With new eyes – lots of things change

Perspective - it's everything

I was 20 when I visited the eye doctor the first time. I remember the moment the optometrist took me outside the shop in Stillwater Minnesota – and asked me to look across the street at the trees in the park. As he placed the glasses between my eyes and what I was looking at – the leaves on the tree came into view. I didn’t realize one could ever see the trees. I didn’t know that most people could see leaves on trees. I thought all trees from 30 feet away – were just globs of green swaying in the breeze.

Many things changed that day.

The most important thing that changed that day – was realizing I wanted to find out how many other ways I was seeing the world – that could be improved – by perspective – or new lenses.

Sharing Mary Oliver’s Poem “The Journey”

These times have a bonus. We seem to be receiving an invitation to grow.
Mary Oliver’s poem “The Journey” describes the moment of decision that we all make when we realize the quality and outcome of our lives ( by the grace of God) is one decision for destiny.

 

Mary Oliver’s Poem: THE JOURNEY

One day you finally new what you had to do,

and you began.

Though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,

Though the whole house began to tremble,

And you felt the old tug at your ankles … (saying)… “MEND MY LIFE!”

Each voice cried,

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do …

Though the wind pried

With its stiff fingers

The very foundations,

Though their melancholy

Was terrible,

It was already late enough,

And the road full of fallen branches and stones;

But little by little

As you left their voices behind

The stars began to burn through the sheets of cloud,

And there was a new voice

Which you slowly recognized as your own,

That kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,

Determined to do the only thing you could do;

Determined to save the only life you could save.

Your own.

 

Mary Oliver

Adapted by Tobi Lytle

Tobi@TobiLytle.com

Amen.

Rant: Let go of the Entitlement Illusion and Unions.

My sister and I are having a conversation about what the new economic reality will create in the masses. I say – it’s the loss of the illusion of entitlements. I think the way we define middle class – is going to change.

Those of us who are self-employed have learned how to live close to the edge – in peace – if prayer. We know it’s a waste energy to be churned up about what we cannot control.  I think entitlement thinking is going to die – finally.

I think what we’re seeing now is the final melt-down of the illusion that any employer, (be that government, corporate or non-profit) is able to offer employment for life.

The first melt-down in the employer-employee contract happened throughout the 80’s (after Telecom deregulation) and more expansively in the Silicon Valley in the 90’s’.  These were the times companies were flattening” organizations, outourcing to a global workforce, and doing more with less. Everyone of the boomers effected by the churn of the 80’s and 90’s understands the lunacy of entitlement thinking.

Rant here – but – I think we’re paying for the entitlement illusion that the auto unions propagated over the past 30 years. Selling entitlement-thinking has filled the Union coffer since the need for Unions died 20-30 years ago.

We may need a revolution – but we don’t need Unions. EVERY tax paying American today and for years to come will be paying for the entitlement illusion the Unions cultivated on their unsuspecting victims these past 30 years.  

May the time of illusion come to an end now. May we all be stronger for these lessons.

Round & Round. Hothouse for blooming.

I’m preparing to move back to the Monterey Peninsula, again. Pebble Beach this time. November 1st.

What magic, mystery, karma, true nature – is guiding me back to this place, where my soul, can bloom and thrive. Nurtured by the place, the people, the possibilities, the naked truth of me.

Interesting how we feel that thriving is like the environment we had that felt most pure, as a child. I spent alot of time in the woods – of my parents 40 acre home – in South Central Michigan.
I don’t go there anymore.
Not since 2001.

I drew a line in the soil. We need to draw boundaries sometimes. From these boundaries – we build our home. The wall of the basement – is the boundaries we drew yester-month.

Who’d know that many years later -I’d open my eyes on a Sunday morning – in the foothills overlooking Pebble Beach – hearing the roar of the ocean meeting shore – below – and thinking – how lucky I am – to be here now!

I am living in the forest – out of the traffic of the city – off the beaten trail of the auto – and clamoring crowd. Living in the rich silence of the woods. I strain to hear the wind whisper through the trees. Cliche yes. Cliches are Cliches because they are real.

