The Poem: If Ever … February 26, 2009
Posted by Yvonne in Distinctions, Evolution of We.add a comment
If ever there was a reason
If ever I thought to think
If ever my life went open
If ever there came a brink
If ever I wandered aimless
If ever my dream came true
If ever a spot cleared newly
If ever I was near you
There – then
what would be and what had been
would never wonder again
Where – when
A brief look into my Tech Mitigated Life February 25, 2009
Posted by Yvonne in Distinctions, Indirect Approach.add a comment
It’s 3:33AM. I’m noticing that who I am is now tech defined.
For the last several days my iPhone would not ring. Apparently some switch on the side got switched and though Settings said ring was on, ring was actually off. It took me awhile to find it. Actually I didn’t find it. Complaining to a friend, he told me his had done the same thing, and revealed there was some switch on the side. I fumbled in that direction and the next thing you know I heard the ring of an incoming call. Magic, I’d say. Now I’m back with the living: immediately accessible, though tech mitigated, once again.
This morning I woke thinking about my current experience, living in expanded tech, tech being defined as that which is human created, man-made as it were.
Looking back, I could say that I’ve gone from experiencing life through family – with parents, siblings, pets, sometimes grandmas and grandpas, and now and then cousins; life through body as a dancer from a young age and later athlete; and life through interaction with others, leading and learning as a “boss” of the older and teacher of the younger ones since I was probably about 7 or so. When did tech show up?
What do you do with “What do you do?” January 14, 2009
Posted by Yvonne in Distinctions, Power of Dialogue.add a comment
The standard formal greeting used to be “How do you do?” Followed by “Very well, thank you … and you?” Now, it seems to be “What do you do?” … for which my consternation at devising an appropriately terse and common response leads to this post.
Something must have happened with the turn of the New Year.
I’ve had several recent occasions to meet new people and have encountered some difficulty in responding to this inevitable and perhaps innocently posed question: “What do you do?”
So far, my odd and unsettling response is something like: “About what?” because I can’t help thinking: perhaps I didn’t hear them correctly or completely. Frankly, somehow I can’t tell whether they are asking: what do I do …
Cleaning My Desk: 11 items or less! January 4, 2009
Posted by Yvonne in Dynamics of Resistance.add a comment
Some years back, I cleaned my desk.
It was at the start of a new year.
After hours of diligent reviewing, judging, sorting, filing, resorting and tossing, I was amazed to find that there were just a few bits of paper — maybe 4 or 5 peices – with “important” notes with which I could not part, and which absolutely refused to be classified. They would not be reduced to Contacts, Inpirations, History, Ideas, Project files or whatever other divisions I’d chosen to hold that year’s upwelling of life.
Though I tried and tried, I could do nothing with them. Not even an “uncategorizable” was possible.
Everything Else, a Poem from Peru May 9, 2008
Posted by Yvonne in Continuity of Source, Dynamics of Resistance, Evolution of We, Indirect Approach.add a comment
Recipe for a Curdled Family March 27, 2008
Posted by Yvonne in Evolution of We.Tags: family
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I heard back from both mom and one sister that they didn’t know where to start with the mathematical formua for a life, so I’m offering this option: You could also try it as a recipe, vis:
1 mom + 1 dad
1. Mix mom and dad liberally early, often, and with love and enthusiasm. This will begin to produce some of the brothers and sisters you will need for the step 3.
2. Continue the previous step as you can, but probably only on Sunday mornings for two hours while the first batch of kids are off to church and mom and dad have a bit of time to themselves. This will produce the rest of the brothers and sisters until you get a good amount.
Then several years later, when the youngest have grown to a not-easily breakable size and spirit:
1 empty refrigerator box
4 sisters + 3-4 brothers
3. Take all ingredients to the top of your nearest backyard hill. Open the ends of the box.
4. Place in box the largest of the brothers and sisters, then gently fit in the smaller ones around the edges. Make sure all limbs are mostly inside the ends of the box.
