#solomonic moral clarity

[ancaporado]

[with-love-from-hell]

I haven't seen much of this take so maybe I'm alone in this (spoilers for Nightbringer ahead btw)...

...but in this whole "if humans go to war against demons and angels" thing that's being hinted at by Solomon, I see my MC saying she wants no part in any of that.

Like, as much as I see her understanding Solomons perspective of humans being a play-thing for angels and demons alike, she just wouldn't be able to deal with a full on war. Not only because that would mean hurting the ones she loves, but she is also pacifistic by nature and the idea of a war would outright cause her to panic and become immobile. Also, I really think she would see Solomon's pushing to be on the side of humanity as more of a "We could use you as a weapon" type mentality, which would make her think he's doing the same to her what he claims angels and demons are doing to all humans.

So she would probably flee and fuck off somewhere, or beg Lucifer to just hide out with her somewhere (though he likely would ensure she was safe and unable to be found alone, as much as it would pain him to do). She's definitely not a fighter, and having Solomon pressure her to do that would make her lose it. If anything else, I'd see her allying with demons more- especially considering her background, and how awful most other human beings she had encountered in close relations had been to her and religious trauma stuff, plus the demon brothers being the closest thing she's had to a healthy family since she was very young, and even then it wasn't great. I feel like she would feel that Solomon is pushing a moral alignment on her without considering anything about why she's so close to the brothers in the first place, and while she would hate to disappoint him, she just can't bring herself to fight a cause that she feels isn't worthy for bloodshed, especially between the ones she loves.

She would also probably try to convince Solomon to change his mind, and beg him to reconsider- and his stubbornness on the matter would only drive more of a wedge between them. The angst potential is so great...maybe I should write it out. Lol

I love this ethical dilemma that Solomon is giving us. It makes me want to tear my hair out but these are the types of questions that made me interested in philosophy and make it my minor in college.

Also, (just for clarity), when I say hate Solomon or hope he's more of an antagonist, I don't mean I don't like his characters existence. If anything, I love it so much more because his character grinds against my pallet in a way where conflict can be present in my interpretation of the game and writing of my fic. I love that for him lol

[stardust-in-my-mind-blog]

TAROT of the Day - August 24 - THE HIGH PRIESTESS II

A woman sits, garbed in layers of draped clothing between two large pillars. She wears the solar cross on her chest and the crown of Isis on her head, the Sun Disk between the Horns of Hathor. One foot rests in a crescent moon. She holds in her lap a scroll marked as the 'TORA'. (This is both an anagram for the word Tarot, the word Rota which references the great Wheel of Fortune, and the name of the Jewish Scripture.) The dark pillar is carved with a white B, the light pillar is carved with a dark J. Between the pillars is hung a curtain, or veil, decorated with open pomegranates and leaves. Her gown looks as if it becomes moving water at the hem, spilling over the golden crescent moon. Water is fluidity, mutability, emotion, the intuitive, the Divine Feminine.

The J and the B stand for the two bronze, brass, or copper pillars on the porch of the original Temple of Solomon which were named Jachin and Boaz. The two pillars stood at the entrance to the vestibule and represented Strength and Wisdom as well as the Sun (brass or bronze) and the Moon (copper). The way they are presented on this card, the light letter on the dark pillar and the dark letter on the light pillar represents the Unity of All, like the Taoist Yin/Yang symbol. In the Old Testament, the Presence of God, called the Shekinah (which was the Divine Feminine), was behind the curtain in the most interior, most holy, part of Solomon’s Temple, the very center, which was called the Holy of Holies. The Shekinah was the Feminine Glory and Light of God, Divine Wisdom. The Priestess guards this Holy Presence as she sits in front of the veil. In occult symbolism, behind the veil is the Great Mystery, and the veil is the division between this world and the next, the living and the dead, this realm and other realms.

The pomegranates symbolize the Mystery of Life in Death and Death as a part of Life, which is the Mystery of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. The crescent moon symbolizes the knowledge of the occult, the hidden, that which is in half-light as when the moon is the only light in the night sky. The moon represents psychic abilities and inner receptivity, openness to the subconscious, the anima or animus, and of course, the Divine Feminine. The palm frond is a symbol of peace, victory, triumph, and eternal life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When this card appears, you are being told that you can, you need to, and you actually do, embody the High Priestess. Your subconscious mind is bringing you messages in ways you both need and want, but in ways which you may not be able to clearly define or perhaps even articulate with words. The Wisdom of the Darkness and the Hidden are very often not rationally, verbally expressible. It comes through as a feeling or as an Inner Knowing, possibly in a dream or a vision which gives you a whole body of knowledge, which you will return to in your mind again and again to examine and explore. This Wisdom is accessible from within when you are passive and receptive. Be still. Listen. Open yourself. Trust your Inner Knowing and your intuitive voice. Listen deeply.

Inherent in this card's meaning is that you are your own greatest authority. You have moral clarity in your Intuition. You KNOW what is good for you and what is not. You know what is right, and what is wrong, for you and for your life, from deep within. You know what direction you should take. You just need to be still and listen. Your Inner Voice, your Intuition, is the voice of Spirit/The Divine. You are opening and deepening in your psychic/intuitive abilities at this time. Allow it. It will serve you well for your deepest and greatest good.

Whatever guidance you seek is within you – and it is true.

(c) Diane Horton

[whitehotharlots]

Reading recommendation (and a brief meditation on the utility of Frank Wilderson)

I’ve read an awful lot of self-styled “afropessimistic” theory. I’ve been wanting to write about it for some time. But there are significant hurdles. First off, I’d need to read a lot more if I wanted to engage with it in a scholarly sense, and reading it is a very painful chore. The effort required would necessitate a greater reward than the mild serotonin boost of a successful blog post, yet attaching my own name and affiliation to any critique would open me up to vicious reprisal, mostly from people who have not read any of the works being discussed.  I mean, come on... Look at the term: afropessimism. It can hardly be uttered aloud among the uninitiated, you have to explain that you’re not trying to dismiss an intellectual movement, that this is what these writers actually call themselves.

Long story short, I highly recommend this new piece from the LA Review of Books: “On Afropessimism,” by Jesse McCarthy. It’s a longform review of a new book by the man who coined the term, Frank Wilderson, titled simply Afropessimism.

I didn't come to Wilderson until long after reading Frantz Fannon, Derrick Bell, and Cornell West. These are all relatively fatalistic theorists who regard being black (or "blackness") as necessarily existing in a state of alterity, one that was perhaps inalterable, but they nonetheless did not regard themselves as fundamentally inhuman. Nor did they argue that reform is impossible (hence the “pessimism”) and that therefore inaction was the only viable approach to praxis. I've never read Orlando Patterson (the other foundational theorist cited in the by McCarthy), but this passage resonates strongly

Racial exceptionalism, political immutability, “antiblackness” as structural antagonism, and abjection in the form of “social death”: each of these concepts predates Afropessimism, and as I see it, together they form its foundation. Indeed, it is the synthesis of all of these ideas into one purportedly coherent worldview that I take to be the innovation of Afropessimism. I have deliberately chosen the writers, scholars, and thinkers cited above, however, precisely because they do not come to the same conclusions as Wilderson. Several could be said to be strongly opposed; even Derrick Bell (whom Wilderson might have suggested as a predecessor but does not cite in Afropessimism) ultimately counsels in his book’s epilogue that we move “beyond despair” and calls on us to “fashion a philosophy that both matches the unique dangers we face and enables us to recognize in those dangers opportunities for committed living and humane service.” Part of my point here is that those who disagree with the Afropessimist worldview cannot be simply dismissed as “soft” or naïve. Nor should anyone infer that simply because one critiques the Afropessimist synthesis, one cannot also hold strong views in agreement about any number of more specific points of analysis.

