Thank Goodness It's Monday #410

PATRIOTIC CHEESECAKE & CUPCAKES

“Guard against the impostures

of pretended patriotism.”

George Washington shared that caution in his 1796 “Farewell Address” -- a letter written by the first American President to "The People of the United States.”

 

 A broadside of George Washington's
Farewell Address,
from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division
of the Library of Congress

Washington wrote the letter near the end of his second term as President, before his retirement to his home Mount Vernon.

It is a classic document of democracy, certainly appropriate for considering – albeit briefly – on Memorial Day 2013.

Its basic purpose: To warn Americans of the political dangers they can and must avoid if they are to remain true to their values.

Thumbnail history:  The first draft was originally prepared with the help of James Madison in 1792 when it appeared Washington would serve only one term as President. 

Four years later, as his second term came to a close, Washington revisited the letter and, with the help of Alexander Hamilton, prepared a revision of the original draft to announce his intention to decline a third term in office.

The letter’s still relevant. It’s all about the Constitution and political factions … unity and sectionalism … checks and balances and the separation of power … credit and government borrowing … foreign relations and free trade … education and morality. 

I think it’s an interesting document worth reviewing for a number of timely reasons, starting with “original intent.”

But why today? Today’s Memorial Day observances are forever linked with the battles our country has endured since the founding, especially the so-called Civil War. The underlying “governmental” causes and concerns of that nature are just the kind of issues that the forward-thinking Founding Fathers intended to address in this, well, Address.

Clearly the issues have not abated, even in the 21^st Century. 

They span levels both trivial and consequential. Compare and contrast the recent tempest-in-a-Tea-Party cup/IRS/tax-exemption brouhaha to the ongoing discussion of limits on personal freedom being exercised in the name of national security.

But what really put me in the mood for this TGIM Topic of “pretended patriotism” is the synthesis of the trivial with the timely in the pre-Memorial Day supermarket insert that arrived in my recent newspaper.

In the midst of touting all the stuff they were encouraging we stock up on for today’s ceremonial launch of the cookout season (and let’s be clear, I don’t object to that), they featured –

►Patriotic Cheesecake

 


►Patriotic Cupcakes

Call me a curmudgeon, but: Calling baked goods “patriotic” does not make them so.

Worse: It erodes further the most attractive parts of the idea and ideal of patriotism. 

Not to make too much of it, but: If we’re talking patriotism on Memorial Day, an annual commemoration of folks who did what they believed was their patriotic duty, then it’s probably best exemplified in the standard articulated by Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965):

“The noble kind of patriotism …

aims at ends that are worthy of the whole of mankind.”

Today as we give an extra thought to those we perceive have done their patriotic duty, don’t let a burger and beer and colorful cupcakes or cheesy thoughts about sinful cheesecake distract you. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Love our country, but not because it’s easy to parrot U.S. naval commander Stephen Decatur’s 1816 toast, “Our country! … may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.” 

Think about Washington’s cautionary farewell. Guard against impostures. Love our country and stand patriotically for it, not simply for the sake of loving one’s country, but for what it stands for and by the ideals of truth and justice and caring for humanity. 

Carl Schurz did. Nearby my home in New Jersey is a park dedicated to his memory. Memorial Day will be commemorated there. He’s buried across the Hudson River in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  There are many other monuments to him around the country (and in Germany) although you probably know little of him.  

Carl Schurz
in 1877
(Photo by celebrated
19th Century photojournalist
Mathew Brady)

Schurz, (1829 – 1906) was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Union Army General in the Civil War, and Secretary of the Interior. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869, became the first German-born American elected to the U.S. Senate. His wife, Margarethe, was instrumental in establishing the kindergarten system in the United States.

During his later years, Schurz was perhaps the most prominent independent in American politics, noted for his high principles, his avoidance of political partisanship, and his moral conscience. 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Love our country like Carl Schurz. He patriotically revived – and dramatically revised and improved -- the words of Stephen Decatur.

 

Schurz said, “Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”

On guard against the impostures. And trying to continue to do my patriotic duty and put things right.

Now pass the cupcakes, please.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

 

P.S. “What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility ... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) said that in a speech to the American Legion Convention, August 27, 1952.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #409

LET THE COMMENCING COMMENCE

 

'Tis the season. So let’s start by defining our terms:

 

Commencement [com•mence•ment (kəˈmɛns mənt)]

1. A beginning; a start.

2. a. The ceremony of conferring degrees or granting diplomas at the end of the academic year.

2. b. The day this ceremony takes place.

Etymology:  [1225–75; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French]

What’s kinda interesting to me in this “graduation” season is that there’s a Janus-like quality to this time of passage, ending and beginning anew; looking both forward and a glance or two back at the significant time that precedes it.

