Mark DeRaud art :
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
4/12 part 2
holy heteroclite:: "The Matrix in Real Life" by Improv ...
How Can The Bible Be Authoritative? by N.T. Wright
ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Bible_Authoritative.htm
N.T. Wright ... Second, by what means can the Bible actually exercise its authority
Kevin Vanhoozer Corrects N.T. Wright's 5-Act Hermeneutic ...
derekzrishmawy.com/.../kevin-vanhoozer-corrects-n-t-wrights-5-act-her...
Mar 7, 2014 - Tom Wright has thrice put forward a model for conceiving biblical ... acts are the “
The Five Act Hermeneutic (Scripture and the Authority of ...
deadheroesdontsave.com/2012/06/13/wright/
Jun 13, 2012 - Wright
(and this series) started off posing the following questions: If Jesus
has authority, ... How does Jesus exercise His authority through the Bible? ... that we are living in the 5th act and are free to improvise within the story.
How to Properly Read the Story of Scripture - Redeeming God
https://redeeminggod.com/how-to-properly-read-the-story-of-scripture/
NT Wright portrays history as a play with five Acts. (I) Creation, (II) Fall, (III) ... In previous posts, we have suggested that the best way to read the Bible is to read it as ... it should not be too difficult to improvise our part of the story in epic fashion.
Saturday Afternoon Book Review: N.T. Wright - Patheos
www.patheos.com/.../saturday-afternoon-book-review-n-t-wright...
Patheos
The Bible in Five Acts | Sharp Iron
https://sharpiron.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/the-bible-in-five-acts/
-from new interview with Ray Bradbury on God, here.
This guy keeps getting more God-haunted!
See also:
Ray Bradbury on God
-from new interview with Ray Bradbury on God, here.
The second time he repeated the phrase was just a few minutes minute later (13:00ff):
"Go to the library! Live in the library, for Christ's sake! Don't spent all your time on the g--d-- computer and all that crap!"
Then again at 14:25...
I wonder if anyone was sorry for inviting him.
I hope not..
Note: This is the same writer's conference that Eugene Peterson spoke at
(LOL.. I don't think EP used any coarse language..though I hear he is gracious towards that habit of Bono's).
By the way, that line about libraries and computers he also delivered at University of California.
He's equal opportunity. It probably didn't even cross his mind to clean up his language while at a Christian venue.
And maybe he meant "for Christ's sake" literally. (:
He sure loved the name of Jesus the day I met and I prayed for him...
--------------
Enjoy:
Follow-up conversation below....delightful. See 15:52ff on religion, and 21:56ff on God ("We are here to witness and celebrate. Otherwise, get the hell out!.. We are here as an audience to the miraculous!"):
Related:
see posts tagged "Ray Bradbury" underneath this post.
The Day I Prayed for Ray Bradbury
davewainscott.blogspot.com/2007/.../day-i-prayed-for-ray-bradbury.htm...
Sep 1, 2007 - The Day I Prayed for Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury smiled at me, and "amen-ed" my prayer. As one who grew up reading and relishing ...holy heteroclite:: David Crowder (the"flippin' semiotician")'s ...
davewainscott.blogspot.com/.../david-crowder-on-semiotics-and-his.html
Dec 22, 2012 - holy heteroclite: ..... printing press (6) prostitutes (7) psalms (51) radiohead (13) Ray Bradbury (13) ray van der laan (20) reading the Bible (524) ...
You've visited this page 4 times. Last visit: 4/22/15
holy heteroclite:: Ray Bradbury and "God in your breast"
davewainscott.blogspot.com/.../ray-bradbury-and-god-in-your-breast_22...
Dec 22, 2007 - As a follow up to my The Day I Prayed for Ray Bradbury post.. I found this discussion on Bradbury and Christianity...mostly devoted to whether ...
Following Christ in a World of Distractions (RIP, Ray Bradbury).
Following Christ in a World of Distractions (RIP, Ray Bradbury).
From Mandy Smith's The Vulnerable Pastor, pp. 122-124:
Being a woman can feel like weakness. When you are a woman, your own body teaches you your
limits. From the time you're small, there is always someone bigger, with
a stronger body and a deeper voice. And as you grow, you learn how
little control you have over your own body, from a sometimes painful,
often embarrassing inconvenience that will visit you every month to the
strange season of having a person growing inside of you for 9 months.
When the little bundle makes its appearance, your body goes from creator
of life to sustainer of life. All kinds of new systems kick into gear.
It's a miraculous process but one completely beyond your control. As you
go from mother to grandmother, your body begins to change again,
throwing you into a state of confusion as the steady cycles you have
grown accustomed to become syncopated and erratic and then finally stop
altogether.