This has been one of the more striking aspects of the afropessimism becoming ascendant in mainstream anti-racism (aside from the fact that it's only rarely acknowledged as the intellectual base of the movement)--the belief that even people who take an aggressively dim view of race relations can still be dismissed as naive, or even as actively white supremacist, simply for suggesting that some degree of reform is desirable.

The description of Wilderson's work contained within McCarthy’s review gives us a glimpse into how such dismissal became normalized: a combination of utter self-assuredness and the ability to assert complete moral parallels between acts and situations that few sane people, prior to 2017, would have considered equivalent:

For many of us, such a leap is neither ethical nor comprehensible. But for Wilderson the portability and paradoxical fungibility of slavery fits perfectly with his interest in film and his Lacanian and Fanonian readings of it. How else to explain passages in Afropessimism in which incidents involving a terrible white roommate situation he and his girlfriend find themselves in circa 1979 are, for Wilderson, obviously comparable to Steve McQueen’s 2013 film, 12 Years a Slave, which was based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 slave narrative. This is not a jest, but a sustained and intensely explored analogy, in which the whipping of Patsey (played by Lupita Nyong’o in the film), descriptions of the cool sadism of Mary Epps (the slaveowner’s wife) from Northrup’s 1853 narrative, and Wilderson’s troubles with a batty white roommate all share the same stage. We are asked to imagine them as coequal and even coeval psychological theaters of cruelty, whose mise-en-scène simply involves different props. The plantation is everywhere and all the time. It is ontological, which means that it attaches trans-historically to all Black persons regardless of their social position.

How far does this go? In his academic monograph on film studies, Red, White & Black (2010), Wilderson forthrightly asserts that Black academics are not subalterns in the academy but “Slaves of their colleagues.” Is being talked down to in the faculty lounge really the same as being whipped at the post, or slinging rock on the corner, or being placed in solitary on Rikers Island as a juvenile? Is working at Merrill Lynch in New York as a Black woman really the same as working shifts as a Black gay man in a McDonald’s in Alabama? Is it ethical or desirable to confound all of these into a tortuous equivalency while telling those who propose to fight at your side to shut up because you don’t like the analogies they are using to connect themselves with your suffering?

For a long while I've been trying to argue that what we now regard as wokeness, at least in its present and culturally dominant state, has borrowed its means of comportment--if not its fundamental worldview--from afropessimism. This combination of hectoring paranoia and cocksure self-righteousness is now the norm in liberal spaces, even (maybe especially) among people who have no rational claim to especial victimhood.

Key to this is Wilderson’s assertion that blackness is not only an inescapable reality structuring all human existence, but that as such, it means that black people are fundamentally inhuman. Not just an exempted or subaltern class: a different conceptual entity altogether:

It is fair to ask of a [critical] “lens” whether it actually sharpens our view and, if so, to perform demonstrations of clarity? A major problem for Afropessimism is that its claim to revealing the underlying structural truth seems to repeatedly require abandoning any significant contact with historical reality. With social categories like class, gender, and material facts made irrelevant, the theoretical work is forced to concentrate itself in rhetorical aphorisms that seem to be slouching their way toward slogans. “The antagonist of the worker is the capitalist. The antagonist of the Native is the settler. But the antagonist of the Black is the Human being,” Wilderson tells us. The problem with this, apart from its faux-syllogistic form, is that human identities are not fixed and rigid boxes, but dynamic rings of change that merge and overlap. The Black Americans involved in the colonization scheme of Liberia in the 19th century were both Black (formerly enslaved on US plantations) and also settlers. Obviously, there are Black capitalists just as there are Black workers. Is there a double-jeopardy principle for antagonisms or some calculus by which they can be selectively negated?

Regarding oneself as inhuman means that you simply cannot win, even while you're winning. It means, also, that you get to exempt yourself from the rules of human interaction that are otherwise universal. Your statements and beliefs cannot be subject to any means of adjudication, since by your own self-understanding you will never be validated, which means in a bizarre turn of logic that your validity is inevitable. Your immorality is always assumed, which means your morality can never be put into question. Nothing you do or say can ever be considered bad or incorrect, because you believe yourself to have been exempted from such abstractions, that the only possible judge of yourself is therefore yourself. This is a tremendously inviting mode of comportment to both paranoid neurotics and mediocre intellects, which goes a long way in explaining how it became so popular so quickly. 

[grandhotelabyss]

The classical reference in the headline is a persuasive gesture; they want us to know they’re not the types to complain about the loss of western tradition as they swill beer in front of a football game. As with many supposed depredations of the supposedly woke, though, there is a long, complicated, and contradictory history here. I myself am only dimly aware of the nuances, but I will put down some markers for anyone who’d like to investigate further. 

The canon’s most memorable cancellation of The Odyssey comes when Dante places Ulysses in the Inferno for his questing hubris, for his desire, later celebrated by Tennyson in an era of imperial expansion, to sail beyond the sunset. 

A few centuries later, and closer to what the teachers quoted above had in mind with their own Homeroclasm, William Blake comments, “The Classics! it is the Classics, and not Goths nor Monks, that desolate Europe with wars.” Blake is a universe unto himself, one whose borders I’ve only skirted, but I take him to accuse the classical tradition (with Homer at its head) of upholding the evils he deplored: violence, domination, repression, subjection. Or at least of doing so when read as a unity with a moral in mind, which Blake, unlike the teachers quoted above, advises against: “Unity and Morality are secondary considerations, and belong to Philosophy and not to poetry, to Exception and not to Rule, to Accident and not to Substance.” He also defends Northern Europe’s indigenous peoples, deprecated as warlike by Greco-Roman colonizers and their compradors, when in fact, Blake insists, the claim is pure projection.

Blake’s charge is just a prologue to the 20th century. Some writers with Blakean outlooks adopted Homer for their own subversive goals. Joyce’s Ulysses is the classic example, with its pacifist, anti-imperialist, and anti-nationalist recasting of Homer’s martial and aristocratic arête as a lower-middle-class domestic epic whose hero, for instance, slaughters his wife’s suitors only by driving them from her mind with his superior kindness and sensitivity. 

Black writers, too, turned Homer to their own ends with odysseys ranging from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man to Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon to Derek Walcott’s Omeros—see Patrice Rankine’s Ulysses in Black for more on the specific African-American tradition—all of which echo Joyce in producing heroes among the oppressed even as they qualify heroism for an age that can no longer believe maritime pillagers who tell us Polyphemus is a monster and Circe a witch. 

