father really wishes for on Father’s Day
Each year, this holiday set aside to commemorate fatherhood brings me a remarkable gift that, for reasons too deep to explain, we fathers never tell you that we crave deep in our hearts. You, our children, give us your full attention in a spirit of appreciation and gratitude.
In the past, I feel like I’ve never managed to take full advantage of the moment. So I want to make up for it here, and to share with you, the children who have given me so much happiness and satisfaction over the years, the things that I truly want, not just today, but for the rest of our time together in this difficult and complicated world.
As I make my requests, please know that I am grateful for the cards and gifts I’ve received over the years. But I think the purest essence of fatherhood is to cherish the many intangible things that perhaps you, my children, don’t even realize that you bring to my life.
So here are my deepest wishes for a happy father’s day—and also for a truly happy fatherhood experience.
I wish, first and foremost, for your happiness and fulfillment as you travel through life. If I could choose one gift, and one gift only, it would be for you to cherish yourself as I cherish you.
I wish for you to set high expectations for yourself as you discover who you are and your role in the universe. I wish you to be bold in seizing opportunities for accomplishment, to consciously define what you want most out of life and go for it without fear or reservation.
I wish you to know that there will be setbacks in all of life’s endeavors, and in those times when you feel discouraged, to recognize, as I do, that you have more than enough personal resources to overcome anything you are likely to face.
I also wish you to allow me to be a resource to help you along your chosen path. As you go forward, I wish you would ignore and forgive the times when I interfere, and embrace the times when I encourage.
Whenever we gather together, whenever we connect (and be it often, regardless of the many distractions in our lives), I wish for my adult children to see yourselves and each other with the same unconditional love that mists across my eyes whenever I look at you.
I wish you to know that your love for each other is the greatest and most treasured expression of your love for me.
I wish that the children of my children will experience love, happiness and fun whenever we gather together as an extended family, so that the young members of our brood will grow up to associate, at a very deep level, their extended family with feelings of comfort and joy.
I wish for a gift almost beyond imagining: that my children will forgive the many regrettable times when I was unfair, impatient and so very far from perfect, the times when you were hurt by my words and actions, even though you did not deserve to be. Please know, even if I have not told you before, that I carry those memories as my greatest burden in life.
I wish you would remember, and preserve, and cherish the many times when we were joyful together, those times when I found a way to contribute to your happiness.
On this day set aside for honoring fathers, I wish that you would also honor your mother in the same spirit that you honor me, and recognize that she gave you more than I will ever be able to give you: she gave you life itself, in addition to her love.
I wish for more than these things, even though I feel like I have asked for so much already.
If you have any more capacity to give, then please know that I love you with a depth and power that I have never been able to express to you. It is possible that there are no words to describe this love; if there are, I haven’t seen them or heard them, and now, at this moment, on this special day, I feel like I haven’t searched diligently enough.
Know that I understand how poorly I have communicated this love over our years together. But what you have not heard nearly often enough, with nearly enough eloquence, is deeply and profoundly felt in my heart and in my soul.
If you can, recognize the truth of this one remarkable thing: I would not give up your presence in my life, the connection I share with you, for anything that anyone could offer me.
Think of all the precious things in the world. Imagine them piled up in front of you as high as the sky itself, and know that you are more precious to me than all of them.
These are gifts almost too great to ask for, even on this day set aside for me and for fathers everywhere. But if, somehow, I could receive these things that I have never before had the courage to speak of, you would give me a blessing as great as any in the eons-long history of fatherhood.
And finally, thank you for this wonderful necktie.
-From Bob Veres, Conversations With My Daughter
THE EGG
Nasruddin earned his living selling eggs. Someone came to his shop one day and said, “Guess what I have in my hand.”
“Give me a clue,” said Nasruddin.
“I shall give you several: It has the shape of an egg, the size of an egg. It looks like an egg, tastes like an egg and smells like an egg. Inside it is yellow and white. It is liquid before it is cooked, becomes thick when heated. It was, moreover laid by a hen…”
“Aha! I know!” said Nasruddin. “It is some kind of cake!”
The expert misses the obvious! Stay open my friends…
Thanks this week to Larry, Robin, Hillel, Marlaine, Moms and Dads Everywhere!
Love is ALL you need…
Neville
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.
One is roots. The other is wings.
~Hodding Carter, Jr.
Soul Food for June 7th: The Difference between Financial Riches and Wealth
Happy Soul Food Friday!
“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.”—H. G. Wells
Future–Proofing for Tomorrow– There is a Vast Difference between Financial Riches and Wealth
What is future proofing?
It is the process of trying to anticipate future developments, so that action can be taken now to minimize possible negative consequences, and to maximize opportunities.
It is about building a strong enough foundation to ensure long term, sustainable success.
Here are some future proofing factoids:
If you are working, your job is your #1 investment. Your education is your second most important investment.
Spend more time building a legacy than an inheritance. If you cultivate the proper work ethic and relentless passion for lifelong learning, and cultivate generators of value not just extractors of value, the next generation will produce their own annuity.
Money doesn’t cause problems, your relationship to money causes problems.
Most of us have a lousy relationship with money.
The same sadly is even truer with time.
Most of us have a lousy relationship with time.
How do I know? Well, we kill time, we waste time, and we spend time but rarely invest time.
Lousy relationships with both money and time cause a lot of problems both in the present and by extension in the future…
Maybe it’s time to revisit our relationship with time and money.
Interestingly, if you think about it, time is more valuable than money. You can lose all your money and earn it back but you never get the time back.
Today is unprecedented. Today is unrepeatable.
We never get today back to invest it wisely.
Do give BACK! Giving back is highly correlated with healthier and happier people.
“Gratitude is the ultimate antidote for materialism” We ARE spirits in a material world as the Police remind us…
This week:
Givers and Takers:
Financial Literacy and the Fact$ of Life:
I learned about Mind Treasures recently and got very inspired!
In Our Minds:
But first some Homographs & Heteronyms: English is such a Crazy Language we should be all committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning. A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.
You think English is easy?? Watch your language!
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.4) We must polish the Polish furniture..5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig..
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’ ?
Lovers of the English language might enjoy this .
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’
It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP,
so…….it is time to shut UP!
