My Life in 69 Seconds

My Life in 69 Seconds

So here's how it happens. Someone sends me a link to a video which shows different famous artists morphing into each other. I think it's pretty cool but don't do anything about it.

Then that in-between-time rolls around--between Thanksgiving and New Years--and I find myself reflecting about the year just ending, the upcoming new year, life, getting older, what really matters. You know it. You probably experience similar stirrings. And then the video comes back into my thoughts and I wonder what my life would look like in a flash. Not quite a flash, but if a video were to show my life, one second for each year I have been alive. The question I am asking myself is: Who am I looking at in each of these images? So here it is: My Life in 69 Seconds. Click here.

Here's my question for you. Assuming you have one second for each year you have been alive, what are the ways you might represent your life? Then assume you have unlimited time. How might you best represent your life? I'd love to hear what you come up with!

Thanks to Matt White for his masterful job of putting together My Life in 69 Seconds. Here's his link:

Happy, healthy, creating holidays and 2012!!

Cezanne Turns Leadership on Its Head

In This Bloutcher

• Cezanne Turns Leadership on Its Head
• Announcements
• Conundrum

Cezanne Turns Leadership on Its Head
Several years ago I decided to enroll in a drawing class. I had been very involved with sculpture but had virtually no drawing experience. I realized that if I wanted to grow as an artist I had to confront my lack of training in drawing. Actually, I was quite petrified since I thought my lack of drawing experience would expose me as a fraud.

The class was called "Drawing from the Live Model" and each session began with 90 second drawings of a live model who shifted positions at what seemed bewilderingly rapid intervals. The idea was to capture the basic gesture of the pose and not try to render the full form of the model. We then progressed in the same session to 5 minute, 10 minute and 20 minute poses, culminating in an extended 40 minute pose during which we were expected to make progress toward a recognizable drawing of the model, although we were discouraged from thinking we had ever "completed" a piece.

Our instructor would make the rounds, observing our struggles. When he stopped to critique an individual student's work the student would vibrate with anxiety as the instructor's blunt remarks revealed the inevitable truthfulness of his sharp eye and tongue.

Perhaps because I was a new student, he did not pounce on me right away. Several times he paused in front of my easel but did not comment. I went about my business, struggling to render what I saw before me: the model posing on the platform.

Then he struck. He stopped in front of my work for longer than usual. He folded his arms across his chest, shifted his eyes between my drawing and the model and extended one hand, palm up as though he were making an offering. "What are you trying to do?" came his question, clearly tinged with genuine puzzlement.

I tried to explain that I was trying to draw on the paper what my eyes saw. I realized I had a ways to go but if I were able to see the model clearly I would be able to draw it accurately.

My instructor reacted as though I had lit a match to Vesuvius. "No, no, no," he erupted. "Think Cezanne, follow Cezanne, understand Cezanne. For you, Cezanne should be the beginning and end. You do not see in order to draw. Cezanne teaches us just the opposite. You draw in order to see! Drawing is searching. It is discovery. Start over. Start with Cezanne. If you take anything from this class it is this: You do not see in order to draw, you draw in order to see."


That was a mouthful. And totally liberating. Cezanne and my teacher buddied up to cause nothing less than a revolution in my understanding of drawing and art in general. What possibilities this shift opened up for me! I now had permission to roam over the surface, to experiment, to explore different shapes, different relationships. As my hand embarked on this new journey, it became looser, more relaxed, more animated. Precision became less important than discovery. In that moment I felt as though I had rediscovered art.

So what does this story have to do with leadership? Over the years I have had many discussions with individuals who aspire to grow as leaders. Often these individuals would ask: "What would you suggest I learn in order to be a better leader? I need to learn in order to lead." My response would often involve a combination of some reading suggestions, a call to become a keen observer of other leaders and the encouragement to seek "stretch" assignments. I still believe that this is sound advice

But Cezanne has totally turned my thinking on its head. Now I share a different perspective. Just as Cezanne advised that you do not see in order to draw; rather you draw in order to see--I now suggest that you do not learn in order to lead, rather you lead in order to learn. I am not speaking here about technical learning--that's basic. I am talking about the deeper learning and insight that builds on wisdom and contributes to one becoming a more humane and effective leader.

