It’s July 1966. And it’s sweltering hot in Austin Texas. Claire Wilson and her boyfriend Tom Eckman are taking summer classes at the University of Texas. Hot as hell They just got out of an anthropology test. So they head over to the Student Union, to hang out for a while. They’re just starting to […]
Marinating In The Mediocre
April 25, 2023 by Leave a Comment
It started out innocently enough. Quite pretty, actually. Lovely little messages, dripping down. Falling lightly in our collective lap. Then things changed The wind shifted and the messages increased. Now filling the sky, turning everything in their way into a messy soup. Each message now propelled horizontally like a bullet stream. Making everything indistinguishable, indecipherable […]
What To Look For When You Fall Into A Hole
November 5, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Joe is walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out. A doctor passes by, and Joe shouts up “Hey you! Can you help me out?” Don’t look for sympathy The doctor writes him a prescription, throws it down the hole, and moves on. Then […]
Experiences: Safe Havens For Tribe Action
January 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment
It was an amazing evening. The Robin Hood Foundation had just raised $101,000,000. In one night. At one event. Some people looked at the result and decided the tactic was the secret. It was not The gala itself is not the story. The real story has two parts. First, it’s about all the efforts that […]
The Storyteller’s Promise
December 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
A Manifesto by Rebecca Solnit. Edited (with apologies to the author) to fit the Art Of It style. Or lack there of. Stories surround us like air. We breathe them in. We breathe them out. The art of being fully conscious in life means seeing the stories and becoming their teller. And not letting them […]
Oh, The Wonderful, New Places You’ll Go
June 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go. […]
All Together Now: Passion, Experience, Story
April 30, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The people of Pernambuco, Brazil, were up against a death or life situation. And death was winning. Each year, hundreds of members of their community were dying senselessly. Not because of poor medical care But because they couldn’t get the replacement organs they needed to survive. According to Brazilian law, it’s up to the family. […]
Want To Lead A Movement? Start With A Story
April 16, 2019 by 1 Comment
Two children were born on the same day in Uganda. Two children grew up in the same Ugandan village. One boy One of those boys dropped out of school. He never learned to read. He ended up cutting sugarcane. He eventually struggled with alcohol abuse and parented many children out of wedlock. The other boy […]
Ten Things A Movement Needs
April 2, 2019 by 4 Comments
Through the oppressive heat, and humidity, and driving rain they came. Traveling in their luxury limos, and the family sedan they came. Celebrating in their fancy, streamlined motor coaches they came. Crowded into rickety, old school buses and church vans they came. In broken down VW buses and specially scheduled trains they came. From the […]
Empathy: The Overlooked Secret
March 5, 2019 by 1 Comment
By Mark Clevenger Mark Clevenger is the President of Clevenger Associates, a marketing research consultancy specializing in human behavior. Empathy is for practical people The question: “Knowing our customers is important, but isn’t empathy getting into la-la land?” Mangers worry. How can we improve efficiency? Detours are the enemy. Stay focused. Find the quickest path […]
