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color and politics

Human Color Wheel by Neil Harbisson, 2009

There are a number of politicians who seek to polarize by color. It’s a sad and odd phenomenom and yet, in the case of at least one politician, it seems to be working. A frightening plight in my opinion. If Lapham’s Quarterly is on the right track, Plato would seem to agree with me (or rather I with him!) And yet, as Neil Harbisson shows in his human color wheel above, don’t we all look beautiful together?

The idea of color as divisive makes me wonder about the multi-cultural origins of color itself. I found that color pigments originate from all over the world (check out this chart). Imagine if we (let’s pretend that we Americans were not all immigrants in the first place) eliminated a large area of the world, with say a wall or a set of restrictions so severe that people could not cross our borders, what colors might we then be missing?

Egyptian Blue….originally created by the ancient Egyptians.

Cochineal Red….orginally created in sub-tropical South America and Mexico in the 1400s.

Malachite green…originally used about 2500BC in Ancient Egypt.

Pretty dismal world without these colors. And if you count all of the many years that war and hatred divided us from other world cultures, say Germany or Japan, we’d also be missing cadmium yellow, lead white and prussian blue. We’re not left with a whole lot of color.

I suggest we take color and politics in another direction and look at simultaneous contrast. When you look at two colors side by side, they will interact with one another and our perception will be changed based on that interaction. Take a minute to watch the video.

A single color, when placed on differing backgrounds, will appear to be two different colors. So environment has an effect on our perceptions. Also, if a color is repeated on a single background, our eye will fill in the empty spaces. Go ahead and apply that to politics and see if you want to think again about the noise you choose to listen to. If all we hear is that people of a certain color or religion or gender act and believe in a certain way, we will eventually see all people of that color/religion/gender through the same lens. What we see, what we believe, can be changed by what is around us.

Choose your background carefully and never let a tyrant tell you what you believe. Click To Tweet

Keep in touch,
Leslie

 

living and dying

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It’s been a rough summer in my house. We lost a friend, a father, a fighting soul. We are derailed and left looking for solid footing. And asking the big questions a bit more than usual. There are people who think that death needs to be re-designed. Maybe they’re right, but those aren’t the questions that concern me right now.

I want to know how to best use the time I have left. My friend had plans. He was only a few years older than me. He was brilliant and had done much professionally to make our world what it is. Thank him for the beautiful photos that your iPhone takes. He had plans to retire, to travel, to play music. To sell his too-big-house and live somewhere he loved. And he had plans to watch his daughter graduate college, to walk her down the aisle, to enjoy her adult self.

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As painful as death is to witness and to experience second hand, it is also an opportunity to affirm life itself. That’s how the people at Tikker look at it. They’ve designed a watch (of sorts) that tracks how much time you have left. It’s a brilliant concept and a thoughtful look at time and what it means. Time passes whether you use it joyfully or not. Tikker allows you to witness the passage of your moments on your wrist. A constant reminder to live. As an active verb.

And if you want to know how much time you have left, there are many calculators out there. They are about as predictable as an earthquake, but it is a fun exercise. I used the one put out by University of Pennsylvania. According to them, my life expectancy is 94.82 years. But there’s a 25% chance I’ll live longer than 103.86 years! According to Social Security’s actuarial tables, I only have 27.6 years left. Either way, my plan is to use the precious moments I have left consciously and well.

Rilke wrote : Death is our friend, precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love.

So I’d suggest to you, stare death squarely in the face. Get to know death and make friends with death, because death will remind you every moment that you are alive. Live well, do work that is fulfilling, love well and often, touch the people around you, be kind. Maybe, if we live our lives rightly, when death does come we will welcome it with just a bit more peace.

Keep in touch,
Leslie

 

design and life

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I’ve read several articles lately about designing happiness in life. I’m not a believer in the abject pursuit of happiness, feeling rather that happiness is a byproduct of a life lived well and right and within the definition of one’s own integrity. So it was all just a lot of fluff until last weekend when I attended the wedding of my two very close friends E and D, the god fathers of my children. D is an art director, so design is at the core of his work life. And like every designer I know, including myself, design does define him. He lives and breathes design, which is not to say he lives and breathes his work. But the way designers approach work is not a whole lot different from how we approach life: deliberately, with creativity and always with an eye to a bigger picture. E, on the other hand, is not a designer and lives his life by and for the relationships he creates. He travels extensively, meeting people everywhere and doing the unimaginable in this day and age…he keeps in touch by talking to them. On the phone. All of them. E has more adopted families than anyone I’ve ever known and a circle of loving friends that is a tribute to his goodness.

