Data Never Sleeps

Infographic of Infographics

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True, Good & Useful…..

One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher Socrates and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test.  It's called the triple filter test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, let's take a moment and filter what you're going to say.  That's why I call it the triple filter test."
Socrates continued, "The first filter is Truth.  Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So, you don't really know if it's true or not.  Now, let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness.  Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain if it's true.  You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left - the filter of Usefulness.  Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?

Now, we need to ask ourselves, on how much time and energy we waste on spreading the word, which may be neither true, nor good or useful.

Something for us to evaluate and potentially follow.

Have a good Week!

{InfoGraphic} Facebook Ads Vs Google Ads

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the ability of Facebook to serve effective ad mechanism not only to the consumer but to the advertisers. Now, there has been a talk about how effectively Facebook serves the need of advertisers in comparison to Google. The below infographic presented by Word Stream provides info on how they stake against each other, and does Facebook has enough to deliver against Google key focus.

While you are considering to make your investment on your new ad campaign its worth looking at this graphic and then deciding on which route you need to take. Equally, its always good to understand the given landscape of your market and not just jump on the either the Google or Facebook bandwagon.

Pervasive Interoperability: It’s More Than a Buzz Word

Here’s a new term you can throw around at your next cocktail party. People will be so impressed, they will probably start calling you “Doctor” or at least ask you just how many degrees you actually have. I know, it sounds like something that needs a find-a-cure walk-a-thon or perhaps something that should be addressed by the presidential candidates in a debate.

Pervasive Interoperability is really nothing quite that ominous or controversial.

The “interoperability” part refers to the native or relative compatibility level of one application versus another. It would also include the relative similarity of two apps in terms of look and feel.

Let’s simplify that a bit.

Relative compatibility refers to the ability of the application to plug into your existing technology stack and interact with the other applications already in use there. This means that the new app should not require the building of a lot of customized interfaces to work with your existing apps. The look and feel part simply means the user will not feel like a complete stranger to the new app because it will employ familiar screen designs, menu layouts and command names.

Think in terms of driving cars. If you learn to drive a Ford, chances are you are going to be able to settle into Jaguar or a BMW without too much of a learning curve. Cars all have steering wheels, brakes, seat belts and so forth. Sure, some utilize a clutch and stick shifter and other have an automatic transmission. But the interoperability of any two cars would be pretty high.

To magnify that point, the process of driving to Grandma’s house would be pretty much the same if you were driving an Edsel, a Pearse Arrow or a Ford Fusion.

Additionally, interoperability means that the skills you use to operate one thing are almost fully portable to a second thing. If you learn to tie your left shoe, guess what, you can likely handle tying your right shoe as well. The learning transfers from one shoe to the other.

So why is that important in the world ERP?

It’s important because regardless of how much we like to think of ourselves as being eager to learn new things, we really still prefer the familiarity of our known world. It’s important because learning new things complicates the implementation of new processes, applications, strategies and ideas.

Learning new things is good, it helps us grow and it enables our ability to react to the challenges of change. But, learning requires time and effort so there is always some push back because we also like the comfort of the familiar world.

When you are talking about how people do their jobs, how they use their existing desktop or software apps to get things done, you are not going to find bunches of them ready to jump into a new product with unbridled glee. They will be suspicious, they will complain and they will even try to avoid the change and go back to the way things were.

People are simply resistant to change.

Even things that you would consider to be obvious, no-brainer-type changes will meet with resistance. People complained about moving from character-based, menu-driven, green-screen systems to icon-driven, mouse-enabled graphical applications. It was not an easy sell.

I knew a couple of finance guys, who would have speed challenges between Excel and Lotus 123. They would race (a la John Henry versus the steam hammer) to see who could create a corporate balance sheet faster.

There is also the aspect of time and money.

The power of Pervasive Interoperability is not found within the individual, but in the group. It’s not the power of one person’s productivity increasing; it’s the cumulative effect of hundreds. This is a considerable advantage when you are implementing enterprise-wide solutions like ERP.

You have a workforce that almost certainly uses Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Ask any of them if their knowledge of one of those systems helped facilitate skill in the other? The answer will almost always be yes. Why is that?

All you have to do is look at Word, Excel or PowerPoint and the first thing you’ll notice is they all look remarkably alike. The menus are located and formatted in the same place and fashion. The commands beneath each menu item are similar between apps. The icons representing specific functions are identical. You feel at home as soon as you open the app.