Now it’s UP to you what you do with this…
The Power of Giving:
Givers and Takers:
http://news.yahoo.com/secret-success-giving-not-taking-103000667.html
Financial Literacy and the Fact$ of Life:
Glenda and Hillel have been working together on an idea/project to help parents discuss the sensitive issue of money/finance with their kids with “The Fact$ of Life: Teaching Children about Dollar$ and Sense”. The reality is that kids are exposed to sex on the internet/TV etc. and they know more about sex than fiscal responsibility at an impressionable age. Yet, few parents teach their kids the FACT$ OF LIFE. So, where and how will your kids learn to navigate the world of “Money”?
Glenda raised two daughters as a single mother. She accumulated practical ideas and useful tidbits to share with parents who are hungry for fun ways to communicate effectively about this topic with their kids. She has worked at nonprofit organizations for over 20 years and is an excellent organizer.
Hillel is a financial life planner. Over the past 23 years he has had numerous conversations with clients about engaging their families in the conversation about: allowance, saving, college, investing etc. He founded a not-for-profit called: “Our Little Blue Box” dedicated to respectful family communication.
Their passion for helping bridge the gap of financial and money conversations is a driving force.
They would like to introduce this presentation to you, with the hope that you may consider us bringing it to your organization/family/school.
You are invited to attend their premier presentation – The Fact$ of Life: Teaching Children about Dollar$ and Sense:
WHEN: Tuesday June 18th, 2013 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm
WHERE: 4330 La Jolla Ville Drive, Suite 330, San Diego, CA 92122 (conference room)
RSVP at your earliest convenience (seating is limited):
To Register, please click: www.hkfinancial.com/future then click on Fact$ of Life
Refreshments will be served. There is no cost to attend.
With our kindest and best regards,
Glenda Sacks Jaffe Hillel Katzeff
858-546-8505 858-550-0425
Glenda.jaffe@sbcglobal.net HillKat18@gmail.com
I learned about Mind Treasures recently and got very inspired!
Financial Literacy must be taught at elementary schools
In November of 2011, Education Secretary — Arne Duncan — urged the Advisory Council on Financial Capability to the White House to begin teaching financial literacy starting with kindergarten students.
Budgeting, along with other aspects of finances, may seem like complicated subjects for children as early as kindergarten. The secret to developing healthy financial habits, from early ages, lays in a unique approach to discover and develop hidden treasures of patience, moderation, responsibility, accountability, thankfulness, respect, generosity, truthfulness, and many other virtues.
By developing these hidden muscles we can raise a generation that will obtain, manage, and utilize various forms of wealth (knowledge, expertise, time, and money as well as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual powers) to build stronger and healthier families, communities, and whole a new world.
Check this out:
—
In Our Minds: From a post in Last Week’s Daily Kabbalah
Things often seem more daunting and difficult in our minds than they actually are.
In our minds, we make mountains out of molehills; we create big dramas out of tiny conflicts, and we see the work we need to do as insurmountable.
The good news is that you can always change your mind.
Spark Awesomeness!
Thanks this week to Arman, Michael J, Hillel, Alex, and Elisa.
Pay it forward…
Love,
Neville
“Be realistic. Plan for a miracle.”—Osho
Soul Food Friday for Memorial Day Week 2013
Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week two main themes to juxtapose- Martial & Artist
Both are often misunderstood and wrongly considered…
Here is to cultivating Artists of Life, because when you have the most important things in life – like love, faith, and family – there is nothing you own that you can’t give away.
First Two Tributes to Members of the Armed Services who Sacrifice so Much for Us:
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”
http://www.usba.com/memorialday
After being appropriately serious here is some humor to lighten our mood…
A woman received a call that her daughter was sick. She stopped by the pharmacy to get medication, got back to her car and found that she had locked her keys inside. The woman found an old rusty coat hanger left on the ground. She looked at it and said “I don’t know how to use this.” She bowed her head and asked God to send her HELP.
Within 5 minutes a beat up old motorcycle pulled up. The driver was a bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag.
The man got off of his cycle and asked if he could help. She said: “Yes, my daughter is sick. I’ve locked my keys in my car. I must get home.
Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?”
He said, “Sure.” He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was open.
She hugged the man and through tears said, “Thank You SO Much! You are a very nice man.
The man replied, “Lady, I am NOT a nice man. I just got out of PRISON yesterday. I was in prison for car theft.”
The woman hugged the man again sobbing, “Oh, thank you God! You even sent me a Professional!”
Rightly or Wrongly, Business is a Combination of War and Sport; part Must Win, part Playing by the Rules
Here is an example of applying martial arts principles in the world of business:
http://www.researchworks.com/blog/item/43-leaning-into-what-is-business-wisdom-from-aikido
Artistry: With Rembrandt
The Rijksmuseum museum in Holland had an idea: Let’s bring the art to the people and then, hopefully, they will come to see more – at the museum.
They took one Rembrandt painting from 1642, “Guards of the Night” and brought to life the characters in it, placed them in a busy mall and the rest you can see for yourself!
Onze helden zijn terug!
So what is an Artist Anyway? Here Neil Gaiman talks about becoming one…
If you want to Cultivate Artists of Life, this is a Fine Place to Start:
http://www.dailygood.org/story/434/holding-a-piece-of-the-pain-rachel-stafford/
Thanks this week to Larry, Moshe and Rex
Pay it forward and remember those that have gone before…
Love,
Neville
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”
Soul Food Friday for May 24th, 2013
Happy Soul Food Friday
This week enjoy the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and some bonus tracks to keep you bopping!
First the Ugly:
Don’t Blow It ….. Good Planets Are Hard To Find
This animation created in flash and after effects, looks at (hu)man’s relationship with the natural world, and is set to “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg.
http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/ufosinterdimensionalultraterrestrials/man.html
Next, the Bad:
The Story of Stuff
If you haven’t seen this video it is worth the watch…
The good:
The Miracle of Evolution:
Experience courtship at its best and unlike anything you have ever seen on earth with this remarkable filming!
Bonus Tracks:
Please Don’t Give $ to Your Children. It is counter-intuitive but here is why this makes good dollars and sense…
http://willmarre.com/blog/money-to-your-children/
Finally this Track is Beyond Good!
Enjoy percussion at its best…
Thanks this week go to Mohit, Amon, Larry H., Will, Jeff, Arman and Barb
Pay it Forward!
