Editor’s Note: An oldie for this month since I’ve had some grey clouds the last few months. Then we spent last week celebrating my son Kevin’s love for his new wife, Chiara, reminding me that “it’s all right.”
"You've got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction." Alvin Toffler
Editor’s Note: Seth’s first popular book, “Permission Marketing” was a guide for me as we ramped WorkPlace Media into a national permission database media. I’ve since enjoyed “Purple Cow” particularly among Godin theses. As with all Godin books, “Poke the Box” is a quick read. Even then, he repeats points hoping we’ll get them. This theme of this one might be his best. That is that everyone, not just entrepreneurs, can improve their and others’ lives simply be starting something – Anything. He believes most of us spend most of our time thinking about doing as our excuse for not doing.
Editor’s Note: I finally went to see the Avett Brothers Saturday night. Thanks again to Craig Niess for turning me on to them years ago. Though just a guitar, a banjo, a stand-up bass, a cello and drums, these guys put on the highest energy stage show I’ve ever seen. And in the midst, they turned down the lights and Seth Avett sang this exceptional ballad whose brilliant lyrics tell a physical story to the struggle of love and hate. It reminds me of the old Buddhist saying when the student asks “A lion and a lamb struggle within me each day, Teacher, which one will win?” To which the teacher says, “Whichever one you feed.”
“If you're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact; your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders." Andrew Harvey
Editor’s note: I’ve often wondered how Winston Churchill could be so often quoted, and now I know. He wrote over 15,000,000 million published words – books, speeches, articles, letters and papers. This book contains “only” 350,000 of them. “By Himself” was a gift from my good friend, Rob Falls. It’s a “best of” Churchill – over 4,000 quotes that are attributable and arranged by topic. The author is a leading Churchill scholar which would be a career since another 35,000,000 words have been published about Winston Churchill. Obviously, it’s not a book I read but it’s become a favorite for perusing when I have the time and intention to learn from the ultimate statesman of the 20th century.
Editor’s Note: This song was given to me by my daughter, Caitlin, who represents the point of the song – balance. The music and rhythm also bring me upbeat, just like she does.
“Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s mind.” Mark Twain
Editor’s note: I went back and forth on featuring this book due to Kagan’s known conservative credentials and the books rambling nature. But in the end, two ideas, one past and one future, are powerful. The past is that the United States became “sole world power” somewhat ambivalently. That is, Kagan says, over history we tend to 1. Resist getting engaged in conflict, 2. Engage only when there appears to be a human cost that we feel can no longer be ignored and then 3. We become uncomfortable with the power we’re given by our engagement. The second, far more importantly, is Kagan’s future view from past learning which is that we must decide now not later how to act as one of two or three world powers since we will soon no longer be at the top alone. His conclusion, as noted in the excerpt below, is that this is not a one dimensional issue, as it is so often considered.
Editor’s note: The Southern Cross is a constellation long loved by sailors. The song is one of the early, more obscure Crosby Stills and Nash songs but is one of my favorite for its harmonies, its melody and its meaning. The song is about failed love but as the excerpt below suggests, has a far broader meaning to me. Peace.
