Leadership Development
The Asian Issue
In 1984, my wife, my first daughter, and I drove to JFK Airport to pick up our second daughter – Jang Hee JInn – fresh off a flight from Seoul Korea. She was a 3 month old bundle of wonder. I dropped the camera in my eagerness to welcome this new child from the Korean caretaker who had nurtured her lovingly for the long flight. We named her Emily Jane. I’m writing this post to Read More
Righteous and Wrong
One of my grandson’s favorite expressions when he gets angry is, “What The!” At nine years old, he probably knows how to complete the exclamation, but he’s not crass enough or bold enough to do it. So let me do it for him. WHAT THE FUCK!!! Last week, I wrote about how Dumbledore’s Army, led by Harry Potter, fought Voldemort’s forces of evil. (https://rickbellingham.com/2021/01/05/harry-potter-the-enneagram-and-2020/). Yesterday, the world witnessed Trump’s Army assaulting the Capitol in an Read More
Courage and Confidence
“If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” John Irving “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin “The secret to happiness is freedom . . . . . and the secret to freedom is courage.” Thucydides “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Read More
Shared Reality
“Perception is real even when it is not reality.” Edward DeBono “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”… George Harrison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8fFdc-karA Every Monday for the past two months I have stood next to the highway in my tiny village of Elk Rapids, Michigan with my fellow democrats waving Biden signs to passersby. Therefore, I’m taking some infinitesimally small piece of credit for our victory on November 3rd. More importantly, Read More
Intuitive Individualism
“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein My 8 year old grandkids have limits to their language, but when asked profound questions they come up with surprisingly expansive views of the world. In response to the question, What does God mean to you?” my granddaughter said “it’s like a peacock – a majestic being that spreads beauty in the world.” My grandson replied, “it’s a muggle-made myth.” If you Read More
One Value Decisions
“Values are our anchors for decision-making and our beacons for behavior.” I once bought a Ford Pinto because it got better mileage than the Pontiac Bonneville convertible I was driving at the time. It was the worst car decision I have ever made. The Pinto turned out to be unreliable and didn’t even get even get very good mileage. When I traded it in after one year, it was already on its last legs. This Read More
Unconditional Love
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright day break of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality – I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” Martin Luther King, Jr. “I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” Gilda Read More
Yearning
“People across the world are yearning to be connected to stories of hope.” —Jacqueline Novogratz In 1968, what helped me get through my year in Vietnam was a pen-pal who had agreed, on the suggestion of her boyfriend, to write to me. After all, he said, you will be in Paris while Rick is in Saigon – you two should write. She met me in LA when I returned from Vietnam. We were engaged four Read More
Leadership Values A to Z
“The ecological freak is not questioning his share of the pie so much as he is questioning how we’re getting our flour. The problem isn’t technological; the problem is a matter of values.” —Denis Hayes, Earth Day’s first organizer One of the biggest outcomes (desired or undesired) of the COVID-19 pandemic has been to expose the fragility of our institutions and the failure of leadership. One of the biggest questions it has raised for me Read More
Just A Little Justice
John died this week sitting on a bench in front of our condo building. He was an ubiquitous presence in the neighborhood for many years. John was a 72 year old homeless man with Tourette Syndrome. He walked around the neighborhood all day pushing a cart with all his belongings which he kept meticulously organized. John managed his homelessness with as much dignity as he possibly could. He had a variety of sleeping spots he Read More
Meaning and Motivation
“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.” —Thomas Merton “For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.” —Victor Frankl “We die. That may be the Read More
Leading Change
In you have been wondering about what life might look like by the end of the 21st century, you may want to read a few of Ray Kurzweil’s books. Kurzweil, a pre-eminent futurist who graduated from MIT, formed multiple companies, and now works for Google as “Director of Engineering,” has shown that change is exploding exponentially, even though we cling to the belief that change is happening linearly.
Mindful Walking with Energy’s Way
I love to walk. My wife and I have trekked hundreds of miles on gorgeous trails in New Zealand, Patagonia, Iceland, our National Parks and many more. For the last 10 years, we have started out almost every day with a three mile walk with our dog. It was a matter of necessity at first—no walk, no peace from the dog. Now he just sleeps all day waiting for the next walk. Over the past Read More
The Hard Truth of Mental Illness
Crawl into this experience. Feel it. You have a mentally ill brother who has been tormented by his disease for over 50 years. He has suffered from delusions and voices his whole life.
He claims he knows Deep Throat. He is convinced that the FBI has implanted listening devices in his brain and in his teeth. He believes his parents are clones, and he is not sure who is real and who isn’t.
Featured Author: George Yancy
On June 19th in the New York Times, George Yancy published a Stone article entitled “Is Your God Dead?” I was so inspired by the power and prose of his piece that I am turning the microphone over today to this brilliant scholar will not only give you a break from my endless ranting, but will hopefully rekindle your outrage and stoke your passion for justice. After I read this piece for the third time (yes, Read More
Renewal
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett Remember when air traffic was shut down in Europe from the eruption of E15 in Iceland? It was April, 2010, when Eyjafjallajökull (E15) erupted causing floods to rush down the rivers and requiring 800 people to be evacuated. The eruption was so explosive it caused air travel disruption in Europe for 6 days. More tragically, it buried the farms below it Read More
Stepping into the moment
Deepak Chopra describes stepping into the moment as those rare times when our mind is in the present – it becomes silent or generates the vibration “aah.” He suggests that present moment experiences reflect gaps in our perpetual, inner dialogue. Meditation is a way to enter that gap directly. Robert Carkhuff, whose groundbreaking work in helping and human relations led to a revolution in interpersonal skills training , writes that the “immediacy” response is one Read More
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Values, Valuing, and Feeling Valued
I often hear people say they don’t feel valued or appreciated at work. After I respond with something like, “It’s a pretty lousy feeling when you work hard but don’t get the sense that people recognize the importance of what you do.” And then I ask, “What do you value and how do you want to be valued?” The question is usually met with a blank stare that indicates it’s not a question they have Read More
Consciousness: Physics, Philosophy, and Possibilities
Since I am turning 70 today, I thought I would post a bold article on the possibilities and potential of expanded consciousness. Carl Jung once said, “In history, everything depends on consciousness.” There are, however, many conflicting views on consciousness, how it can be defined, and its relationship to the brain.
Holism
Holism is the theory that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, such that they cannot exist independently of the whole or cannot be understood without reference to the whole, i.e. the whole is more than the sum of its parts. If you believe in the power of synergy, then 2+2 may equal 5. While it is sometimes very useful from a scientific point of view to break things down into smaller and smaller Read More
Development or Deterioration
As I turn 70, I’m sure the first thought that crosses peoples’ minds when they meet me now is, “He’s old!!” Most people associate aging more with accelerated deterioration than continuing development. But I think there is no end point for development. Growth may take a different form or shape, but it doesn’t need to end.
Leadership Lexicon
Leaders sometimes wonder why no one is following them. In most cases, the reason is because the leader does not possess all three essentials of effective leadership: Character, Commitment, and Competence. Leaders must be honest and ethical at their core, or people don’t follow. Leaders must also be committed to developing themselves and others. If people are not convinced of the leader’s commitment to their growth, they will not help the leader grow—and they will Read More