Thank Goodness It's Monday #392

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

In the 1993 movie "Dave" the title character is a politically unsophisticated regular guy who looks like the film's fictional president. 

When pressed into duty to impersonate the ailing chief executive, Dave sings to himself while taking a shower in the White House:

 

Hail to the chief …

He’s the chief we all say hail to.

We all say "Hail"

'Cause he keeps himself so clean!

He's got the power,

That's why he's in the shower...

As the movie progresses, ordinary Dave sees in his extraordinary situation the opportunity to create necessary change. He acts on it and accomplishes his goal. 

Of course, that’s all a conveniently scripted and nicely acted bit of fiction.

At noon today in Washington DC the USA publically inaugurates our 44^th President for his second term. Barack Obama will once again hear the strains of the official Presidential Anthem of the United States -- Hail to the Chief -- played for him as he recommits to upholding the Constitution and fulfilling the duties of the highest office in our land. 

Derived from an old Gaelic tune, the melody was adapted and was first performed in New York in 1812. It caught on instantly. New lyrics were written and it was re-titled Wreaths for the Chieftain and played in Boston in 1815 to celebrate the birthday of George Washington. It’s had Presidential associations ever since.

So, with this capsule history, what's the TGIM point? 

The answer for today lies in the lyrics that the movie character Dave didn't know, and few citizens do. 

Here are the correct rarely sung lyrics of Hail to the Chief:

Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation,

Hail to the Chief! We salute him, one and all.

Hail to the Chief, as we pledge cooperation

In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call.

Yours is the aim to make this grand country grander,

This you will do, that's our strong, firm belief.

Hail to the one we selected as commander,

Hail to the President! Hail to the Chief! 

After a contentious first election, troubled first term, another contentious round of polling, and threatened rocky start for the President in the second term, the words “hail to the chief” hold a certain irony in and of themselves. 

Yet I think the lyrics also suggest one of the abiding reasons a democratic people in a democratically led nation can come together and know continued success. 

At noon today the Marine Band might have played this for a new 45^th President. But they will continue to play it for the duly reelected Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama. 

And a United States hopes for "proud fulfillment of a great noble, call."

Speaking of “proud fulfillment of a great noble, call” …

Today we also commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. – with one of the Monday Federal holidays that TGIM must regularly address. 

This year the connection is completely obvious. 

Talk about dreams and “a dream deferred.” Roughly four years ago when Barack Obama first assumed the Presidency the long-held hopes and dreams and aspirations of many people became more tangible. Many finally began to feel their deferred dreams were well on the way to being fully realized.

Four years later: There will be many comparisons and lots of insightful and significant talk about whether this is, in fact, so. 

Surely there will continue to be soul searching, and forward-looking messages, and challenges, and – especially today -- inspiring speeches that likely will echo through the centuries.

 

And there will be naysayers and folks who see all this as empty platitudes and manipulative political posturing and branding.

TGIM Takeaway: What it will all amount to for each of us as individuals – what kind of “opportunity” this presents as well as represents – depends almost entirely on each of us as individuals.

You will recall that four years ago in the run up to the November 2008 election virtually every candidate for the Presidency talked about “change” – so much so that an important truth almost became trivialized. Still, the idea resonates because it’s a universal longing.

This year the official inauguration theme is “Faith in America’s Future.”

Four years ago, echoing Abraham Lincoln, it was “A New Birth of Freedom” and the official inauguration poster featured the phrase – 

“Be the Change.” That thought and counsel is usually viewed as the embodiment of the philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, best known by the honorific Mahatma (“Great Soul” in Sanskrit) Gandhi. 

And Gandhi and his non-violence were a foundational inspiration to MLK Jr. and those he inspired to carry his efforts forward.

Change = Opportunity + Action

The untrivial fact of life is, if you really want change in any part of your life --

It takes action. 

►   You can think about change …

►   You can read about change …

►   You can listen to and watch others speak about change …

Or -

►   You can take action and change. 

You and I are not so far removed from Lincoln or Gandhi or MLK Jr. and, dare we say, Obama, or hundreds of thousands of other “ordinary” men and women who longed for change … saw the opportunity to create change … and took action. 

They made history.

You can make history, too. It’s not always easy. It’s not always immediate. It’s seldom accomplished alone. It may not be on a grand scale.

But it can be done. If you see the opportunity and act on it, you can “be the change” and you can make change happen. That is perhaps one of the greatest personal improvement lessons any individual can take away from our historic past and the eventful days ahead.