Peter Senge has been a long time champion of the notion of the learning organization and the learning leader. Warren Bennis, author of numerous best selling books on leadership, speaks about ongoing self reinvention as a necessary quality of leadership in today's rapidly changing world. Management guru Peter Drucker wrote eloquently before his death about his belief that today's leaders cannot lead by knowing. The complexity of today's world does not allow one person to know all things. Therefore, Drucker believed that today's leaders must learn to lead by asking questions.

For a long time I thought one needed to develop an area of expertise before assuming a leadership role. I realize now, though, that there are at least two kinds of learning. The first is what might be called technical learning, the kind that is necessary to develop baseline competence in an area. The other kind of learning is even more critical and important. It is the development of leadership wisdom, acquired by constantly reinventing oneself as one learns the lessons of leadership. This kind of learning requires a far more rigorous, almost ruthless process of self honesty and discovery. The kind that Cezanne believe led to great art.


Announcements:

• Not too late for you and/or friends to sign up for The Life Change Studio at Esalen Institute in Big Sur that I will be co-facilitating with Nancy Fernandez Mills. Whether you are going through or anticipating going through life changes large or small this program will help you tap into new levels of energy, commitment and creativity. For a description click here.
  
• I am also excited to be speaking at the first Poetics of Aging Conference (November 16 to 19) in San Francisco. A really impressive line up of speakers. Check it out here.
  
• The International Positive Aging Conference in Los Angeles December 6th through the 9th has grown from a modest idea to an international phenomenon in just 5 short years. The conference taps into the amazing energy of people doing cutting edge work not only in shifting the paradigm of aging but in developing innovative programs and initiatives to create new realities on the ground. I will be leading a project entitled The Telling; Second Generation which chronicles on a real time basis these emerging themes through creative expression. Come and catch the spirit!! Click here.
  

Conundrum:

George Braque once said: "You can explain everything about painting except the part that counts." What did Braque mean? And can we apply this same thought to our lives?

Lost and Found

In This Bloutcher

• Lost and Found
• Announcements

Lost and Found

I recently gave a talk at the BIF7 Innovation Summit. The idea is that each of the storytellers had fifteen minutes to tell his or her story. The story tellers included such outstanding creative thinkers as Dan Pink, Richard Saul Wurman, Len Schlesinger, Sebastian Ruth. I spoke about the "Middleware of Personal Innovation," that is the core creative skills one needs to develop in order to transform their personal vision into reality. In my talk I referenced the personal experience of being lost and found simultaneously. I said, "When I am creating I am both lost and found and I believe there is no better place to be."

After the talk lots of folks came up to me and asked what I meant by being both lost and found at the same time. How can you be both?

When I am creating I am lost because I am working on the edges. I do not yield to the path previously taken. I am frightened, not knowing what will come next, what to do next. I am filthy from failed attempts, deep in the forest without a compass. I am Theseus without Ariadne's string. I battle despair, wrestle with the angels of doubt. I am a madman. And I see no way out.

When I am creating I am wondrously found. I am mindless of time, overcome by a strange, intoxicating exhilaration triggered by the tiniest of brush strokes, a spit of color. the struggle for truthfulness. I am where I belong, where I am meant to be, on the journey. Pursuing the questions. I am the cartographer of my own land, navigating an internal terrain of my own making--I am found, my coordinates always changing but traceable by the heat of wonder. I am found if not by others at least by myself.

And how is this different than the experience of engaging in life change? Personal reinvention? I do not believe it is different. We are all simultaneously lost and found--as long as we are on the journey, creating and recreating ourselves.

Listen to some of the great artists. They were on a great journey. And they also recognized the pain of feeling lost and found:

Paul Cezanne--It took me 40 years to find out that painting is not sculpture.
Henri Matisse--It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.
Willem de Kooning--I work out of doubt.
Paul Klee--I paint in order not to cry.

In our best moments, we, like the great artists, are both lost and found.

Announcements:

• Becoming A Life Change Artist; 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life has just earned the prestigious Mom's Choice Award. The award honors excellence in family friendly media, products and services. The esteemed panel of judges include educators, media experts as well as parents, librarians, performing artists, authors, producers, medical and learning professionals and scientists. That's cool! Congratulations to my co-author Kathleen Jordan who just became a second time grandma with the arrival of Addison Kelly Livermore, 6 lbs, 13 ounces.
• Get the word out: I will be conducting a 5 day workshop at the Esalen Institute with co-facilitator Nancy Fernandez Mills in breathtaking Big Sur November 13-18. The program is called the Life Change Studio and is appropriate to anyone currently going through a life change or contemplating one. Check it out here.
  
