~ In celebration of “Black Friday,” I’m sharing one of my favorite essays. It was originally published May 21, 2009.  Enjoy!

“The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude”  [Dennis Brown].

Let’s face it: bad days happen to everyone — no one is immune. Sometimes you know from the minute you wake-up, (late — because you forgot to set the alarm) and sometimes you don’t realize the storm clouds of misfortune are forming in the distance until you arrive at your destination, only to discover a colleague’s bad day is raining on your parade.

Wouldn’t it be great if, in addition to the headlines, the weather, and traffic conditions, local news stations could provide us with the mood outlook for the day? Maybe it would sound something like this:

• We’re expecting a strong frustration front to blow in this afternoon. Be sure to take your resilience with you. You might also want to consider packing an extra dose of enthusiasm before you head out the door.

• Eye in the Sky is reporting that you’ll want to avoid the Accounting and Finance Departments entirely this morning. There’s been a huge pile-up of egos, unmet expectations, and ineffective processes in that area. HR is now on the scene, but it looks like progress will be backed up for hours.

• The big headline this morning is that power remains out in the Customer Service Department. It appears that a supervisor, who had previously reported ongoing communication problems, blew up late yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, nearly everyone on that floor was affected. No word yet on when crews will be able to restore productivity to that area.

If we’re wise, we’ll be initiating defensive maneuvers (for example, reading motivational books and articles) before we’re hit broadside by the attitudes of others. What safety measures are you engaging to protect your attitude?

One of my favorite children’s books is by Judith Viorst entitled, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. This humorous short story follows a boy named Alexander throughout his day, documenting how (from his view) everything and everyone (including the family pet) conspires to make his day horrible. He’s not permitted to sit by the window during the ride to school; his mother forgot to pack dessert in his lunch; there are lima beans for dinner (UGH!) and, “The cat wants to sleep with Anthony, not with me.”

At the end of the book it’s the end of the day and Alexander repeats yet again, “It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” His mother responds simply, “some days are like that.”  Isn’t that the truth?

The good thing about life is that it is just so . . . daily! If you don’t like how today turned out, despite your very best effort, don’t despair. You’ll get another chance tomorrow.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely . . ” [Ralph Waldo Emerson].

Just remember, “happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude” [Dale Carnegie]. Regardless of uncontrollable external conditions swirling around, you have absolute control over your attitude and your response.

One of my favorite quotes is attributed to former Boston Celtic Bill Russell, “The game is scheduled, we have to play it — we might as well win.”

Are you in it to win it today? Or are you going to allow the torrential downpour of negative news, grouchy coworkers, and rude drivers quench your positive outlook? “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude” [Maya Angelou].

Whatever you are, be a good one!

Deanna

“i thank god for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees & for the blue dreams of sky & for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” — e.e. cummings

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough” — Oprah Winfrey

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” — Woody Allen

“I do not think we have a “right” to happiness. If happiness happens, say thanks.” — Marlene Dietrich

Jax

“Purring is not so different from praying. To a tree, a cat’s purr is one of the purest of all prayers, for in it lies a whole mixture of gratitude and longing, the twin ingredients of every prayer.”  — Kathi Appelt (The Underneath)

“I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. “ — Walt Whitman

“When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.” — Maya Angelou

“Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” — Dalai Lama XIV

“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” — Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. “ — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” — Kahlil Gibrán (The Prophet)

GiGi

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust

“Be present in all things and thankful for all things” — Maya Angelou

“Fell in love with a beautiful blonde once. Drove me to drink. And I never had the decency to thank her. ” — W.C. Fields

“True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.’” — Oprah Winfrey

“Gratitude is a ‘heart’ memory” — French Proverb

“He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.” — Gabriel García Márquez (Love in the Time of Cholera)

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” — Albert Schweitzer

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ” — John F. Kennedy

“I tell you this, my friends, in the experience of my life time, the failure and the pain have certainly outstripped the triumphs. But this has not destroyed my faith — my faith in reason, in truth, in human solidarity — but, on the contrary, it has made it indestructible. I see the hope of the world in you. And, from my heart, I thank you.” — Frida Kahlo

“Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.” — Garrison Keillor

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

The temperature in San Diego, CA today is in the 70’s. The surf has been good too. It’s been the perfect week for gardening and hanging out with my bearded dragons and dogs in the backyard.

Today is Thanksgiving and it will be hot in the kitchen. I’m hosting a nice sized crowd today and using a lot of fresh herbs from my garden for the stuffing, fresh picked lettuce for the salad and rosemary for the bread. It’s days like today when I have a lot of different dishes to prepare that I am thankful for my garden and enjoy sharing it with my family and friends.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American Essayist

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

_________________________________________________________________________

Thanksgiving is a great day to reflect and be thankful for all of the blessings in our lives.

