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A Lesson in Leadership from Nelson Mandela

/ kevingdrendel / Leave a comment

Great minds think alike? I was inspired by the same NPR show to post a Tribute to Nelson Mandela.

spotlighttheater's avatarSpotlight Youth Theater

I was listening to NPR this morning on my way to the office and I heard a journalist from South Africa tell a story about an encounter she had with Nelson Mandela.
She recalled a time when she had attended an all day event in a building that was near the airport, so it wasn’t close to any restaurants.  So, around lunch time when a table of food was brought out for the journalists to eat from, she went and filled her plate with all sorts of goodies.  Just then, it was announced that Nelson Mandela would be holding a press conference in the front of that room, so she ran to the stage and set up her microphone at the podium and reserved her seat in the front row.  As she sat waiting for him to begin speaking, she took the opportunity to gorge herself on the plate of…

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Happiness Factor

/ kevingdrendel / Leave a comment

Young Girl with Pigtails GrinningPerspective dictates how we see things. Change perspective, and we may see things differently.

Take for example the photo at the top of this blog. If you are reading this after I have replaced the header photo, let me describe it. For anyone reading this with the photo still there, bear with me. The photo shows beautiful blue, green, aqua water that is as inviting as any photo of a great vacation spot on a sandy beach in a tropical paradise. Only, the photo was taken by me at Pictured Rocks State Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan along the shores of Lake Superior. Even in the middle of summer, the water is about 55º Fahrenheit.

The water does not look so inviting now, does it?

During the “Thanksgiving season” I see people posting thankful messages on Facebook. After a while, it becomes a little blasé. Big deal. The nonconformist in me shudders at the thought of posting similar thankful thoughts.

At other times of the year, the expressions of thanksgiving are not nearly as free-flowing. People who often express thankfulness are seen as those “shiny happy people” – not like the rest of us. If we are being honest, we would probably assume that these people have not had life nearly as tough as the rest of us. These are people who were probably born into privilege. They probably have not faced tragedies and difficulties in their lives like most other people. Maybe they are just naïve and not smart enough to think about the pain in the world. Maybe they are willfully ignorant of it. They just are not normal.

I am sure that I am oversimplifying and overstating what “we” feel. Perhaps, we just do not think about it. That is good for them; I am not like that.

Maybe these people know something we do not know. Consider what scientists have learned about happiness in the video at the top of this post. What do you think?

Finding Perspective

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Thinking on a Rock Cliff (Fraley) - CopyThis blog is about finding perspective. Finding perspective is the process of gaining a vantage point and putting things in context.

Perspective is how we categorize all things political, emotional, cultural, sociological, historical and personal. Learning new perspectives broadens understanding. New perspectives lead to discoveries. Perspectives inform and shape worldviews.

The goal of this blog is to take new look at old themes, exploring angles, focusing and refocusing, “drilling down” to exam the trees and taking a step back to see the forest. Please feel free to join in and lend your own perspective.