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the-insomniac-emporium · 3 years

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Waking Comfort (Bela Dimitrescu/Reader)

Fandom: Resident Evil: Village Rating: T for language, brief violence (in a flashback), implied/referenced trauma (unspecified) Warnings: N/A Summary: Unable to sleep on a cold day, Bela Dimitrescu tries to find comfort in her favorite servant... only to end up being the one doing the comforting. Notes: This is super self indulgent, because my dreams have been murdering me recently. Reader is a selective mute/partially nonverbal, implied neurodivergent (unspecified), gender neutral but written with a non-binary person in mind, with non-specific past trauma. Basically this is somewhat of a self-insert fic but I've smudged some lines to make it more relatable for other people.

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In the early hours of the day, when the sun had yet to reach its peak, a cold quiet fell over Castle Dimitrescu. Most inhabitants were of a nocturnal persuasion, and lay sleeping soundly at this hour. Those few that thrived in the sun moved softly, with caution, daring not to awaken their masters. Oh, if only they knew that one Lady of the house was awake, prowling the corridors with marked intent. What a chill it would send down their spines- what lovely fear would permeate the household.

Ah, but that was not what Bela Dimitrescu desired, at least not for now. No, what she needed was something she would never admit out loud. It was a “base” need, one that all humans felt, and so she feared that it was beneath her. There was only one person that she could trust for this: A servant, experienced in all matters needed of them, level-headed, compassionate… and, most importantly, selectively mute.

Over the past year, Bela had found herself growing closer to you, much to her own surprise. The two of you had started to bond through reading, after you had helped her reorganize a mess in the library (left by none other than Lady Daniela). Since then, you had proven to be a valuable ally, always finding creative solutions to the family’s problems. From jury-rigging a set of climbing gear for repairs, to proof-reading all formal letters, there was hardly any part of Bela’s life that you hadn’t assisted with. All while only ever saying two or three sentences- short ones, at that.

Neither of you would ever forget the first (and only) time you spoke out loud. A would-be hunter had infiltrated the estate, through a damaged skylight (which you later repaired), intending to prove his worth by killing the nobility inside. By the time Bela arrived, after being notified by a terrified maiden, she found the situation had already been aptly handled. There you had stood, clutching an ornate, bloodied cane like a club. In front of you had been the unconscious hunter.

“You could have been hurt!” Bela had snapped, unable to stop herself, glad that her sisters hadn’t arrived yet. Then you had glanced at the man, then her, then back to the man. Something uncharacteristically dark had danced in your eyes.

“He said he was going to save me… from you. Called me defenseless,” you had snarled, poking the man with your cane as you did. “Rude.” Before Bela even had a chance to react, her sisters had appeared, disappointed to find the fight already over. They had fought over who would get to kill the hunter, and somewhere in that chaos you had slipped away without another word.

That day had replayed itself in Bela’s mind hundreds of times in her mind. Though she would not readily admit it, that had been the day that her casual affection for you had started to turn into something more serious. These days she didn’t even know how to describe your relationship- after all, you had never told her how you felt. But you had held her, closely, fingers running through her hair while she fought off memories from someone else’s life. Held her in your arms, as she held you, staving off the cold like it was all you had ever known.

This was what she wanted. Your touch, your comfort. All that stood in her way was a familiar question: Where were you? Master of your environment, schedule constantly in flux, you were rarely where anyone expected you to be, especially when you were prone to taking on whatever tasks others hadn’t had time to finish. So Bela searches, quickly, around places the day-shift tends to gather. She’s careful not to be seen, even though she knows the maidens aren’t likely to gossip where her family might hear. In the end she catches a hint of your scent near the servants’ quarters, and curses herself for not checking there sooner.

Your room is one of the only single-occupancy rooms in this wing. Only senior staff were allowed within these places, most of them rotating out as they “lost their usefulness”. The fact that you had slept in the same bed every night for six months was a testament to your skill. It’s the kind of thought that brings Bela some semblance of warmth in her chest. Still, the thought alone is not enough, so she slowly eases your door open.

Her ears strain against the silence, listening for the pattern of your breathing, or the telltale murmurs that would announce your awakening. Instead, the first things she hears are little gasps, then the shifting of fabric. Dreams of some sort have you turning and tossing, lungs getting hungry in their pursuit of air. It’s not immediately clear whether or not you are enjoying the dream. Were these good gasps, like those that Daniela often cooed about when she praised her maiden? Or were these the same kind that sometimes haunted Bela herself?...

A whimper cuts through the air, and suddenly Bela loses all patience. Practically running, she crosses the room in an instant, concern etched into her brow. One hand cautiously reaches for your blanket, pulling it back enough for her to slide in next to you. It’s a risk, one that could make you wake up with a panic, but it’s one she’s willing to take. After all, she had asked you about this sort of thing before. Though you couldn’t form full sentences, you had experience “miming” things, and Bela was quite clever with her “yes or no” questions.

When she carefully wraps an arm around your waist, she does so with confidence. Beneath her touch you stiffen, back going as tense as possible, but you stop shaking. A few more gasps leave you, and Bela wonders whether or not she should wake you up. Less than a minute later the decision is made for her. All the sudden your gasping turns to a sharp exclamation, body jerking hard, eyes snapping open. Tension coils through your muscles, driving your already overstimulated brain overboard.

Before Bela can even try to comfort you, you sit up, quickly turning so your legs dangle off the edge of the bed. Muffled sobs pass your lips as you hold your face in your hands. Memories struggle against each other behind your eyes, blocking out every other sensation. Your jaw is clenched, hard, and you struggle to breathe between shakes. A hand touches your back, but quickly moves when you flinch in response. It takes a minute for you to even process who else is with you. Once you do, some of the tension bleeds from your body.

“If you’d rather be alone right now, I understand,” Bela says, quietly, as soon as she thinks you’ll be able to understand her. For a moment you can’t bring yourself to respond, and you can feel her side of the mattress shifting, like she’s getting ready to leave. Panic springs up in your chest again, so you quickly reach a hand out in her direction. Thankfully she knows what to expect at this point, easily finding your hand in the dark, gently taking it within her own. “One squeeze for yes, two for no?”

You squeeze, once.

“Do you want me to hold you?” Bela asks, trying to hide the hopefulness in her voice. It makes you pause, considering, even though you’re still overwhelmed by your sensory inputs. In the end you squeeze her hand twice. “No worries, my dear. Don’t be tempted to push yourself just for my sake.” Somehow she always knew how to read you like an open book. Even with the… difficulty of communicating with you. Not that she had ever complained, or even thought about it. Knowing you, and caring for you, made any effort feel as easy as breathing.

A few minutes pass without another word being said. Sometimes Bela gives your hand a little squeeze, just to check in, and you always return it. Soon enough your brain starts to relax, loosening its vice-like grip on your motor controls. Once again you can ease the tension in your muscles. Then you find yourself rubbing your thumb against Bela’s hand, moving in soft circular motions, head turning so you can smile at her. Even if it’s too dark for you to see much, you know that her eyes see you just fine.

“Feeling any better?” She asks, donning a smile of her own. One squeeze. “Is there anything more I can do to help?” A pause, then one squeeze. Now that your limbs don’t feel as staticky, there’s only one thing on your mind: Cuddling. You’re moving before you know it, briefly letting go of Bela’s hand so you can get closer to her, pressing your face into her neck and giving her a soft kiss. Then you’re falling against the bed, on your side, looking up at your partner with a grin. It doesn’t take her long to get the message, shifting back onto her side so she can hold you for real this time. One of your hands goes to rest on her back, to serve as your translator for the rest of the night. “I love you,” Bela says, without even thinking.

She freezes up afterwards, realizing that this is the first time she’s ever said the words out loud to you. For a moment she’s scared, a feeling alien to her, but she refuses to back down. It pays off a few seconds later, incredibly so, when you return the words the best way you can: One squeeze.

#bela dimitrescu #bela dimitrescu x reader #resident evil: village #re8 village #glorified self insert #self indulgence at its finest #is this even in character??#or am I just lonely and prone to incredibly intense nightmares #hopefully ~somebody~ enjoys #especially after the last serenade chapter right?

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kemetic-dreams · 5 years

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African not Black

Blackness Started in Slavery

We have to start this discussion in its most basic terms. Where do Black people originate from? Then if the answer is Africa, then what is the purpose of identifying with a color over our beautiful Motherland? We could end all discussions with just that simple sentence.

Black is a construction, which articulates a recent social-political reality of people of color (pigmented people). Black is not a racial family, an ethnic group or a super-ethnic group. Political blackness is thus not an identity but moreover a social-political consequence of a world which after colonialism and slavery existed in those color terms.

“white” depends for its stability on its negation, “black.” Neither exists without the other, and both come into being at the moment of imperial conquest– Fanon

The Invention of the White Race is a groundbreaking analysis of the birth of racism in America. When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no “white” people, nor, according to colonial records, would there be for another sixty years. In his seminal two-volume work, Theodore W. Allen details the creation of the “white race” by the ruling class as a method of social control in response to labor unrest precipitated by Bacon’s Rebellion. By distinguishing European Americans from African Americans within the laboring class, white privileges enforced the myth of the white race through the years and has been central to maintaining ruling-class domination over the entire working class.

In our modern era old identities split apart and reform along more self-determined line to recover what was lost after the impact of conquest and domination. We see The Gypsies are now to be called “Roma,” and the reindeer-herding Lapps of Northern Scandinavia are the “Saami.” Similarly, some now claim the Iroquois Indians should be called the “Haudenosaunee” and the Cherokee the “Tsalagi”

Africans have gone from Negro (Spanish for Black) to Black (English for Negro) what has changed? Only the language. An identity is generally geographical and ties the people to their native environment or their core doctrine (Jews of Judaism, Muslims of Islam, Chinese of China).

Very few Africans are actually Black in color, so where is the foundation of a Black people or black people coming from? It is how Africans were seen relative to the European people. So relative to the pales skin of Europeans and White Arabs the most dominant thing about African was relative skin color. Hence the exonym Black in the eyes of the “other.” It was not the land, not the African hair, but the relative color of a diverse skin pigment – that is rarely black in color. For Indians it is their land, for Chinese it is their land, for Jews it is their faith and a notion of Israel. Yet Condolezza Rice feels the best thing that describes her in American is blackness. And to some extent she is right, because there is nothing in her cultural, ethical, aesthetic, outlook that resembles the continent her ancestors came from. She has replaced Africa with America, and finally Africaness with dreams of the White ideal.

African and black are not interchangeable just as Dark continent and Africa are not. Self-determination allows a people to re-examine definitions and sculpt them to their reality. Black, like Negro is facing linguistic extinction, especially in academic circles, due to its poor foundation in speaking about the oldest and most diverse people on the planet. Notice today only two races go by color labels; The race with the most oppression and the ones inflicting that oppression. “I am black and proud” is a song, nothing else. It is the rhetoric necessary at the time to lift an oppressed people who only knew of themselves through the eyes of their oppressor. It has run its course and has expired.

Some have argued that African people chose “black” as an acceptable identity. The evidence is in all the books African-Americans write where the word “black” (lowercase) is used without care. But self-determination has a condition – full knowledge of self. And this is why we see the new Nig*er identity which by the same mass consensus process seems to be a valid new identity. And just like “black” it is again almost exclusively the world view of a minority African population living in America.

In Mauritania, the Haratin account for as much as 40% of the Mauritanian population. They are sometimes referred to as “Black Moors“, in contrast to Beidane. The Haratin are Arabic-speakers, and generally claim a Berber or Arab origin, which is contrasted against other African peoples in southern Mauritania (such as the Wolof and Fula people who have populations in Mauritania). The Haratine, consider themselves part of the Moorish community. But where it becomes problematic is because they are “darker” in color, they are assumed to be slaves brought from “black Africa.” So powerful is the theory of “two” Africa’s that reality is twisted to accommodate its validity. Every study is looking at Africa through the lens of “Black and White”, “slave and master.” It is therefore never considered that these “black” populations, like the Kanuri, who migrated South from North Africa, are native to the region. In a struggle to sustain colonial linguistics all forms of pseudo -anthropology is imposed on the African reality posing itself as mainstream studies.