It’s so simple. And so hard to get. That peaceful, rich, full, and simply beautiful place where we realize, finally, that we are like flowers, inhaling nurturance, our friends and family and even a stranger’s love, curiosity, longing to know us; it all counts to fill us with wonder, and transcendant awe.
We are all like flowers – subtly dependent on the weather to cause us to bloom. We look to situate ourselves in a hothouse environment – where we are sure to bloom. But we’re left to find our own hothouses. Where is my hothouse?

Once Benjamin said about purpose, “We might be on earth -for the one moment – to say hello to a woman in the gutter – who needed to know – she was seen by someone – in that time – in that place.” My sons are rich – having made their own lives meaningful to them – for now. I know they’ll awaken – and it’ll all change – or at least look different – down the road. Sometime soon.

Blooming is all we really want in life.
How hard it is to find – how good it is to find – how simple it is to find – when we finally find it. . .
Our blooming self!

Bloom

Sarah Palin has God on her side.

Look at this video of Sarah Palin at her “Alaska home town” Church earlier this summer. It makes me wonder if in fact, she knew then, that she was being vetted for the V.P. role. Notice her comments about ‘the world will become aware of Alaska’ (paraphrasing loosely here); and, that things are “coming together.

 

 

Blooming

Barack’s Visions Quell a Hopeless Heart with Hollow Promises

I imagine Barack’s visions of America’s future – have quelled the fear of a million hungry hearts – for now.

I have a question. Why did Barack choose to rest his passion-stirring Presidential Nomination Acceptance speech with an incomplete excerpt from Hebrews 10:23? Perhaps it was a good place to rest our innocent hopeful hearts.

Weary of denying the abyss of our Prosac-protected-hopelessness, aren’t we all just a little relieved to embrace Barack’s bold and audacious, if hollow, vision for our future?

His promises did it for me. The big easy surrender – like slinking down into the bathtub – I give in – for now – until the real deal comes along.

Big, bold, reasonable, and simple. But, can he deliver? But, do I, do we, does anyone know enough to evaluate whether or not he can deliver? Ah heck, let’s just enjoy the possibility, gamble on hope. Yeah, that’s what Barack inspires us to do. Just gamble on hollow hope.

I’m weary of buffered-hopelessness. I want to believe. Even for a day, or a few hours, or maybe all the way to November 4th. Let’s take a vacation into our hormone-reinforced youth, and believe in hope again. Relive the boomer dreams! But they are just dreams. Barack is like cotton-candy dreams that will make you sick if you take too much. But just for tonight. I’ll bask in his speech full of cotton-candy dreams wrapped around hollow promises.

Then there’s the grip of reality to overcome. Could things be better? How long will it take? Will it be like some cosmic consciousness? Will the whole world start believing in Barack’s vision? So many questions to explore. It’s unpopular to wake people when they’re dreaming. So for now, I’ll just float along – until the real hope becomes clear.

Which takes me back to my original question. Looking at the scripture he chose at the close of his speech, why did he not include the last six words of the verse he quoted?

Was he being politically astute or politically correct?

Politically correct is so not bold. Politically astute is so crafty-politician. What’s real about Barack’s relationship with or to God?  Is he a salesman who’s read the product spec sheet? Or does he know God – intimately. I suspect the former.

What do you think? Did Barack Obama end his speech by drawing out of context from Hebrews 10:23?

19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Randy Pausch dies at 47: 7.24.08

He showed us all – how to face death – as we face life.

Sunday – with so many things to do – and …

Sunday – with so many things to do – and the big desire to play instead of do.

experience joy in the simple things – do you remember how?

http://www.photoblink.com/images/c23/im/pb203888.jpg

children do it best

until they forget

and remember we can remember any time

with our bodies.

just surrender to the joy available

through the body

in the environment

today

right now.

a pleasure

like the ecstasy of God

is with us always

every moment

right inside our membrane of skin.

it’s life.

it’s the body.

blessings….

from a hot day in San Carlos.