Hail! TGIMers. I salute you, one and all. Be the change. Keep the faith. And --

Work for success. Yours … ours … and our nation’s.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

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

P.S. According to the Library of Congress: It was Julia Tyler, the wife of the tenth President, John Tyler, who first requested that Hail to the Chief be played specifically to announce the President's arrival on official occasions. 

The tune was included in certain nineteenth century musical instruction books and the future First Lady, Sarah Childress Polk, studied it as a young woman. It was played at the inauguration of her husband, James Polk (the eleventh President). But she, perhaps more than others, ritualized its use. As the historian William Seale stated,

“Polk was not an impressive figure, so some announcement was necessary to avoid the embarrassment of his entering a crowded room unnoticed. At large affairs the band...rolled the drums as they played the march...and a way was cleared for the President.”

It was not until 1954 that the Department of Defense established Hail to the Chief as the official music to announce the President of the United States.

CELEBRATING BEN'S BIRTHDAY



Benjamin Franklin (1772)

Year depicted: 1766
Artist: David Martin 
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Philadelphia

It’s the always-notable, highly-quotable Ben Franklin’s 307th birthday today.

 

Here’s what he had to say about his life at age 65, well before he could also weigh his contributions as a Founding Father: 

The Opening of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Composed at Twyford, England, 1771

Directed to his son, William Franklin,

Royal Governor of New Jersey.

Dear Son:

I have ever had a pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose.

 

Now, imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are unacquainted with, and expecting a week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you.

 

Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.

 

That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition of the first.

 

So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more favorable, but though this was denied, I accept the offer.

 

Catalyst Collection Takeaway: Live your life so that you may say the same.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #391

30 SUPER BOWL SECONDS

FOR $4 MILLION!

 

CAN YOU SPARE A MINUTE OF YOUR TIME?
 



 

The “official” SuperBowl logo

 has been a bit derivative

over the past three outings.

 

Take a trip down Memory Lane
and see each of the primary logos
going back to the
“First World
Championship
Game AFL vs NFL”
HERE.

Put away your checkbooks.
I’ve got bad news:

All the commercials for the NFL Championship on February 3 in New Orleans are --

 

SOLD OUT! 

And, according to Associated Press reporting, some of those ads have sold for more than $4 million for a 30-second spot. 

Talk about “Time is money.”  More than $4 million for a half minute is –

►   an hourly rate of about Half-A-Billion – “B” BILLION -- bucks

►   an 8-hour workday of $4 Billion

►   a weekly payday (before taxes) equal to the Facebook IPO

►   an annual wage of …

Enough of that nonsense. The primary reason some advertisers are willing to pony up that much moola for such a fleeting bit of time is, of course, exposure. 

Well over 50 Super Bowl commercials aired in 2012. Companies paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot at TV’s biggest event. And that event averaged more than 111.3 million viewers, peaking at 117.7 million late in the final quarter of the Giants dramatic win over the Patriots.
 

Point is: How do YOU value 30-seconds?

Too often too cheaply, I bet. 

Me, too. So let’s take the complete sellout of the available SuperBowl ad time as a clue to reevaluate how we use even the minutest segments of our time.

Here’s a very obvious one:

● How’s your personal 30-second “commercial” … elevator speech … whatever you call it, however briefly you get to deliver it. 

Can you trace $4 million in business to it? Do you expect to? 

No doubt, if you’re a friend of TGIM, you’ve got a 30-second commercial down cold.

But only one? 

This is not a one-size-fits-all world. Your 30-second opportunity to pitch in the elevator at the annual 3-day industry conference in Vegas requires something entirely different from … 

… what you’ll say at the weekly Friday morning pancake house meet-up

… the pitch to the formal, structured business referral group you pay to belong to

… the cocktail party response to “Nice to meet you. What is it you do?”

… the small talk with the new golfing partner assigned to round out the foursome when Charlie’s a no show. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Give each version of your 30-second presentation $4 million potential.

Most SuperBowl ads are created especially for SuperBowl Sunday. Then, often, the season of commercials that follow key off that $4 million best effort.

Follow that lead. Plan ahead and at least think through how you’ll tweak your best at-your-fingertips 30-second pitch to make the most of the various opportunities you’ll have to make an impressive impression.