Wishing you a wonderful and blessed day!

Nadia

]]> http://dede867.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/happy-thanksgiving/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:47:27 +0000 Derinda http://dede867.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/happy-thanksgiving/

Gratitude is often easier for us to recognize when our lives are in order- all the bills paid, the family healthy and the children are happy in school.

Much love,
Derinda

“Man becomes what he thinks about all day long.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Jesus (Matthew 12:34)

What are you spending your time thinking about and setting your heart on?

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau was born in historic Concord, MA, home of the most prolific thinkers of our time, The Transcendentalists.

Walden Pond

Less than two miles from Concord was Walden Pond, the mystical body of water that, aside from his writings, made Thoreau famous. Walden was a cool glacial lake surrounded by a piney woods. Thoreau, of course, picked it for what was known as “his famous experiment.

Thoreau loved Concord and all the intellectual thought and experimentation it had to offer. On December 5, 1856 he wrote in his journal, “I have never got over my surprise that I should have been born into the most estimable place in all the world, and in the very nick of time, too.”

During this time, many of his peers and colleagues were moving west, to explore the wildfrontier. Thoreau stayed put in Concord as in the middle of the 19^th century the town was surrounded bysome of the most accomplished authors of his time; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson and May Alcott and their daughter Louisa Mae, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne and many others. Intellectual thought and change was encouraged, whereas in other small communities this was not necessarily so in, not just Concord, but much of small-town America.

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau graduated from nearby Harvard, where he would often bring home friends to entertain in Concord.  Long before Henry was born, Concord was steeped in rich history. In 1635 it was established as the first inland English settlement, 20 miles from the coast.

On April 19, 1779, the American Revolutionary War had begun at the Battlefield of Concord. Over a half century later Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem about a historic even he called “the shot heard ’round the world.” in a poem called “Concord Hymn”.

While still at Harvard Thoreau spent one of his summer vacations living with his friend Charles Wheeler at a place called Flint’s Pond in a small cabin and slept on bunks of straw for over a month.

But they were not alone in that hey stayed close to the Wheeler family eating and socializing with them. Thoreau loved this vacation and again returned to it, not realizing it was becoming the inspiration for his finally moving to Walden Pond and building a small house in the woods.

Walden was not Thoreau’s first choice. He looked at several areas including a place called Baker Farm, and another called Fairhaven Hill by the Sudbury River and even Flint’s Pond, where he’s stayed during his college years.

Those places were excellent for fishing and Walden was not, and though it had gorgeous scenery, Thoreau said “It did not approach grandeur”.

Thoreau finally settled on Walden due to the pond’s depth and clarity, unlike some of the closer-by muddier ones, he could see down Walden to a depth of 30 feet. There were parts of Walden so deep that the local legend was that it was so uniquely deep that in the center itwas bottomless.

Nevertheless, Thoreau was pragmatic and measured the deepest point to be a little over 100 feet and was still “thankful that this pond was made deep and pure for a symbol,” continuing, “While men believe some ponds will be thought to be bottom less.

Emerson purchased eleven acres surrounding Walden Pond and visited often, allegedly to save the trees from being cut as contractors were hoping to do to build. Emerson agreed to

allow Thoreau to live on his land in exchange for building the house Emerson could later use as his study. This solved Thoreau’s problem of finding a simple way of living for this “Walden experiment”.

There are only theories as to why Thoreau chose Walden. Many think it was because the pond so near his home and he used it for bathing and drinking. Also nearby was Brister’s Spring, which offered cold water which kept him cool on warm summer days. Also the land was elevated so flooding was rare, trees were, for the most part preserved, and the home faced south, which kept it warm during winter storms.

In Chapter 2 of Walden Pond, Thoreau described “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” writing, “I was seated… so low in the woods that the opposite shore, half a mile off, like the rest, covered with wood, was my most distant horizon….it impressed me like a tarn [small mountain lake with steep banks] high up on the side of a mountain, its bottom far above the surface of other lakes, and, as the sun arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist, and here and there, by degrees, its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle The very dew seemed to hang upon the trees later into the day than usual, as on the sides of mountains.”

Chances are good that Thoreau’s good friend Emerson had a great influence on him. Emerson wrote about and embraced nature and even begun the word with a capital “N” (or Nature).

Thoreau said, “ In wildness is the preservation of the world.” This famous quote from the essay “Walking” boldly declares one of Henry’s most emphatic beliefs, but it is often misquoted as “in wilderness is the preservation of the world.” Though he was a devoted observer of Nature and loved to immerse himself in the woods during his walks, what Thoreau meant to highlight was not an untouched “wilderness” separate from humanity, but instead an independence of the spirit epitomized in the world “wildness.”

