Twelfth birthday.
Now you must learn
the mysteries of blood.
In blood, the journey
from birth
to death.
The history of our people
flowing in you,
liquid memory of our race.
Coming of age
announced
in blood.
Blood, an egg,
a promise
of tomorrow.
Twelfth birthday.
Welcome.
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
I went to see Ben Affleck’s new crime thriller, The Town, adapted from the Chuck Hogan novel.
This film is a must-see. It is well-directed, well-scripted and well-acted. Even Ben is good in a kind of “Clint Eastwood School of Acting” sort of way.
The film is set in Charlestown, a neighborhood where you wouldn’t your car to break down. It begins with a bank robbery and a kidnapping, stuff you-ve seen a thousand times before. Affleck manages to turn this generic stuff on it’s head.
This scene, and many of those that follow, have a tension and muscle about them that you would associate with a more experienced director, like Michael Mann or Martin Scorcese.
This second feature extends Affleck’s reputation from Burn Baby Burn– his first feature– and a good one at that.
What impresses me about Ben Affleck is his resiliency. This is a guy whose career was rock-bottom after Pearl Harbor, Gigli, and Daredevil. Not to mention Benifer.
But Affleck is one smart guy. If you have ever seen him interviewed, there is a very bright mind there and that intelligence is made more obvious by this latest film. He could be the next Eastwood.
For those that have met with disappointment in their careers or creative endeavors, Ben Affleck is a great role model. He didn’t give up because of bad reviews. He grew.
That’s the response of someone committed to following what has heart and meaning, refusing to quit and willing to learn…even in public.
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
The Millenium Development Goals, established by the United Nations, are a global action plan to end poverty by the year 2015. Every person on the planet should unite behind this bold, strategic direction to reduce poverty and uplift humanity.
These goals are global Visionmaking in action.
Critics argue that the goals are not achievable or that too little is being done by nations that signed on to this initiative.
I say this campaign will be achieved in our lifetime.
We may miss the 2015 dates on some or all of the initiatives. But the articulation of the goals, and the commitment made by the global community, has already mobilized the will to achieve them.
Why? Because there is a framework for accountabilty that has been agreed and made public. As a result, citizens of the world can discern the difference between action and rhetoric. That is a critical juncture and a global game-changer for the leaders of industrialized nations. Now there is a framework of accountability.
Finally, there is a set of objectives that are trans-national and speak to the plight of the dis-enfranchised. Why have politicians done this?
National security.
Poverty is the breeding ground for terrorism. Today, the gulf between the have and have-not nations is being bridged by bombs. Tax-payers do not want their office buildings blown up. To prevent that from happening, extraordinary measure have been taken to insulate populations from extremism. That costs a lot of money and the security strategy is not sustainable over the long term.
Only international development has the power to deliver the peace that every person desires. To achieve it there must be a global war on poverty.
The Millenium Development Goals are an important step in creating a world that can work for everyone. They are:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rate
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
These goals announce the commencement of World War 3. Fortunately, this is a war on poverty that can save lives not take them.
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
During the second weekend of the Uncertainty program–a four weekend investigation of how to meet the conditions of uncertainty from the prespective of the warrior or leader–an important question surfaced.
What is personal power?
Angeles Arrien, cultural anthropologist and teacher extraordinaire, and yours truly, answered the question this way.
Your personal power is the sum total of your knowledge, skills, gifts, talents, apptitudes, character qualities, resourcefulness, creativity, and experiences. When supported by commitment, engagement and readiness, a human being is said to be sufficient, in their power.
Personal power is a potent force. And, it is not a project, not something that we work up to or earn over time. Rather, it is something that we claim.
A claim is “an assertion of the truth of something.” It is a declaration that we are well-matched–now!!!– for the inevitable encounter with life’s experience.
Many of us wait for proof that we are sufficiently empowered for our journey of meaning. Remember Wayne’s World, where Wayne and Garth declare on bended knee that they are not worthy? “We are not worthy, we are not worthy…”
Well, that’s how many of us live our lives, like a small dog rolling over on our back, in supplication.
Visionmakers never beg. They create.
In order to create, we must have all our tools of manifestation available. Visionmakers claim their personal power, their sufficiency. It is not predicated on someone else granting us our powers, or meeting an artificial criterion of satistfaction.
We claim our personal power….and then use it to create something that has heart and meaning at home, at work and in the community.
Be bold Visionmakers. Claim the singular gifts that you–and only you–have been given to pursue the mysterious journey of meaning!
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
Dr. Nancy Iverson, a San Francisco-based pediatrician, is getting ready to swim from Alcrataz to San Francisco. Nothing unusual in that right? Nancy swims in the Bay daily.