● Got a minute? By SuperBowl standards investing a minute should yield $8 million, at least. I suppose, unless you’re Warren Buffett, that level of payback for a minute of your attention is unlikely. Still, that kind of millions/billions thinking suggests you --

Get your money’s worth. People talk about time in ways they don’t mean. They say they want “a minute” but they really want much more. So “just a minute” never is. Likewise, “a 15-minute meeting” never is. “Over lunch” = Kiss half the afternoon goodbye.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: When you are consistently aware of this you won’t be fooled into letting them apply their standards to your time. Set a SuperBowl standard. Value your time like a billionaire.

And the same base thinking applies to requests to --

● Wait a minute. Similarly -- by SuperBowl standards -- waiting a minute should also yield $8 million, at least. But inconsiderate people or unavoidable incidents that make you wait seldom value your time at all. So realize waiting inevitably happens and become Buffett-like and apply billionaire thinking. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Allow for it. Don’t sit idly by while the seconds tick away (unless the “doing nothing” break is very valuable or invigorating for you). Be prepared for time-consuming “waits” with worthwhile time fillers. Today’s easily connected, digital world can keep you actively and gainfully engaged.

In a related vein, one minute-savvy way to reduce and maybe eliminate time-sucking low-return waits can be to –

● Shift time by the minute. If you want to be more aware of where your valuable minutes go, and want to raise awareness of others in the process, try thinking slightly off center.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Schedule a meeting to begin at 9:05 and end at 9:20. That’s the same quarter hour gathering alluded to above but, with off-center timing, people intrinsically understand that you’ll begin at 9:05 precisely and bring things to a close at 9:20 because that’s precisely what you said.

● Think, “Half a mo’…” That kinda Cockney Brit sounding expression suggests a momentary pause – let’s say no longer than a minute -- when you reconsider something potentially major that you’re about to undertake.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Before you leap, count to 10 (or 30 or 60) and decide what NOT to do. One of the worst ways to waste your time is to very efficiently decide to do that which does not need to be done by you at all. Use “half a mo …” to sort the wheat from the chaff. Choose the path that leads to the dough (or bread).

 

Is time up? In the headline I asked for a minute of your valuable time and, even if you read this at the “High Level Executive” reading speed I would guesstimate TGIM readers are capable of achieving, I’ve exceeded my request. 

So here’s a wrap-up –

Q: Would you invest $4 million of your enterprise’s hard-gained treasure in a 30-second SuperBowl commercial?

A: Not without some pretty carefully projected and tracked ROI, I hope. 

TGIM Challenge: Although time is not actual money, act as if you are the Chief Financial Officer of your time. Be the strategic business manager rather than passive caretaker of the minutes in your day. Approach your clock with an eye toward producing the best outcomes with the prudent investment of even the most piddling time resources.

Until next time.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

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

P.S. I recommend to you that you take care of the minutes; for the hours will take care of themselves. Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) advised that, long before the idea of Super Bowl.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #390

2013 AND BEYOND –

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?

Rest easy. This first-of-2013 TGIM is NOT about making New Year resolutions … setting monthly goals … compiling daily to-do lists … targeting quarterly objectives … committing to imminent deadlines… spelling out near-term action plans … blah, blah, blah.

Not that those things can’t be useful.

It’s just that I’ve seen an overabundance of that kind of commonly-prescribed-at-this-time-of-the-year “soft” advice in the waning days of 2012. And it’s made me think –

Doesn’t anyone do long-term planning anymore?

Granted, the pressures of just going from day to day can be wearing given the fragile state of – fill in your own blank here – the economy, the family, the business, the environment, the state, the nation, the world.

But maybe we are where we are these days because we have become so focused on the here and now that we neglected to anticipate the stretched-out future impacts of what we do in the here and now.

What’s got me thinking this way? 

Actuarial tables. I’m at that point in my life when, to my surprise, I’ve surpassed the “Estimated Life Expectancy” projected for me in the year in which I was born.

Yup.  According to the tables, odds suggest I ought not be here. 

But, given that I am: The most recent iteration of these tables also projects that I can make it exactly 19 years more. And, of course, for every year that clicks by with me in it, the out date stretches a wee bit further. 

So I’m now thinking: I better be thinking longer term (not that I hadn’t been to some degree). And I’m rounding up the actuarial guesstimate and making 20 years my operative number for defining “long-term.”

TGIM Takeaway: Join me in looking 20 years out.

TGIM CHALLENGE #1: Although I discouraged too much backward-looking in the New Year’s Eve TGIM #389, today I suggest you take a moment and reflect on 20 years ago – 1993.

I have a 1993 flashback experience almost daily.
As my nearby friends know,
I'm still driving my family's
new-in-'93 Buick Special.
However, I will not let this prevent me
from also looking forward.

Anything new and different in your life since then?

Damn right there is.

TGIM CHALLENGE #2: So what do you think 2033 will look like? 

As challenging and confounding as the days have been lately (or maybe the span of time should be stated “up to now”), there are many, many more ahead. The speed and enormity and all-encompassing nature of the changes we have faced and the changes we will face will overwhelm us if we let them.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Don’t let them. Whatever you’ve done to get to this point will not be enough to move you, your business, your loved ones, and your community forward. Neither you nor I can sit on our accomplishments and coast.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Learn as if you were going to live forever – because you just might.

 

• That means preparing your mind to accept ideas such as living “forever.”
• That means staying current and connected to what’s going on in the world, not just your narrow area of interests.
• That means accepting some truths that you now hold dear may be proven untrue and so must be unlearned.
• That means determining that technology may advance in ways that require you to relearn old, comfortable behaviors in order to survive and thrive.
• That means deciding that change is good, even when it comes as an upsetting surprise and challenges your every plan.

“Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.” The famous futurist Alvin Toffler said that in 1970.

Don’t wait for the “invasion” to overwhelm you. Begin today to go out and greet it.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Trite (since 1965) but true. Resolve … set as a goal … add to your to-do list … the assignment to routinely look at the long term and adjust accordingly.

 

We all must be forward looking; far more than another round of one-year-limited New Year Resolutions would take us. I think I’m fairly safely assuming that you’re not (much) older than I and I hope your health is not immediately imperiled. So don’t limit your resolving … goal-setting … to-doing … etc, etc to the instant 360+/- days remaining in 2013.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Management thought leader Peter Drucker (1909-2005) said that.

Let’s get creating. And I look forward to comparing notes with you in 2033. 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

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

P.S. The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.

Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.

The chances, the changes are all yours to make.

The mold of your life is in your hands to break.

-- J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) told us that in The Hobbit

Thank Goodness It's Monday #389

Isabella Bannerman -- Six Chix for 29 December 2012

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIDNIGHT PLAYLIST?

Auld Lang Syne?

Wow! Then do you remember the Guy Lombardo Orchestra? (Just being a little snarky there.)

 

True enough, Auld  Lang Syne is probably still the Midnight Ball Drop classic and will be for who knows how long. 

But every New Year’s Eve I invariably wonder why. 

My problem: Sung more out of nostalgic habit than conviction, I find it expresses a largely backward looking sentiment. The Scottish phrase “auld lang syne” translates literally as “old long since” and is understood as “times gone by.” But, whether we know that or not, the whole singing of this “holiday classic” seems to me to concentrate our personal focus in the wrong direction. 

Certainly there have been highlights and some very low spots that we can easily recall in the year past. But the days ahead are a blank canvas (as they always are) and the future is optimistic for those who can hold that spirit in their hearts.

So, less than 24 hours from now, many of us will lift a glass and offer up a thought or two appropriate to the spirit of January’s namesake from Roman mythology, Janus, the god of gates, doorways, beginnings, and endings.

Janus was also the patron of concrete and abstract beginnings of the world such as religion and the gods themselves, of human life, new historical ages, and economic enterprises.

Janus is traditionally depicted as having two heads, facing opposite directions. And in his case, being two-faced is a good thing.

The New Year connection: Because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other, he was also the figure representing time. 

One head looks back at the last year while the other simultaneously looks forward to the new and so Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future … of one condition to another … of one vision to another … the growing up of young people … and of one universe to another. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: At midnight on December 31, don’t let Bacchus (the Roman god of wine) or Somnus (the Roman god of sleep) muddle your thinking if you’re inclined to acknowledge the changing year with a toast and a song.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Be Janus-like when you give voice to your sentiments.

 

Here are a few well-said words, origin unknown, that you might appropriate:

Here's a toast to the future …

A toast to the past …

And a toast to our friends, far and near.

May the future be pleasant …

The past a bright dream …

May our friends remain faithful and dear. 

And if you’re going to sing, I suggest –

Turn! Turn! Turn!

It’s Pete Seeger’s music and 1959 adaptation of the words from Ecclesiastes that come to mind for me every New Year’s Eve when Auld Lang Syne plays.

I hope you know it. Maybe you know it as To Everything There Is A Season. Maybe, if you connected immediately to the Guy Lombardo reference at the start you know the popularized-by-The-Byrds Folk Rock hit version of 1965.

If you don’t know it --there are limitless options to investigate. You might start HERE with a YouTube version of the recording I first came to love. The video portion is a bit less than spectacular but Pete’s voice is young (he’s now 93+) and clear and enthusiastic. 

To every thing there is a season,

And a time to every purpose under heaven.

 

And, of course, that’s just the opening line.

There’s more. Much more. Sing it (at least to yourself at midnight). 

And I will offer a toast and wish you –

Happiness and Success in 2013

I swear it’s not too late.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

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

P.S. Speaking of “turning” … Another midnight playlist possibility is Simple Gifts, a Shaker song written and composed in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett (1797–1882). These are the lyrics to his one-verse Dancing Song:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #388

 ‘TIS THE TGIM

FOR THE DAY OF

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

"It ain't rocket science." You know the phrase, of course.  Well, I have a social media friend – Randy Cassingham – who actually worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

There, of course, many things really were (and are) “rocket science.” 

So as you might expect, there was a fairly nerdy crowd working around Randy and there was a tradition of sharing a fairly nerdy version of the Christmas classic properly titled “A Visit from St. Nicholas” – the 19^th Century poem historically attributed to New Yorker Clement Clarke Moore. 

A Visit from St. Nicholas
-- one of four known copies
handwritten by
Clement Clarke Moore.Credit: New-York Historical Society
 

Randy takes credit for, back in the day, converting what he calls an Nth-generation photocopy of the JPL-nerd version into an electronically shareable document. And recently he shared it with the wider world via social media.

Here’s the opening of Rocket Scientist version:

'Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period preceding the annual yuletide celebration, and throughout our domicile, kinetic activity was not in evidence among the possessors of this potential, including that species of domestic rodent known as mus musculus.

The additional 663 words (and you thought I was long winded) of the "modernized" classic are HERE.

TGIM Challenge: It’s interesting to think that virtually anyone reading this TGIM message can easily appreciate the Rocket Scientist “translation” because the original is so well known to English-reading folks of all creeds, races or geographic derivations. 

You don’t have to be “Christian” in almost any sense to know and relate to the underlying spirit of the season captured and celebrated in the 1823 poem or, say, Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” which appeared about 20 years later. 

They’re largely secular and about “the Spirit of the Season,” not the religiosity per se.

TGIM Takeaway: And at this time of the year, so should we all be. The specifics of our celebrations may vary. (Or, if you’re like me, you revel in the idea of embracing as much of as many as you can.) But I continue to insist that at the core –

It’s all about the light. Beacons of hope.  Moments of illumination.  Glimmers of insight. The promise of brighter tomorrows. Miracles of light and enlightenment.  Lights fantastic.

►   Christmas with its advent wreaths, trees, and other lighted decorations and –

►   Hanukkah (just past) and its menorah candles are easy to relate to for many of us.

►   Kwanza’s got candles.

►   Diwali, a five-day Hindu festival that usually falls between mid-October and mid-November is popularly known as a Festival of Lights.

►   Winter Solstice observances are certainly all about the light, or lack of it.

►   Mōdraniht or Mothers' Night was the Saxon winter solstice festival.

►   Saturnalia was the Roman winter solstice festival.

►   Yalda is a Persian commemoration, that corresponds with the Solstice, and celebrates the birth of Mithras to a virgin mother.

►   Pancha Ganapati is a December 21–25 festival in honor of Lord Ganesha.

►   Soyal is the winter solstice ceremony of the Zuni and the Hopi in the Americas, the main purpose of which is to ceremonially bring the sun back from its long winter slumber.

►   The Dōngzhì Festival, with origins that can be traced back to the yin and yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos, is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians on or around December 22 when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest.

►   Malkh is a December 25 birthday celebration and Festival of the Sun for the Vainakh people of the North Caucasus which include the modern Chechens and Ingush, who are today predominantly Muslim in religion.

►   Bodhi Day, December 8, is likewise a Day of Enlightenment, celebrating the day that the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) experienced enlightenment. 

Enlightening? I hope so. Tis the season to be enlightened.

 

But enough of this “geeky” factual roundup. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Know what you believe and why. Your core beliefs need to be your own, arrived at freely.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Like exploring the history and traditions of seasonal celebrations, look for evidence yourself. Dig down. Get back to the source as you gather facts. Make your decisions based on your informed research and insight. Decide what works for you and use it.