His experiment living at Walden was not meant to be a wilderness excursion or a period of hermitage. In the opening statement of the Walking, he writes, “I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and Culture merely civil – to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.” Thoreau felt that society constrained the individual and he looked to the wildness of nature as pointing to our belonging to a higher way of life with much for freedom than society had to offer.

Thoreau Love Quote Shoes

Henry David Thoreau Slip On Love Quote Shoes

Thoreau Love Quote Canvas Bag

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Rick London is a freelance writer, cartoonist and designer. One of his ventures is called Shoes That Amuse which are the only shoes on the market featuring famous poets, writers, and philosophers and their most famous love quotes; Thoreau one of his most popular.   London is also brand designer for actress/author Mariel Hemingway and owns numerous funny gift stores featuring his cartoons on funny tees, funny mugs, and other funny gifts and collectibles.  His Londons Times Cartoons has been Google and MSN’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoon on the Internet since 2005.

“Give all to love; obey thy heart.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Consider this passage more figuratively – as if God were asking you if you’d like to be set free from whatever holds you back from reaching your ultimate potential. If you were offered freedom from what holds you back, are you ready to take it?(thedailyverse.com)

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed? John 5:6

Power Thoughts
1. “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” ~ William Shakespeare
3. “Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others.” ~ Danny Thomas

I’m back after having spent 2 days in Berlin for…work. Wow, that was exciting! Kein leisure this time!

The Ritz-Carlton was hosting the Herald Tribune conference of the luxury industry in Berlin. This conference has been traditionally hosted in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo. But this year Suzy Menkes, the venerable fashion editor of Herald Tribune, picked Berlin because the flirt between luxury and technology is becoming something serious. And surely Milano, Paris or London felt a bit passé when it comes to technology.

It was kind of odd to talk luxury in Berlin, the anti-luxury town. Or the über-luxury town, if you think that a cleaner air, using the bike and nature at your doorstep are the real luxury now. But Suzy Menkes has antennas, and they are tuning in on new themes: technology, CSR. After all the New York Times offers one of the best online media experiences, we started to see during the US election campaign how its Lab was exploiting all the potential offered by multimedia and the mixture of graphic/text/photo/interactivity. Plus the US are pushing smart grids, greener technology: sign of the times. And Berlin is a good example of sticking to environmental commitments.

Technology + luxury is indeed an intriguing combination and the concentration of interesting speeches and conversations provided abundant food for thought. Not all contributions were equally interesting. Some speakers lost golden opportunities for sharing with the audience a deeper understanding of their approach to technology because they picked a standard, institutional presentation off the rack and delivered it without too much belief, thus lowering the momentum generated by lush video introductions. Or because they never answered to questions but just kept on pumping their message “we’re the best”. But they were just a couple of them. The majority of the speakers had prepared the material carefully, both conversation and multimedia content, has delivered the key messages with passion and answered in a candid way to Suzy Menkes’s questions.

My favorite speeches…

1. Christopher Bailey, Creative Director @ Burberry like a dj mixed effective visuals and music, lots of it, with pragmatic examples and clear messages. He’s really in tune with the times. He shared with the audience in a simple way many examples on how the company is approaching technology in an holistic way: be it environmental issues in the workplace, permanent videoconference facilities, wifi and skype, online activities, approach to social networks, and feedback from social networks. It’s not a matter on jumping on the bandwagon of the latest cool gadgetry. But of having a vision on how that brand could profit from technology, preparing a plan and rolling it out. Not being afraid of engaging into a dialogue, not sticking to the brand monologue bunker-mentality.

2. Natalie Massenet, CEO @ Net-à-porter answered in a candid way even tough questions such as “what is the % of merchandise sold online that is returned?”. It is about 25%, but the fact you can do it without fuss lowers the barrier to entry and encourages shopping. She approached the theme of discounts and outlets with grace but without hiding the truth. Very elegant, very impactful. Or, as Menkes said, Multinational, multilingual, multimedia…

3. Jochen Zeitz, CEO @ Puma delivered a very inspired and quite intimidating speech on the social responsibilities of companies, or rather, the responsibility tout court of companies and customers alike vis a’ vis the environment. He sounded a bit like a priest and sometimes a dash paternalistic, putting himself on a level above the audience. But apart from the form, the substance of the speech was there. My impression is that he is truly committed and is working with the objective to making a difference, starting with a different way to use packaging for instance. No cosmetic CSR, but a clear vision. He may sound idealistic, but ideals are not a bad thing to have and I trust the man is pragmatic too – after all he’s German, right? – and we will see the results down the road. The speech was carefully prepared, even if it was delivered like a sermon. Maybe the audience could have been spared the many references to Heidegger and Ralph Waldo Emerson, but very inspiring and deep nonetheless. The guy is honest and means what he says.