Other writers reprise Blake’s and even Dante’s censures more forthrightly. In Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Erich Auerbach famously contrasts The Odyssey unfavorably with the Hebrew Bible. Homer’s world is one of aristocratic stasis and paradoxically mystifying clarity; neither its characters nor its world are capable of psychological depth or historical change. The obscurity of Genesis, on the other hand, demands readerly attention. It hints through its very narrative opacity at depths and dynamics: its people live out dramatic upheavals. 

In Dialectic of Enlightenment Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer judge The Odyssey to be the forerunner of the bourgeois novel, a proto-Robinsonade about the enlightened man’s entitlement to master nature, natives, and female humanity; they note the moment when Odysseus strings up Penelope’s maids for collaborating with the suitors (“Their feet danced a little, but not for long”). 

As Dante condemns Ulysses to vindicate Christianity, so Auerbach, Adorno, and Horkheimer disparage The Odyssey as a rebuke to German paganism and in defense of Jewish traditions from Genesis to the critical theory anticipated by Spinoza, Marx, and Freud. 

There’s more to say about how later writers have used Homer, how they have assailed or adapted him to suit what they saw as justice, but I hope I have in my amateurish way demonstrated briefly that Homer’s reception is a crux or fulcrum of modernity. (See also Alberto Manguel’s “biography” of The Iliad and The Odyssey.) I do not advocate reverence toward the classics—any classic, which is to say any work that circulates beyond its own time, be it The Odyssey or Beloved. I agree with J. M. Coetzee in his essay “What Is a Classic?”: 

The classic defines itself by surviving. Therefore the interrogation of the classic, no matter how hostile, is part of the history of the classic, inevitable and even to be welcomed. For as long as the classic needs to be protected from attack, it can never prove itself classic.

But we have to read the classic to question it, to be aware of how its survival has shaped our world, and to deliberate the ethical and aesthetic questions such a riven tradition puts to us. We are lucky, then, that school isn’t the only place to get an education; as the poet said, “Libraries gave us power.” Still, we shouldn’t let ourselves become too cynical to lament how our institutions now wittingly or unwittingly serve the interests of a corporatist technocracy that wants not a critical, creative readership but a docile workforce and a captive audience.

[mistress-of-muses]

FC Advice

Hello everyone, I’d like to ask you your advice on a FC.

I have a muse named James. He’s Jesus’ little brother, was a priest and was martyred. He is a Savoir class and works alongside Peter at the Gates of Heaven.

James is also related to Solomon (through his father Joseph) and Nathan, Solomon’s full blooded brother (through James’ mother Mary).

Solomon

Nathan

He is therefore related twice to David and Bathsheba.

David

I have two FCs I have been thinking to use for him but I’m not sure which one. If you could look at both and take a vote on the strawpoll below that would really help.

Here are the options.

Tsurumaru Kuninaga

or

Nikkari Aoe

Please vote here https://www.strawpoll.me/19819382 and thank you.

More Info if you need it: Personality: Sweet, loyal, kind, faithful, shy, stubborn,humble, supportive, good.

Brief history: James was the younger brother of Jesus, born second to Mary and Joseph. He was a good man who always looked up to his older brother and cared for his younger siblings and parents. He was well loved by his family and he loved them. After Jesus’ death, James became the bishop of Jerusalem (referred to by some as the first Pope).

He was martyred in 69 AD when he refused to tell people (under the threat of death) that his older brother was a hack. He was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and then stoned/clubbed to death. His death was ruled as a murder.

He is called down as a Servant as a Savior/Saver class as a type of representative for his older brother. He is mainly non-combative and focuses on religious, moral and emotional clarity. He is basically the resident therapist and can boost moral.

His skills are:   

Counter Hero: Lowers the parameters of the statistics of ‘heroes’ that the Servant faces in combat.

   Charisma: Increases party’s attack for 3 turns.

His Noble Phantasm is the Horn of Heaven: It is a healing ability similar to David’s Harp of Healing, fully restoring allies’ hp and giving them evade for three turns.

[infjtarot]

King of Swords ~ Omegaland Tarot.

King of Swords ~ Omegaland Tarot.

Having spent some time with this guy, I would say that the term "natural born leader" is pretty appropriate. He's smart, but also unceasingly moral. His approach to most things tends towards the rational, being put off by sentiment and gushy emotions.

Direction.

Employ patient listening and ask penetrating questions.

General Meaning.

Traditionally, representing the energy of a King, this masculine energy form is The Adjudicator, the wise judge or mediator. He helps parties in conflict discover common ground and build upon it, and guides societies to see their greater good. His archetype is Solomon, ancient lawgiver and philosopher of the Old Testament. Sometimes appearing cool and detached, he can be misunderstood as not caring.

But emotional displays are just not his medium, nor is he moved by appeals to sympathy or pity. With the philosophical overview that comes from long experience, he listens deeply, watches closely and speaks last. In the end, his even-handedness and objectivity earn him the respect he receives from his community, and those who cannot work out their problems come to him voluntarily for advice.

Occasionally this man is subtly detailed to imply that he is a woman in male armour. If you notice this theme in your deck, it is a reference to Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, archetype of a devout and inspired woman warrior, who was mystically led to abandon her social role to defend what she saw as the greater good. Although she was martyred young, her model crystallizes the message that sometimes the good of the whole is more important than the good of the individual, and in that case, even if you lose, you win just for being there.

In the Advice Position.

Listen to the inner wisdom offered by the wise elder that dwells inside of you. The card in the Advice position suggests a course of action which will harmonize what you want with what is currently possible.

In this position, the King of Swords advises that you research your situation and in the process question existing authorities. It may be time to examine underlying assumptions and bring greater clarity into areas that have been left in the dark. Don't wait for others to do it. Instead, draw your own conclusions.

Spend time reviewing all the ramifications because this King of Swords requires a thorough, methodical examination of ideas and possibilities. Call forth the sober and wise part of yourself -- the elder father figure. Then act on the instructions given you.

[achello]

Clear Sky, 16°C

Gainesville

THE EMPEROR Key # 4

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou

labor not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth the present moment, throweth away all that he hath. As the arrow passeth through the heart, while the warrior knew not that it was

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.

– Akhenaten

So, a little history.

I chose Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten as my Emperor for many reasons.

Known as Amenhotep IV prior to the fifth year of his reign, he ruled Egypt for 17 years in the 18th Dynasty. He was the husband of Nefertiti and the father of probably the best known Pharaoh, Tutankhamun.

Akhenaten is noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which was likened to the Sun. It is thought by some that the Aten was actually a golden disk in the sky. Perhaps even a space ship. There has also been conjecture from various sources that he may have been an Alien Hybrid. His physical body was quite different than most men of the time. He had a large, elongated head, wide hips and a tummy. He was rather feminine. Nefertiti and Tutankhamun also had the same shaped head.

Another concept, my own, is that the Aten was the Inner Light within all human beings. The light seen with the Third Eye, as represented in this, as well as several other cards throughout the Terra Deck, including the back of each card. The Pharaoh also referred himself to the Aten.

