To the Unknown Youth who defy time every day

08 Feb 2012 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

A few years ago, the Huffington Post had a series on adolescents who were making a difference in the world by doing truly wonderful things.  Many of these kids were raising funds for special needs groups, starting organizations to help others and selflessly giving of their time and energy to help benefit those less fortunate.  They were making a difference in the world and the profiles of these teens was both inspiring and motivating.  The series was well worth reading and the Huffington Post is to be applauded for featuring much good that is being done in the world.  It is all too easy to become cynical and bitter after reading the daily news.  Headlines blare about crimes and injustices that boggle the mind.  The way to sell papers is with bad news and not good news.  Inundated with a blizzard and barrage of crimes, is it any wonder that so many people now want to live in gated communities and carry concealed weapons.  
This fifth of my series on youth who defy time could or might have focused on one young individual who was making a difference.  However, I would rather say that I have someone who I know is making a difference and you do as well.  Let’s call this young person the “Unknown Youth.”  This is the youth who does not do great or majestic feats.  They start no world renowned institutes or organizations to help others.  Neither do they raise great sums of money or mobilize thousands of others to their charitable efforts.   These unknown youths make a difference simply by acting responsibly, helping others on a daily basis, doing their share in the world and not falling victim to the cynicism, commercialism and greed that afflicts so many others in our modern society. 
 
You meet these unknown youths on a daily basis. They hold the door for you, let you merge in line on the freeways, call you sir or madam, help their parents with chores, respect their teachers, volunteer for military service, go to work on time and generally are good responsible citizens.  They may never receive any awards for these efforts, but such youth are the backbone of society and our hope for the future. 
You may be wondering how it is that the unknown youth defy time. Well, consider the following quote generally attributed to Socrates by Plato:
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
Whether this quote really comes from Plato or Aristotle or someone else is beside the point.  It has been around for centuries.  When you consider that for over 2000 years, we have labeled many young people as irresponsible and self-centered, it seems evident that any young person violating this stereotype is truly defying both their age group and their generation.  My own belief is that we “older” folks are always measuring the younger folks by standards and metrics that are not fair in the current culture.  There are some standards that are indeed timeless, but many of us have a way of judging others and forgetting the past that we once lived.  We hold others to higher standards then we ever had and then find them falling far short.  I think the fact is that youth today can never measure up to the “old days” when we elders walked through miles of snow drifts to get to school and would never ever, or at least hardly ever contradict our teachers or act selfishly.  Generations will always judge other generations and somehow the past is always better than the present.  The “good old days” seems to be part of human nature.  When I tell my friends that the best days are now and the future will be even better, many of them think that I am crazy.  This could never be true if the youth of today were even half as bad as many believe. 
As you go about your daily routines, see if you can notice a young person who is acting responsibly.  Notice how they behave and what you think about their behavior.  See if you can thank them for making a difference. The more of these young people you notice, the more your life will be full of hope and joy.  You will begin to notice that there is much more good behavior surrounding you than bad behavior.  See if you can add to the good by helping others and being thankful for the young people in your life.  How many of these good behaviors did you notice today?  How many of them did you thank or let the young person know you appreciated?  What was the response of the young person?  How did you feel? 

Sophie defied Hitler and defied time at the cost of her life

07 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a young woman born in Germany (1921-9943) who defied time and paid for it with her life.  On Feb 22, 1943 she was guillotined on the orders of Adolph Hitler.  Her crime was that she resisted the zeitgeist that had spread through Germany and infected its people with either a racist fascist ideology of hate or a sense of futility and inability to change anything.  How many times have you heard the German excuse about the Holocaust that “We did not know anything was happening; we thought they were just taking them away to be relocated!”  Or “What could we do, Hitler controlled everything and his spies were everywhere.”  Sophia Scholl, perhaps because of her youth and perhaps because of her courage and belief in change did not buy into the prevailing German attitudes.  She became part of a German resistance group called the White Rose which advocated non-violence as a way to resist Hitler’s laws. 
 
