Women of Yucatan: Part 2

In 1998, I was the faculty member teaching in Yucatan as part of Central College's study abroad program.  I knew when I went to Yucatan that I wanted to take black and white photographs of women and my thought was women in villages wearing their beautiful huipils.  Since 1975 when I "studied" in Yucatan as a college student, I have been in love with the people and the area causing me to return many times. 

Dr. George Ann Huck, the Yucatan program director for about 30 years, said to me that we should make this into a joint project where we interview and photograph women. But we needed a "hook" for our book.  We are both interested in women's issues and social justice.  I am focused on leadership and George Ann has valuable connections in the community because of her involvement.  So we went searching for women who were daring to be--who were willing to work to make changes that benefit their communities.  We did not want just the "rich and famous" women who were privileged because of social class, but more ordinary women doing extraordinary things.

With the help of several grants from Central College, the Iowa Arts Council, and Humanities Iowa, the project resulted in a photography exhibit that has been displayed in about 30 locations since 2000 primarily in Iowa communities with growing Latino populations.  In 2004, we received a grant from the Iowa Sister States organization as part of the Partners of the Americas to have an exhibit in Merida with almost all of the women present.  That was a dream come true.

Since I know that blog posts should not be too long, watch for the rest of the story ...

Women of Yucatan: Thirty Who Dare to Change Their World (Part 1)

This series of blog posts have to do with a personal journey that began in 1998.  Just so I don't forget the story, I decided to have a series of posts.  While these posts don't deal directly with leadership or sage-ing, they do deal with living and life--the frustrations and challenges--the thrills and excitement. 

While I did not invent this statement, I have found that "the harder I work the luckier I get."  The story is about hard work and luck.  It is about being persistent and hanging in there.  But I think there are lessons to be learned about cross-cultural research, writing, analyzing data, contacting publishers, surviving rejection ... Thanks for reading and listening.

I am writing a series of posts so that the story does not get too long in any one post.  This is the story of how my book with Dr. George Ann Huck came to be and how it is finally going to be published by McFarland Publishing late fall 2009.

Women of Yucatan:  Thirty Who Dare to Change Their World

The Value of Purpose

Richard Leider, a sage, has a mission of helping everyone find their purpose in life.  In fact, he says the critical question to ask of ourselves is this:  Why should I get up in the morning? 

Leider points out a recent article in Business Week that people who have a purpose in life tend to live longer.  If you think of the opposite, it does not sound appealing to not have a purpose and live longer.  In fact, Rabbi Reb Zalman describes a life with no purpose as "dying longer."

"It can be anything--from wanting to accomplish a goal in life, to achieving something in a volunteer organization, to as little as reading a series of book," said study author Dr. Patricia Boyle.

The conclusion seems to be that when people lose their sense of purpose, their health declines.

What is your purpose?  Why do you get up in the morning? 

For me, I want to learn as much as I can about becoming a sage to share that with my family and friends--to become a better mother, wife, teacher, friend, and person.  This sounds like a never-ending journey that will keep me busy for the rest of my life.

Jann's Note:  Purpose is the foundation of living life with passion. 

What do Kobe Bryant and Pema Chodran have in Common?

In June I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Pema Chodran at the Omega Institute.  The focus of the weekend was on Compassion and Loving Kindness, but basically we were learning about the value of meditation in order to become more compassionate.

Then in the June 22 issue of Sports Illustrated, there was a cover story about Kobe Bryant as the MVP of the NBA finals.  Bryant is not known for being kind and compassionate.  In fact, he has spent a decade trying to feed off and harness challenges in basketball and in life.

"In recent years, at Phil Jackson's suggestion, he's turned to meditation. He's also coming to terms with the fact that it isn't that his teammates don't want to win as much as he does (though this is true), it's that they do'nt have the capacity to want to win as much as he does ... As difficult as Kobe can be, as demanding as he is, I think (he and his teammates) all found some middle ground, a center."

Pema would be proud of the fact that Kobe is using meditation to calm and train his mind. 

My goal is to start meditating regularly.  As one of my sages said, "Find time to sit on the cushion."  What advice would you give me or others about making meditation a practice? 

