Seedlings

The Dream Box

“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream…in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.  Dreams are the seedlings of realities.” — James Allen

 

It was a parochial school near the center of Denver, Colorado.  98% of the second grade students in this classroom were “school lunch eligible”, meaning their family’s income falls below the poverty line.  I was an observer in the classroom as the teacher delivered a lesson on “setting goals”.  The teacher finished and invited the five adults in the back of the classroom to mingle with the students and to admire their Dream Boxes.

I had noticed a Hispanic boy a few rows in front of me.  He had raised his hand enthusiastically each time the teacher had asked a question but never been called upon.  I approached his desk and said, “I’m Mr. Warnick, what is your name?”  Jose grinned shyly as he uttered his name.

“Jose,” I asked, “what is this box on your desk?”

“That’s my Dream Box,” he replied, slowly opening the box to reveal a variety of rocks and other stuff.  The sides of the box, top and bottom were covered with pictures cut from magazines and other material and then pasted on as a collage of dreams and goals.

“Looks to me like you like rocks, Jose”.  “Yeah,” he smiled, “I want to be one of those rock scientists when I grow up.”  “A rock scientist….do you mean a geologist?” I inquired.  “That’s it….I want to be a geologist.”  Our conversation turned easily to a short discussion of what he would have to do to become a rock scientist.  He was going to have to study hard, get good grades, so he could get into college and study for five or six years more to become a geologist.  I was amazed at the clarity he had and how his teacher had helped him discover the steps he would need to take to reach his goal.

How did a seven or eight year old gain this clarity and set such an audacious goal? 

It started with a shoe box.  Each student brought a shoe box to the second grade classroom.

Next, his teacher brought magazines, Sunday newspaper advertising inserts, and anything else she could find that was full of colorful images.  The students were asked to dream about what they wanted to become when they grew up, to think about things they wanted to do, places they wanted to visit or see, or people they wanted to meet someday.  Finally, they were asked to cut out pictures from the magazines and advertising materials which could tell a story about what they were fascinated by, what they wanted to learn more about, the places they wanted to visit, and things they wanted to see or do.

So Jose’s box was adorned with pictures of mountains (“they are full of rocks” he told me) but it also included a soccer ball (“I want to play soccer…maybe if I’m good enough I can get paid to play soccer in college”), pictures of Disneyland and Disney World, and a picture of the Pope and the President. 

And, inside of box were at least ten different rocks that Jose had collected since the start of second grade.  He could tell me if this rock was igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary and where it came from.

This summer I’m going to pull my eight and nine year old grandchildren together for cousin camp.  I’m going to either bring shoe boxes or perhaps we’ll go buy some shoes they’ll need for school this coming fall.  But with those shoe boxes I’m going to ask them to dream…dream big…dream about the things they want to do, the places they want to visit, the people they want to meet, and what they want to become.

I believe these dream boxes are the seeds of future greatness.  They are a powerful visual reminder of the freedom we enjoy to dream and achieve.  Everyone should have a Dream Box, not just second graders.  What would your Dream Box look like?  And how might it influence the next five, twenty-five or fifty years of your life?

The Privilege of Necessity

“We learn by going where we need to go.” - Theodore Roethke

Have you ever paused to ponder how grateful we might feel for necessity?  Sometimes, as Roethke suggests, doors of understanding open because our paths appear to be blocked and we have to confront a dilemma.  The path of progress is lit most clearly by persistently asking both “why” and “why not?”

Everyone who has visited Florence has seen the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, more commonly known as the Duomo (Dome in Italian).  The Duomo, capped by the first large dome to be built in the Renaissance, offers powerful lessons on the enduring power of faith and vision.  No one knew how to build such a huge dome when construction began on the Basilica.

When design work on the Basilica started in 1294 it was intended to be the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in the world.  After more than a century of work, all of the cathedral’s structure, except for the enormous hole in the ceiling, was completed.

The series of architects who had overseen the construction of the Basilica had never come up with plans for how the dome would be completed.  By architectural standards of that time, a dome of such great size would collapse under its own weight.  In fact, some large medieval cathedrals, such as Beauvois, had collapsed during their construction. 

In 1418 a design competition was launched to select the plan and architect who would attempt to complete the Duomo.  Brunelleschi’s suggestion of first building a smaller dome to support the structure of the larger dome was accepted.  This and many other unknown and unorthodox methods for construction were developed.  The great octagonal dome was completed in 1436.  It became the prototype for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and every other large dome built during that era. The Duomo became the most prominent symbol of the dawning of the Renaissance.

The necessity of finishing the Duomo was what fueled Brunelleschi’s creativity.  The building of such a massive masonry dome posed many technical problems.   A modern understanding of physical laws and the mathematical tools for calculating stresses was centuries into the future. Brunelleschi had to rely on intuition and whatever he could learn from the large scale models he built.  While he looked to the architectural successes of the past, such as the Pantheon, he was forced to come up with creative solutions for the unique design and construction problems of the present.  For example, to lift 37,000 tons of material, which included over 4 million bricks, he invented hoisting machines.  To deal with the challenges of stresses and fresh mortar, he came up with a herringbone design for the placement of the bricks.

The next time you face the daunting wall of necessity reflect on the wonderful breakthroughs that are possible when we scale that obstacle.   Pause to remember the story of those who set out to erect the world’s largest cathedral yet had no idea how they were going to cover its dome.  Fuel your efforts with the faith and hope which spring from approaching necessity as a privilege rather than a burden.

