In the chapter, Heaven On Earth, in Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements, he suggests that heaven is using our imagination to see the world with new eyes. He suggests:

Imagine living your life without fear of expressing your dreams…
Imagine living your life without the fear of being judged by others…
Imagine living your life without judging others…
Imagine living without the fear of loving and not being loved…
Imagine living your life without being afraid to take a risk and to explore life…
Imagine you have permission to be happy…

Golf continues to provide us with life metaphors…discovering again this morning that the smoothest swing has the least attempt to muscle control over things.

In a recent Gallup poll, the largest segment by religion for Independents is “No religion” (47%). Interesting how institutional political unaffiliations parallel institutional religious unaffiliations.

Great piece in the NY Times on the 800 people who participated in the 10,000 online group messages over a 2 week period focused on the fate of the World Trade Center site plans. It was designed for those who couldn’t join the 4,000 people who attended the July Javits Center meeting where the 6 plans were discussed. Not only did the online discussion cost less ($120,000 compared to the Javits bill of $2 million), it “allowed diverse points of view to be more fully explored.”

Dolly Parton in an NPR interview yesterday : It’s not about the money; it’s about the art. I had to get rich just to sing poor again.

Those of us who spend any time selecting talent know that our hiring criteria need to map closely to the performance criteria. If we see performance problems down the line related to competencies we didn’t skillfully assess for, ya got a hiring process problem there Chuckie.

Now we get to consider the latest high-profile firing: her highness, Miss Universe, Oxana Federova of Russia, becomes the first to get das boot in 52 years. I remember careful scrutiny of arias and swimsuits, but no assessment of compliance to specific work duties. Maybe they cover this during commercials.

Nice chat with itinerant poet, Ray McNeice, who’s been doing poetry tours with Yevtushenko and Ferlinghetti in Russia and Italy. In Russia, poets share the social stature of other paparazzi. Not that poetry requires it, but wouldn’t it be interesting if American culture has the same esteem for poets and poetry. Why shouldn’t language be given at least as much buzz as cosmetics, cars, pharmaceuticals, and wrestling?

According to the NY Times magazine this Sunday, L.L. Bean’s 1,600 employees work in Freeport, Maine where the population is 1,813. Land’s End’s 4,354 employees work in Dodgeville, Wisconsin where the population is 4,220.

What if any responsibility do companies like these have to keeping business alive in these communities? And, what if any responsibility do these communities have for plan B’s?

Joseph-Beth has a new book on Yogi Berra’s wit and wisdom. One of the chapters, each named by one of Yogi’s famous paradoxes, is “When you get to the fork in the road, take it.”

I’m always reminded of the profound wisdom in this Berra-ism. Life is all about seeking the wisdom of opposites; getting out of the box of black-and-white thinking.

Good design is always about the marriage of contrasts: something that tastes great and is less filling. In any domain — political, artistic, social, or technical — either-or is a pathetic weasling out of the more creative pursuit of greater synergies. Both-and is where the gold is. Thanks again Yogi.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who Am I
To Be Brilliant
Gorgeous
Talented
And Fabulous?
Actually, who are we NOT to be?

Your playing small doesn`t serve the world.
There`s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that Other people feel insecure around you.
You were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It`s not just some of us. It`s in everyone.
And, as we let our own sun shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fears,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

–Nelson Mandella–1994