Once you learn Word, adding Excel is much less difficult and adding PowerPoint to the mix is nearly effortless.

On the compatibility side of things, you can pick data up out of Excel and drop it into a Word document with ease. PowerPoint supports the use of Excel and Word data within your presentation with copy/paste commands. The simplicity of this effort belies the complexity of the underlying code that supports this interaction.

That same advantage should be enjoyed in the implementation of a new ERP platform. Sure ERP is much more involved than a word processing package when you look at the scope of the entire offering. But, for the individual user, the transition is greatly simplified.

When you magnify that individual advantage over your entire user base the time and effort saved is more than significant. If means getting productive in days versus months.

The same is true with the movement of data between apps and processes. The free flow of data across multiple systems means you don’t spend money writing and supporting application interfaces that must be rewritten every time someone issues a software update.

So, when the time comes and you are looking at the impact of bringing a new ERP system online within your organization remember Pervasive Interoperability. All of those users dreading the hours of learning something new and the mistakes and the unforeseen system compatibility issues are not something that have to bedevil your transition to a new system.

You should be able to leverage as much of your existing skill and process investment as possible. Look for systems that exploit what you already have.

Courtesy – Lou Washington

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Something Different from the Security Cams..

Check out the scenes from Security Camera. Its not only about disasters, robber, shop lifters, accidents, etc. It also shows people doing small things in their daily life; It also shows smiles, love, kisses, friends, craziness…..that makes this world a place to live or rather a much happier place to live.

While we are entering into the weekend, thought to share this video that brings smiles and if it does bring smile to your face then please do anything small for someone whom you don’t know or know….

Enjoy and have a Smiling Weekend!!!

Security Cams also captures smiles, love, kisses, friends, craziness…..

[INFOGRAPHIC] - Who Are the Real Online Influencers?

This infographic sheds light on a current marketing predicament: What does it mean to be an influencer and how do we reach those people?

A Short Read…Worth Sharing….

Thought I would share something i read recently The Great Barrier reef is Australia's largest coral reef in the world.

A traveller asked the guide an interesting question " I noticed the lagoon side of the reef looks pale and lifeless while the ocean side is vibrant and colorful. Why is this ? "

The guides answer......... The coral around the lagoon side is in still water with no challenge for its survival. the coral on the ocean side is constantly being tested by wind, waves and storms - surges of power. It has to fight for survival every day of its life. As it is challenged and tested, it changes and adapts. It grows healthy and strong. That's how it is with people too......!!!!!!!!!!!!

How Employers Really Feel About Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

Manufacturing Complexity

How to Conquer the Bad and Capitalize the Good.

There is good and bad complexity in every organization. Learn how to use good complexity to your advantage, and completely eradicate the bad complexity.

Get The Complex EnterpriseWhite Paper now by Clicking HERE

"Whatever You Give To Life, Life Gives You Back"

Not a big fan of forwarded mail, but we all know that something is always of interesting in the Junk yard….Got this one today and while reading just was simply asking myself that what would I have done…and of course need to ask this question with honesty to your self…Still trying to get an answer for myself. Though thought to share it with others….Take care.

-----------

A successful business man was growing old and
knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.  
Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children,
he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.
He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you. 

"The young executives were Shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED.  
I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.  
Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. 

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however... He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - He so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection.

Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot.But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.  

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful -- in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front.Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!" 

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story. 

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next Chief Executive Officer! His name is Jim!"

Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed.
"How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.
Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you.Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!"

• If you plant honesty, you will reap trust 
• If you plant goodness, you will reap friends
• If you plant humility, you will reap greatness
• If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
• If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective
• If you plant hard work, you will reap success
• If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation
• If you plant faith in God , you will reap a harvest

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later..

"Whatever You Give To Life, Life Gives You Back"

Build Contacts through Content

While social media has become the hot trend in publishing, many of the properties generating social media content are not attracting headline experts into their frays. Gather.com is addressing this by seeding leading figures from book publishing, music, heath and finance to post content and field comments on a peer basis with other Gather members. Getting experts to act as community members should not be too unfamiliar to publishers already used to organizing conferences, but using experts effectively in social-media outlets may require them to lay aside some preconceived notions about how experts support their publishing requirements - John Blossom

In spite of social media's increasing popularity amongst online audiences, its success does have limits. One of the key factors that limit social media growth is the very same factor that makes social-media outlets attractive: peers. No offense to the groups of enthusiasts who post their content like crazy, but for the most part, it's clear that you're generally not going to be rubbing shoulders with the big dogs in any real way when you log in to the typical online publishing community—it's just plain folks for the most part. That's good in its own way, but sometimes you want a little more pizzazz in your online relationships.

