Joyful Jubilant Learning

Blunderrifix: Or Perhaps Not

Story trumps words.  Story trumps grammar.  Story trumps critics.

I recently finished reading, Their Eyes Were Watching God.  In dave-speak, this is a most excellent book!  It is also one of those books that are studied in school and offered up to the legions of microscope-bearing critics.  One critic doesn't think the book has a plot.  Maybe not, I don't even know.  I do know that I picked the book up and put it down just a few times before completing it.  (dull-gurn day job :-(  If an author makes me turn the pages in her book, I could care less what the critics say.

Right now I am reading Big Sur by Jack Kerouac.  Jack, who passed away in 1969, is a critically acclaimed author.  Conversely however, the first chapter consists of one, four page long sentence.  I suspect most editors would slash this book just like they did to Joanne Rowling's first manuscripts.

The battle with critics is presently hitting close to home.  Rosemary, my wife, has written three novels.  While trying to find an agent, she has taken several online classes that delve into the very technical world of writing, and she is heavily involved in a writer's association.  Due to agent rejections and related writing activities, she has completely rewritten book one and is in the process of doing so to the other two.

Now, I guess I am about to reveal my lack of literary expertise and, I will soon tell you about a monumental blunder I made while writing my very first Internet essay.  Rosemary tells great stories!  And I don't even like her genre, romance.  I plead with her daily to not let talk of goal, motivation, conflict, back-story and all of the other technical gobbledy-gook ruin her story. 

dave's main point - If you want to write, forget about your seventh grade English teacher and write.............except when you do the following: -)

"Jim, do you even care about the customer"?

And I ended all dialog like this:  ".  "!  for the entire essay!  I can laugh now, but at the time, it took a week for the red to wash from my face.

Mike Phelps: 08, 8+8, 08 = GM # 8

Michael Phelps earns gold medal number 8 in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.  For over a week we watch Michael on TV.   We see his training routines, his previous Olympic experiences, his eight gold medals, we see the drama created by the Alain Bernard remarks and the incredible finish against Milorad Cavic.  Yes we have been a witness to history. 

Do you know who impacted me the most through Michael's adventures?  I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Bob his coach or Debbie, his mom, though she came close.  It was Hilary and Whitney, Michael's sisters.  And even more specifically it was Hilary.  (Hilary is pictured on mom Debbie's left hand side).

Of course it is TV and I do not personally know Hilary, but in video clips I see an intense love and pride for her brother.  You've felt this emotion too.  Your son, daughter, sister or brother got a clutch hit or nailed the dance of their lives or scored a winning goal.  I still have a vision to this day of my older daughter Vickie when she played high school softball.  It was the bottom of the seventh in a meaningless game, girls on first and second and her team down one run.  I watched the outfield cheat in a step. I would too.  Vickie stands all of 5'3".  Well Vickie smoked one so far past the left center fielder that she needed a train to catch it.  I will never forget the buzz that went through the stands that day.  "How?....she's so small..."

On that day over ten years ago, I had to hold one hand over top of my rib cage because my heart wanted to leap from my chest.  Although to a degree we can imagine Hilary's emotion.  But how do we get our mind around the magnitude of it all?  After all her brother is the greatest swimmer in all of history on the greatest sport's stage in all of the world, obliterating all of the world records.

I think for now I'll just give thanks to being a witness to one of sport's all time most memorable moments and of the emotion displayed by a couple of sisters and their mom. 

Gramps' Chair

This is a story about a chair that traveled from Cleveland, Ohio to Tampa, Florida - and lost its sense of place.

My Dad's older brother bought my grandfather a chair back in the sixties.  He didn't like it.  So it sat in his dining room and collected stuff.   My grandmother had passed away a few years before the chair and it would be a few more years before my uncle would die. Uncle Wayne was my Dad's younger brother who lived with Gramps.  With his passing, my grandmother's spirit left the house as well.  That is why a reclining chair sat unused in the dining room.

