A Tribute to Fear

SO I have been given a number of complaints lately that I haven't posted to my blog in a long time now (I didn't realize that there were that many that had my blog on their readers). So I figured it was time to add a new post.

I know that it is obvious to most all of you that I know personally which side of this presidential debate I stand on. I'll not make any pretense at being undecided or even "Fair and Balanced" in my points of view regarding McCain or Obama. I do try to have an open mind and look at the points of view all of you have offered up with some form of objectivity and understanding which I honestly don't always accomplish nearly as well as I would like to.

However, that said, at this time I can not find words to accurately describe my disgust and revulsion with what McCain's campaign did last night at the RNC.

For those of you who did not watch the convention last night, or follow the commentaries lighting up the blogosphere today, the republicans showed a "tribute" to 9/11 last night that to me was the absolute epitome of baseless, disgusting behavior. I call it this for at least three reasons.

1. The deaths of over 3000 people and many more injured is not and should not be a political rallying point. Americans died that day, not just republicans, but libertarians, communists, and even democrats.
2. Coming from the party that has denied photographs of military coffins as disrespectful this is the height of hypocrisy.
3. While it was titled a tribute to 9/11 victims and survivors, I found it to be nothing of the sort. What it was, was one of the most blatant attempts at fear mongering I have ever witnessed in my life.

I'm trying to avoid hyperbole when describing frustration I feel after watching this. In fact after reading some of the pro and anti arguments for this film, I wasn't even certain that I wanted to watch it at all knowing that it would likely make me feel this way. However, right or wrong I decided to watch it on youtube and all I can say is that I am saddened by fact that many find this not only to be permissible, but even laudable and in good judgment.

In my mind this has solidified a number of feelings I have had.
1. McCain only feels he can win the presidency if he is able to scare America badly enough. Scare us against his competition. Scare us against those who we may not understand. And scare us against an enemy that the republicans have done very little against, other than to strengthen their resolve.
2. If you can't stand up and tell me why I should vote for you other than to say that your opponent is worse, then you don't deserve my vote either.
3. Why would I ever want to vote for a message based on fear?

I know that these are harsh criticisms and at the same time probably not very shocking coming from someone who is pretty firmly in the Obama camp. But I also know that if Obama were to ever show such a poor lack of character and judgment I would immediately leave that camp and never look back.

/soapbox

P.S. For those telling me to add a post, I think this qualifies as one of those careful what you wish for lessons.

P.P.S.
For those of you who haven't seen it, if you are interested you can watch the "tribute" here, but I can't recommend it.

Small Desires

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a close relative of mine, Jenny (not her real name). Jenny has been struggling for most of her adult life to be independent from her parents. She has dealt with many years of drug addiction and two failed marriages. About six years ago she began to find her way onto a path that was leading her in the direction she wanted to go. She had a new boyfriend that treated her well and a job that paid her well. She was also back in school and was doing better to cover all of her bills without the help of her mother than ever before. One day however, she decided that he needed to buy a new car. Her finances would only allow her to buy a cheap used car but her mother stepped in and offered to buy her an almost new Honda S2000

Now receiving help when buying a car is nothing terrible, it can be necessary in many cases. However, when your goal is to be independent, having your mother buy you a very expensive sports car can’t exactly be called helpful. Being a car fanatic myself I get a call just about any time somebody in my family is looking to buy a car always wanting to know my opinion on their choices. Jenny was no different. Except that when she called she was crying almost hysterically. After calming her down she explained that she wanted the car very badly, but felt incredibly guilty at accepting such an extravagant gift. In the end, despite shedding copious amounts of tears, she decided she wanted the car more than she wanted independence.

From that fateful decision forward her life has been on a continual downward spiraling path. Soon after she cheated on, then left, her boyfriend of four and a half years for a string of abusive relationships. She has relapsed back into her addictions and most recently watched as her latest boyfriend died in front of her from an overdose of drugs she purchased for him.

So what does the purchase of a car have to do with the current changes her life has taken? It’s just a car right?

“Some will sell their dreams for small desires…”
This is the first line of the last verse to the song “Subdivisions” (1982, Rush, Signals).