By the same token, most social-media publishers leave the stars of business, politics and media to traditional media outlets. In social media, community comes first, with pre-branded contributors playing a role but not with starring credits. Sometimes celebrity CEOs break out with weblogs to keep in touch with the public, or celebrities of various sorts post out pages on MySpace, but a few stray weblog comments or getting love notes from "Emma the feisty pink muffin" is not quite the same thing as building content alongside sophisticated audiences who do their own publishing through social media.

But hope on; there is some middle ground to work out this dilemma. The Gather social media community has been creating an environment that appeals to serious adult audiences online that leverages their ability to create articles and discussions. Gather authors pump out tagged content that gets voted on by its members and points toward online purchases. It's a community that takes its authoring duties seriously, including those who participate in Gather's "first chapters" book-writing competition to surface budding literary talents. "Gather Essentials" categories such as Health attract established authors as well as everyday people with insights. Other social media outlets are larger, but few provide the level of serious engagement with adults that Gather has managed to garner.

Into this mix of professional and self-styled authors is now coming an announced stream of experts who can rub elbows with their core audiences on serious topics – and in the process of doing so, build brand equity for themselves within that community that would be hard to generate elsewhere online. Sara Nelson, Editor-In-Chief of Publishers Weekly, posts articles about the publishing world that appeal to Gather's bookish users, while contributions from executives at Harvard Health Publications, Columbia Records and McGraw-Hill Professional are tailored to meet the interests of crowds focusing on health, music and finance. Users comment on their articles just as they would any other member of the community, and they post back comments to engage them further.

While social-media communities usually develop their own homegrown "star" network of contributors, the presence of high-profile members from key verticals changes the nature of information flow from and to these important figures significantly. It's a little like the difference between bumping into Bill Gates in an elevator and being able to have a coherent one-to-one discussion with him at Davos. Sometimes context can change a conversation significantly. Best of all these corporate headliners are posting content regularly so the dialog can build within the community over time amongst other committed online authors.

Not every social-media environment may benefit significantly from leading experts in their online peer groups, but in general, it's important to consider how experts previously sequestered behind the filters of traditional editorial channels can become key attractions for social,media outlets.

Here are a few thoughts as to how experts can enhance your social-media publishing:

• Keep relationships toe-to-toe. More established media methods for featuring experts online tend to make the expert person the "star of the show." While this may work well for personalities featured briefly on a site, social media tends to favor relationships that evolve over a much longer period of time. Don't make experts invisible, but make it clear that they are but one of many contributors in the community. This is important not only to everyday members, but also to experts who are eager to get uninhibited feedback and ideas from their target audiences.
• Don't expect experts to be community leaders. While experts may be looked up to by your online communities, their workloads oftentimes are such that they will not be in a position to anchor those communities any more than other members. In fact, having a dominant expert, widely recognized or self-proclaimed, can inhibit the formation of the peer contributions that build up the broadest base of content possible. Allow experts to use your publishing tools in a way that provides them a chance to provide thought leadership in your online community without expecting them to take on anything but a "just another contributor" profile within the community.
• Consider premium packaging for selected levels of expert access. To go back to the Davos analogy, you didn't fork over a pile of cash to Bill to have that chummy conversation, but you did pay a pretty hefty tab for the conference. The potential for subscription access to social media seems fairly antithetical to many at this time, but as pointed out by Reid Conrad, CEO of NearTime, in his SIIA Previews presentation, the smaller the social media community the more effective and important the subscription model becomes for making the most of focused groups creating a high level of contributed value. The technology and methodologies used to implement social media are inherently egalitarian. But in a world where some people want to be more equal than others, we can expect to see social-media "country clubs" sprouting up fairly rapidly—with key experts in tow.

The beauty of social media is that oftentimes it promotes people into expert status who may have otherwise never achieved that recognition through normal media channels. But this beauty can be amplified greatly when already recognized experts are a part of the fray that generates insights and ideas. Gather's use of experts is just the kind of low-key approach to expert participation that is likely to serve as a template for many publishers trying to provide more draw to their online gatherings.

Courtesy - John Blossom

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[INFOGRAPHIC]–Is Your Job Killing YOU??