A few decades later and the chair ended up in my unfinished basement - directly next to my workbenches.  By this time I had converted my home tool storage area to a writing den surrounded by an ever vigilant army of sentinels - my books.  A wood burner rounded out the warmth and coziness.  It was in this setting that peace and a sense of place had finally come to the chair.  Stories were read and written in front of cherry wood burning in the fireplace.  The chair swallowed me in for great sessions of meditation and perhaps its greatest asset, the ability to induce periods of prolific thinking.  (Too bad it didn't have the ability to kick me into great periods of doing).

In 2005 the chair accompanied us on our move to Florida.  The chair sits in my office right next to my writing desk. It sits in a spiritless trance.  For whatever reason it is not comfortable in Florida.  It has lost its sense of place.  It boggles my mind how finicky and particular chairs can be.

--- Dave Rothacker

This is a contribution to our theme for July: Learning from Pictures. 

Those Who Can, Manage. Those Who Can't, Do

Bob grew up with a dad who was the polar opposite of Terry' s dad.  Bob remembered that his dad once changed a tire, but other than that, could never remember him touching a tool.  Bob's mom grew up on a farm in the 1930's.  She probably used some sort of tool everyday of her life - till she moved off the farm.  In Bob's home, in the big city, Mom did the house hold repairs.

Bob knew that boys should play sports and use tools.  While he loved to do both, he did neither very well.  As Bob got older, he grew a fine appreciation for Olympic-type athletes and craftsmen, men who wielded tools as if they were paint brushes.

When Bob was in his late twenties, he got the opportunity to work for an air conditioning company.  His first year he drove a delivery truck.  Then he was presented with an option, become an apprentice or go into the office and work in service operations.  This decision was going to be easy.  He looked down at his eleven thumbs.  He chose service operations.

Within a few months Bob was promoted to a manager.  Suddenly he felt like the director of the Royal  Philharmonic Orchestra.  Substitute violins for electrical troubleshooting meters and he was actually directing his heroes - air conditioning craftsmen - air conditioning technicians.  The thrill of knowing one of his men could engage their knowledge and skill with tools to repair a building's air conditioning system, kept Bob on an even keel high. 

Bob stayed in the business and built a career out of managing a/c technicians.  Bob had an insatiable desire to be around the smartest of technicians, so he made it a point to hire them.  Because he never went to school for this trade, and because he was knee deep everyday in very, very technical matters, Bob studied on his own.  Then everyday he would ask his techs questions.  And, because Bob had no ego and openly professed to knowing nothing, his men were more than happy to teach him.

Bob continued to progress within his field, and now manages men who work on the most sophisticated and technically advanced air conditioning equipment in the world.  If you were to eavesdrop in on a typical Bob-day, you will still hear him asking his technician questions...even the apprentices.

Dave Rothacker

I Learn From You

I wrote this a couple of years ago, but it captures the essence of digital-dave-learning...I learn from you.

The Yellow Brick Road

....Another Six Degrees of Blogging Adventure.

Today's journey will be magical, mystical and liberating.  First, I need to instill a thought about our preferred method of travel and then quickly instill a more dominant one.

Do you remember how Dorothy returned to Kansas?  Ok, hold that thought.  Because I can no more wear women's apparel than drink a glass of battery acid, we must overlay the visual of soft, worn and comfortable red leather cowboy boots onto the screen.  Whew!  I feel much better.

Other than early Clint Eastwood movies, no movie has touched my heart over the years more than The Wizard of Oz.  It has provided so many personal metaphors and has been such a source of inspiration that, "Oz is the Yellow Brick Road," became the mantra for the journey of my life.  So, come along with Toto, Dorothy and I and lets explore the Yellow Brick Road.

Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow is playing on our iPod as we click our boot heels three times. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

Fog lifts from the yellow cobblestone and a gentleman appears.  "Welcome to the Nest!" Tony Clark greets us with warm enthusiasm.  He then asks, "Why Settle for Just One Path?" This question and the ensuing conversation captures my attention and holds me spellbound.  Toto's ears perk.  I thought I was the only person in the world who could not zero in on a clear understanding of passion and work!!  Toto nods.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

Ronnie James Dio belts out Catch The Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow... on the iPod as Chris Cree talks about work and passion.  "I’ve been doing quite a bit of introspection these days. It’s not that I’m narcissistic or anything. I just keep hearing folks say over and over again that you will be most successful career wise if you work where your passion is." Yep brother, I hear that too!  Chris mentions that we should check out another Chris.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...

A bit further down the road and we meet Chris Johnston from Chris's Blog.  Chris relays the question, "Is this job for the money or does it give them fulfillment in life?" Chris is actually referring to Noah  Kagan's post at Okdork.com, The Paycheck vs. The Life. The discussion that follows this post is quite lively.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...

..." Danger, danger the Queen's about to kill
There's a stranger, stranger and life about to spill..."  more iPod, more Rainbow, more Yellow Brick Road.  ..."Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universitartus Committiartum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby...change directions."  We can do that in cyberspace, really, we can. I can't seem to continue via links with the passion/work discussion so I throw out a few sandbags and change course.  Chris tells us about Elli and Elli tells us about freedom and inspiration.  Elli gazes down at Toto and then back at us, "you guys need to see Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools." I'm thinking that Dorothy has seen it all but she humors me.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

Ritchie B jams on Cold Hearted Woman as we read Kevin's post - Consensus Web Filters.  Kevin, who was the founding executive editor of Wired has a very interesting site and it is well worth spending some time exploring.  The connection to Wired magazine strikes a chord of ironee today.  I just started reading Chris Anderson's The Long Tail this morning.  Chris is the editor in chief of Wired.  Toto notices my expression and barks, "you're not in Kansas anymore David."  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

The three of us swirl round in circles through cyberspace.  Cows, barns and flying monkeys pass us by.  (Didn't those flying monkeys creep you out?)  The iPod is gone but music begins to fill the cloudscape.  Jimi Hendrix picks a few strings as Judy Garland eases into Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Dorothy smiles.  Tota barks.  I cry. Judy and Jimi are beautiful man.  My soul lifts as we descend.  We are back on The Yellow Brick Road, right where it intersects with Rt. 66.  Christine Kane stands there holding her guitar.  She looks at Dorothy eyes wide open. They start to talk.  I start to walk down the Road.  Toto follows me.

Jimi...Judy?

"Somewhere over the rainbow
  Way up high,
  There's a land that I heard of
  Once in a lullaby.  

Somewhere over the rainbow
  Skies are blue,
  And the dreams that you dare to dream
  Really do come true.

  Someday I'll wish upon a star

  And wake up where the clouds are far
  Behind me.
  Where troubles melt like lemon drops
  Away above the chimney tops
  That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow

  Bluebirds fly.
  Birds fly over the rainbow.
  Why then, oh why can't I?

  If happy little bluebirds fly

  Beyond the rainbow
  Why, oh why can't I?"

Dave Rothacker

....Another Six Degrees of Blogging Adventure.

Today's journey will be magical, mystical and liberating.  First, I need to instill a thought about our preferred method of travel and then quickly instill a more dominant one.

Do you remember how Dorothy returned to Kansas?  Ok, hold that thought.  Because I can no more wear women's apparel than drink a glass of battery acid, we must overlay the visual of soft, worn and comfortable red leather cowboy boots onto the screen.  Whew!  I feel much better.

Other than early Clint Eastwood movies, no movie has touched my heart over the years more than The Wizard of Oz.  It has provided so many personal metaphors and has been such a source of inspiration that, "Oz is the Yellow Brick Road," became the mantra for the journey of my life.  So, come along with Toto, Dorothy and I and lets explore the Yellow Brick Road.

Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow is playing on our iPod as we click our boot heels three times. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

Fog lifts from the yellow cobblestone and a gentleman appears.  "Welcome to the Nest!" Tony Clark greets us with warm enthusiasm.  He then asks, "Why Settle for Just One Path?" This question and the ensuing conversation captures my attention and holds me spellbound.  Toto's ears perk.  I thought I was the only person in the world who could not zero in on a clear understanding of passion and work!!  Toto nods.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

Ronnie James Dio belts out Catch The Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow... on the iPod as Chris Cree talks about work and passion.  "I’ve been doing quite a bit of introspection these days. It’s not that I’m narcissistic or anything. I just keep hearing folks say over and over again that you will be most successful career wise if you work where your passion is." Yep brother, I hear that too!  Chris mentions that we should check out another Chris.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...

A bit further down the road and we meet Chris Johnston from Chris's Blog.  Chris relays the question, "Is this job for the money or does it give them fulfillment in life?" Chris is actually referring to Noah  Kagan's post at Okdork.com, The Paycheck vs. The Life. The discussion that follows this post is quite lively.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...

..." Danger, danger the Queen's about to kill
There's a stranger, stranger and life about to spill..."  more iPod, more Rainbow, more Yellow Brick Road.  ..."Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universitartus Committiartum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby...change directions."  We can do that in cyberspace, really, we can. I can't seem to continue via links with the passion/work discussion so I throw out a few sandbags and change course.  Chris tells us about Elli and Elli tells us about freedom and inspiration.  Elli gazes down at Toto and then back at us, "you guys need to see Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools." I'm thinking that Dorothy has seen it all but she humors me.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

Ritchie B jams on Cold Hearted Woman as we read Kevin's post - Consensus Web Filters.  Kevin, who was the founding executive editor of Wired has a very interesting site and it is well worth spending some time exploring.  The connection to Wired magazine strikes a chord of ironee today.  I just started reading Chris Anderson's The Long Tail this morning.  Chris is the editor in chief of Wired.  Toto notices my expression and barks, "you're not in Kansas anymore David."  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

The three of us swirl round in circles through cyberspace.  Cows, barns and flying monkeys pass us by.  (Didn't those flying monkeys creep you out?)  The iPod is gone but music begins to fill the cloudscape.  Jimi Hendrix picks a few strings as Judy Garland eases into Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Dorothy smiles.  Tota barks.  I cry. Judy and Jimi are beautiful man.  My soul lifts as we descend.  We are back on The Yellow Brick Road, right where it intersects with Rt. 66.  Christine Kane stands there holding her guitar.  She looks at Dorothy eyes wide open. They start to talk.  I start to walk down the Road.  Toto follows me.

Jimi...Judy?

"Somewhere over the rainbow
  Way up high,
  There's a land that I heard of
  Once in a lullaby.  

Somewhere over the rainbow
  Skies are blue,
  And the dreams that you dare to dream
  Really do come true.

  Someday I'll wish upon a star

  And wake up where the clouds are far
  Behind me.
  Where troubles melt like lemon drops
  Away above the chimney tops
  That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow

  Bluebirds fly.
  Birds fly over the rainbow.
  Why then, oh why can't I?

  If happy little bluebirds fly

  Beyond the rainbow
  Why, oh why can't I?"

Dave Rothacker

Writing Tools

Do you think Princess Diana had the ability to slip into an ordinary blouse and pair of jeans and make those clothes look stunning?  Perhaps enough to even launch a fashion?  And how mystifying that women throughout the world could put on the same clothes and for some reason not elicit a similar reaction.

What Princess Di did to clothes, Roy Peter Clark does to words.  The man slips into a few paragraphs and sounds as elegant as Di looked.  You or I might be able to convey a similar message, but for some reason it just doesn't sound as clear and to the point.

Would you like your writing to sound more clear and to the point?  Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools will help you to do just that. 

To gain the most from Roy's work, one must enter into the mindset of a carpenter or other tradesman who works with tools.  Roy divides his sage and wisdom into four tool boxes:

1. Nuts and bolts: strategies for making meaning at the word, sentence and paragraph levels.
2. Special effects: tools of economy, clarity, originality and persuasion.
3. Blueprints: ways of organizing and building stories and reports.
4. Useful habits: routines for living a life of productive writing.