If being a woman teaches humility and collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
Inhabiting this ever-changing form forces you to acknowledge (even
celebrate) your limits and to sense your responsibility to and reliance
upon the broader community.
So if being a woman teaches humility and
collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an artist can feel like weakness. If you're an artist, you are spurred on by an
unending search for truth and beauty. You can have your breath stolen by
the smallest, seemingly insignificant thing and be unfit for anything
else but crying or singing or writing about it for the rest of the day.
And once you've found that tiny sign of hope, you must make sense of it.
And so you make things to process and express it, trying to capture all
the feeling and meaning for others through the limited media of notes
and words and paint. You step into a creative process that is sometimes
cruel and raw, a little too close for comfort. Then, with shaking hands,
you put that outpouring of your soul into a public form and hope that
someone understands.
If creative people know how to find truth and beauty, even when it's
hidden in brokenn
ess, if they're comfortable with mystery, failure, and
vulnerability, isn't it a strength to be an artist?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an outsider can feel like weakness. Being on the outside means always having that
vague sense that you didn't get the inside joke. You feel like a child
again as you have to learn things that are obvious and basic to everyone
else. But over time you compensate. You learn not only to speak but to
listen in other languages. You become self-aware as those things which
were once transparent about yourself (back when everyone around you was
the same as you) are suddenly glaringly visible. For the first time you
feel the weight of the lens of your own culture, your own assumptions,
and eventually, you learn how to switch glasses.
If being displaced helps us relate to the ways God's people have always been the sojourners, isn't it meaningful to be displaced?
If outsiders know how to be flexible and self-aware, to communicate in a
relevant way in many contexts, isn't it a strength to be an outsider?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an introvert can feel like weakness. Thinking of the perfect
answer a day after the question makes you feel dumb, even though your
belated but perfectly-worded response is more insightful than the one
given by the quick-thinker in the room. Needing to recover from extended
periods with people draws labels like "anti-social," even though you
may have great social skills. Longing for depth and complexity and
silence makes you feel like a precious egg-head in a world hungry for
sound bites and noise.
If introverts know how to listen, and are unafraid of silence, depth, and authenticity, isn't it a strength to be an introvert?
---
More by Mandy on women and weakness -- KKKKK
Following Christ in a World of Distractions (RIP, Ray Bradbury).
Following Christ in a World of Distractions (RIP, Ray Bradbury).
4/12 part 1
eadership
Being a woman can feel like weakness. When you are a woman, your own body teaches you your
limits. From the time you're small, there is always someone bigger, with
a stronger body and a deeper voice. And as you grow, you learn how
little control you have over your own body, from a sometimes painful,
often embarrassing inconvenience that will visit you every month to the
strange season of having a person growing inside of you for 9 months.
When the little bundle makes its appearance, your body goes from creator
of life to sustainer of life. All kinds of new systems kick into gear.
It's a miraculous process but one completely beyond your control. As you
go from mother to grandmother, your body begins to change again,
throwing you into a state of confusion as the steady cycles you have
grown accustomed to become syncopated and erratic and then finally stop
altogether.
If being a woman teaches humility and collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
Inhabiting this ever-changing form forces you to acknowledge (even
celebrate) your limits and to sense your responsibility to and reliance
upon the broader community.
So if being a woman teaches humility and
collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an artist can feel like weakness. If you're an artist, you are spurred on by an
unending search for truth and beauty. You can have your breath stolen by
the smallest, seemingly insignificant thing and be unfit for anything
else but crying or singing or writing about it for the rest of the day.
And once you've found that tiny sign of hope, you must make sense of it.
And so you make things to process and express it, trying to capture all
the feeling and meaning for others through the limited media of notes
and words and paint. You step into a creative process that is sometimes
cruel and raw, a little too close for comfort. Then, with shaking hands,
you put that outpouring of your soul into a public form and hope that
someone understands.
If creative people know how to find truth and beauty, even when it's
hidden in brokenn
ess, if they're comfortable with mystery, failure, and
vulnerability, isn't it a strength to be an artist?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an outsider can feel like weakness. Being on the outside means always having that
vague sense that you didn't get the inside joke. You feel like a child
again as you have to learn things that are obvious and basic to everyone
else. But over time you compensate. You learn not only to speak but to
listen in other languages. You become self-aware as those things which
were once transparent about yourself (back when everyone around you was
the same as you) are suddenly glaringly visible. For the first time you
feel the weight of the lens of your own culture, your own assumptions,
and eventually, you learn how to switch glasses.