• If you would like to discover the poet in you, consider attending my wife Karen's Esalen program "Calling Calliope; Finding Your Poetic Voice," also November 13-18. For more information, click here.
  
• Also for anyone interested in and committed to changing the way society thinks about aging, please join up at the Poetics of Aging Conference November 16-19 in San Francisco. I will be speaking about What the Great Masters of Art Can Teach Us About Living the Second Half of Life with Creativity, Vitality and Meaning. This should be fun, informative and thought provoking conference. To learn more about it, click here.
• I will be doing an author's talk at the Andover Book Store on October 20th. Join us at 7 pm. Click here for directions.
• Please consider attending the 5th Annual International Positive Aging Conference in Los Angeles, December 6-10. This conference is chock full of interesting ideas, organizations, leaders from across the globe who share their innovative ideas for leveraging the creativity and talents of folks in the second half of life. I will be conducting a program called The Telling; Second Generation. It will engage participants in creative but mysterious exercises that capture the essence and challenges of aging. Learn more, click here.
  

Import Export

In this Bloutcher:

• Import Export
  
• Announcements

Import Export
If you walk down the nondescript Rue de Lancy in the St. Martin-Canal area of Paris and stop at number 54 you will find yourself in front of a shop owned by one Mr. Bhandari Lalit. There is no sign indicating the nature of its business. However, when you look through the window you are greeted by a random army of bric-a-brac, piles of fabric, purses, statuettes, banners, lamp shades, necklaces, bracelets, wooden boxes, etc. And when you enter the shop you must sidle along the narrow aisles in order not to knock the goods from their shelves. Mr. Lalit sits behind a pile of goods which threaten to topple onto his head. You get the sense that Mr. Lalit manages to barely scrape by. And then an immediate smile crosses his bronze face, his gray mustache bobbing with animated anticipation, as he greets you.

I did not know Mr. Lalit when we stumbled across his shop. My wife and I encountered him by total serendipity as we made one of our daily meanderings through the streets of Paris during our five week stay.

During the one hour we spent in his shop rummaging through his "goods" Mr. Lalit laced our time with an intriguing family narrative. Here is some of what we learned.

In his earlier years, Mr. Lalit held a modest position as a buyer with an import/export firm in India. He came to Paris in 1981 to explore the possibility of starting his own import/export business. Within three months of arriving he brought his wife and two daughters to Paris. They had two more children after moving to Paris, another daughter and a son, twins. Mr. Lalit's business did "okay." He began investing in small properties in Paris. A four flat here and another there. Today he owns several of these types of properties. Mr. Lalit says he is not a rich man, but as he put it: "I'm okay. When the kids finish school I will sell all the goods you see around you and spend my time between here, India and visiting my children. I intend to do something for society in India. Perhaps open a medical clinic. I think it is important to give something to society."

Mr. Lalit's children each attended elite colleges in France and placed in the top tiers. Then, one by one, they pursued their Master's and Doctorates at Columbia, MIT and Georgia Tech. Their son and youngest child is finishing his undergraduate degree at Ensae, a prestigious institute in the fields of statistics, economics and finance. He has already been accepted by Stanford and Harvard for a Master's degree. Each of the children has specialized in fields such as Mathematics and Finance, Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautics and Pure Mathematics. They all wish to stay in the United States because, in Mr. Lalit's words, "that's where the opportunity is." Mr. Lalit says the schools in France are free. In the United States they are expensive but they are the best in world "without question." He indicated that his children want to get a good education, good training and then start businesses of their own. I asked him where they got their desire to start their own business. His smile broadened as he said "they are like their old man."

My encounter with Mr. Lalit triggered many thoughts. I began to wonder how his children might fare regarding their entrepreneurial aspirations and then I began to think how the U.S. was going through such a wrenching time and how that might impact those aspirations.