Technology enablers have really helped us to streamline our work and increase our daily productivity a lot. But then, there is a old saying “If it gives…its takes”…..So, with on one side technology enabling us to put our butts on seats much longer than we use to, but on the other side its equally enabling a pot bellies (you can count me in for that). Our great cars are making our every mile enjoyable but then it has been responsible for forgetting how we use to enjoy our walks….

It seems that we are becoming slaves to technology rather making it "Just an Enabler” for enjoying the rest of Non-Work times….But now, it seems that we are just waiting for mails to come in even at midnight….Not to point at anyone but myself…It took few months of efforts to actually stop myself to check mails at odd hours at night and disturb my sleep if I had even a small fire.

This does not necessary that I am not ambitious but its about what you would like to achieve at the end. I would like to have a healthy and wealthy life……… and in that order

That’s me!!!!…But you can go through the below infographic and decide for yourself….

Work is good…Money is better…But Health is something that could help you to enjoy both and much more!!!!

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At least we should leave our Grandchildren a Letter…

Ok, its seems to me that we human race are not ready to change….at least towards the changing reality…For some reason I tend to believe that we see only what we want to see…So we are not seeing the sure destruction that we will be responsible for generations to come.

With our ability to everything that was meant for making life more constructive to being destructive….Be it nuclear power, religious text… or anything else.

Ok, I can admit that we are changing and we are doing things to turn the cycle…but the speed of it something that would be enough…I don’t know.

Either ways, the least we can do is to apologize to our grandchildren or upcoming generation….stating that we are sorry….and we knew what we are doing but yet we were so ignorant or arrogant for our own comforts that we didn’t do enough…

In view of the same I am sharing what I got in my inbox today that I thought to share with all…..

 

A Letter of Apology to My Granddaughter

[Note: I became politically active and committed on the day 20 years ago when I realized I could stand on the front porch of my house and point to three homes where children were in wheelchairs, to a home where a child had just died of leukemia, to another where a child was born missing a kidney, and yet another where a child suffered from spina bifida.  All my parental alarms went off at once and I asked the obvious question: What’s going on here?  Did I inadvertently move my three children into harm’s way when we settled in this high desert valley in Utah?  A quest to find answers in Utah’s nuclear history and then seek solutions followed.  Politics for me was never motivated by ideology.  It was always about parenting.

Today my three kids are, thankfully, healthy adults.  But now that grandchildren are being added to our family, my blood runs cold whenever I project out 50 years and imagine what their world will be like at middle age -- assuming they get that far and that there is still a recognizable “world” to be part of.  I wrote the following letter to my granddaughter, Madeline, who is almost four years old.  Although she cannot read it today, I hope she will read it in a future that proves so much better than the one that is probable, and so terribly unfair.  I’m sharing this letter with other parents and grandparents in the hope that it may move them to embrace their roles as citizens and commit to the hard work of making the planet viable, the economy equitable, and our culture democratic for the many Madelines to come.]

 

March 20, 2012

Dear Maddie,

I address this letter to you, but please share it with Jack, Tasiah, and other grandchildren who are yet unborn.  Also, with your children and theirs.  My unconditional love for my children and grandchildren convinces me that, if I could live long enough to embrace my great-grandchildren, I would love them as deeply as I love you.

On behalf of my generation of grandparents to all of you, I want to apologize.

I am sorry we used up all the oil.  It took a million years for those layers of carbon goo to form under the Earth’s crust and we used up most of it in a geological instant.  No doubt there will be some left and perhaps you can get around the fact that what remains is already distant, dirty, and dangerous, but the low-hanging fruit will be long-gone by the time you are my age.  We took it all.

There’s no excuse, really.  We are gas-hogs, plain and simple.  We got hooked on faster-bigger-more and charged right over the carrying capacity of the planet.  Oil made it possible.

Machines are our slaves and coal, oil, and gas are their food.  They helped us grow so much of our own food that we could overpopulate the Earth.  We could ship stuff and travel all over the globe, and still have enough fuel left to drive home alone in trucks in time to watch Monday Night Football.

Rocket fuel, fertilizer, baby bottles, lawn chairs: we made everything and anything out of oil and could never get enough of it.  We could have conserved more for you to use in your lifetime.  Instead, we demonstrated the self-restraint of crack addicts. It’s been great having all that oil to play with and we built our entire world around that.  Living without it will be tough.  Sorry.

I hope we develop clean, renewable energy sources soon, or that you and your generation figure out how to do that quickly.  In the meantime, sorry about the climate.  We just didn’t realize our addiction to carbon would come with monster storms, epic droughts, Biblical floods, wildfire infernos, rising seas, migration, starvation, pestilence, civil war, failed states, police states, and resource wars.