Ethiopia never had a history of “Black” identity

Brief History : During the displacement of the African Holocaust people were disconnected from culture, language and identity, they went from Fulani, Hausa, Igbo to a relative color, aptly describing their status in European society– Black. Now stuck with this name, and with no agency, no conscious of self outside of the chains of the Holocaust, being black became a source of reactionary pride. (especially in the 60’s). This happened also because the involuntary Diaspora had a deep self-hatred for their African connection, and would prefer to be a empty color than connected to their Motherland–that was the dept of the self hatred. And this produced reactionary love because they had to be something, and they could not be European, so in the psyche reaffirming a negative name was in some sense a statement of ownership–a statement of being. In reality it was a statement of displacement and self-hatred.

The word “Black” has no historical or cultural association, it was a name born when Africans were broken down in to transferable labor units and transported as chattel to the Americas. The re-labeling of the Mandika, Fulani, Igbo, Asante, into one bland color label- black, was part of the greater process of absolute removal of African identity; a color epithet that Europe believed to be the lowest color on Earth, thus reflecting the social designation of African people in European psyche. When Africans, out of their own agency refer to themselves they do so with internal paradigms and self-affirmation. No where in Africa did Africans see the obvious, the natural skin color they had, as the most distinctive characteristic in defining them:

Zulu – People of the sky Khoi Khoi – King of men Numunuu (Native Americans) – The people Mediterranean — ” Our Sea” Senegal – “Our land” Navajo -“Diné” meaning “The People” Han-in (Korean: 한인; Hanja: 韓人; literally “great people”) Bantu – “human” {note}

In this history of Swahili the people called themselves “people” no color attached. Attaching color is only done to refer to “the other.” In Zulu Kingdom again we see no record of a self-reference to a “Black people” they called themselves “People of the Sky” until White people showed up and called them blacks. It is true the term Ethiopia in ancient times meant “burnt face” but the modern name Ethiopia is a name not a Greek word. And the critical thing is name verses descriptive terms. The same is true for Sudan.

ODD ETHNIC GROUP Sesame Street use to play a game called Which one is the odd one out. Can you spot which of all of these so-called Ethnic names is the odd one out:

East Asian (a place) Southeast Asian (a place) South Asian (a place) Black (a color) Hispanic/Latino (a language group tied to a place) Caucasian (a place) Middle Eastern (a place) Native American/First Nations (a place) Pacific Islander (a place) Arab (a place)

Linguistic evolution? COLORED – NEGRO – BLACK – AFRICAN-AMERICAN – NIG*ER

BLACK HISTORY

Black history is the history of enslavement; African history is the history of humanity. If there are no White people, could there be Black people? For over 100,000 years there were only native people of Africa on the planet, and since there were no “White” people there could not have been Black people, since everyone would have been “Black.” This is even more profound when you realize African people are the only truly native people of the place they inhabit—everyone else is at some point a settler.

Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base. African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity… To be called African-American has cultural integrity– Jesse Jackson

And if all the “White people” vanished from the Earth, would the remaining “Black” people still be Black? So the older group must define itself relative to the European newcomers? Would it not make far more logical, historically, linguistically, and social to describe people by their land of origin. Negro = Negroid = Colored = Nigger = Black (all associated with color none are connected to a continent). Now compare this to Asiatic, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid (all are tied to land, all can be located on a map— but not so Negroid/Black). Black and White are therefore debunked as regressive incomplete terms for describing people.

For all of recorded history we see in every conflict a central theme — that of “land.” So critical as humans need land to grow crops on, to source water from (see Golan Heights), they need a place to build cities and a place to harvest mineral wealth from. So attaching your identity to land makes sense: Attaching your identity to an abstract color, does not. Black and African are not interchangeable in any logical sense. African people claim an African origin and Africa as their Motherland. There is nothing in “blackness” that logically implies any claim to anything of value, except into bondage. All it tells the world is relative to the dominant race class these group of people are “black.” And in Africa it is even worse, because language wise no majority defines themselves against a minority. i.e. Sudan (Northern Sudan) is still Sudan, but Southern Sudan has to insert “South” for clarity. Holocaust, on its own, is assigned to the Jews, who do not insert “Jews” before Holocaust, since they are the first to use the term in its modern context. How can the majority in South Africa need to identify themselves as “black” relative to a “white” when they are a overwhelming majority and hence “the norm”?

And what is even more revealing is that Dutch settlers in South Africa branded themselves as Afrikaners laying claim to the land they conquered. Signifying in that naming process they were the native European tribe of of Africa (per Zuma). And yet Natives in South Africa still refer to themselves, with glee, as blacks.

It is amazing in our modern era that an entire nation of people, who are free to think and free to reflect– the oldest nation on the planet, the parents to every other people are confined by a name that reflects only their supposed skin color — and nothing else. Being “black people” is still today indelible fixed in Western lexicon (both African American and White), despite all the evidence contradictory such color-based terminologies and the profound work of Malcolm X and especially Richard B. Moore to favor African over Black, which would give a humanist representation of marginalized people. And the perplexing thing is general contentment and seeming inability to see the obvious menace in the term. Only two groups remain on Earth adhering to color labels; the most exploited people in the history of humanity (Black people), and their apex oppressors (White people).

True freedom is not only the right to vote, but the right to self-define and the right to interrogate definitions imposed and formulate new ones, which favor the African in any given political climate

If linguistically we reject the term.Sub-Saharan Africa then therefore there is no Sub-Saharan history or people; as distinct from North Africa. We then only have Africanpeople and a history of Africa

We must realize these are still colonial classifications like Middle East which have nothing to do with historical Africa. We cannot discuss a history of Africa in these colonial boxes which only served to humiliate and take away from the continent. The terms create paradigms which limit, rather than expand, reality. If there are a black or Black people then where do “black” people come form? Since Asians come from Asia, Indians from India (all makes perfect logically sense).

So where do Black people come from? Blackia, Negroland or Blackistan, following the obvious naming convention. What is the capital city of the Black home world? Black City or Blackatropolis? So if Africans do not come from these fictitious places and we find that so-called Black people come from Africa (at some time in our recent history) then why not just call them Africans? At best the term is redundant. So what is the purpose of Blackness? Especially in a world where identity and land are exclusively interlinked for every other people: Jews of Israeli, Palestinians of Palestine, Indians of India, Zulu of Zululand, Masai of the Masai Mara

Twenty-two million African-Americans – that’s what we are – Africans who are in America– Malcolm X

Blackness, is largely a Western or American exonym, in which all so-called Black cultures around the world are forced to fit into. As Americanism expanded so to did this notion of blackness, which is attached to the civil rights struggle and today to the urban cultures of the inner cities. However, It cannot be transplanted into ancient history to describe a people such as Ancient Ethiopia who had no cultural similarities to the modern African-Americans communities. Neither can “Blackness” be put in history to say the Ancient Egyptians were not Black because they did not share characteristics with a group of Africans Europeans chose to label as the archetypal Black population (black skin, thick lips and kinky hair). To do so creates connections and disconnections where there are none. So “Black culture” or “Blackness” cannot be imposed anywhere beyond the modern era. But we can say Cultures of Africa, in which Egypt and Ethiopia were part of that African world. Being African doesn’t mean we all dance to the same music and worship the same tree. So outside of the suggestiveness of “black” and “negro” words are necessary in creating new paradigms or we will always get stuck hearing “Well the Egyptians were not Black” because of a language issue or some other technicality. Far less objections could be raised if we just stuck to “The Egyptians were Africans“. Especially if we claim African as oppose to let it float.

The political question of contributions of modern day African people must be addressed and in this respect Ancient Egypt, Ancient Ethiopia were African civilizations, the same way Greece was an Ancient European civilization (it was located in modern Europe). But this argument is a political because we live in a racialized world which discredits a people’s worth by notions of racial origin and assumes black skin is too inferior to construct civilization.

There is an academic debate that the Ancient Egyptians called themselves Black based upon KMT (Kemet) which in some circles is translated as “Black people.” Now at the end of the word KMT is an ideogram which can only mean physical place

The ideogram indicates the context in which the word applies. An ideogram for humans would always be used to represent a word that applied to people. However Kemet can only mean Black Land since the ideogram indicates it is describing a built or non-human environment. They called themselves “remetch en Kemet”, which means the “People of the Black Land.” Where rmt means simple without any adjectives “the people,” the same way the Numunuu means “the people.”(the authentic people) And likewise Zulu means people of heaven.

Ancient Egypt is commonly referred to as ‘km.t’ , with the theorized reference to the black Nile Delta earth. The determinative O49 is used to designate the term for ‘country, inhabited/cultivated land’, called the niw.t (a political designate). It is a circle with a cross which represents a street, ‘town intersection”(Gardiner 2005 (1957): 498)

But none of this discredits the founders of Kemet as being African people, just like the Fulani or the Amhara. “Black” in the North American context. The “social “construction of race in America does not rely on skin color. “African Americans,” as even Asante notes, ” constitute the most heterogeneous group in the United States biologically, but perhaps one of the most homogeneous socially.”

BLACK AND THE 60’s

Indians are from India , Chinese from China . There is no country called Blackia or Blackistan and a people must respectful be tied to geography as skin color is not the primary definitive identifier.. Hence, the ancestry-nationality model is more respectful and accurate: African-American, African-British, African-Arabian, African-Brazilian, and African-Caribbean. And if Black people has some validity as a political term it can not be limited in its application to people of African decent. Nostalgia is not an accurate place for African linguistic self-determination, and blackness is blatantly a cultural inheritance of oppressed people. The pattern of acceptance of a black identity globally walks hand in hand with European cultural oppression.

Black pride is reactionary pride, necessary then, Irrelevant now. As we blossom into a greater historical and cultural awareness of a Motherland a detachment with fictional attachments to slave names must be challenged, and we must end the romance with things that are a disservice to our identity today.

It is worth noting parts of African that are culturally intact such as in Ethiopia, Mali, Somalia, Nigeria and Niger have absolutely no fondness or linguistic presence of a “black identity.”

New York Times | The term African-American has crept steadily into the nation’s vocabulary since 1988, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson held a news conference to urge Americans to use it to refer to blacks. ”It puts us in our proper historical context,” Mr. Jackson said then, adding in a recent interview that he still favored the term. ”Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base. African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.” Since 1989, the number of blacks using the term has steadily increased, polls show. In a survey that year conducted by ABC and The Washington Post, 66 percent said they preferred the term black, 22 preferred African-American, 10 percent liked both terms and 2 percent had no opinion. In 2000, the Census Bureau for the first time allowed respondents to check a box that carried the heading African-American next to the term black. In 2003, a poll by the same news organizations found that 48 percent of blacks preferred the term African-American, 35 percent favored black and 17 percent liked both terms.

BLACK-AFRICA IS A RACIST TERM

Nobody on this planet puts a adjective on their identity, especially when they are a majority, except African people. Black Africa, Dark Continent, Heart of Darkness all articulate the colonial contempt for a continent and its people. But how does one arrive at the term “black Africans,” are there green Africans? Would you speak of “yellow Chinese,” or “brown Indians”? Even terms like “White Russian” are unused, despite Russia being a multi-ethnic nation. Because 80% white means the majority have no need for adding White to their Russian to qualify against a minority of “other” Russians. [3] Globally the term ” Red Indian” is rejected as deeply pejorative yet “black African” is still used even in South Africa which is used to define the majority of the population against the minority so-called white-Africans. Black African is as ridiculous as “rock stone”, rocks are stones so why double up two realities which are often the same?

