THOUGHTS FROM CHINA- November 2015

 

Shenzhen - November 2015.

My first Shenzhen visit was October 1986.  Relatively vacant and flat, it was a fishing town located within the newly decreed so-called "Special Economic Zone."  

 

We landed in Hong Kong a few days earlier and then traveled by bus and crossed a small simple border station building to lunch at a hotel restaurant.  Across the waters more "town" was visible.  Skies were blue.  The air was fresh.  Inside the hotel sat samples from the Terracotta Army displayed for foreigners (us) to admire.  Bicycles and three-wheelers were the norm in those days.

 

Twenty-nine years have passed.  How many China visits and names of all the cities visited?  I can't say.  But as for Shenzhen, in place of the fishing village sits towering offices skyscrapers (mid-range / thirty floors), shopping centers and residential buildings, theaters, sports centers, and banks, banks, banks. Construction is constant.   A million cars and trucks (my guess) replace the bikes and trikes, now rarities.  Eighteen million people (fact) live within this one large spot.  Here ... Shenzhen ... only a part of China, immersed in the largest capitalist and market driven experiment the world has ever known.  It runs day and night, full force countrywide.  

 

Chengdu - January 2014.

Eight hundred thirty three miles north and east of Shenzhen rests Chengdu, home of the giant panda.  Administratively, fourteen million (people not panda) live here tucked against Longmen Mountain and the Qionglai Mountains that rise above central Sichuan province.  My first visit to Chengdu - January 2014.  No prior reference points: only the towers of 2014 attesting to modernity.  Over half of the world's Fortune 500 companies host offices in Chengdu.  Mixed into the swirl of humanity are disenfranchised Tibetans - contained, my description, by the energy of watching eyes: a government that wonders what would happen ... if ... if... if....  Chengdu - the birthplace of the world's first ever widely used paper currency.

 

Wenzhou - 2007.

Two hours forty minutes (current flight standards) due west of Chengdu sits coastal Wenzhou.  My visits: by now a few; with the first being August 2007.  I recall from that time.  Grey.  Industrialized.  Flat.  Hot.  Stale.  During the entire trip I saw only one star (actually, a planet).  One striking '07 memory: a lone woman gawked and laughed as she peddled past me on her bicycle.  Me, a strange-looking foreign outsider.  My experiences of that visit were recorded in a poetic piece "This IS China".

 

"This IS China" began:

This is China.  Yes, so are the other cities I've been to over the past few months - Beijing, Shanghai, Haining, etc.  But this IS China.  Large, urban, constantly moving. Not "getting ready for the Olympics".  Gritty city China.  Right now the sun is a large hot smog-screened ball burning through the haze scorching the skin.  I don't know it, the scorch, but I feel it.

Mid-course it read:

What do I notice?  Old men and women ... maybe not as old as they look ... walking underneath the freeway (I don't think it's called "freeway" here) scavenging wood into pots and bowls.  And I wonder, what will become of the wood?  What will become of them? Probably, the same thing.  What do I notice?  A man peddling a three-wheeled awning covered taxi cab (they are everywhere) and placing his right foot on a break attached to the frame above the front tire.

It ended:

After "star gazing" I went to a teahouse. Taken there by two of the students from the Samurai (Warrior) Game.  Both are business owners.  Wenzhou is a business/manufacturing center in China.  The teahouse was a magnificent and quiet place (and very un-Chinese) filled with valuable artifacts from all over Tibet.  All for sale, and some items priced as high as US$12,000.  The place is owned by a woman and a guy.  He's a devout Buddhist.  See comment above about "Higher Power".  We talked about peace.  I see what I get to see, when I get to see it and enjoyed the moment. An interesting trip.  Too bad it had to end so soon.

 

My last visit Wenzhou, 2013.  Susan Hammond joined me to successfully deliver our aikido-based program, The Art of Practice: an interesting undertaking considering the anti-Japanese sentiment within China.  Wenzhou, 2013, architecturally magnificent, with structures towering above the above, making for a skyline unrecognizable these six years later.  Look here, look there:  Bentley - Porsche- Rolls Royce - Lamborghini.  And then: Mercedes and Audi all so commonplace as to be, well, prosaic.  And then:  Buick, Buick, Buick.

 

Back to today.

