Raw Basement Tapes Blog

Participate

2009-10-01T17:14:00.001-04:00

Today, marks the 19th Message of the Day, I've spoken in the 641-715-3800, ext 55310 Voice mail box. I have 21 more to go, to reach my goal of posting 30 messages in 30 days.

Well, yesterday, I finally stopped improvising and wrote the rudiments of a script before talking into the telephone.

The script follows, on the theme of Participating. Do you see any worthwhile thoughts here?

Participate!

The Message of the Day is "Participate, participate in your experience..."

I was reflecting:

What does it mean to be fully engaged?

What does it mean to be fully embracing life?

The key is participating, participating in your experience and experiencing your participation.

I just like to read a few quotes and share a simple story.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French writer and aviator:

“The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate.”

Goethe, German writer:

“We are forced to participate in the games of life before we can possibly learn how to use the options in the rules governing them.”

John Dewey, American philosopher

Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full PARTICIPATION of all our powers in the endeavour towrest from each changing situations of experience its own full and unique meaning.

So here's a story:

A long time ago, I participating in an Insight Training Seminar, among the many human potential seminar that were big in the 1980s and 90s. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot about myself. One thing I distinctly remember was the beginning of the seminar and the seminar leader encouraging participants to participate as much as possible, and to not sit back and watch the seminar unfold before them.

So five days later, after the seminar was over, a bunch of us testified as to the positive impact the seminar had on their lives. But there were several -- perhaps even a majority -- who said what the seminar leader had predicted they'd say: "I wish I would have participated more. I wish I would have gotten more involved."

From time to time it is easy, I think, to sit back and be a spectator on this moving train that is life. But we miss out on a lot by sitting back and watching the dance go on all around us.

We need to get involved. We need to participate in our experience. And experience our participation.

So, to close this message of the day, I 'd like to close by a quote from William Arthur Ward, one of America's most gifted writers of inspirational sayings.

“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.”

And that's the message of the day.

Have a wonderful day.

PS: All of the other messages are posted here.

The Message of the Day Has a Home on the Web!

2009-09-28T17:38:00.000-04:00

One of the things I've learned halfway into this Message of the Day project is that few people are motivated to pick up the phone and call-in. However, people will visit the website and listen to my rantings.

I suppose it makes sense. People are generally on the web, when they find out about the latest message. From there it's a simpler matter to click on the Message of the Day link and listen to the message.

I was originally going to create a separate Message of the Day mini-site, but drop.io makes creating a site rather superfluous. Although I suppose I could by doing so create a simple Google Adwords campaign and bring in a few dollars for my efforts. Maybe even put up a simple discussion board around the message topics.

But I do after all have to do other income-producing tasks. Seems in a way, like a pity. But that's the way it is.

Within Thirty Days

2009-09-20T06:59:00.000-04:00

Just purchased the www.withinthirtydays.com domain. (Check back soon if nothing's there!) Have an idea for a 30 day project and need support? Twitter me @angelojohn.

30 {Insert Content Here!} in 30 days

2009-09-20T05:55:00.000-04:00

Last week, I began my Message of the Day project. The idea is to create daily voice mails that can be accessed by calling 641-715-3800, Code 55310. Pretty much the first thing in the morning, I record an unscripted message and announce its existence to my social networks.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the idea for doing this came nearly a decade ago from a friend of mine, Rene Molenkamp. Rene is a life coach, consultant, and ex-Jesuit priest who in the early internet days had the idea of sending out a daily spiritually-oriented message to the members of our Diversity and Spirituality organization. It was just an idea we batted around, with Rene having more enthusiasm for it than me.

Ten years later, I decided to put the idea into practice, voice-mail style.

But this wasn't the first time I started a "thirty days" project. Maybe five years ago, I started the Thirty Poems and Thirty Days project on Ecademy.

The project was controversial on Ecademy. Nearly every day, I got dissed by some of the other posters, who either didn't like my poetry or didn't like my project. I did have a few defenders, but the haters tended to drown them out.

Anyway, I persisted and it was great fun. I'd carry my tape recorder around, come up with an idea for a poem, write it and post it. I then interacted with people who posted reactions to my poems.

But eventually life took over: there just came a point where I made other things more important than coming up with a poem. However, I completed 18 poems, about half of which are decent. And I still plan to complete the book I envisioned (but what will I call it: almost Thirty Poems in Thirty Days?).

Nothing in particular save intuition motivated me to begin this particular endurance test. I'm enjoying creating my Message of the Days now, but I've only just begun, with something like 23 voice mails to go. I really am determined to go the full 30 days this time.