There is an infinite an inexhaustible list of examples which show that no one with power wears and adjective on their identity, especially when equal or a majority. The peninsula of Korea is called Chosŏn Pando (조선반도; 朝鮮半島) in North Korea and Han Bando (한반도; 韓半島) in South Korea based on the respective names of the two countries. (wikipedia)They both use “Korea” as part of their official English names. In other words North Korea does not say they are North Korean, as far as they are concerned they are the KOREA. The South does not waste time defining itself as South Korea, again, as far as their national pride is concerned they are just Korea. Both countries have equal political and cultural agency. So how is it possible for a continent whose overwhelming demographic, political, cultural majority is African, need to refer to themselves as black + African? And with the split of N. Sudan and S. Sudan it would be shocking to see if N. Sudan adds the term “North” to its national rhetoric, to clarify itself from its new southern neighbor.

There is only one reason the term Black African exists and that is to deny nobility from African people. To explain away how Egypt could be nested in Africa but at the same time divorced from the majority of the African people. Therefore the argument “yes it is in Africa, but it is not Black African.” It is almost like saying Greece was a European civilization, but not a White European civilization.

If 95% of Africans are “Black” (capital B, if it must be used) then the minority should bear the adjective–not the majority. It is disrespectful to describe Africans with a label based solely on a color, especially when it does not accurately reflect the physical appearance of most Africans. This is made even more offensive when the etymological root of that label (black) is derived from the word Negro, and is used in place of the word African as a racial or cultural identity. In reality we must ask ourselves what is the difference between “Negro” and “Black” save historical association, the words mean the same thing, so we have moved from being Black in Spanish (negro) to Black in English (black). It is strange that despite all the genetic research and advance human anthropology we are still clinging to primitive 18th century post-Darwin model of race, which sole aim was/is to segregate and de-culturalize and enslave.

The concept of a “black Africa ” is a Eurocentric term based upon their ignorant primitive regressive deductions. It is true Arabs and Greeks referred to Africans as “black” but this was not a racial label, and moreover Africans themselves did not self-apply these external labels. Like the Phoenician who were called the “red people,” but no Phoenician would have referred to themselves in this way.

CHILDREN DIS-IDENTIFY WITH BLACK

In a recent survey conducted by the African Holocaust society it was noted that young African children (approx 4-5 years old, the age of race consciousness) when told they were members of the “black race” reacted with great confusion because they were also being taught the names of colors. Most of them objected to being called black and said they were not black but rather brown. A repeated survey found that when they were told they were African they did not object to the logic (they were African because their ancestors were from the continent called Africa). Blackness is illogical and only exist by force conditioning of children. This case study is profound because it shows how logic and identify form before social concepts are enforced.

WHITE AFRICANS

It would be very strange if a European, after 200 years in China or India, could be so powerful to alter the definition of Chinese just to be accommodated. Linguistic accommodation is only possible in Africa because of the prevailing injustice of a post-colonial dominance of European settlers. It is clear some European funded African politicians backed it, but where did it originate from? It is interesting to note Europeans (including white Arabs) constitute around 10 million people verses the 800 million plus Africans. Now this negligible minority by way of social influence has caused the majority to need to refer to themselves with the adjective of “black” to separate themselves from a serious minority group who want to be “white Africans.”Minorities of Europeans live in China, in India and in Arabia yet only in Africa has linguistic accommodation been given. Africans now must make room for those settlers who want to identify with the continent for capitalist reasons. Because once you identify with a continent then you have a legitimate claim to its resources. Thus the saying and the philosophy of Garvey “Africa for the Africans” becomes usurped. In South Africa the new trend of “Black Economic Empowerment” has seen the broadening, opening up of the borders of blackness so to speak. Indians are economically classified as ‘black’, and recently Chinese have been included in this definition. So again we see the relationship between linguistics and economic profit.In the scramble for linguistic real estate, why would these descendants of European colonialist who devastated and exploited the continent want to be called African? And in terms of self-determination who introduced these concepts?Despite claiming “African” in name they are very conscious of Whiteness when propagating the White dominant image on the broadcast mediums they control. Being White is clearly obvious when it comes to the dilemma of ownership which is still tipped in their favor. When all of these White South Africans rush home to Europe (when Africa gets a little sticky) do they encounter job discrimination experienced by fellow African South Africans or even 3rd and 4th generation African-British? They integrate seamlessly into the social environment created by White privilege. Seems like with the Indian “Africans”, African is a jacket worn to suit an economic or political opportunity.Race was not only defined in the 18th century, in Aksum and Kemet African peoples have always identified with degrees of racial inclusion and exclusion. The arrogance of Whiteness is to assume they are responsible for every single point of view that has ever existed on this planet. All the while South Africa remains White dominant and unchallenged by people who are the most vocal White Africans. Interestingly if you examine their lifestyle, you will find them to be the most racial conservative personalities. They date and marry women of their specific race, they socialize in White circles, they engage a distinctive non-African culture. And if they do have a few token “Black” friends they are often culturally compromised aberrations the continent can produce. The injustices of White dominance and the legacy of that dominance are smooth over by fictional fantasies of non-returning colonial tourist who still impose their reality as the norm for everyone else. Moreover, in dealing with these issues they always select broad base arguments and never deal with the core issue of African self-determination and agency.

Africa, unlike “black,” is a name, not a adjective. You can get on a plane and visit it, you can find it on a Sat Nav, it has boundaries, governments, you can grow crops on it, and build a house on it. But some say, Africa was a foreign name given to us, if this is true, it was given to us by our contemporaries not our conquerors. However, the word has Berber Tunisian origins meaning ” A sunny place” – Ifriqiya .Romans appropriated this word from which it is believed the modern word Africa came about the describe the entire continent. In addition, Africa is a unique name of a place and Africans are simply people who are native to that place. And over the course of history different names such as Habesha and Takruri were used to refer to African people of various regions, Ethiopia and West Africa respectively. Also the word Moor has been used across the centuries but as critics have established, the term “Moor” was used interchangeably with such other ambiguous terms such as “Ethiopian,” “Negro,” and even “Indian” to designate a figure from different parts or the whole of Africa (or beyond) who was either black or Muslim, neither, or both.

Massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, meaning "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and the "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace.

Human skin color ranges in variety from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. An individual's skin pigmentation is the result of genetics, being the product of both of the individual's biological parents' genetic makeup, and exposure to sun. In evolution, skin pigmentation in human beings evolved by a process of natural selection primarily to regulate the amount of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin, controlling its biochemical effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color

“You can’t hate the roots of the tree without ending up hating the tree. You can’t hate your origin without ending up hating yourself. You can’t hate the land, your motherland, the place that you come from, and we can’t hate Africa without ending up hating ourselves - Malcolm X

While in Ghana, Dr. King Jr. told then U.S. Vice President, Richard Nixon, who was also in attendance at the event’s festivities: “I want you to come visit us down in Alabama where we are seeking the same kind of freedom the Gold Coast is celebrating”.Dr. King Jr. also returned from his trip deeply inspired about the Pan-African movement and penned a sermon called “Birth of a New Nation”. In it, he educated others, especially African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement, about Africa, then largely known as the “Dark Continent”. He highlighted various countries across the continent, including Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, and Ghana and their plight. He used Ghana’s story to remind his brethren of the cost of freedom:“Ghana reminds us that freedom never comes on a silver platter. It’s never easy…Ghana reminds us of that. You better get ready to go to prison. When I looked out and saw the prime minister there with his prison cap on that night, that reminded me of that fact, that freedom never comes easy. It comes through hard labor and it comes through toil. It comes through hours of despair and disappointment.”2. In previously unreleased documents, it was discovered that Dr. King Jr. traveled to West Africa in 1960, this time, to attend the Inauguration of Nigeria’s Nnamdi Azikiwe in Lagos. He said the following about his trip to Nigeria:“I just returned from Africa a little more than a month ago and I had the opportunity to talk to most of the major leaders of the new independent countries of Africa and also leaders of countries that are moving toward independence. They are familiar with it and they are saying in no uncertain terms that racism and colonialism must go for they see the two are as based on the same principle, a sort of contempt for life, and a contempt for human personality.”

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sartle-blog · 5 years

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Mental Health Art History: 5 Artworks Depicting Asylums

Yard with Lunatics (cropped) by Francisco Goya

There is such a cliche about artists and madness. Perhaps there’s a bit of truth to it: people who struggle sometimes see the world creatively; creative people may struggle to fit into the boxes that define the norm. It’s tempting to simplify this, but it’s a mistake. Many people living with mental health issues aren’t able to create at all, despite desperately wanting to. Illness takes over. And yet, there are some amazing people who persevere and create magnificent works of art despite their challenges.

In fact, a surprising number of works from famous artists were created while those people recovered in asylums, at mental health retreats, or other inpatient care. Some were created afterwards, but depicted what the artists saw in those places. If you’ve ever seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest then you know that art can depict those places in the most horrifying of ways. We may even want to look away. But looking at those challenging pieces can help us better understand some of the darkest times an artist has gone through.

Here are five works that specifically depict the asylum / hospital experience.

1. Corridor in the Asylum by Vincent Van Gogh

Corridor in the Asylum by Vincent Van Gogh, The Met Museum

Vincent Van Gogh created magical works of art depicting nature. His flowers, wheat fields, trees, and seascapes continue to inspire the imagination of viewers today. The painted-in-detail film "Loving Vincent" is only one of many recent examples of how artists continue to draw from his work.

The artist painted what he saw. Not all of his life was spent soaking in the beauty of landscapes bathed in natural light. He spent one terrible year of his life in the Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum. What he saw was the empty, seemingly-endless hallway represented in Corridor in the Asylum.

His letters at this time indicate that there were more than two dozen empty rooms in this corridor. He was relieved that the patients who were there didn’t harass him about his work or seem to judge his finished paintings. Still, he wasn’t exactly thrilled to have this as his inspiration. He only did a couple of other paintings of the asylum’s interior and he strictly avoided depicting what his own room there looked like, despite sharing paintings of his personal bedroom from when he was not at the asylum.

Life at the asylum was anything but pleasant. He wrote of his experience, “one continually hears shouts and terrible howls as of animals in a menagerie.” The terrifying sounds must have echoed horribly in that corridor. One patient he shared space with had auditory hallucinations and Van Gogh wrote that he seemed to be responding aloud to sounds in the corridor that no one else could hear.

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, MoMA

Despite the need to paint some of his experience, Van Gogh did all that he could to paint the more pleasing landscapes he remembered from his life before the institution. Whenever possible, he would sit in the asylum’s gardens, painting what he saw there instead. He arguably even created some of his best work there, including Starry Night. He was forced to imagine better times alone since nobody ever came to visit him in the asylum.

2. The Madhouse by Francisco Goya

The Madhouse by Francisco Goya at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando

Not one to sugarcoat things with a pretty name, Goya aptly called this painting The Madhouse. A similar painting from the asylum is called Yard with Lunatics. It leaves little to the imagination in terms of what his experience there was like.

Goya actually painted two versions of The Madhouse, the first in a vertical format and the second as the horizontal image most people are familiar with. In both we see the chaos of the madhouse experience. Naked men grapple with each other or with invisible deities. Chiefs and kings represent authority figures that easily suggest the horrifying power dynamics in 18th century asylums.

Comparing the earlier and later images, the difference that stands out most is that the latter is even more chaotic than the first. It’s as though the setting was eating away at Goya’s mind and he had to change the painting to reflect the madness in an even more thorough way.

Although he may have been losing his own mind there, his work is representative of an important turn in art history as it relates to mental health. He was on the cutting edge of what would emerge in the nineteenth century as a fascination with the subject of madness in art. There was a shift in society; madness had been something people gawked at for entertainment and was now becoming something to hide away in asylums. The art of the time reflects a new interest in what it means to be a part of this shifting culture when you as an artist are coping with mental illness.

3. Creative Therapy by Jacob Lawrence

Creative Therapy by Jacob Lawrence, Cleveland Museum of Art

The asylum experience doesn’t have to be horrible. Some people check themselves into an institution to get treatment and get lucky - they’re there at the right time in society, with the right doctors, and they get the care that they need. Art therapy has been a part of many asylum stays, and certain artists have thrived thanks to that creative outlet.