Some might consider this trite, I prefer to think of it as proverbial. Either way, in Jenny’s case, this is exactly what happened. She desired that particular car so badly that she was willing to give up her dream of being independent in order to have it. In so doing, she began to give up on other dreams as well. Her conscience could only be quieted with drugs. And her desire to be appreciated in her new car led her to older wealthier men who treated her like an object to be used and abused. In the end she pawned the car for about half of its value and wasted the money on drugs. She is now entirely a financial ward of her mothers once again.

What does this have to do with creativity? Everything! Obstacles and distractions abound. Being a designer or an artist requires extreme focus. There are hordes of people and things that will play on your temptations and will only ask that you give up something tomorrow in order to have what you desire right now. Don’t be fooled, don't sell your dreams for small desires. Keep the long term focus close to your heart and while you enjoy your journey never lose sight of the goal, whatever it may be.

Announcements

So it has been a fairly long time since I last posted. In that time a lot has happened.

1. My wife gave birth to our second child, a beautiful little girl we named Violet.

It took a lot of effort and almost six years to get her here but thanks to some very talented doctors and a very determined wife on June 12th 2007 Violet entered into our lives. She came in at 7lbs 12oz and was an answer to all our prayers. Her big brother Max has been asking for a little sister for over two years now and we couldn't be happier to oblige him.



2. A product that I co-invented and have partial ownership of hit the shelves at Wal-Mart.









We call it the Applecore.
There is a lot that I could say about this little design, however, at the risk of sounding like a cheap promotion I will only risk just one brief ego inflating anecdote.
While the design can be scaled to meet a variety of cord sizes, currently only the smallest, made for earbuds, is in production licensed through Handstands as The Core.
This past January Handstands promoted the Core at both CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas and at Mac-World in San Francisco. We went to Vegas as it is closer and allowed us the opportunity to visit with other possible international licensees. It was fun to see the display that they had create for it as well as the strong reception that it was receiving. However it was at Mac-World that the real story happened.

I imagine that we are all pretty much saturated at this point with information on the iPhone. News coverage, commercials and Blog reviews are everywhere. Rightly so I am sure. If it is anything as intuitive and useful as my iPod then it deserves the accolades. It was at Mac-World this past January before a heaving throng of Mac-Zealots that Steve Jobs anounced the iPhone to the world. However, the real story happened just moments later.

After ending his keynote address Steve and his entourage of bodyguards and hangers-on strolled around the show to visit with the many vendors at their booths. As I am told, they approached the handstands booth and Steve was given an Applecore. He held it in his hand for a second appraising it then as he turned to leave he was heard to exclaim, "That's Genius."

So anyway I thought that was sufficiently cool enough to allow a little big-headedness. I hope you don't disagree too much.

The root of all...

In life I think that there are only two base emotions that help to determine all of our thoughts and therefore our actions; Hope and Fear. If you look at all the other emotions that we commonly experience love, hate, greed, peace, joy, loneliness, etc. you can find a base for all of them in either hope or fear. Many have told me that they think that Love, not hope, should be the opposite of fear. While I can see their argument and agree the two are very closely related, I don’t know that it’s possible to feel love without having hope first. Alternatively, I think that you can hope without love, even if it’s merely the hope of finding love.

So what’s the point of all this? Everything we choose to do is based on one of these two emotions. Many times we allow the wrong emotion for the situation to determine our thoughts and actions. Or at the very least we allow the right emotion to lead us to the wrong conclusion because we don’t understand exactly why we are experiencing it. If we are honest with ourselves, we can begin to question why we are reacting to situations in the ways that we do and then hopefully fine tune our emotional responses. doing so will allow us to grow and develop better and stronger than before. As a creator this has particular value as fear is a powerful dam against creativity.

The question then becomes, if emotion is the root of choices how do we change the root? By understanding that even those emotions are the product of a decision no matter how subconscious it may be. Usually it is not until after we have made a choice that we become aware of which emotion led us to making that particular decision. However, with effort we can begin to recognize them earlier and begin to analyze why we are feeling which particular root emotion. When we do this we naturally begin to make alterations to our thought process and take more responsibility for our actions. Hopefully this will lead us to make better choices which will benefit not only us but those around us as well.

First Casting

This is merely a test as I begin to develop the concept and direction of this blog.

Thanks for your patience.