I’m sure Henry Ford didn’t see that coming when he figured out how to mass-produce automobiles and sell them to Everyman.  I know my parents didn’t see the downside of using so much gas and coal.  The all-electric house and a car in the driveway was their American Dream.  For my generation, owning a car became a birthright.  Today, it would be hard for most of us to live without a car.  I have no idea what you’ll do to get around or how you will heat your home.  Oops!

We also pigged out on most of the fertile soil, the forests and their timber, and the oceans that teemed with fish before we scraped the seabed raw, dumped our poisonous wastes in the water, and turned it acid and barren.  Hey, that ocean was an awesome place and it’s too bad you can’t know it like we did.  There were bright coral reefs, vibrant runs of red salmon, ribbons of birds embroidering the shores, graceful shells, the solace and majesty of the wild sea…

…But then I never saw the vast herds of bison that roamed the American heartland, so I know it is hard to miss something you only saw in pictures.  We took lots of photos.

We thought we were pretty smart because we walked a man on the moon.  Our technology is indeed amazing.  I was raised without computers, smart phones, and the World Wide Web, so I appreciate how our engineering prowess has enhanced our lives, but I also know it has a downside.

When I was a kid we worried that the Cold War would go nuclear.  And it wasn’t until a river caught fire near Cleveland that we realized fouling your own nest isn’t so smart after all.  Well, you know about the rest -- the coal-fired power plants, acid rain, the hole in the ozone...

There were plenty of signs we took a wrong turn but we kept on going.  Dumb, stubborn, blind: Who knows why we couldn’t stop?  Greed maybe -- powerful corporations we couldn’t overcome. It won’t matter much to you who is to blame.  You’ll be too busy coping in the diminished world we bequeath you.

One set of problems we pass on to you is not altogether our fault.  It was handed down to us by our parents’ generation so hammered by cataclysmic world wars and economic hardship that they armed themselves to the teeth and saw enemies everywhere.  Their paranoia was understandable, but they passed their fears on to us and we should have seen through them.  I have lived through four major American wars in my 62 years, and by now defense and homeland security are powerful industries with a stranglehold on Congress and the economy.  We knew that was a lousy deal, but trauma and terror darkened our imaginations and distorted our priorities.  And, like you, we needed jobs.

Sorry we spent your inheritance on all that cheap bling and, especially, all those weapons of mass destruction.  That was crazy and wasteful.   I can’t explain it.  I guess we’ve been confused for a long time now.

Oh, and sorry about the confusion.  We called it advertising and it seemed like it would be easy enough to control.  When I was a kid, commercials merely interrupted entertainment.  Don’t know when the lines all blurred and the buy, buy, buy message became so ubiquitous and all-consuming.  It just got outta hand and we couldn’t stop it, even when we realized we hated it and that it was taking us over.  We turned away from one another, tuned in, and got lost.

I’m betting you can still download this note, copy it, share it, bust it up and remake it, and that you do so while plugged into some sort of electrical device you can’t live without -- so maybe you don’t think that an apology for technology is needed and, if that’s the case, an apology is especially relevant.  The tools we gave you are fine, but the apps are mostly bogus.  We made an industry of silly distraction.  When our spirits hungered, we fed them clay that filled but did not nourish them.  If you still don’t know the difference, blame us because we started it.

And sorry about the chemicals.  I mean the ones you were born with in your blood and bones that stay there -- even though we don’t know what they’ll do to you).  Who thought that the fire retardant that kept smokers from igniting their pillows and children’s clothes from bursting into flames would end up in umbilical cords and infants?

It just seemed like better living through chemistry at the time.  Same with all the other chemicals you carry.  We learned to accept cancer and I guess you will, too.  I’m sure there will be better treatments for that in your lifetime than we have today.  If you can afford them, that is.  Turning healthcare over to predatory corporations was another bad move.

All in all, our chemical obsession was pretty reckless and we got into that same old pattern: just couldn’t give up all the neat stuff.  Oh, we tried.  We took the lead out of gasoline and banned DDT, but mostly we did too little, too late.  I hope you’ve done better.  Maybe it will help your generation to run out of oil, since so many of the toxic chemicals came from that.  Anyway, we didn’t see it coming and we could have, should have. Our bad.

