Inner Craftsman

As Curator for TEDxCalgary I often get some unique opportunities to engage with people and ideas that I normally would not have access to. One of those was an opportunity to engage with leading edge minds, be they authors, speakers, thinkers, doers, innovators etc.

In all these engagements I am profoundly moved by the Inner Craftsman (gender neutral) they bring to their work, their conversations. In encountering this time and again- I did some thinking. How is it possible to develop this 'inner craftsman'? What possible value might it have? Would this inner craftsman be perhaps what we need to awaken in all who are engaged in civic life?

Questions are important- am not close to many answers yet- but will keep you posted. This blog post about Caring touches on elements of what I think the most promising avenue to answers...

Caring-writ large

You see, it all begins with caring- if there is not any caring then there is no reason to connect, or do anything. Our civic life is a subset of our natural world. All our human systems depend on caring- so do all of our natural systems...we must do what we must because it has to be done, and because we are stewards of the natural world. Any civic life worth living will encompass the natural world too.

It seems like at this point in our lives we are on brink of so many wonderful things disappearing. This is a place of fear- a defensive posture, which narrows our zones of attention and does not allow us to see the beauty of the world around us and ultimately will cause us to loose what little we have left. The beauty, the delicate systems precariously balanced, the complexity which we hardly understand has to be celebrated in the hearts and minds of all citizens. We must create artifacts of such great beauty that they persuade, rather than cajole, seduce rather than scare, embrace rather than exclude. This is when we will start to see the change that we need. The work from the BBC Natural History Unit is a small example of the type of work that we need to see more of.

Other work that includes the Encyclopedia of Life founded by E.O. Wilson is a great example of how we can translate this caring into deep understanding and systemic action. Action which takes into account the complexity and interconnections of the various pieces that often fit together in the natural world.

Once we kindle the fires that lead to caring in others, the hardest part is done. The inner craftsman takes over and the work that seemed impossible, becomes possible- hard work, but made easier and more meaningful with a renewed attention to Quality. Now we have to go out there and make sure we fulfill our destiny as stewards of this planet. We have no other choice. 

Oh no! Not him again!

There are a few things going on in this Ad that are quite interesting. Worth Watching and spreading around... The return of Ben Ali . What do you think is going on in people's minds as they watch this?

The Importance of Books

Someone really influential in my life once said- Buy more books then you can read, read more than you can remember and remember more than you can use. The direct result of that is now I have an apartment with probably a thousand books, most of them don't fit on the 3 billy bookcases I have, and am now looking for other places to store them. Though I had many before I heard that quote- things really got out of control once I heard the above.

Aside from the boring logistical task of managing these books- the interesting thing is my relationship with these 'snapshots of the human story'. Books are now almost like old friends- friends who have illuminated parts of the territory that I need to know more about and which I can reference.

The way in which I read has also changed over time- I no longer go through books, or consume them- rather I 'argue' with them. This is still something I am working on, but the feeling I am trying to get to is one where I actively engage with the content- trying to link it to other works/thinking I have run across and constantly testing how and where what I have read prior is linked to the present work.

I am trying to stay focused whilst staying surrounded by all these books on finishing each one but that's an exercise in futility- I wander through the different piles reading parts of one, the whole of another etc, but they are all works in progress. There is a talk made by a good friend of mine that if you are interested gives you a sense of the delights and discoveries awaiting you in reading.

26th Feb- I recently ran across a rather fascinating picture that made me sit up and take note: Its a picture of President Obama holding Matt Taibi's Book Griftopia   I recalled in my mind a story of President Chavez of Venezuela- gifting to President Obama the book “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent”
I am fascinated by how books can expand your thoughtscape and how spending time with them - I wonder if President Obama had the opportunity to read either of those books...and what if any effect they had on him.

Civic Life

What does it mean to be a citizen in a contemporary city? What duties do we have as citizens to participate in civil society? Is civil society critical? What makes any city progressive? Can there be progressive governance without citizen involvement? What does it mean to be progressive? What makes for a safe, diverse, and vibrant community?

These are driving questions that I hope to explore over the next little while and if along the way this blog gathers a community willing to explore these issues. In the meantime I will leave these questions out there to see what happens.
As a teacher, questions of citizenship and preparing students to be successful in a particular society are uppermost in my mind. I find myself preoccupied with the task of preparing students to be part of a context in which their fellow citizens might not be active citizens working for the good of others or apathetic to the concerns of those around them.
Being an agent of change is something that we all aspire to but as a teacher aware that education is more than just the imparting of facts and ideas out of context this is a reality. I am an agent of change and what I need is a community interested in joining me to make sure I have a way of catching errors in perception and judgement so that the effect that I have contributes to the progression of human endeavor in a progressive direction.