Archive for the ‘curiosities’ Category
Meaning Shows Up Between Us
We are each products of the conversations we’ve had, whether with people, books or situations.
That’s why we keep changing.
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Image credit: A Hole in the Head
In vitro. In vivo. In vino.
He thought he had carved it on the handicapped stall. But as he sat there he couldn’t see it. Maybe he carved it in another stall. Screw the regulators. Screw purchasing. Screw the fat cat CEO. He would be the fat cat. When his ex stopped screwing his wallet and settled for screwing his best friend. He was drunk and he knew it. He shuffled out the door, pants around his ankles and made himself comfortable in the much smaller stall. Yes. This would have been the one. He searched the wall to his left. De novo. He scanned to his right. In vitro. He caught his breath. In vivo. He took out his car key and scratched. In vino. He stood. Pulled up his pants and fastened them. He took a slug from the bottle in his paper bag and put it back in the deep pocket of his lab coat. Wash hands. Pop a mint. Pop two more mints. Ready for the next procedure.
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All Things Awesome
In the realm of how we talk with each other, Wayne Booth saw three options: convincing someone of our position, bargaining for concessions or listening to “pursue the truth behind our differences.” But what if we knew something even more stunning than the ingredients of Hahn beer? That would be an example of reconciliation-rhetoric: listening + naming what’s awesome. ( Via Adland TV )
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Try This: Wait
Waiting has a silver lining: breathing space
but remember to breath
Years ago my wife and I met friends living in a developing country. We hung around for a few days to see what life looked like. Turns out life looked like lines. Long lines. Hours to pay an electric bill in person. Hours more for the water bill. This country was known for layer after layer of bureaucracy to handle the red tape, so the lines kept people employed even as they drove me crazy. I wondered aloud how my friend could stand it—especially knowing he tended toward a Type A personality who relished getting things done. He said, “That’s just the way it is.”
It’s hard to see any benefit in waiting. We work hard to eliminate waiting every day. I pull ahead of drivers focused on phone conversations rather than the road. I seek out the shortest line at the grocer. I click elsewhere when a web page loads too slowly. I don’t like waiting. I bet you don’t like waiting.
But my friend used his waiting time wisely. There was no plugged or unplugged then. Unlike today when most people waiting are looking into a screen, he brought a book. He prayed. He talked with people in line. My friend was a smart guy (still is) and he made a lot of connections between different parts of life. He ran a printing business, started a college and a home for families whose children were in the local hospital—even as he waited in long lines for the business of everyday.
Two recent books advocate intentional unplugging from the web, if only for short times: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers. Both books look at the effect of a mind crowded with stimulus and hint at what might happen with a bit of mental breathing space, which is a kind of waiting. Waiting is also a time-honored means of reflection and forward-movement in the Bible. I just finished reading the book of Psalms and saw how author after author waited for God to do something. They prayed. And they waited. And they watched (and waited).
Waiting comes with the capacity to sharpen our interest, our eyesight and our appetite. Waiting also has a purifying effect on our long-term goals. We become more realistic as we wait (or perhaps we become more insistent). But know for certain that something will change as we wait.
I’m working at waiting. Today I’ll look for an opportunity to stand around and wait. It will be hard to not pull out my phone with its checklists and documents. But waiting may allow me to connect the dots in a fresh way.
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Photo Credit: We Love Typography
Five Bucks to Withdraw 20? Let the Robber Barons’ Rob!
How do you suffer the stupid?
I was in a hurry to get to a client meeting. My client was in downtown St. Paul and the ramp only took cash and checks (imagine!). I had neither. How convenient: a cash machine across from the booth. Fees levied? Ok. But the next day when I checked on my account I saw TCF also had their hands out when I stood by the machine.
[hand slap to forehead]
Of course—some portion of a banker’s income must come from stupid. We all know this. I’ve always thought of credit as stupid money (yes, I use credit) because my delay in paying for something I wanted right away is my banker’s opportunity to rifle through my pocket. I sign up for this kind of thing all the time. I can understand why William Cooper and TCF have a lawsuit against the feds for limiting fees—otherwise how would they take advantage of my stupid ways?
Resolved: be less stupid for the rest of the year. We’ll see how many minutes that lasts.
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Image Credit: DANKTARI
Try this: Be Ionic, Iconic and Ironic
Disturb Someone Today
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts manages to be ionic (columns), iconic (yes, the columns again) and ironic (colors on columns--really?)
It’s all in the mix. Start with an ancient form: a note, a letter. A poem. An email? Get the form just right and let it carry all it was meant to carry. Then bring it into today with an element that steps outside that form. The MIA does it with colored lights on the ionic pillars with are also iconic. Is the result beautiful? Not exactly. Several of us have thought a lot about whether those lights are right or wrong. We decided they are ironic.
That’s why I’m so fond of the cards turned out by Zeichen press. Old form. Old cold type. I’ve worked with quoins and frames and rollers that spread ink across a platen. Everything about the process shouts “old.” But the messages are anything but old. Their cards disturb even as they console or encourage.
How can you disturb someone’s attention by mixing up an old form with something of today?
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conversation is an engine 