Like many others, I had heard of Anne Frank and her courage in the face of Nazism but I had never heard of any active youth movements during the Hitler era.  One day in Blockbuster, I found this movie called “The White Rose” which was about a small group of students at Munich University who began to oppose the decisions and sanity of Hitler’s Nazi regime.  These students secretly distribute a newsletter (called the White Rose) to other students.   The group begins to grow in numbers and becomes a threat which the Gestapo pledges to hunt down and destroy.  The film chronicles the bravery and eventual trial of several ringleaders including Sophia and her brother.   Another great movie about this group and Sophia is “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” and of course there are numerous books now written about her life.
I cannot do justice to the life and courage of Sophie in this short blog.  No matter what I say and no matter how long I say it, there are not enough words to convey the bravery, fortitude, courage, faith and values that her and the White Rose tried to raise against Hitler and his Nazi zombies.  However, I think you might get some sense of this courage in Sophie’s last words before they beheaded her.  First, put yourself in the setting that Sophie is now in for her execution.  You have been taken from school and your home and sequestered in a German prison for four days.  During that time you have been beaten and tortured by the Gestapo.  You have been accused of treason, which is a crime punishable by death in Nazi Germany. You have been stripped, your head shaved and you are wearing a burlap bag.  In less than four hours you have been found guilty and sentenced to death on the same day.  You are now being paraded in front of a group of rabid hate mongering Hitler sycophants called Nazis.  They are cursing and jeering and spitting on you as you are marched up to the guillotine.  You are asked if you have any last words, not out of pity but out of the belief that you might yet endorse and beg Hitler for your life. 
Sophia’s last words are:
“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause?  Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?”
Sadly, few noticed Sophie and her brother and the other White Rose members who were tried and executed.  During the hell days of the Third Reich, there seemed little hope and one small pocket of resistance did not spread as Sophie and her group had hoped.  However, it is now over fifty years later and far from being forgotten, Sophia has been recognized for the heroine she was.  Hitler’s name has become synonymous with insanity and hatred and Sophie’s with conviction and faith in a just world free of tyranny and persecution.  One of the few surviving pamphlets that the White Rose distributed had these prophetic words to share:
“Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes – crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure – reach the light of day?”
Sophie and the White Rose exemplify many of the same attitudes of groups like the Occupiers who believe that evil comes when good people do nothing.  To defy the current morality and to defy the current values of a given society is to hold a strong conviction for the possibilities of change.  When we endorse change rather than how things have always been we are in some sense defying time.  We are saying we will not wait.  We are going to take responsibility for changing the times, the hearts and minds of others.  Here in America and much of the developed world, we need to change from the mindset exemplified by quotes like:  “Shop till you drop” and “He who has the most toys wins” to a mindset that reflects admiration for values of frugality and conservation and ecology.  However, only through the kind of courage that Sophie and perhaps many Occupiers have can we change the times and bring in a new era of values.
 
What do you think about shopping till you drop?  How excited where you about the Superbowl, did it govern your entire Sunday plans?  What parts of modern society do you feel need to be changed?  Are you too glued to shopping and sports to really care about what is happening in  the rest of the world?  When was the last time you protested something you thought was wrong?  If you do not do it, who do you think will?

Geeks who defied time

06 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

When I was a kid, you dreamed of someday being a millionaire.  To become a millionaire was the epitome of success.  I watched the show “The Millionaire” along with many other average folks many times during the fifties.  Millionaires were generally older people who had worked very hard and finally over many years they had achieved this pinnacle of financial success:  one million dollars net value.   Imagine our surprise back then if you would have told any of my family, friends or neighbors that Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin, Mark Zukerberg, Bill Gates and Tony Hsieh would all become “Billionaires” before they were even 30 and to top it off, without even working up much of a sweat.  Something is wrong here.  How can anyone become this rich without years of study, effort and long-term savings?  Enter the new world folks, where age and sage do not necessarily correlate with financial wealth. 
Youth defying age!  We think of age as almost synonymous with growing older and wiser and perhaps richer, but in this new era the youth of today have proved it is not about time spent on the job or the amount of sweat equity you have put into your work.  It is not even about paying your dues.  We have already seen that in many ways, wisdom does not come with age. Now we have another old myth shattered.  Wealth does not come with age either. There are plenty of older people who are just squeaking by.  Age and wealth correlate about as well as age and wisdom. 
 