There are so many other things I wish I could change for you.  We leave behind a noisy world.  Silence is rare today, and unless some future catastrophe has left your numbers greatly diminished, your machines stilled, and your streets ghostly empty, it is likely that the last remnants of tranquility will be gone by the time you are my age.

And how about all those species, the abundant and wondrous creatures that are fading away forever as I write these words?  I never saw a polar bear and I guess you can live without that, too, but when I think of the peep and chirp of frogs at night, the hum of bees busy on a flower bed, the trill of birds at dawn, and so many other splendorous pleasures that you may no longer have, I ache with regret.  We should have done more to keep the planet whole and well, but we couldn’t get clear of the old ways of seeing, the ingrained habits, the way we hobble one another’s choices so that the best intentions never get realized.

Mostly I’m sorry about taking all the good water.  When I was a child I could kneel down and drink from a brook or spring wherever we camped and played.  We could still hike up to glaciers and ski down snow-capped mountains.

Clean, crisp, cold, fresh water is life’s most precious taste.  A life-giving gift, all water is holy.  I repeat: holy.  We treated it, instead, as if it were merely useful.  We wasted and tainted it and, again in a geological moment, sucked up aquifers that had taken 10,000 years to gather below ground.  In my lifetime, glaciers are melting away, wells are running dry, dust storms are blowing, and rivers like the mighty Colorado are running dry before they reach the sea.  I hate to think of what will be left for you.  Sorry.  So very, very sorry.

I’m sure there’s a boatload of other trouble we’re leaving you that I haven’t covered here.  My purpose is not to offer a complete catalog of our follies and atrocities, but to do what we taught your parents to do when they were as little as you are today.

When you make a mistake, we told them, admit it, and then do better.  If you do something wrong, own up and say you are sorry.  After that, you can work on making amends.

I am trying to see a way out of the hardship and turmoil we are making for you.  As I work to stop the madness, I will be mindful of how much harder your struggles will be as you deal with the challenges we leave you to face. 

The best I can do to help you through the overheated future we are making is to love you now.  I cannot change the past and my struggle to make a healthier future for you is uncertain, but today I can teach you, encourage you, and help you be as strong and smart and confident as you can be, so that whatever the future holds, whatever crises you face, you are as ready as possible. We will learn to laugh together, too, because love and laughter can pull you through the toughest times.

I know a better world is possible. We create that better world by reaching out to one another, listening, learning, and speaking from our hearts, face to face, neighbor to neighbor, one community after another, openly, inclusively, bravely.  Democracy is not a gift to be practiced only when permitted. We empower ourselves. Our salvation is found in each other, together.

Across America this morning and all around the world, our better angels call to us, imploring us to rise up and be as resilient as our beloved, beautiful children and grandchildren, whose future we make today.   We can do better.  I promise.

Your grandfather,

Chip Ward

“Dead End”= The End is DEAD…

Diary’s Page – This Blog Post is not related to Marketing, Strategies or an Business…Its about thoughts that I would like to share and what better place than my blog for my own consumption and for all to agree, disagree or comment…

I always wondered that how much kids have different perspective on things and life….

They are not afraid about anything till we “matured” adults put fear in them…they don’t divide till we tell them about religion, caste, color, etc; they love till we starts telling them about hatred…they are honest…till we tell them that its ok to lie based on convenience. And above all we say that stop behaving like kids….I believe we should start saying that stop acting like an adult….

Yesterday, while playing with few kids in my locality started talking to a specific one….suddenly we both saw a Sign that said - “Dead End”…… and the shy kid asked me what does that means?

I asked him back, what do YOU think that it means…that puts a smile on the kids face and there he goes on his thinking journey….after thinking for a min or so he says “Dead End Means that the End is Dead….So it’s a new beginning”….While never in the world  I would have expected an answer like that, I asked him back how he come up with that….He says “once someone dies my Mom tell me that he is Dead and for him now it’s a new beginning……..therefore…..The End is Dead and it’s a New Beginning……..”

Here I….sitting on the bench, proved in less than a minute on how small and irrelevant I am….When a kid, who would hardly be in his early school teaches me a new meaning and lesson in life….That….. Dead End = End is Dead and hence it’s a NEW Beginning….

So for me now, I will see and use Dead End in a different perspective something that a kid only could have taught me….

While ending the week, I thought to share this along with something below that could change at least some perspectives of yours - A Story about a Crackedpot….

Crackedpot

View more presentations from Shiraz Datta

Happy Weekend!!! But then…..                                              End means a New Beginning

 

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