What would help a lot is encouragement. I get some from my small coterie of regular listeners, but I could use some more, so please!

Call and listen to the message of the day today at 641-715-3800, Code 55310. After listening to the message, you can if you want leave me a message.

If you like it, tell your friends about it.

I'd love to hear what you think.

The Network of Light - A Vision

2009-09-18T06:47:00.004-04:00

I expanded on this -- even read a poem! - on today's (Friday, September 8's) Message of the Day, which you can listen to by calling 641-751-3800, code 55310.

Here's the back story and an old article describing the vision of the Network of Light.

The Back Story

I was in New York City visiting an old and dear friend, the late Rachele Rhodes, who was in from California visiting her daughter and another friend. Rachele and I had Chinese at a restaurant overlooking Central Park and had such a good time together that we decided to extend our visit. So rather than put her on the train to her next destination of Philadelphia, I drove her halfway to the train station in Trenton.

During this drive, the idea for the Network of Light emerged.

You see Rachele had a particular challenge in the area of money. Although there was a time in her life when she was somewhat successful player in the human potential movement, she had developed a mysterious cancerous condition way before I met her in the acupuncture office of my friend Francis Mastrogiovanni in Osaka, Japan.

When I met her, I didn't know anything about her condition. I was just struck by what I perceived as her deep spirituality, and her ease at being in the world. Very quickly, we became fast friends. She was instrumental in helping me establish a Japanese satellite conference of the Boston-based Human Unity Conference, moving from Osaka to Tokyo to make this happen. She also was part of a network of people I knew who were associated with the Emissaries of Divine Light, a spiritual organization and the steward of that year's Human Unity Conference.

I later learned about Rachele's condition, for which she tried every conceivable form of treatment. She once told me she was the subject of a kind of panel, in which physicians gathered around a table in an auditorium and discussed her how best to treat her. She had consultations with some of the world's finest surgeons, had been to see the psychic surgeons of the Philippines, had done so many things in search of healing that she had compiled a thick file on conventional and alternative cancer therapies. She even counseled other individuals, including an ex-husband.

But neither her condition, nor her poverty seemed to trouble her much. I saw her as one who operated with a level of trust that was greater than anyone I'd ever met, (even though one of her two daughters basically saw her as a basket case, living on the kindness of friends).

But Rachele really wanted to work. She compiled a resume of the work she had done in the human potential movement, got counseling from career specialist, and kept inquiring. She'd get a little sick and then went at it again. It was heartbreaking having to watch her go through all this, but for her I guess it was just what she needed to be doing, nothing more or less.

This was pretty much were she was when I saw her in New York.

As we were driving to Trenton, suddenly the notion I'd been kicking around for some time hit me. It came to me -- this vision of the Network of Light -- out of left field.

You see, at the time I was establishing myself as a coach and consultant. As a one-man show, I had it in my mind to discuss with Rachele the possibility of hiring her to help with my business. After all, I knew that she had very competently performed that role for a number of individuals, some of whom were quite renown. Why not ask her to do the same for me?

But when I presented the idea to Rachele, her reaction surprised me. You know, she said, people always ask me to do things like this, like helping them get clients. She cited the times she did this, particularly for this nutritionist she knew. These helpers know I'm good at helping them -- in fact, it isn't unusual that it's me who ends up counseling the people I bring to the practitioner -- but being a helper like that just isn't what I want to do.

At that moment, I realized that I wasn't really looking for someone to work for me. I was looking for something more cooperative and collaborative, some form of relationship that involved mutual support. But not just a friendship, something deeper somehow. What I sensed was the possibility that a small group of people might establish themselves as a spiritually oriented mini support group. And that each members of THAT small group would also have membership in interconnected but separate small groups who were operating more or less the same way, but with a different intent. One might be a group that was focused on supporting their members entrepreneurial interests; another might be group studying medicine. All of these groups would support one another and comprise a network of mutually supporting groups.

I was then moved immediately to call my friend Jesse de la Rosa to put this plan into action. Jesse, Rachel and I became what we called a node of the Network of Light. We'd meet twice a month over the phone and share stories. It felt loving and supportive.

But our association didn't last particularly long, mostly because I -- the leader -- lost energy for it. My challenge had always been that I would often envision an exalted scenario of some sort or another, but then I would notice the holes in my pockets and realize that I needed money. That need would drive me away from that exalted scenario, and into doing temp work, leading the scenario to wither and die.

But I still persisted. I enlisted Martha Lasley of the consultancy, Leadership That Works, to the cause. Her father allowed us to use an office in a private Princeton club to do a presentation/workshop on the method. My friend Terry Lane designed a beautiful website on what we called NOL. You can probably find some images of it on the Wayback Machine, that site that preserves old websites.