Today, wealth is about working smarter and not harder.  Each of the billionaires I noted above were people who saw an opportunity and seized it.  Each of these billionaires was working in a new field where the old rules of commerce do not hold sway.  It does not matter how much experience you have in this new field, it matters how you apply certain principles and whether you can figure out a value proposition that will satisfy your customers and leverage the new technology that is driving the 21st century.  Computers, software, cellphones, I Pads, and the Internet are only some of the new tools that Jobs and others used to manufacture wealth and value in ways that were undreamed of just a few years before.  There were those who said these “toys” were only passing fads. There were others who said, it is just a new mode of communication.  There are those who think it is only about video games.  I even know people who will not use a computer much less Skype or Facebook.  Talk about sticking your head in the sand. 
 
Time marches on and those who can defy time, will find there are potential rewards. There are pitfalls as well but success comes from thinking out of the box (a cliché I confess) but it does come from embracing change, trying new things, applying ideas in a new way and moving forward not back.  Older people have no lock on these principles and indeed sometimes resist change as “we never did it this way” in my day.  Well, your day, whatever it was is over, in fact every day is a new day and your day is now yesterday.  Get out of the way, if you don’t want to do things in a new way because nothing is sacred and those who defy time will inherit the future.
Are you willing to try new things? Do you attempt to resist new ways of doing things? Are you too set on “your” way of doing things?  Do you try new tools and methods before your reject them?  Are you open to new ideas?  If not, what do you need to do to better embrace change? 

Ms. Elizabeth Coleman, pioneer African American Aviator and a young woman who defied time.