How can I harness the power of necessity?  What am I doing that will deprive my children or grandchildren of the opportunity to experience the privilege of necessity?

“Restlessness is discontent, and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.” - Thomas A. Edison

THE ILLUSION OF FIXITY

Too much of our action is really reaction. Such doing does not flow from free and independent hearts but depends on external provocation.  It does not come from our sense of who we are and what we want to do, but from our anxious reading of how others define us—Margaret Wheatley

 

In his introduction to the book Synchronicity –The Inner Path of Leadership, Peter Senge, director of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, makes this remarkable statement:

 

“One of the great mysteries of our current state of consciousness is how we live in a world where absolutely nothing is fixed, and yet perceive a world of “fixedness.  But once we start to see reality more as it is, we realize that nothing is permanent, so how could the future be fixed?  How could we live in anything but a world of continual possibility?”

 

I think that the Illusion of Fixity, a concept I borrow from Senge, is particularly relevant to the world of trusts and trustees. 

 

Too often trusts are viewed as “fixed.”  We accept as an absolute that irrevocable means unchangeable.  Yet, reality suggests that even irrevocable trusts can be changed, either by reformation or decanting, or by what I refer to as a virtual reformation. 

 

What does it take to “change” an irrevocable trust?  Equal measures of creativity, positive energy and unity of purpose among trustees and beneficiaries will accomplish the task.

 

The Illusion of Fixity also applies to beneficiaries and trustees.  Trustees too often fail to view the beneficiaries through the lens of generativity.  Beneficiaries are prone to see the “mote” in the Trustee’s eye while failing to notice the “beam” that clouds their own vision of reality.  We can’t really understand the full dimensions of reality until we consider the possibility that we don’t fully understand our role in the trust world. 

 

Until we attain that level of self-awareness and mindfulness that allows us to escape from the gravitational pull of the Illusion of Fixity, we aren’t likely to go very far in terms of a positive trustee/beneficiary relationship.  If we choose to live inside the Illusion of Fixity we will wander in a labyrinth of fiduciary dead-end streets and blind alleys leading, from nothing to nowhere.  We won’t begin to see the potential for growth in the individuals we serve but instead will regard them as fixed and unchangeable objects, much like the illusion of the goblet in the image above.

 

Did you see the goblet or the individuals?  Is there a Beam blocking your vision?  Are you trapped in the Illusion of Fixity?

 

Choosing Generativity instead of the Illusion of Fixity allows us to visualize the potential in both ourselves and others.  When this fundamental shift of mind occurs, we no longer view ourselves or those we serve as fixed and limited.  We begin to accept the possibility that each of us is endowed with infinite potential for growth.  When we examine life through the lens of generativity positive change becomes as wondrous as the unfolding of the Morning Glory in the first rays of daylight—John A. Warnick

C=ME2

C=ME²

A Creative Application of Einstein’s

 Formula to Experience and Knowledge

 

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on treating oneself endlessly”—Henri Bergson

 

A fascinating example of Abraham Maslow’s observation that “almost all creativity involves purposeful play” is found in the story of how author Gene D. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. came up with a formula for describing the effects of experience and knowledge on creativity.

 

Dr. Cohen was influenced by the work of Howard Gardner, the prolific author and learning expert at Harvard University.  Gardner came up with the big “C” for creativity that applies to the extraordinary accomplishments of composers, authors, artists, etc. and the little “c” that is grounded in the diversity of everyday creation.  Everyone, wrote Dr. Gardner, “has certain areas in which he or she has a special interest. It could be something they do at work...the way they write memos...the way they teach a lesson or sell something.  After working at it for a while they can get to be pretty good—as good as anybody they know in their immediate world.”

 

Dr. Cohen was interested in creativity and was fascinated by the creative genius of Albert Einstein.  Einstein is famous for what Dr. Cohen considered his “elegant equation” of energy equivalence which is E (energy) = MC² where m is mass and c is the speed of light.

 

Dr. Cohen had a dream in which the equation rearranged itself into a creativity formula: C=ME²

 

The big “C” in this formula stands for Creativity.  The “M” stands for a person’s mass of knowledge and “E” represents that individual’s experience, which Dr. Cohen felt should be reflected in two dimensions: inner and outer.  The inner dimension would be the psychological and emotional experiences.  The outer dimension would be one’s accumulated life experiences, understanding and perspectives.  Dr. Cohen’s C=ME² formula suggests that creativity is a function of both knowledge and experience.  The hopeful news for those of us who are passing through the second half of life is that the older we get the more knowledge and experience we have.  In fact Dr. Cohen suggests that the first time many adults tap deeply into their creative potential occurs around age 65.

 

In his study of creativity and aging Dr. Cohen found that creativity in the second half of life follows three basic patterns:

• Commencing creativity
• Continuing or changing creativity
• Creativity connected with loss

 

Frank Lloyd Wright observed, “in much of our preparation we don’t really know what we are preparing for.”  Do you realize that you may have been preparing for the most creative period in your life?  Do you invite creativity to be part of your life every day?  

 

The Best is Yet to Come!!!

 

“There’s always a clean slate, a fresh sheet of paper, a waiting space, a chance to have a shot at it tomorrow”—Herbert Block, a nationally syndicated cartoonist who was still publishing his cartoons up until two months before his death at age 91