So, gathered together for arguably the last time as a coherent group with whole layers of education and tradition in common, students and their preceptors attempt to summarize the experience with words of wisdom and set individuals off on the next phase of their voyage of self-discovery and experiencing life with words of inspiration.

What a crock! (OK, maybe not quite that angry but …)

 

• What life lessons more powerful than those of the life of its founder, Thomas Jefferson, will Steven Colbert impart to University of Virginia graduates?
• Can you imagine that whatever Oprah Winfrey shares with Harvard grads will really matter to them collectively in the span of their careers?
• While it’s no doubt thrilling for Ohio State, Morehouse and the U.S. Naval Academy to get visits from the sitting President, how many will look back from the, say, 20-year-distant future and be able to say their response to that 20 or 30 minutes of “address” redirected their lives completely?
• Maybe, just maybe, the message the Dalai Lama delivers at Tulane will change more than a few lives.

It’s a tough world after all. If they’ve been paying attention members of the Class of 2013 probably know that authoritative sources report nearly half of the Class of 2010 hold jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree and that 38% have taken jobs that don't even require a high school education.

And the upcoming newly-minted grads need not be business school alumni to know these trends have helped drop the median wage for college graduates significantly since 2000.

And if they’ve been job hunting they don't need scholarly experts telling them that 284,000 of the grads who came before them are making minimum wage.

Just a little more “rant.” My cynical take here has been narrowly focused on a vision of high-achieving grads from noteworthy post-high-school institutions. The “cream of the crop” if you will.

 

What about students from lesser programs?

What about punishing student loan obligations?

What about newly minted High School grads?

 

As the 2013 commencing commences we all need to comprehend the lessons of learning.

 

Commencement Day -- and the words of wisdom that will be shared in the course of it -- are no substitute for an understanding that we – each and all, no matter our “class” or level of formal education – live lives that require dedication to life-long learning.

TGIM Takeaway: The beginning and ending parts of the seasonal exercises now commencing are –

One day only. It’s a reward. A (presumably) well-earned celebration to mark a passage in life. And what folks tell you that day, while (again, presumably) well-intended and meant to motivate –

 

Isn’t “gospel.” It’s a road sign … directional arrow … a bit of useful, motivational information for a brief part of the journey ahead.

 

That it comes from a celebrity source, and may have been crafted for them and with them by a highly skilled and well-compensated team of presentation preparing professionals,  does not necessarily imbue it with any power greater than a “lesser” origin.

 

So today’s TGIM ACTION IDEA is a commencement message sourced from one of these lesser places.

One of the more intriguing commencements I have attended over the years featured an address by a great southern state university’s law school’s class valedictorian.

My memory of his brief presentation to the students, faculty and friends and family assembled goes like this:

Travis had a reputation among his classmates as a hardworking student, but socially quiet.  What he would say at the ceremony was a mystery. So when, after several typically musty speakers, he rose to deliver his address, attention was a bit sharper.  After properly opening with the obligatory acknowledgments, he promised to take only two minutes of everyone's time and got to the heart of his thoughts.

 

He started by acknowledging that he had had difficulty deciding what “wisdom" to impart.

• For inspiration he consulted quote books and speaker's guides but came away uninspired.
• He reviewed the cases and law he had studied and found nothing he felt appropriate to the moment.
• In fact, he said, he had no idea what hard-gained understanding-born-of-study he could share until that very morning when he sat at the kitchen table, having a student's breakfast of made-from-packaged-dough biscuits.

There, on the newly opened roll of refrigerated biscuit dough, he spotted the lesson he knew he and his fellow graduates had in common and, he felt, was worthy of the occasion.

 

The package, he said, cautioned –

 

"KEEP COOL."

 

This advice, he was sure, would stand them in good stead all the rest of their lives. 

And, he continued after a dramatic pause, it went this succinct wisdom one better by advising –

 

"BUT DO NOT FREEZE."

And with that he thanked all assembled and returned to his seat.

Me too.Carpe diem coolly. 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

 

P.S. “Education. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.” Writer and wit Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) provided that definition in his oft-quoted work, The Devil’s Dictionary.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #408

SHARING SECRETS OF THE DEAD

Día de los Muertos -- Day of the Dead – takes place on November 1 and 2 in connection with the Roman Catholic observation of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. 

So why is TGIM bringing it up in the Merry Month of May?

Because the corporate folks in the wonderful world of Disney recently made headlines by attempting to secure Día de los Muertos name rights for merchandise such as snack foods and Christmas ornaments as it partners with Pixar Animation Studios Inc. to create an animated movie inspired by the holiday.

This attempt died fairly quickly once social media got involved. IMHO rightfully so. Any Disney Day of the Dead primacy is pretty farfetched. 

Thumbnail background: It’s a “holiday” celebrated primarily in Mexico but it and commemorations similar to it occur around the world. 