We may be under the impression that, of course, the United States is the world leader in innovation and therefore the children of Mr. Lalit have made the right choice. But I also wonder whether the U.S. will remain the best choice for them. The truth is that we are not uniformly considered #1 in innovation and we risk falling further behind. There are many studies related to which countries are the world leaders in innovation. Different studies use different criteria. And while the U.S. comes out #1 in a Boston Consulting Group study, it falls further back in most studies. The U.S. is ranked #3 in the Legatum Institute study with Denmark at #1 and Sweden at #2. And according the the well respected INSEAD analysis the U.S. ranks #7 behind Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland and Denmark. This trend is troublesome, especially since Thomas Friedman has suggested that innovation is one of the key ingredients of the U.S.'s "magic sauce."

It is also hard not to be swept up in The Great Introspection we are experiencing as a nation regarding our direction. When we look at the enablers of innovation--education, opportunity (perceived and real,) diversity, access to capital, ease of doing business--we find ourselves in roiling waters. Mr. Lalit believes the U.S. has the best universities in the world. Yet, we are faced with a vocal anti-intellectual, anti-science crowd that undermines the core values of education. Our public schools are in disarray and in need of innovation themselves. And just when we need bold, creative thinking and action we are at risk of shrinking from it. The long shadow of 9/11 has morphed into a new kind of xenophobia that threatens a vital source of diversity and ideas. We are who we are as a nation because successive waves of immigrants have contributed cultural richness and intellectual vitality to our nation.

Having said this I must confess we often confuse the enablers of innovation with where it actually comes from. After all, innovation comes from innovators. And innovators come from unsuspected places, such as small shops on nondescript streets in Paris run by the Mr. Lalit's of the world. Our challenge is to link and align the enablers with the suppliers. Let's just say, like Mr. Lalit, we as a nation are in the import export business. We import diverse talent and we export ideas and innovation. And if we are to succeed, we need to welcome the Mr. Lalit's childrens of the world and provide them with the supporting enablers so they, and we, can succeed.

Announcements

• November 16th-19th the Poetics of Aging Conference will take place in San Francisco. The mission of this cutting edge conference is to counter the mainstream understanding of aging as decline and/or disease with a more expansive, humanistic, and creative – that is poetic – vision and approach. I will be speaking on the 19th. Check out the conference and join us! Check out the conference here.
  
• I will be a Story Teller at the BIF7 Innovation Summit September 19-21st. This unique, high energy summit brings together folks who care about innovation--leading organizational leaders, doers, thinkers, writers, artists, consultants, in what Mashable has called "one of the top 7 places to watch great minds in action." Check out BIF7 Innovation Summit here.
  
• Think about treating yourself to the unique splendor and power of an Esalen Institute learning experience. Join me and my co-facilitator Nancy Fernandez Mills at Big Sur for a 5 day program of The Life Change Studio November 13-18. Regardless of where you are in your life this program will help you get in touch with your creative powers and be inspired by the possibilities in your life. Check out the program here. If you have ever wondered if there is a poet in you consider taking my wife Karen's amazing 5 day workshop, Calling Calliope, Finding Your Poetic Voice, at Esalen also from November 13-18. Take a look at Karen's workshop here.
  
• I will be presenting a special program "Living Your Next Phase of Life with Creativity, Vitality and Meaning" at a Fidelity Client Appreciation Event, Providence, RI on October 4th.
  
• I am also working with Rockland Trust, Hanover, MA to create a special retirement workshop to be held on October 19th.
  
• If you or anyone you know would like to hear me talk about my book (co-authored with Kathy Jordan) Becoming a Life Change Artist; 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life, come to the Andover Bookstore, 89R Main Street, Andover, Massachusetts at 7 pm on October 20th. Spread the word! Check out the bookstore here.
• And finally but not leastly, we are in the process of receiving feedback from our piloteers for our Life Change Artist online training program. This program will initially be designed for coaches and then for organizational leaders and educators. So far we have been hearing "there's nothing like this out there!" If you want to be alerted as to our progress, just drop me a note.
  

Please spread the word on any of these events/items to folks you think might have interest in them. Also, if there is anyone you think might like to subscribe to my bloutcher please pass it on.

Still in Paris

In This Bloutcher

• Still in Paris
• Announcements
  

In 1965 I spent 9 months in Paris, studying philosophy before heading to graduate school in Chicago. The French were still using newspaper for toilet paper back then and men wearing berets carrying their baguettes were everywhere. Today the baguettes remain but the berets have been replaced by scarves, even on hot summer evenings.