03 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Imagine a young African American woman today who decided she wanted to be a pilot.  For that matter imagine anyone today who decides they want to be a pilot.  Not the easiest career to get.  Lots of training, skills and money would be major ingredients.  I can just hear my father saying “Get a job with the post office.  It pays well and is secure work.”  All I could think of was “Yeah, sorting mail 8 hours a day with the same shape envelope and the only difference being the box they go in.”  How many of you were guided to more secure and permanent jobs by your parents?  For many of us 99%, being a pilot is just one step below being an astronaut. Talk about a pie in the sky job!  Pragmatics often overrules idealism when it comes to those of us in the 99% finding meaningful employment.
Now let’s go back to 1915 in the USA. You are a 23 year old African American part Indian female manicurist.  You are living with your brothers because you have no money.  You spent all of your savings to date at the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University where you ran out of funds after one term and had to quit.  You are living in a country where every day “niggars” are lynched for being uppity.  There are many hotels, restaurants, theaters and public facilities where you are either not allowed or you must go in the back door.  Jim Crow rules and affirmative action will not be heard of for another 46 years.  Your name is Elizabeth Coleman but your friends all call you Bessie.  Most of your friends also call you a foolish dreamer and a wild eyed idealist.  Many of your friends would still call you that today if you were living in the 21st century, but you are living in the early 20th century.  Long before Civil Rights, Martin Luther King and woman had the right to vote, never mind take a job that was not even listed in any career book either for men or woman.  We are talking about a time when it was only 12 years after Orville and Wilbur made the first controlled flight in a heavier than air craft.  What would you give Bessie’s chance of becoming a pilot?  A million to one odds would be a bad bet.  
However, youth defies time because it is full of hope and optimism. Have you ever tried telling some young child that it can’t be done?  They do not want to hear it. It takes many years of pressure before we can convince young people that they must be more practical and give up their childish dreams.  Some of them do not listen to us “wise” folks and they foolishly go about trying to attain their wild eyed fantasies.  Elizabeth Coleman was one of these foolish people.  She did not let money, prejudice, practicality or friends dissuade her from her dreams.  No flight schools in the US would let her in because she was Black and a woman.  Even other male Black aviators would not train her because she was a woman.  So Bessie learned to speak French.  She had heard that in some faraway place called France, there were flight schools that would take an African American woman.  She somehow found financial backing from someone who believed in her dream and she went to France and attended a French flying school.  In 1921, she became the first female pilot of African American descent and the first African American to hold an international pilot license.  Bessie was only 29 years old at the time.  Ms. Coleman went on to a short but illustrious career as a stunt pilot (commercial aviation was ten years away) and media celebrity.  She was called the “World’s Greatest Woman Flyer” and was known for her hair raising stunts and daredevil maneuvers.
Ms. Coleman was ahead of her times in many other ways as well. She was never one to ignore race and did as much as she could to help create a positive image of Blacks that would overcome current racial stereotypes.  She dreamed of starting a flying school for women that would provide other women the opportunities she was denied.  Unfortunately, Bessie died in a plane accident long before many of her other dreams could be realized.  She was only 34 when a plane she was testing crashed and Ms. Coleman died. 
However, Elizabeth Coleman may have died on April 30, 1926 but her legacy not only continues on but it continues to grow in importance.  She continues to defy time.   Books, awards and other honors continue to be heaped upon her for her pioneering and breaking the boundaries of her time.  In 2004, a park was named after her in Chicago and in 2007; a street in Germany was named after her.  If Bessie was alive today, I am sure she would be coaching young men and women of all shades and colors to dream and fight for their dreams.  It is easy to lose your dreams in a world that often seems to want to keep everyone in their place and to ignore the aspirations and hopes of those who are less fortunate.  Mae Jemison, physician and former NASA astronaut, wrote in the book, Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator(1993): “I point to Bessie Coleman and say without hesitation that here is a woman, a being, who exemplifies and serves as a model to all humanity: the very definition of strength, dignity, courage, integrity, and beauty. It looks like a good day for flying.”[6](Wikipedia) 
Do you still dream and have great hopes for the future?  If not, what dreams have you put aside as too unrealistic?  What dreams have you decided were not workable?  Why?  Are you living too practical a life?  Do you ever dream of going barefoot on a beach in the Caribbean or riding an elephant in India or going on a photo safari in Africa?  Is your excuse for not dreaming that you have no money or no time?  What do you think Bessie would say of your reasons? 

Hippies, Beatniks and Occupiers

02 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Hippies, Beatniks and Occupiers!  What do they all have in common?  Young people who are or were challenging the status quo.  Do you know any 80 year old hippies or beatniks?  You might perhaps but I bet they are a real anachronism.  It takes youth, optimism, hope and a certain naiveté to challenge the system and to actually believe you can change things.  William James said about change:  “I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny, invisible molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which if you give them time, will rend the hardest monuments of man’s pride.”  Hippies and Beatniks and Occupiers are all about this kind of change.  
Beatniks (1948 -1968) had their primary spokesperson in Jack Kerouac (died 1969) who in his book “On the Road” documented a sort of spiritual quest for the meaning of life.  Kerouac wrote: “It is because I am Beat, that is, I believe in beatitude and that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to it… Who knows, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty?”[6]   
  