Then –

Don’t hide your light. It’s also a season for giving -- especially in my neck of the northeast USA in the wake of Superstorm Sandy and the tragic Sandy Hook School events. And in the spirit of transitioning from darkness to light, one of the best gifts you can give at this or any time of the year is –

The gift of yourself --

your love,

your time,

your thoughtful involvement.

Several years ago my friend and “Best Year Ever” program and Life Lessons from Superman partner Eric Taylor and I shared a holiday message about this gift that keeps on giving. We pointed out that –

This enlightened and enlightening gift of yourself is something that everyone wants … one size fits all … requires no last minute shopping or trips to the mall … is essentially free … and, no wrapping is required.

It’s that simple. But the gift of yourself is surely what those you care most about and really want. And, when you ponder and understand the fullness of the concept, you’ll know that it’s the only gift of lasting value that you alone can give.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Give the enlightened and enlightening gift of yourself, your love and your time and your involvement, unconditionally, now and throughout the New Year. You’ll soon realize this cost-free present will yield an abundance of riches for the giver and the receiver far greater than you could ever imagine.

One last cool thing about this gift: It’s a gift that’s sure to be “returned” to you in so many ways.

What more could a giver ask for?

Citing St. Nick … as cited by Clement Clarke Moore … with added emphasis by me –

“Happy Christmas to ALL,

and to ALL a good night."

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

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

P.S. Or, to close citing the Rocket Scientist version: “Ecstatic yuletides to the planetary constituance, and to that self-same assemblage my sincerest wishes for a salubriously beneficial and gratifyingly pleasurable period between sunset and dawn!”

 

P.P.S. My personal kidhood version of the holiday classic looked like this --

 

 

and featured some "animated" illustration at every turn -- a double-page pop-up Santa, reindeer & sleigh that moved in the sky, sugarplums you could make "dance," hinged shutters that opened to a window that slid up to reveal "The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow." It was a wonder!

Thank Goodness It's Monday #387

UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERIOUS MAYA

ANDTHE LESSON THEY DIDN’T LEARN

My plan for the end of the Mayan long-count calendar 13^th b'ak'tun? (December 21, 2012 if you somehow missed the news.)



Mayan Astronomy
as depicted in The Dresden Codex*



Par-tay! While others may be counting down the k’in (= the Mayan unit for days) with dread … heading for the survivalist hills … expecting a cosmic crash with some as yet detected planet …or digging in to weather some other apocalyptic catastrophe, my view is this: 

TGIM Takeaway:

What matters most is today.

 

How do you live today? How you live each day has more effect on what occurs after December 21, 2012 than any misunderstood interpretation of the history of a little understood people.

In order to better establish the link between this quasi-philosophical TGIM Takeaway and a panicky end-of-the-world mindset, let’s first establish some facts about –

The mysterious Maya. Maya history as we know it firsthand begins with Christopher Columbus. The Admiral of the Ocean Sea met a trading party of “locals” off the coast of Honduras on his fourth (and last) voyage in 1502. The story goes, when asked where they came from the reply was, “from a province called Maiam.”

In fact the ancient Mayan world encompassed much of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. But following quickly on the heels of Columbus came other conquistadors and their attendant clerics who fairly well erased large chunks of Mayan history that otherwise might have informed our modern understanding. 

Then they moved on. And the jungle-shrouded existence of the Maya was all but forgotten until 1839 when explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood began surveying the area.

Stephens wrote: “… architecture, sculpture, and painting, all arts which embellish life, had flourished in this overgrown forest; orators, warriors, and statesmen, beauty, ambition, and glory had lived and passed away, and none knew that such things had been or could tell of their past existence.”

Impressive, right? And that led to a growing modern interest in the Mayan world that can now be traced back to 2000 BCE origins. The intervening years of archaeological study fill in much, but hardly all, detail.

The monumental architecture is now well known – the ceremonial centers dominated by pyramids, plazas, platforms, ball courts and palaces. These areas were ruled by leaders who, in constant rivalry with their neighbors, created a resource drain that contributed to the downfall of the Mayan civilization.

What does this have to do with December 21, 2012?

 

Some of the intellectual achievements of the Maya are as impressive as the architecture, most notably in the related areas of astronomy, mathematics and calendar making. 