From where the now-time Shenzhen and China have come in three decades is both breathtaking and breath taking.  On one hand - inspiring: people magnificently transforming a region in such a short amount of time.  On the other hand - disturbing: a rampant smog here in Shenzhen today is elsewhere, everywhere everyday.  There's always more than one side to every coin.

 

Hard to imagine the "was" of 1986, when our plane landed between the buildings of downtown Hong Kong - entry point to Shenzhen.  Today's Hong Kong airport outclasses most of the worlds.  Yes, Hong Kong retains its decades old Star Ferry, but the buildings and those of Kowloon and the expansive stretch of the "Special Economic Zone" with new cities, e.g. ShaTin, these define the physicality of "transformation".  Today most outsiders (including friends at home) have no experienced "real" clue about this place ... only clothing tags boasting "Made in China", with newsprint and talking heads proclaiming "the world's second largest economy."  Ask an average person on the street in Shenzhen, "Who is Obama?", and you'll get an accurate answer.  Ask an average American on the street, "Who is Xi Jinping?", and you'll probably get the same answer as if you asked, "Who is Ashton Carter?"  Well maybe.  To the latter question, instead of hearing "I don't know", you might catch "Jimmy Carter's brother(?)" - not "Secretary of Defense".

 

What is this China?  Where is it going?  Who knows.  Yes, problems loom, including some with serious health and medical implications that could possibly strain and drain the massive economic machine it's grown to become.  But the answer to the "where" question is: We shall see.

 

One thing for certain, China 2015 is anything but static.

 

© Lance Giroux, November 2015

   

COMING HOME: An Invitation For You

I'm sitting in a railway station.

Got a ticket to my destination.

On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand

And ev'ry stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band.

Homeward bound,

I wish I was,

Homeward bound.

- Paul Simon & Art Garfunkle

 

It's the last days of October 2015.  Hong Kong and Shenzhen.  Been here a while. Tomorrow I'll head home.  Then back here in two weeks and on to Tokyo, Nakatsugawa and Nagoya.

 

The series of stop-and-go's before (this current round) ended three weeks ago.  Feels like yesterday, but it wasn't; Russia's Moscow and from there on to Italy's Tuscany region.  Wonderful places.  More importantly: wonderful people.  A plus is something I've loved doing ever since I was seven years old and was bit by the "I get to fly in an airplane!" bug:  the watching out of airplane windows at our planet rushing by below.  Three weeks ago were breathtaking views of the Alps standing between Italy's Pisa and Germany's Munich.

 

"Forty one years." This was my response last night.  Someone I had been chatting with here in Hong Kong asked the question, "How long has this journey of yours been?"

 

On almost every trip I can depend on hearing that question multiple times coupled with, "And where do you live?"  Since 1989 my answer to that latter ("where") inquiry has been, "Petaluma. A cute little house in a small farming town in Sonoma County California." 

 

A short while back, though, and I can't remember exactly how long ago that short while was, a hesitation surfaced in my reply. I paused, then smiled and offered up my standard response anyway.  The hesitation, the quiet truth, the whispered voice (loud and clear) inside me, "Oh no you don't live in Petaluma; you live in Mexico City and Beijing, Shanghai and Amsterdam, Chengdu and Shenzhen and Taipei, Oklahoma City and Guadalajara, Toronto and Wenzhou, Valle de Bravo and the Coyoacan and Hong Kong, Rostov-on-Don and Tyumen and Moscow and Togliatti ... and, and ... and now and then you visit Petaluma."

 

That inside voice is important.  It talks to me a lot. Sometimes I don't want to hear it.  Sometimes I need to hear it.  It's in all of us.

 

So ... the time has arrived to begin a long journey back home ... home.  Home where three very old huge oaks stand outside my front door.  Home where a rose garden graces the ground out back.  Home where Velasco's is a short evening walk, where owner Teri chats with her customers as she oversees American-style Mexican tacos ... not the same as Coyoacan tacos, but none-the-less tasty.  Home where Japan's deep undercurrents encounter western world-ers practicing inside Two Rock Aikido dojo ... my refuge and my learning place and where I enjoy friends.  Home where not-so-well-known-to-the-outside world businesses (Dempsey's, DiFalco's, Hallie's and Acre and The Apple Box) deliver their services with spirit as great as anywhere in the world.  Here is the longed for home, a town less populated than two of the high rise apartment buildings adjacent to my Hong Kong hotel.  Home where ... well, you know, where "home" could be.  I'm going home, in the larger sense yes, going home.