4. Jefferson Hack, Editorial Director, Dazed & Confused – during the coffee break Hack was rehearsing his presentation. I love to see this. It means the speaker is taking the audience seriously and has worked personally on his presentation, is involved and cares about the product and the customers he has in front of him. Hack started off with a powerful video (and sound, hey!) and carried on with an extremely lateral-thinking form of presentation, and clear ideas on smart media. Similarly as with music, we will consume media online and “buy the paper” in the same way as we “buy the CD” or the vinyl now: for its artwork, as a souvenir of the experienced we consumed somewhere else, online. At the end he showed he cared for the audience, signaling that a bunch of links had been prepared were available forthose who wished to further explore the matter of smart media. Competent and thorough, but at the same impactful and effective, without trying to please the audience or the moderator by means of cheap seduction. Rough edges.

I crossed later Hack at Grill Royal and couldn’t agree more with him on the theme of higher quality magazines. I buy far less magazines today than I used to 10 years ago. But those ones I buy, are of better quality and deliver something more than just the news or the odd fashion editorial. Think about Dummy, Monocle, Brand Eins. And Vogue Paris, which I still buy because of its clean graphic look, extraordinary art work and articles which are not shallow.

5. Ross Lovegrove, Designer, Lovegrove Studio – was able to deliver a presentation which bordered more on the philosophical divertissement than on the clear description of the role of technology in luxury. But he had won the siberian slot, the one around 3pm, and managed to keep the audience interested and entertained during the toughest moment of any conference: digestion. Was it because he mentioned that during his career as a cook he managed to add marijuana to any dish? or because he was very tanned and laid back? He loathes retrospective, he hates looking back and he only works on future/futuristic stuff. Still, objects become icons – and sell – also because they have the magic of aging well, epitomizing the Zeitgeist of their time. One should not despise the source of his cashflows, oder?

6. During the same module Adam Thorpe and Joe Hunter from Vexed dived deeper in the relationship between technology and the human body and discussed poignantly themes such as impact protection, moisture management, protection from pollution and visibility. We’re in smart materials territory, and the two bikers work on an array of projects also for other brands in order to develop materials with special properties and garments with ergonomic solutions to specific problems. I suggested to Adam to go and have a look to Otto Bock’s building across the road, an amazing buiding more fascinating than Prada’s Aoyama flagship in Tokyo…smart materials once more, with the difference that they deal with trauma recovery rather than avoiding trauma! Avant-après!

7. Alexander Reichert, Prada Transformer Project Architect, OMA together with Tomaso Galli from Prada. The Transformer is a fantastic giant toy and maybe you needed lateral risk-takers like the Pradas to make it a reality. Reichert’s project is a fantastic challenge which became real. On the one hand, I wonder about the financial implication and return of such a project. On the other hand, on paper it seems more interesting than Chanel’s cocoon-spaceship Art Container designed by Zaha Hadid, because it is truly innovative and capsizes, literally, the paradigm of building, making it truly…polyedric. Mongolian jurta, Eskimo boat, Indian Teepee, Scythian carriage, god knows how Reichert came up with the mega-toy. Reichert seemed quite shy (but very proud) in presenting his project, so some interesting slides got skipped because of his being maladroit. Tomaso’s communication skills were crucial in smoothing the creases. But as Reichert picked up a 3-d maquette of the Transformer things started to get better, he was more in control of the presentation and could share the 3-d idea behind it: a pyramid-shaped building morphing in a movie theater (rectangle), art exhibition (cross), special event (circle) and fashion event (octagon).….more tomorrow….

Photo: NYT – IHT

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hmm, very interesting indeed, Emerson was truly an optimist . . . the same could be said of many library materials that sit on shelves for years . . . unused at all. Unfortunately, many of us (the pessimistic types) often take a slightly different perspective,

“a book (or resource) that has outlived its virtue, perhaps, and needs to be ‘weeded’ from the collection.”

The Yin & Yang of weeds?  Who’d've thunk?

Sometimes, the truth hurts. Even the twelve men closest to Jesus had a hard time hearing it. If truth is being spoken to you, slow down and lay down your pride enough to stop, listen to and discern it. Take in and glean from what those closest to you are saying, and be thankful for it, rather than rejecting it because it may be hard to hear. (thedailyverse.com)

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? John 6:60

Power Thoughts:  

1. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.” ~ John Mason
3. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” ~ Mark Twain

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple,
which has no superfluous parts;
which exactly answers its end,
which stands related to all things,
which is the mean of many extremes.

Perhaps you have noticed that the tag line for this blog is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.” Great quote. (And perfect for a blog about public speaking.)

