The List

Success.

In 1888 Thomas Edison wrote a list of things to do that in all honesty, makes him seem like a total whack job. In addition to his normal routine of invention and innovation of electricity and light bulbs, Edison's list of things to do includes, ink for the blind, artificial silk, and an electric piano. Read in one light it is the rantings of a madman, in another light, it shows us that Edison had passion, creativity, and drive. It underscores the need to dream big, challenge ourselves, and investigate the edges of our talents in order to truly become successful. Success is not about making safe choices, fitting in or working within our comfort zones but about being different, dynamic, and excited about the possibilities, all the possibilities. The only confirmed path to failure is inaction. Do it right or do it wrong, but do something.

The List:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/01/thomas-edison-to-do-list-1888/

Picture:

http://www.philhill.net/3-steps-thomas-edison-used-to-start-over-100-companies/

Things For A Monday Morning

Sundry.

The first morning of the week for me is often just the tangled remainder of a too-busy weekend that leaves me feeling more paralyzed than invigorated. From the tangle:

The cat has thrown up on the rug. I discover this by stepping in it in my socks.

I wore every pair of dance pants and tights I own over the weekend. I have four hours to do all of my laundry. Or I could just wear dirty pants.

I log on to email. 44 messages. I log back off.

I open my calendar to figure out my day, it is blank, just like the rest of the week. I put updating my new calendar on my mental list of things to do. I also put making a tangible list of things to do on it.

I drink the last of the coffee and think about the grocery store. Then I think about drinking more tea.

I walk downstairs and back up, three times, unable to remember what it is I am looking for.

I step in the wet spot from where I cleaned up after the cat in my last pair of clean socks.

I take a deep breath. I consider hunger and homelessness and addiction and violence and any number of other things worse than dirty socks and cat puke. I decide that attitude is everything. One thing at a time.

Money For Nothing

Work.

I have reached a conclusion about the extension of jobless benefits that makes me feel like a bad liberal. The good liberal in me says that we should extend the benefits, that people get into a rough spot, lack the training and education they need, do not have the kinds of opportunities they used to have before we sent jobs overseas, and generally should not be left in the lurch by society. The rest of me says wow, 99 weeks is a long time to be on unemployment. The truth is, I don't think that we are helping anyone by just writing them a check. The economy is improving, unemployment is decreasing, people went back to school during the recession, there are opportunities. I believe that one of the biggest and far-reaching problems in the U.S. is economic injustice and that wage and income equality play a big role in that. But it has to be real income. Earned income. Where are the federal work programs, the state-run training programs and the affordable education that get people off unemployment and back to earning? Where is the student loan debt relief that could help pull millions of educated Americans out of poverty and into gainful employment? Where did our work ethic go? I think it is time for us to take a good look at the possibility of economic recovery the hard way, through hard work, sacrifice, and lifestyle change. We all deserve a living wage, but we all have a responsibility to work for it. All of us.

Picture:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/nyregion/12benefits.html?pagewanted=all

Higher and Higher

Baby.

Mike Rowe of dirty Jobs fame has launched a campaigned aimed at higher education and the myth that it is the only path to success and financial security. Rowe argues that university education is over-valued and creating a generation of unskilled workers with large amounts of debt at a time when vocational occupations are struggling to find qualified workers. I agree with him. I spent the majority of my twenties in degree programs and have an embarrassing amount of both education and student loan debt. And no, I did not go to a fancy private school I couldn't afford, I attended state universities, worked while in school, received scholarships, grants and teaching fellowships and still ended up with debt which, as unsubsidized loans, compounded quarterly the entire time I was in school. Oh, hindsight. 

That being said, I use my education and do not regret the time or work or even the expense. My particularly strange collection of degrees and certifications allows me to live a lifestyle of my choosing and gives me a broad range of possibilities for employment. But that is not the case for the average undergraduate with a simple two or four year degree in a non-trade program. And most university students these days take on far more debt than I have up front, even before the interest begins to compound. As universities rapidly expand and the shape of education evolves at the pace of technology rather than human development, traditional education provides less opportunity for the average student than ever before. 

And trade work is incredibly valuable, lucrative, and offers opportunities for self employment, creative work, and non-traditional lifestyles that far better address the needs of the modern family. We need to re-value our carpenters, electricians, artists, foresters, and farmers and redefine education, what we teach and how we teach it. 

References/Image:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/23/mike-rowe-of-dirty-jobs-speaks-about-hard-work-how-many-are-following-the-worst-advice-in-the-history-of-the-world/

http://mithunonthe.net/2011/07/27/thailand-2010-damnoen-saduak-floating-market-tour-cobra-show-leaving-bangkok/

How To Start Your Day

Wake.

I am not a particularly good sleeper. Though not an insomniac, I do not sleep easily or very much and am prone to nightmares and fitful sleep. Perhaps because of this, I often wake in a soft and vulnerable state, feeling the stresses and obligations of life press upon me. In order to shake myself loose from this and face my day I turn to morning ritual. Far better than half an hour of extra sleep is rising early to take time for myself to build a fire, have a cup of coffee outside with the birds, and stretch. The way I begin my day has everything to do with how I proceed through the rest of it. Taking time for yourself first thing in the morning is a reminder of your own importance and it allows you to gather your thoughts and plan a course of action. It is not selfish to take this time. Self care is what allows us to provide for others and give them what they need. 

A list of things to do to reinvent your morning:

Do Yoga

Meditate

Drink a cup of tea

Read

Eat breakfast

Make a list

Take a walk

Sit quietly

Play music, sing a song

Take a bath, not a shower

For more ways to transform your morning:

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11639/5-life-changing-ways-to-start-your-day.html

Image:

http://therumpus.net/2009/01/morning-coffee-18/

What Can You Do?

Try.

These days I am struck by the remarkable ability of people to reinvent themselves. I marvel at the diversity of passages and achievements I see in the people around me, degrees earned, languages learned, families built, shifted, and rebuilt. I consider the possibility that at any given time what we are, who and how we are in the world can be and in fact is, just a product of our own storytelling, ambitions, and hopes. I am glad to witness the fallen rise and the unhappy cheer and cautioned by the stories of those with harder luck. I delight, too, in the more simple manifestations of this process, friends that master baking bread, trapeze, or a new instrument. I love these achievements, the investment of time and effort they represent and am inspired to inspect my own ambitions. I think it is important to investigate the edges of our talents and abilities. It keeps us fresh and child-like in the world. It also reminds us that we can face the larger changes and challenges, that all hope is never lost. You can be the person you wish to be today, right now. It may not last and you dreams may not all come true, but today, if you let it, your truth can set you free.

Image:

  http://howtochangemylife.org/how-to-change-my-life/?replytocom=1

Green Pastures

Ice.

I spent a snowless holiday in Sun River Oregon, a resort town that exists almost entirely because of what has been, until recently, some of the best winter recreation in the United States. This year, families rode bikes on clear bike paths, took sleigh rides in horse drawn carriages mounted on wheels and paid fifteen dollars for a day pass to sled on a small man made slope with man made snow. On the way home, over the pass, the Willamette ski area was a ghost town and there were deer idly grazing the grassy green ski slopes. This is our new normal. If you are still in doubt, or still believe that isolated extreme weather events can make up for what we lose in normal seasonal precipitation, take a look at the online exhibit from the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. A picture is worth a thousand words.

http://vanishingice.org/