If being displaced helps us
relate to the ways God's people have always been the sojourners, isn't
it meaningful to be displaced?
If outsiders know how to be flexible and self-aware, to communicate in a
relevant way in many contexts, isn't it a strength to be an outsider?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an introvert can feel like weakness. Thinking of the perfect
answer a day after the question makes you feel dumb, even though your
belated but perfectly-worded response is more insightful than the one
given by the quick-thinker in the room. Needing to recover from extended
periods with people draws labels like "anti-social," even though you
may have great social skills. Longing for depth and complexity and
silence makes you feel like a precious egg-head in a world hungry for
sound bites and noise.
If introverts know how to listen, and are unafraid of silence, depth, and authenticity, isn't it a strength to be an introvert?
---
More by Mandy on women and weakness
eadership
Being a woman can feel like weakness. When you are a woman, your own body teaches you your
limits. From the time you're small, there is always someone bigger, with
a stronger body and a deeper voice. And as you grow, you learn how
little control you have over your own body, from a sometimes painful,
often embarrassing inconvenience that will visit you every month to the
strange season of having a person growing inside of you for 9 months.
When the little bundle makes its appearance, your body goes from creator
of life to sustainer of life. All kinds of new systems kick into gear.
It's a miraculous process but one completely beyond your control. As you
go from mother to grandmother, your body begins to change again,
throwing you into a state of confusion as the steady cycles you have
grown accustomed to become syncopated and erratic and then finally stop
altogether.
If being a woman teaches humility and collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
Inhabiting this ever-changing form forces you to acknowledge (even
celebrate) your limits and to sense your responsibility to and reliance
upon the broader community.
So if being a woman teaches humility and
collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an artist can feel like weakness. If you're an artist, you are spurred on by an
unending search for truth and beauty. You can have your breath stolen by
the smallest, seemingly insignificant thing and be unfit for anything
else but crying or singing or writing about it for the rest of the day.
And once you've found that tiny sign of hope, you must make sense of it.
And so you make things to process and express it, trying to capture all
the feeling and meaning for others through the limited media of notes
and words and paint. You step into a creative process that is sometimes
cruel and raw, a little too close for comfort. Then, with shaking hands,
you put that outpouring of your soul into a public form and hope that
someone understands.
If creative people know how to find truth and beauty, even when it's
hidden in brokenn
ess, if they're comfortable with mystery, failure, and
vulnerability, isn't it a strength to be an artist?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an outsider can feel like weakness. Being on the outside means always having that
vague sense that you didn't get the inside joke. You feel like a child
again as you have to learn things that are obvious and basic to everyone
else. But over time you compensate. You learn not only to speak but to
listen in other languages. You become self-aware as those things which
were once transparent about yourself (back when everyone around you was
the same as you) are suddenly glaringly visible. For the first time you
feel the weight of the lens of your own culture, your own assumptions,
and eventually, you learn how to switch glasses.
If being displaced helps us
relate to the ways God's people have always been the sojourners, isn't
it meaningful to be displaced?
If outsiders know how to be flexible and self-aware, to communicate in a
relevant way in many contexts, isn't it a strength to be an outsider?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an introvert can feel like weakness. Thinking of the perfect
answer a day after the question makes you feel dumb, even though your
belated but perfectly-worded response is more insightful than the one
given by the quick-thinker in the room. Needing to recover from extended
periods with people draws labels like "anti-social," even though you
may have great social skills. Longing for depth and complexity and
silence makes you feel like a precious egg-head in a world hungry for
sound bites and noise.
If introverts know how to listen, and are unafraid of silence, depth, and authenticity, isn't it a strength to be an introvert?
---
More by Mandy on women and weakness
women, artists, outsiders and introverts: strong church leadership
Being a woman can feel like weakness. When you are a woman, your own body teaches you your
limits. From the time you're small, there is always someone bigger, with
a stronger body and a deeper voice. And as you grow, you learn how
little control you have over your own body, from a sometimes painful,
often embarrassing inconvenience that will visit you every month to the
strange season of having a person growing inside of you for 9 months.
When the little bundle makes its appearance, your body goes from creator
of life to sustainer of life. All kinds of new systems kick into gear.
It's a miraculous process but one completely beyond your control. As you
go from mother to grandmother, your body begins to change again,
throwing you into a state of confusion as the steady cycles you have
grown accustomed to become syncopated and erratic and then finally stop
altogether.
If being a woman teaches humility and collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
Inhabiting this ever-changing form forces you to acknowledge (even
celebrate) your limits and to sense your responsibility to and reliance
upon the broader community.