Exposing our weaknesses – is strength

Stumbling through the internet after watching a little CNN news, I found this photo. It’s bold and strong. At first glance I thought of the rummy rock music “addicted to love” Robert Plant kind of thinking. Then I thought about the image as one side of a communication. Hmmm. The real movement in this communication – comes next – in the viewers’ choice of action.  The viewer could choose to walk away from an “addicted” kind of love. At least the person with the sign – is letting it be known. Does the viewer like the idea of someone addicted to them? Our response says it all.

…Hmmm. How often we save others from having to make bold decisions – by restraining the bold truth from them. Hmmm. I wonder how much bold truth I need to expose – so the “viewers” of my life – can exercise bold decisions.

Hmmm. exposing our weaknesses – is actually – an exercise of strength.

The Phoenix is Rising

The “POD” arrives Friday. Crew help Saturday and Sunday. 12 foot Penske drives my stuff away to a 700 Square Foot Hacienda in San Carlos on Monday – to be unpacked Tuesday – before my presentation Wednesday.
The “POD”gets delivered to storage until Les can move into his Pebble Beach home on the 8th of May.

It’s been 8 years since I’ve wanted to work in the bay area – and finally – a company who has the heart and purpose that I can “get behind”. . .is dancing with expectation. A career reboot. Warmth buzzes through me.

So here I am – boxes all around – and tired from packing till 3:30 am – and rebooting myself at 8:30 am.
The jacuzzi beckons; a long stare across the Monterey horizon, filtered silver-moonlight shimmering in icicle water.
Tomorrow I’ll be visiting UPS to send precious art pieces to my sons in Oregon & Washington. Portraits of them as children – that their father (now deceased) created from pictures I took of them – over 25 years ago.

Tomorrow I’ll be pack, pack, packing. Sorting, letting go, letting go, and letting go again, even more, and finally, just letting go.
Letting go – leaves room for so much more to flow through me. Finally, the phoenix is rising, again.

Creating a Momentum for Change

As the earth turns toward the sun – this spring equinox if you will – it seems to be tipping everyone into change.

Is there anyone not feeling the momentum for change?

I’m in the mental space – where I am excited about changes – the opportunity and the unknown – and yet – have to go through the mundane efforts – to create the change.

Moving again – this time – full circle it seems – back to a beginning – again – for the second time – in the Silicon Valley.

As if a giant wheel of transformation has returned to the beginning – a decade and two years later.

A new cycle is beginning. I search my electronic library (the web) to refresh my awareness for the journey ahead. So there’s much to share – quick little refreshments – to support the momentum for change.

Jack Ricchiuto on the Four Truths & Lies

Now, to get to the work of change…..

Obama’s Hope via dipdive.com

Click on the link and see this music video http://www.dipdive.com

Then come back and read this – and share your thoughts.

We are approaching a cultivated tipping point: the sound of a nation being lead to hope.

Whether he becomes president or not Obama is revealing and cultivating – a nation-sized longing – to hope.

Hope is a primal force.

Hope funds dreams.

Hope is a fuel for passion.

Hope shapes destiny.

He is speaking our long-silenced dreams, rekindling hope, and inflaming our youth to believe.

But is it as simple as it sounds?

If someone can speak our dreams – can they also -lead us to those dreams?

Is not ‘falling in love’ also formed in the womb of hope?

America’s founding leaders and followers – were nurtured into the face of life and death decisions – by the passion of hope.

Gratefully, our leaders marshaled hope for the benefit of the people.

Not all leaders who understand the power of leading from hope – can (or want to) lead us to our dream.

Nevertheless we have music videos to depict this rare and beautiful time; this time of the rebirth of hope.

Dipdive.com in this music video captures a taste of the birth of hope.

So new to speaking about hope that we are like children who imitate the words of our parents.

This music video depicts that early stage of indoctrination – of breathing hope into – and drawing breath from – the heart of hope.

Here is a cacophony of voices mimicking “Obama’s Hope” .

I like how it ends.

May we find our voice for hope -

and may the courage to hope – and the will to dream -

thrive – no matter who wins the election.

Do you understand “Ozymandias” by Percy Shelley?

