Seedlings

The Value of a Plan

“All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination” - Earl Nightingale

Here’s my adaptation of Aesop’s Fable of the Man, Boy and Donkey:

A father and his almost adult son set out to sell their donkey and buy winter provisions. As they were walking alongside the donkey, a passerby said, “You fools, what is a donkey but for to ride upon?”. So the father put his son on the donkey. Then they passed another group of laborers, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he rides and makes his father walk.” So the man ordered the boy off the donkey and got on himself. They hadn’t gone far when passed by two women, one of whom said: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor son trudge along.” Shamed, the man had his son get on the donkey in front of him and started to town.

Entering the gates of the city, the father noticed passers-by were jeering and pointing at them as they rode the donkey. He stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The villagers replied, “Aren’t you ashamed for overloading that poor donkey, you and your hulking son?” In compliance with the dissident voices and mocking fingers, the man and boy got off and tried to think of what to do. They cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders, and marched slowly towards the marketplace. As they were crossing the bridge, the son stumbled, and in the struggle the donkey fell over the bridge and drowned because his feet were tied.

“That will teach you”, said an old man who had followed them.

Aesop concludes his fable by saying: “PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE”.

The father and son had failed in their goal of selling the donkey and had no money to buy the winter provisions they needed in order to survive.

How much different the outcome would have been if the father and son had had a plan to follow. The Father could have said, “I’ll ride the donkey one-third of the way; Son, you ride the donkey one-third of the way; and we’ll both walk the last third of the way. The donkey will arrive at the marketplace fresh and strong, ready to be sold.”

Then, as they received confusing advice while traveling through each hamlet and village along their way to the city, they could look at each other, give a reassuring wink of the eye, and say, “We have a plan.”

We all need plans, whether it is for work or for the most important work we do as parents and grandparents. There’s an important donkey in each of our lives. What is your plan for it?

“Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.”—William Arthur Ward

 

That’s a Peacock – Not a Weird Chicken

“The greatest form of charity may be to withhold judgment.”—Sandra Rogers

One of my favorite songs is more timely today than when it was first sung in 1965.  You’ve probably heard these first two lines from the lyrics by Hal David and the music by Burt Bachrach at least twenty times:

What the world needs now is love sweet love,
Its the only thing that there's just too little of

But the next two lines are just as powerful:

What the world needs now is love sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone,

It’s that love for everyone that we seem to be struggling with.  That struggle takes place within families…within communities…within our nation…and throughout the world.

I heard the story recently of a three year old who pointed to an object on the television screen and said: “Mom, that’s a weird chicken.”  Her mother responded:  “That’s a peacock, not a chicken.”

Like the unknowing three year old, we too often look at others with an incomplete or inaccurate understanding.  We see them as weird chickens when if we could see them through a curious and tolerant lens we might begin to appreciate the beauty of their peacock-like uniqueness and potential.

Walt Whitman said:  Be curious, not judgmental.  And, James E. Faust said: The older I get, the less judgmental I become. 

Whether old or young, may we all become more tolerant, more forgiving and much less judgmental.  Then we will be part of bringing that love sweet love into the world, not just for some but for everyone. 

“The greatest gift you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance” –Brian Tracy

This is No Place for My Son -- The Story of Mother Meng

 

“The formative period for building character for eternity is in the nursery.  The mother is queen of that realm and sways a scepter more potent than that of kings or priests”—Author Unknown

A Chinese mother watched her son play.  The three year old had observed the burial rituals taking place in the graveyard next to his home.  The boy happily spent hours building miniature tombs and grave mounds.  She whispered to herself, “This is no place to raise my son.”  So the widow and her young son moved.

Their new home was next to the village marketplace.   The young boy watched the merchants and vendors in action along the boisterous marketplace.  Soon he was hawking imaginary wares and haggling with imaginary customers using the same words he had heard in the marketplace. Again the widow muttered, “This is no place for my son.”

This time they moved next to a school house.  Here the Chinese classics were studied.  Now the lad was imitating the scholars and students he saw studying the words of Confucius and other Chinese sages.  His mother smiled and thought, “This is indeed the right place for my son to grow into manhood.”

This mother has been revered in China for more than 24 centuries.  She is known as Mother Meng and her son was Mengzi.  In the West we known him as Mencius.  The choices Mother Meng made to find the right place to raise Mencius would be felt for centuries.  For Mencius became one of the greatest Chinese sages.  He spent great energy influencing the kings and rulers of his day, but even more time and thought defining for all the qualities of the human heart and a life well lived.