So if being a woman teaches humility and
collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an artist can feel like weakness. If you're an artist, you are spurred on by an
unending search for truth and beauty. You can have your breath stolen by
the smallest, seemingly insignificant thing and be unfit for anything
else but crying or singing or writing about it for the rest of the day.
And once you've found that tiny sign of hope, you must make sense of it.
And so you make things to process and express it, trying to capture all
the feeling and meaning for others through the limited media of notes
and words and paint. You step into a creative process that is sometimes
cruel and raw, a little too close for comfort. Then, with shaking hands,
you put that outpouring of your soul into a public form and hope that
someone understands.
If creative people know how to find truth and beauty, even when it's
hidden in brokenn
ess, if they're comfortable with mystery, failure, and
vulnerability, isn't it a strength to be an artist?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an outsider can feel like weakness. Being on the outside means always having that
vague sense that you didn't get the inside joke. You feel like a child
again as you have to learn things that are obvious and basic to everyone
else. But over time you compensate. You learn not only to speak but to
listen in other languages. You become self-aware as those things which
were once transparent about yourself (back when everyone around you was
the same as you) are suddenly glaringly visible. For the first time you
feel the weight of the lens of your own culture, your own assumptions,
and eventually, you learn how to switch glasses.
If being displaced helps us
relate to the ways God's people have always been the sojourners, isn't
it meaningful to be displaced?
If outsiders know how to be flexible and self-aware, to communicate in a
relevant way in many contexts, isn't it a strength to be an outsider?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an introvert can feel like weakness. Thinking of the perfect
answer a day after the question makes you feel dumb, even though your
belated but perfectly-worded response is more insightful than the one
given by the quick-thinker in the room. Needing to recover from extended
periods with people draws labels like "anti-social," even though you
may have great social skills. Longing for depth and complexity and
silence makes you feel like a precious egg-head in a world hungry for
sound bites and noise.
If introverts know how to listen, and are unafraid of silence, depth, and authenticity, isn't it a strength to be an introvert?
post your comment under this post or the next (part 2)
"Time Bomb" (Dave Matthews Band) ..lyrics at bottom.
studio version:
live version; wow:
acoustic with Tim Reynolds:
If I'm a ticking time bomb
Waiting to blow my top
No one would ever know
Not until I blew up
Waiting to blow my top
No one would ever know
Not until I blew up
No one would believe it
He was such a normal man
Shake their heads and wonder why
He was such a normal man
Shake their heads and wonder why
If Martians fell from the sky
What would that do to God?
Would we put the weapon down
Or aim it up at the sky
What would that do to God?
Would we put the weapon down
Or aim it up at the sky
No one would believe it
Except the f#@king nut jobs
They'd laugh and cry
"We told you so!"
Except the f#@king nut jobs
They'd laugh and cry
"We told you so!"
Baby when I get home
I want to believe in Jesus
Hammer in the final nail
Help me pick up the pieces
I want to believe in Jesus
Hammer in the final nail
Help me pick up the pieces
When everything starts to fall
So fast that it terrifies you
When will you hit the wall?
Are you gonna learn to fly?
So fast that it terrifies you
When will you hit the wall?
Are you gonna learn to fly?
No one would believe it
Except for all the people
Watching as you fly away
Except for all the people
Watching as you fly away
Baby when I get home
I want to pick up those pieces
Hammer in the final nail
And lean me up against Jesus
I want to pick up those pieces
Hammer in the final nail
And lean me up against Jesus
Baby when I get home
I want to believe in Jesus
Hammer in the final nail
Help me pick up the pieces
I want to believe in Jesus
Hammer in the final nail
Help me pick up the pieces
Baby when I get home
Help me pick up the pieces
Hammer in the final nail
I wanna believe in Jesus!!
--------------------------------
Help me pick up the pieces
Hammer in the final nail
I wanna believe in Jesus!!
--------------------------------
i preach=lie for a living
Chris Erdman:
"So many churches have no real room for the kind of honesty preaching requires. In fact congregations and their preachers often move in a direction opposed to truthfulness and become places we experience as contrived, artificial environments where the raw stuff of real human life is kept out of bounds, despite the rawness of the texts we read together each ...Preaching is a kind of truthtelling-even if there are enormous pressures to do otherwise. Rock and roll, says Bono, isn't much different. There are enormous pressures to hide, deceive and entertain, keeping us inside a false world. U2's success may be just at this point. They seem able to name pain in realistic yet hopeful ways....At the close of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" {at Slane Castle, 2oo1, video below}...Bono chants, one by one, the names of those killed {in the Omagh bombing}..