Do you understand the poetry of Percy Shelley?

Ben has always been agile in understanding poetry and philosophy. Because he’s my son, I am always curious about what interests him. A few years ago, Ben gave me a purse-sized journal. Inside the front cover is a poem by Percy Shelley. Ben introduced the poem with these words: “This is my favorite poem.”

Poetry, it seems to me, is like Michelangelo explained his process of finding David in a stand of white marble. I’m taking literary liberty when I suggest that Michelangelo said he simply removed everything that wasn’t the form he was exposing. Sort of “freed” the sculpture of David from the Italian marble. The best poems – seem to free something in the reader too. This poem – that I found in the journal that Ben gave me – a few years ago – has freed something in me today. I wonder what it frees in Ben – and to you too. Why was it his favorite poem a few years ago?

I have several journals ongoing simultaneously. I write in this journal about 8-18 times a year. I think of it as a special moments journal. I’ve only filled the first quarter of the book – in the last few years! I imagine someday Ben will be reading this journal. I wanted to give him something worth spending his precious time reading. It’s not like the journals I use to sort out my thinking, or savor my feelings, or ponder a thought like starlight. No, this journal is my “Turning Points Journal”.

Turning Points: those moments in your life when we see life – as if we’d step out of the flow – and allow the impressions of the moment to shape us. Like a Monterey Pine Tree is shaped into poetic sculpture by the wind and moisture – we are shaped by the natural forces we encounter. Some forces we allow to shape us; some forces shape us unaware.

So today I picked up the Turning Points Journal – and prepared to write in it – and noticed Ben’s writing on the inside cover of the journal. I don’t remember seeing that poem before today. But I must have – and I must have forgotten it – someplace before the last turning point.

I wondered for quite a while – what this poem meant to Ben when he wrote it a few years ago – and what it might mean to him now. It’s a turning point moment for me – so I’ll add that to the turning point that brought me to the journal today.

What does this Percy Shelly poem say to you?

I met a traveller from an antique land who said, Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, tell that it’s sculptor, well those passions read which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things. The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; and on the pedestal these words appear

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

Obama or Hilary? Character or Experience?

February 5th is approaching fast. I’m glad I’m not a registered Democrat. So few choices this year. Either a noble young leader, or an angry middle-aged, oft’ scorned woman, with a Machiavellian taste for achievement and power. In the end, our destiny is always about how our character responds to experience.

Ironically, Obama and Hilary are separately rich in what the other lacks. Obama needs a resume of experience. Hilary needs the character and mindfulness for noble leadership. Could we lock them in a room for a few months until they become one?

Obama lacks experience. Since when do we hire people to do jobs – who are junior – to the biggest leadership role in America. Could we have co-presidents please?

However, I admire what I perceive to be an indication of noble character in Obama. He doesn’t lose his cool. Not even when Hilary, screams or gets her husband to scream at (or about) Obama. Jeez! Hilary & Bill! Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

It’s sad to watch candidates like Hilary (and her lackey, Bill) disgrace themselves.

Whether we’re talking about a family member or candidate for U.S. president – when people set out to destroy someone’s reputation in order to achieve personal gain – we’ve been warned. When we know how someone operates from their “shadow-side” it’s as if they’re transparent in the most useful way.

Seeing a person’s character is like seeing the blueprint of their operating system. Look at Hilary: overt anger about being more experienced than Obama; and covert action to obfuscate the noble character of her opponent.

It comes down to a bit of wisdom: “How you do anything is how you do everything.” If someone lies to destroy another’s reputation, what would they do to win a war?

Obama will need to surround himself with deep experience but that’s easy to find.

Hilary has been compensating for being “the scorned woman” far too long. Is it too late for Hilary to comprehend the power of humility, the grace that surrounds wise and noble leadership? Is it too late for Hilary to care?

Perfection aside, we humans are a fascinating species.

Defeat or Failure?

