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Last month, I returned to the Columbus Metropolitan Club — this time to speak on The Demise of Polite Conversation: Is Communication on the Brink?
Here's the video of the talk, thanks to the talented, well equipped folks at The Ohio Channel.
Of all my presentations, this one — so far — defines who I am. (It is, for me, my ethical will.)
Once again, the CMC audience is the best in town.
Another thought from my 10th grade geometry teacher.
You should have such a 10th grade geometry teacher.
John saw Jory Farr's new "culturewise" column in Columbus Monthly — "The Art of Being Artie Isaac" — and offered another thought for my repertoire. This idea comes from another mathematician, Blaise Pascal:
All people seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. They will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every person, even those who hang themselves.
Is Happiness Enough?
Some might think this — the idea that we are merely happiness seekers — to be small. They complain that we are more altruistic, more noble.
I disagree. I find some comfort in the idea.
And I recognize my own hunger for happiness. It leads me toward both the noble and the ignoble.
Where's The Comfort In That?
There is much clarity. After all, once we know that we are seeking happiness, we have a vision for the future.
Which makes our mission clearer: we know what education to seek — and what to offer to the next generation. We would learn how to learn:
I'm Happy.
And filled with gratitude for Jory Farr's article.
Friends have called to say that he really nailed it. Or me.
Indeed, he energetically and intelligently researched this one: calling several friends (Jonathan, Diane, Matt, Rob) first to ask them about me, then meeting me to ask me about what I'm doing. That order of interviews was peculiar, and peculiarly effective.
Thanks, Jory.
I wasn't kidding.
I was serious when I invited you to audition for this year's production of To Kill A Mockingbird.
That invitation is genuine and true. (And here it is, again.)
The auditions are this week.Audition for To Kill a Mockingbird dramatized by Christopher Sergel from the Pulitzer prize-winning 1960 novel by Harper Lee. Directed by Ian Short.
OPEN CALL: Friday, January 29, 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. (show-up anytime)
OPEN CALL: Saturday, January 30, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. (show-up anytime)
CALLBACKS: Sunday, January 31, 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. (by invitation only)Location: the Vern Riffe Center - Enter on State Street, go to the third floor and you'll be escorted to the audition room.
Performances June 24-27, 2010. Most rehearsals will be in the evening, Sundays-Thursdays, beginning in May.
This is an independent, community theatre production and a fundraiser for Available Light Theatre. Actors will not be paid.
REQUIRED: One monologue, two minutes or less, prepared material preferred; cold readings will be available for those who need them. Feel free to contact me. I can email you the "sides," so you can look them over in advance.CALLBACKS: If you are called back, you will be notified by email by 11 a.m. on Sunday, January 31 and asked to attend a callback session from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. that day.
For more info: avltheatre@gmail.com
"Can't I just be a dude?"
That was the plaintive question from the student in the back row. He was clearly weary of my song. He wanted out of my argument.
I asked him to elaborate.
"Can't I just live my life and not wrestle with these questions?"
Perhaps he sensed he might become haunted by my questions. Now I am haunted by his questions.
Here's what happened.
I recently spoke to the entire first year class of the Ohio State University College of Business. It's become a yearly joy — for me, at least — to present Leading From The Heart to these MBA candidates.
What did the students think? Here's a very beautiful summary from Hannah DeMilta an Otterbein undergraduate who accepted my (and OSU's) invitation to readers of Net Cotton Content.
As part of the graduate business program's Leadership & Professional Development series, Leading From The Heart is a series of questions, a big-hearted message of encouragement: especially now that you are in school, recalibrate more than your skills — recalibrate the meaning of your life.
I ask the questions that no one asked me during business school — and questions I didn't think to ask myself.
I believe such introspection is not self-indulgent. I think it is more than an opportunity for self-development. I think it is an obligation for someone who is preparing to lead others. Otherwise, even the best business management education might become what W. Edwards Deming growled was "the management of failure."
What is the management of failure?
What did Deming mean? I think he was describing non-leadership.
And that is management by someone who is not authentic.
What is it to be authentic?
To live life mindfully.
Some students might think: "This is all so Zen. I didn't come to business school for the meaning of life. Who cares?"
A couple years ago, one said to me, "All I want to do is accumulate wealth and play golf."
Now, this student in the back row: "Can't I just be a dude? Can't I just live my life and not wrestle with these questions?"
These perspectives haunt me — with inspiration.