This is rock and roll that cuts
through masks and bleed red the passions of the heart..If rock and roll can do this, how much more our preaching?
..Bono: 'Never trust a performer, performers are the best liars. They lie for a living...You are an actor in a certain sense. But a writer is not a liar. There's a piece of Scripture: Know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
-Chris Erdman, "Countdown to Sunday," pp. 28-30
Okay, just kidding. That photo above was indeed an artistic reeenactment of the Trinity at one of our Sunday gatherings. The worst part of it is that I am arrogant enough to "direct" the Trinity (what else are pastors for?". And Keltic Ken, Shy Stevens and Kevin Deisher ARE quite godly (read about it at this link "most guys do" : pregnant dancing with the Trinity)
But here is the art to ponder before reading the links:
Links (I would love to hear Mark DeRaud's take on all this, feel free to comment below, Mark):
1)Good detailed artcle detailing the icon, including thoughts by Henri Nouwen: Icon of the Holy Trinity
2)See page 12-15 of "Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service" by Stephen Seamands here
3)See Richard Beck's\My Rublev Icon Tattoo
4)"Rublev’s Icon: Contemplating the Trinity, Inwardly
and Outwardly" by Paul Fromont5)Trinity (Andrei Rublev) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
=
Studies suggest the following activities can (some literally) make your brain grow, and make you smarter.
- thinking in parables, puns , analogy, synesthesia, comparitrast and metaphor
- IMPROV!
- studying, and practicing satire..being a Holy Fool, Trickster ..becoming a character (copping a Colbert, mocking McPhisto, pulling a prosopeion.
- swimming
- chess.. hmm, Paul Hewson's secret? (But remember Chesterton's warning)
- music, especially when the lyric and/or the music creatively combine/mix genres (essentially a subset of #1); some suggest especially jazz....(some studies debate this thesis)
- being bilingual/bicultural
- healthy sex life (also here, and here)
- laughing
- giving up TV
- dancing
- wearing wearable tech
- coffee (stimulates neural connections to make analogy connections..so also a subset of #1)
- art
- thinking in threes, trinities, trialectic, third ways, tertium quid, fuzzy set (vs. triangulation)
- giving birth
- being a mother
- daydreaming
- being in a terrible mood,
- exercise
- reading..especially if in variety
- wearing a lab coat
- ping pong
- faith
- electricity to the skull
- believing you can become smarter
- Googling (see this, article, this one, or just start here!)
(Don't read/believe them!)
- 'Alcohol makes your brain grow'
- Cigarettes makes you smarter
- video games
- hyperstimulation makes you smarter
Dropping the Fresno Drop
Since I live in Fresno, I have been amazed that hardly anyone in town even knows about the world-changing "Fresno Drop."
It seems that not even a 50th anniversary of the Drop, let alone the current Wall Street-Main Street news, merits a mention in local press..
..So why is it news in the Poughkeepsie Journal and beyond?
The basic story :
"America began to change on a mid-September day in 1958," writes Joseph Nocera in his fascinating book, A Piece of the Action. He is referring to the day when the Bank of America 'dropped' 60,000 credit cards in Fresno, California, thereby creating the all-purpose credit card.It was a novel idea, in effect offering anyone who wanted it a general line of credit, unsecured by collateral. In the 1950s Americans were just getting used to taking out loans to buy ... products—cars, refrigerators, televisions.
But debt was still disreputable. If you could not afford something, you squirreled away money until you could buy it. Besides, it was not easy to get a loan Most banks thought that making small loans to the average family was not worth the time and effort. Except for the Bank of America. Its founder, AP Giannini, the son of an immigrant, wanted to make money available for “his people.” His bank, founded in 1904 in a converted saloon, was initially called the Bank of Italy and in 1928 renamed the Bank of America. Whereas other banks passed off consumer loans to finance companies, Bank of America embraced the role of serving the broad middle class... As a result it grew to become America's largest bank by the 1970s .
Credit cards opened up the world of credit to the masses, allowing ordinary people to take out an advance on their future earnings, as the rich had always done. It is difficult today to imagine life without credit cards. And yet they were almost unknown forty years ago. What happened over those forty years, and most especially in the last twenty-five, is in many ways more is in many ways more revolutionary than in any comparable period in modern financial history. Capitalism was transformed into democratic capitalism. (pp. 202-203, Fareed Zakaria (articulate editor of Newseek International)'s "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad ." whole chapter here)
-from my post called: Fresno: something to do with money
Credit lured Americans into spending more
Dropping the Fresno Drop
Since I live in Fresno, I have been amazed that hardly anyone in town even knows about the world-changing "Fresno Drop."
It seems that not even a 50th anniversary of the Drop, let alone the current Wall Street-Main Street news, merits a mention in local press..
..So why is it news in the Poughkeepsie Journal and beyond?
The basic story :
"America began to change on a mid-September day in 1958," writes Joseph Nocera in his fascinating book, A Piece of the Action. He is referring to the day when the Bank of America 'dropped' 60,000 credit cards in Fresno, California, thereby creating the all-purpose credit card.It was a novel idea, in effect offering anyone who wanted it a general line of credit, unsecured by collateral. In the 1950s Americans were just getting used to taking out loans to buy ... products—cars, refrigerators, televisions.
But debt was still disreputable. If you could not afford something, you squirreled away money until you could buy it. Besides, it was not easy to get a loan Most banks thought that making small loans to the average family was not worth the time and effort. Except for the Bank of America. Its founder, AP Giannini, the son of an immigrant, wanted to make money available for “his people.” His bank, founded in 1904 in a converted saloon, was initially called the Bank of Italy and in 1928 renamed the Bank of America. Whereas other banks passed off consumer loans to finance companies, Bank of America embraced the role of serving the broad middle class... As a result it grew to become America's largest bank by the 1970s .
Credit cards opened up the world of credit to the masses, allowing ordinary people to take out an advance on their future earnings, as the rich had always done. It is difficult today to imagine life without credit cards. And yet they were almost unknown forty years ago. What happened over those forty years, and most especially in the last twenty-five, is in many ways more is in many ways more revolutionary than in any comparable period in modern financial history. Capitalism was transformed into democratic capitalism. (pp. 202-203, Fareed Zakaria (articulate editor of Newseek International)'s "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad ." whole chapter here)
-from my post called: Fresno: something to do with money
Credit lured Americans into spending more
Dropping the Fresno Drop
Since I live in Fresno, I have been amazed that hardly anyone in town even knows about the world-changing "Fresno Drop."
It seems that not even a 50th anniversary of the Drop, let alone the current Wall Street-Main Street news, merits a mention in local press..
..So why is it news in the Poughkeepsie Journal and beyond?
The basic story :
"America began to change on a mid-September day in 1958," writes Joseph Nocera in his fascinating book, A Piece of the Action. He is referring to the day when the Bank of America 'dropped' 60,000 credit cards in Fresno, California, thereby creating the all-purpose credit card.It was a novel idea, in effect offering anyone who wanted it a general line of credit, unsecured by collateral. In the 1950s Americans were just getting used to taking out loans to buy ... products—cars, refrigerators, televisions.
But debt was still disreputable. If you could not afford something, you squirreled away money until you could buy it. Besides, it was not easy to get a loan Most banks thought that making small loans to the average family was not worth the time and effort. Except for the Bank of America. Its founder, AP Giannini, the son of an immigrant, wanted to make money available for “his people.” His bank, founded in 1904 in a converted saloon, was initially called the Bank of Italy and in 1928 renamed the Bank of America. Whereas other banks passed off consumer loans to finance companies, Bank of America embraced the role of serving the broad middle class... As a result it grew to become America's largest bank by the 1970s .
Credit cards opened up the world of credit to the masses, allowing ordinary people to take out an advance on their future earnings, as the rich had always done. It is difficult today to imagine life without credit cards. And yet they were almost unknown forty years ago. What happened over those forty years, and most especially in the last twenty-five, is in many ways more is in many ways more revolutionary than in any comparable period in modern financial history. Capitalism was transformed into democratic capitalism. (pp. 202-203, Fareed Zakaria (articulate editor of Newseek International)'s "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad ." whole chapter here)
-from my post called: Fresno: something to do with money
Dropping the Fresno Drop
Since I live in Fresno, I have been amazed that hardly anyone in town even knows about the world-changing "Fresno Drop."
It seems that not even a 50th anniversary of the Drop, let alone the current Wall Street-Main Street news, merits a mention in local press..
..So why is it news in the Poughkeepsie Journal and beyond?
The basic story :
"America began to change on a mid-September day in 1958," writes Joseph Nocera in his fascinating book, A Piece of the Action. He is referring to the day when the Bank of America 'dropped' 60,000 credit cards in Fresno, California, thereby creating the all-purpose credit card.It was a novel idea, in effect offering anyone who wanted it a general line of credit, unsecured by collateral. In the 1950s Americans were just getting used to taking out loans to buy ... products—cars, refrigerators, televisions.
