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You Be You, and I’ll Be Me
No matter how I am dressed, what I look like or what I am doing, I strive to always be me. – Steve SueWing, a community organizer, family man, marathoner, friend, and occasional drag queen Have you ever tried to be someone else? If you’ve spent any time in grade school, junior high, or high school; if you’ve ever worked in a large corporation or a small non-profit; if you’ve ever sung in a band, played on a team, or been in relationship, chances are you’ve attempted to deny some aspect of your nature. Countless stories of masquerade are born of the human desire for acceptance mingled with our ubiquitous self-doubt.…
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Azimuth Degree
Azimuth – the arc of the horizon measured clockwise from the north point in navigation to the point where a vertical circle through a given heavenly body intersects the horizon. Said another way, the azimuth is the measure of your distance in degrees from true north. To calculate the azimuth degree, you need only two variables. First, you must identify your true north. In this analogy, it assumes the role of your destination. Second, you must know where you are–your point of departure. This sounds easy enough, right? Knowing the distance between where you are and where you want to be is requisite when planning for any excursion. Whether you’re trying to move a project forward,…
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May You Be With The Force
Some people might say something doesn’t “sit right with them”. Other people might call it listening to their intuition or trusting their gut. Yoda would refer to sensing a disruption in The Force. Regardless of their parlance, they’re saying the same thing. Something in a situation just doesn’t feel right. As much as some of us would like our decision making to follow an entirely rational course, we are occasionally pulled in a different direction by a detour of feeling. This isn’t the emotional kind of feeling. This feeling is a physical sensation–something I have always equated to a shift in energy. There is likely a scientific explanation for it. I will leave that to someone better equipped than me to explain. What…
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Following Instructions
I’m on a plane (again) and struck by a profound, simple truth hidden in the safety card instructions being recited dispassionately by the flight attendant a few yards in front of me. If you travel frequently, you could probably say it with her… “in the unlikely event of a change in cabin pressure, secure your own oxygen mask first before helping others.” Why is it that the airlines feel compelled to explicitly specify the order of events within the basic instructions on how to use the mask? Could it be because of our predisposition to prioritize taking care of others before caring for ourselves? How frequently do we allow the demands on our time by our family, our friends, even our co-workers come before our…
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Think Big. Aim Small.
Aiming small may seem counterintuitive in a world of Play-Off games, New York Times Best Seller lists, and Zagat’s reviews. Our society continually seeks to identify the best of the best. In fact the web is full of listicles gone viral — 10 Quick Ways to Simplify Your Life, 7 Most Annoying Habits of Air Travelers, 21 Funniest Cat Videos — which serve to underscore that what you do isn’t valuable unless it is acknowledged by a million likes. But there’s a cheat in that tenet; it’s impossible to connect meaningfully with millions. I can’t look into the eyes of a million people and see them deeply. I can’t have the divinity of my nature recognize the divinity of theirs. It’s not possible. I am…