Love,
Neville
“Simple kindness to one’s self
and all that lives is the most powerful transformational force of all.”
–David Hawkins
Soul Food Friday for May 17th, 2013
Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week:
- I Drive Your Truck: A Songwriter and an Army Dad Share the Consummate Serendipitous Soul Food Story
- The Most Simple and Elegant Explanation on the Real Value of Education
- The Changing Lives of Women (and Men)
- 10 Best Personal Development Books by Robin Sharma
- A Touching Cover of “Space Oddity” Actually Recorded in SPACE on the International Space Station
- Experience Two Things that are Hard to Believe
But first some humor to reset your state…
Retired Husband
After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women – she loves to browse. Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target:
Dear Mrs. Johnson,
Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store.
Our complaints against your husband are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras:
1. June 15: He took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people’s carts when they weren’t looking.
2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in House wares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women’s restroom.
4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, “Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away.” This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money. We don’t have a Code 3.
5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.
6. August 14: Moved a “CAUTION – WET FLOOR” sign to a carpeted area.
7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he’d invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.
8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him, he began crying and screamed, “Why can’t you people just leave me alone?” EMTs were called.
9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.
10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.
11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the Mission Impossible theme.
12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his “Madonna look” using different sizes of funnels.
13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled “PICK ME! PICK ME!”
14. October 22: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed “OH, NO! IT’S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!”
15. Took a box of condoms to the checkout clerk and asked where the fitting room is.
And last, but not least:
16. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, and then yelled very loudly, “Hey! There’s no toilet paper in here.” One of the clerks passed out.
—
I Drive Your Truck: A Songwriter and an Army Dad Share the Consummate Serendipitous Soul Food Story
This one had me crying too…
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=184246172&m=184272739
http://www.npr.org/2013/05/15/184246172/a-songwriter-and-an-army-dad-share-one-touching-story
—
This is Water: An excerpt from and address to the graduating class of Kenyon College by David Foster Wallace
The resulting speech didn’t become widely known until 3 years after his tragic death. It is, some of the best life advice we’ve ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.
—
The Changing Lives of Women (and Men):
A thoughtful revisit of our changing roles and need to refresh our societal expectations…
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=180300236&m=184132937
10 Best Personal Development books by Robin Sharma
If you are a lifelong learner, you will recognize some of these and need to explore some of the others…
http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/05/the-10-best-personal-development-books/
—
Your Only Chance to Hear a “Space Oddity” Cover Recorded in SPACE on the International Space Station:
ISS Commander and mustachioed Canadian Chris Hadfield has given us no end of joy during his current five-month stint floating above our blue orb. But perhaps none of them is as touching—and just downright incredible—as his sendoff cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” Enjoy this strangely moving intersection of technology and feeling… with appropriately stunning video.
http://gizmodo.com/chris-hadfield-space-oddity-503869116?autoplay=1
What’s that on the dam wall?
Look closely ! It’s one of those things you have to see to believe !
This is the Diga del Cingino dam in Italy – can you see the little dots on the wall ? You’ll never guess what they are…
You’ve got to be ‘kid’-ding !
They are European Ibex and they like to eat the moss and lichen growing on the wall. They also are licking the salt off the stone. Isn’t it incredible they can stand at that angle ? Just when you think you’ve seen everything!
Found that impossible? Well, then can you explain how this can happen?
http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=40360
Stay Wonder-filled!
Thanks this week go to Marianne H, Robin M, Robin S and Larry H.
Love,
Neville
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”– Albert Einstein
“So act a goat, climb your mountain and be yourself!”- Neville
Soul Food for May 10th and Mother’s Day Weekend
Happy Soul Food Friday and Mother’s Day Weekend!
I think it is true when they say, “adversity doesn’t breed character, it reveals it!”
This week experience broken aspects of our humanity, personhood, & businesses, yet stay inspired by how ordinary people are rising to extra-ordinary levels to meet these challenges head on with courage and consideration.
Here’s to motherhood everywhere!
Is Humanity Broken?
One True Indian Hero, feeding the hungry, nourishing the soul. Food is one part, love is another part…
“You laugh because you think I am different. I laugh because you are all the same”
Is Your Heart Broken?
“I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean towards the opposite”
Defining Ourselves- What is it like to be young… and different. Experience: To this Day- for the Bullied and the Beautiful
http://www.ted.com/talks/shane_koyczan_to_this_day_for_the_bullied_and_beautiful.html
Is Capitalism Broken?
The very purpose of capitalism and meeting societies needs is under scrutiny and deservedly so.
Isn’t creating shared value an idea that is essential to our very success and future?
Amazingly, in the US, the corporate sector is ten times larger than the nonprofit sector but provides no more than 1% of the contribution to the greater good. What’s up with that?
http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2011/01/how-to-fix-capitalism.html
In the past week I attended the Business4Better conference in Anaheim, http://www.business4better.org/conference/ a two-day conference designed specifically for individuals from midsized enterprises responsible for social responsibility, community outreach and corporate volunteer programs. The conference was geared toward helping businesses develop the knowledge, competencies and contacts to partner with nonprofits in ways that make a substantive impact on societal causes. Here we heard from inspired leaders and organizations, discussed the redefinitions of the historic black and white divisions of business pursuit of profit and nonprofits pursuit of their mission, the confluence of forces changing this model and the new re-districting and reframing underfoot with the rise of for benefit, social entrepreneurs, encore careers, etc.
Much is being learned and applied about empathy (I love it when science validates the obvious). Here a personal practice of mindfulness, being present and rightly understanding self, supports organizational practices of re-visioning their reason for being as both Purpose & Profit driven.
We all understand the place of technology, but technology must also be put in its place. Technology will not replace relationships but can enable them as move through the era of connecting devices to the authentic reconnecting with people!
Your higher calling is calling… Are you answering? Don’t leave that call to voice mail.
Keep looking for ways to unleash your unique superpower, I beg you!
Is Philanthropy, Charity and Volunteerism broken?
As much as the nonprofit sector does, there seems so much more to do to assuage societal plights.
Volunteering, in spite of many new ways to innovate engagement remains flat. This means we either need new people and groups engaging and/or we need existing volunteers to engage more effectively for the greater good. Skills based volunteering- where we match our passion and purpose is one solution. This article on the subject by Bea who I met at B4B entitled, “The End of Employee Volunteering” is excellent!