Each of Roy's fifty chapters represents a writing tool.  In chapter fifty, Roy tells us to build a writing workbench to keep our tools in. As someone with a great reverence for tools, I so appreciate Roy's approach.  Techniques to improve our writing are to be cherished and oiled and polished and stored in velvet lined mahogany drawers.

In chapter forty-eight, Roy tells us how his collection of books on writing falls into two categories.  One category is like Elements of Style and the other is like Bird by Bird.  This struck a chord of connection to my own collection.  It's the same.  But more importantly it illustrates an undertone to Writing Tools.  Writing Tools is like Elements of Style and Bird by Bird. It will help us with the nuts and bolts of writing while opening our minds to the stories of our lives, and to those we've yet to live.

This might be one of my favorite tools:

Good writers turn stories into workshops, intense moments of learning in which they advance their craft.  I learned more about reporting and telling stories from "Three Little Words" than from any other writing experience of my life.  I'm still learning from it.  Bit I did not learn how much I learned until I stumbled on a strategy I've turned into a tool: I write a mission statement for each story.

Writing down your mission turns your vague hopes into language. By writing about your writing, you learn what you need to learn.

The difference between how Princess Diana electrified folks with the clothes she wore and how Roy Peter Clark brushes strokes of clarity with words is that throughout eternity, there will never be another Princess Di.  Roy gives us the tools to craft and build stories.  He gives us hope too.  Though we may never write with such elegance, it is possible.

Dave Rothacker

Think and Grow Rich

"Stephen Covey stole all of his material from Napoleon Hill," said the young lady - with prejudice. That young lady was a good friend of mine.  She had a commanding presence, a commanding opinion and I interpreted it as a command to run right out and pick up Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich.  Which I did - with urgency.

That was in 2002.  Since then I'm not sure more than a month goes by that I don't open up the book and look for guidance.  I feel a strong need to nut myself out right now, because after reading this essay you will come to that conclusion on your own anyhow.  Napoleon Hill is one of my closest friends. 

Under the tutelage of Andrew Carnegie and over a period of twenty-five years, Napoleon interviewed and analyzed five-hundred plus men of great wealth.  His quest - to find out how these men amassed their fortunes.  Napoleon condensed his laborious research into thirteen principles.  These thirteen principles make up Think and Grow Rich.

It seems that I can learn something on every page written in this book.  But there is one principle that stands out.  Looking back, I noticed that this chapter is marked with more notes and highlighter than all of the others.  This principle is so important to me that in 2003, I made it one of my core values.

The reason that I chose Think and Grow Rich to illustrate what I've learned from a particular book, can be found in the title of Chapter 6: Imagination. 

Napoleon - "Imagination is the workshop of the soul wherein is shaped all the plans for individual achievement."

Why imagination Dave?  Well, for the first forty years on this planet, I lived in one dwelling...my left brain.  To me, creativity and imagination were only words in the dictionary.  In my organized and analytical life, they did not compute.  One day I was crawling around in the attic and noticed light coming from under a door that I never knew existed.  I opened the door to the brilliant bright light of my right brain.  The warmth drew me in.  Occasionally I'll turn around and stick a toe over the threshold of that door to make sure my left brain is still there, but I've never gone back.

Napoleon Hill taught me how to assemble a group of people who could help and guide me with life and business issues.  The fact that every single person in my group is dead, doesn't seem to hinder the help in anyway.  Napoleon himself assembled a group and called it his imaginary council.  Some of his crew consisted of Abe Lincoln, Andrew Carnegie, Tom Edison and Henry Ford.  Napoleon's purpose for the imaginary council was to ask the individuals to help him rebuild his character. Before bed he would close his eyes and imagine the council gathered together.  He asked each to help him build the characteristic in which they were noted for.  Edison, who was actually still alive at this time, sat next to Napoleon and helped him with faith.  Lincoln assisted with justice and tolerance.  Ford helped him with persistence and self-confidence.