Here’s a slide of the quote and a picture of Emerson that I have used in courses that I have taught on public speaking and presentation skills:

Question: Would the slide be as effective if Emerson’s picture were flipped the other way as in the slide below?

Most people (and all of my students) prefer the first slide. Why? Because Emerson is “looking” at the words. In the second slide, he is looking away from them.

Psychologists have found that most people have their vision “pulled” in the same direction as that in which the person in the picture is looking. Yet we also want to read the words; thus when they are on the other side, we are simultaneously pulled in the opposite direction.

Another example; this one a little more nuanced. Have a look at the two slides below. Do you have a preference for one over the other?

Some of the people in my classes had no opinion; however the vast majority preferred the first one. Now, in the first slide, Lisa – if I may be so presumptuous as to be on a first-name basis – has her face turned away from the words. However, her eyes are looking at them. In the second slide, the reverse is true.

This makes sense. Have you ever spoken with someone who is facing you but whose eyes at one point look elsewhere? You will almost certainly turn and look in the same direction to see what is there.

Admittedly, today’s tip is a subtle one and most people would not have difficulty with any of the slides above. However, as speakers our job is to make it as easy as possible for our audiences to understand and remember our message. Thus, everything that we can do to add a little more “spit and polish” to our presentations tilts the balance in our favour.

The next time you combine pictures of people and words on a slide, make them work as effectively as possible by having the people look at the words. And be creative. You do not have to limit yourself to pictures of people looking directly left or right. With a bit of thought, all kinds of pictures can be used.

Just ask Albert Einstein, someone who did his fair share of thinking.

King Vidor’s Truth and Illusion (1964–no IMDB entry!!!) treats the viewer to the remarkable spectacle of an artist erecting his own tombstone.

That’s the truth.

Fortunately, Vidor’s oeuvre will always be around to ensure that the feeble speculation contained within this film never becomes anything more than an illusory epitaph for the great director.

Truth and Illusion (subtitled An Introduction To Metaphysics) is, first and foremost, a declaration of creative bankruptcy–and should never be confused with an “interpretive key” to King Vidor’s narrative works. However, it does not follow that it is irrelevant to a discussion of the films. Much like Frank Capra’s rose-coloured memoir The Name Above the Title, this 25-minute 16mm piece gives us direct access to intellectual temptations (in metastasized form) that must have been twinkling away within the director’s mind throughout his career. And yet, there is no denying that this cheap, watered-down Platonism (and we’ll get to the “substance” of the ideas in a moment) played an immensely important role in shaping Vidor’s art, so long as it remained in a productive tension with his gut-level perceptions. Vidor’s Transcendental tendencies give even his most “overwrought” melodramas a kind of balance that they could not otherwise possess–in effect, the naive egotism contained within T & I had lent Vidor the courage to dive so completely into the subjective experience of figures like Stella Dallas, Ruby Gentry and Rosa Moline. In the end, it seems, this courage (like aging muscles) turned to flabby, airy thoughts–but we did get 30 years’ worth of fascinating films out of the guy before it happened.

That’s a good trade.

Emerson, in one of his more T & I-ish stupors (F.O. Matthiessen called it “the optative mood”), would have called it “Compensation.”

Truth and Illusion: An Introduction To Metaphysics is structured as a kind of catechism, with various mentally deficient interlocutors seeking guidance from our narrator, down-home guru King Vidor.

Early in the film, after a few meandering notes about the ways in which film stills take on the illusion of movement, we get this exchange:

Dumbass: “But what do these exposées have to do with our daily life?”

Vidor: “The basis for happiness is knowing what is true–thereby dispelling the illusion of what is untrue.”

WHAT?

The entire self-satisfied film, a guided tour of Simon pure Idealism throughout the centuries, is constructed upon this premise. For whatever reason, Vidor takes comfort from the notion that all reality is subjectively constructed (i.e. Bishop Berkeley’s conclusion that there is no way to prove a world beyond the confines of the human senses). For serious intellectuals, this insight can be the beginning of thought and art –Existentialism would be impossible without it. For Vidor, in 1964, it has become an endpoint: “Life is what you make of it–so just think of it as good.”

The whole world of the mind is your playground, so use as many letter As and number 5s as you want!

Exciting stuff, I’m sure, but King, what about Stella Dallas? Is she just imagining patriarchy? What about the motherfuckin’ Holocaust?