Depression by Jacob Lawrence at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Jacob Lawrence painted his Hospital series depicting the experiences he had while dealing with depression in an institution. Most of the work from this time is dark, as one would expect from scenes of an asylum. One of the most well-known works is Depression, which describes not only his own experiences of that mental illness but the depressed experience of being in the institution. Likewise Sedation, featuring psychiatric pills, emphasizes that there’s a clear question about whether the illness or the “cure” is the problem.

Sedation by Jacob Lawrence, MoMA

However, Creative Therapy offers a more positive take on what can happen in the asylum, particularly in terms of healthy treatment. It depicts the artist participating in an art therapy group there, led by a psychiatrist, in which he explored different aspects of his art and used color and perspective in new ways. Art does have therapeutic value, and when artists are allowed to work with it in therapy it can make all the difference in whether their creative impulse shrivels or thrives.

In a fun twist that he may have appreciated, Lawrence’s paintings have served as important discussion starters among older adults in contemporary art therapy groups.

4.Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo

Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo at the Dolores Olmedo Museum

This one isn’t quite from the asylum but it might as well have been. Frida Kahlo had spent her pregnancy on bedrest only to suffer a miscarriage that required an abortion to complete the process. That horrifying experience happened at Henry Ford Hospital.

She went into a deep depression, which she tried to process through her art. Each stage of the miscarriage and hospital experience is depicted in this painting, which began as a sketch while she was still in the hospital. The viewer’s eyes don’t know where to look and may want to turn away altogether. It’s lonely, scary, desolate, and desperate.

And although the experience didn’t take place in a traditional asylum, one can imagine that in this hospital setting she experienced that similar combination of focus on her the weaknesses of her mental health combined with inattentive care to the horrible experience of loss and depression she underwent during her two week stay there.

Although this is perhaps the most famous work depicting Kahlo’s struggles with infertility, it’s not the only one. In fact, some argue that it’s a critical theme throughout her work. This was only one of three medically-necessary abortions she had, and she suffered other miscarriages as well. Undoubtedly, this affected her mental health. The hospital bed is symbolic of the inevitable tie between physical and mental health, though historically society has often chosen to ignore this important link.

5. The State Hospital by Edward Kienholz

The State Hospital by Edward Kienholz

Edward Kienholz wasn’t a patient at an asylum. He was part of the staff. It didn’t make him any less affected by the horrors that can happen when things don’t go well in an institutional setting. The State Hospital reflects those horrors in all of their gory detail. He created this piece in the 1960s, nearly two decades after his two year internship in the hospital, but the experience was seared into his memory.

He described the asylum in terms that include the words: prison, brutality, and dirty. He even said that One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was a model asylum compared to what he saw where he worked. His installation includes a model who was in actuality about to die from cancer, so he expressed that living in the asylum was essentially like being dead. The cavernous spaces in the heads in this piece suggest minds atrophying.

For several years prior to this piece, Kienholz’s installations were designed to shed light on individual horrors including those afflicting people troubled by mental illness. This piece added a new element though; holding society accountable for the abuses these marginalized people endured.

This post is part of our series on Mental Health Art History. We’ve previously shared two posts on artists with depression, plus posts on bipolar artists, artists with schizophrenia, and the unique condition of Misere.

By: Kathryn Vercillo

#frida kahlo #edward kienholz #jacob lawrence #vincent van gogh #francisco goya #depression #history of art #art history #mental disorders #mental health art history #mental illness #mental health #serious art history #asylums #mental hospitals

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resbang-bookclub · 7 years

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AMA Transcript: bouquet garni

Next up, @skadventuretime, @guacamoletrash and @jamesfalt (Souly on Discord) stopped by to chat about their Resbang, bouquet garni! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: Madi, how did you come up with everyone's characters, like Harvar being a gaming streamer and Tsu and Liz being farmers etc. etc. because I thought those were all really unique and interesting!

madi: Ahaha let's see, I started planning this back last... May? and talking with the beta crew, as one does. And naturally marsh [ @marshofsleep ] , enabler that she is, just put it out there.

madi: And I was just playing a bunch of overwatch at the time and thought he'd be a good gamer nerd, and also I had decided to make this Extra self-indulgent, so I was like “my city now”. I basically poured all of my friend feels into [Harvar] and Anya in particular. The past couple years have been rougher for me, but I've had some really spectacular friends, and I decided Maka and Soul needed them, too.

Q: The part with the sword and stuff, I just…

madi: OH THAT ahahahaha. Okay yeah that was end of Resbang crunch time and me being extra 'fuck it.'

madi: That was what the team thought about that.

Q: Artist-chans, what programs do you use and how does your arting process go? And how is guac so good at playlisting??

Souly: I use paint tool SAI :0 I might still have some of my progress pics, lemme look.

guac: Lol. I don't think I'm super good at it but I do enjoy music a lot and like to make playlists so maybe that's it!

Souly: Yeah here we go. Mid lining.

I did it a lil differently than I normally do. I normally line everything and then do flats but I was actually super behind bc of life stuff so I just started doing flats per character after their lines were done. This is a sample of what the layers look like:

madi: Man how do u keep track of ur layers? Or is it like, a sixth sense?

Souly: I go off of the little layer previews and hope the layer has what I'm looking for.

madi: LOL that sounds like me.

Souly: I also like... tend to set up layers for characters a specific way so I can normally find those?

guac: BRUH THAT'S SO MANY LAYERS.

Q: Did you have a favorite character to write? 8)

madi: I just love writing Star being balls to the walls ridiculous. The saxophone thing came about because I saw this video and was like oh my god it's Black Star in the flesh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMyqasy2Lco . But I also really liked writing Maka being sort of the one with issues, too.

Q: Which character in your fic did you most identify with? And was it purposeful or accidental?

madi: Iiiiiiii'd have to say I identified with [Maka] the most this fic, for once. Usually it's soul, but I ended up pouring a lot of myself into her, and it was both purposeful and accidental how it all worked out.

Q: I’m surprised, because there were a lot of things I noticed about Soul that I know are you-things!

madi: Yeah!!! I definitely can't help that with him, they both got a lot of me.

Q: I know you said this fic was super personal and self-indulgent so was it generally pretty easy to write because of that, or did you have trouble?

madi: Hmmmm yeah I definitely had some trouble. About 20k in, I sort of lost the emotional thread of it, and whined a lot to Bones [ @adulterclavis ] about what I could do to fix it, and it turned out that I just needed to talk to someone about it to find where I wanted to go again, and then it got easier. I still struggled for sure not having a traditional Big Antagonist plotline thing, it was more personal and then Maka's mom… Bones let me cry in her inbox about writing.

Q: What brought about your characterization of Mama Albarn (who i still hate btw >: ((( )?

madi: You are not the only one...

guac: I'm always ready to fight her.

madi: Okay so, basically Mama Albarn came about just from how I used to (and still sometimes do) talk to myself. It's that internalized idea you always have to be perfect, and if you aren't given everything you've been given and have, then you're weak and a fuckup and how dare you not be the best? DEFINITELY a toxic mindset, and Bad. And this fic was sort of exorcising that, a little. This was an external abusive deal, but you can absolutely develop abusive thought patterns towards yourself, and you can also free yourself from them, like Maka was ultimately able to.

Q: Was there a scene in particular you really enjoyed?

madi: I heckin’ loved the butt lamp scene. It honestly kept me going, knowing I'd be able to write that monstrosity. And also drunk Kid, who marsh aptly named Five Drink Amy. AND THEN GUAC skl;dfkld. So there was this, right, and then guac

madi: Which linked to THIS PIC:

madi: And we all could not stop laughing.

Q: What was the hardest part to write?

madi: I got stuck at the end of chapter 3, and I ultimately added another section on to it to make it work, but I think deciding how I wanted to transition from her debauched night out into a Soul POV chapter given what I wanted each person to sort of be faced with was probably the hardest thing for me. This whole deal was largely driven by me groping in the dark at what felt right.

Q: PS I loved the debauched night out. And Patty's drinks.

madi: I loved patty in this!! Bones wanted to marry her, so I know it Worked Out. She was another fun one to write, as were her drinks ahaha.

Q: What was your favorite thing about this Resbang in particular?

madi: Oh jeez, hm. I think my favorite thing was doing a better job fleshing out the side characters in Harv and Anya and Kid and Star. That was something I regret not doing better in my older work, so I'm happy I got to try my hand at giving people other than Soul/Maka some personality.

guac: They became such a cute little chosen family.

Q: Why a food-themed story specifically? What about that appealed to you? (For everyone!)

madi: (Apeeled).

Souly: I fucking love SoMa. [And] the cooking aspect really drew me in... idk why but I've always had a thing for those kinds of things with anime I'm into?

guac: My current relationship started with them teaching me how to cook real food cause I used to eat like a garbage can, so I was like ‘welp this is gonna be hella cute, count me in.’

madi: Omg, I didn't know that, that's ADORABLE.

guac: Shhhhh. I don't talk about my feelings very much. But yeah. I was like ‘a SoMa AU about my life!!!’

Souly: Honestly yeah same, I feel like I also like... connected with Maka about being poor and just buying shit to eat.

madi: Let's see, I had a prompt sitting in my inbox FOREVER that was like 'I’m obsessed with a food blogger who writes about cheap ways to be gourmet in your 20s and I flirt with them over comments but they never post pictures of their face and ALSO there’s a really cute grocery bagger at the store down the street who teases me and always asks to join me for dinner and I definitely want to say yes AU' that I was initially gonna go with, and originally it was a little closer to this deal. My first blush ideas for this sort of had the drama in not knowing who was whom, and the big reveal being the climax, or something like Maka thinking Soul was taken because she thought he was involved with the comment girl and then that whole drama. But then I thought that that sorta thing had been done before, and I wanted this to be less about the drama of the reveal and more about the process of them growing closer, I guess. And I also looooooove cooking and baking, so that definitely bled through.

Q: I thought it was a neat shake up how you didn’t make the reveal the crux of the whole thing.

madi: Ahahaha yeah, I definitely thought about it, but ultimately wanted this to be less 'gasp, it's YOU!' because the reader knows, and if I wanted to make the reader invested, I'd have to keep them apart and do the kinda drama I wasn't feeling for this fic. The insta bit came about because I spend some time looking at food pics before I go to sleep, and that provided a lot of insp for that section. Half of my degree is in nutrition, so I like to see the recipes people come up with, and also roll my eyes at some of the bougie stuff, because insta is definitely a Platform for that, depending on where you end up haha. Also like, I definitely took some things I've experienced flat out and added them in, like Harv shoving Maka electrolyte packets. Last year when I was deep in the sad pit, my diet was terrible, and I knew it, but I wasn't doing much about it. And then one day I was talking to Bones and my leg muscle kept spasming, and she was like dude when was the last time you've gotten minerals and I was like .....oh. So she sent me a link for those packets to hold me over on days I wasn’t getting them from my diet ahaha. Bones is also where some of Kid came from, and bits of Anya.

Q: Where did you get your recipes? I want a cookbook based on this fic p...please.

modi: Okay okay let me find some of the recipes that inspired things:

https://showmetheyummy.com/crockpot-mexican-chicken-recipe/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BfWNxv9HuHg/?hl=en&taken-by=thefeedfeed.

[Bones] was also the steak recipe insp!

madi: The kitchn, thefeedfeed, showmetheyummy, minimalistbaker were all feeds that I was inspired by, and then I just improv’d from there, because I have cooked all or most of the things I described in there. AND IT'S WHERE MAKA'S CUPCAKE GAZING CAME FROM. LOOK AT THE GLORIOUS MOUNTAIN OF ICING https://www.instagram.com/p/BaRGvjGDBpr/?hl=en&taken-by=thescranline

Q: Did you feel like your writing has changed at all during writing this?

madi: Yeah, for sure! I thought that this year I got better at characterizing people, adding some personality to them that was a little more nuanced than I'd done before. I think I absorbed some of Bones's longer sentence style, which I personally tend to like even though I am still getting a handle on it, and I think I got better at describing things in general. Next step is being better with plot and tightening up the language a little more >:) Most of the changes, I think, were sentence style and how I handled dialogue, which is usually harder for me.