In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations happen in many Asian and African cultures.

Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl.

Candy Calaveras

The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased. In Mexico, Día de los Muertos is a national holiday, and all banks are closed.

But, getting to the TGIM point, for me, all this brings to “top of mindness” –

The Grateful Dead

You don’t even have to be of a certain age or musical sensibility to be aware of the Grateful Dead and their lasting influence on popular culture. At the minimum, in their heyday, the group was the world’s biggest concert draw.

Now before we get deeper into this, let me establish that, compared to many, my Dead knowledge is sparse.

I wasn’t a Deadhead. So please, if you’re an authority, I know I’m not. I appreciate your expertise and if my take is a bit less than accurate, be cool, man. Unless I’m grossly off the mark, thanks, but we don’t need to dialogue.

 

That said, I was and am an interested fan of their eclectic musical style. And, for our TGIM purposes, today I’d like to connect the Disney … Día de los Muertos … Grateful Dead dots and explore --

 

The Grateful Dead business model. Yup, if your vision of the Dead is ‘60s, hippie, Haight-Ashbury, street-party psychedelic, Woodstock, love & peace, think again.

Counterculture -- but not. No doubt a great deal of the Dead’s counterculture image was legitimately earned. Among many other things the band –

• Maintained that all the members were equal (although Jerry Garcia was perceived as the leader and spokesperson).
• Gave 4-hours-+ highly improvised shows from no established set list.
• Allowed fans to record and share tapes of shows as long as no profit was made on the sale of the show tapes.

But … the Grateful Dead also transcended the laid-back vibe that made them attractive to many. 

In a Disney-ish way, Uncle Walt might have been proud.

Unlike many other artists of their era, they kept the rights to their intellectual property and merchandising. (And every pint of Ben & Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” ice cream still earns a royalty payment.)

And while the Disney lawyers were considering locking up the rights to Día de Muertos, Phil Lesh, original Dead bass player and reportedly the motivating force behind recent revival tours, provided some insight into an mirror-image source underlying their operative business philosophy. 

Like the traditions associated with days of the dead, “Grateful Dead” appears in folktales of a variety of cultures.

So here’s the Lesh version of how the band took on the name.

 

 “… Jer [Jerry Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary… [and] …In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, ‘Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?’” The definition there was “the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial.”

And it was done.

Coincidence? Perhaps not. Speaking of acts of charity, in their early career the band also dedicated their time and talents to their community making free food, lodging, music and health care available to all comers. According to Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia the Grateful Dead were “first among equals in giving unselfishly of themselves to hippie culture, performing more free concerts than any band in the history of music.”

Guitarist Bob Weir recalled: “The first gig as the Grateful Dead was a benefit. It always seems to us that you get some, you give some back.”

And they continued to do so. Even a half-dozen-or-so years ago when the band reformed to tour the Dead put aside a number of tickets for top-notch seats and auctioned them off online for charity. 

Weir explains: “It makes good sense. It’s just something we’ve always done, and this latest round is, I think, a well-conceived, somewhat newer version of it.”

While this Día de los Muertos debacle in the Disney world of business seems insensitive or estranged from that operative philosophy, corporate Mouseketeers too probably know –

The Secrets of the Dead: If you want to be (more) successful, help someone else become successful. You get some and you give it back. Better yet, you give some first and you get it back.

Pay it forward pays. While sometimes, especially in hard times, it may seem life doesn’t happen that way, The Law of Reciprocity is called a “law” for a reason.

It’s derived from practical experience and observation. Like laws in chemistry and physics, maybe we can’t quite get the concepts or see stuff happen at a molecular level. Still, it happens. Action begets action; doing “good” triggers more good deeds. The more you help others get what they’re looking for, the more likely you are to be helped.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: The sooner we each start to make our “Pay It Forward” payments, the sooner we’ll have banked some “reciprocity” to draw on. Begin today.

Success? It’s dead ahead. If you get confused, listen to the music play.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. “It’s not somebody’s idea about the way things might be, or the way things could be or should be. It’s what it is.” “Bear” Owsley, legendary 1960′s Grateful Dead soundman (and more).

Thank Goodness It's Monday #407

FIDDLING AROUND

AND GETTING INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS

In my early childhood our family physician was also a family friend. 

Exactly how that came about I don’t know precisely. But even when I was in grammar school in suburban New Jersey I was encouraged to keep in mind that the man I called “Uncle Max” when he came to “dinner parties” with his wife “Aunt Nina” and other friends of my parents was to be called “Dr. Perlman” in public settings.

Such were the complications of my childhood in the 1950s.
 

What brings this to mind for me now is that this weekend, at our Bergen County (NJ) Performing Arts Center, another Perlman of note from that era – violinist Itzhak – performed with great charm and skill and enthusiasm.