My imaginary council meetings take place in a cabin overlooking a lake in Maine.  It is Fall time there, year round.  There are ten folks in my crew.  Prior to sitting down at a huge oak table in front of a glowing fireplace, four of us usually ride up through the back roads on motorcycles.  Once everyone is together, I ask for help with a problem.  At times I receive direct responses and other times I do not. 

After I had held a few sessions early on, the content of the book began to take on new meaning. It felt while reading, that I was conversing directly with Napoleon.  Imagination is a wondrous universe.  And there is no better spaceship than a book to journey through it.  Open a book today, meet a friend, seek guidance and begin an adventure.

www.daverothacker.com

Gratitude: I Won't Learn Less

I am reading What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith.  I first learned of Marshall from his columns in Fast Company.  His writing was (is) just so down to earth real, in spite of his intellectuality, the myriad of little consonants that follow his name (which to his credit he does not wall paper his book with), and the fact that he coaches the most alien of species known to man; CEO's.

In his book, Marshall lists twenty habits that are a barrier to getting you there.  Habit # 17 is Failing to express gratitude.  He uses a few brilliant examples to explain the emotion-numbing effect of not saying thank you.  Here is the one that caught my attention:

My friend Chris Cappy, an expert in executive learning, has a saying that put this into perspective for me.  No matter what someone tells him, he accepts it by reminding himself, "I won't learn less."  What that means is when somebody makes a suggestion or gives you ideas, you're either going to learn more or learn nothing.  But you're not going to learn less.  Hearing people out does not make you dumber.  So, thank them for trying to help.

Four simple words to remember.  Four simple words that when said to one's self and followed by a thank you, will make the other person feel a bit more special.

Dave

www.daverothacker.com

Learning: Praise Effort

Betty:  Mom, I got an A on my math exam today!
Mom:  Aw Betty, you're so smart!
Long term outcome:  Betty will solve fewer problems and encounter more failure than if Mom had not praised her for her intelligence.

Do you have the ability to work your way through a problem?  Or do you know people who can?  I have worked with technicians for nearly twenty-five years.  These folks have to repair and maintain complicated and highly technical  electrical, computerized and mechanical equipment.  My position places me smack dab in the middle of dealing with the really good ones and also dealing with those who are not so good.  One characteristic that drives a Grand Canyon between each type of technician, is the ability to work through a problem.  The technicians who have the ability to step back, analyze the situation and work through it in methodical fashion are light years past those who can't.  It isn't even close.

Susy:  Mom, I got a C on my science exam.
Mom:  That's ok Susy, you just have to work a little harder next time, you can do it!
Long term outcome:  Susy will achieve more due in part to the praise she has received for her effort.

Carol S. Dweck writes a fascinating article in Scientific American Mind titled, The Secret to Raising Smart Kids.  Supported by research and testing, Carol contrasts the difference between two different classes of learners - helpless versus mastery-oriented.  The helpless type possess a fixed mind-set and the mastery-oriented possess a growth mind-set.

Fixed mind-set - Believe that intelligence is a fixed trait.  One only has a certain amount.
Growth mind-set - Believe that intelligence can be developed through education and hard work.  They want to learn above all else.

If you have a chance, read Carol's article.  Understanding the basic premise behind it, might make you want to help those who really put forth an effort, even more.

Dave Rothacker
daverothacker.com

School Lessons: A Sense of Place

Did you ever read one of your kid's homework assignments and think of all the interesting adult things you could do with it?   "Gee, I could do this and turn it into a story or my own personal project."

I found this piece titled, Developing a Sense of Place, written for 5th to 8th graders.  Two thoughts came to mind.  The first was what a great project to have your kid do!  Save this stuff for them to read when they get older.  It will help to give them roots, connection and identity.  Secondly, what a great project for one's self to do.  Even if we are fifty years old, it will give us roots, connection and identity when we look back upon it at age seventy-five.

dave rothacker