Back then I took a six week trip into southern France, across the great Valadolid plains of Spain into Portugal. Franco was still in power and silly pointed hats of the guardia civilia could be seen even in the remote towns. I drove a deux cheveau which means two horses because it purportedly had only two horsepower and sipped petrol at the rate of 60 miles a gallon. The deux cheveau had such an odd appearance that it made you think a Dr. Suess character would pop out any second. Of course, you could read a novel driving at full throttle up the hills and if you got into a head on with a Vespa you would lose for sure. One night I pulled over and slept in a field because the stars were as large as grapefruit and I had always wondered what it would be like to sleep under a night sky filled with grapefruit. Some of the grapefruit flared wildly and fell to the earth in flashes of brilliance and I mistook them for a moment for shooting stars. I felt the night coolness settle on my cheeks and fell asleep with all kinds of possibilities awaiting me.

On the drive back to Paris I kept wondering how the city had changed during my 6 week absence. And then I heard the winds of time whisper: Oh, but you have--how you have changed. I looked through the rear view mirror, trying to catch a glimpse of the wind, but only the road stretched back as far as I could see.

I am in Paris at this moment and except for the toilet paper and the scarves and a few other unimportant details, Paris remains Paris remains Paris. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. And what about me? Did the wind speak the truth? I like to think I would still pull over and sleep the night under the sky of grapefruit and fall asleep with all kinds of possibilities awaiting me. The other day Karen and I took our shoes and socks off in a lovely park in the 15th arrondissement and felt the moist earth energy under the grass and then we sat under a shady Linden tree and looked at the sky inspired by a Corot painting (left)--or is it the other way around, or maybe it was a Sisley sky (right) but it really doesn't matter since the sky hasn't changed either between their time and ours.

I think that when you are in your 20s and you are in Paris for the first time you are not able ever to leave--you are always still in Paris.

I remember during the return drive from Spain and Portugal refocusing on the road ahead and whispering half to myself, half to the unseen wind: We are not as timeless as Paris. We are here, perhaps we never leave even when we are gone and then something else happens. I have been back to Paris many times since that first time. I better understand some things now, and other things I understand less well. That's a kind of change. The wind was right. I have changed from the first time. Or am I perhaps the same in different ways?

Announcements:

• Check out the BIF-7 Innovation Summit. I am excited about being invited as one of the Summit's storytellers. Now in its 7th year, the Summit has been named by Mashable as one of the "7 places to see great minds at work." The Summit is magic. It's intimate. It's assumption blowing. It opens up windows to whole new worlds. You should consider being there. Learn more about BIF-7 by clicking here.
• I will be speaking at Fidelity Investments in October at a special client appreciation event. I will also be doing a special program for Rockland Trust, also in October, for those who are considering what comes next in their lives.
  
• I also want to put in a special plug for the program I am doing with Nancy Fernandez Mills at Esalen, November 13 through 18, at Big Sur in California. This is a magical place and the program which will be a special version of our Life Change Studio promises to be highly engaging, insight provoking and transformative. Consider giving yourself a unique gift and joining us for the program. For more information click here. Also check out a workshop my wife Karen is conducting at Esalen at the same time. The workshop titled Calling Calliope; Finding Your Poetic Voice. Not only is Karen a wonderful poet, she has a unique ability to put you in touch with parts of youself that you never knew were there. Check out her workshop by clicking here.
  

A Different Kind of Hunger

In this Bloutcher

• A Different Kind of Hunger
• Announcements
• Vive la Difference
  

A Different Kind of Hunger

I am currently staying in friends Nat and Margaret Harrison's apartment in the 15th arrondissement in Paris for the month of August. They have returned to the states to visit family and generously allowed us the run of their place.

During our stay I have been rereading an old copy of A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway which recounts the profound impact Paris had on him in the early days. For one thing, living here gave him a heightened sense of his native Michigan and allowed him to capture his youthful memories in one of the great American classics In Our Time. Interesting how being in a foreign country produces a perspective that leads you to see things more clearly about your native country.

I bring this up because rereading A Moveable Feast led me to realize something about innovation and creativity that never occurred to me back in the states. Hemingway writes about his practice of writing in the morning and then taking the Metro to the Odeon stop and walking through the Luxembourg Gardens on an empty stomach. He often stopped at the Luxumbourg Museum to look at the Cezanne paintings. He writes: " I learned to understand Cezanne much better to see truly how he made landscapes when I was hungry. I used to wonder if he were hungry too when he painted; but I thought possibly it was only that he had forgotten to eat. Later I thought Cezanne was probably hungry in a different way."