D designed the weekend around E’s love of relationship, and we all learned something and I daresay we all left Los Angeles better and happier for the experience. They threw all of the cards up in the air, de-constructed the typical wedding, and re-constructed it to fit who they are. Much like Ayse Birsel advocates in her classes at The School of Visual Arts in New York.

Most of us were not seated with the people we arrived with*. A little uncomfortable at first, but these are exactly the situations that D and E like to put themselves in, creating opportunity for new experiences and new relationships. And by the end of the weekend we were all sitting down, by choice, with people we’d never met. I sat next to E’s high school biology teacher from South Africa. Really. Do you even remember the name of your high school biology teacher? My husband sat next to three of E’s South African friends from university. By design, E makes space for happiness in his life by shaping it with travel and exposing himself to new people and circumstances. D designed the wedding around the people that both he and E have grown to love, at the same time building the weekend in such a way that we got to experience E’s way of living.

wedding balloon

So, my suggestion if there is an area of your life or work that doesn’t make you smile, throw those cards up in the air and redesign that piece of your world. If you need another set of eyes on your unhappiness, see what Sylvia ‘Pillow’ Neretti might be able to offer. Her idea of cardboard boxes and dividers as design/psych tools might help you move in the right direction. It’s all about disruption….remember that word?

Keep in touch,
Leslie

  • here’s the text of the note we each found at our table…’You might notice that some of you are not sitting next to the person you arrived with. This is intentional. D and E rarely spend time together when they attend parties. They socialize with others on their own and, on the way home, have a lot to talk about because they’ve had different experiences talking to different people.

‘During dinner, you are seated between two people we think you will find interesting. Strike up a conversation. You may find that you have more in common with them than you think! After dinner, you’re free to move next to your date or move to other tables.’

life is a journey…grow or slowly fade away

I share these here not because they apply to every life and offer some sort of blueprint to existence, but in the hope that they might benefit your own journey in some small way, bring you closer to your own center. ~ Maria Popova photo courtesy holstee.com and brainpickings.org

 

As you can imagine I read a lot in order to write. Well let me tell you, this is nothing compared to the amount that Maria Popova reads, reflects and reproduces on her amazing life journey and as the founder and author of Brain Pickings. (Ahem….excuse me for a sec while I pull up my soapbox.) I believe that in order to be fully who we are as human beings, as employers and employees, as parents and children and friends, we have to grow and change intentionally, strengthening who we are at the core as we evolve. If we sit in the same place believing the same things and acting in the same manner day after day and year after year, we are failing. At some point we are no longer relevant. We are no longer contributing. The world has changed and grown beyond us.

As a designer, if I still created the same palettes now that I began with in design school, the world would be a dizzying mess of gray and mauve. Remember that? My ability to design and understand and communicate the needs of my clients has solidified as the designs I create have changed. And if you, as a restaurateur, are still serving the same dishes that made your restaurant famous twenty years ago, you probably no longer have a restaurant (except for these old standbys…but even they have changed and grown to fit today’s clientele). The world changes, people change. If we sit adamantly by in our armchairs watching and stubbornly clinging to ‘the old days’, well, just don’t. It’s too sad. Read Brain Pickings and grow your mind. Grow your soul. Take a few minutes and go meet Maria…she is so worth your time.

And while you are there, check out her seven life learnings. My poster is already on the way.

  1. Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.
    • don’t borrow opinions, take the time to cultivate your own convictions
  2. Do nothing out of guilt, or for prestige, status, money or approval alone.
    • figure out what you really like, not what you’d like to like
  3. Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words.
    • enough said
  4. Build pockets of stillness into your life.
    • you can’t force the muse, and besides, sleep boosts creativity!
  5. Maya Angelou famously said, ‘When people tell you who they are, believe them’. But even more importantly, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them.
    • other people’s assumptions about you say more about them than they do about you
  6. Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity. As Annie Dillard memorably put it, “how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
    • be where you are
  7. Debbie Millman captures our modern predicament beautifully: “Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.”
    • it’s a journey…be patient and enjoy the ride

Thank you, Maria, for sharing your seven years of Brain Pickings and giving us an easy starting point to learn and grow and change.