5. On a synchronized signal, mix the brothers and sisters well by starting the box rolling down the hill.
6. When the whole mess gets to the bottom, if there have been any sisters or brothers or body parts that have fallen out, collect them all, go back to the top of the hill and begin again.
Repeat from step 3. until laughter subsids or someone has a better idea. This could take most of a Saturday afternoon, but will produce a lovely curdled, if slightly bruised, family.
A Starting Mathematical Formula for My Life: YMB t2008_0326 v1 March 26, 2008
Posted by Yvonne in Distinctions.Tags: algebra, individuality, life, matching algorithms, mathematics, symbols
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Last Saturday I was taking a time out at the local Starbucks, just catching up on reading material from “The Folder”, (being currently a collection of obscure writings on action, language, language action, deadline busting, elliot waves, wise organizations, management practices, and a doctoral course), when entered a sprightly local mathemetician, whom I’d not yet met, to share the couch.
And a wonderful conversation ensued in which I was returned to my enthusiasm and joy for the topic of mathematics. A topic that although I do have a degreed specialization in, I didn’t quite take to a zenith … but I’ve a respectible library (including Dynamical Chaos, which i have read – at least a portion) and a brain that can actually follow and visualize the referred reality which proofs purport to prove. So it really is an area I dip into from time to time. Purely for enjoyment, that is.
Now, not quite a week later from that chai induced connection, I was updating my Professional (about) page here, and in doing so referenced a note from over dinner few weeks back when JW told me how he saw me professionally. He expressed that special combination of traits he perceived, which I happened to capture on a nearby scrap … as an equation.
Well of course, one thing led to another, and so here I am now with the (don’t try this at home) formula for a particular view of a “me” … vis,
[SF:{1/9 nuclear family + 14(dance + drama + music + art)} * {SoCal(mathematics/computer science)^systems + (5*systems:design, 5*business:project management)} + Berkeley{(2*manager:product dvlpmt, 3*consulting services manager:design/modeling tools, 3*entrepreneur:advisor, 10*consultant:facilitator)^(28*meditator) +SF(2.5*dialogue host) + Worldwide(6*transformational program participant)–>5*focus:BoostingBrilliantPeople}] ^female
= an insight generator, effective with groups, under pressure, and at any interface … with a listening that opens vast new territories for thinking and exploration … and an ability to call new creations into being.
I assure you that it didn’t start like this – the first rendition had only 5 terms and of course, the math is very simple – mostly arithmetic. Since Mom didn’t understand the notation, for clarification I offer: * means multiplied by, / means divided by, ^ used for the exponent, -> expresses yields, : indicates function of and here numbers are mostly years). So I’ve probably butchered the expressions of logic which I can’t quite remember or didn’t take the time to find proper symbols for. (Will definitely have to send the link on this post to MK for correction.)
I wonder: are there already in the world much more elegant or complex logics and algebras for documenting such interacting characteristics? Has anyone tried to document a particular life in a formula? How would I show the important influences in the train of my thinking such as the incident of meeting MK in the Starbucks?
In the title to this post, I just added “t” for time and “v” for version. Perhaps if we review the formula and refine it over time, we’ll have a few data points and can begin to discern pathways of development. Or maybe such a elemental expression of skills and interests can be used in some kind of matching function, for e.g. candidates and opportunities.
I’m curious what the formulas for my friends would look like. I’ve since sent this to my family and requested their various submittals (the other 8/9ths), wondering if we can put these together and somehow come up with 1 or a maybe even a predictive expression of “whither the next generation?” Maybe we’ll only get input from the analytic side of the family and then have an unbalanced view that excludes the artistic. We’ll have to stick a variable (alpha)in for the artistic side of the family. Maybe put a log on it for the pronounced influence of their undeclared status.
What would each person choose to highlight about their lives? Like all modeling exercises, something important is always left out – like that I really like a good cup of chai or that grandma taught me how to thread a needle.
So here’s a challenge for your spare time, exploration, and re-creation: create a mathematical formula that captures the important features of your life, or who you are professionally, or what your mix of interests are, or where you spent your time today … and be sure to indicate the meaning or function of the symbols by which the terms are related.
