This Week's Word & Thought: I See You

I came across a poem a friend (thanks Armita!) had posted last week that gave me one of those “ah-ha” moments.  In a past post, I wrote about real love being something you give away with no expectations in return, but always wanted to give a better definition of love.  Not just love for your lover, but for family and friends as well.  Although we all experience different types of love, the core definition is the same and involves our ability to give, unconditionally, to another.

Through introspection, I have often wondered how good am I at loving another?  I have observed those in love with someone who have some type of serious disability or disfiguring injury and admired their commitment and love, but wondered if I could do that.  Here is Omoehi’s poem that defines real love with all of its messy real life issues.

“It’s easy to love people

when they have good health

great looks, perfect hair

smooth voices, trendy clothes

fast cars, attractive makeup.

But to love people

defined by adversity,

imprisoned by fear

vulnerable to illness

burdened by the past,

that’s to love the darkness

in their soul.”

In a word, profound.

I researched the author of the poem, Omoehi Ehixojie.  Who is an author and poet currently residing in Las Vegas.  He is originally from Nigeria.  You can read more of his work at http://omoehiehixojie.blogspot.com/ if you are interested in a modern-day poet with some very poignant observations in wonderful expressions of poetry.

Namaste,

Tom

This Week's Word & Thought: Criticism

According to Merriam-Webster:

• the act of expressing disapproval and of noting the problems or faults of a person or thing: the act of criticizing someone or something
• a remark or comment that expresses disapproval of someone or something
• the activity of making careful judgments about the good and bad qualities of books, movies, etc.

This I have found with age is a very subjective process. 

Example, when I worked for Amoco Production Company (now part of BP), I had progressed fairly rapidly over a 3-year period in their accounting and data center and had really only one critique that kept coming up in those dreaded corporate reviews, “You are too aggressive.  Try to be more laid back in your actions.”  Well, fast forward 3 more years and still being steadily successful, but now the company had gone through some dramatic changes.  After IBM started the trend of “downsizing” for profit, which prior to that was not really a common practice (early 1990’s), Wall Street ate it up!  It then became a trend and Amoco jumped on that bit of Wall Street twisted logic and we went from approximately 1,200 staff at the accounting and data center to just under 700.  Suddenly, your nice job became about two jobs.  I remembered my review in that period and the one item that stuck in my mind was, “You have terrific initiative and get things done.  Great job!”  Subjective and circumstantial.

However, I also think, if done with good intentions, can be helpful and in some cases, even when wrongly given, is a hazard of doing.  In the previous, it did make me focus on trying to become less purely tactical and become more thoughtful in the process itself.  Making it more human and emotive.

Here is a thought to keep in mind the next time someone, possibly even me, offers you unsolicited criticism.

“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Aristotle

Go be something!

Namaste,

Tom

This Week's Word & Thought: We

A Brave and Startling Truth 
by Maya Angelo

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet 
Traveling through casual space 
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns 
To a destination where all signs tell us 
It is possible and imperative that we learn 
A brave and startling truth 

And when we come to it 
To the day of peacemaking 
When we release our fingers 
From fists of hostility 
And allow the pure air to cool our palms 

When we come to it 
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate 
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean 
When battlefields and coliseum 
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters 
Up with the bruised and bloody grass 
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil 

When the rapacious storming of the churches 
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased 
When the pennants are waving gaily 
When the banners of the world tremble 
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze 

When we come to it 
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders 
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce 
When land mines of death have been removed 
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace 
When religious ritual is not perfumed 
By the incense of burning flesh 
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake 
By nightmares of abuse 

When we come to it 
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids 
With their stones set in mysterious perfection 
Nor the Gardens of Babylon 
Hanging as eternal beauty 
In our collective memory 
Not the Grand Canyon 
Kindled into delicious color 
By Western sunsets 

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe 
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji 
Stretching to the Rising Sun 
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor, 
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores 
These are not the only wonders of the world 

When we come to it 
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe 
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger 
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace 
We, this people on this mote of matter 
In whose mouths abide cankerous words 
Which challenge our very existence 
Yet out of those same mouths 
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness 
That the heart falters in its labor 
And the body is quieted into awe 

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet 
Whose hands can strike with such abandon 
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living 
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness 
That the haughty neck is happy to bow 
And the proud back is glad to bend 
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction 
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines 

When we come to it 
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body 
Created on this earth, of this earth 
Have the power to fashion for this earth 
A climate where every man and every woman 
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety 
Without crippling fear 

When we come to it 
We must confess that we are the possible 
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world 
That is when, and only when 
We come to it. 

Namaste and Thank You my Loved Ones and Friends – Tom

This Week's Word & Thought: Genius

What is genius really?  I believe it is this forever thirst to know, to reason and to explore.  To always ask, “What if?”  To want to make impactful change and to make a difference in some way, even small, to the human condition.

I began reading snippets of Aldous Huxley’s work because of disturbing events going on around us such as Syria (terrible video reports of chemical warfare), our own government (enough said), Russia (not just Putin, but the rounding up, arresting, and deaths of 3 suspected gay men in the Russian Republic of Chechnya), etc.  My focus was on human suffering and how to combat it.  I found myself lifted a bit by some of his words of wisdom on learning.  He was an interesting scholar, philosopher, and author. I have a Wikipedia information recap on Aldous Huxley at the end.  BTW, he also had plenty to say about war and human suffering.

To continue to learn and grow, you must always keep your childlike curiosity.  Doesn’t hurt to maintain a bit of that young imagination as well.  I also believe that keeping those childlike traits will keep your mind open and empathetic to others.  Here is the quote that led me down this path of thinking young.

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” – Aldous Huxley

Take some time to use your imagination.  Think like you thought when you were young.  I remember my conversations with my troll doll with green hair when I was 5.  Amazing how well he listened to everything I wanted to talk about.  We discussed seeing the world and how we wanted to see lots of different people.  I still like meeting new and different people, at least those with a good and open heart.  Assholes need not apply because in the words of a youngster, “Mean people suck!”

Recap on Aldous Huxley:

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer, novelist, philosopher, and prominent member of the Huxley family. He graduated from Balliol College at the University of Oxford with a first-class honors in English literature.  He was best known for his novels including Brave New World, set in a dystopian future; for non-fiction books, such as The Doors of Perception, which recalls experiences when taking a psychedelic drug; and a wide-ranging output of essays. Early in his career Huxley edited the magazine Oxford Poetry and published short stories and poetry. Mid-career and later, he published travel writing, film stories, and scripts. He spent the later part of his life in the U.S., living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. In 1962, a year before his death, he was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. Huxley was a humanist, pacifist, and satirist. He later became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, in particular universalism. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in seven different years.

Namaste,

Tom