But get this. On October 11th, she and her volunteer support team, will swim from Alcrataz to the city with nine participants from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Most of the group is made up of young people, some of whom have no prior experience in the water.
It’s their eighth annual swim.
I met Nancy about 16 years ago- no coincidence- in the water. We were at a conference in San Salvador in the Bahamas and were snorkelling buddies. Nancy carries a unique combination of gifts and talents – doctor, activist, humanitarian and warm human being. She is probably more at home in the water than she is on land.
I had great time swimming with her and I expect that her Pine Ridge friends do too.
Nancy, and her foundation Pathstar, are committed to the preservation of authentic traditions and healing. The Alcatraz swim is the culimination of six days of preparation and healthy lifestyle and nutritional education that the participants can use to influence positive change back in their communities.
As well, the swim has been captured on film! “From the Badlands to Alcatraz,” which was produced and directed by Nancy, is an incredibly moving documentary. It follows the journey of these remarkable young swimmers as they prepare and make the swim. It is already an award winner:
“This award-winning film weaves the past and present of both Alcatraz and the Pine Ridge Reservation into a vivid depiction of the awe-inspiring journey the five youth navigate. It follows the group’s first plunge into the San Francisco Bay through their personal and collective challenges, disappointments and triumphs. Together, they strive to conquer both the Alcatraz swim and the dispiritedness connected to conditions on Pine Ridge.”
When I saw Nancy last week-end, she shared that one of her motivations in making the film was to offer a positive vision of the lives of contemporary aboriginal people, a story that is often forgotten or ignored by the mainstream media.
She, and the swimmers, have accomplished that and more.
Pathstar could use your support. Here is a link that you can use to take a closer look at the remarkable work that Nancy and her friends are doing:
www.pathstar.org/boardfound.htm
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
I’m watching the news here in my hotel room in San Francisco.
Yuck!
Today’s “news/entertainment” (because that’s what television news has become) features a small town minister intent on burning the Koran and debates about whether building a mosque near Ground Zero is appropriate.
The minister claims it’s not about him, it’s about the principle. When pressed by the reporter, he declares that his issue with the Koran is that it doesn’t recognize Jesus as “the crucified and resurrected saviour.” So burning the Koran is justified in his mind.
Oh my. Where do you begin to address such stupidity?
But what about New York City? There is such a kerfuffle about building a mosque near Ground Zero that even President Obama is carefully weighing his words about the issue.
“Not on sacred ground,” declares the opposition. If not on sacred ground, where does one build a place of worship?
Do people actually believe that the Islamic faith is to blame for 911? Do they actually believe that every Muslim is a terrorist? Do they actually believe that the actions of a small group of terrorists is proof that all Muslims support such violence?
If they do they probably think that every Italian family belongs to the Mafia; every Japanese North American deserved to be interned during World War Two; and all indigenous people are shiftless drunkards who need to be taken care of by the state.
Whatever happened to freedom of religion and equal rights? Whatever happened to tolerance? Where is multi-culturalism?
And where the hell is common sense?
Certainly not with Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who was quoted in TIME Magazine online:
“The former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, claimed that the project, which is partially intended to be an interfaith community center, would be a “desecration,” adding that “decent” Muslims ought not object to his opinion.”
Fortunately, Mr. Giuliani no longer holds public office.
Enough with the hate.
We desecrate the memory of all those that were killed at the Twin Towers by perpetuating ignorance and intolerance.
A mosque, a church, a temple, a synagogue should all be built around the site. We should use each of these “scared sites” to remember the dead and build communities based in trust, respect and friendship.
These buildings would stand for all the world to see that terrorism cannot divide us.
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
From the mailbag…
Rolands Vars writes:
Hi, great articles, but you know what ? There is one minus, you need to write your articles more funny
August 30th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Roland, thank you for your comment. More funny is a good idea.
Which got me thinking about the role of humour in Visionmaking!
Humour shares the same root as humid; it literally means, “to moisten.” A sense of humour keeps us loose and flexible, able to maintain equinimity in pursuit of what has heart and meaning in our lives.
Humour uses a gift of insight to illuminate a deeper truth and communicate that truth through the medium of joy, surprise and delight.
True humour is always benign – it is a vehicle of inclusion, revelation and transformation. It supports balance through right attitude and allows the Visionmaker to put himself, others and circumstances in their proper perspective.
Humour is also the antidote to reactivity and over-identification with past disappointments and hurts.
Finally, humour helps us maintain perspective. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the ups and downs of life that we take ourselves a little too seriously, a point I think that Mr. Vars might be making in his commentary.
So, Roland, this one’s for you:
A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “That’s the ugliest baby that I’ve ever seen. Ugh!”
The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: “The driver just insulted me!”
The man says: “You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I’ll hold your monkey for you.”
© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved
