Please take a pen and a sheet of paper. Go to the foot of a tree or to your writing desk, and make a list of all the things that can make you happy right now: the clouds in the sky, the flowers in the garden the children playing, the fact that you have met the practice of mindfulness, your beloved ones sitting in the next room, your two eyes in good condition. The list is endless. You have enough already to be happy now. You have enough to no longer be agitated by fear or anger.

—Thich Nhat Hanh in Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions, as quoted by this email practice I get every couple of days.

On my list (which is, indeed, endless) at the moment:
- Mid-atlantic seasons. I like feeling both hot and cold.
- The present-moment-ness of the animals around me
- My wacky parents, who are always a couple of steps ahead of me at understanding this whole life thing. I suspect this is how the whole generation thing is supposed to work.
- Those other family, the ones who choose each other. With a special shout-out to Tara, who gives good love note.
- The people who make art with me. People who make art not with me are also pretty cool. Thanks for doing that, y'all.
- Technology that enables human connections. Whether it's creating and keeping relationships or funny pictures of cats or fundamentally changing the way people think aout other people or playing games with my parents and people I knew in high school or people getting to talk way too much about werewolves and vampires. I love it ALL.
- Human connections that create technology. And, you know, other stuff.
- Color. Man, colors make me happy.
- So, technically my eyes are not in good condition, but the ungoodness of one has led to lots of interesting information gathering, and reminded me how much I love learning.
- Financially having enough. Maybe too much, certainly by global standards.
- Breathing. Not in a snarky way! Breathing is awesome, of course, but awareness of it is also a fantastic tool for perspective.
- My fully-functioning body.
- Cooking without recipes.
- ZOMG EVERYTHING SERIOUSLY MY LIFE IS AWESOME.

How about you?

I know. It's a cheery Thanksgiving topic. I'll post a second, actually cheerful, topic in a moment.

But. I have a question. Why is unemployment so much worse for people in non-professional jobs vs. managerial ones, people without college degrees vs. people with them? The nifty Times graphic shows it off pretty nicely (or depressingly). And why is professional unemployment the first to decline? [Well, technically it might not be a decline, adjusted for seasonality, but it didn't increase in October.]

There's a lot of reporting about unemployment levels across groups, but not a lot of explanation. I suspect that we keep professionals around to "weather the storm" (strategize about what comes next) but consider people who actually make and sell things to be more interchangeable and expendable, probably using all those cringe-inducing words like "human resources" and "human capital". Just as stock prices level out after drops... when we fire a bunch of people who formerly made and sold things. But that's my suspicion. Anyone read anything (or just know anything) that would offer a more concrete explanation?

They could be super-fun.

This is my favorite thing about vampires: when they are written as actually old, and perplexed by the present, nostalgic for the past, and just generally anachronistic.

They'd be even funnerer if they were crabby about it. Not just in lack of respect for social convention, though - since that's kinda their whole schtick.

I enjoy vampire/werewolf ridiculousness muchly. Mostly I like how we keep trying to use the popularity of a few books and movies to Explain Our Culture, as if it will respond to such fat-fingered analogies.

But Cleo's thing about romance and tenderness and eyeporn, like the best of the vamps/weres wank, has actual interesting stuff in it.

Is romance about this particular treacly version of tenderness? And am I the only person who finds the whole Edward movie character utterly slimy? If that's tenderness, it's like the tenderness of a jellyfish, about to wrap itself around your leg and sting the heck out of you.

Anyhow. New Twilight movie out, apparently.

Cauliflower is a comfort vegetable! I always knew this about broccoli, but it turns out they're related in more ways than taxonomy. Cauliflower makes excellent gratins and casseroles. Nom.

I had a moment today where I realized I just wasn't acting like the person I want to be. Man, that was depressing. So I came home and made what we'll call Try to Be Less of an Ass Next Time Cauliflower. It was pretty awesome. Self-awareness is easier if it's yummy.

( Try to Be Less of an Ass Next Time Cauliflower, the recipe )

I know we didn't get along well in the beginning, what with your rampant fat hatred and sexism and all, but hey, I believe people countries can change.

I mean. You're right. Peeing in the shower does save water. And apparently it's just cute as a button, too.

As long as you're never truly safe for work. Don't ever change that part, Brazil.

I have a hard time saying much besides GAH with my mouth stuck open in this "omg no they didn't" face.

video of America's Next Top Model doing the world's most bizarre racial-image-having photoshoot I recall ever seeing.

As one friend said: this is post-racism?

Apologies if this is a repeat for you, but Kim hadn't seen it, so now everyone has to.

Hey there, Brazil. What's up?

Really? Arty semi-erotic video campaigns about beauty and size acceptance? You don't say! [Readers, it may not pass your personal test of what counts for pornography, but it's definitely NOT work safe.]

Brazil, you know the reason we haven't spoken is that I've come to associate you with some of the most ridiculously over the top anti-fat advertising shenanigans. Perhaps I was too hasty.

If you are seeking, seek us with joy
For we live in the kingdom of joy.
Do not give your heart to anything else
But to the love of those who are clear joy,
Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair.
For there are hopes: they are real, they exist –
Do not go in the direction of darkness –
I tell you: suns exist.

- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
(Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi)

This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes and dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine

True of people as well as countries. Peace be with you.

Remember that whole George Bush shoe-throwing incident, and how clever many of us thought that was? [Or maybe that was just me. I certainly thought it was clever. Bush may have disagreed; he appeared a bit thrown by it. "Thrown"? Heh, see what I did there?]

Well, exclaiming "that's a lie!" and then apologizing over that seems about on par. Maybe less interculturally educational and sillier-sounding. Definitely brought the level of discussion and debate down several notches. But still a form of dissent aimed ["Aimed"? I did it again!] directly at the president. Either both are acceptable, or neither is.

There's a bit in this chapter of Save the World & Still be Home for Dinner [Click on the pdf download link to read the full chapter - the teaser's not what I want to talk about.] that should be required reading for everyone I've ever worked with.

The answer to our stress is supposed to be something called work-life balance. This is achieved, we are told, through time management. But it’s an illusion. We try to balance work, family, and play on a preset schedule. The problem is, nothing important ever happens on schedule. Great opportunities and painful crises usually show up inconveniently.

Indeed. And particularly fun to see this coming from a dude who used to train for Covey (the "7 Habits of Disempowered Highly Effective People" dude), whose life's work was all about managing time and tasks more "efficiently". If you can't tell from the snark, I dislike the proscriptive diet Whole New Way of Living approach. I prefer to think of value and values, which are unique to each person - and that's what Marre is now doing. Obviously he's right, now that he agrees with me!

I know a fair number of people for whom every task seems equally important as the next, and are caught up in an intense feeling of busy-ness that leaves them with a looming sense of something undone all the time. This, I think, is that "illusion of urgency". Marre goes on to attribute this sense of everything as urgent, every project or activity having the same priority, as a result of the constant connection many of us have to information and work. I'm not sure that's entirely true - that connection is just a thing; our relationship to it is what throws us off balance.

There's an old-school management psych term: "locus of control" that I think is in play here. Feeling caught up in this Grid thing seems to me like a form of externality. I like my ability to plug into various types of work when the urge strikes, and not on a particularly fixed schedule [This is sometimes at odds with the sort of work I do for pay, since it needs people to interact directly & therefore to agree on when and how to do so.], but then, my locus of control is so internal it's annoying.

I'm still affected by the MUST DO EVERYTHING NOW OMG HOW DO WE MANAGE OUR TIME sense of urgency that pervades work & communication, though - and that's where value comes in. Rather than responding to the OMG of the moment, I try to think in terms of what I value, or if that's irrelevant, what is of greatest value to whomever (the latter is a newer addition to my thinking, thanks to a few years of Agile and exposure to Lean).

If I'm not crazystressedoutOMG, I tend to be a pretty intuitive eater [There are exceptions. My dad buys this cheesy jalapeno dip that I'll eat in massive quantities though it has no redeeming nutritional value & really doesn't help my mental health, either.]. It manifests as insistent demands from some inarticulate part of my mind - not my stomach, really.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with that bit (let's call it the central nervous system for lack of a better phrase) an hour or so after my wholesome vegan lunch. It went like this:

CNS: BRING ME CHEESE. AND BREAD.
Me: We just had lunch! I mean, yes, I feel vaguely grumpy and de-energized. But...
CNS: CHEESE. BREAD.
Me: These pumpkin seeds are kinda the same thing.
CNS: NO.
Me: Look, we're working. This is irritating. Do you want cafeteria cheese?
CNS: EW. YUCK.
Me: What???
CNS: WHOLE FOODS. ONE OF THOSE LITTLE SAMPLE-SIZED CHEESE PIECES.
Me: Are you kidding? You want some wine with that?
CNS: NO. IT'S AFTERNOON.
CNS: BUT A POMEGRANATE TEA MIGHT BE NICE...

I did in fact feel quite good after that; the pomegranate tea was nice, too. But it's strange to be having such a specific conversation with one's hindbrain.

This thing came up just as I've been thinking about seriousness, so I share it with you: practice the playfulness of the universe.

Specifically...

1) Describe the 5 areas of your personal inquiry that feel the most serious.
2) Describe how each of these areas would change if seen as inherently playful, or as the outcome of the creative play of the absolute, of the non physical spaciousness of existance.

I'm thinking some more about this to answer for myself.

I carry these little cards around with my contact info, and now and then one of you will ask about them... so, here's a thing from the moocards people who made them: NAJ64T is a code that gives you free shipping.

Everyone's seen that Glamor magazine OMG publish a photo of a nearly-nude woman (NSFW), right? Specifically - a nearly-nude woman who models plus size clothes, and therefore looks "normal" as a wearer of size 12 or whatever, poofy little tummy and all. She's cute.

I stopped reading magazines so long ago that I can't comment on the power of seeing someone look "normal" in the pages of a fashion magazine. It seems like a nice idea & one that garners lots of praise on the rare occasions it happens - why are those occasions rare, though? I'm guessing aspirations are still assumed to be more effective sales tools than relatability. Are they?

The article featuring the photo is about as annoying as any other fashion magazine article; instead of your appearance being a thing you need to fix, it's your self-opinion.

So, half the people I've ever met? I apologize for being all what do you mean, you don't know what Marx said? because apparently no one - well "no one" is strong wording, but you get the idea - has ever read Marx, so indeed you did not know. [Heh. Makes a girl wonder if Mao didn't read Marx. That would certainly explain some things.]

As an olive branch, I offer you Volume 1 of Das Kapital in audio files [It's FREE!]. You can play it in your car! While you work out! You can choreograph dances to it. *

I asked in the first place because I'd like to have a back-and-forth sort of conversation about knowledge work in relationship to the sort of fulfillment and craft Marx talked about with the whole "ownership of the means of production" thing. People tend to look at me funny when I bring this idea up. But hey! Maybe not ALL people.

*Now I'm getting ideas.

I assumed that pretty much everyone had to read Das Kapital and/or The Communist Manifesto in high school, since I'm pretty sure I had to read them in middle school [The main academic contribution of my private schooling was its social studies curriculum; handy for political discourse, though I'm ill equipped to lead a bus tour of Civil War sites.].

At least - I read them both at some point, and it wasn't in college cause I remember arguing with someone about the contents of Capital in a freshman seminar.

Anyhow. Indulge my curiosity? What year did you graduate high school (or the equivalent secondary school in your part of the world)? And did you have to read either of these books?

A little while ago, I posted about Benson's Personal Kanban series. My at-home approach to planning and prioritizing work has devolved into "keep it all in my head; consider eventually freaking out about incomplete contents of head". So. I've adopted a miniature version of this concept.

( It looks like this. It will evolve. )

It's new & imperfect, and is helping me feel both more useful and more relaxed. If I were in a household of people, I still suspect a Scrum-like approach to work planning & tracking would be cooler, more useful - certainly more inclined to facilitate planning conversations. I think houses need those. But a single person? Maybe not so much.

This is the most fun I've ever had filling out a list on the internets. I now kinda want to do it with every band I like.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. [Though this is not a part of the original task, I challenge you to have both the title and the meaning of your song answer the question. I'm kinda 50/50 here, but it was in my mind.]

( Matt Pond PA answers your questions )