There are many choices parents face in the nurture of their children and the activities of their adolescents.  These choices, when purposefully made with the child’s best interest paramount in our minds, may have profound long-term impact on the child. 

I started Kindergarten in a public school just a few minutes from my home.  Three weeks after school began my mother announced I would be going to a different school, one that was a 15 minute drive from our home.  My parents were sure the new school was the “right place” for me.  It was a small, semi-private K-12 school and I would graduate 12 years later with almost 40 students who had started in elementary school with me.  I don't know that there was anything that wrong with the first school.  I just know my mother wanted me to have the best educational experience possible.  And, she and my father were willing to pay the tuition and sacrifice their time to drive me to the new school so I could have the best teachers.  They knew, like Mother Meng, that the right learning environment could have a profound influence on their child.

Some of the parental choices which have the greatest impact are simple lessons in quiet moments.  Let me close by sharing another story from the boyhood of Mencius.  Mother Meng worked hard to support herself and her son with weaving.  One day Mencius cut out of school and came home early.  As he passed his mother weaving at a loom, Mother Meng asked,  “How are you doing at school?” Mencius replied “just so-so.”  She quickly seized a knife and cut across the threads of the loom, leaving the unfinished tapestry frayed and useless.  Shocked that his mother had just destroyed something so vital to their well-being, Mencius blurted, “What have you done?” Quietly she replied, “Neglecting your study is like my cutting the threads on the loom.  We are poor.  You need a good education to establish yourself.  If you stop your study halfway, you’ll accomplish nothing.  When you grow up, you’ll either be somebody’s servant or become a robber.  What difference is there between half-a-weaving and a boy half-educated?” 

Mother Meng’s lesson was both felt and learned. Mencius applied himself diligently thereafter.  He became a revered Confucian scholar.  By the 12^th century his book Mencius had become a classic in Chinese literature, second only to Confucius’ Analects. A mother’s work is never done and she may never know how far her example and lessons will extend.

 

“I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings”—Princess Diana

 

Seven Suggestions For Combating Feelings of Inadequacy -- Differentiating Between Dissatisfaction with Self and Self-Disdain

 

“Be careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility! Humility has nothing to do with the insecure and inadequate! Just like arrogance has nothing to do with greatness!” –C. Joy Bell

 

Fears of inadequacy haunt each of us.  Sadly, we view our blunders and aborted attempts as evidence of our inadequacies.  Instead, we should embrace failure with gratitude.  Our mistakes are but opportunities to learn and grow.  

As I have struggled from time to time in my life journey with feelings of inadequacy, I have learned to appreciate the difference between what Neal A. Maxwell  described in his spiritual essay/book Notwithstanding My Weakness as “dissatisfaction with self and disdain for self.  We need the first and must shun the second.”  Here are seven of Neal Maxwell’s 14 suggestions for combating feelings of inadequacy:

 1.   We can contemplate how far we have already come in the climb along life’s journey; it is usually much farther than we acknowledge.

 2. We can accept help as well as gladly give it. We can see honest feedback as helpful tutelage.

 3. Before we assess our leadership efforts, we must take into consideration  that often our deliberate best is less effectual because of someone else’s worst.

 4.   We can write down, and act upon, more of those accumulating resolutions for self-improvement that we so often leave, unrecovered, at the edge of sleep.

 5.   As Neal Maxwell puts it, “We can admit that if we were to die today, we would be genuinely and deeply missed. Perhaps parliaments would not praise us, but no human circle is so small that it does not touch another, and another.”

 6.   We can make quiet but more honest inventories of our strengths, since, in this connection, most of us are dishonest bookkeepers and need confirming “outside auditors.” 

7.   We can recommit to moving forward.   Men finally climbed Mount Everest, not by standing at its base in consuming awe, but by shouldering their packs and by placing one foot in front of another. Feet are made to move forward—not backward!

When we adjust our mental framework around failure and inadequacy, we are putting ourselves on the pathway to significance. Nelson Mandela, in his inauguration speech, drew from these words of Marianne Williamson to encourage us to conquer our fears of inadequacy and insecurity:  “We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.  Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Here’s hoping you will share these seven suggestions from Neal Maxwell with others and that your presence in the world will be such that you liberate others from the shackles of inadequacy and insecurity. 

”Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”—Marianne Williamson

 

 

 

The Eaglets’ Dilemma

“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives” - William James

I was inspired by a story by Tom Reilly entitled The Power of Attitude.  I have taken the liberty of adapting and shortening the story, so that it reads as follows:

The time had come for the three eaglets to stretch their wings and experience flight for the first time.  Their parents asked if they had any questions:

"How high can I fly?" inquired the first eaglet.

"How wide can you stretch your wings?" asked their mother.

"How much can we achieve?" the second eaglet asked.

"How much can you dream?" smiled their father.

"How far can we travel?" asked the third eaglet.

"How distantly can you see?" responded their father.

"How long can I fly?" the young eaglet persisted.

"How long do you want to be gone?" their mother replied.

Frustrated by his parents’ questioning replies, the third eaglet demanded, "Why don't you answer our questions?"

"We did."

"But you answered them with questions.  You are our parents.  You’re supposed to know everything.  If you don't answer our questions, who will?"

"You." Their father calmly replied.

"Us? But how?" the first eaglet testily probed.

"No one can tell you how high to fly or how big your dreams should be. Only God knows your potential and what's in your hearts. You alone can discover the answer to these questions.  The only limiting boundaries to your life’s journey is the horizon of your imagination."

"Look to the sky, spread your wings, and fly."

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream. Discover”—Mark Twain

 

 

Pencils and The Sierra Club

More Lessons from the Life of John Muir

 "God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools"—John Muir

The last leg of John Muir’s "thousand-mile walk to the Gulf" took him from Gainesville (which he described as an “oasis” with many beautiful homes) to Cedar Key, Florida in five days.  On early Saturday morning, September 25, 2010, my father and I made the 60 mile drive in an hour.  Our trip made me wonder how much this portion of the Florida coastal lowlands had changed in the 143 years since John Muir first encountered the Gulf Hammocks and all of the coastal keys near Cedar Key.  What I discovered is a powerful lesson for family leaders who want to make sure their families will flourish for generations.

In his first trip to Cedar Key John Muir found the Gulf Hammocks to be a "watery and vine-tied" land where "the streams are still young."   Muir had to cross vast quantities of Red Cedar along the coastal lowlands of Levy County.  In fact the Cedar Keys took their name from the stands of junipers known as Red Cedar.

On our trip to Cedar Key last weekend the first Red Cedars we noticed were two large trees outside the Cedar Key State Museum.  This museum chronicles the visit of John Muir to Cedar Key in 1868 and the impact of German entrepreneur and pencil magnate, J. Eberhard Faber.

At age 19 Faber, who came from a family which had made its fortune manufacturing pencils, immigrated to the U.S. and opened a stationary store.  Three years later he founded the Eberhard Faber company and commenced looking for an abundant source of splinter-free wood.  In 1852 that search led him to Cedar Key, where he discovered the vast red cedar stands in Florida’s Gulf Hammock area between the Suwannee and Withlacoochee Rivers.   He bought land and timber rights, organized crews to float cedar logs to the port at Cedar Key, and then shipped those logs to the family pencil factory in Germany.   

In 1858, Faber built a slat mill directly south of Cedar Key.  He began shipping slats instead of logs which greatly improved efficiency and profitability.   The pencil industry in Cedar Key expanded rapidly and a few years later the Eagle Pencil Company built a Cedar Key facility.  These thriving enterprises were a strong inducement to the completion of a trans-Florida railway which in 1861 connected the port of Cedar Key to the East Coast port of Fernandina Beach.  Now the splinter-free slats that would become thousands of pencils could be shipped to the Atlantic and save the time and expense of a trip around the Florida Keys and up the gulf coast.

In 1862 Faber became the first person to establish a large scale pencil factory in the U.S., near the current site of the United Nations.  By the time John Muir arrived in Cedar Key in 1868 the town was booming.

As we learned in The Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf of Mexico John Muir was forced to spend months in Cedar Key recuperating from malaria.  He borrowed a skiff and explored the keys which dot the coast and undoubtedly saw the effects of the massive harvesting of Red Cedars.  It was here that Muir’s vision about man’s role as a steward of nature emerged. 

