I started the new year in the pool overlooking the sheer beauty of the Pacific Ocean and Costa Rica. A flock of birds flew above my head in a concrted effort. What do they know? What have they seen? Do they care where they are going or do they just flap their wings and go wherever they want to? Are they truly free or is it simply an illusion?
Regardless, it is absolutely breath taking here and I had a few minutes of quiet until the kids appeared. It was fantastic to swim with one of them as she held my neck because she doesn't know how to swim. Everyone has always told me that I would make a great mom. Will I ever know if that's true?
Two of the four kids that are here are adopted. One from Vietnam and the other from China. They are carefree beautiful girls who are so full of spirit and life.
We are in control when we have our health and yet we let noise disrupt us. It always happens in our connections and relationships -- work, family, life ... every aspect of it. It used to be that as soon as we left the front door, the big world was out there. We would get messages inside with TV, radio and telephone calls. But now, the whole world is in our house. I remember in the 1990s Faith Popcorn wrote a book about cocooning (The need to find a safe space to protect oneself from the harsh, unpredictable realities of the outside world) ... it was a revolutionary concept. If she only knew where we were headed. And, did she?
Remember at the end of “The Wizard of Oz” when Judy Garland says “There’s no place like home?”
Well in 2010 we’ll all be Wizard of Oz-ing, as a world turned upside down drives us inward. which is why, we predict the year of living local. Rejecting a war in Afghanistan we don’t understand, and welfare for Wall Street we can’t accept, we’ll be living like our 19th and early 20th-century forbearers: Focusing on our neighborhoods and communities, supporting those who support us. We’re tightening up, pulling in, reducing our radius.
Local Cocooning is an outgrowth of the dominant Trend of Icon Toppling. Despite signs of economic recovery, unprecedented unemployment and the continuing prosperity predictions from of our biggest financial institutions in the face of such suffering drive high levels of consumer skepticism.
Tweets, blogs, memberships and searches are all about finding community, predicated on common interest. Physical distance doesn’t matter—connections to the like minded does—why do you think we refer to those groups that aggregate online as “communities”. And even though it’s the “worldwide web”, it too, is looking local, as is much of media."
It's all becoming local ... and yet, the whole movement from individualism to community has yet to happen. We need to bring down the white picket fences.
A few weeks ago I had an experience that was both startling and sad. We just finished Rosh Hashana dinner at my mom's friends and were going to stop at her other friends' place to say hello. We walked from one building to the other in the rain and wind. We went into the building and I was looking them up so they could buzz us in.
As I was looking at the screen, all of a sudden I felt a hand grab my arm tightly and this man said "I want you." I was startled and looked at him and saw an, an older man, who just walked in with this woman. I knew they were together and she just stood there, laughing. I tried to shake his hand off me but he just grabbed it tighter. I looked at him and said, "please, let me go." Then, he started yelling: "I want my Esther. I want you."
It then hit me that this man had dementia. I got sad but I also felt a bit threatened since he didn't seem to have control over himself and this woman was not stepping in. My mom was able to get his hand off of me and the door opened so we walked really fast to the elevators. we waited and waited. No elevator. Busy night in this building. We looked at each other and shook our heads.
Dementia is so sad. My grandmother had it.
We continued to wait. And then, he was back, grabbing me, yelling that he wants me. I told him in a very authoritative voice to let me go and that I was with my mother and not going anywhere with him. He started arguing with my mother that I wasn't with her and that she wasn't my mother. I looked at the woman he was with and asked for help with my eyes. The elevator came. They got in. We waited.
While we were slightly frightened, we were feeling sadness more than anything. I could only imagine that the woman who was with him was his wife and that she had lost him forever.
Last week made me realize the potential of my work. So many people want to work with me to make it happen but I have no support from the top. I met with my two "volunteers" in the airport this week and they told me that they are so unmotivated right now and the program I have them working on keeps them going. I was really touched by the email they sent me ...
Dearest ,
I wanted to take this occasion to thank you for the cameras.
However more so, for actually leading/supporting/enabling/giving us this opportunity that has helped both
of us keep going, where we both felt (and still do) that we’re working on
something meaningful, worthwhile and interesting apart from our routine sales
job. It has provided us with the little boosts that kept bringing us back to
work and find motivation again.
Finally, I wanted to thank you for who you are! I know for a fact that I haven’t met
many like you, honest and realistic with such spark, enthusiasm, and positive
energy!! I think it’s suffice to
say “all hail” and that we both
love you!
We as people live with too much fear. What I love right now about the younger generation is that they are far more fearless than us and I think that it is a very good thing. The rules that my generation have in place do not produce joyful people. It's all about competing to the top step of the ladder. And why do we have so called "mid life crises"? It's because we realize what a bunch of bullshit it all is. How can I accept feedback from people who I do not respect? The status quo no longer matters.
Another interesting phenomenon is the whole questioning of "what would you do if you have 6 months to live?" or "what would you do if you won the lottery?" The first question addressing facing death in the face and doing what is ultimately in your heart. Why do we have to wait that long to actually get there? And the second shows the obsession with a lot of money as an enabler to happiness. I wonder what questions Gen Yers are asking themselves every day?
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