 

So here's an invitation ... and if you respond ... it's meant for you.

 

My long homecoming journey ... 41 years in the making ... begins with an offer for you to join me on February 7-11 at "The Ronin Huddle" - a retreat I crafted in 2002, then called "The Leaders' Retreat".  The old name is no longer appropriate.  People mistakenly thought the retreat was reserved for executives or business owners; but that simply wasn't the case.  The retreat - The Huddle - is for anyone who decides to attend to their own wellbeing and engage in thoughtful practices of listening, dialogue, feeling and quiet; practices of integrating physical movement and nature - all for the purpose of serving what's important to their lives and their future. 

 

Though I'll be The Huddle's host and facilitator, I'll also be as much a dedicated student as everyone else.  Our venue: Four Springs Retreat Center - in Middletown, California, an hour from my Northern California front door.  Susan Hammond will also facilitate, bringing her strength and expertise as a Feldenkrais practitioner in service to us all.

 

So at this point it's a wide open invitation - and there's room for only twenty.  Do you want to come?  Will you?   

 

Your fee (request details and information here) will cover your 4-evening stay, your meals, exceptional instruction, rich experiences and the joyfulness of time richly spent with wonderful people.

 

Transportation to and from Four Spring is yours to handle. 

 

Winter is a good time for a respite.  Winter is an important time for the ending of one thing and the beginning of another.  Winter is a great time to begin a journey home.

 

You've been invited.  Call +1-707-364-2900 or emailinfo@LanceGiroux.com

 

My Promise: Four days serving only what matters to your life.

 

Home where my thought's escapin'

Home where my music's playin'

Home where my love lies waitin' silently for me

- Paul Simon & Art Garfunkle

 

©Lance Giroux, 2015

   

Why Study Leadership

 

It was 2001.   An evening MBA class at a University of San Francisco.  I was invited to meet students who were scheduled to attend USF's first offering of The Samurai Game®.  Over the next few years the simulation would become part of the university's MBA core leadership course, and also offered within a special USF for-credit retreat.   But this night was simply introductory time.  

 

The professor needed time to cover the day's topic - The JoHari Window.  Then, turning her attention to me for the night's remaining minutes, we went round the room so everyone could answer a question I requested in order to help me prepare for what I'd bring to them in a couple of weeks.  "What are you gaining from your leadership studies here at USF?" 

 

A third of the way around the circle sat a student sprawled across his chair, feet out, head tossed back.  Everything about him said, "I don't want to be here."  His contribution started with a deep in breath and a sigh, and then, "Well leadership is an interesting topic.  But I'm only getting my MBA so I can more marketable.  I really don't care about leadership, and I don't' think it should be a required course in the MBA program.  Why should I have to study it?"

 

That was quite a poke.   My "what are you gaining" question was sincere.  I took the work seriously (still do).  I wanted know how to serve each candidate and their professor, and the university's mission.  I caught myself reacting.  Then I paused so his question could hang in the air for a while.  I recall thinking, "Well, at least he's being real."

 

I was an outsider that night.  No official standing within this system, just an invited guest.   I found myself wondering if other barbed surprises lurked.  Was this guy an anomaly?  Was he voicing what others wanted to say but were unwilling, embarrassed or afraid to admit?  Words like, "HEY, LET'S GET REAL ... I'M ONLY HERE AS A STEPPING STONE TO GET SOMEWHERE ELSE!" 

 

Today, 2015, we hear about this kind of thing all the time.  It's nothing new.  We read about Congressional representatives motivated to run for office with little thought given to serving a constituency; instead a lot of thought pointed at the lucrative business called being a lobbyist.   For how many people has election into a government position become today's MBA? 

 

Back to 2001 and USF.  I looked around the room.   Some were embarrassed.  I saw a few shocked faces and shaking heads.  ("Nope," I thought, "he's speaking for himself.  If others hold that opinion and are covering it up -- then that's just the way it is.")

 

My next words just kind of walked into the room's silence.   "I'm not certain I can do justice to your question, 'Why study leadership?.'  But once you have your MBA degree and you've marketed yourself well, and you have that great job, ask the people working for you why you should have studied leadership.  They'll probably have an answer.  Thanks.  Next?"