Muir, who was a professional forester, believed that "forestry is tree farming."   He felt you should harvest timber but always with a view to preserving the long-term viability of the forests.  Faber and the other pencil barons were intent on maximizing their profits.  The red cedar forests of the Gulf Hammocks were being harvested without any thought about regeneration of the forest. 

The story of John Muir’s emergence during the next thirty years to become perhaps the nation’s leading conservation advocate traces its roots to his battle with malaria.  Each day during his convalescence he would retreat into the forests or borrow a skiff to visit one of the nearby keys.  These reflective periods were helping to strengthen his conviction of man’s responsibility to seek to live in harmony with the environment. 

After he had regained enough strength to continue his journey, John Muir left Cedar Key in 1868 and continued his journey eventually reaching Cuba.   Realizing he was still greatly weakened from the malaria, John Muir abandoned his plans to tour South America and instead ended up in California.  He settled in a cabin inside of what we know today as Yosemite National Park.  He became a student of the geology of Yosemite and over the years he would give tours of the area to prominent politicians, business and thought leaders of his day.  Upon meeting John Muir, Ralph Waldo Emerson announced he had finally found the prophet of conservation he had been looking for.  He offered Muir a professorship at Harvard.  Muir preferred to remain in Yosemite and to use his influence for its protection. 

In 1890 John Muir was instrumental in the introduction of federal legislation to preserve Yosemite.  In 1892 he co-founded the Sierra Club and served as its first President.  He would be such a driving force behind the National Parks movement that he is called the “Father of the National Parks.”  He encouraged city dwellers to seek spiritual nourishment in nature and referred to the National Parks as “places for rest, inspiration and prayers.”

In 1898 Muir returned to Florida on a forest inspection tour.  What he saw around Cedar Key had to reaffirm his view of the importance of man’s stewardship of the forests.  Two years before John Muir returned to Cedar Key, a great hurricane had destroyed much of the town and toppled most of what remained of the red cedar forests.  The depletion of the nearby red cedar forests coupled with the destruction of the mills and factories in Cedar Key spelled doom for the pencil industry in that area.  Without the local red cedar supply, the pencil factories in New York and abroad quickly switched to reliance on Western Cedar for its pencil stock.  It took the town of Cedar Key more than seven decades to recover from the economic devastation of the town and the pencil industry. 

What had transpired in the thirty years since John Muir first left Cedar Key is a remarkable lesson about stewardship of natural resources and planning for unexpected calamities.

Surely Eberhard Faber should have anticipated the problem of depletion of the red cedar forests.  If he had studied the history of Cedar Key, he might have learned that just ten years prior to his arrival in the town a hurricane had produced a 27 foot storm surge.  Would you build your mill and factory facility on the virtually flat outermost key if you were aware of what potential destruction a hurricane could pose?  It appears Mr. Faber and the other pencil industry owners either ignored those risks or deliberately chose to exploit the local resources as rapidly as possible.  Mr. Faber died in 1882 and never knew that in another 15 years the profit center he had created in Cedar Key would be destroyed by another “big storm” with no economic justification for rebuilding it due to the depletion of the resource base.

Have you prepared for the obvious risks which could threaten both your financial capital as well as the other dimensions of your family’s wealth?  Have you looked back at least three generations to consider what you might learn from the past about what unexpected threats to your family’s well-being there might be?  Have you sought to warn future generations of your family and what risks are within your horizon of awareness?  Have you engaged in a conversation with advisors whose experiences might have let them look beyond your horizon of awareness and discover threats you haven’t even considered? Have you read books, such as Family Wealth – Keeping It in the Family, which open up a view of both the mistakes and best practices of family leaders from generations ago and share some of the knowledge and wisdom which are foundational to building a flourishing family?

“Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life”--Unknown

The Beginner’s Mind

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few"—Shunryo Suzuki

Shunryo Suzuki in his book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, introduced the world to the possibilities that open to us through the Beginner’s Mind. 

Children start life full of curiosity, wonder and amazement.  Unfortunately, as we transition into adulthood we too often lose that natural inquisitiveness.  One of the challenges for parents is to encourage their children to not only become lifelong learners but to cultivate the humility of a beginner’s mind.

In a previous blog entitled “The Dangers of Personal Observation – The Advantages of Collaborative Vision” we explored the wisdom behind the Hindu fable of the Six Blind Men of Indostan.  Consider this possibility.  What if instead of six different blind men approaching and feeling the elephant, one blind man would have touched the elephant six different times? With each touch his concept of the elephant would expand and be enhanced.  But even after six touches he could still learn more about the true essence of an elephant.  

