Real human being

When Steve Jobs died a few weeks ago, the world weeps for his passing. Steve Jobs has been praised for being a great inventor, a great intellect who has keen eyes on design, and a great visionary who transformed computer, music, animated movie, and mobile phone industries. But when we stop long enough to think about Steve Jobs as real human being, we may come to a different conclusion.

A person's life is full of bright spots and some dark chapters. Steve Jobs's dark sides are his temper, his bullies for perfection, his lack of respect for several others.

Steve Jobs's life is a reminder that everyone of us is a real human being.

Water

We see and hear soothing water when we sit by the beach

We see and hear powerful water when we sit near a waterfall

We see and hear angry water when we imagine a tsunami

We see and hear distressed water when we imagine a flood

Future with no future experience

So many of our experiences deal with outcomes and expectation of a bright future. For example, we talk about education in a sense of its outcomes (skills, jobs, a better life). Another example is child raising.

But what to do when there is no future waiting at the end of these experiences. Emily Rapp recently wrote in the New York Times sharing her experience raising her son who has Tay-Sachs disease. Her son is 18 months old and very unlikely to live beyond his 3rd birthday. Here is the link to the full article.

She writes in a brave voice. She tells us that, at the end of the day, the best that you can do is living in the moment. In her case, loving her son in today moment and letting him go when the time comes. That is all you can do.

Street walking

Pause and observe street walking styles ... what do they tell us?


Walking ... Aiming for a destination

Walking ... Enjoying the journey

Walking ... Rocking left and Rocking right

Walking ... Sailing and following the wind

Walking ... Searching, Looking, Finding

Power of Imagination

Why is it important to imagine?

Only if ..... we can imagine what it is like to earn $1 a day and still need to feed the family.

Only if ..... we can imagine what it is like to have no access to healthcare

Only if ..... we can imagine what it is like to want to go to school but there is no school to go to

Only if ..... we can imagine what it is like to be the powerless

Power of Silence

Here is a beautiful poem from Philip Levine who was recently chosen to be U.S. poet laureate:

Fact is, silence is the perfect water:
unlike rain it falls from no clouds
to wash our minds, to ease our tired eyes,
to give heart to the thin blades of grass
fighting through the concrete for even air
dirtied by our endless stream of words.

Conan O'Brien's 2011 commencement address at Dartmouth

Conan O'Brien gave commencement address at Dartmouth. I found his speech to have several useful life lessons to teach new graduates, freshmen, as well as everyday individuals on perceived failures, successes, and identity.

Here are some of the excerpts:

• Eleven years ago I gave an address to a graduating class at Harvard. I have not spoken at a graduation since because I thought I had nothing left to say. But then 2010 came. And now I'm here, three thousand miles from my home, because I learned a hard but profound lesson last year and I'd like to share it with you. In 2000, I told graduates "Don't be afraid to fail." Well now I'm here to tell you that, though you should not fear failure, you should do your very best to avoid it. Nietzsche famously said "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But what he failed to stress is that it almost kills you. Disappointment stings and, for driven, successful people like yourselves it is disorienting.
  
  
• Now, by definition, Commencement speakers at an Ivy League college are considered successful. But a little over a year ago, I experienced a profound and very public disappointment. I did not get what I wanted, and I left a system that had nurtured and helped define me for the better part of 17 years. I went from being in the center of the grid to not only off the grid, but underneath the coffee table that the grid sits on, lost in the shag carpeting that is underneath the coffee table supporting the grid. It was the making of a career disaster, and a terrible analogy.
  
  
• There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. ... Your path at 22 will not necessarily be your path at 32 or 42. One's dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course. This happens in every job...
  
  
• It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention.

• So, at the age of 47, after 25 years of obsessively pursuing my dream, that dream changed. For decades, in show business, the ultimate goal of every comedian was to host The Tonight Show. It was the Holy Grail, and like many people I thought that achieving that goal would define me as successful. But that is not true. No specific job or career goal defines me, and it should not define you. In 2000—in 2000—I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.

• Many of you here today are getting your diploma at this Ivy League school because you have committed yourself to a dream and worked hard to achieve it. And there is no greater cliché in a commencement address than "follow your dream." Well I am here to tell you that whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change. And that's okay. Four years ago, many of you had a specific vision of what your college experience was going to be and who you were going to become. And I bet, today, most of you would admit that your time here was very different from what you imagined. Your roommates changed, your major changed, for some of you your sexual orientation changed.