 

[Click here to read "On Principled Leadership: It's the Person, Not the Title"; L Giroux; USF Graduate Business Journal, September 2002.]

 

© Lance Giroux, August 2015

Stay Alert!

Is it important that teachers (academic, religious, personal growth, coaches, etc.) and leaders (organizational, business, non-profit, military, political, etc.) who espouse ethics and moral codes and constructive behavior be ardent students and practitioners of those codes?  As cliché as it sounds, it comes down to walking the talk.  Do the messengers have a responsibility to be on paths consistent with their messages?  And what of their products and services?  IF your answer is, "Yes, it is important" – then how important is it, in other words, to what degree?  And what to do about it?

In 1989 at a meeting I was attending a company CEO spoke with an employee prior to his (the employee's) testimony as a witness in a trial.  The employee was nervous about how his answers would be received.  Attorneys representing the company told him to simply tell the truth.  But concerned for how "the truth" might impact corporate image, the CEO said in the meeting, "I would never ask you to lie, but just tell the truth beautifully.  Know that I mean?"  I stopped doing business with that company and that CEO.  The employee?  He quit.

The general field I've been engaged in for four decades involves experiential leadership seminars and workshops.  Unfortunately this field has become quite industrialized, kind of "McDonald-ized".  Forty-one years ago only a handful of organizations did this kind of work, and it was pretty rough stuff.  Since that day a lot of improvements have been made.  Along the way, in no small measure thanks to the internet and social media and some slick marketing, thousands of wannabe groups have sprung up.  There are some sincere folks out there, but many of the groups are simply spin offs of spin offs started up by people unstudied and unpracticed in the messages they promote and the programs they facilitate.  Rather than grappling with the messages (appealing and attractive) some of these owners and facilitators get fixated on financial reward, "the bottom line".  Where are they when it comes to ethical or moral code they espouse?  Here's a viewpoint – "bottom lines" have nothing to do with money.  When all the money is gone, the bottom line is the guy or gal looking from the mirror… provided one has the moral courage to actually look into the mirror.   

The embodiment of an ideal takes time and effort and failure and falling off the wagon and getting back on the wagon and scraped knuckles and bruised ego and lost revenue and the willingness to look like a fool – and always being a new student every day.  It's not that the upstarts who fashion the spinoffs shouldn't make the effort to spread the idealistic word or engage in idealistic work.  But if the upstarts aren't interested in study and homework, in doing the "practice" of the ethical/moral codes they espouse enough to practice them, then they should seek a different path.

Being financially rewarded or compensated for service is one thing.  No argument there.  That one sells something he or she doesn't believe in enough to commit the sincere practice of it - ESPECIALLY important when times get tough and the manure is hitting the ventilator – well then, at best this is an insult and at worst it's a satire that leads to decay and ultimately undermines trust.

Lance Giroux

"There is more to life than increasing it's speed", M.K. Gandhi

Memorial Day 2015

A few years ago, on my first visit to Poland, I spent a day at Auschwitz –its Polish name being Oświęcim – to understand and remember.  This week I’m in Taiwan until May 31.  I won’t get to be at the annual Memorial Day ceremony back home, so the plan is to visit WWII POW camps on NE side Formosa where LTG Jonathan Wainwright and others were held captive following the surrender at Corregidor.  Yesterday I saw a FB posting commemorating Memorial Day.  It was the image of an American flag superimposed with a shadow of a cross.  It got me thinking that all who served need honoring, regardless of “brand” of belief and by what symbol their “brand” of belief is or was identified – including “brands” that some might label “lack of belief” or “non belief” or “not my belief”.  Apparently they “believed” enough in each other (regardless of “brand”) to take care of what I get to enjoy.  Tuesday’s memories will include my Dad, my brother, some relatives and close friends & classmates – and some recent acquaintances whose “brands” have been, at times, shunned, scoffed, mocked, jeered or otherwise marginalized.  But they all served.

Lance Giroux

"There is more to life than increasing it's speed", M.K. Gandhi

Hello, Are You There?

Hello, Are You There?

Thursday night - a weekend event - forty years ago. Drawing attention to how habitualized people have become to distractions the speaker asked us to remove our watches and place them in a basket kept at the podium. Sure enough as the evening unfolded people caught themselves glancing at empty wrists as thoughts related to time entered their thinking.

The simplicity of the exercise made it profound - at least for me. "How long have I been sitting here?" (a glance at my wrist). "I wonder what Charlotte's doing? (a glance at my wrist). "What time are we supposed to start tomorrow?" (a glance at my wrist) --- You get the picture. In short order the wristwatch thing drew awareness to the thoughts that otherwise I would not have realized were so frequent.

That weekend was about accepting responsibility as an adult regarding my thoughts, and what these thoughts produce in my daily life, and who the people are who surround me, and what they really are about. No doubt staying on schedule is important - but it's not the only thing that's important.

Saturday - a weekend event - one month ago. Drawing attention to how habitualized people are to distractions I asked folks to turn off their mobile phones during the program sessions I was conducting, and offered that they might soon begin to notice how much control their mobile phones have on behavior, mood and attitude. Then I suggested an experiment - for those who would be willing - put away the phone for two full days to see what functioning and communication and relationships would be like without a mobile phone. In other words, try to function without one for a while.

The result? Lots of chuckles at first. Most people turned them off. A few put them on vibrate. Some made no effort at all. The rest of us knew who was who in as "blings" and "beeps" and "jazz" and "whistles" played out a Pavlovian sideshow. Every couple hours we took our bathroom breaks, and less frequently our meal breaks. Hands darted to the pocketed phones. Feet carrying bodies dashed across the room and jittering fingers scrambled for purses and brief cases nurturing the prized devices. Within seconds folks had them plastered against their ears - some had one at each ear.
Interesting? Odd? Strange? Well maybe not - we see it all the time. Walk into any restaurant and count how many people are on their mobile phones, talking or texting or playing video games. We are a world distracted - and some would offer a world that is kept distracted. This is no small deal, in fact it's kind of scary. It's not a USA thing. It's not a China, Mexico, Russia thing. It's nearly everywhere, even in some of the most remote places on our planet.

Consider watching that couple sitting across from you in the restaurant while they're on a (what could have been romantic) date, and one of them stops mid conversation as the vibration or the bling of a Samsung or iPhone demands (yes ... DEMANDS) attention. And with that, the device holder (it's actually sitting on the table next to the salad fork) says, "Excuse me a moment, will you?" - then answers and has a chat. Actions speak loudly. Doubtful you'd hear the following said with words, "I'm sorry (well maybe not really) but my device here is telling me something more important than you (at least it could be?) is happening right now, so I've got to put you (miss or mister human being) on pause a bit because (after all) you're in second place right now." Sad? Yes, but it's just been said with a body in action.

The mobile phone (as with the wrist watch of forty years ago) isn't the issue. We are the issue ... or at least we could be and should be the issue. Our mental discipline. Our potential. Relating and connecting, even over seemingly mundane things that could be magnificent and terribly interesting when we slow enough to attend to them. 

There are lots of studies. But the studies will remain studies and our individual and collective human potential will remain unrealized potential as long as we don't act and practice something different.

More here --> here

And --> here

And then --> here as well.

Sunday - the end of that weekend program - one month ago. A young man (we'll call him Gustavo) walks up with a big grin and says, "I've been living totally distracted, and I'm a really smart guy. I didn't used to be that way. But, more and more I've gotten caught up in technology to a point that it feels like I can't relax, like time is getting away from me, like I'm on a coffee high all the time. It's to a point that I'm taking medication to slow me down. Thanks for asking me to put away my mobile phone."

Will it last for him? I don't know. I hope so.


© Lance Giroux, April 2015

Inspired In Shanghai (XieXie to Lyric Chan)

10:00 am Friday, March 13. Room 513, Building #2, 505 South Zhongshan Road, Shanghai.  Lyric Chan, Founder of Aspire Space, arranged the meeting.  Claire Kong sits across the conference table for our pre-workshop interview.  She's the weekend translator.  Nervous, somewhat apologetic, she wants to do a good job. Understandable.  Her English is great but she's never attended an experiential personal growth workshop and she's never before translated professionally. Appreciative that her friend asked her to do this, she's done her homework, read the materials in advance on her own. Her poise is what one would expect of a University of San Diego MBA graduate (she is).  All that said, she's still nervous.  Lyric assures her today's meeting is NOT a screening, it's a done deal, "I'm confident you'll do great.  Don't worry. You can't mess this up. We're here to support you."   7:15 pm Friday, March 13. PuXi side of HuangPu, The Bund, Shanghai.   The last time I walked on this beautiful stretch of riverfront was 2011.  That was with Paul Marshall the weekend we delivered my aikido-based program (The Art of Practice & Organizational Dojo) - an adventurous undertaking, given the China VS Japan cultural and political sensitivities.  Tonight I'm alone... well not actually.  I'm surrounded by who knows how many people everywhere.  It's obvious the skyline has changed on the PuDong side.  I had a similar reaction in 2011, comparing the skyline then with prior Shanghai visits.  China is always growing.  But then again I heard today that the population is stabilizing.  What hits me tonight?  Brilliant lights transforming skyscrapers into massive advertisement towers. What hits me tonight?  Little kids scrambling to run in front of parents and then, like kids back home, turn and laugh and make faces.  What hits me tonight?  Party boats with filled with celebration.  My friends, Roy and Ania, were married on a similar boat last November in Santa Monica, California.  What hits me tonight? Memories of Ray, Arizona, and the adjacent towns Sonora and Barcelona that formed the community I was born into.  The people walking the Bund at this very moment number more than all of the people who ever lived in and visited Ray, Sonora and Barcelona during their entire lifespans.  Yet, insignificant these tiny towns were not.  From them came musicians (Joe Corral) and cardiologists (Bethesda's Dr. Norman Rich) and artists, and entrepreneurs and public servants and down home people, and teachers who inspired and made life good for others.  Lots to reflect on. 10:08 am, Saturday, March 14.  Room 511, Building #2, 505 South Zhongshan Road, Shanghai.  Lyric has welcomed the members of "Aspired Space" here for the weekend - 23 women and 9 men - all eager - some HR executives, some consultants. One of the women here today served in the Chinese army.  Also today we have a police officer who was curious and came because of his wife.  Claire and I walk to the front of the room.  She introduces herself, admitting that she's never translated before but is here to do her best.  We launch into the program and we never look back.  By meal break she's relaxed.  As the afternoon simulation unfolds you'd swear she's already translated scores of programs.  When the day ends, and after witnessing the trust and expression and intensity of the participants, she turns and says, "I'm about ready to cry. I had no idea what to expect.  This was profound.  I just love it." 4:15 pm, Sunday, March 15. Room 511, Building #2, 505 South Zhongshan Road, Shanghai.  Lyric Chan wraps up the weekend program. I decided to add in the short TED video (complete with Chinese subtitles) of Benjamin Zander's "Shining Eyes".  Why?  Because Zander reinforces all of the weekend's learning and lessons.  He just uses a different metaphor.  I feel it's important for folks to understand the universality of what the weekend has been about, and I realize that I may never see them again.  So ... Why Not?!? 5:12 pm, Sunday, March 15.  505 South Zhongshan Road, Shanghai. Lyric has completed his training and certification, and is now qualified to lead this simulation anywhere the world.  But, he's accomplished something larger.  He's effectively introduced the idea of embodied education - thought, emotion, integrated physical movement and expression, reflection, dialogue, and practice - to 32 colleagues.  Yesterday he said this was his objective.  He told them that there's much more to learning than the accumulation of data. His words have captured their attention and have taken root.  Claire Kong could well be back for more translator opportunities.  I hope so.  Her parting words, "I thought I was coming here to do some translation and help a friend.  But this is life changing.  I will remember what I've learned for the rest of my life.  You'll see me again." XieXie (thank you) Lyric Chan © March 2015, Lance Giroux

Gray Skies And Storms Today Normal This Time Of Year

   

Gray Skies And Storms Today

Normal This Time Of Year

Communication.

Have you been reading or listening to or watching the news?  On the US East Coast big storms lay down mounds of snow.  Normal, the storms are, but not with this intensity.  Around the globe - more storms.  Storms - not of weather only - that ravage populations.  Storms of revenge, storms of religious fervor, storms of oligarchies east and west. Political squabble storms: parties uniting (so they say) to continue a divide that generates their power (or appearances thereof).  Then there are the storms of pipelines and oil and gasoline, and the whose-water-is-it-anyway-mine-not-yours storms.  You know these storms, yes?  Storms that scream loudly and then trickle down to run along local sidewalks to murmur, "Hold your tongue because your neighbor (or your brother) might not like what you say (or think!), and you won't be welcome in this (my, his, our, their) neighborhood".  These storms, we read and hear about them by the bucket loads.  Well, yes - so long as we're not caught up in the storms of under inflated footballs.  After all, in the grand scheme of things, the NFL and the Lombardi Trophy really are what's important. 