Akhenaten was seemingly not a very popular Pharaoh. At least, upon his death, most depictions of him were destroyed in an attempt to remove him from Egyptian history. Egyptian religion also reverted back to polytheism. The priests of the old religion were very upset with him because he shunned their religion, thus taking away their power over the people. Sounds familiar even today. I would assume that it was the priests who regained a semblance of religious control under Tutankhamun’s reign and it were they that tried to wipe Akhenaten’s name from Egyptian history. That being said, there is evidence in many letters that have been discovered, that Akhenaten did have a faithful following during his reign.

I find his wisdom, discovered in his many quotes, very inspiring and Emperor like. It appears to me that he ruled with great wisdom and it is noted that he placed his kingdom above all else. Those are Emperor qualities.

I am not aware of any Tarot Deck where the Emperor card is represented by a particular ruler in history, although I am sure that there must be.

So, what does the Emperor card represent?

The Emperor is the ultimate father figure. He rules his people, family, employees, etc., with a firm hand but also with strength, compassion, patience and wisdom.

His kingdom is his responsibility and he takes that responsibility very seriously. Because of that, he carries a lot of weight on his shoulders and tries to find a balance in all of his decisions. I also think of King Solomon, who was known for his great wisdom.

There have also been Emperors throughout history who were tyrants. Emperors have an immense amount of power over others. They rule, after all. Power can be a very dangerous thing in the hands of the wrong person. It’s actually pretty rare that a person in the history of humanity who had that power, used it with compassion and wisdom. Power can easily corrupt. So, that would be the negative aspect of the Emperor card. Abuse of power. Inability to “rule” one’s life with clarity, wisdom and compassion for oneself and others. Lack of moral strength.

When the Emperor card is drawn in a reading, it could represent the querent but in most cases, it tends to represent a father figure, a boss, a person the querent looks up to for advice, for example. It could also be a message to be more assertive, to take control of a situation, to think clearly before making a decision, to be more responsible for one’s actions. To stand up for oneself.

[simplyseekingg]

self check in.

It’s almost a year into my program & some self reflection is deeply necessarily.  Let me first talk about the Kodak company.  I’m sure you’ve heard it somewhere, the “Kodak moment.”  A snapshot of time that captures the essence of a moment/eternity in one frame.  For nearly a hundred years Kodak dominated the film industry. They were the first to revolutionize the digital camera and one of the top 5 most prized companies in all of America.  But in 2012 they filed for bankruptcy.  What happened?  They stop innovating, they stopped jumping the curve of new technology, they stayed where they were and decided to continue doing things the way they were.  The moral of this story, what got you here might not get you to where you need to be next.  People can live off the momentum of the anointing of their lives yesterday but that eventually fades.  This reminds me of how as David was called to be king, God was already anointing Solomon to take his place. I felt the call to come to Austin to begin physical therapy school but that was yesterday’s calling.  I’ve forgotten to seek a fresh anointing each and every day.  Without it, i’m coasting.  I’m still unsure of my current anointing but I pray for clarity in the coming weeks.

[gyrlversion]

Toni Morrison defended, championed and chastised presidents

Toni Morrison was more than an acclaimed novelist. She was, for much of the last quarter-century, a voice of national conscience who spoke with piercing moral clarity about politics, race and cultural change.

She received particular attention for comments about three modern American presidents, writing with eloquence and fury about the values they embodied. In one enduring phrase, Morrison, who died Monday at 88, called Bill Clinton “our first black president” — an assertion that stirred years of debate, and for which she later expressed a measure of regret over how it had been misinterpreted.

“Beloved,” “Song of Solomon” and other celebrated novels and works of nonfiction are surely her most enduring literary contributions. But Morrison’s thoughts about the presidents who helped shaped the last three decades of American life might help historians better understand the writer — and the times in which she lived.

Bill Clinton

In The New Yorker in October 1998, Morrison lamented what she saw as the mistreatment of President Clinton, beginning with the Whitewater real estate scandal of the early 1990s and culminating with the furor over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

President Bill Clinton embraces Toni Morrison after awarding her a National Humanities Medal in 2000.Rick Bowmer / AP file

“The Presidency is being stolen from us,” Morrison wrote. “And the people know it.”

Morrison, appearing to suggest that African American men could surely relate to Clinton, wrote that the embattled president, “white skin notwithstanding,” was “our first black president.” She went on:

Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.

In the years that followed, some liberal Democrats embraced Morrison’s characterization of Clinton. But her words were also contentious. Clinton, progressive critics argued, harmed African American families with welfare reform efforts and a 1994 crime bill that many experts blame for accelerating mass incarceration.

Ten years later, in an interview with Time magazine amid the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Morrison said readers had “misunderstood that phrase” about Clinton:

I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race.

Barack Obama

As that 2008 presidential primary race got underway, Morrison publicly endorsed Barack Obama, then a junior senator from Illinois.

In a letter to Obama quoted by The New York Times, written at “one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their own peril,” Morrison explained that her endorsement was not based on Obama’s racial identity: “I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me proud.”

The author told the future president:

In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which, coupled with brilliance, equals wisdom.

Morrison told The Guardian in 2012 that she “felt very powerfully patriotic when I went to the inauguration of Barack Obama,” adding: “I felt like a kid.”

In the same interview, she bemoaned the “hateful” attacks on Obama from conservative critics and some 2012 Republican presidential contenders. She criticized what she saw as racially coded language in Republican politics, such as when Newt Gingrich called Obama the “food-stamp president.”

As Obama’s second term approached, Morrison told The Guardian, that GOP rhetoric was now “really embarrassing for my country.”

Obama, who in 2012 bestowed Morrison with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, paid tribute to the late author Tuesday on Twitter:

Toni Morrison was a national treasure, as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page. Her writing was a beautiful, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination. What a gift to breathe the same air as her, if only for a while. pic.twitter.com/JG7Jgu4p9t

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 6, 2019

Donald Trump

Morrison was one of 16 prominent writers who, immediately after the 2016 presidential election, contributed short essays to The New Yorker about the meaning of Trump’s surprise victory.

In “Mourning for Whiteness,” Morrison lamented fatal police shootings and racially motivated violence, such as the 2015 church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, and decried that so many white Americans were “prepared to abandon their humanity … in the name of white power and supremacy.” She expressed fear over the implications of Trump’s rise to power:

So scary are the consequences of a collapse of white privilege that many Americans have flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength. These people are not so much angry as terrified, with the kind of terror that makes knees tremble.

She also directly condemned the new president: “On Election Day, how eagerly so many white voters — both the poorly educated and the well educated — embraced the shame and fear sowed by Donald Trump.”

Daniel Arkin

Daniel Arkin is a reporter for NBC News.