Q: Artists: did you learn any new techniques that you plan to practice or improve on any you've been trying to learn?

Souly: Oh yeah, I learned doing flats as I go with lines actually speeds up the process slightly... I practiced a different lighting technique that I never did end up going with but I kinda figured out what I need to do to make it work. It sadly just didn't work with how I set up this pic.

madi: Oooo nice, linework is Intimidating but you made it look easy.

guac: I am just glad to force myself to make stuff. Glad to be here. Thought my drawing of bodies got better (thanks Black Star).

madi: Y'all don't understand the sound I made when I saw guac drew the apron.

Souly: That Blackstar pic is my fave.

Q: WHAT'S NEXT, everybody? ;D

madi: >;) well, I have a secret project that I thought of last year that I am not yet sure will be a Resbang or a chaptered dealio, so I want to pick at that. Then I have a chaptered Star vs the Forces of Evil fic I need to update, and I owe Pip [ @paperypiper ] like two or three Noragami fluff pieces, and SILLY’S BDAY SMUT. Which will proabbly be like a whole year late but whatever I’m sorry, I will try to make it extra spicy.

Souly: I'm signing up for a few zines! I'm currently waiting for them to open apps but I'm looking at an Enstars zine, FMA tarot project, and some YOI zines. I was also recently in the Soul Eater reversal zine that just closed preorders the other day so I'm waiting to be able to post my piece :0

guac: I'm arting for the BNHA big bang and mostly consumed by school. Who knows what will happen next! There's a little pop punk lyrics + anime project I'm working on so maybe I'll show it to the world someday soon. We will see.

madi: OH YEAH I’m writing for that bang too! AND GUAC GOT ME AS AN ARTIST. It's the ultimate resonance.

#AMA transcripts #rbbc #resbang book club #bouquet garni

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lewigm-blog · 5 years

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A Year In...

Published February 23rd, 2020

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” - Matthew 2

Sometimes I feel that I can relate to the Pharaoh with his fears and anxieties regarding the newborn Jesus. I don’t know about everyone else, but I find the knowledge and awareness of Christ’s existence to be both terrifying and comforting. I know that there are plenty of things that I have done or thought that need forgiveness. His presence alone is enough to make me feel guilt and even shame. While I understand that we are constantly being forgiven because of His sacrifice, it doesn’t make owning up to those errors and flaws any easier. In fact, this makes me more resistant to the call to conversion and change at times.

“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’ s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.” �� - Exodus 9:12

As strange as it sounds, I have found myself feeling less vulnerable one year into the JV-Peru experience than when I first arrived. I’m not directly saying that God has hardened my heart since coming to this land, as was the case with the Pharaoh during the time of Moses and the Exodus, but that I now find myself growing empathetic and sorry for this figure. I would like to imagine that, like most leaders, the pharaoh wanted the best for his people and that his intense desire and love for that mission was misguided and perverted slowly, little by little, without him even realizing the harm he was causing his people. By the time he realized how far it had gone, it was too late, but I suppose that this was the way it was supposed to play out for him. Perhaps this is an overly optimistic perspective on the Pharaoh, but who can know for sure?

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Nostalgic Swimming

During this Christmas season, I find myself in a similar boat as the pharaoh, or rather without a boat in the Red Sea. The transition of new and old volunteers ebbing and flowing through Andahuaylillas have begun to stir and blow away the dust from the corners of my heart that were dormant and unexplored for quite some time. I have also been thinking about what it means to prepare our hearts as a stable for Jesus. We recently had a Christmas reflection and prayer regarding this “preparation” this past Sunday, so this wasn’t a casual thought from me for those wondering.

It is currently 2:18AM on Christmas Eve and, after spending a full year as a volunteer, I have woken up with a desire to write about the preparation process of my own stable! I hope that I can somewhat describe my mini experience of metanoia or “change of heart.” At least, this is what I hope to experience regarding my frame of thinking, feeling and being for this next year.

Although this re-connection with myself and my emotions is difficult to describe, I can compare it to the feeling one has with the rediscovery of a childhood toy, film, or favorite song that makes one go “OOOOOOOHHHH MAN!! THIS IS MY ____”. It is this feeling that reunites us with old memories of tender love and nostalgia, but along with this can come traumatic emotions of fear and anxiety. Both are equally helpful to revisit from time to time as they are a part of the human experience, but this current visit has moved me, especially after being away from what was familiar for over a year now.

My current emotions are of sadness and frustration regarding the ways in which I have not yet fully immersed myself into my JV experience. These emotions have brought me back to my time in Nicaragua, and to the initial shock and awe experienced with those who were there. I remember this particularly with the children. Their ceaseless outpouring of love and affection seem to be more apparent during that time than with my daily encounters today with students in Andahuaylillas.

I wonder why I felt that these old feelings weren’t being translated or carried over into this new experience. How have I grown calloused to the injustices that I see on the street with alcoholism, violence, and child neglect? Why was simple living a seemingly achievable and reasonable concept then, when I rarely uphold that value consistently today? Where has my prayer life gone? Why do I find that community has not been helpful for engaging in this sort of discourse and keeping each other accountable? All these thoughts, or more aptly, these accusations hit harder and harder the more I reflected.

Then I began to think about my trip to Guatemala as a peer facilitator. I remembered feeling anger and frustration throughout that experience. I felt that I had failed my group because I did not meet them where they were. I was challenged by how the group wasn’t taking advantage of the experience, or at least to my liking. It was at this point, perhaps in the fogginess of the early Christmas Eve morning, in which I came to the realization that I was pushing some too hard.

I wanted to take people deeper into something they might not have been ready for. I hoped to push them somewhere in between awkwardness and un-comfortability, a hard tone to hit in any intercultural experience. I wanted others to move beyond the “lighter discomforts” of food, language, and culture shock so that they could move into questions and reflections on privilege, social inequality and access to resources among other things. I mean, what did they expect would happen? Everyone chose to be here, they chose to fundraise, and attend several of my country prep meetings to prepare! Weren’t we all expected to be open and dive into the experience? Well, the short answer is no, they were not!

Father Boyle mentions this sort of “measuring up” in Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. He speaks about this limiting way of putting God in a box and the way that we often restrict ourselves and each other. In a lot of ways I believe that I was also disregarding and boxing people in rather than letting them surprise me with who they were and what they had to say.

I distinctly remember feeling dissatisfied by how the group talked about their experience and, without realizing it, dismissed their reflections. I thought about how they weren’t offering much on the trips. Their reflections never seemed to move beyond “surface level” discomforts (whatever that meant). Anything that wasn’t helpful to me was tossed aside, dismissed like many of the motivational posts seen on social media.

“In this place of which you say it is a waste… there will be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness,,. The voices of those who sing,”

- Jeremiah 33: 9-11 (quoted from Father Greg Boyle’s Tattoos on the Heart)

Although personally what the group shared didn’t always seem profound or groundbreaking, it was for them! In their own way, they were attempting to grasp this new reality and were greatly affected by it. I too was experiencing great change by what I was experiencing in both Nicaragua and Guatemala, but it was just different. While I may have appreciated and invited moments of existential crisis and feelings of ineptitude and solidarity, they were out finding the joy in the lives of the children in other ways. Where I thought I had found waste, they found their fruit and enjoyed sharing their struggles and laughter together.

We all came from various backgrounds with different skills and interests. I was able to lean in a because I was familiar with their language and some of the cultural norms. They were doing their best to live (for some survive) with the constant rice and beans, the quick paced gab that is Central American Spanish, and the ways in which animals on the street were treated among other things. This newfound sense of community is what brought them closer and allowed for them to be there for one another.

One of the main factors that led to my own decision to become a volunteer internationally were the volunteers at the sites in Nicaragua. They received us warmly and openly. They helped guide our group closely and allowed us to grow deeper by listening to our needs individually and presenting both challenging and beautiful opportunities to connect with the culture, people and life in the community. In Nicaragua, Lucia and the three German volunteers saw the need for my friend Kyle Hill and I to participate more with the boys at the site, since they couldn’t connect as males with the boys. My way in was through sports and language which allowed me to relate to the boys and get them to open up. Similarly, in Guatemala, I connected with the workers through soccer as well. For others in my group, it was through afterschool homework help, dance and playing tag, something that I wasn’t necessarily apt or predisposed to.

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Rediscovering the “Why”

Ultimately these experiences were all things that I wanted to live out for my own. This is what I would be saying yes to when I was applying to the JVC program, but it was also one of the first things that I would forget after a few weeks of “adjustment” and observation in Peru. As time passed on, so did my patience and I had let my heart grow harsher and unwelcoming to those around me. It became a cold place that said “No!” adamantly to Jesus and his family many times over. It wasn’t obvious to me at first, but I found this to be the case after my first year with my JV community.

I wanted to dive deeper into the tumultuous waters of intense conversation and challenge with others but didn’t realize that in this exploration and desire to have others follow, I failed to show the kindness and love that I was shown as I became a stronger swimmer, so to speak. My desire and methods to “invite others” into the deep were intense and not always pastoral or even kind. It was actually traumatic for some! I had failed to recognize the gifts in others, the variety of ways in which others swam whether that be through the breaststroke, butterfly, doggy paddle, and their various distances! All should have been appreciated in their own way and I wish I had the trust in my group (and community) described in Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.’s prayer “Patient Trust.”

Why was I seeking to bring people deeper into the world by “offering” a challenge, when it should have been the other way around? This “new” and foreign world was already doing enough of that! It was others who were offering me the challenge of meeting them where they were, to walk with them at their pace to grow. In retrospect, it was ridiculous to think that I would serve as the impetus for their change. At the time however, I thought my intentions were pure and ideal for them to lean into the experience. And to be fair, my ideas and wishes for others were good willed and honest at first, but slowly I grew to feel “above others” as may have been the case with the pharaoh.

A recent conversation with a friend from one of my retreat experiences had me reflecting on my role as a volunteer and participant in these experiences. I have always appreciated ways in which retreats helped me to become more empathetic and active listener, but I felt that I wasn’t getting much out of it at a certain point. After 10 retreat experiences it can become a challenge to be… well, challenged (I would finish college with 15 total retreats)! My friend and I talked about how now that we are beyond the “freshman” perspective of retreats and were now in more of a grad student-facilitator mindset. Our roles shifted from being sharers, to listeners, being guided principally by the one sharing. That isn’t to say that our roles are now to be valued more or placed on a pedestal, but that based on our experiences we now prefer this new role as it is helping us grow. I may have already been through the wonderful experiences of Search, Kairos, and other retreat experiences, but I experience and view them now very differently.

This conversation helped me realize that the same thing is now happening to me in the international context. Although I had been on other immersion experiences, this was something completely different. My heart was becoming hardened and calloused after “training” and forming myself within the Ignatian tradition during my time at Scranton. While I have grown more aware of different techniques to engage with others, I have also failed to adapt to the new situations and began to lose myself in the international context. I shouldn’t be too hard on myself given that this is the first time I live outside of my home with 3 “Woo” girls away from friends and family (Click here for the reference).

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End of the first year…

With all that said, I should probably describe some of the moments that I have experienced so that it might make more sense! The first moment comes from a fellow Cadis born Spanish volunteer who lived with us, Pablo Lobato. I was initially excited by the idea of having a male volunteer that was to stay with us for two years. However, once work started it became difficult to enjoy his company for a number of reasons. Having the same responsibilities at Fe y Alegria grew to be cumbersome with the amount of time we were spending with each other and when it came to organizing lesson plans that may not happen. Our states of mind and emotions influenced each other heavily. As you may remember from the previous newsletter, the challenge at Fe y Alegria was that there wasn’t a great deal of organization at the school and had I lost much interest and passion in the work. The same was true for Pablo. The situation affected Pablo so much that he was burnt out after a few months. It would lead to him ending his volunteer experience a year early.