Communication.

On a recent morning walk I telephoned someone very dear to me.  During the conversation she said, "Education that creates debate is the best kind of education."  I wondered about that (still do).  I think I know what she meant, but I'm not so certain about that word debate. Often debate is geared solely at who will win and who will lose. Generally creating thicker walls, walls that obstruct communication, rarely does debate as we know it today generate commitments that resolve problems or establish common ground or learning or understanding or respect.   On the other hand, education that creates DIALOGUE - now, that's something worth considering.

Communication.

It's getting close to springtime here in the western Northern Hemisphere.  Even with these gray skies.  The plumb tree outside my back yard poked forth its first white blossom two days ago, and communicated, "Change is always happening."  I'll soon be on a trip to the other side of the planet.  When I return the entire tree will look to be a giant cotton ball.  Nice, this blossoming!  No matter the winter, nature has its way of waking things up to remind us that life goes on - if we're present enough to notice.  In a few weeks a buddy of mine and I will head off to latitude 64o50'37" N to capture (hopefully) a glimpse of the aurora borealis.  Another of nature's communications: reminding that something is more profound and more important than the squabbling, positioning and battling over pandered points of view. As grand as we human beings are, we really are quite small though not as small as a plumb tree blossom, or the bee that will soon come to service it. 

Communication.

Last month my granddaughter and I stole away for a few hours and took a ferryboat across San Francisco Bay: birthday celebration for her, just the two of us on a cold gray January afternoon.   The Bay was ours to enjoy, as were her burger and my crab sandwich at the waiting Ferry Building.  Before catching the boat home we stopped and stood in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue.  I asked her, "Do you know who this person is?" "Nope," she replied.  Ah hah ... an opportunity to communicate anew ... and such fun this potpourri! 

Communication.

Today, this afternoon, early into February 2015, I sit with a worn copy of a favorite book.  Gandhi's autobiography, "The Story Of My Experiments With Truth".  It pops open to page 287 and the words of a small frail bodied person who became revered and known as "Bapu" by scores of millions (though not with that as a goal in mind).  For a time, amidst many storms, he changed a wintered world into a springtime:

"I realized that the sole aim of journalism should be service.  The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countrysides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled serves but to destroy.  If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control.  It can be profitable only when exercised from within.  If this line of reasoning is correct, how many of the journals in the world would stand the test?  But who would stop those that are useless?  And who should be the judge?  The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally, go on together, and [MANKIND] must make his choice."

Can we, will we, communicate?

© Lance Giroux, February 2015

Glancing Back at 2014

Glancing Back At 2014  2014 was a full year of near non-stop travel - PR China, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mexico, Russia, Poland, the Netherlands, Minnesota, Arizona, Washington, Texas and Oklahoma.  Many hundreds of people were my teachers.  They provided learning and lessons that continue to unfold.  Among these I am particularly grateful for having had the opportunity to be deeply moved by the perseverance displayed by: - Tom Osborne, Keganin No Senshi Aikido, for dedicating his life to healing the scars held by all men, women and children who have ever been affected by Combat Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. - Susan Adams, for her focus on service to others through Two Cranes Institute, all the while setting aside trials of personal sorrow. - Timothy Locke, for his steadfastness and positive attitude while successfully rebuilding Four Springs Retreat Center, against what at times appeared to be near impossible odds. - Caroline Su, of Enlightening Coaching, for her commitment to responsible paths of long-term practice while training life coaches, midst an industry that has become increasingly dominated and sidetracked by quick fix programs and promises of instant learning. - Miranda Yen, of Hong Kong, for her integrity when it comes to leading her company, for her commitment as a parent, and for the choice she makes to always look for good in others. - Steve Parker, my friend, for allowing me to walk with him into the world of his final days ... there to witness honesty, service to others and gratitude as the basis for his last actions.   "Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it."  -  Mother Teresa