The post Toni Morrison defended, championed and chastised presidents appeared first on Gyrlversion.

from WordPress http://www.gyrlversion.net/toni-morrison-defended-championed-and-chastised-presidents/

[biophytopharm]

Kava Herbs That Use Both Of Remedies And Social Occasion

Kava Herbs That Use Both Of Remedies And Social Occasion

Kava Herbs That Use Both Of Remedies And Social Occasion Kava-kava is a kinda herbs "Kava Herbs" that commonly used for seating and its mainly consumed to relax without disrupting mental clarity. It doesn’t bring on hallucinations, nor does it stupefy its users. Dr. Lebot compares its cultural implication as a traditional beverage to that of wine in southern Europe. The herbal roots of the plant are used to produce a drink with sedative props. Traditionally, kava was considered to be a beneficial herb for healthy individuals but should be avoided by the sick or infirm. It was considered a medicinal plant in cultures where it was also consumed as a ceremonial beverage. In Fiji, a tea of the root considered a diuretic was used for kidney and bladder ailments. It was also used to treat coughs and colds and sore throat. After giving childbirth, mothers were given a root decoction to help keep them from getting pregnant again. Nowadays, the root is ground in mortar and pestles, or powdered mechanically, if the commercially available powdered root is used. Socially regulated moderate consumption of the beverage is considered soothing to the temperament, helping to ease moral discomfort, allaying anxiety, relieving nervous tension, and leading to a serene state of mind. Heavy consumption can cause users to appear as if intoxicated. While in control of their minds, they can lose control of muscle movement of the limbs, as well as the eyes. Such as state is achieved with ingestion of inappropriate excessive amounts of the herb.

kava herbal remedies and social occasion The kava herbal leaves were also chewed and as a contraceptive. Externally, the juice from the fresh leaves was used as an embrocation on wounds. Fresh leaves were then used as a band-aid. Kava has also been used historically to treat gonorrhea, rheumatism, bronchitis, asthma, as well as treat stomachache and backaches. The root tea was used to relieve pain in cases of muscle aches and headaches. There are three major varieties ceremonies of kava, including those held on very formal social occasion such as to honor royalty. The second was kava ceremonies performed at community meetings, such as elder’s councils, and third, more informal kava ceremonies, such as for a Friday night occasion. Cultural context determined who developed the drink, usually a specially designated person or group of individuals in the community. Historically, preparation of kava beverage involved chewing the root. Kava A Wild Cognac Similar Herbal Kava or kava-kava is a kind of medicinal plant that popular known in European herbal medicine for nearly 150 years. The plant is actually considered a cultigen, which like garlic, has evolved in cultivation over thousands of years. It is estimated that kava has been cultivated on islands in the South Pacific for over 3,000 years. Kava is certainly one of the most important non-food plants of the South Sea islands that’s excellent as natural alternative herbal for stress/anxiety relief, muscle soreness and insomnia. Kava emerged as an important herb in dietary supplement markets in the United States. Kava is the genus Piper in pepper family (Piperaceae) and in the group to which black pepper (Piper nigrum) belongs. Botanists call it Piper methysticum. This is a large plant group, with over 1,000 species of Piper including shrubs, high climbing woody vines (called lianas) and even small trees. Kava is a highly variable shrub-like herb, usually growing to about six feet tall, but it can reach a height of 20 feet given lush soil and good sunlight. The bright green, heart-shaped leaves are about six to eight inches long. It does produce small flower spikes, but they are sterile. The plant must be propagated from dividing the roots. The succulent, thick stems have strongly swollen nodes, which vary in color from green to black. In native cultures such as Hawaii, these different variations were used to name distinct varieties, recognized by those who knew the plant well. Over a dozen types of kava were known in Hawaii, at least five in Fiji, several in New Guinea, nine in Samoa and on the island of Vanuatu, where kava culture is perhaps most highly developed, over 70 different varieties have been recognized by the Island’s indigenous people. In short, kava embodies the concept of endless variation.In Papua New Guinea, the locals refer to their kava as “waild koniak”, which means wild cognac in English. Vincent Lebot, a botanist at the University of Hawaii, believes that kava originates from Piper wichmannii, a wild species native to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. He believes that kava should be considered a group of sertile cultivated varieties selected centuries ago from Piper wichmannii. Whatever its origins, it is certainly the most important cultivated plant from a social perspective in the history of Pacific island societies. With a resurgence of interest in reasserting culture identity, masked by 200 years of attempts by European culture to subdue centuries-old religious traditions, kava is making a come-back among Oceanic peoples. In older literature it is some times described as a “drug,” however, kava use does not produce physical or psychological addiction or dependency. It does not produce hallucinations, nor does it stupefy its users. Dr. Lebot likens its cultural significance as a traditional beverage to that of wine in southern Europe. Follow us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || ).push({}); Read the full article

[singbox13-blog]

Here's the story behind the MOVE memorial shrine on the West Philly street recently renamed after former Mayor Wilson Goode Sr

 Added on December 3, 2018  Pariss Briggs, Simone Stancil and Jenny Stein  Community , Linn Washington , Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza , Mayor Goode , MOVE bombing , Protests , Serudj-Ta Alliance , Solomon Jones , West Philly , Wilson Goode

On the 2400 block of North 59th Street, just below the newly named W. Wilson Goode Sr. Way, stands a four-foot-tall shrine that reads, “To honor former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. with a street, is to dishonor the 11 MOVE ancestors and the Osage Avenue/Pine Street neighbors.”

The shrine was created by Philadelphia activist Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza. On Saturday, Oct. 13, the memorial was unveiled to a crowd of nearly 65 people. Drums and chants of “No Goode Way” were heard as the crowd marched down the block, declaring their opposition to the street now named after the former mayor.

The street sign has garnered a lot of attention due to Goode’s controversial term. Following the announcement of the renaming, protests occurred at the ceremony of the renaming in September. Community members gathered to protest the honoring of a man whose decision to authorize a bomb released on a row home killed 11 people and destroyed more than 60 homes.

Sullivan-Ongoza explained that the shrine was created not only as a reaction to the renaming but also served as a visual reminder for those who were lost in the bombing.

“We’re morally obligated to remember these people, and to not allow [officials] to do revisionist history,” Sullivan-Ongoza said. “We’re doing something we should’ve done a long time ago.”

The shrine has been up since mid-October. The red wooden panel features facts about the MOVE bombing, pictures and a toy diorama with policemen and fire trucks, all of which illustrate the events of that day in 1985.

“I wanted the toys to represent the children [who were killed],” Sullivan-Ongoza said, describing her thought process to those around her during the unveiling. “But it also represents what killed them: the police and the firefighters.”

Linn Washington, professor at Temple University and writer for Al Dia News, was present on the day of the bombing in May of 1985. After covering MOVE for 10 years, Washington witnessed the community respond with horror as more than 10,000 bullets were fired by police officials. The fire spread down the 6200 blocks of Osage Avenue.

“The initial outrage and anger was directed at the police, and then to a lesser degree to the firefighters,” Washington said. “But, when Wilson came out the next day and said that while he was essentially devastated about what happened, he would do the same thing again. Then folks started focusing in on him.”

Milele Sullivan attended the memorial ceremony and explained that the renaming of the street in Goode’s honor symbolized an apathy toward those affected by the bombing.

“It’s more than just a piece of tin,” Sullivan said. “It signifies hurt, it signifies destruction. This pain and this destruction is still here 33 years later.”

Sullivan said the police’s response for the shrine ceremony was better than it was for the renaming ceremony.

“They blocked off a street for us so we could walk in,” Sullivan said. “I’m just thankful that the energy of the police presence wasn’t as intense as it was the first time.”

Throughout the demonstration, Philadelphia community members played music, marched and held signs to express opposition to the renaming. They also walked along the block with a red, black and green striped flag, also known as the Pan-African or Black liberation flag, to signify black pride and civil rights.