Curiously enough, once Pablo made the decision to leave, things seemed to improve for him. He still had a few months to go and made the best of it. He joked around with folks from Fe y Alegria more and at his other worksite in Urcos. His openness and sense of humor brought him closer to those at work and even with others at the parish. He would often be out spending time with folks outside of our home and he really began to enjoy Andahuaylillas, even with its Oh Peru moments. Once December hit, the love and sadness expressed by everyone he knew was quite moving and made me think about how I would feel if I were leaving that year.

I realized that my own approach to developing relationships was perhaps a bit too cold. A few months in, I remembered pushing away a few of the local parish workers after having made plans to play soccer. I was angry because they had stood me up for over an hour on three separate occasions. So I (regretfully) called them out and told them that I wouldn’t go to anything they invited me to because it probably wouldn’t end up happening or would go on too late. In the moment, I thought that it would make clear that I don’t really abide by the “Peruvian Hour,” when it really only alienated me more than I already was as a gringo. My stable was becoming unwelcoming and standoffish, and its love, conditional. It is important to note that Peruvians and Latin Americans have an interesting concept of time. Time is a social construct where 30 minutes can mean an hour or two. This all seems to be universally understood amongst Peruvians, but it continues to frustrate me to this day.

A master of this concept and someone who helps me manage my struggle with punctuality is one of my closer friends in Andahuaylillas, Amilkar or Micky for short. He helps out at the parish and our mutual love for FC Barcelona has us meeting at least once a week to watch the game or play soccer at the Maracana turf field. We also play guitar at mass together whenever either of us can. Aside from that, we don’t spend too much of our time together discussing our personal lives. Since I play mostly on Sundays in the Temple, Micky is a part of the Saturday crew which included Pablo on the cajon or sound box. When the pastoral team at the parish and Pablo and I from Fe y Alegria had to come together to organize the kids’ First Communion I saw what the dynamics were like with Pablo and Micky.

They were constantly bagging on each other and Pablo seemed to be a much livelier person than I’d ever seen him. They would share in each other’s qualms about the lack of organization on both fronts and take joy in staying late after mass to chat about life. It was refreshing to see Pablo in this light. Once we had finished coordinating the First Communion, which took place on December 8th, we had a plethora of despedidas or going away parties. Given that 4 volunteers were leaving Mountain house, there were no shortage of cakes, meals and tears. It was quite a beautiful thing to witness and it all came to a culmination when we celebrated our final misa together.

El Estadio de Maracana de Andahuaylillas. Quite arguably, my favorite turf field with a view of the Coriorco Mountain

The Weekend Crew

So happy to have finished with Primera Comunion. It was a tough and beautiful year indeed

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Final Misa

With it being Christmas time, a number of masses had already been “booked” by other groups leaving me without a clear role at mass. It was nice to not have to play and to participate in a different way. I was able to immerse myself more fully and reconnected with my old self that wasn’t being brought out. All my motions had purpose, the readings were clear, and I felt connected with the church. Ever since I began to lead the chorus on Sundays, I have been focusing more on playing the songs well instead of listening to what the songs were saying and what the readings were for the day. I used to always find solace and a “lighter” sense of myself when at mass. When our inchoate chorus sung without confidence early on, I began to lose this magical feeling at mass.

I think my failure to pray and reflect WITH God instead of just going through the motions was affecting me greatly. Once this responsibility was lifted temporarily, I enjoyed mass once more. This is, of course, all in retrospect and doesn’t include the misas at home, which were also scarce due to Padre Gonzalo’s limited availability. I don’t know if any of you reading this have had a similar experience at mass, but I am looking for ways to stay intentional and focused during mass (so please share!). It’s challenging when playing for a folks who should believe that all voices singing to God are beautiful. This is not always the case though!

As per usual, the initial impetus comes from the Misa that was celebrated this past week. It was our last misa with a majority of the house, whom we had spent the past year or so with but also the first Misa experience for the new volunteers. It wasn’t so much the scripture readings that affected me, but the fact that this was the last misa we would celebrate as Mountain House 2019! Even with all the frustration that I had experienced the past year, there was a lot of joy and fun too. It all hit me at once when Pablo admitted that he would miss us all dearly and alluded to his regret in his decision to leave. It was a touching moment that was only made worse by my slowing down of the ofertorio song Tomad Señor y Recibid (which is Saint Ignatius’ Suscipe Prayer).

The question now is “What now?” This, like all reflections, means nothing if these “airy “topics and subjects are not made incarnado or made flesh/incarnate. St. Ignatius does ask us to be contemplatives in action after all! After a long pattern of closing up my heart and stable from others, I have begun re-open up shop. It’ll take time, but I hope that with the arrival of the new community we can start fresh and find our rhythm early on! Can’t wait to MAGA it up for 2020! Here’s to Making Andahuaylillas Great Again!

Google Photos Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3hbgZLo3USHxDDU57

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“Heaven only knows”

As a random or connected note, these thoughts and reflections come at a time when I realized that many of the songs that I had once cherished and appreciated as a child, mostly from my beloved first CD “album” Now That What I Call Music 19, released in 2005. I was thinking about John Legend’s Heaven and when I went to search for it in my files, there was no trace of it anywhere! I went to search for Ordinary and could not find that or several other songs from that time period. I was most upset to find that all things Coldplay were absent. Speed of Sound really helped kickstart my passion and love for music during my VH1 viewing days.

I mention this because music was what really helped me capture the moment in a sort of time capsule. It inspired and reaffirmed me during difficult lulls and times of change and transition. It is a categorized portal into my life, especially the ways in which I organize my own music.

Exhibit A: 2017 was certainly a coming of age year for me…I don’t know what every hashtag means, but some things definitely stand out for me.

I hope that this rediscovery of old music will also motivate me to begin the new year with some chispa and passion. Perhaps this new year and community can be an opportunity for me to take advantage of what Peru has to offer. I wish for more openness with the Oh Peru moments, less judgement and heart hardening moment and enough discipline to actually read and write often. So I bid 2019 farewell with a few lyrics from John Legend’s Heaven. Cheers to second chances and to this next year!

So will you come back to me?

Make this night the best night It's time for second chance Turn the beat up on repeat, and we can start to dance…

Heaven only knows

Our final Tiny Airport (Desk) Concert was pretty awesome

They are definitely smarter, taller and more hilarious a year later. I miss them so much!

#OhPeru

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bobvsuniverse · 5 years

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ON FORGIVENESS AND ITS ALTERNATIVES

This time of year there is an upsurge in articles and social media memes that present forgiveness as the only way to clear out residual and sometimes crippling negative feelings one may have toward others who have intentionally or unintentionally made one a target of cruelty and malice.

Perhaps this happens due to a collective anticipatory apprehension about sitting down to dinner with family to celebrate a string of holidays during which we are commanded by the culture to be “happy”. At the same time we are inundated by faulty cultural assumptions that familial love and togetherness exist almost alone at the apex of human relationship desire and accomplishment (or lack of it).

Personally, I think this has more to do with selling tchotchkes and bad fruit salad with marshmallow cream than it has to do with the state of reality of the American family, its possibilities and its shortcomings. And I have nothing against forgiveness. I would never disagree with the widespread belief that forgiveness does indeed offer one path to clearing out the self-destructive inner grinding machine of anger at others for what they have done to hurt us.

But forgiveness is only one path and it may not even be the best path toward detoxifying from a goodly amount of the interpersonal poisons that are passed along and/or inherited as a matter of course in the practice of loving others and one’s self … or just in the act of living with people in community in the world.

At this point I think it is important for me to offer a disclaimer relating to my interest and perspective on forgiveness… and what I think about forgiveness as the exclusive method toward the aim of promoting self-healing from interpersonal and other kinds of trauma experienced at the hands of other human beings: there are things that people do to one another that are unforgivable.

For almost 35 years I worked as a social worker, most of it in the public sector with community mental health services. For almost a dozen of those years I also worked as a family counselor in a hospice organization.

Before that I don’t think I gave much thought to the practice and outcomes of forgiveness, and whether it was, in fact, as is often claimed (especially this time of year) the best and even the only way to keep from letting how others have mistreated us from eating a terminal hole in our hearts and souls.

But I did have my own list of grievances, as anyone does. I have been fortunate and resilient enough to be able to go on without dwelling too destructively on the people, groups, and communities that have burned an imprint on my soul. It is a common enough skill and is called to the fore in situations that are perhaps more often than not much more destructive and traumatic than the ones I experienced. And I, by no means, wish to minimize my own. They have been hard enough, thank you. As the great psychoanalyst and Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl said: “Everyone has their own Auschwitz.”

In my work I was able to flesh out the kinds of cruelty and the kinds of people who were best able to manage life in a satisfactory if not exemplary manner after it has been irrevocably altered by abuse perpetrated by another. I don’t think it would be productive or timely for me to call up a detailed accounting of the various people and situations in which I found myself acting as mediator and healer to recuperation from trauma. That being said, I can more succinctly come up with a few words that aptly describe the kinds of situations I was routinely made privy to.

Here are some of them:

Devastating. Murderous. Torturous. Blindingly and numbingly double-binded. Gruesome. Cruel beyond all reckoning, Monstrously, bloodily, selfish. Stupendously self-aggrandizing and hurtful. Shattering. Obliterating. Astoundingly agonizingly heartless.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

It didn’t take me long to recognize that people could, in fact, instigate pure evil in others’ lives in ways that left marks so brutally present and un-erasable that urging, insisting by inference, that victims of such acts work to forgive was in itself an act of cruelty.

Some things are unforgivable. I remember being quite upset about something I discovered about a client that was even more disturbing than usual. Something he had survived at the hands of a parent. A wise mentor matter-of-factly told me this: “Some things are unforgiveable”.

I should add that early in my career I did a little research project among my caseload, which consisted of mostly men that showed that over 80% of them had documented histories of serious and brutal abuse at the hands of relatives. My caseload was made up of some of the most challenging “cases” in the attempts to re-integrate people with persistent symptoms of mental illness back to life in the community.

Some things are unforgivable. I think we should all start there. Not just because we may be professionals working to help others who have been designated as the primary victims of such acts, but as our own self-healers and as the defacto healers of people we love dearly who may struggle daily with the long-term aftermath of being mistreated.

If we start, instead, with the idea that forgiveness is a desired outcome, the only or best outcome, for someone whose hurts are deep and lasting we run the risk of propelling ourselves into the role of re-traumatizer, of making the act of forgiveness a requirement for healing when the people we are in healing partnership with (including ourselves!) are no where near being ready for such a leap and may, rightfully so, never be.

The process of healing and letting go of potentially self-defeating and -defining rage toward a perpetrator and his or her acts is a long and arduous one. It can be life long… and may in fact also be a defining characteristic of the subject’s potential and greatness. It may resist the dissolving power that forgiveness assumes, for reasons that have everything to do with the process of healing and completion and the imperfect act of forgiveness.

If we assume forgiveness is the most desirable outcome, and push for it before it is possible if it is possible at all, might we not be reacting out of our own discomfort with a sometimes grueling recovery process or with the presence of the reality of human-to-human cruelty that defines much of how the human race and its individuals have, in surviving it, accomplished transcendent greatness in the midst of abject misery and evil?

Not forgiving does not equal not healing.

Forgiving is only one way of innumerable and highly individuated ways to prime the pump of healing and what is called recovery.

And it is a damn good one. Don’t get me wrong… if it is available. If it is appropriate to the circumstance and nature of the process of healing.

What is interesting is how in our culture, in taking forgiveness off the table of the required goals toward healing, we are left with little in the way of an ongoing narrative. There is an assumption made by those who strongly recommend it that the ability to forgive is practically the only way to demonstrate that one has moved along significantly enough to declare that he or she is healing.