At B4B, I had a chance to meet both the founder of Kiva, Premal and Karen. We hit it off and are now talking about local opportunities here in San Diego.
If you don’t know Kiva, check them out at http://www.kiva.org/
This article in Tech Crunch speaks to one way this amazing organization is making our world a better place!
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/04/kiva-tripadvisor/
Give Something Back is another organization that got my attention at the conference, and I had a chance to chat with Mike, their fearless leaders, who I found out later is also a UCSD alum.
If you don’t know them, Give Something Back stocks over 40,000 business products for next day delivery with prices lower than the superstores. Give Something Back has grown to be the largest independent business products dealer in the West by working with companies like Whole Foods Markets, the U.S. Navy, and the SDSU Foundation to help them streamline their order process and contain costs.
The reason for their unique name is that they donate their profits to local non-profits. To date they have donated over $5.5 million. You can find more information on them and their commitment to a socially responsible business model at www.givesomethingback.com.
Are you Glasses broken?
Speaking of technology sometimes I feel like I really need augmented reality
Last but not Least, Consider this Unique Mother’s Day Option:
How would you like to join families in over 83 countries celebrating Mother’s Day this weekend by donating $4 to the Fifth Annual Mother’s Day Fancy Dress Swim as part of their festivities.
Photo by John Koster, North County Times (May 2012)
You can get more info at: http://www.WorldSwimAgainstMalaria.com/FancyDress2013
Thanks this week to Arman, Robin, B4B, Bea, Premal and Karen, Mike and Ed, Marlaine, and Moms everywhere!
Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy!
Love,
Neville
“It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a standard of living higher than any have ever known.
It no longer has to be you or me.
Selfishness is unnecessary.
War is obsolete.
It is a matter of converting our high technology from weaponry to livingry.”
— Buckminster Fuller
Soul Food for May 3rd 2013
Happy Soul Food Friday!
I was sitting there at the bar staring at my drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig.
“Well, whatcha’ gonna do about it?” He says menacingly, as I burst into tears.
“This is the worst day of my life,” I say.
“I’m a complete failure. I was late to a meeting, and my boss fired me.
When I went to the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen, and I don’t have any insurance.
I left my wallet in the cab I took home.
I found my wife with another man… and then my dog bit me.
So I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all…..
I buy a drink, I drop a cyanide capsule in, and I sit here watching the poison dissolve………and then you show up and drink the whole damn thing!
…..But hell, enough about me, how’s your day going”?
This week:
“When words fail… music speaks”
Celebrating Life:
This last weekend, we had a memorial camp in tribute to the life, love and legacy of one of our martial arts mentors, Sensei Robert “Lucky” Leong who passed away on New Year’s day at the age of 89. Sensei Leong was a treasure who modeled authentic leadership and worked ceaselessly to bring out the best in everyone. Let’s not mistake kindness for weakness, and remember that luck is when preparation meets opportunity- which means we can create our own luck!
In celebrating his life, words alone could not capture his spirit so I used the power of music to get a little bit closer to expressing what was in my heart. If you know James Taylor’s Fire and Rain then you know the song. If not there is a link to it below.
We love you Sensei Leong!
Sensei Leong Tribute- Fire and Rain 2013
This New Year’s morning,
They let me know you were gone,
Sensei that fateful day put an end to you.
I sat up this morning and I borrowed this song,
Music’s my deepest way to remember you
You brought fire and you brought rain
You took heat, that, I thought would never end
You were lonely but, you grew to find some friends,
And I always thought that I’d see you again
When you look down upon me, Sensei
I’m gonna try to make a stand,
Wait, try & impossible are for another day
Your body’s ached and your time was at hand
Yet you over-rode it, almost every way
Oh, I’ve shared fire and you shared rain
You gave heat and yelled,
Like I thought would never end
Our best interest was your only best intend
And I always welcomed seeing you again..
Been walking my mind to that real fun time,
when you smile lit up like the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it can turn your head around
Well spent time on the telephone line talking about things to come.,tai chi, wellness ki and martial artists on the ground
OH, You stoked fire and you poured rain
You made sunny days that I prayed would never end
You were lonely but your students were your friend
And I hope to serve you Sensei, one more time again, now
Want to serve you one more time again
There’s so many things coming our way this time around, now
Want to thank you, once again, Sensei Leong, now…
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
– Leonardo da Vinci
Celebrating Kindness with the Kindness Vest:
If you haven’t seen it already, this will touch your heart!
Speaking of Music, this is a nice rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow which has special meaning for many of us…
Celebrating Art:
The importance of Art in our community and society-Mission Fed ArtWalk 2013
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”— Jonathan Swift
Mission Federal ArtWalk 2013: The Power and Importance of Supporting Art in our Community
In the past week, I was afforded the privilege of addressing the attendees at the VIP Reception for ArtWalk. Here is a synthesis of my remarks for those of us who are committed to art as a critical element in our community and society…
If you pull out a dollar and I pull out a dollar, and we exchange dollars, we are at the same place we started. But if you share the power of a meaningful idea and I share the power of an inspiring idea we are both far richer in the bargain. This is the power of art- to help us experience and exchange ideas of the most profound kind. At the risk of bad humor, I call this “Show me the Monet”. I know, I know, “I-Ma tisse.” What can I say…
Seriously though, we so often go through our days in a form of automaton-like social hypnosis with habituated actions and reactions to life. Red or White? Fries or Salad? Math and Science or Art? Compound this with our language reinforcing stereotypes, with pejorative phrases like “starving” artists and it gets worse by the second.
In this age of science, art and artists are poorly understood! Recently, I heard a report suggesting that art education did nothing to improve math and science scores. Math and science scores? Teaching art to improve math and science is missing the whole point! We need art in schools not to improve math and science scores, but to foster creativity, innovation, expression, individuation and a host of other dimensions of the human experience that are being left by the wayside in our often well-intentioned but myopic and black and white attempts to advance society.
Our world desperately needs more artists and more color. Last Monday was Earth Day, when among other things to preserve and protect our planet, we ‘plant trees’ as an antidote to deforestation and climate change issues. Today I suggest we ‘bud artists’ as an antidote to a the ‘de-naturalization’ and internal climate change issues bereft in modern civilization- alienation, isolation, depression- that left unchecked lead to a world gone mad. Artists “starve” so we can be full. They take the road less traveled and stay the course of asking the fundamental human questions:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What do I really want?