Why I wanted Tom Watson to win the British Open

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The world was watching the final round of the British Open and I predict most people were pulling for Tom Watson.  There were many reasons why people wanted Tom to win.  As one commentator said, "We are watching a 59 year old geezer playing like a 29 year old stud.  He even has a fake hip! He has not led a major in 22 years.  Most of his peer have retired from the Senior Tour.  Ironically, Tiger's absence opened up a window of opportunity for Watson. It has been 21 years since he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

During the last round, the commentators kept talking about the intangibles that Watson had over Stewart Cink.  While many things were mentioned and we realize he had been there before, they did not really talk about life experience.  I believed that the wisdom gained from Watson's life experience would carry him through.  But his wisdom was reflected in ways other than the win.  

John Feinstein wrote a book about Bruce Edwards, Watson's long time caddy until his premature death from ALS, called "A Caddy for Life.  Feinstein was reflecting on a conversation from this book:

"I remember asking Bruce early on why he liked working for Watson so much—beyond the fact that he was the No. 1 player in the world. “You will never see him moan about a bad shot,” Bruce said. “He never complains about the wins or a spike mark or a bad bounce. He never blames me when something goes wrong. Never. He hits it, finds it and hits it again. He gets angry but only with himself. There’s no other player I’ve seen like that.”

As Feinstein pointed out, "we saw it again on Sunday. No whining, no club-pounding. He kept his sense of humor. 'Hey guys this isn’t a funeral you know,' he said as the media walked very quietly into the interview room when it was over.'"

“It would have been a hell of a story wouldn’t it?” he said, forcing a smile. “Yeah, it would have been a hell of a story.”

Jann's Note:  In the end, it is grace and wisdom that help us to put life into perspective.  That is the essence of sage-ing and of the journey to becoming a sage.  And we need sages to model these behaviors for those who come after us.   

 

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Old Geezer Just May Win British Open (nytimes.com)
• Old-man Watson proves golf is far from legitimate sport (cbssports.com)
• Baby Boomer Bottleneck (thepowerofnegativeblogging.com)

Life As We Know It--Is this what we want it to be?

David Brooks wrote a column for the New York Times titled "The Way We Live Now" about Sonia Sotomayor.  He was sharing aspects of her background and life to help us understand the price that is paid in achieving success.  As Brooks said, "she has been remarkably honest about the costs of her workaholism."

But there were a couple of paragraphs that reminded me of questions such as: 

• What is a quality life?
• What defines success? 
• When is enough--enough? 
• Who will change the status quo if it is not the leaders within? 
• Or perhaps all of us who are not willing to pay the price anymore?

Listen to Brooks describe the way we live now:

"This isn't the old story of a career woman trying to balance work and family.  This is the story of pressures that affect men as well as women (men are just more likely to make fools of themselves in response, as the news of the last few years indicates).  It's the story of people in a meritocracy that gets more purified and competitive by the year, with the time demands growing more and more insistent.

These profiles give an authentic glimpse of a stule of life that hasn't yet been captured by a novel or a movie--the subtle blend of high-achiever successes, trade-offs and deep commitments to others.  In the profiles, you see the intoxicating lure of work, which provides an organizing purpose and identity.  You see the web of mentor-mentee relationships--the courtship between the young and the middle-aged, and then the tensions as the mentees break off on their own.  You see the strains of a multicultural establishment, in which people try to preserve their ethnic heritage as they ascent into the ranks of the elite.  You see the way peopel not only choose a profession, it chooses them.  It changes them in a way they probably didn't anticipate at first."

While this is the way we live now, the question is:  Is this the way we want to continue living?  What can leaders of organizations do about this situation?  What can we do about our own situation? 

Whenever I go to Caribou Coffee, I am reminded by their motto:  Life is short.  Stay awake for it. 

How can we do that if we are just too busy--too busy for our family, too busy for our friends, too busy to do things that enrich our lives. 

Jann's Note:  Becoming a sage involves making intentional choices about time while realizing that life is short and we must live it to the fullest.  But this includes caring about what is best for our families, communities, and the Earth.  Elders have wisdom that needs to be heard.

When is enough--enough? How about leaving a legacy?

In Newsweek magazine dated June 8, there was a great article about sage-ing.  Even though the word "sage" was not mentioned, the article describes how one person was aging until he decided to shift his paradigm.

Peter Peterson co-founded the Blackstone Group which had a successful public offering in 2007 that resulted in Peterson becoming an instant billionaire.  But this was how he felt about the situation:

"What do I do with $1 billion?  The idea of trying to make the money grow felt empty to me ... I was struggling with what to do with myself.  At 81, I was retiring from Blackstone, but my mind was still sharp and my energy was good.  As my work commitments diminished, the phones gradually stopped ringing.  The e-mails slowed.  My schedule had too many blank spots. 