It’s very telling that, when Vidor starts namechecking his influences near the end of Truth and Illusion, he goes from Plato to Berkeley to Kant to Mary Baker Eddy. The whole piece is very New Agey and Laws of Attraction-y and this recourse to the founder of Christian Science comes as no surprise. It also makes sense that Vidor skipped over Ralph Waldo Emerson here–because, while Waldo did have many Christian Science-type moments, he also wrote stuff like “Days” and “Experience.” Emerson, at his best, was a Plotinus-Montaigne (James Russell Lowell did a greater thing for criticism than he knew, when he formulated this jest)–equally attentive to infinities and particularities.

Vidor, in his prime, looked at the world through a similarly stereoscopic lens.

In Truth and Illusion, he publicly shut his eye for detail, leaving a very distorted picture in its wake.

Next time–Bud’s Recruit (1918).

]]> http://caregiving.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/alzheimers-hits-celebrities-too/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:31:15 +0000 childofprussia http://caregiving.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/alzheimers-hits-celebrities-too/

I never knew just how many famous people dropped off society’s radar because of Alzheimer’s/dementia! I was surprised to see certain people in this list, because often the news would only say that so-and-so passed away; the person’s Alzheimer’s/dementia diagnosis was not always mentioned.

(Please ignore the depressing soundtrack and overly dramatic ending; the names and faces are really the most interesting part of this video.)

have something beautiful insight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

The beauty of the world around us is only according to what we, ourselves, bring to it. ~ RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Inspirational Quotes

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood…Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.
            — Daniel H. Burnham

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
            — Steve Jobs

What is most beautiful in virile men is something feminine; what is most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine.
            — Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation, 1966

The most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will.
            — J. Arthur Thomson

Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.
            — Charles Dickens

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
            — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owner’s manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.
            — Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, February 2003

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
            — Arthur Schopenhauer

Trumpet in a herd of elephants; crow in the company of cocks; bleat in a flock of goats.
            — Malayan Proverb

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
            — Arthur Ashe

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again.
            — Og Mandino, The Greatest Miracle in the World

Hoi Polloi

(noun)
[hoi' pah-LOI]

1. the common people; the masses: "We may have less down time, but today, the hoi polloi have access to services and technology that kings of the past did not even dream of."

Origin:
Approximately 1837; from Greek, ‘hoi’: from the + ‘polloi’: the people, literally, the many, from ‘polys.’

In action:
"Well, call me over-excited. Call me sentimental too. Call me worse if you want: I’ll only keep lobbing it back till I get bored. But with all of this in mind I’m going to embrace Saturday’s amazing match as a reason to be cheerful about my homeland. As a game of football it reaffirmed everything the FA Cup is meant to be about, all the adventure, drama and unpredictability inherent in a sudden death competition that, in its early stages at least, gives the hoi polloi a chance to tumble the aristocracy. For all the erosion of its status in recent years, no other nation embraces its knock-out competition and those fantastic qualities the way we do."

This quote pretty much sums up the conclusion I have come to about life at the moment.  It is widely attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, although this attribution may apparently be false.  Whoever it was to first say it, I reckon they had their head screwed on and actually got what life is about.  I think this is my new mantra to live by.

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

It gives me goosebumps.

Por Luciano Vicenzi

A preocupação das empresas em obter vantagem competitiva baseada em posicionamento estratégico capaz de propiciar uma diferença entre o custo de produção e os preços de seus produtos e serviços maior do que a obtida pelos concorrentes, já era citada por Ralph Waldo Emerson no século XIX.

Em meados da década de 1965, o posicionamento estratégico ganha corpo com as proposições de Igor Ansoff ao correlacionar produtos e mercados, atuais e novos, em uma matriz de quatro posições: a combinação de produtos e mercados atuais visava a “penetração de mercado”; a combinação de produtos novos com mercados atuais visava o “desenvolvimento de produto”; a combinação de produtos atuais e mercados novos visava o “desenvolvimento de mercado”; e finalmente, a combinação de produtos e mercados novos visava a “diversificação”. Para cada opção, um posicionamento estratégico diferente (ANSOFF, 1990).

Na década de 1980, Michael Porter lança o modelo de posicionamento estratégico mais difundido até hoje, caracterizado essencialmente por três posições competitivas: liderança em custo; diferenciação e foco em custo ou diferenciação. O objetivo é conquistar uma posição única para diferenciar-se de seus concorrentes. Estratégia para Porter é, em essência, ser diferente (PORTER, 1999).

O posicionamento da liderança em custo visa conquistar melhores margens que seus concorrentes ao oferecer produtos semelhantes, mas fabricado a um custo mais baixo, ou eventualmente praticar preços mais competitivos para buscar expandir mercado. Diferenciação consiste em oferecer produtos/serviços únicos segundo a percepção dos clientes, com tal qualidade que valha a pena pagar mais para ter uma solução diferenciada. Estratégia de foco consiste em buscar atuar em um nicho específico de mercado/clientes, seja através de um custo mais baixo ou de produtos diferenciados.