I wonder about this different kind of hunger. Not the kind that growls in the pit of the stomach but the kind that rumbles in the core of our souls. I think is the kind of hunger Hemingway saw in Cezanne. After all, the ordinary kind of hunger cannot sustain creativity. At least that's what contemporary research tells us.

I also wonder about this kind of hunger when it comes to organizations and innovation. It raises the question of whether an organization can experience this kind of hunger and whether it can be truly innovative without it. Hemingway and Cezanne experienced this kind of hunger and it drove them to great creative efforts. Can the same kind of hunger be experienced by organizations?

In his classic book Self-Renewal, John Gardner explores the growing complexity of modern society and the importance of self renewal to a vibrant, innovative society and its organizations. Ultimately, he claims, innovation and creativity come down to the efforts of individuals. Yet, he acknowledges the importance of creating environments that actively foster individual self renewal. Which brings us back to the importance of organizational self renewal. Without such renewal organizations cannot create environments that support and generate individual creativity. As Gardner puts it, the purpose of all our knowledge is "to design environments conducive to individual fulfillment."

Do we dare say that the only way this can happen is through the courageous efforts of leaders who themselves understand that innovation and creativity are the best ways to feed this different kind of hunger.

This is the pathway pursued by Cezanne and Hemingway. They changed nothing less than the arch of art and literature. Even Picasso acknowledged that "Cezanne was the mother of us all." Perhaps we need leaders who think of themselves as the Cezannes and Hemingways of their organizations. Perhaps one day we will look back at these leaders and say they were the mothers of us all.

Announcements

• Check out the BIF-7 Collaborative Innovation Summit. I am excited to be attending as one of the summit storytellers. No in its 7th year, the BIF Summit was named by Mashable as one of the "7 places to see great minds at work." The summit is magic. It's intimate. It's assumption blowing. It opens up windows to whole new worlds. You should consider being there. Learn more about BIF-7 click here.
• Our pilot for Coaching for Life Change Artists is in full gear. We are aiming to release the online training program in the fall. Let me know if you would like to be alerted to its official launch.
  

Vive la Difference

• patisseries
• Velib bicycle rentals
• Fitou 2009 for $7.50 per bottle
• Baguettes, baguettes, baguettes
• The Metro
• Walk, walk, walk
• patisseries
  
• Doors
  
• quais
• small shops
  
• patisseries
• Parisian clouds
• iron work on balconies
• patisseries
  

I am a pair of endless eyes

In this Bloutcher

• I am a pair of endless eyes
• Announcement

I am a pair of endless eyes

I am sending this bloutcher sandwiched between the weddings of my two daughters five days apart. I am not feeling too coherent. All kinds of random thoughts and emotions are bubbling up at unexpected moments. So I've decided to go with it under the premise that incoherence is fertile ground for creativity and I wonder if there is a message in these thoughts, if there is a pattern in their randomness. So here are some of the thoughts/feelings that have shown up during this sandwich time.

• Are these weddings an ending or a beginning?
• My oldest daughter Hinda is named after my mother Helen (Hinda in Yiddish.) They never knew each other. I am bridge and barrier.
• For years we told our youngest daughter Becky that she completed the circle--I come from a family of three children, Karen comes from a family of three children, Becky is the youngest of three. Does she complete the circle or grow the circle? In life, is there such a thing as a circle?
• I feel young. I am 69 years old. Parents, grandparents are gone. I am a grandparent. Is this simply the biology of biology or the biology of emotions?
• Sometimes I nudge toward despair. And then I kick myself.
• I give gratitude for all that I have, but I tell the angels I suffer.
• When I am painting I am lost and found.
• When I write I think and cry.
• When I am by the sea and watch the waves roll in I am a primordial Jewish amino acid. I breathe deeply and feel the depths.
• I have a son Jacob. He is named after my father. They never met. I am bridge and barrier.
• We fall. We get up. We fall. We get up. It goes on. Our human limits pain us, as does our belief in no limits.
• I look at my daughters and I look and look and look. I am a pair of endless eyes.

Let me know if you see any patterns or themes here?

What would it look like if you were to capture your random thoughts/musings over the next five days? Give it a try.

Then step back from the canvas of your musings and see if there are any patterns or themes emerging.