This Is Why I Want To Be
The Liberal Arts Department
Of The Business School
I teach in order to plant the seed in all their minds that doing well isn't meaningful, if we are doing the wrong things well. (I can speak from personal experience. I've spent far too much time doing the wrong things well.)
Death will come too soon. Doesn't it always? Even when it comes as blessed relief, productive living always ends too soon.
In the meantime, while we have our breath, who are we to quibble with Socrates?
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Next Monday (1/25/10) at 6:45 p.m., I return to CCAD for the first of a dozen weekly lectures on consumer behavior.
Come. This is your invitation.
There are 86 students registered (so far) for the class and it will be taught in a big, comfortable auditorium, so you can just blend in. Each class is only 75 minutes. You could come to this first Monday, any Monday, or every Monday.
Don't be shy. I would love to have you there.
(I opened last year's classes to folks like you and more than 30 attended. Nice!)
Let me know if you are coming, and I will send you a map to the specific location — and a syllabus with all the readings.
New and Improved
I have taught this course for years at CCAD. And I think it's a good course. As one student wrote:
“The course was high-energy, optimistic, full of humor and most importantly: informative. It was one of the few courses that just about everyone who took it not only looked forward to the next lesson, but recommended it to their colleagues as well.”
But I often recall the admonition of Noam Chomsky: If you are teaching the same thing the same way for more than five years, then you lack either ambition or imagination.
So, this semester, I am adding classes on ethics and creativity. So it was time to go away.
The Course Is Sound
Over time, I'd designed the course to help artists:
The legendary CCAD education — especially its intensive first year, "Foundation" — expertly develops each artist's technical skills.
But having hired dozens of CCAD graduates at Young Isaac, I have seen too many who are riding solely on their technical proficiency. They do have highly developed hands and eyes — but aren't always levering their minds.
That's where this class comes in.
Bridging The Gap
After years of helping CCAD artists win the favor of businesspeople in the workplace, I've been teaching MBA candidates about creativity. This has me building the same bridge — over the creative gap — from the other side.
Now, with my MBA experiences, I'm really enjoying re-meeting the artists at CCAD.
And you. Coming?
That's Michael Grossberg in this morning's "Inventive adaptation displays promise" in The Columbus Dispatch. (Thanks, Michael.)
Get Tickets
I just reserved more tickets online.
Usually, I'm happy with Available Light's Pay What You Want (at the door) ticket pricing. After all, I like to pay what I want.
But this show is hot cakes (see photo) and if I get to the door with my wife and daughter — and there's only two tickets left — I know who's going to have to go sit in the car.
You might think of me as a brawny, burly sort of manly man, but I am not going to get shut out at the door of this dramatic deconstruction in period costume. No way. I'm there. No matter what "dramatic deconstruction" means.
Plus, I can't bear the thought of Mrs. Isaac sitting in the car all alone while I luxuriate in the lap of Lady Theatre, dabbing my eyes at her tender moments.
Let's Not Leave Our Lovers In The Car
Let's bring them into the theater where they belong.
Here are the show and advance ticket details.
Years ago, a teacher of mine, Ed Burghard — the very first time we met — told me about his Handshake Document.
"Once I shake your hand," Ed said, "I automatically make these promises."
He handed me a sheet of paper. "You may hold me accountable."
I loved that.
During the five or so years since that conversation, I've kept my own list of promises on this website. It's my way of inviting you to hold me accountable to my values.
Out Of Date Promises
Well, it's been a couple years since I revised this document — years during which I changed my life dramatically. I learned. I grew. And I outgrew many of my promises. (Some of them accommodated aspects of what look now like personal inauthenticity.)
So, here's a fresh version of my promises. Whenever I say "Hello," that simple "Hello" isn't so simple. It's shorthand for this longer list of promises. (There just isn't time for me to speak all these promises every time I say "hello.")
What Do You Promise?
Writing a list of Automatic Promises is a useful exercise in creativity and ethics.
It's a way of clarifying — for yourself — what is not negotiable, what you stand for.
Hello.
SM in possession of a large fortune ISO five sisters from which one might be chosen as wife.
Are you a single man with a large fortune in search of a wife?
Are you a single woman in search of a man with a large fortune?
If no longer, surely you once were.
Bring whatever you have — or whatever is left of you — to Pride & Prejudice. It opens next week.
Available Light is offering the world's greatest love story, told in an imaginative, engaging, memorable way.
Something for everyone.
Period costumes for her. Deconstruction for him.
Tickets are pay what you want. You can buy them online — and see other information about the show at darcy4ever.com.
Hotties like Miss Jane Bennett are standing by.
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