The last thing I remember, is knowing there was nothing I should say, not now, maybe never. No matter how much I wanted to tear his world apart and shake him out of his belief that apathy is simply a’ good enough’ word for ‘denial of materialism”, I knew that he was not ready to listen. Like seeing someone you love on a rollercoaster headed for a swamp of misery – and you see them forgetting what it was like when things were better. Is it me I’m trying to save – from the agony of watching someone I love go “down”? Is it a faltering of faith that I’m experiencing? Sure, I should be able to trust and exercise faith that God is working in this person’s life – as God has in my own life. This person – with our prayers – will awaken and become fully emboldened by the infilling of God’s spirit – to say, do, and become what is necessary to restore dignity, health and well-being to his life. God help this be so.

I wanted to shake him awake or scream “You fool! Do you not see that you are letting your life pass away without even stepping into the stream? Do you see you are letting opportunities pass you by because you don’t want to experience failure? What on earth do you think will happen if you allow yourself to try something – and fail?”

I want to ask, “Can you imagine what you will do after you fail? Can you envision yourself getting up from defeat? Will you be laughing, giggling, grateful and silly with gladness that at least you got into the game; played hard and learned alot?” Or do you avoid effort toward goals – indeed – do you avoid goals – so you won’t have to feel – defeat?”

Defeat is simply another lesson in life. No need to be afraid of it. Embrace it. Get lots of defeat early and often. And keep the reality alive that yesterday is education, today is the playing field, tomorrow is inextricably linked to today. You are making tomorrow with your daily decisions. Avoiding opportunities will set you up for failure. Defeat visits the unprepared, the lonely, the self-absorbed. Let go and let flow the feelings that release your love, sadness, fears and failures. You owe it to yourself to care – when no one else knows how.

Some wise person once said, “The only failure is the failure to rise from defeat.”

Letting Go

Letting go – is freeing. Items that composed my sons child-to-adult-hood – are being collected in archival plastic bins as precious “time capsules”. I’m hoping these “time capsules” will reacquaint them with their early years – and help them see themselves even more clearly. It’s been clearing, instructive, painful, and strengthening to revisit, review, reconnect with, and be informed by these elements of our shared past. Questions about why we do what we do – are answered by some of these “findings.”Letting go of “stuff” is freeing.

Training Beluga Whales – & – Children

a smooth easy friendship

as easy as moving with belugas

Are they ever wild again – after we train them to swim in-formation?

The Poetry of Stress

How many of us could say we become more creative under stress? Is it a choice or style or personality attribute? Well I just got a reminder that it could be all of those – and more. My entrepreneur friend speaks in poetry ~ even as she is graciously facing challenges of keeping a business going. Take a look at how she describes her state of being-in-stress in her email this morning.

… a bit stressful … so I’m ….. in the …..
“waiting, trusting, uh-oh slipped down, okay
trusting, knowing, that all is in divine order and
that this shall be resolved for the highest good of
all..kicking and screaming…..” mode.

I wonder what art, dance, and music would express or animate this passage she’s in now?

Body Work

“To be – or not to be – that is the question…” Shakespeare was first quoted to me – in the third grade – when Father Gruza of Saint Charles Catholic School was about to hand my report card to me. “To be or not to be” he said. I knew even then – that I was unfinished.Amazing how we can be over 50 and be finishing ourselves. Recently, I found myself in the “parts-graveyard.” I hadn’t intended to go there…I found myself there…in a moment of trusting a body-worker’s guidance – to release – and let my attention follow the tension. Maybe tension is holding a tight space – while the piece that fell away – is lost. Is this mental basket-weaving? Maybe. Maybe not.

Something happened. Mystical maybe. Can’t find the details in the Sunday Paper – but something happened on that body-worker’s table. Is the body-mind integration process – akin to going to the parts graveyard? The parts of our selves that were tossed out the window – while going through life at 50 miles an hour? Did some parts of us that didn’t “fit” into our little view of how life is – or should be – did the part or parts – that didn’t fit those earlier conceptions – of what made success possible – did those parts get thrown out of our lives forever? Well…this body worker – brought back some memories – that reinstalled some perspective – that’s helping me now. Kind of like putting your brain on ice – for 30 years – then bringing it back into reality – thawing it out – and finding significant jewels of understanding. Life looks different when I love myself even more…and for even better reasons.