Announcement

• I came across an interesting piece of information: the Japanese word for creativity is made up of three ideograms, each one with a meaning: to observe, to separate, to recompose. The Japanese define creativity by its process, not by its outcome! Thank you Andrea Fronzetti Colladon wherever you are.
• We are now in pilot mode with Coaching for Life Change Artists. We aim to launch the full program in the fall. It will consist of three major elements: 1. a ten part self guided, self paced, interactive online training program, 2. support that guides coaches and mentors through how to integrate the tools, techniques and concept into their coaching/mentoring practice, 3. a dynamic online community of resources, support and conversation. Let me know if you want to be on our mailing list for updates on when the program will be live. Also let me know if there is anyone else you think might have interest.
  
• Karen and I are off to France next week. More from the City of Light.
  

6 Surprising Artists

In This Bloutcher

• 6 Surprising Artists
• So Try This
  
• Announcements

I'm often asked which artists have been most important to me. My goodness! How do you answer such a question? After all, there have been so many. But when I think about the ones I keep coming back to, not only for their visual impact but for their insight and inspiration, there are 6 that keep rising to the surface.

Rembrandt (1606-1669)--Rembrandt's life and art are marked by tragedy and growing self insight and wisdom. His beloved wife Saskia died after 8 years of marriage and only one of his four sons lived to adulthood. He went through a wrenching bankruptcy during which he lost his home and his art collection. Yet he continued to work and his self portraits increasingly reveal his growing self awareness and vulnerability. His final self portrait, painted the year he died, brings him wholly and unabashedly before the viewer. No pretense, no ego, no claims. Only the man. Humble. With a slight glint of mischief!





Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945)--An artist and woman of great courage. Despite threats, first from Kaiser Wilhelm and then, years later, from the Nazis, she committed herself to a creative life that chronicled the lives of the disenfranchised and vulnerable. Despite threats to be thrown into a concentration camp she maintained relationships with former Jewish students. Her commitment to lithography as a major art form led to a body of work so profound and moving that I am often at a loss for words when I am in front of her work.





Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)--On the surface Morisot was a woman who conformed to the bourgeois norms of late 19th century Paris. Yet she hung out with and influenced the greatest avant garde artists of her generation including Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and she was a wonderful innovator in her own work. She almost exclusively painted women and their children in a deceptively simple style that conveys both the mysteries and love of her subjects. As result she broke the gender barrier by setting the stage for women artists to gain entrance to the previously and exclusively male Ecole des Beaux Artes.

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)--More than any other artist he combined the ability to be precise in his paintings while conveying the presence of ambiguity and change. Vermeer was a prankster wrapped in the garb of a serious painter. His paintings hold both the impression of order and the lurking dangers of change and chaos. His narrative brilliance is both seductive and profound. He is the ultimate above the surface and below the surface painter. Above the surface, order and stillness. Below the surface, change, uncertainty and the threat of mayhem.



Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)--Soutine fled Russia and a stifling orthodox Jewish upbringing and landed in Paris in 1913 at the age of 20 with pennies in his pocket. He hung out with Modigliani and Picasso in The Hive, painted slabs of raw beef and turned his personal anguish into painting as a form of exorcism and expiation. I love his agitated, worked and reworked paintings and the way his portraits leap from the canvas in a reconstituted image that is more real and vibrant than the original subject.








You--What you say? Me? In the same category as these great artist? Now that IS surprising. Yes, you are my 6th surprising artist. Each person I meet is an artist. Deny it as you might. But you are the most important artist you or I will ever meet. And exactly what form of art are you creating? Your life. Now art may not be the same thing as life. And we may not be able to fully create ourselves from scratch as an artist creates an image from scratch on the canvas. But the truth is you do create more of your life than you give yourself credit for and you have much more creative power than you think you do.

So try this:

First, take out a piece of paper and draw a line across the middle of the page. Then, above the line, describe in short phrases how you believe others see you.

Then, below the line describe in short phrases how you see yourself truly, deeply, free of others' expectations, reflecting your core wants and values.

What stands out about these two descriptions?

How can you use these two descriptions to call on your creative powers to bring these two descriptions into complete alignment?