I even noticed that there were others who were working on similar ideas around the world. One was a group in France that called itself the Network of Light, another was a couple of individuals involved in the legendary Findhorne Community.

But the idea proved to big for me to realize. So I let the ownerhsip of the www.networkoflight.com website lapse. I moved on. This was maybe 13 years ago.
To some extent I've abandoned this vision. I think in many respects I was trying to recreate artificially something that already existed.

Anyway, here's an FAQ I wrote back then.

What is the Network of Light?

"What is the Network of Light?

The Network of Light is our term for the web of interwoven relationships between inwardly directed, spiritually oriented individuals, groups, and organizations around the world. These entities are the organic cells or clusters of the larger Network of Light. They evolve, learn, and form relationships with other cells on the Network.

"What is the work of the Network of Light?"

The work of the Network of Light is to actively participate in the co-creation of the Divine Plan. “Members” of the Network of Light are Light Workers, the receptors who attune to the greater will and allow themselves to be used as instruments for the greater good.

"What is the vision for the organization, 'The Network of Light'?

The organization, the Network of Light, exists as a servant to the will of the actual Network of Light, which has always existed and will always exist. The organization’s role is to serve as facilitator, catalyst, and linkage agent. The organization aspires to make visible the nature and structure of the actual Network of Light and to serve the will of network members.

"What is the mission of the Network of Light organization? "

Our mission is threefold:
• To share new models and tools for helping individuals cope with the demands of the post-Millennium age
• To nurture, link and support inwardly-directed, spiritually-oriented individuals, small groups, and organizations around the world
• To support and nurture the creation of clusters or small groups of individuals who wish to align in the spirit of spiritual support.

"What is an example of a tool that might help individuals “cope with the demands of the post-Millennium age?”

One example is the cluster, or spiritual alignment group. On these pages are suggested strategies for forming your own clusters and using them as a means to enhance personal growth.

"I’d like to start a cluster. How do I get started?"

You can get started on your own by using the resources on this site. We hope eventually to have a cadre of mentors who will help anyone who wishes to start a spiritual alignment group.

"What do you mean by “inwardly-directed, spiritually-oriented individual, groups or organizations”?

We are drawing a distinction between those whose perspective is shaped and formed primarily by outward influences and those whose are directed more from within. An extreme example of an outwardly directed individual is one who professes blind obedience to a particular religious dogma. An extreme example of an inwardly directed individual is a mystic.

Conclusion: An imagination can be a dangerous thing.

Thoughts?

My "Message of the Day" Project

2009-09-17T01:19:00.002-04:00

OK, First a shameless plug.

Please call 641-715-3800, Code 55310 and listen to my Message of the Day
After you listen, leave me a message if you're so inclined.
Be sure to leave your phone number if you'd like me to call you back
Don't be shy, let me know what you think

OK, some history about how the "Message of the Day" project started.

The genesis was through a conversation whoa maybe 15 years ago with Rene Molenkamp back in our Diversity and Spirituality Network days. Endlessly inventive, Rene had the idea of sending out a spiritually-oriented message of the day via email.

About a decade later, I decided to give it a try, via voice message. I record a daily message, and a caller calls 641-715-3800, Code 55310 to hear it and maybe respond back. Today, I recorded my fifth message and have the intention of continuing this for at least 30 days.

Here's where I need your help. Please call 641-715-3800, Code 55310 and listen to the message. If you feel so moved, leave me a message. If you like the message, tag this note or share the number with your friends. I'd love to have this whole thing go viral and watch it spread. Being weak, I could use some encouragement to keep this going.

So please call the message, listen, and then leave your response. If you want, leave your phone number on your message if you'd like me to call you back. I'd also like some suggestions as to future topics.

Thanks for reading this and being in my life.

2009-02-19T13:33:00.001-05:00

Not happy that Netanyahu will soon be prime minister of Israel.

2009-02-19T12:25:00.001-05:00

Listening to all-day webinar, 95% of stuff I already know

2009-01-28T08:59:00.001-05:00

Its a Snow Day in Temp Nation. We workin' from home!

2009-01-26T23:44:00.001-05:00

testing out ping.fm for simultaneous posting to my social networks

My Town Immigration: A Few Thoughts

2008-08-30T23:09:00.008-04:00

About eight years ago, there are next to no Mexicans in my town. Lately, Mexicans -- nearly all from Oaxaca -- are easily the biggest minority in town. In this 4,500+-population town there are Mexican restaurants, convenience stores and more. Just like in SoCal, there is a place where guys congregate in the morning, making themselves available for work. The local community health center has had to add bilingual workers, and local drug stories do a tidy business in phone cards that allow callers to call Mexico cheaply.