Beatniks wanted to find a life of meaning and compassion in a world they rejected due to war, prejudice and inhumanity.  Many found their solace in drugs, anti-conformist dress and speech and by simply “dropping” out.   Nearly a decade later the beatnik movement had morphed into the Hippie Movement.  Both Beatniks and Hippies have been satirized and caricatured mercilessly by the media who have depicted them as spaced out drug nuts or weird college students sporting tied-dyed shirts and peace symbols.  Nevertheless, the actual values espoused by these movements merit consideration.
Hippies summarized their values in the famous dictum “Turn On, Tune In and Drop Out.”   Turn On meant to activate your higher consciousness which many attempted through the use of drugs and psychedelic substances.  Tune In meant to interact harmoniously with the world around you and Drop Out meant to find a sense of self-reliance, a discovery of choice and change.  Taken all together, this dictum represented a worthwhile set of goals, even if we reject the means that many used to achieve them.  Ironically, it was the drug usage that turned most of mainstream society against the hippies and beatniks.  I say ironically, because in America today, (I can’t speak for the rest of the world) we are one big drug crazed society.  Even if you subtract the amount of illicit drugs being consumed daily in the USA, consider the following and then tell me we have a “War on Drugs.”   
  • Alcohol use
  • Prescription drug use for anti-depression, sexual virility, mood elevation.
  • Nicotine for stimulation
  • Caffeine in coffee, tea and soda for stimulation
  • Guarana, Taurine and a host of other “herbal” drugs used in all manner of energy drinks. 
The Occupy Movement is a newer version of the Hippie movement.  Occupiers are young, idealistic and socially motivated to end greed and to close the gap between the rich and the poor.  The movement has spread across the entire globe and has taken place in over 95 cities in 82 countries.  The Occupy Movement has adopted the slogan “We are the 99% “to represent their identification with the majority of the world which earns considerably less than the top 1%.  The Occupy Movement has adopted many of the tenets of non-violent social protest in an attempt to agitate for a set of laws which will lead to a more just distribution of wealth.
  
OK, you now may know less or more about Hippies, Beatniks and Occupiers than you really wanted to know.  In each case, I would argue they were movements mostly by youth and inspired by a vision of a better world.  In each case, I would argue a movement leavened with a certain amount of frustration and impatience.  We “older” people know you cannot change things overnight.  We “older” people know that drugs cannot effect permanent change.  In each case, movements that seem to be almost automatically rejected by mainstream society.  Is it because of the inertia that we “older” people have or is it that too many of us “older” people are members of the 1%?  Or do we simply reject the idea that the values of young people ever have anything to teach us “older” people.
I think in too many cases, we reject the values of youth because they do not match the mainstream or traditional values of society.  We reject change when it comes from those we consider too immature or inexperienced enough to teach us “older” people anything.  What do these young folks know?  We forget that they will inherit the earth and that each generation must accept and build upon the values of the previous generation as well as the values of the current generation.  Progress cannot be achieved either by mindlessly rejecting the values of the past or mindlessly rejecting the values of the present and the future.  Change is the only constant in the universe. 
 
What can we learn from the youth today?  What can we learn from the Occupy Movement?  Where have we discarded our idealism?  Are we so cynical that we have rejected the idea of change?  Do we really want to see a better world or are we happy with the status quo?  What would it take for us to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem?

Can we be young and defy time?

01 Feb 2012 1 Comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

A few weeks ago I wrote a series of blogs about people who “defied” time.  I noticed that all of these individuals were older.  Ages ranged from 70 to 102.   I should add that they were older in body but not in mind.  As I was writing these blogs, I was struck with the question “Could younger people defy time?”  The answer seems pretty obvious in retrospective and so I decided to write a series of 5 blogs, (I like doing things in five) about young people who have defied time.  First, let me define what I mean by defying time.  I think when a young person defies time they are doing things well before one would expect it to happen.  Perhaps they are more mature for their age or they achieve a measure of fame, fortune or success well before most people their age. 
 
The more I pondered this question and who I would write about, the more I thought about the nature of knowledge and wisdom.  As I have grown older, I have separated the concepts of knowledge and wisdom.  One can be very knowledgeable but not very wise.  Paradoxically, most wise people are also very knowledgeable but perhaps not about things or specific bodies of knowledge.  For example, proof that you can be knowledgeable but not wise can be had by looking at the many foolish and dangerous things that humans do to each other. Two quotes come to mind:  Martin Luther King “We have allowed our scientific knowledge to exceed our human reason. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”  Max Plank said about the Atom Bomb, “It was a triumph of intellect and a tragic failure of reason.”  If you need more proof, just look at the daily news “Politician caught in bed with prostitute.”  “Priest accused of pedophilia.”  “CEO found guilty of insider trading.”  These are very intelligent and I would argue knowledgeable people who do wrong not because of stupidity but because of lack of wisdom.  We would like to believe that wisdom comes with age or experience, but that is not true. 
 