Keep in touch,
Leslie

vacation in color

palette-sunset

our last Hanalei 2013 sunset

It’s April and school is still in, I’m a little frustrated with a project I’m working on, the weather is unreliable….time for a vacation. But time or not, there is no vacation in my near future, so I’m creating palette vacations today. See if these take you where they took me….back to Hanalei ten months ago. Happy sigh.

palette-path

the pathway alongside the taro fields behind yoga hanalei

hideaways....our favorite snorkeling beach

hideaways….our favorite snorkeling beach

Have a great weekend….find me at Picnic in the Presidio this Sunday!
Leslie

say thank you

photo courtesy lettersofnote.com

photo courtesy lettersofnote.com…entertaining letters by famous people

Apparently John Lennon wrote thank you notes. Jimmy Fallon is also a fan of thank you notes. And I want to thank Jimmy Fallon for bringing his version of gratitude into the limelight. They elicit a type of joy that probably isn’t what Emily Post was after.

I’m also a big fan of letter writing, especially thank you notes.  Once upon a time I even ran a website called ‘letters and paper’ and got to spend all of my free time writing about writing. Heaven for a writer, unfortunately not a very profitable use of time (luckily I spent enough time at the drafting table to compensate). Regardless of profitability, the handwritten note is  worthwhile because it creates a significant and pleasurable impact on both the writer and the recipient. The recipient gets a momentary break from their frenetically digitalized workday, and the writer experiences the moment of joy that any flight of gratitude offers.

There are plenty of reasons to hand write those notes in your business as well as personal world.

  1. Feeling grateful elicits happiness, so finding a reason to thank someone will make you happy.
  2. After a job interview a handwritten thank-you note tells the interviewer something about your humanity…bosses like to hire humans. And this will set you apart as the type of human that bosses like.
  3. If you want to leave a lasting impression, write a thoughtful note of thanks for a favor done or a gift received or time spent. Lasting impressions are like money in the bank of your future.
  4. Congratulations are a great opportunity to connect, and may inspire a thank-you note in response which makes two people happy (see number 1).

I create and keep notecards and stamps at my desk for both personal and professional note writing. Apparently I’m not alone…thank you notes even made the New York Times.

Keep in touch,
Leslie

ps: I just found these awesome notecards for booklovers…I wouldn’t suggest using them professionally unless  you are in the publishing business…but if you run into my husband you might mention that his wife is a book lover, hint, hint…;)

 

 

seven generations

“In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation… even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.”

~Great Law of the Iroquois

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Earth Day is April 22.  I’d like to respectfully suggest that we take the law of the Iroquois into our own hearts and start again. Let Earth Day be a new beginning of doing at least one more thing (or one less thing, depending on the thing), that will benefit those who come behind us. Here are a few suggestions.

Consider one, or all, of these 22 eco-conscious habits.

Up the health of a school. Start or join a project for Green Apple Day of Service.

Wear nothing new.  Or take it a step further…buy nothing new (except consumables, duh).

Eat slow. One of the markets I shop in lists the distance that their produce travels to get to their shelves. Buy produce that travels less than 500 miles…that way you know it is in season.

Take out your lawn and plant a garden. Cultivate it with your children, friends, neighbors…spread the wealth!

Have a great weekend….sending some special love to my sis today,

Leslie
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happiness creates success

happiness

This morning I needed a happiness shot.  Not for any particular reason, but I just did and I got it from Shawn Achor, a psychologist and the founder and CEO of Good Think, Inc. He gave a TED talk a few years ago that reflects the way that I parent, which is great, but in the moment I sometimes forget that it should direct the way that I live as well.

As a society we tend to believe happiness will result from the completion or acquisition of something. We will be happy when we are successful. I’ve spent my parenting career telling my children that a new phone or toy or dress or friend won’t make them happy. They will be happy when they choose to be happy with the toy or dress or friend or phone that they already possess. So why, then, do we think that we will be happier if we, as adults, are more productive or successful in our jobs? In fact, it’s just the opposite.  We will be more successful at our jobs when we look at life through a lens that allows us to be happy.

According to Mr. Achor, if you can be happy in the present, you will be more successful at work.  He says the ‘happiness advantage’ provides:

  • more success securing a job
  • ability to keep a job
  • superior productivity
  • more resiliency
  • less burnout
  • less turnover
  • greater sales

If you want to train your brain to be positive you should do the following five things for 21 days straight. Randy Scott Hyde experimented with the five for 30 days.  They worked for him (and he draws some pretty awesome stick figures along the way).  I’m starting today….why not do something momentous on April Fools Day?  Seems like the perfect time to me.