Although they were rather fond of bloodletting and human sacrifice, and didn’t figure out the keystone arch or come up with a useful wheel, the Maya grasped the concept of zero and created a symbol for it long before the European world which overran them. 

Do the math. Using that symbol (and only two others) they developed a system based on the number 20. Reminder: We traditionally use a base of 10.

 

That mathematical ability, coupled with detailed observations of the heavens, enabled them to predict eclipses and create calendars as accurate in their way as the one in current use.

So the Maya mystery is: How and why did this civilization, so highly developed in some respects, disappear so quickly and completely?

The current pieced-together scholarly answer brings us back to December 21, 2012.

Unfortunately the calendar was not only a guide to keeping time, but was viewed as a predictor of the future, with each day having omens and associations – what Mayanist Michael Coe called “… a kind of perpetual fortune-telling machine guiding the destinies of the Maya ….”

Many contemporary theorists now feel that the strong belief of Mayan leaders in the predictive power of their calendar precipitated the downfall of the Mayan civilization. 

More specifically: Much like today, it seems that the end of a calendar cycle in 790 CE was believed to predestine political upheaval.

In their book Ancient Mysteries writers Peter James and Nick Thorpe conclude: “Warfare, social unrest, and invasions were therefore inevitable and should not be stopped because they were ingrained in the very fabric of the universe. Indeed wars became more bloody as rulers of neighboring cities fought during this ordained time of war, sacrificing their captives to feed the demands of the gods. Tired of watching their world fall apart as aristocrats did nothing but fight among themselves, the peasants took matters into their own hands.”

Whether this view of the disappearance of the mysterious Maya is entirely accurate, or whether it’s a contributing factor – along with overpopulation, disease, drought, or other natural disasters and capped by the invasion of the conquistadors – there’s still a TGIM lesson or two for us in the 21^st Century.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: What you do and how you think today has more impact on what occurs in your life in the days ahead than anything anyone suggests is planned outside of you.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: How you live each moment dictates tomorrow. No hocus-pocus, alignment of stars or calendar dates has greater power.

As we’ll probably remind you once again when 2012 rolls over to New Year 2013, a calendar is a very arbitrary thing; a human-made contrivance with starts and stops and steps in between that suit the planning and time management of the solar/lunar/seasonal cycles they measure. 

• They are structures we can use to our benefit if we endeavor to do so.
• Or they can lead to our downfall if we foolishly let a misplaced adherence to them dictate our future actions.

The future lies within. Being driven by the calendar – any calendar – or by the “wisdom” of the crowd shared via contemporary technology, may not serve as well as being guided by “good old gut reaction” – that established-by-experience instinct that tells you what action is right for you and when the time for action is right.

What goes around comes around.  Or vice versa. There seems to be no evidence that the Mayans themselves believed that the current version of creation would come to an end at its 13^th b'ak'tun. A five-numeral count will reset after the 13^th b'ak'tun, but this is celebrated as the completion of a cycle, and was not necessarily seen as a doomsday event by Mayan culture.

So let’s get ready to par-tay! If you're concerned about the fate of mankind, there are more pressing issues than the end of the Mayan calendar. If you’re considering making some sort of Maya “New B'ak'tun” Resolutions, keep the opportunities to create a brighter future in mind.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

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

P.S. "We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism." Rigoberta Menchú said that. 

Why are we quoting her here, today? 

Here’s the Maya connection: She is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the K'iche' ethnic group who has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and to promoting indigenous rights in the country.

 

Menchú is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. And, in case you missed it, she received the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

* In addition to a sophisticated number system the Maya had also developed a written language. However, because the Spanish conquerors were appalled at the religious practices of the meso-Americans they viewed anything not connected with their European-style religious beliefs, especially the writings about astronomy, as evil and to be destroyed. So only a few examples of the Maya codices survive. These codices are now named after the European cities where they eventually re-appeared.

Probably the best preserved is the Dresden Codex pictured here. It is a detailed account of the astronomical observations of the Maya.

The huge effort and accurate measurements of the Maya do not seem to be applied toward an effort to understand how or why the sky appears as it does. Instead, the heavens are treated as an immense, accurate piece of clockwork that is used in the same sense as the signs of astrology, to predict the future.

We can admire the technical skills of the Maya astronomers, be awed by the resources their society put into their temple/observatories, and even speculate that, given time, they might have produced a Maya genius who would have bent their effort into a more scientific direction.

However, so far as it went, their astronomy was a scientific dead end.