The community is advocating for the removal of the street sign and are supporting compensation for the families who directly suffered the consequences of the attack. A flyer distributed by the Serudj-Ta Alliance for Restorative Justice at the shrine ceremony read, “We expect and DEMAND reasonable transparency, inclusion, ethical reasoning and clarity.”

According to the flyer, the alliance is a multi-general group of activists and is requesting more regard for the community by asking Philadelphia City Council representatives to be more honest, fair and informative. The Serudj-Ta Alliance was founded shortly after the street renaming in late September. 

Best-selling author and award-winning journalist Solomon Jones also discussed the impact that the MOVE bombing had on Philadelphia and on the former mayor.

“That incident created a stain on him as mayor and on the city that just has not gone away,” said Jones. “I understand because people are still very upset, very angry, and you can’t discount the cost of 11 lives.”

Though the approval to rename the street was met with community backlash, the Praise Philly host also mentioned that Mayor Goode’s term should not be entirely discredited, despite the bombing.

“While I don’t know if they should have named a street after him, he is someone who should be recognized for the many good things he’s done for the city,” Jones said.

Washington explained that the outrage toward the renaming was a reaction not only to the bombing of 1985 but the injustice that continues to take place in the police force and criminal justice system.

“Because there was no accountability for any of those that were involved in the holocaust that took place in May of 1985, there’s no closure,” Washington said. “So people are still just angry and it’s not just that one day. It’s all of the police brutality and all of the institutional racism and structural inequities that led up to that. And all that have come after that. People are just pissed off that these injustices continue and, rightly or wrongly, a focus of that deep-seeded and roiling anger has settled around Wilson Goode.”

— Text, images and video by Pariss Briggs, Lake Stein and Simone Stancil

Like this:

Like Loading…

Source: https://philadelphianeighborhoods.com/2018/12/03/overbrook-community-members-memorialize-demonstrate-at-new-wilson-goode-sign/

[veniceleaks]

Tao Junren

NAME: Tao Junren

((In-Game Handle: Junren))

ALIASES: Mister Tao, Ren, Ah Ren.

BIRTHDATE: January 7th 1988

FACTION: Dragon

TWITTER HANDLE: @gazeclarity

KNOWN ASSOCIATES: Zaire Wayra (Comrade), Nuan Li (Templar associate), Tao Guoming (Father), Tao Xiangyi (Mother)

KNOWN ANIMOSITIES: UNKNOWN.

EARLY LIFE: Born to a family who possess the ability to see unseen ghosts and paranormal entities in their lineage. Tao Junren’s family descended from a clan of Chinese exorcists and ‘witches’ who devote their lives to eliminating malicious paranormal entities. His father, a descendant of such peculiar lineage, is a humble caretaker of a temple, while his mother runs a small food stall.

Junren is born with ocular albinism that gives him vision problems, ironical to the fact that he possesses the ‘third eye’ to see ghosts and invisible paranormal activity with utmost clarity. Often bullied and abused by others for his eyes and eccentric behaviour on top of his family’s demanding expectations of him, Junren became a social recluse and suffered depression. Moreover, his gift and affinity for magic attracted undesirable paranormal entities which devastated most part of his life.

Nonetheless, Junren found passion in helping others and saw hope through devoting his life to bringing justice for people. After his national service conscription, Junren studied hard in police science and worked his way into the police force. After an uneventful incident dealing with an occult murder case, Junren was recruited by the Dragon.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF ANIMA INFUSION: Unfortunate incident, once again. Junren was attempting suicide the day he was blessed by Gaia several years ago. It impeded his suicidal attempt. The Dragon made full use of his Anima abilities afterwards and sought professional therapy for his severe depression.

ANIMA INFUSION SIDE EFFECTS: Junren’s ‘Third Eye’ ability is not a result of Anima infusion but a born trait. It permits him to see invisible preternatural entities, such as unseen spectres, invisible djinns and radiating auras. His true Anima abilities include a quickened capacity to grasp magical spells (E.g. blood healing magic, elementalism), creation of protective wards and wielding of divine fire. Otherwise, most his capabilities are of a standard Anima-infused individual.

CURRENT REMIT: The Dragon have been assigning Junren on occult operations, such as investigations, exorcism missions. His ties with the Singapore Police Force offers him leverage in covering up occult disasters that are exposed to the mundane. He is also observed to handle missions for the Council of Venice.

EXTRACURRICULARS: Junren works for the Singapore Police Force as a CID officer. Also seen performing free exorcism and spirit mediumship to protect civilians from hauntings. Observed to perform charitable acts such as transporting supplies to the survivors in Solomon Island. 

ACTIVITIES IN THE SECRET WAR: Largely unknown. It is observed that Junren has remain rather neutral and ambivalent to the secret war. He only works purely for the Dragon and the Council.

MICE: Junren is a hard read. Questionable ethics and morality, even though he is seen performing acts of altruism. His tendency to question and rebel may lead to disagreements with his own faction. Junren’s moral values and ideological differences may clash with the Dragon’s endgame. Then again, it is difficult to discern the Dragon. Perhaps the Dragon has desired this.

[frowncod73-blog]

Here's the story behind the MOVE memorial shrine on the West Philly street recently renamed after former Mayor Wilson Goode Sr

 Added on December 3, 2018  Pariss Briggs, Simone Stancil and Jenny Stein  Community , Linn Washington , Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza , Mayor Goode , MOVE bombing , Protests , Serudj-Ta Alliance , Solomon Jones , West Philly , Wilson Goode

On the 2400 block of North 59th Street, just below the newly named W. Wilson Goode Sr. Way, stands a four-foot-tall shrine that reads, “To honor former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. with a street, is to dishonor the 11 MOVE ancestors and the Osage Avenue/Pine Street neighbors.”

The shrine was created by Philadelphia activist Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza. On Saturday, Oct. 13, the memorial was unveiled to a crowd of nearly 65 people. Drums and chants of “No Goode Way” were heard as the crowd marched down the block, declaring their opposition to the street now named after the former mayor.

The street sign has garnered a lot of attention due to Goode’s controversial term. Following the announcement of the renaming, protests occurred at the ceremony of the renaming in September. Community members gathered to protest the honoring of a man whose decision to authorize a bomb released on a row home killed 11 people and destroyed more than 60 homes.

Sullivan-Ongoza explained that the shrine was created not only as a reaction to the renaming but also served as a visual reminder for those who were lost in the bombing.

“We’re morally obligated to remember these people, and to not allow [officials] to do revisionist history,” Sullivan-Ongoza said. “We’re doing something we should’ve done a long time ago.”

The shrine has been up since mid-October. The red wooden panel features facts about the MOVE bombing, pictures and a toy diorama with policemen and fire trucks, all of which illustrate the events of that day in 1985.

“I wanted the toys to represent the children [who were killed],” Sullivan-Ongoza said, describing her thought process to those around her during the unveiling. “But it also represents what killed them: the police and the firefighters.”

Linn Washington, professor at Temple University and writer for Al Dia News, was present on the day of the bombing in May of 1985. After covering MOVE for 10 years, Washington witnessed the community respond with horror as more than 10,000 bullets were fired by police officials. The fire spread down the 6200 blocks of Osage Avenue.