While we pay our bills and dues, artists pay ATTENTION. They see things differently. They express ideas that transcend words. Today more than ever we need art “walks” instead of science “runs”. We need to slow down, pay attention, be mindful, connect, feel, be…
A great artist is always before his time or behind it.
~ George Edward Moore
There are three things that artists of life bring to bear:
Intention: Evoking Spirit. As DaVinci said, “Where there is no spirit, there is no art”
Attention: Seeking and seeing things differently. Discovery is seeing with a new pair of eyes.
Attitude: Addressing matters of the heart and getting us to feel more fully.
In a world hell bent on IQ, and if we are lucky EQ, artists color our world with CQ- Cultural Intelligence.
I am not just speaking of geographic and ethnic forms of knowing how low to bow, which fork to use, or how close to stand based on regional differences, but that cultural intelligence that informs and energizes our culture and climate in our communities, our cities and our organizations. We all feel the energy of an organization’s culture whether it is cold and impersonal or positive, humanizing and energizing. We ARE indeed judged by the company we keep…
To manifest our destiny in San Diego and live up to our moniker of “America’s Finest City” we critically need that art and culture piece.
You get it.
Now we need the rest of our respective communities to get it.
From my perspective, art education in the schools is more mission critical than ever. We need to support art, teach art, be artists of life in our own right.
What is your medium?
Do you express energy and evoke inspiration?
There is only one you- all others are taken.
Pay attention. It is the currency of influence.
Set intention. It is a powerful force of good.
Ensure your attitude is infectious, worth catching and goes viral.
On behalf of artists everywhere and Mission Fed Artwalk 2013 thank you.
Here’s to the masterpiece that is YOU!
Love,
Neville
“I don’t paint things.
I only paint the difference between things.”
– Henri Matisse
Feeling Wistful?
Here is wisteria at its best capturing the Japanese aesthetic of Isagi Yoku- pure clean spirit…
They grow up so fast!
Soul Food Friday for April 26th, 2013
Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week some decidedly lighter fare…
For Your Funny Bone– Humor from Computer Tech Support that is Hysterical
Makes you revisit Maslow’s Hierarchy for the 21st Century through Darwin’s lens doesn’t it
Youthful zeal-
Celebrate the Power of Music as local teens bring music to leprosy affected kids in India
Anybody Want a Coke? This in my opinion is how branding should be done…
Soul-feeding your Animal Instincts: Dogs and People that will touch your heart
The Resonance of a Glass Harp– Ave Maria is delectable!
Finally, these Pictures are worth a thousand Million Words!
First, Some Humor…
COMPUTER TECH SUPPORT
Tech support: What kind of computer do you have?
Customer: A white one…
Tech support: Click on the ‘my computer’ icon on to the left of the screen.
Customer: Your left or my left?
****************************
Customer: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can’t print. Every time I try, it says ‘Can’t find printer’. I’ve even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says he can’t find it..
****************************
Tech support: What’s on your monitor now, ma’am?
Customer: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me at the 7-11.
****************************
Customer: My keyboard is not working anymore.
Tech support: Are you sure it’s plugged into the computer?
Customer: No. I can’t get behind the computer.
Tech support: Pick up your keyboard and walk 10 paces back.
Customer: ! OK
Tech support: Did the keyboard come with you?
Customer: Yes
Tech support: That means the keyboard is not plugged in.
****************************
Customer: I can’t get on the Internet.
Tech support: Are you sure you used the right password?
Customer: Yes, I’m sure. I saw my colleague do it.
Tech support: Can you tell me what the password was?
Customer: Five dots.
****************************
Tech support: What anti-virus program do you use?
Customer: Netscape.
Tech support: That’s not an anti-virus program.
Customer: Oh, sorry… Internet Explorer..
****************************
Customer: I have a huge problem. A friend has placed a screen saver on my computer, but every time I move the mouse, it disappears.
****************************
Tech support: How may I help you?
Customer: I’m writing my first email.
Tech support: OK, and what seems to be the problem?
Customer: Well, I have the letter ‘a’ in the address, but how do I get the little circle around it?
****************************
This one and the next are our personal favorites!
A woman customer called the Canon help desk with a problem with her printer.
Tech support: Are you running it under windows?
Customer: ‘No, my desk is next to the door, but that is a good point. The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window, and his printer is working fine.’
****************************
And last but not least!
Tech support: ‘Okay Bob, let’s press the control and escape keys at the same time. That brings up a task list in the middle of the screen. Now type the letter ‘P’ to bring up the Program Manager.’
Customer: I don’t have a P.
Tech support: On your keyboard, Bob.
Customer: What do you mean?
Tech support: ‘P’…..on your keyboard, Bob.
Customer: I’M NOT GOING TO DO THAT!
Makes you revisit Maslow’s Hierarchy for the 21st Century through Darwin’s lens doesn’t it
The Power of Music
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.
One is roots. The other is wings.
~Hodding Carter, Jr.
Anybody want a coke?
Here’s an entertaining three minutes from the students of Purdue University .
I hope these kids got an “A” for this project! I wonder if we’ll see this on TV soon ….maybe during the next Super Bowl?
A Coke ad.
Can you imagine any other country in the world having a company with the imagination to produce something like this–and the amateur talent-Purdue University ‘s Mechanical Engineering students–to pull it off?
The result–a Coke ad–three minutes of pure entertainment!!!
Tuition money well spent !!!
Dogs Really Are a Man’s Best Friend!
See why—click this!
Crazy Good Pics:
Thanks this week to Larry H, and kids everywhere including the one in you!
Pay it forward.
Love,
Neville
“When words fail… music speaks”
Soul Food Friday for April 19th 2013: Social Networks, Intangibles and Externalities and the Social Progress Index
Happy Soul Food Friday!
As we celebrate the power and impact of the scientific revolution, do you ever wonder about its limitations?
Externalities and intangibles:
The traditional and conventional (scientific) method of isolating, isolating, isolating to the point of identifying that predictive variable seems to me a necessary but insufficient condition, as we increasingly realize that real learning, understanding, and breakthroughs occur through a confluence of variables not just due to a single one.
