Lost in Translation

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." Albert Einstein

We don't subscribe to TV, so when I am looking for video entertainment I go to YouTube and watch the intelligent comedy clips of George Carlin and Bill Maher. We watch "The Colbert Report" with Steven Colbert on Hulu, the day after it airs on Comedy Central. All three of these wise men would absolutely agree with Albert Einstein's quote above. 

I am endlessly wondering why America can't come together and solve our problems. Technology innovators would never follow the unproductive path taken by our political leaders. 

Great minds, curious minds, innovative minds have always worked at finding new solutions and ideas in what is certainly an endless stream of problem solving: human adaptation and invention.

My favorites include language, fire, the wheel, the printing press, the light bulb, the toilet, and the telephone.

Politicians do not understand that if you always do what you've done, you get what you always got. 

Einstein said it much more clearly. "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

The Voice

"A vision without execution is a hallucination." 

Thomas Edison

I heard AOL's founder Steve Case repeat this quote last Sunday and then it appeared on my Facebook feed during the week. I quickly recognized it as my reflection in life's mirror.

What a relief!  I've been hallucinating for 40 years. Sure, there have been moments of clarity, revelations even, certainly times of creativity, and admittedly periods of sloth.

But then Bruce ended a flurry of emails this week with a different and welcome recognition: "Your creative spirit and spirit of creativity inspires me.  Life for you is more of an adventure of possibilities than a journey.  Thank you for modeling that."

You are welcome Bruce. I had no idea you see me in this wonderful light. This certainly feels like a more positive observation of my story than the thought that my repetitive lack of long term execution means my engagement in oh-so-many vision quests meant they were mostly hallucinations.

Elley and I like to kid about how many different business cards we have in our treasure chest of keepsakes. We also share the truth that we must hold the record for the most website names owned by a couple who work for Home Depot. (More on those 2 fun facts in a future post.)

I started my World Wide Web experience in the 1995 version of the Internets. My Life Coaching home was OneGiantStep.net and OneGiantStep.org. It's interesting to look at how the current owners are using these catchy URL's. (Oops .... why didn't I listen to the wisdom that you should never sell houses or domain names .... coulda, woulda, shoulda)

I own SantasBro.com, TagYurIt.com, AnotherBeginning.org,JoinThePortal.com, UncleXoq.com, and  KidXpress.org. Each time I log onto GoDaddy to buy a name, and iPage to build web pages, I get high on the meaning and the possibilities.

The web pages attached to these domain names mostly stand idle while I pump my energy into my day job. I have been "executing" at peak performance at Home Depot for 11 years, after doing the Dad thing consistently for 17 years before that. And I have carried out fully, put completely into effect, my first book "Try on New Hats".

Webster's hallucination is "a perception of objects with no reality ..." This doesn't describe the effect the image imbedded above has on your eyes/brain. And Edison's use of the word was not literal. He was making an illustrative point about the need for stick-tuitive-ness as the key to success

Certainly my current life would be elsewhere if I had chosen other forks in the road over the years. But I wouldn't be here writing this. Good thing no one's keeping score.