  1. write 3 gratitudes
  2. journal about 1 positive experience from the day
  3. exercise
  4. meditate
  5. do something nice for someone else

Want to join me?
Leslie

here’s the video….worth the 12 minutes, I promise!

happy, successful and maybe even wealthy

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I think that most of us want to be happy and successful (whatever our version of success is), and some of us aspire to wealth as well.  So the lists I’ve posted over the last few days share the wisdom (hopefully) of others’ research into the habits we need to develop to get there.  The lists include 21 habits to be happy, 10 habits to be rich and 7 habits to be successful.  There are only two habits that all three lists share:

·         exercise regularly
·         help others

Successful and wealthy people have an additional habit they share:

·         keep learning

And happy and successful people share a few more:

·         eat well
·         sleep well
·         listen well and maintain personal connections
·         find a spiritual connection

Do you maintain any of these habits?  Or maybe all of them?  I’m putting these 7 on the top of my priority list and aiming to include a few more from the happy and successful lists.  Happy people also need to listen to happy music…so be happy with Pharrell’s jam!  Now I’m off to yoga….happy Monday!

7 habits of successful people

that’s my daughter graduating high school….see her in the front left? yea….kind of hard to make out.

Before I could begin the search for a list of habits of successful people, I had to define for myself what success is.  My definition of success, at least for this purpose, is from the free online dictionary:  the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.  So here we are in this life trying to make some kind of a go of it, and whether we want money, happiness or something else, it is the achievement of that thing that defines success.

I think that Dr. Stephen Covey hits the nail on the head.  He published his remarkably popular book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ in 1989.  His habits number 1-3 allow us first to define that ‘thing’ that signifies our success. Dr. Covey breaks his habits down into 3 categories:  Independence, interdependence and continuous improvement.  The descriptions that follow are my interpretations of Dr. Covey’s explanations.

Independence

  • Habit 1: Be Proactive.  Take initiative, make choices and take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow.
  • Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind.  Discover and clarify your most important character values and life goals.
  • Habit 3: Put first things first.  First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth.

Interdependence

  • Habit 4: Think win-win.  No one need lose in order for another to win, there is enough to go around so genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions.
  • Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.  Learn to listen empathically.
  • Habit 6: Synergize.  Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork in order to achieve solutions no one person could have found alone.

Continuous Improvement

  • Habit 7: Sharpen the saw.  Create a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life (physical, social/emotional, mental, spiritual).  For example, 
    • physical:  beneficial eating, exercising, and resting.
    • social/emotional:  making social and meaningful connections with others.
    • mental:  learning, reading, writing, and teaching.
    • spiritual:  spending time in nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service.

So habit 7 is pretty huge.  That’s why this list is so much shorter than the prior 2 lists for wealth and happiness. Next post is a comparison of the three lists.  I’ve already got a few habits that I’ll be wanting to focus on.

 

10 habits of rich people

summer attire: me, my sis and my aunt in 1963

summer attire: me, my sis and my aunt in 1963

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this.  Actually I am….I feel kind of creepy.  My parents were both depression era babies so I grew up in a home that was very thrifty, where happiness was based on things that had nothing to do with the things that money can buy.  Although we were comfortable, when we traveled we stayed at Motel 6 (when it really cost $6) or at a relative’s home, and a big night out to dinner was at Denny’s.  And I occasionally got a stern “not this time Les” when I tried to order the prawns.  Being rich was never something that I aspired to.  If anything both  the thought of aspiring to wealth and having wealth make me feel uncomfortable.  In our house we buy what we need, give what we can, try to teach our children that stuff doesn’t make people happy and generally focus on other things that we truly value.  

But some people do aspire to wealth.  And Tom Corley has written a whole book about it.  He has a list of 10 things that rich people do (and  poor people don’t).  Although he freely admits that this is a work in progress, his methods have been heavily questioned, and in my opinion rightfully so.  But I’m not posting this because I agree or disagree.  It’s just a list.  Tomorrow  I’m going to find and post habits of happy people.  The next day I’m going to see what I can find about habits of successful people. Then we can compare and contrast and see if we all think that wealth, happiness  and success have anything to do with one another.

Before we start, do you want to be rich?  If you were rich would you be happy?  And what do you think success is?

1. 70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day. 23% of wealthy gamble. 52% of poor people gamble.

2. 80% of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.

3. 76% of wealthy exercise aerobically 4 days a week. 23% of poor do this.

4. 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% for poor people.

5. 81% of wealthy maintain a to-do list vs. 19% for poor.

6. 63% of wealthy parents make their children read 2 or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3% for poor.

7. 70% of wealthy parents make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month vs. 3% for poor.

8. 80% of wealthy make Happy Birthday calls vs. 11% of poor

9. 67% of wealthy write down their goals vs. 17% for poor

10. 88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs 2% for poor.