Today’s progressive researchers in many fields are shifting their mindset to accommodate several moving variables, realizing that often it is the investigative model that needs shifting (shift happens) in order to rightly understand the relationship between the variables not just the variable itself -in creating change.
Isolating must be replaced by CONNECTING as 21st century frameworks replace feudal and industrial age models in the migration from:
- Hierarchical to Networked Organizations
- Centralized to Distributed Leadership
- Independence to Interdependence
- Specialization to Cross-trained Generalists
- Organizations rigidly driven by Policy and Procedures to Organizations guided by Simple, Shared and Flexible Parameters
This leverages the Collective Intelligence of the System and unleashes the Social Capital banked within!
My epiphany for this week (and I welcome your reaction/response) is that in my estimation, most conventional approaches don’t account for externalities, if they don’t fit the model.
Clearly, this is not a new idea.
Many thought leaders in their respective fields have eloquently stated this in their own ways.
Here are some examples:
- “An organizations “intangible assets” represent more than 75% of its strategic value” – Kaplan and Norton of Balanced Scorecard fame in Strategy Maps
- “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Peter Drucker Management Guru and the leader in the development of management education
- “In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships and the capacity to form those relationships is more important than tasks, functions, roles and positions.” –Margaret Wheatley, world renowned management consultant and organizational behaviorist focused on change, leadership and the learning organization
- “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” –Albert Einstein, the father of modern Physics
In today’s complex world, cross functional, multi-disciplinary approaches to solving real world problems is where it is at, and the externalities that you typically don’t count, might be the difference that makes the difference to actualizing your mission!
Real thought leaders are unafraid to really experiment, and when in doubt realize it is their model that is flawed- so they change the model.
“Cut the coat to fit the person. Don’t cut the person to fit the coat”
Please, don’t be a buzzard, bat, or bee…
THE BUZZARD:
If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8
feet and is entirely open at the top, the
bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will
be an absolute prisoner. The reason is
That a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground
with a Run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space
to run, as is its habit, It will not even
attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner
for life in a small jail with no top.
THE BAT:
The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a
remarkable nimble creature in the air,
cannot take off from a level place.
If it is placed on the floor or flat
ground, all it can do is shuffle about
helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it
reaches some slight elevation from which it can
throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it
takes off like a flash.
THE BUMBLEBEE:
A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will
be there until it dies, unless it is taken out.
It never sees the means of escape at the
top, but persists in trying to find some way out
through the sides near the bottom.. It
will seek a way where none exists, until it
completely destroys itself..
PEOPLE:
In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and
the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our
problems and frustrations, never realizing that
all we have to do is look up! That’s the
Answer, the escape route and the solution to any problem! Just look up.
Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, But faith looks up!
Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and
trust in those who loves us.
“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”—Paul Valery
Speaking of externalities, another externality that is rarely valued and often misunderstood is Empathy
—
One of my favorite and vastly undervalued externalities is Kindness
Enjoy this article with more on Conscious Capitalism:
Millennials spur capitalism with a conscience
Seemay Hui and Billy Korman of Ft. Collins, Colo. shop at Treasure & Bond in New York City. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)
Story Highlights
- More big companies are embracing kind acts that help people
- If the kindness is PR or marketing driven, it probably will backfire
- 72% of consumers would recommend a brand that supports a good cause
At a handful of Panera locations, down-and-out folks pay only what they can afford. Nordstrom recently opened a test store where all profits go to charity. Starbucks has three coffee shops where a big chunk of the money made helps the needy. This isn’t capitalism gone wacko. It’s capitalism with a conscience.
For decades, this kind of corporate kindness was the exception, but in the past few years, dozens of America’s biggest brands have embraced socially kind deeds as an unusually effective way to sell themselves to consumers, employees, even stockholders. Some are listening to their hearts — while others are listening to social-media chatter and creating consumable spin.
In either case, there is one particularly desirable audience that’s watching closely: Millennials. This trend-setting, if not free-spending group of 95 million Americans, born between 1982 and 2004, live and breathe social media and are broadly convinced that doing the right thing isn’t just vogue, but mandatory. With nearly a third of the population driving this trend, kindness is becoming the nation’s newest currency. “Companies can’t hide anymore,” says Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, known for not only devoting a hunk of its profits to charity but also for supporting grassroots environmental and sustainability causes. Because everything they do becomes social-media fodder, he says, “forward-looking companies are starting to do less bad — and more good.”
In an ultra-transparent world, where information zips from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram, just about everything a company does is out in the open, says John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods, a ground-breaking company in local community support. “If everything you’re doing is seen,” he says, “it’s human nature to do things that people would approve of.”
But it’s no longer just outliers such as Ben & Jerry’s and Whole Foods doing the right thing. Big consumer brands such as Panera, Starbucks and Nordstrom are members in good standing of the Do-Gooder Society. More likely sooner than later, corporate kindness that doesn’t have its origins in the public relations or human resources department may become as common as coupons. Even in a dicey economy, kindness sells.
“Millennials who got burned by the recession feel a resentment to consumerism, but have few alternatives,” says Robbie Blinkoff, a consumer anthropologist from Baltimore. “They had to create one: Love one another.” Not love in the 60’s, hippie sense, but love in the show-me-what-you’re doing-for-others sense. Some are doing it at ground level. Some are making genuine, company-wide efforts. Others are talking the talk but not walking the walk. Several large retailers, for example, embrace the image of kindness by asking customers at check-out to donate to charitable causes. That’s, arguably, a far cry from a sustained and deep-seated effort from within.
Even then, this national epidemic of corporate kindness is grounded in one rationale: It works. Consider: Some 47% of consumers say they buy, every month, at least one brand that supports a good cause, according to a 2012 global survey by public relations firm Edelman. That’s a 47% increase from 2010. What’s more, some 72% of consumers say they would recommend a brand that supports a good cause — a 38% increase in two years. Just as compelling, consumers say they’re more likely to discuss the good deeds a company does than they are to discuss a company’s financial performance, according to a 2012 Weber Shandwick survey of nearly 2,000 consumers and senior business executives in the U.S, U.K., China and Brazil.
“It’s bigger than a trend,” says Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at the research firm NPD Group. “It’s a powerful marketing tool for brands to use to separate themselves from the competition.”