Jesus Christ was 30 when he started his ministry.  Buddha became enlightened at the age of 35. Mohammed received his revelations from God at the age of 40.  David was 30 when he became king of Israel and Solomon was alleged to be under 30 when he began his reign.  You can read all the books you want, you can attend every course in the world, and you can heap degree upon degree and it will not make you wise.  Wisdom does not occur because of age or experience.  Something deeper inside or perhaps outside brings wisdom.  I wish I could give you a formula for wisdom but I cannot.  The only thing I have really learned about wisdom is that each of us must find if for ourselves.  We can follow a teacher or a master for only so long and then we must go inside and develop our own consciousness of what wisdom is.  I also believe that goodness and kindness and wisdom go together. I do not believe bad people are wise people. Wise people find ways to do good for the world.
Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. – Buddha
Everyone has a purpose in life…a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals. – Deepak Chopra

I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent. – Thomas Edison
I want to issue one caveat.  I will start my blogs tomorrow on people whom I think have done well for the world long before we would have expected or predicted by their age.  You might not agree with my choices and that is all right. However, keep in mind that no one is perfect.  I was having a dinner conversation the other day and the subject of great photographers came up.  Someone mentioned the name of Annie Leibovitz and suddenly I heard the comment “Yeah, but she’s a bitch.”  I said “what does that mean” and was told that she was not a nice person.  I was angry at hearing this comment because I thought 1st, it has little to do with her talent and 2nd, it seems that it is often applied to people who are passionate about what they do.  Was Jesus Christ nice when he tossed the money lenders out of the temple?  Was Soichiro Honda nice when he yelled at a co-worker for not being a team player?  Was Steve Jobs always a great guy to work for?  My own experience with Dr. W. E. Deming was that he could really be a cantankerous pain in the butt some times.  However, none of this is to say that these people were not wise or even kind.  Sometimes kindness is telling people things they do not want to know. 
 
Whom can you think of that is young and defies time?  Are you in this grouping?  Are you a smart person or a wise person?  Can we be both kind and wise?  What would it mean for you if you decided that you wanted to be a wise person?  Where would you go to find wisdom?

Why worry about the meaning of what we say? How much is our perception of time affected by this meaning?

31 Jan 2012 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

How about we end this month with some semantics?  Right, let’s briefly talk about the study of word definitions.  Let’s explore the way that we use some common terms or phrases concerning time.  I know it sounds boring but how can we spend another year talking about time if we do not agree on some basic terms?  For instance, we talk about being on time, being ahead of the times and being behind the times. We use these phrases so often that they become “unconscious” and we seldom reflect on what they mean or whether they really mean what we want them to mean.  We all think we know what they mean but do we really agree with what they mean?  Are we using them “correctly?”   Can you really be ahead of or behind the times? 
We sometimes say that someone is “stuck” in the past.  We may know someone who seems to fondly remember their best days as when they were the high school quarterback or when they were in college or when they lived someplace else or some other time that was happier or more pleasant for them.  We joke that they are “stuck” in the past and cannot seem to move forward.  However, are they really stuck in the past?  What does it mean to be stuck in the past?  Can they be partially stuck or only stuck sometimes?  If so, how can they get “unstuck?”  Are we all stuck in the past at least sometimes? 
There are many other phrases that we use concerning time that have become so habitual with us that we take them for granted. We assume that we know what they mean when we hear them.  We apply them to our lives and to those around us without thinking about how we use them or what their use implies. The novel “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll is so powerful because the meaning of words and the way they are used in the Alice story forces us to rethink how we use words.  For instance, who ever heard of an “un-birthday” party?  Well, it is a wonderful twist on an expectation that you can only have a party on your birthday.  You can have an “unbirthday party” 364 days a year.  One of my favorite exchanges in the story takes place between Alice and Humpty Dumpty:
Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.
Alice: The question is, whether you can make words mean so many different things.
Humpty Dumpty: The question is: who is to be master – that’s all.
The phrases that we use concerning time can have many different meanings. We each choose the meaning that we desire or that we learned as a child. Other people may have different meanings or different associations.  For instance, what does it mean to be late? What does it mean to be on-time? Who decides what is late and who decides what is on-time is?  How late is late?  What does it take to be on time?  Who decides?  Well of course, you and I do, right?  If so, then how come so much of the world seems to thwart our best efforts to be on time?  Maybe we are all dancing to a different beat. 
Is it worth the effort to get everybody in sync with their definitions of time?  Does everyone you know agree with your definitions of time?  Do you belief that your definitions are right and everyone else is wrong?  What if your definitions of time were more flexible? What difference would this make for your family and friends?  Are you too flexible already?  What if you were less flexible? Would your life be smoother and happier?  How far can we go with no common definitions for time? Who decides?  Maybe February 30 would be a good day to decide?
Finally, here is a plug for a reader of my blog who has a new article out called “10 Reasons I Don’t Want to Look at My Work Email”
http://www.internetservice.net/2012/10-reasons-i-dont-want-to-look-at-my-work-email/
I think you will agree that most of these reasons have to do with the time that email now captures or destroys in our lives.  I for one am often “afraid” to open or even look at my email. 