“The initial outrage and anger was directed at the police, and then to a lesser degree to the firefighters,” Washington said. “But, when Wilson came out the next day and said that while he was essentially devastated about what happened, he would do the same thing again. Then folks started focusing in on him.”

Milele Sullivan attended the memorial ceremony and explained that the renaming of the street in Goode’s honor symbolized an apathy toward those affected by the bombing.

“It’s more than just a piece of tin,” Sullivan said. “It signifies hurt, it signifies destruction. This pain and this destruction is still here 33 years later.”

Sullivan said the police’s response for the shrine ceremony was better than it was for the renaming ceremony.

“They blocked off a street for us so we could walk in,” Sullivan said. “I’m just thankful that the energy of the police presence wasn’t as intense as it was the first time.”

Throughout the demonstration, Philadelphia community members played music, marched and held signs to express opposition to the renaming. They also walked along the block with a red, black and green striped flag, also known as the Pan-African or Black liberation flag, to signify black pride and civil rights.

The community is advocating for the removal of the street sign and are supporting compensation for the families who directly suffered the consequences of the attack. A flyer distributed by the Serudj-Ta Alliance for Restorative Justice at the shrine ceremony read, “We expect and DEMAND reasonable transparency, inclusion, ethical reasoning and clarity.”

According to the flyer, the alliance is a multi-general group of activists and is requesting more regard for the community by asking Philadelphia City Council representatives to be more honest, fair and informative. The Serudj-Ta Alliance was founded shortly after the street renaming in late September. 

Best-selling author and award-winning journalist Solomon Jones also discussed the impact that the MOVE bombing had on Philadelphia and on the former mayor.

“That incident created a stain on him as mayor and on the city that just has not gone away,” said Jones. “I understand because people are still very upset, very angry, and you can’t discount the cost of 11 lives.”

Though the approval to rename the street was met with community backlash, the Praise Philly host also mentioned that Mayor Goode’s term should not be entirely discredited, despite the bombing.

“While I don’t know if they should have named a street after him, he is someone who should be recognized for the many good things he’s done for the city,” Jones said.

Washington explained that the outrage toward the renaming was a reaction not only to the bombing of 1985 but the injustice that continues to take place in the police force and criminal justice system.

“Because there was no accountability for any of those that were involved in the holocaust that took place in May of 1985, there’s no closure,” Washington said. “So people are still just angry and it’s not just that one day. It’s all of the police brutality and all of the institutional racism and structural inequities that led up to that. And all that have come after that. People are just pissed off that these injustices continue and, rightly or wrongly, a focus of that deep-seeded and roiling anger has settled around Wilson Goode.”

— Text, images and video by Pariss Briggs, Lake Stein and Simone Stancil

Like this:

Like Loading…

Source: https://philadelphianeighborhoods.com/2018/12/03/overbrook-community-members-memorialize-demonstrate-at-new-wilson-goode-sign/

[unixcommerce]

Want to Improve Your Workplace? 16 Productive Questions to Ask Yourself

As a leader, you know your workplace dynamic directly impacts employee morale and, in turn, your bottom line. No matter how great your company culture might be, there is always room for improvement.

But to make impactful changes, you’ll have to first understand which areas warrant the most attention.

Advice on How to Improve Your Workplace

To help you identify those areas, we asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members this question:

“What’s one productive question business professionals can ask themselves in order to better understand what they need to improve in the workplace?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Are We Accomplishing Our Daily and Weekly Goals?

“This question refers to time management and productivity. How well are you and your team handling the hours in the day when working with clients or completing assignments? Do daily check-ins work with your team? Will time management tools prevent people from goofing off? You need to constantly assess, especially in times of uncertainty.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7

2. Am I Living the Brand Values?

“Often companies will go through the process of creating brand values. Everyone in the company is excited, but after some time, that rush of enthusiasm wears off. The leaders in the organization are not living and breathing what the company says it stands for, leading to misalignment. By focusing on realigning values to the north star, it clears up a lot of confusion and decision-making, boosting productivity.” ~ Rishi Sharma, Mallama

3. Am I Reaching My Full Potential?

“For your team and your business to continue to prosper and grow, you must first tap into your full potential. Continue to increase your knowledge. Train and invest in yourself. Make it your mission to take massive action toward your goals and identify the areas where you can improve. When you are at your best, this positivity will trickle down and boost your business and everyone around you.” ~ Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

4. How Are We Spending Our Time?

“One productive question business professionals can ask themselves to improve the workplace is, ‘How am I or my team spending time?’ It’s very important to know what tasks consume most of your time during the day, rate their level of complexity and see if you can delegate them to someone else or put a process in place to complete them more efficiently.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

5. How Can I Make Myself Obsolete?

“One key goal that’s always in the back of my mind is, ‘How do I make myself obsolete?’ If a year from now my day-to-day looks like today, I will have failed to grow. Stagnation is death. To be clear, I’m not talking about ‘climbing the ladder.’ It’s all about impact and expanding my horizons. As a founder, my job is to create, to set direction and then hand it off for execution.” ~ Alex Furman, Invitae

6. What Are We Avoiding?

“Is there one element of your business process the team shies away from? What is that? Usually this is due to a lack of understanding around that piece. Whether it’s a confusing technology, an unclear line of reporting or conflicting goals or processes, people procrastinate when they’re unsure of what to do. Identify this and then work on creating clarity to improve.” ~ Thomas Smale, FE International

7. What Am I Tolerating?

“As a method for self-accountability, I often ask myself ‘What am I tolerating?’ What am I tolerating from myself, from my team, from my career? The answers help me take stock of where things are heading and get them back on the right path.” ~ Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage

8. Am I Focusing on the Right Metrics?

“Most people in business today are swimming in data and tracking all types of metrics. It’s essential to track your results, but it’s just as important to focus on the right data. Make sure you are tracking numbers that are directly relevant to your goals. Review your main objectives and ask yourself if you have a reliable way to measure your progress.” ~ Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting

9. Did This Task or Project Add Value?

“When looking at whether a task or project is creating value, you also need to consider the time spent. Could the time spent on this task be put to better use? Could I accomplish more in the same time? Answering these questions honestly will tell you whether it’s worthwhile doing the same thing again or if you should change what you’re doing.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

10. What Is Confusing People?

“I frequently ask the managers on our team, and then ask myself, ‘What do we think people are confused by?’ Are there decisions that have been made that we haven’t explained the ‘why’ behind enough? Are there any areas of the business where we are sending mixed messages? Is there anything we announced that might happen that we haven’t followed up on? This challenges us to improve our communication with everyone.” ~ Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.

11. Would I Recommend Working Here to my Friends and Family?

“The immediate answer to this should be yes, and if it isn’t, you should consider why. This question opens the opportunity to make changes in areas of business that would make you more likely to promote the company to others. Don’t be afraid to ask your employees this question as well and see what their response is.” ~ Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.

12. Is Our Culture Sustainable?

“It’s really important to understand when there could be flaws entering into the company culture. If people are not completing tasks, are giving excuses or overworking themselves, it’s important to be able to ask questions about that. This means looking at how sustainable the current culture is. Does it encourage growth?” ~ Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting, Inc.