When consumers nationally were asked last month by research partners NPD and Civic Science how important a company’s “social consciousness” was in determining where they shop and what they buy, 74% said it was either “very” important or “somewhat” important. Doing good is becoming less an option and more a requirement. But it’s tricky. It’s not just about writing checks anymore, and most Millennials have a seemingly innate ability to smell out manufactured kindness. Corporate kindness must be grounded in an holistic sense of good that can’t feel, smell or taste like it’s been painted on by the corporate spin-meisters. It has to come from within.
“You can’t hire someone to give you values,” says Ron Shaich, founder of Panera Bread, which in the past 18 months has opened a handful of Panera Cares restaurants in urban areas that ask customers to pay only what they can afford — even if it’s just volunteering for an hour. “Kindness can’t be a corporate tactic that’s buried in the marketing department.”
At the five Panera Cares restaurants, some customers don’t pay at all – but that’s OK, because others willingly some pay extra. The profits are primarily used to job-train at-risk kids.
Alan Olsen at the Panera Cares cafe in Chicago, where he dines often and regularly as a volunteer. (Photo: Brett T. Roseman for USA TODAY)
The idea came after Shaich and his wife, Nancy, watched a TV news segment about a Denver entrepreneur who planned to open a cafe where diners paid only what they could afford. Shaich recalls his wife turning to him and asking, “Why don’t you do that?” Within a year, he did. He opened the first give-back-to-the-community store in the company’s hometown, St. Louis, in 2010. It’s still open — and still profitable. “It’s in our DNA,” says Shaich. “We didn’t get into business just to make money — not that that’s bad. We got into business to make a difference in the lives of our guests.” Panera Cares is now making that difference in five cities, with plans to expand to more. Alan Olsen eats two or three times a week — and volunteers once a week — at the Panera Cares in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago. “I like what they do,” says Olsen, who otherwise works as a waiter at an upscale restaurant in Chicago. “When I first saw Panera Cares, I wondered: How long is this going to last?” More than a year later, he no longer asks that. “It’s just good people with good hearts trying to give back.”
Nordstrom, too, has an eye on helping others with a Manhattan retail store, Treasure & Bond, whose profits — and sometimes, a portion of its sales receipts — go to charity.
Pete Nordstrom, president of merchandising and great-grandson of the Nordstrom chain’s founder, says he got the idea a few years ago when visited a store in Paris, whose proceeds all went to charity. “Companies have to do more than make money,” he says. “It’s one thing to do well by the number of customers and another thing to do well by the community.”
He opened a small store in New York’s swank SoHo district with three purposes: to test the New York market, where Nordstrom has no full-service department stores; to test selling merchandise that might not be sold in conventional Nordstrom stores; and to give back to the community. But kindness doesn’t always come easy — or cheap. The store has been running in the red since it opened, concedes Nordstrom. On top of that, it may have to change locations — or even close — after the lease expires in about six months. “We will keep doing this as long as we can make it work,” he says. “We have to balance making money and fulfilling our mission. “As long as the store is there, Jennifer Fisher will keep shopping there. She’s an upscale jewelry designer who works about five blocks away. In the past year, she’s spent about $1,000 purchasing gifts — mostly for others — at the store. The fact that a store like this is in business — with cool merchandise and a mindful purpose — is huge, she says. “Stores like this didn’t even exist before,” Fisher says. “It’s a no-brainer when you know that you can buy something special and, at the same time, know you’re giving back.”
Some companies have etched kindness into their core for decades and are glad to see others catching up. Among them: The Body Shop; Patagonia; Stonyfield; Timberland; and industry leader Ben & Jerry’s, which, in 1985, determined that 7.5% of its pre-tax profits would go to philanthropy. Since being purchased by global giant Unilever in 2000, the company has continued to give back roughly that same amount. “Anything that adds more kindness to the world is a good thing,” says co-founder Jerry Greenfield. “When companies measure social good at the same time they measure how much money they make, we’ll be in a better place.” But if the motivation for doing good is just about selling more stuff or making more money, it’s doomed to fail, warns Whole Foods’ Mackey, who recently co-authored a best-selling book on the topic, Conscious Capitalism. His natural foods grocery chain runs a foundation that grants loans to aid people in poverty in 55 countries trying to start small businesses. “We do these things because they’re the right thing to do.”
Starbucks has been at it for years. The coffee kingpin has operated a “community” store in New York’s Harlem district that’s been donating a fat chunk of its profits to local charities for more than seven years. More recently, it’s opened similar stores in Los Angeles and Houston. By 2018, it expects to operate 50 of these community stores.
Echoing others, CEO Howard Schultz says, “This can’t be done through a lens of marketing and PR, but through a lens of guiding principles.” Government simply can’t do everything, he says, “so it’s incumbent upon business leaders to do more than our share.” But it’s not just big, familiar brands doing the kindness thing. So, too, is the appropriately named KIND Healthy Snacks, a 10-year-old snack maker that claims to have both an economic and social bottom line. The company’s founder, CEO Daniel Lubetzky, was born in Mexico to a father who was a Holocaust survivor. That, he says, “defines who I am, I what I do.” His father’s suffering, he says, is the impetus for his company, whose core mission is to “build bridges between people.”
The key, he says, is that kindness must be genuine. His snacks, he says, not only help do kind things for the the body and the taste buds, but also the world. Every month, the company does one big act of kindness, such as buying school supplies for homeless children. At the same time, it prods its customers to do kind acts — as simple as writing a thank-you note to a former teacher — then report the act of kindness online. When enough customers report kind acts, the company responds, in kind, with a large act of kindness. “Young people don’t want to just make money,” says Lubetzky. “They want to make a difference.” Within two generations, he predicts, corporate kindness will be the rule, not the exception.
Just the image of kindness can be an effective sales tool. It’s no accident that one of Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl spots displayed a series of kind acts — such as dropped wallets being returned — as captured by security camera footage from around the globe. Fostering kind acts will become a bigger part of Coke’s marketing going forward, says Cristina Bondolowski, vice president of global brands. Extensive research shows that performing kind acts — the act of giving — makes people feel happier. Future marketing by Coke will show societal acts of kindness, such as a guy who installs swings in parks and a lady who secretly plants flowers at night. “This is not just telling people to be happy,” says Bondolowski, “but inspiring happiness.” The makers of Bayer aspirin have gotten in on the act, too. A recent TV spot for its Aleve pain relief brand features a guy whose back pain hits him while volunteering in a soup kitchen. The idea came from within the brand’s marketing group, which for the past four years has donated to — and had 100 people volunteer at — a local food bank near the company’s headquarters in New Jersey. “We’re just reflecting back to our consumers what they’re already doing,” says Barton Warner, vice president of marketing at Bayer Consumer Care U.S. There’s even a new magazine about this lifestyle that made its debut last month, appropriately named, Mindful. The first issue, with an initial circulation of 90,000, sold out, says editor-in-chief Barry Boyce. “When we are mindful, we not only reduce stress and enhance performance, but it increases our attention to the well-being of others.”