Is there a formula for creativity? Try this one.

30 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized


Have you ever tried to be creative in a hurry? It is probably not going to happen. Some of the greatest ideas in history have come at spontaneous random times.  Indeed, many great ideas have come in dreams or during periods of sleep or relaxation. You cannot be creative on a schedule.  Conversely, creativity is a process like any other activity and requires a systematic use and application of time tested principles. The creative process proceeds through steps.  One of the earliest models of the creative process is attributed to Graham Wallas (The Art of Thought, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1926) who proposed that creative thinking proceeds through the following four phases:

The Wallas Model for the Process of Creativity

Preparation (definition of issue, observation, and study)
Incubation (laying the issue aside for a time)
Illumination (the moment when a new idea finally emerges)
Verification (checking it out)

Of course, not all experts agree with the idea of steps or stages for creativity:

For example, Vinacke (1953) is adamant that creative thinking in the arts does not follow a model. In a similar vein, Gestalt philosophers like Wertheimer (1945) assert that the process of creative thinking is an integrated line of thought that does not lend itself to the segmentation implied by the steps of a model. But while such views are strongly held, they are in the minority. (Working Paper: Models for the Creative Processby Paul E. Plsek, 1996) http://www.directedcreativity.com
 
Which ever way you look at it, time plays a key role in the creative process. If creativity does require preparation, incubation, illumination and verification, then each of these tasks takes time.  I would also add some time for stimulation to the process. Something must be sufficient to stimulate and motivate me to want to solve a problem or be creative. If not, I will not put the time and energy into looking for a solution. Each of the phases noted above takes time. 
Many people believe that it takes a great deal of imagination to be creative. Some of us might feel wanting in this area. It is true that some people are more imaginative then others.  However, I would argue that if we apply time to our problems in a systematic fashion than we can all be creative. If you think you can solve your problems overnight, you are going to be disappointed.  If you realize that it will take time and you are willing to apply a systematic process to your problems then almost any problem is solvable. 
What problems have you been ignoring that a systematic use of time and effort might help you to solve?  How could you start working on those problems?  What changes in your life might occur if you could solve these problems? Have you labeled yourself as unimaginative and uncreative? Who could help you with these problems?  A little help with any issue can provide new insights and illumination. 

Act fast or think things through? Which is the best path?

27 Jan 2012 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Haste makes waste! He who hesitates is lost? These are two very popular sayings but they express two very different ideas and concepts about time. You well might ask which is true. Should I take my time, think things through, get a second opinion and then make a decision to act? Or is such carefulness a vice? In this day of rapid change, perhaps hesitating is to lose great opportunities. Should I act quickly and seize the moment? What do to? Act fast or think things over? Oh, why isn’t life simple? 