But that is exactly what I want to do. Take forgiveness off the table and ask: What else is there?

Certainly there are a great number of people who survive, heal, even thrive, who are willing to admit that there are things that were done to them that are unforgiveable. I know people who have either not made it a point or don’t have time to make forgiveness a central fulcrum in their journey to reclaim wholeness or make their scars more flexible, or they outright admit there are things that were done that are unforgiveable. One would hesitate, even be ill advisably presumptuous and condescending, to suggest that someone's healing process is incomplete because they have not forgiven.

Let us start by recognizing the power in admitting: some things are unforgiveable.

So, you ask, if not forgiveness then what?

One of the problems with making forgiveness a requirement of healing is how narrow a scope of possible intervention that leaves; how many people it leaves out of the conversation who have managed to make great progress in their own recovery when, in fact, we should be trying to pull in as many perspectives and methods of healing as exist.

What do people do who make tremendous inroads into their own personhood, sans forgiveness, once past the trauma inflicted on them? People who aren’t focused on forgiving their perpetrator/s, but just on reclaiming their life-lihood?

They do what they do.

If forgiveness becomes a part of the package, and it works for them, so be it. Good for them.

But the same goes for those others to whom forgiveness is not central or is impossible because there are things that are unforgiveable. Their work is just as important and just as successful. And, as almost anyone who has survived and thrived after great trauma might tell us, the work of recovery is a life long process, with forgiveness or not. The illusion that forgiveness absolves the perpetrator at the same time that it releases the traumatized from the clutches of some inner sweatshop of recovery work short-circuits the entire endeavor.

There is power and transcendence in the work toward recovery, however it is approached and whatever tools and methods any one individual employs.

Personally, I think that “letting go” is a much more accurate and all encompassing, defining, aspect of moving toward wholeness after trauma than forgiving, even if forgiving has been employed as a way to reach letting go.

Personally, I think that to be effective forgiveness should be asked for.

I know many will disagree with me by saying that forgiveness is for the person forgiving, not the perpetrator being forgiven. That may be so in a certain percentage of people to whom forgiveness has proven to be integral to their ongoing process of letting go, but certainly there are many, perhaps a greater percentage of people moving into and through letting go, who have no need to forgive and recognize the circumstances of their trauma and the people involved have no will or ability to ask for forgiveness, no real presence… because what was done was unforgivable… because forgiveness for a situation that produces such devastating trauma often enough denies clear and precise enough indicators of who perpetrates and what is ultimately to blame.

Still, one must go on. One DOES go on.

It is okay not to forgive.

Maybe forgiveness will present itself as a reasonable action in the future. Maybe not. Maybe you will still move through and into your recovery, and at times do it brilliantly. Maybe you will awaken at some time in the future and realize you needn’t concern yourself with forgiveness. Maybe you will have found you without it.

What a day!

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— Bob Vance

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#recovery forgiveness relationships trauma

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kennethmjoyner · 4 years

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Guest Post: Different Approaches with a Common Takeaway Across Legal Tech Incubators/Accelerators

The former founder and CEO of litigation platform Allegory Law, Alma Asay is now an evangelist at Litera, where she serves as a legal technology expert and advisor to Litera clients, helping them to bring innovative ways of thinking and practice to life.

As a legal tech founder, I learned that there were two critical components driving my business forward that proved to be a constant challenge: money and feedback.

Money is obvious and the struggles of raising investment capital (or making sales to generate revenue) are the subject of many startup conversations.

What I found to come up far less often was the criticality of feedback. By this, I mean both constructive (“this is how you fix your problem” vs. “you have a problem, good luck”) feedback from those with experience, as well as candid feedback from users of your product. In legal, both can be especially difficult to obtain.

This background is why I am fascinated by – and a believer in – legal tech incubators and accelerators. Litera has given me and my evangelist colleagues the opportunity to explore a myriad of topics of interest to the legal community on our Litera TV series, “The Changing Normal,” where we’ve invited experts from across the industry to share their stories and perspectives.

Recently, I interviewed the heads of three leading programs that work with legal tech startups, exploring the concept of legal tech incubation and acceleration from the points of view of a BigLaw firm, a Big Four accounting firm, and a law school:

Nick West, chief strategy officer at Mishcon de Reya (a prominent UK law firm) and founder of MDR Lab.

Laura Bygrave, innovation and ventures lead at Deloitte Legal and leader of Deloitte Legal Ventures.

Kelli Raker, coordinator of the Entrepreneurial Law Program at Duke Law and managing director of the Duke Law Tech Lab.

As Raker aptly noted at the end of our episode, “Not every accelerator is right for everyone.” While each of these programs creates value for startups and founders, the origins, approaches, and outcomes differ.

MDR Lab began with a discussion at Mishcon de Reya about what it would take to remain relevant over the next 10 years, including enhancing their tech capabilities. West “looked across other organizations and other industries and looked at what they did well when they wanted to get smarter tech.” He spearheaded the launch of MDR Lab at the end of 2016 with a cohort of six legal tech startups, including Ping and Orbital Witness.

The core proposition of MDR Lab is “to help startups with product-market fit.” Although MDR Lab has invested in three of the 25 companies that have participated in the program, investment is not at the core of the program. Rather, the end goals are to better understand technology in the market, teach lawyers about technology, and help startups build a great product.

As West bluntly noted, “It is very difficult to get really honest product feedback because of course people lie when they play with your product.” MDR Lab was designed to give startups “an immersive experience [to] sit behind our lawyers and watch how they use the product in real life.”

At Deloitte Legal, Bygrave and her team recognized the need to understand legal technologies from a customer perspective, in order to provide recommendations to their clients. They conducted a market analysis of almost 400 legal tech startups and hand selected 14 to take part in the new Legal Ventures program launched last year.

The goal for Legal Ventures, according to Bygrave, is to “start as a customer” and bring more transparency to the POC process, including in assessments of the desirability, feasibility, and viability of products for Legal Ventures and its clients. Legal Ventures primarily works with early stage companies in order to help “shape the future of the industry, rather than just buying products off the shelf.”

To select the participating startups, Legal Ventures looks at three things: 1) market size, to ensure it’s not over-saturated; 2) the team, including the personality and ethos of its members; and 3) scalability, as in, whether the team and product are likely to evolve into something that Legal Ventures could help scale.

Duke Law Tech Lab was founded by a student, who now sits on the advisory board. The goals of the Lab include educating founders on important topics and bringing startups together to support one another (recognizing – as Raker noted – that “being a founder is a pretty lonely journey”). Raker came on as managing director after Duke decided to continue the program and recently launched the fourth cohort of four startups – all focused on access to justice.

Duke Law Tech Lab selects its participating startups by consulting with its network of students, alumni, tech providers, and others in the industry. As part of the Lab, startups learn from leaders across the industry about a range of important topics, including user design, data privacy and security, and regulatory reform.

Despite different approaches to helping startups launch or accelerate their growth, core to all three discussions was the importance of feedback from existing and would-be users. Bygrave suggested getting feedback from companies before ever approaching them for a sale: “Get feedback before you go into the money pit, so you can refine your pitch.” Raker observed that she sees “people spending too much time or money building and not getting enough user feedback,” while recognizing that “lawyers are so hard to get feedback from.” West continuously stressed the importance of product-market fit, urging that “you have to obsess” and “it has to be your everything.”

To get feedback and test new ideas, it’s not sufficient to simply ask questions. As often as possible, startups should be seeking out objective data, including by watching lawyers actually interact with their product. West explained, “You have to iterate time and time and time again – and the only way you’re really going to do that is if you have great usage data . . . watching and listening. Interviewing people is not right, you’ve got to watch, you’ve got to actually understand what they do with the product when you’re not looking because that’s the truth.”

Raker described a startup experience where having a “clear partnership and pilot with lawyers was so essential to getting that feedback.” Bygrave stressed the importance of agreeing on objective measuring criteria with users testing your product, lamenting that startups sometimes “go in and show their products and lawyers play around with it, but they don’t know what success is being measured on.”

Participating in an incubator or accelerator can help legal tech startups overcome certain challenges, but – as each of these guests made clear – these programs are not one-size-fits-all and it’s important for founders to ask questions and consider whether a particular program fits with their needs and goals. Of course, it’s possible that the right move for a startup is to not participate in a formal program at all.

Ultimately, whether startups participate in a program or not, the takeaway from this series is that the best way to accelerate a legal tech startup’s growth is for founders to seek out advice and put the product in front of users to get actionable feedback early and often.

from Law and Politics https://www.lawsitesblog.com/2020/09/guest-post-different-approaches-with-a-common-takeaway-across-legal-tech-incubators-accelerators.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

#law #legal

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dpalkuino-blog · 4 years

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Being A Single Mom..how difficult can it be?

Twenty nine years ago, I found myself so in awe as I saw my baby girl being placed in my bosom. It is only then that I believed that she’s a real bundle of joy! I can’t explain the joy of having her, a truly magnificent God’s creation. No words can aptly describe my feelings, in fact, I just had a big smile and tears just slowly flowed from my eyes.

I kept her by my side during her growing up years. I shared with her logical explanations of things, talk to her directly as if she’s not a kid because I want her to grow up with logical minds, smart and most importantly to have an independent mind that is not easily corrupted by outside influence. It is only then that I’ll be sure that she grew up to be decisive and be on her own at an early age.

I’m not sure if I did the right thing at that time, all I know is that she is a gift that should be nurtured with great care, knowledge can easily be imparted, but attitude and emotional IQ is something to be developed. There’s no school of thought how to become a good parent, nor there’s a school of thought that teaches you how to be a good mother.

Of course reference books simply showed an explicitly lifelong experiences of motherhood, but it’s not a pattern that you can depend on to follow in your existing preoccupation. It’s either go and swim later type of upbringing.

Three years of marriage, I find myself in quandary, is this the kind of life I’m going to continue living with a child? My better half is a philandering husband, irresponsible provider and more often than not, loves the company of his young friends without thought of his responsibility as a father and husband to the family.

I kept everything to myself and observed him and my silence is oftentimes the source of our conflict. However, if I told him about why I am angry with him, he easily says sorry and repeat everything as if nothing was learned in the process. This has been going on for eight years, so on the ninth year, I told my parents in law about my plan to leave my husband should he not change his attitude towards us.

I also asked my 5-year old daughter if she can live with me without a father. I know I should not have asked my daughter then, but I’d like to know if in her kid’s mind she would be able to fathom the depth of my question. She said yes to me and I find it a positive reaction.

I told my husband about my plan and if I can’t see any change of him, I told him that when I leave our house, there’s no going back then.

After a year of observation, I finally decided to leave my husband and brought with me my daughter without saying goodbye. I plan our escape just like thieves of the night so as to ensure that nothing can stop me from leaving him.

Looking back, I didn’t mentioned what prompted me to really leave my husband. My husband’s routine everyday is to be with his friends all day and went home whenever he feels like it all drunk and even sleep anywhere in our house because of drunkenness.

In addition to being drunk, I’ve also observed that he is taking sometimes illegal drugs to probably stimulate their enjoyment. It is at this situation that I feared for my little daughter’s future. I maybe so pessimistic, but I can’t help thinking if my husband might actually do harm to my daughter because he is an addict or a user.

This thoughts has given me sleepless nights and one thing lead to another. It was really a difficult situation when I first thought about it, because I left home without a job and finding a space to live requires money. So, I think it was considered idiocy at first and I was glad I have friends who have readily helped me find a job and find a suitable place for me and my daughter.

As a single mom, it was difficult to focus to be a good mom and a good employee at the same time. I was in a rat race environment, it was either I have to prove that I’m capable of handling the job or just be a mom to my daughter. So, I choose the former.

My daughter at a very young age involve in petty thief case in school and it was an eye opener to me. I didn’t expect her to be involved doing such kind of behavior. I talk to her and asked her about it, but it was a simple prank according to her, so I let her get away with it, but that doesn’t stop me from moving her to another school, lest she may encounter the same rich kids again and be influenced somehow.

