The Write-Down #19
The great American actress Sally Field (Smokey and the Bandit, Norma Rae, Steel Magnolias, Forrest Gump, and so much more), in her recent speech accepting the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, said “When I got off stage, I felt shy and careful and hidden. I would think and rethink everything before I could say or do anything. But on stage, I never knew what I would say or do. I would surprise myself. I wasn't looking for the applause or attention, even though that's nice, sometimes. It was never and it's never been about a need to hide myself behind the characters of other people. Acting to me has always been about finding those few precious moments when I feel totally, utterly, sometimes dangerously alive.”
When do you feel totally, utterly, dangerously alive?
The Write-Down #18
A day set aside to honor mothers exists in nearly all cultures and dates back thousands of years, but the modern incarnation dates back to 1887, when, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Mary Towles Sasseen, a teacher from Henderson, Kentucky, led her class in the first known observance of mother’s day. She traveled the country and wrote a pamphlet to share her vision of a special day set aside to honor the matriarchy. Years later, The national day of recognition in the United States came to fruition through the work of Ann Reeves Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and Ann’s daughter Anna M Jarvis. We won’t get into the details here, but it did take a surprisingly long time for the idea to finally make it Congress. Finally, Woodrow Wilson signed a bill designating the second Sunday in May as a legal holiday dedicated “to the best mother in the world, your mother.”
What did you do to honor ‘the best mother in the world’ on her day?
The Write-Down #16
Consider the Chiton. On a recent South Central Florida team-building beach retreat, we here at downboy, LLC began each day with a post-dawn shoreline walk, contemplating the wonder, thinking about Q2 projections, leaving our footprints oh so temporarily in the sand, and searching the white sand for that perfect memory shell. On the second morning, we came across a shiny reddish-brown lump about the size of a human heart. Wait, we thought, is that…What is the that?
The Write-Down #15
Rock, paper, scissors. A schoolyard game. A way to potentially get out of doing something. A psychological challenge unlike any other. According to the World Rock Paper Scissors Association (because of course…) the game dates to ancient China (frog, centipede, snake. Frog beats centipede, and so on). The game evolved over the centuries in other cultures, each with their own symbolic participants until it emerged into the global mainstream circa 1900 as the game we know today. The winner of the Rock Paper Scissors Throwdown, held recently in New Jersey, bested 383 fellow competitors to take the $10,000 prize. Many of those who left the contest early employed more ‘fixed’ strategies (i.e. “Everybody starts off with rock, so I…”, etc.), but the defining feature of the winner’s circle seemed to be less thought out. No strategy, just gut.
What is your Rock, Paper Scissors Strategy?
The Write-Down #14
Fewer than 1% of all known animals use tools, which equates to dozens of species exist, and not just primates. Depending on the definition of tool use (and even tool-making), the number is much larger than expected. Chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, crows, octopuses, otters, dolphins, the list goes on. But a recent entry into the shed, Veronika—a 13 year-old Austrian pet cow—is utterly changing what we know about animal intelligence. Raised in a supportive environment (a key factor in farm animal tool use), She learned to manipulate a deck brush with precision, using different parts of the brush to scratch different parts of her body, from thick hide, to the more sensitive underbelly, applying appropriate amounts of pressure where needed.
Have you ever witnessed an animal use a tool? and/or What tool would you like to see an animal use?