Suddenly, our small park evenings are filled with guys playing soccer or basketball. The local school now has kids coming in that speak little English, making it necessary for the school to hire translators. The local pantry, formerly place where area homeless people went to supplement their diet, now has a Mexican majority. Likewise the local thrift store. Likewise a lot of places.

I am to the left of Ron Dellums on most issues. However, what has been happening to my town has given me pause. The US, conservative on many areas, tolerates illegal immigration. It lets kids of illegals who are born here become full citizens. It allows kids to go to school and provides free healthcare. We are much more tolerant of illegal immigrants that pretty much other developed country, who for the most part ghettoize folk or treat them as less than human.

I think the best of all worlds would do away with borders entirely. People can create laws, but people will find away around them. Basically, people will find a way to get to places that allow them and their families access to a better life. People in developed countries get lazy and shun the kind of work their forefathers happily took on. They don't want to work 18 hours a day, and they don't for the most part want to work with their hands.

You don't have to go very far to see the passions this whole situation engenders. Go to any newspaper site or open discussion forum. People complain about Mexicans, Brazilians, whomever. They dream of an American that simply doesn't exist any more. Where minorities were minorities and acted like minorities. And now there's this guy called Obama. What is the world coming to?

There are no easy solutions. About the only thing Bush got right during his presidency was his "guest worker" proposal. McCain, the senator of a border state, saw the sense of it also. But the Republican base doesn't like it. There are people who think that the whole mess would be solved by forcibly exporting folk back to Mexico. But come on, that's not going to happen. Forget the morality of the thing. Can you imagine how much it would cost?

Me, I mostly get to practice my Spanish. The guys'll talk with me, but the women mostly just look straight ahead. They are focused on their kids, getting them into schools, getting them ready to exploit this new rich land.

My little town, now like a lot of towns across the USA.

It's a brown nation now, Amelia. Getting more so every day.

The Reappearance of Rev. Wright: Black on Black Crime

2008-04-30T12:07:00.002-04:00

The sudden rash of press conferences by Rev. Jeremiah Wright seemed to me like a classic example of one African American tearing another one down. Not a naive man, Wright must have known that his rantings could have the effect of crippling Obama's candidacy. But Wright didn't really care. His interest was in advancing his own misinformed agenda, not matter what the fallout.
Perhaps this is an isolated case, but I can't help but think of this as yet another example of one African American male cutting another African American male down to size. Wright, maybe unconsciously, is saying to Obama: "you aren't really all THAT. And let me remind you of who you really are."

Hillary, the Inevitable

2007-09-30T10:56:00.000-04:00

I love this comment about the probable Democratic nominee:

Maureen Dowd quotes, The New Republic's Leon Wieseltier,

“She’s never going to get out of our faces. ... She’s like some hellish housewife who has seen something that she really, really wants and won’t stop nagging you about it until finally you say, fine, take it, be the damn president, just leave me alone.”

Building Citizen Journalism Microsites

2007-08-23T21:51:00.000-04:00

A blast to be involve with building citizen journalism microsites such as this one. A good challenge to overcome my deep-seated laziness. A good way to bring to bear all that I have learned.

Not only "your brain on drugs", but your money too...

2006-11-28T13:59:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | Europe | Drug use 'behind crumbling euros'

Users of the drug crystal methamphetamine may be causing euro banknotes to disintegrate, German police have told Der Spiegel magazine.

Online Scam Resource

2006-08-22T11:23:00.000-04:00

This site monitors online scams. Found out about this service while responding to an e-mail from someone who saw my resume on Monster.com. Decided to Google the name of the company where the e-mail was from. Well, well!! This is a very good resource.

Borderless World

2006-06-10T21:49:00.000-04:00

As the above article on Africa-Europe migration suggests, illegal immigration is a worldwide concern. But the simple fact is that people will continue to try to go to where they perceive are better opportunities. Just as governments seek to keep outsiders out, China -- the world's most populous country -- tries to keep information out. But the advance of information technology makes this a battle that they will ultimately lose. People want to be free to go where they choose; information wants to be free to go where it chooses.

I can feel you resisting, but humor me for a moment and consider that a borderless world is an inevitability. Put your political viewpoint aside and engage this intellectual exercise: Say you are a global planner working under contract to the world's governments. You've been charged with the task of creating an orderly transition plan to a borderless world.

What will be your first and subsequent steps?
How might you minimize the expected chaos?
What might your borderless world eventually look like?
What, if any, are the upsides of a borderless world?

Spring: In From the Cold

2006-05-05T13:50:00.000-04:00

Been a long time since I posted anything. A metaphor for the darkness I've seen.

In the darkness, one forgets that light exists.

When the dawn appears, warmth and memory returns.

Along with questions:

What strategies might I use to keep the darkness away?

How can I productively live blending light and shadow?

"Worst President in History" -- Here's what a guy who worked for Bush now says...

2005-10-24T15:05:00.000-04:00

How Scary Is This? - New York Times: "Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel who served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressed the administration's arrogance and ineptitude in a talk last week that was astonishingly candid by Washington standards.

'We have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran,' said Mr. Wilkerson. 'Generally, with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita ... we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence.'"

Comments?

Jello Gets Hit with the Smartphone Bug

2005-10-08T22:06:00.000-04:00

Well, I did it. I went and got myself a Samsung i730 Smartphone. My Palm semi-crashed and I used that excuse to go to the Verizon store. Despite my relatively impoverished state, I was tired of carrying around a pda and a phone and wanted a portable device that did everything. I settled on the Samsung, because it DOES everything. I've spent much of the weekend studying it plus accessorizing it. Perhaps I'll soon get down to doing some "actual work."

Anyway, I found this link on free phone software you might find interest...Free is sometimes good and sometimes not..."Buyer" beware.

"Free mobile software websites

By Wendong on Palm OS

1. GetJar

Via vehera.symbiandevelopersjournal.com.

GetJar.com is a good site to get free Java, Symbian, Palm or Pocket PC Softwares. And it provides device-specific RSS feeds, so you can monitor free software based on your phone model.

2. phonefreeware.com

J2ME Freeware
S60 Freeware
UIQ Freeware

3. midlet.org

This website is around for a long time.

4. midlet-review.com

It lists some free games

5. palmopensource.com

A great resource site for Palm OS. But it also has a list of open source projects for Pocket PC.

"Everybody's a Writer" Dept

2005-10-04T20:26:00.000-04:00

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
- Robert Wilensky"

The Big Dog -- Bill Clinton -- Speaks Out on Bush

2005-09-18T20:13:00.000-04:00

"WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US president
Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the
Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit.

Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq 'virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction.'"

Comment: We need some Democrats to stand up and tell the truth. Complicit with the ill-advised Afghanistan and Iraq adventures, some Democrats are finally loosening their tongues. The Katrina debacle is the reason.

I ony hope someone on the aspirant Presidential scene appears who will stand up and tell the truth, not play polling games.

Reading is Overrated: Part Two

2005-09-17T10:25:00.000-04:00

Many people thought I was crazy to voice the sentiments expressed in my article, Writing is Overrated. I feel a little vindicated to find that there is at least one other person -- this one with a pedigree!-- who shares the same views.

elearningpost blog...

"The Power of Conversation

Paul Hartzog following up on a statement made by Dr. Tom Malloy of the University of Utah — “I don’t read anymore; I just talk to people who have.”

“When two people have a conversation, they act as proxies for the many ideas in their heads which are drawn from the many things they have read. In effect, a conversation is a many-to-many interaction that is both mediated and moderated by the participants. The individuals catalog, sort, tag, and filter ideas as they are drawn into the shared space of the conversation.”">elearningpost

Good News from From William Gibson's Blob

2005-09-17T09:57:00.000-04:00

On the writer's blog 7/31/05

"I am. I am writing. Just as some of you have guessed.

Never the most linear of processes, for yours truly, but something is starting to rise, in the spectral ringing hangar of the Novel Department. Looks like the Spruce Goose but with more wings. Why is there a tail at either end? My friends, we can only wait and see. No smoking here, hardhat at all times, steel-toed brogues, lumpy demob suit, loose lips sinking ships..."

When people ask Tom Waits where he's been 'til recently, he tells 'em "stuck in traffic". And, boy, do I ever know what he means. But then again it's all part of the pro-cess.

Pass me that caulking-gun, Eugene, I just spotted a nasty recess in the flank of our synopsis here..." -- William Gibson<

"The World Loves George Bush" Dept.

2005-09-09T10:08:00.000-04:00

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A conservative German minister in a southern state has caused uproar by saying U.S. President George W. Bush should be "shot down" for his handling of the crisis in hurricane-struck New Orleans.

Andreas Renner, Social Minister in Germany's southern state of Baden-Wuertemberg, clarified later that he had only meant Bush should be downed politically.