A couple of weeks ago I began working with Dr. S. This week I experienced what I call “memory-theater”… where the dark places are coming to life. Dr. S , a veritable shaman of the modern theater of life – American Carmel Valley style. A vastly capable lens of intention manifesting the healing that happens when our spiritual essence is unburdened – of memories –we’d already forgotten. What is that route I took – two decades ago – when I released those memories – that I thought were holding my emotions hostage. You know the clues. You mean to say yes – and something in you says no. You intend to be happy but you’re angry too. It’s not that you want black and white – a rainbow of colors is a great way to experience life – and black and white sometimes too.

But hey! Memories denied are like living on the street – and wondering when your luck will change. In order to change my neuro-emotional experience – I need to dance with the truth – bound up in the body.

Unwinding the muscles, sinew and bones, that’s what this is. And little did I realize 10 years ago that it just gets more interesting – if less dramatic – every time I visit the “zone of the forgotten.”

Dr. S. has an uncommon ability to manifest precise (chakra centered) memories that store “stuck energy”. The body-length spiral of rigid muscle pain is gone. Softened – I can actually feel and be aware of the inside of my body. Something thawed in me that day.

Can it be – that by releasing frozen memory the musculature can release too? Oh joy.

Laying on the warmed body-worker’s table – I heard prayers – and a series of beautiful music – inviting my soul and spirit to release. The music from the CD boom box & speakers – were like a ’symphony for sorrow. Then ‘a lyrical shamanic female voice soaring from a cathedral in England, seeping through time, stirred my attention inward.

MORE TO COME

Silence and the Heart

The feeling of serenity in the midst of longing.

Joining in the magic of “just being alive”

In the forest – moonlight is for the soul – the spirit – and the heart – to express.

Wolves howling.

Are they showing us the song of the deep heart?

Howling hearts.

I love my work

Isn’t it a gift to have someone tell you – that your view of “how things work” needs adjustment?

Sometimes the best we can hope for in life – is a friend, colleague, coach, consultant, or stranger to tell us the truth.

Recently, a coaching client signed up for the truth.

This is a competent and respected professional – who has responsibility for millions in company assets, and thousands of human career and lifestyle aspirations.

This man had done what so many have accepted as “the right world view”. He based his worth on his competence in making money for the company and himself. As he was now in his early 50’s, he was beginning to ask the predictable question, “IS this all there is?”

I’ve been there. I’ve done that.

I guess that’s the great part about being willing to admit our mistakes; we’ve got something to give to the folks who come along in those same paths. Those paths that come up short.

Fortunately, he was reaching that age-of-wisdom where the adulations of ego are less satisfying than daily peace of heart and mind.

He sought in me – someone to tell him the truth – rather than someone to make him feel good about the illusions he’d created. I’m grateful for my work – every single day. And it’s moments like this man shared with me today – that assure me – my work is worth much more than money.

This morning I got an email from him – letting me know – he sees his life – his work and his responsibility as an opportunity for others – not just an opportunity for getting rich and being famous. He sees his life two degrees differently.

He said it best, “Our conversation was unexpected and painful – but not as painful as the embarrassment of losing a business would have been – if I hadn’t been willing to hear you. You showed me how untethered I’ve been. No wonder my turnover rates (in employees) has been climbing. You gave me a black and white reality check. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me – to turn this ship a few degrees – to get on course for a different future. (….) It took alot of courage and perseverence to get that painful truth into my head. But afterwards I saw – it was the kind of “truth” I really needed – because it was the only “truth” I didn’t want. Thanks.”

I love my work.

Of course, it isn’t always this way. Most people aren’t ready to see how their attitude, beliefs, values, intentions and lack of spiritual grounded-ness – is effecting their career, family and lifestyle.

My work takes every client, every person, to the edge of their own comfort zone – and invites them to look – with safety – at the causes and effects of the world view from which they operate. My work is about bringing people to the threshold of choice.

I love my work.

Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is on Public Television tonight. I’ve been watching since the first few minutes. It’s running without interruptions; no commercials. Just like it was in the movie theaters in the early 70’s. Tradition was crumbling then, too.