However, although he is my age, the “complications” of his childhood were quite unlike mine. 

Itzhak Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, then in the British Mandate of Palestine, now Israel. His parents were natives of Poland and had independently immigrated in the mid 1930s before they met and married. 

The very young Itzhak first became interested in the violin after hearing a classical music performance on the radio. The story goes that, at age three, being too small to hold a violin, he was denied entrance to the high level musical training that was sought for him. So, instead, he taught himself how to play using a toy fiddle until he was old enough to study at the Shulamit Conservatory and at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, where he gave his first recital at age 10.

Soon thereafter his family moved to the US so he could study at the prestigious Juilliard School, now associated with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. 

Itzhak Perlman was introduced to the wider American public in 1958 when, at 13, he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show -- twice. 

(My musical influence at about that same time and age was more along the lines of the Elvis Presley appearances on Sullivan and the like. My musical ability was limited to playing the radio.)

Having studied violin abroad for eight years with a formal Russian teacher, he was not quite prepared for the looser pedagogical methods of the US – or at least, of his earliest teacher here, Juilliard’s Dorothy DeLay.

"Sugar Plum" Perlman
with Ed Sullivan
in 1958

"She was from Kansas," he recalls. "I would play for her, and if she didn't like certain things and thought I could do better, she would say, 'Now Sugar Plum, what do you think about that?' 

“And I would say, 'Don't tell me what to think — tell me what to do, and I'll do it.' 

“But she insisted on asking me, and involving me in the process. And it's very funny, at the time I didn't like it. 

“But today I teach exactly like she does. To this day, when somebody plays something for me, I say, 'What do you think of that? How do you think you can fix that?' Involving the student in the process."

TGIM TAKEAWAY #1: How open are you to learning in a way that more experienced “others” employ but seem disagreeable to you in their unconventional-ness? 

How hard do you fight against what you don’t comprehend easily? Might that effort be better employed, at least in the early going, trying to “get it” and get involved in the process rather than get past it?

TGIM TAKEAWAY #2: How do you teach? Are you aware of the capabilities of your “students” – those coworkers, subordinates, family members, networking friends in your inner circle – and take their capacity and competence into account when you try to help them accomplish more. 

Not everyone has prodigy-level skill sets or drive. Different strokes may be more effective for getting folks of a different mindset involved in the process. 

And speaking of capability, capacity, competence and complications. As you may know, Itzhak Perlman contracted polio at the age of four. He made a good recovery, learning to walk with crutches. Today, he uses crutches or an electric scooter for mobility and plays the violin while seated.

But that’s not limiting for him: Perlman may get around on crutches or scooter but does he get around: Warsaw, Budapest, Moscow, India, China, South America. His travels began at an early age. 

And as Jim Beckerman, a columnist for our local daily paper observed –

Perlman is not only a great classical virtuoso, he's also a great popularizer. 

Since the Sullivan Show appearance, Beckerman continues, Perlman has been a fellow after Rudyard Kipling's heart: The man who walks with kings without losing the common touch.

In fact he’s played for queens (Elizabeth II) and presidents (the 2009 Obama inauguration). He's appeared on "Sesame Street" and "The Tonight Show." He's played jazz with Oscar Peterson. 

And he played the Oscar winning score to Schindler's List, the multi-award winning Holocaust epic. To this day, it may be the music with which he's most identified.

"I feel so lucky that I was able to do that," Perlman says. 

"It's like I got a present, being involved in that film. I play the theme from Schindler's List and no matter where I go – and I'm talking about, no matter where I go – that's what people want to hear. Last time I was in China and Japan, the first thing they said is, 'Can you play the theme from Schindler's List?' Can you imagine that? It's almost become like my anthem. The people always want to hear it."

Here’s an ironic twist: My family-friend/physician connection “Uncle” Max proudly claimed a true family connection to Chaim and Shoshana, Itzhak’s parents. Maximilian Perlman was also sent to this country from Poland before he could be persecuted. My memory is that his parents did not immigrate and perished as a result. 

TGIM TAKEAWAY: We are all related. We are all connected. Our histories are intertwined in complex and amazing ways and, if we are to successfully move forward in this world we must realize that we all must do it together. 

That’s at the heart of my sharing this “brush with greatness” tale. Being open and sharing our stories and making them personal helps make them more real. Learning from and teaching one another is essential. 

I don’t mean to tell you what to think. But I’m not just fiddlin’ around.

I just wanted to involve you.

 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. So isn’t it a bit embarrassing that maestro Itzhak Perlman was once identified as Sugar Plum? Well, in the spirit of telling our stories to better our understanding, you’ll note that he shared the moniker and he doesn’t mind if we know it. In fact, he adds, “When I was younger, it was more appropriate. Now you can call me Sugar Watermelon.”