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Are you familiar with the Social Progress Index?
Forget GDP. This index measures National Well-being!
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681830/forget-gdp-the-social-progress-index-measures-national-well-being
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Social, Social, Social
Every wonder how social behavior has evolved?
This Social Behavior Infogram can help…
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Personally speaking, it is great to work for an organization that has a double bottom line of financial performance AND social mission
https://www.missionfed.com/mission-possible-newsletter
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Speaking of Externalities it is sometime nice to literally get outdoors to get some perspective on wonder and outer and inner nature…
Full moon in New Zealand
Here, an Australian output captured a huge full moon in New Zealand.
Australian Mark Gee video captured a stunning image of the moon looming on the viewpoint of Mount Victoria in Wellington (New Zealand). Within days, the video reached 110,000 views and is all the rage at Vimeo.
“People met up there tonight to have the best possible view of the moonrise. Capture video at 2.1kilometers away, on the other side of town,” said Gee in the video description.
According to the author, the material is as it was filmed without any manipulation.”It’s something I’ve wanted to photograph for a long time. There was a lot of planning and false starts,” he said. Is a video of about 3 minutes of incredible beauty
http://player.vimeo.com/video/58385453?autoplay=1
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Triple Bottom Line Accounting means considering People, Planet and Profits.
Here is what my alma mater, UCSD is doing for Earth Week that might inspire you…
Students, staff and faculty at UC San Diego will celebrate environmental sustainability and the drive to create a healthy planet for future generations during the campus’s annual Earth Week celebration April 17 to 24. The theme for the series of planned events is “Making Zero a Reality,” illustrating the campus’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint to have zero impact on the environment. Events will include a campus cleanup, documentary screening of “Bag It,” trash sort, sustainability awards ceremony, volunteer gardening opportunity and more.
“Earth Week at UC San Diego is an enduring tradition that exemplifies the campus’s commitment to creating a more sustainable future,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Environmental sustainability is in UC San Diego’s institutional DNA; it is an integral part of our history and a top priority in our education, research and campus operations.”
Many of this year’s events are led by student sustainability organizations, including a guest appearance—sponsored by the Student Sustainability Collective—by Van Jones, former special advisor for green jobs in the Obama administration. Jones will be appearing with activist, environmentalist and former vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke; the two will discuss how issues relating to sustainability and social justice intersect.
Other student events include a trash sort, sustainability organization fair and campus cleanup.
“The ambition of our students is incredibly impressive,” said Kristin Keilich, sustainability manager at UC San Diego. “They continue to carry out the legacy of Roger Revelle and Charles David Keeling, whose work helped shape climate change research as we know it today. Our students are true examples of believing in and pushing for a better and more sustainable future by educating and developing innovative solutions.”
The campus community is invited to participate in all Earth Week events, which include the following. For more details, go to earthweek.ucsd.edu.
- “Bag It” Screening, noon to 1 p.m., Thursday, April 18, the Seuss Room at Geisel Library—This story follows Jeb Berrier, an average American guy who doesn’t consider himself as an environmentalist. He makes a pledge to stop using plastic bags. This simple action gets Jeb thinking about the many ways plastics are consumed. He embarks on a global tour to unravel how the use of plastics can be stopped.
- “Reduce your Waistline” Trash Sort, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursday, April 18, Library Walk—Students and staff will dig through more than 1,000 pounds of trash on Library Walk. The event will demonstrate how ordinary garbage contains recyclable items.
- Campus Clean Up, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, April 19, begins at Town Square—San Diego Coastkeeper invites the UC San Diego community to help maintain the health of their campus and watershed, which drains to the La Jolla Shores, a state designated Area of Special Biological Significance.
- Pre-Earth Day at the Garden, 10 a.m. to noon, Sunday, April 21, Roger’s Community Garden—Roger’s Community Garden will hold special volunteer hours where anyone can come work on a unifying project that will contribute to the garden’s mission to green up the campus without using more water. This event will also feature gardening workshops where volunteers can learn about potting, soil selection and how to start seedlings.
- Van Jones and Winona LaDuke “Zero Injustice: Redefining Sustainability,” 7 p.m., Monday, April 22 (Earth Day), Price Center Ballroom East—Winona LaDuke and Van Jones will gather for a discussion on how sustainability is more than the development of clean technologies and business practices. The speakers will focus on how to redefine sustainability as a movement that addresses both environmental destruction and social inequality.
- E-Waste Collection, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23 to 24, outside the Student Services Center—Everyone is encouraged to bring old computers, stereos and cell phones to the corner of Rupertus Lane and Russell Lane between the Student Services Center and the Music Building. The e-waste will be reused, refurbished or recycled.
- Sustainability Awards, 3 to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 24, the Loft—Chancellor Khosla will recognize individuals and groups that have made the UC San Diego campus more sustainable.
UC San Diego has gained a reputation for its sustainable efforts. The university was named as one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S. and Canada by The Princeton Review and received an A- grade in the Sustainable Endowment Institute’s “Sustainability Report Card.” In addition, UC San Diego was named the first college in California to earn a “gold” sustainability performance rating in the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS) survey.
For more information, go to http://sustainability.ucsd.edu.
We Rise by Lifting Others!
If all this Social Stuff is a little too heady, this social engagement should help you get the weekend off to a good start:
A little help over here, PLEASE… click here!
Thanks this week go to Vista Unified’ s Leadership team & Devin V., Alan D. , Roger S., Marlaine C., Mission Fed, Larry H., Heidi D., Pat D/A, UCSD & thee!
Pay it forward…
Love,
Neville
“The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture”
—Edgar Schein, Prof. MIT Sloan School of Management
Happy Soul Food Friday! 