But debt was still disreputable. If you could not afford something, you squirreled away money until you could buy it. Besides, it was not easy to get a loan Most banks thought that making small loans to the average family was not worth the time and effort. Except for the Bank of America. Its founder, AP Giannini, the son of an immigrant, wanted to make money available for “his people.” His bank, founded in 1904 in a converted saloon, was initially called the Bank of Italy and in 1928 renamed the Bank of America. Whereas other banks passed off consumer loans to finance companies, Bank of America embraced the role of serving the broad middle class... As a result it grew to become America's largest bank by the 1970s .
Credit cards opened up the world of credit to the masses, allowing ordinary people to take out an advance on their future earnings, as the rich had always done. It is difficult today to imagine life without credit cards. And yet they were almost unknown forty years ago. What happened over those forty years, and most especially in the last twenty-five, is in many ways more is in many ways more revolutionary than in any comparable period in modern financial history. Capitalism was transformed into democratic capitalism. (pp. 202-203, Fareed Zakaria (articulate editor of Newseek International)'s "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad ." whole chapter here)
-from my post called: Fresno: something to do with money
"America began to change on a mid-September day in 1958," writes Joseph Nocera in his fascinating book, A Piece of the Action. He is referring to the day when the Bank of America 'dropped' 60,000 credit cards in Fresno, California, thereby creating the all-purpose credit card.It was a novel idea, in effect offering anyone who wanted it a general line of credit, unsecured by collateral. In the 1950s Americans were just getting used to taking out loans to buy ... products—cars, refrigerators, televisions.
But debt was still disreputable. If you could not afford something, you squirreled away money until you could buy it. Besides, it was not easy to get a loan Most banks thought that making small loans to the average family was not worth the time and effort. Except for the Bank of America. Its founder, AP Giannini, the son of an immigrant, wanted to make money available for “his people.” His bank, founded in 1904 in a converted saloon, was initially called the Bank of Italy and in 1928 renamed the Bank of America. Whereas other banks passed off consumer loans to finance companies, Bank of America embraced the role of serving the broad middle class... As a result it grew to become America's largest bank by the 1970s .
Credit cards opened up the world of credit to the masses, allowing ordinary people to take out an advance on their future earnings, as the rich had always done. It is difficult today to imagine life without credit cards. And yet they were almost unknown forty years ago. What happened over those forty years, and most especially in the last twenty-five, is in many ways more is in many ways more revolutionary than in any comparable period in modern financial history. Capitalism was transformed into democratic capitalism. (pp. 202-203, Fareed Zakaria (articulate editor of Newseek International)'s "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad ." whole chapter here)
-from my post called: Fresno: something to do with money - See more at: http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html#sthash.GbBPzgHG.dpuf
Questions
1. What is the difference between technical leadership and adaptive leadership and why is it important to know the difference?
1. What is the difference between technical leadership and adaptive leadership and why is it important to know the difference?
he skills and procedures that we are aware of to solve current problems and is typically accomplished by those in authority. Adaptive leadership is having the guts and heart to learn new ways to bring needed deep transformation of culture in an organization or people and is generally done by the people with the problem (14,15). “Adaptive change stimulates resistance because it challenges people’s habits, beliefs and values (30). The reason that it is important to know the difference between these kinds of leadership is because “the single most common source of leadership failure we’ve been able to identify – in politics, community life, business or the non-profit sector – is that people, especially those in positions of authority, treat adaptive challenges like technical problems (14).
2. What are the different faces of danger a leader might face and how can they best respond to those dangers?
There are many different faces of danger that an adaptive leader might face, though they are variations of four primary forms. Seduction, marginalization, diversion and outright attack are all ways that people seek to resist the adaptive leaders work in seeing the painful changes that need to take place. Here are some skills needed to respond to the resistance and dangers of adaptive leadership:
- Get on the Balcony – this involves moving back and forth from the balcony (a place to engage in self-reflection to gain perspective) and the dance floor (the place of action).
- Think Politically – relating to people in a way to lead through adaptive change. This involves developing allies, keeping the opposition (those most negatively effected by change) close, and gaining trust with those who are uncommitted to the change.
- Orchestrate the Conflict – it’s about cultivating an environment where passionate disagreement is permissible while keeping control of the temperature; remembering that the job of the adaptive leader is to orchestrate the conflict, not become it (122).
- Give the Work Back – you “stay alive in leadership by reducing the extent to which you become the target of people’s frustrations” (139). It’s thinking constantly about intervening in a timely and responsible way, by allowing the right people to take responsibility.
- Hold Steady – in the midst of the pressure and heat that comes with the implementation of adaptive change, one needs to hold their poise by taking the heat, letting the issues ripen and keeping a focus on the issues.