Henry Mintzberg (2008), propôs que a liderança em custo deve ser considerada como mais uma forma de diferenciação, uma vez que o preço diferenciado é também uma forma de se diferenciar da concorrência. A idéia de tornar-se única na visão dos clientes, também defendida por autores como Kim & Mauborgne (2005) – “oceano azul”, Hamel & Prahalad (2005) – “competências essenciais”, apresenta-se como uma tendência forte para o posicionamento competitivo, embora ainda não seja essa uma prática predominante nas empresas, seja pelo desconhecimento dos estudos da estratégia, seja pela falta de preparação para encontrar e definir, segundo as competências da própria organização, uma maneira de fazê-lo.

Embora a liderança em custo seja sempre desejável em mercados com produtos e serviços similares, a experiência de compra se torna imprescindível para a construção da identidade do cliente com a marca (brand equity), e com a geração de valor do cliente (customer equity) resultante da composição de fatores como preço, qualidade, prazo de entrega, atendimento e nível de inovação oferecido de tal modo que possa suprir as necessidades ou desejos com diferenciais claros na percepção do cliente. No final de todo o processo, vantagem competitiva se traduz por resultados financeiros.

Quando bem estabelecida, a estratégia de diferenciação cria uma importante barreira de entrada capaz de inibir novos entrantes e segundo Porter (1999), até mesmo incentivar seus concorrentes a buscarem outro nicho para competir devido a percepção da intenção firme e da qualidade diferenciada obtida pela empresa.

“A identificação com a marca cria barreiras que forçam os entrantes a vultuosos investimentos para superar a lealdade dos clientes. A propaganda, os serviços aos clientes, o pioneirismo no setor e as peculiaridades do produto estão entre os principais fatores que fomentam a identificação com a marca” (PORTER, 1999, p.30).

Partindo da premissa que um dos fatores fundamentais para o êxito de qualquer estratégia é a capacidade da empresa em alinhar suas estruturas internas à estratégia escolhida, bem como a clareza com qual comunica esse posicionamento ao mercado, destacamos aqui a relevância do marketing de relacionamento na construção de uma experiência de compra efetivamente diferenciada.

Se as compras transacionais são consideradas importantes quando o cliente sabe exatamente do que precisa e quando precisa, desejando, portanto, apenas um canal mais barato para reduzir seus custos, nas estratégias de diferenciação toda oportunidade de se estabelecer um contato com o cliente torna-se uma oportunidade para aprofundar e tornar mais longevo o relacionamento com a empresa.

Neste contexto, o marketing de relacionamento foi considerado por Kotler (2003) como uma evolução na mentalidade das transações comerciais, saindo de um modelo pautado na desconfiança quanto ao preço considerado justo, para um modelo marcado pela cooperação e interdependência entre empresa e cliente. Em relações B2B, por exemplo, tal mentalidade torna-se cada vez mais essencial à construção de parceiras sustentáveis no longo prazo e efetivamente benéfica para ambos os lados.

O foco principal do marketing de relacionamento é a longevidade das trocas entre empresa e cliente, permeadas pela qualidade do relacionamento, segundo Morgan e Hunt (apud ZANCAN & PRADO, 2005) estabelecida no constructo confiança-comprometimento. A mudança de paradigma, de transacional para relacional aponta a necessidade das empresas gerarem valor em suas soluções, com foco no foco do cliente.

A análise de valor do cliente e dos fatores que influenciam esta percepção de valor apresenta-se como um guia para a execução eficiente do posicionamento estratégico da empresa, como destacam Rust et al (2003). A continuidade do cliente no relacionamento com a empresa permite não apenas reduzir custos para aquisição de novos clientes, como apresentam como tendência o aumento do nível de consumo por compra, abrem possibilidades de vendas cruzadas e melhoram as possibilidades do próprio cliente fornecer referências positivas a amigos e conhecidos (HOOLEY et al, 2009). Tais condições podem ser consideradas pilares do sucesso de uma estratégia com base em diferenciação.

REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS

GHEMAWAT, Pankaj: A estratégia e o novo cenário dos negócios. 2ª Ed.: Porto Alegre: Bookman, 2008.

HOOLEY, G. J.; SAUNDERS, A. J.; PIERCY, N. F.: Estratégia de marketing e posicionamento competitivo. 3ª Ed.: São Paulo; Pearson, 2009.

KOTLER, P.: Marketing de A a Z – 80 conceitos que todo profissional precisa saber. 2ª Ed.: Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 2003.

MAUBORGNE, R. & KIM, W.C.: A estratégia do oceano azul – como criar novos mercados e tornar a concorrência irrelevante. 9ª Ed.: Rio de Janeiro; Campus, 2005.