Majestic possibilities for breakthrough thinking occur when an inquiring mind consciously sets aside the arrogance of expertise.  I have concluded that what Suzuki taught might simplistically, but not fairly, be summed up in these words:

“We reject the dogmas of ‘Been There Done That’ and ‘I Know Everything There is To Know About That’“

Just as our view of our universe, and the immensity of space, has expanded to accept as true the fact that space is expanding, so might we accept as absolute the ideas that there is no end to what we can learn about any subject and that the deeper we study a complex matter the closer we approach the simplicity which lies on the other side of complexity.

I stand in awe of the possibilities which open up when we adopt a Beginner’s Mind.  I would like to close this very basic overview of the Beginner’s Mind with a story illustrating the preparation necessary to approach the depth of learning and awareness made possible through the Beginner’s Mind.

Once, a long time ago, there was a wise Zen master. People from far and near would seek his counsel and ask for his wisdom. Many would come and ask him to enlighten them in the way of Zen. He seldom turned any away.

One day a wealthy man who was accustomed to having his way in all matters came to visit the Zen master.  “I have come today to ask you to teach me about Zen. Open my mind to enlightenment.”

The Zen master smiled and replied that they should discuss the matter over tea. As the visitor continued to speak about his hunger to learn, the Zen master poured their tea.  The tea rose to the rim and began to spill onto the robes of the wealthy man, who finally blurted out: “Enough. You are spilling tea all over me. Can’t you see the cup is full?”

The master stopped pouring and looked up with a kind smile at his guest. “You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an empty mind.”

 Do you have a better way of summarizing the essence of the Beginner’s Mind?

All self‑centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something.—Marion Derby

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

CREATIVITY AND APPLES

What Granny Smith and Issac Newton Can Teach Us About the Opportunities to Create Breakthroughs by Capitalizing on Observation and Curiosity

 

 “Every problem has a gift concealed in it for you.  We look for problems because we need the gifts.”--Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull

 

I’m sure you have heard the first story I will share with you in today’s blog but I suspect the second story will be “news” to you.

Isaac Newton is reputed to have experienced his breakthrough thinking about gravity while sitting beneath an apple tree contemplating the mysterious universe.  Suddenly -

 boink! -an apple hits him on the head.  In a flash he understands that the very same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon rotating around the Earth and the Earth spinning around the sun: gravity.

A manuscript for what would become one of the earliest biographies of Newton, entitled Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life, relates what Newton told archaeologist William Stukeley one evening while they were enjoying tea, under the shade of some apple trees:

"After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and...he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself..."

The second story involves Maria Smith.  Maria and her husband, Thomas, immigrated to the Ryde district in the New South Wales Colony of Australia from England, an area known for fruit growing.  The Smiths were respected growers of fruits.   Maria Smith enjoyed looking for the unusual and using it in a novel way.  One day, at the age of sixty-nine, Maria noticed a seedling growing out of a pile of discarded French crab apples.  It seemed different so she nurtured it.  The seedling was a natural mutant which had some very attractive features and Mrs. Smith began to work a few of these seedlings trees.  Soon thereafter other local orchardists.began planting a large number of these apple trees.

Maria Smith died two years later.  Two decades would pass before her apple, exhibited as “Smith’s seedling,” would win prizes as a cooking apple and be certified by the Australian government for export.  That apple is known today as the Granny Smith apple.

Thoreau mused, “the world is but a canvas to the imagination.” Creativity, in thought and action, is the capacity to create something which didn’t exist in that form before.  It involves taking something we have observed in the canvas of our surrounding world and organizing it into a material form that is pleasing to the eye, the ear, or the mind. 

Frank Lloyd Wright observed, “In much of our preparation we don’t really know what we are preparing for.”  And Seneca concluded: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”  Newton and Granny Smith had both prepared themselves to be observant and  to reflect on what might spring from that canvas.  In both cases being open to a new possibility allowed them to capitalize on their observations. 

Has your curiosity led you to breakthrough thinking?  What can we do to prepare ourselves to be more observant and reflective?

The Best is Yet to Come!!!

 

“Almost all creativity involves purposeful play”—Abraham Maslow

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