3. What are some important ways to keep heart when facing the difficulties and stress of leadership?
- Manage Your Hungers – of power and control, affirmation and importance, and intimacy and delight.
- Anchor Yourself – by distinguishing role from self, keeping confidants and not confusing them with allies, and seeking sanctuary.
- What’s On the Line – asking the question: Why lead? And remembering that leadership is a labor of love for others.
- Sacred Heart – keeping an innocent, curious and compassionate heart through the hurts and scars of leading by finding ways to refresh your body and spirit.
Summary and Synthesis
It is clear that Heifetz and Linsky are aware of the dangers that adaptive leaders face and they give us both encouragement and practical wisdom in reducing the risk of being taken out of the game either because of the manipulation of others or by the lack of soul care ourselves. This book is for those who have the guts to lead in ways to see genuine transformation take place. I plan to feed on the wisdom of this book for sometime, so that I might stay alive through the battle as well as pass on the lessons I’m learning in the process. This is a must read and re-read for those who want to see meaningful change take place in a culture from the inside out. link
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It is clear that Heifetz and Linsky are aware of the dangers that adaptive leaders face and they give us both encouragement and practical wisdom in reducing the risk of being taken out of the game either because of the manipulation of others or by the lack of soul care ourselves. This book is for those who have the guts to lead in ways to see genuine transformation take place. I plan to feed on the wisdom of this book for sometime, so that I might stay alive through the battle as well as pass on the lessons I’m learning in the process. This is a must read and re-read for those who want to see meaningful change take place in a culture from the inside out. link
--
eadership
Being a woman can feel like weakness. When you are a woman, your own body teaches you your
limits. From the time you're small, there is always someone bigger, with
a stronger body and a deeper voice. And as you grow, you learn how
little control you have over your own body, from a sometimes painful,
often embarrassing inconvenience that will visit you every month to the
strange season of having a person growing inside of you for 9 months.
When the little bundle makes its appearance, your body goes from creator
of life to sustainer of life. All kinds of new systems kick into gear.
It's a miraculous process but one completely beyond your control. As you
go from mother to grandmother, your body begins to change again,
throwing you into a state of confusion as the steady cycles you have
grown accustomed to become syncopated and erratic and then finally stop
altogether.
If being a woman teaches humility and collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
Inhabiting this ever-changing form forces you to acknowledge (even
celebrate) your limits and to sense your responsibility to and reliance
upon the broader community.
So if being a woman teaches humility and
collaboration, isn't it a strength to be a woman?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an artist can feel like weakness. If you're an artist, you are spurred on by an
unending search for truth and beauty. You can have your breath stolen by
the smallest, seemingly insignificant thing and be unfit for anything
else but crying or singing or writing about it for the rest of the day.
And once you've found that tiny sign of hope, you must make sense of it.
And so you make things to process and express it, trying to capture all
the feeling and meaning for others through the limited media of notes
and words and paint. You step into a creative process that is sometimes
cruel and raw, a little too close for comfort. Then, with shaking hands,
you put that outpouring of your soul into a public form and hope that
someone understands.
If creative people know how to find truth and beauty, even when it's
hidden in brokenn
ess, if they're comfortable with mystery, failure, and
vulnerability, isn't it a strength to be an artist?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an outsider can feel like weakness. Being on the outside means always having that
vague sense that you didn't get the inside joke. You feel like a child
again as you have to learn things that are obvious and basic to everyone
else. But over time you compensate. You learn not only to speak but to
listen in other languages. You become self-aware as those things which
were once transparent about yourself (back when everyone around you was
the same as you) are suddenly glaringly visible. For the first time you
feel the weight of the lens of your own culture, your own assumptions,
and eventually, you learn how to switch glasses.
If being displaced helps us
relate to the ways God's people have always been the sojourners, isn't
it meaningful to be displaced?
If outsiders know how to be flexible and self-aware, to communicate in a
relevant way in many contexts, isn't it a strength to be an outsider?
In the church, these are leadership skills.
Being an introvert can feel like weakness. Thinking of the perfect
answer a day after the question makes you feel dumb, even though your
belated but perfectly-worded response is more insightful than the one
given by the quick-thinker in the room. Needing to recover from extended
periods with people draws labels like "anti-social," even though you
may have great social skills. Longing for depth and complexity and
silence makes you feel like a precious egg-head in a world hungry for
sound bites and noise.
If introverts know how to listen, and are unafraid of silence, depth, and authenticity, isn't it a strength to be an introvert?
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More by Mandy on women and weakness
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