Alas, the world is full of information which contradicts itself. Perhaps, the contradictions arise from the simple fact that there is no ultimate truth. Sometimes it pays to act fast and sometime it pays to hesitate. On the other hand, perhaps it is the complexity of life that makes it so much more interesting. You have heard it said “All things in moderation.” This is good advice, however sometimes moderation can lack passion and commitment. To be too moderate, is to be very bland. It is to be in the middle. Non-assuming, vanilla and non-offensive.  It may be a foolish attempt to try to please everyone. 

There are times when you must take a stand on something. This means you might offend a few or even many people. Moderation is not always a panacea. In life, there will be times when you must rush and times when you cannot afford to rush. There may also be times when it pays to go down the middle road and there will be times when for your own integrity, you must take a stand. It was simple for Robert Frost since he had only two choices. He had a high road and a low road. Now we have many more roads to face. Today, most of us face multiple choices. The road now forks in ten or more directions.

Which path do you go down today? What kind of a day will this be for you? Will it be a day to be careful and deliberate or will it be a day for speed and uncertainty? Will you take a road of moderation or will you take a road of passion and commitment? How will you decide? At the end of this day, ask yourself if you found the right balance between haste and hesitancy and between passion and moderation.  Did you? What will tomorrow bring?

Are you forever waiting? What are you waiting for?

26 Jan 2012 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Time and tide wait for no man or woman; an old saying that has been around forever. Despite this good advice, there are people who are forever waiting. In fact, some might argue that the world is composed of two types of people; the wait-ers and the do-ers. Wait-ers are people who hope that good things will come to them and do-ers are people that make the good things come to them. Wait-ers hope to win the lottery so they can buy the things they want. Do-ers go out and make the money to buy what they want. We all have friends who fall into these categories or habits. Friends who are waiting to take a holiday to another country, friends who are waiting for Mr.or Ms right, friends who are waiting for their ship to arrive. We eventually come to realize that they will be dead and buried before any of these things happen. One of the reasons why Nike’s motto “Just do it” is so powerful is the way it resonates with most of us at a primal level. We all want to be doers but many of us fall into the category of wait-ers.
Why do we wait is a good question? Why do we wait and wait and wait and wait? What fears stop us (because the answer to the first question is FEAR) from becoming doers? What can we do to overcome these fears? Psychologists would say that the first step is to overcome the excuses and denial and to admit our fears. Be honest with ourselves and make an inventory of our fears.  Put them down on paper.

Once we admit our fears, we can take the second step. The second step is to decide to do something about our fears. I was afraid of heights. For years, I admitted it but could not decide what to do about it. Finally, I decided to do a solo parachute jump. It took me nearly ten years but I finally did it on my 55th birthday. Since then, I am much less intimated by being up high. This is the decision step.  Identify and then decide to take action.

The third step is the action step. My action was a skydive.  There are often many remedies, but which is the right solution for you. For me, it was to find a sky diving club, join them and take a class in sky-diving. Once I decided to take the sky-diving training and jump, I had to actually attend the training and then go to the school. I had to make several trips to the airport before I could jump because on two consecutive occasions the airport was closed for jumping due to bad weather. I almost gave up the idea but the third time was a charm. I was able to jump by myself out of the plane at about 5000 feet. Believe me when I say, I was scared to death. However as I floated down, I realized the beauty and unreality of the entire event. I actually relaxed enough to start enjoying it once my chute opened. Had I not taken action, the first two steps would be worthless.

Which are you, a wait-er or a do-er? We all are wait-ers in some areas of our lives. We all have fears that cause us to avoid or put off doing certain things. What are the events and activities that you put off? What are the fears you have to overcome? Can you practice these three steps or just take one of them this next year? What do you think would happen if you did? How do you think your life would be different? Life is waiting for you to start.

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