Life checks our ability to keep balance, through all the change and uncertainty.

The Fiddler keeps joy in the mix, no matter what is going on.

Tevye and his band of citizens in the little village of Anatevya (?), they keep God in the center of all.

How much heartache we can take when faith in God is guiding our response to life.

How Good People Turn Evil – Zimbardo’s Book

I’m looking forward to seeing and listening to Dr. Philip Zimbardo talk about his new book, “The Lucifer Effect, Understanding How Good People Turn Evil,” this evening at C.S.U.M.B. (And lo! It’s free). The promotion says, “Philip Zimbardo presents a summary of the social-psychological (situational) elements of evil-making in his book, “The Lucifer Effect.” I first learned of Zimbardo and his famous Stanford prison experimentsduring my Clinical and Social Psychology undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin. Zimbardo’s legendary work at Stanford in the 1970’s explored how evil can overcomes us – given the right situations.

Zimbardo is a gigantic figure in the field of social-psychology – and a playful inquiring man. Reading what the scientific world is saying about this book gives me the impression he’s just as vibrant as he was 40 years ago.

My View

I look at the subtle ways I/we facilitate (contribute to the possibility of) evil in my/our everyday lives. Little mindless decisions, petty indulgence in selfishness, insensitive lack of etiquette, and turning the other way – when subtle wrongs occur. Little decisions of incivility diminish the quality and dim the value of good character. Soon we become politically correct so as to socialize the evil of “looking the other way.” Confronting evil becomes uncivilized. Standing up for our own character values requires courage and stamina.

Civilized evil is as seductive as slipping into a moral fog while we’re sleeping. When we awaken – and wonder how it all got so bad – we’re too deeply into the fog to find our way out. Only a critical paradigm break will shake extract us from the slippery slope of evil masquerading as adolescent minds justifying as ignorance does: “Everyone’s doing it. It’s what we do. It’s okay.”

Little Moments – of Unchecked Insensitivity

Like the erosion of a mountain, or the degradation of our most tender and personal psychological needs, a way for evil can happen when the subtle erosion of hope begins. Can we be aware when we (or other people) subtly or overtly dismiss our emotional needs? Can we smell the burning platform of evil on the move when children are restrained from becoming familiar with the hope, faith and love that comes from God?

Do we know how we harden the hearts of people? Let’s look. Or maybe it hurts too much, too look.

I think a way is made for evil – in the small acts – of insensitivity. Callous people rip up the heart of good people. A runway for evil is laid where hope is frustrated – in children or adults. Evil people and insensitive acts from family and friends erode our ability to know and trust ourselves. When people keep changing the rules and rewards, children and adults alike, need to learn to leave the evil person – not themselves. These are only my thoughts tonight, before I read “The Lucifer Effect.”

I’m interested in the subtle ways we parents, partners, spouses, friends, and co-workers encourage or undermine goodness and make a “way” for evil to enter. I think evil lives in cold hearts. Cold hearts become dark hearts and closed minds. Ignorance and unmet emotional needs are like the weather that keeps the heart dark and the mind closed. I fear to learn the ways we hardened people’s hearts. Those moments we speak from narcissistic insecurity, insensitivity and selfishness, I recognize as evil .

Ah, but first – we must know the potential for evil. I look forward to Zimbardo’s book and speech tomorrow. I read that he is now studying heroism. The the character of heroism. Thank you God.

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Ironically, I’m listening to Ken Burn’s monumental documentary of WWII on PBS while writing about Philip Zimbardo’s exploration into the roots of evil in otherwise good people. How do good men go to war and come back good people? Do they become temporarily evil – and return to good? Do some remain evil? Do good people who cannot become evil temporarily – get killed more often than those who can sustain evil – in the midst of evil? Zimbardo knows – as social psychologists have benefited from his work. It’s SITUATION that facilitates evil. War – is an evil situation.

April 30, Approaching A Moving Change

What wave – what spirit of beauty – what love – what force of God is carrying us to these new shores? Thank you God.