I was liberated.  I was free.  But I was joyless.  I found my new life to be a kind of metaphor for my declining years--one might say a slow dying.  I missed the frequent interactions with people I respected and enjoyed.  I missed being needed. 

So I started looking at the lives of other billionaires.  Almost all of the ones I most admired were major philanthropists:  Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, George Soros, Eli Broad--each with a passion to do good, each getting so much pleasure from giving their money away.  I decided that's what I wanted to do ..."

Peterson was honestly and accurately describing how it feels to be aging in our society.  But he decided to take action and to be proactive.  But most of us do not have this kind of money to give away.  What are we to do?

We have time and talents.  We can still be passionate about causes and be proactive.  We can get involved and stay connected.  We can give back what we have available.  This is the life of a sage. 

• What do you know that you can teach to others?
• How can you make something happen rather than drift into the background?
• How can you leave the world a better place with the time you have left on Earth?

Jann's Note:  When is enough--enough?  Do you have enough?  Start now.  When will you have more time than you have right now?  What kind of legacy do you want to leave? 

Women of Yucatan: Thirty Who Dare to Change Their World (Part 1)

This series of blog posts have to do with a personal journey that began in 1998.  Just so I don't forget the story, I decided to have a series of posts.  While these posts don't deal directly with leadership or sage-ing, they do deal with living and life--the frustrations and challenges--the thrills and excitement. 

While I did not invent this statement, I have found that "the harder I work the luckier I get."  The story is about hard work and luck.  It is about being persistent and hanging in there.  But I think there are lessons to be learned about cross-cultural research, writing, analyzing data, contacting publishers, surviving rejection ... Thanks for reading and listening.

I am writing a series of posts so that the story does not get too long in any one post.  This is the story of how my book with Dr. George Ann Huck came to be and how it is finally going to be published by McFarland Publishing late fall 2009.

Women of Yucatan:  Thirty Who Dare to Change Their World

A Great Example of Respecting Elders

The story of Marian Robinson, President Obama's mother-in-law, moving into the White House to help with the grandchildren is a great example of respecting elders and of sage-ing.  In some cultures, it is common and expected for grandparents to move in with their adult children when they can't quite take care of themselves or when help is needed with grandchildren.  In the Western culture, it is more common for elders to move into retirement villages if they can afford it.  We tend to hide our elders and not appreciate them as we should.  When they are in "hiding," everyone loses.

How can we pass on our legacy to future generations when we rarely see them or talk to them?  Spending time with people allow opportunities to share wisdom and to ask for advice.  While we can do this over the telephone or email, it is not the same as "breaking bread" and having some actual face time with our elders.

When Mrs. Robinson was asked how she like living in the White House and if she was enjoying her new life, she replied:

"I really am. You want to know why?  Because my children are good parents.  It makes it very easy to be a grandmother when your children are good parents."  Then Mrs. Obama returned the compliment.

Just think about all of the good memories they are creating for everyone--especially the children.  They will remember their days in the White House as special because of the precious time they spent with their grandmother.  

We can all learn from this example.  

Jann's Note:  Intergenerational living and learning is a key to sage-ing.  Organizations such as churches where people of all generations interact is important in the sage-ing process because it provides opportunities to teach and learn from each other.   

Sage-ing not Aging

Just when you think you are too old to do something, think again.  So much of the aging process has to do with how we think about it.  The goal is to become a sage rather than age.  What can you do now that you could not do then? 

What do you know now that you did not know then? 

What do you still want to do with your time? 

What do you still want to learn?

Consider this from The Speaker's Sourcebook by Glenn Van Ekeren:

• Actor George Burns won his first Oscar at age 80.
• Michelangelo was 71 when he painted the Sistine Chapel.
• At age 96, playwright George Bernard Shaw broke his leg when he fell out of a tree he was trimming in his backyard.
• Doc Councilman, at 58, became the oldest person ever to swim the English Channel.
• Painter Grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was 80 years of age.  She completed more than 1,500 paintings after that; 25 percent of those were produced when she was past 100!

Jann's Note:  A key component of sage-ing is continuing to learn and turn around and mentor others.  What do you know that you could teach someone else?  A sense of curiosity makes the world go 'round.