13. How Can I Simplify the Business?

“Simplifying your business can remove complexities and increase revenue, so it makes sense to get back to the most simplistic form of your business and then figure out how you can scale. Find one product that will make all the difference, get rid of all the nonsense and focus on this one product.” ~ Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS

14. Am I Making the Best Use of My Abilities?

“It’s vital to get people doing tasks that are best suited to their abilities. For example, you may have strong technical skills, but if you’re great at marketing, then that’s what you should be doing. You need to ensure that you and your team are using your skills to their best effect. It’s a time-waster to put the wrong people in the wrong jobs.” ~ Blair Williams, MemberPress

15. Do I Have the Right Team?

“If you hire people who don’t understand the company culture or vision, then it’s safe to say they won’t carry out procedures properly. When you bring people on board, make sure you provide adequate training and resources to ensure they’re on the same page.” ~ Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

16. Are People Happy?

“Happy employees are productive employees. When people feel a sense of pride and happiness where they work, they will go above and beyond to be more productive and work toward achieving the goals of the business.” ~ Josh Weiss, Reggie

CHECK OUT MORE ADVICE: 

The Young Entrepreneur Council

This article, “Want to Improve Your Workplace? 16 Productive Questions to Ask Yourself” was first published on Small Business Trends

https://smallbiztrends.com/

The post Want to Improve Your Workplace? 16 Productive Questions to Ask Yourself appeared first on Unix Commerce.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/31LduHD via IFTTT

[businessreviewguidenow]

Want to Improve Your Workplace? 16 Productive Questions to Ask Yourself

As a leader, you know your workplace dynamic directly impacts employee morale and, in turn, your bottom line. No matter how great your company culture might be, there is always room for improvement.

But to make impactful changes, you’ll have to first understand which areas warrant the most attention.

Advice on How to Improve Your Workplace

To help you identify those areas, we asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members this question:

“What’s one productive question business professionals can ask themselves in order to better understand what they need to improve in the workplace?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Are We Accomplishing Our Daily and Weekly Goals?

“This question refers to time management and productivity. How well are you and your team handling the hours in the day when working with clients or completing assignments? Do daily check-ins work with your team? Will time management tools prevent people from goofing off? You need to constantly assess, especially in times of uncertainty.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7

2. Am I Living the Brand Values?

“Often companies will go through the process of creating brand values. Everyone in the company is excited, but after some time, that rush of enthusiasm wears off. The leaders in the organization are not living and breathing what the company says it stands for, leading to misalignment. By focusing on realigning values to the north star, it clears up a lot of confusion and decision-making, boosting productivity.” ~ Rishi Sharma, Mallama

3. Am I Reaching My Full Potential?

“For your team and your business to continue to prosper and grow, you must first tap into your full potential. Continue to increase your knowledge. Train and invest in yourself. Make it your mission to take massive action toward your goals and identify the areas where you can improve. When you are at your best, this positivity will trickle down and boost your business and everyone around you.” ~ Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

4. How Are We Spending Our Time?

“One productive question business professionals can ask themselves to improve the workplace is, ‘How am I or my team spending time?’ It’s very important to know what tasks consume most of your time during the day, rate their level of complexity and see if you can delegate them to someone else or put a process in place to complete them more efficiently.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

5. How Can I Make Myself Obsolete?

“One key goal that’s always in the back of my mind is, ‘How do I make myself obsolete?’ If a year from now my day-to-day looks like today, I will have failed to grow. Stagnation is death. To be clear, I’m not talking about ‘climbing the ladder.’ It’s all about impact and expanding my horizons. As a founder, my job is to create, to set direction and then hand it off for execution.” ~ Alex Furman, Invitae

6. What Are We Avoiding?

“Is there one element of your business process the team shies away from? What is that? Usually this is due to a lack of understanding around that piece. Whether it’s a confusing technology, an unclear line of reporting or conflicting goals or processes, people procrastinate when they’re unsure of what to do. Identify this and then work on creating clarity to improve.” ~ Thomas Smale, FE International

7. What Am I Tolerating?

“As a method for self-accountability, I often ask myself ‘What am I tolerating?’ What am I tolerating from myself, from my team, from my career? The answers help me take stock of where things are heading and get them back on the right path.” ~ Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage

8. Am I Focusing on the Right Metrics?

“Most people in business today are swimming in data and tracking all types of metrics. It’s essential to track your results, but it’s just as important to focus on the right data. Make sure you are tracking numbers that are directly relevant to your goals. Review your main objectives and ask yourself if you have a reliable way to measure your progress.” ~ Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting

9. Did This Task or Project Add Value?

“When looking at whether a task or project is creating value, you also need to consider the time spent. Could the time spent on this task be put to better use? Could I accomplish more in the same time? Answering these questions honestly will tell you whether it’s worthwhile doing the same thing again or if you should change what you’re doing.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

10. What Is Confusing People?

“I frequently ask the managers on our team, and then ask myself, ‘What do we think people are confused by?’ Are there decisions that have been made that we haven’t explained the ‘why’ behind enough? Are there any areas of the business where we are sending mixed messages? Is there anything we announced that might happen that we haven’t followed up on? This challenges us to improve our communication with everyone.” ~ Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.

11. Would I Recommend Working Here to my Friends and Family?

“The immediate answer to this should be yes, and if it isn’t, you should consider why. This question opens the opportunity to make changes in areas of business that would make you more likely to promote the company to others. Don’t be afraid to ask your employees this question as well and see what their response is.” ~ Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.

12. Is Our Culture Sustainable?

“It’s really important to understand when there could be flaws entering into the company culture. If people are not completing tasks, are giving excuses or overworking themselves, it’s important to be able to ask questions about that. This means looking at how sustainable the current culture is. Does it encourage growth?” ~ Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting, Inc.

13. How Can I Simplify the Business?

“Simplifying your business can remove complexities and increase revenue, so it makes sense to get back to the most simplistic form of your business and then figure out how you can scale. Find one product that will make all the difference, get rid of all the nonsense and focus on this one product.” ~ Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS

14. Am I Making the Best Use of My Abilities?

“It’s vital to get people doing tasks that are best suited to their abilities. For example, you may have strong technical skills, but if you’re great at marketing, then that’s what you should be doing. You need to ensure that you and your team are using your skills to their best effect. It’s a time-waster to put the wrong people in the wrong jobs.” ~ Blair Williams, MemberPress

15. Do I Have the Right Team?

“If you hire people who don’t understand the company culture or vision, then it’s safe to say they won’t carry out procedures properly. When you bring people on board, make sure you provide adequate training and resources to ensure they’re on the same page.” ~ Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

16. Are People Happy?

“Happy employees are productive employees. When people feel a sense of pride and happiness where they work, they will go above and beyond to be more productive and work toward achieving the goals of the business.” ~ Josh Weiss, Reggie

CHECK OUT MORE ADVICE: 

The Young Entrepreneur Council

This article, “Want to Improve Your Workplace? 16 Productive Questions to Ask Yourself” was first published on Small Business Trends

source https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/07/want-to-improve-your-workplace-16-productive-questions-to-ask-yourself.html

from WordPress https://businessreviewguidenow.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/want-to-improve-your-workplace-16-productive-questions-to-ask-yourself/ via IFTTT