MINTZBERG, H; LAMPEL, J.; QUINN, J. B.; GHOSHAL, S.: O processo da estratégia – conceitos, contextos e casos selecionados. 4ª Ed.: Porto Alegre: Bookman, 2008.

PORTER, M.: Competição – estratégias competitivas essenciais. Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1999.

PORTER, M.: Vantagem Competitiva – criando e sustentando um desempenho superior. 27ª Ed.: Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1989.

PRAHALAD, C. K. & HAMEL, G.: Competindo pelo futuro – estratégias inovadoras para obter o controle do seu setor e criar mercados de amanhã. 21ª Ed.: Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 2005.

RUST, R. T.; ZEITHAML, V.; LEMON, K. N.: O valor do cliente – customer equity. São Paulo: Bookman, 2003.

ZANCAN, C. & PRADO, P. H. M.: Uma Análise da Qualidade do Relacionamento (QR) no Canal de Distribuição da maçã brasileira. In: ENCONTRO DE MARKETING DA ANPAD, 1., 2005. Anais… Rio de Janeiro/RJ: ANPAD, 2005.

Keep those curtains wide open. There’ll be plenty to see (and discuss) around here for the next little while. The topic? The films of King Vidor.

Aficionados know all about this guy’s snakes and ladders journey across the first perilous century of film criticism. One of the most revered figures in Hollywood during the 1920s, Vidor’s rep probably took an even bigger hit than Frank Borzage’s during the latter stages of his own lifetime (1894-1982).

It’s not hard to see why.

For one thing, during the classical (sound) era, the director gravitated increasingly toward the kind of no holds barred melodrama that critics in search of cultural capital felt duty-bound to deride. Today, looking back from the other side of the “high-/low- brow” divide, we understand that the people who savaged Vidor’s “bourgeois sentimentality” (usually expressed in the same gendered terms used to marginalize ANY art centered upon the emotional life of the modern subject) were far more trapped within the middle-class looking glass than they knew. To me, nothing smacks more of “false consciousness” than the pallid observations of critical theory. I mean, really, how you gonna have a revolution without Ruby Gentry or Rosa Moline (or the intense dissatisfaction they represent)?

Another major aspect of the “Vidor problem” is the director’s wild rightward shift across the political spectrum, during the 1940s and 1950s. HOW did the director of The Crowd and Our Daily Bread wind up making An American Romance? It’s a real puzzler–at least on the surface. Not a good idea just to dismiss it either–not if you really want to understand what the hell happened to the country as a whole, after the end of the Great Depression.

And you know, it’s exactly the kind of problem that a student of Transcendentalism (and its effects upon American aesthetic and political culture) might be able to do something with. That’s me. Also, as luck would have it, Vidor was enough of an intellectual to proclaim his Emersonianism in a number of places–most notably in his aesthetic autobiography (A Tree Is A Tree) and in the 1964 documentary Truth and Illusion: An Introduction To Metaphysics. So the stage is set–and (thanks to the magic of avi files) I now have access to ALL of the sound films and a large percentage of the silents (including all of the key entries from Vidor’s glory days at MGM under Thalberg).

So we’re gonna do it. Chronologically, I think (with an introductory piece on Truth and Illusion to kick things off). I’d love to promise one entry every week, but I won’t go quite that far. This blog is never gonna be completely stable. I’m sure King Vidor would approve of that.

]]> http://tuesdaymidnight.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/starry-starry-night/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:44:03 +0000 tuesdaymidnight http://tuesdaymidnight.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/starry-starry-night/

“When it is darkest, men see the stars.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
- Oscar Wilde

Orion's Belt

I don’t think it’s coincidental that some of my favorite writers and thinkers have such poignant things to say about the stars. The thing I dislike most about living in the city is not being able to see the stars at night. They’re only a drive away, but it’s not the same as being able to turn off your porch light, step out your front door, and just fall under their spell.

Feeling insignificant is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Feeling your ego dissipate under the expanse of the universe is an irreplaceable experience. There have been times in my life where sitting under the stars was the only thing I could do to feel connected to this world at all. As unintuitive as that may seem.

It seems to me that to feel connected to others, you need to feel alone. It occurs to me sometimes that other people may find this thought to be highly pessimistic, but I don’t think the feeling of being alone is a negative or depressing at all.

In fact, I like the feeling.

It makes me appreciate the connections I am able to have with other people and their creative work.

As always, I find my sentiments have been already properly expressed by others. Another fact that makes me feel a beautiful wash of insignificance and much, much less alone.

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”
- Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes)

Jede Wand ist eine Tür

Tout mur est une porte

Minden fal egy ajtó

Cada pared es en realidad una puerta

Every wall is a door

Ralph Waldo Emerson

[source]