Announcements:

• Kathy Jordan, Donna Krone and I are about to pilot our Coaching for Life Change Artists online training program. We have 13 outstanding coaches from around the country ready to test drive the program. We are aiming to launch the program in the fall.
  We have a mailing list of coaches, mentors and other interested folks to whom we send Action Insights every few weeks as a way to keep you up to date on our progress. Let me know if you would like to be on this mailing list.
• I would like to thanks all the folks at the NYC chapter of the International Coach Federation for their lively participation in my program a couple of weeks ago. I received an overwhelming response to my offer to send out a pdf of my slides. The title of the program was "The Great Masters of Art Reveal the Secrets to a New Coaching Paradigm." Please let me know if you would like a copy and I am happy to send it out to you.
• I am about to head into a rather busy time. I have mentioned that my two very average daughters are getting married in mid July to two very average guys, five days apart from each other and then Karen and I head off to Paris for five weeks. Then, September 19-21 I will be speaking at the Business Innovation Factory BIF7 Summit in Providence, Rhode Island. I will keep you posted on that event.
  

The Effect of Time

In This Bloutcher:

• The Effect of Time
• Announcements

The Effect of Time

I recently received an urgent call to arms from a fellow graduate of the Malverne High School class of 1960. The school board had passed a proposal to rename our high school after a well regarded teacher. You could see the computer screens light up across the Class of '60 Diaspora. From Florida to Indonesia and beyond the cry went out: Do they understand all the memories, associations, friendships, traditions, connections that go by the name of Malverne High School? And what in the world are they going to do with the school mascot: the Malverne Mule. Will they try to come up with a worthy alliterated equivalent? Doubt it!!

And then, in my passionate reaction, I began to wonder about the difference between memory and nostalgia. It struck me that memory is what we recall. The spotty facts of our past. But nostalgia is what we create from this raw material. Nostalgia is the emotional imprint that stamps its full, persistent character on our personal history. It's what cries out to us and calls us back. Memory is the stem and nostalgia the flower.

What are we to with this flower as we get older? Its fragrance becomes increasingly seductive, its call more and more melodic. It would be so easy to let ourselves be absorbed by its power and simply surrender to the richness of our past. After all, the future takes work and effort and energy. And do these capacities not diminish as we get older? So why not give ourselves fully to the nostalgic impulse. Do we succumb? Do we resist? Or do we allow for a few precious moments?

I think of Tennyson's poem Ulysses:

Yet all experience is an arch where through
Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.

When I look at myself I wonder how much Malverne I still see in me. I acknowledge a great deal remains. And then I catch myself. Allow, allow, I whisper to myself. Allow those precious moments. And then turn, as Ulysses did, To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield. I shift my gaze. New frontiers still call. But I do have a warning. Don't mess with the Malverne Mules!!

(To read Tennyson's full poem Ulysses, click here.)

Below is a photo of me a couple of years removed from high school. And then there is a photo snapped a couple of weeks ago. And then there are a couple of self portraits.












Announcements:

• I will be doing a program for the New York City chapter of the International Coaches Federation on Wednesday, June 15th entitled "What the Great Masters of Art Can Teach Us About a New Coaching Paradigm." To register and receive more info, click here.

• Also, it's not too early to join me for a 5 day program at Esalen, November 13 to 18. I will be holding a Life Change Studio in the breathtaking setting of The Big Sur and will be joined by my co-facilitator Nancy Fernandez Mills. For more information click here. Also, my wife Karen will be holding one of her remarkable 5 day poetry workshops at Esalen during those same dates, entitled Calling Calliope. Click here for more info.

• I also want to remind everyone that I am working on an online training program for coaches with Kathy Jordan and Donna Krone. The program is designed to help coaches integrate the tools, techniques and concepts developed in Becoming a Life Change Artist into their practice. It will be highly interactive and will include an opportunity to join our dynamic online community. We have begun to build a list of coaches who have indicated an interest in learning more about the program. If you would like to be added to this list please let me know. And if you know coaches who you think should know about this program please let me know. We will then ask them for permission to be on our update list. We are planning to launch the program in the Fall.

• An update about my plans this summer. I have two daughter, Hinda and Becky, and they are both getting married this summer. Five days apart from each other. Yes, you heard it right. Five days apart. To two great guys. And, then, five days after that Karen and I are heading to France for 5 weeks. Of course, this was not all planned exactly this way. We had made plans to go to France first. Then Becky decided to get married. And, well, Hinda thought it would be a good idea to jump in since the family would be gathered together anyway. So planning goes just so far. The rest is about being grateful.