Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Touched by Fire - Or Hypomania On father's day I posted a short memoire of my father, Jim, who lived to be only 55. I will be 53 next week and I have to admit I am a bit frightened of the closeness in age. Alan Mcleod, reminded me of a syndrome called Hypomania (http://www.genx40.com/a/other/hypomania) Jim was a certified Hypomaniac. One of my favourite books is called "Touched by Fire" by Kay Redfield Jamison. The book is about creativity and manic depression. She makes the case that extreme creativity, as often embedded in poets and artists, is linked to manic or hyomanic behaviour. The paradox is that to cure the downs demands the eradication of the highs. In Dad's case, as in many others, the price of losing the ups was too high. So they went for it all. As  write this I am playing Freddie Mercury singing "Who wants to live forever" The title comes from a poem by Stephen Spender. To all of you whose flame burns too bright I offer this tribute: "I think continually of those who were truly great. Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history through corridors of light, where the hours are suns, endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition was that their lips, still touched with fire, should tell of the spirit, clothed from head to foot in song, and who hoarded from the Spring branches the desires falling across their bodies like blossoms. What is precious is never to forget the essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs breaking through rocks in worlds before our Earth. never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light not its grave evening demand for love. Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother with noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit. Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields, see how these names are feted by the waving greass and by the streamers of white cloud and whispers of wind in the listening sky. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, who wore at their hearts the fires's centre. Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun and left the air signed with their honour. Stephen Spender  10:37:04 PM    comment []

Married to My Blog??? How much time are some of us spending blogging? Am I odd, or do I sense a new topic emerging on the blogosphere - "my spouse versus my blog"? Examples OK, it's time to give your news aggregators a rest. Tomorrow night Maryam and I are having dinner with Mike Amundsen and a few other folks who are in town (Mike's the guy who did most of the iBuySpy demo and also the Erablog weblogs that I point to often). Then on Wednesday my dad, step-mom, and son come to town, so my blogging level will lighten up for a few days. Patrick's with us until July 6, so I'll be spending a lot of time with him. I know you all think I'm posting too much anyway. My wife is, although she's been reading all sorts of weblogs tonight. I sure wish I could get her to do one, but oh well. I can only lead her to the surfboard, I can't make her surf. or Last night i had a wonderful experience.  My husband who's a die-hard 'company man', a Senior Vice President and head of one of the market research units at JWT India, and who 'not-so-quietly' has been observing my preoccupation with blogging surprised me.  He's the kind of guy that wants to see 'immediate action' - a return on investment - a firm contract for instance, as a result of the time i spend networking online and blogging.  The more 'intangibles' like learning, growing from connecting with people and minds across the world, accelerating knowledge and change as a result, don't make that much sense to him - its the way he's been conditioned by management school and the workplace.  I shared with him some of the exchanges i've been having with many people across the world - connections made through our respective blogs.  I also showed him a few blogs by people employed by large companies - let him have control over the mouse - it was really fascinating to observe how he got more and more absorbed in reading, clicking on links, reading some more ....  At the end of this little session, i asked him three questions : - would he feel more comfortable now, having read his blog, approaching this person as a potential client , for business ? - would he feel more comfortable interacting with his own colleagues - not just those working with him directly - but peers across offices countrywide and globally - if they had such blog-like spaces ? - can he see how such connections - either with a potential client or with a set of colleagues - can indeed help accelerate growth ? And his answer to all three, with a bit of wonder, was an unequivocal YES !    My blog is a complete mystery to my wife Robin who is a very concrete thinker. If the person is not someone I have met how can they be real. 8:11:55 AM    comment []