I took the normal route of being a busy mom and providing for our family needs of two until she reached high school. I was retrenched from my job then and have to leave her in the care of my mother for sometimes because I accepted a job in Manila.

I really didn’t know what transpired during my daughter’s growing up years with me, all I know is that there seems to be no problem about her. I have a short glimpse though of her being bullied in high school and I’ve always been with her whenever she’s in trouble at school and act as her parent and lawyer at the same time.

I never thought for a second that this type of behavior may have significant effect on her personality as a whole. Frankly all those years, I have also been fighting my own demons to conquer. It was not easy to show the world that you’re okay even if you’re not. The minute you showed them your weaknesses, you’ll sure be eaten alive.

My only consolation during those period was my faith in God, I have never prayed so hard in my entire life, but it was when me and my daughter was together again after I left her. It was a real struggle both our subsistence, my work and her college course.

It’s not easy to pursue a dream if you’re living in Manila. Everything was so costly. It isn’t enough that I have work, but my work doesn’t pay that much. My daughter doesn’t know the problem I’ve encountered in my work. Every problem I had, I kept it to her so as not to bother her, more so, the reason of every resignation that I did.

Being an adolescent she has her own opinion of me probably and despite that we live together, the financial struggle that we both have is shared since she had shown so much maturity at a young age. She never used to be open to me anymore so I just let it pass for the time being.

Major event in her life happened when she decided to continue her college course while she is working. She was in her 3rd year in Medical Technology course, when I decided to resign. I didn’t really know that she took my decision very negatively because she is not capable of providing the financial needs of our family and at the same time her school tuition fees.

She stop her schooling, and in the end lost also her relationship with her boyfriend. She was totally lost during this process and even attempted to commit suicide. She blamed me for everything. Her experienced of having fatherlessness was raised unequivocally as a result of her failure in her recent relationships with the opposite sex.

My unreasonable resignations from my job that brought her so much struggle was also an issue. Because of this trail of failures she encountered, she developed a silent anger in her heart towards me. This is triggered when there’s something that I raised and she immediately rant and like a walking time bomb, she explode.

Now she doesn’t want to live with me anymore and I really find it so hurtful. She is my one and only daughter yet because of my past decisions, she can’t find it in her heart to really forget and forgive. I truly love my daughter and my whole world revolved around her for the last 28 years of her life.

I can’t imagine a life without her since since she is the essence of the life I’ve created for myself. I thought I have shown her what real love is all about, because in all honesty, I haven’t cared other people but my daughter. I have forgotten about myself, my needs and my ambition.

I used to believed that love begets love, but in our current situation, I haven’t reap the kind of love that mother expect from her daughter. I only wish that one day when I leave this world, she can find it in her heart to realize that everything happened for a reason and I never did things on my own with the intention of hurting her.

I thought that leaving her father means taking action to protect her from being hurt. My decision to quit jobs was due to various factors, one of the most important reason is self-respect. If I can’t respect my superior who have provided food for my table, why will I continue to work for them. God’s commandments is very clear, whoever, he choose to lead must be respected and followed.

Today, I suffered in silence for I know that this cross I have to bear in order that the sin I have committed will be forgiven. The job of living is now an elusive commodity for me, but I still thank God for the strength that has been bestowed on me.

If this is the kind of life I should bear to my grave, I only hope that one day, I may find my daughter being happy and reap the joy of success that she has painstakingly trying to achieve for herself.

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rrprofessionalpractice · 5 years

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Mark Mann: Creating Timeless Portraiture Interview - Leica Camera Blog

I feel like when researching a photographer is it important to understand their work through their own words. Below is an interview I read when researching Mark Mann and his work which I think is Important to include in my blog

Q: How would you describe your photography?

A: I would like to believe my photos or portraits go a little deeper than the surface. I hope they say something about the moment I took them and I hope that moment becomes timeless.

Q: How do you know when that moment becomes timeless, and broadly speaking what is your strategy or mindset for achieving that transcendence?

A: I try very hard and succeed occasionally to make a picture that will stand the test of time. That, to me, means different things. If the subject and location is very relevant to the moment then I would hope that the picture captures something of that and if looked at in the future will inform the viewer of what was happening at that moment in time.

But I prefer when there’s nothing in the picture that can date it — just a face that cannot be placed on a linear time line — but instead just captures an expression or emotion that could have taken place anywhere at any time.

Q: As you aptly state, your portraits “go a little deeper than the surface” and while they do “say something about the moment” they also say something profound and revealing about your subjects. For example, your compelling portrait of Tyson with his right hand held over his mouth masking his face is a fascinating combination of fierce assertiveness and vulnerability that says (to me) “you don’t really want to know who I am or what I’ve been through.” And your amazing portrait of Robin Williams is a masterpiece of ironic detachment that conveys the essence of his unique ability to satirize the human condition. Do you agree, and does this point to some of the things you are striving to achieve in your portraits? A: Yes I agree. I don’t like to shoot hundreds of frames. I like to shoot less with more thought and timing. The Tyson photo is interesting as he is actually yawning but as his hand came up I knew it was a special moment. If I’m really focused I can sometimes get in a zone where everything seems to be in slow motion. The key for me is to be ready, watch carefully, see what happens and make choices. Q: You have been shooting with the Leica S-System, is that correct? How long have you been using it? What are some of the qualities or characteristics of the S-System that make it suitable for your type of work? A: I’ve been using it for around six months. It’s incredibly easy to use, no fuss that allows me to focus on making great pictures. I shoot a lot of celebrities and I need something extremely reliable with unmatched quality and ease of use. It’s also built like a tank so I don’t have to baby it.

Q: How did you first become interested in Leica? A: I’ve of course always known about Leica but became interested in owning one when they brought out the S-System. At the time to switch kits was not an option, but last year when the converter for my Contax 645 lenses became available the switch was a no brainer. I’m now just about shooting exclusively with Leica. I keep an M in my bag at all times and wish I had been doing that for a lot longer. Oh well, better late than never. Q: In December, you shot portraits with the Leica S-System at Art Basel Miami. The images were then hung at Trendy Studios for a “living art exhibition”. Can you tell us a bit about this experience? A: Yes, fun day! We made around 100 portraits that day. Just a few simple frames of many different people and dogs. I didn’t change the batteries in the S once. I think I managed to get a couple of good shots that day, but I’m pretty sure everyone involved had fun. We printed the shots live on sight supported by Image Pro International and print specialists Gady Alroy, of Art Media Studios, and Sean Black. They were printed on Hahnemühle FineArt photographic paper and hung outside. Looked fantastic. Q: Roughly half of these images were output in color, the remaining half in black-and-white. What is it that you find so compelling about the black-and-white medium for your kind of work and how do you decide whether to present images in black-and-white or in color? A: That’s a constant struggle. In the good old days if you had B&W film you would think in black-and-white, and color film you thought in color. I would like to believe that every shot I present in B&W is preconceived but that’s not the case. Sometimes the decision is made in post. I did have the opportunity to use the Leica Monochrom recently. I really enjoyed thinking in B&W. If budget was no object I would definitely own one. I believe that B&W images can be more creative. There’s no right or wrong. Creative decisions can be made in the processing that allow another level of artistry to the image. With color there’s a right and wrong and a skilled photographer can push the color boundaries for effect. There’s still a point where the colors become art, not just photography.

Q: Your outstanding image of President Obama standing in front of a white background flanked by lights on stands, umbrellas, etc. is very revealing. His elegant form, erect stance, and body language are assertive and self-confident and the portrait of George Washington in the background is a telling detail that elevates this image by placing it in a historical context. He also comes across as thoughtful and self-reflective, even though he is doing one of the things that all presidents do, namely posing for a formal portrait. How did you get this prestigious assignment? What were you thinking when you pressed the shutter release, and why did you decide to include what looks like a test shot or outtake in this portfolio? A: Going to the White House to photograph a sitting president was the greatest reward a portrait photographer could ever dream of. The image was made as part of Esquire Magazine’s 80th anniversary. I had very little time with the president and the needs of the magazine were specific; they wanted a clean background. After a discussion with Michael Norseng, the photo director of Esquire, we came up with a plan to cover the portraits on white and then depending on the environment to pull back and give the viewer a look at where we were. We were situated in the Diplomatic room which features the iconic portrait of Washington. We set the seamless up to the right of it, confident that the wide shot would capture the 1st president looking at the 44th. I managed around 44 frames (coincidentally) and the wide shot was my favorite.

Q: The power and resonance of the above image relies on its very shallow depth of field that creates a visual tension between the very sharp subject in the foreground and the dreamily diffused background. Where was this picture taken, what lens and aperture did you use, and what does it mean to you? A: That’s a shot of Snoop Dog on set for a video shoot. That picture was taken on an M with a 50 mm lens wide open at f/1.4, There’s not much I can say about the M that has not already been said. I spend so much time hiding behind the S-System that I truly enjoy making photographs with the M. I rarely have the aperture anywhere else but wide open. I’m constantly amazed by how gorgeous the bokeh is, truly dreamy and mysterious. As a photographer who usually builds his own light it’s a challenge and a treat to shoot in a more reportage style.

Q: The image of a frame-filling straight-on head shot of a bearded man with an amazing array of bright lights reflected in his sunglasses is a stopper. Do you sometimes direct your subject to look directly at the camera or is this just a situation that evolves during the course of the shoot? In any case, why do you think this approach works and does it have anything to do with the famous dictum, “The eyes are the windows of the soul”? A: This image was taken during Art Basel. Famous dictums are famous for a reason. The eyes often make or break a photo for me. I always try to get a straight on eyes to lens shot. What’s better is when a subject can look through the lens instead of straight at it. There’s never a right or wrong. Cover your bases, but I find with real people the quicker you get what you need the better. People start to look vacant quite quickly. In my experience they’re only truly present for the first few frames.

Q: There is one portrait in this series where the subject is not looking directly at the camera, and it conveys a completely different emotional tone. I would call it internal self-sufficiency, self-awareness, and even the bliss of cosmic acceptance. Am I over the top here or do you see some of these qualities? A: This young lady definitely did not want her picture taken. I used the “please oh please” method and she reluctantly agreed. This was a test shot and I was more focused on making sure the lighting and exposure were correct. After she sat in front of the camera I asked her to look at the lens; she would not, so I went for the next best option, to coax a smile. Sometimes what’s perceived as a compromise turns out to be the best frame. Q: How do you see your photography evolving over the next three years? A: As a commercial photographer it’s really important for me to constantly shoot personal work, taking pictures with no client demands. The hardest thing is to remember that there is no client and you have to be driven by your own creativity, experiment, try different things. Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose. Take something that works and build on it. Keep motivated. Q: Have you considered publishing a book on your celebrity portraiture, offering fine art prints of your work, etc.? In short, how do plan to expand and promote your illustrious career going forward? A: Have certainly thought about it, and there’s some things on the cards. Watch this space.

#jobs

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seanmalatesta · 6 years

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In Defense of Remote Work

Help Your Company Find Its Why

The debate over remote working—what we used to call telecommuting—is endless. It’s also mostly misconceived. Pundits and consultants debate whether it’s a privilege or a right, whether it’s good or bad for productivity, good for morale or not.

The truth is that data and anecdote can be marshaled to support most positions on this issue. In part, this is because “work” is not one thing: building a car, writing code, answering customer-support calls, writing articles about workplace policy—these are all “work,” along with burger flipping, sales, marketing, and on and on.

But even among the types of white-collar jobs most associated with telecommuting, work is multifarious and the considerations about the best way to get it done are complex. Which brings us to the real heart of the remote-working matter: Do you trust your employees?

Send out the scapegoats

If you do, then the answer is straightforward: Trust them to know how best to do their jobs, including where to do them. If you don’t, then remote working isn’t the problem. It’s a scapegoat.

I don’t mean necessarily a scapegoat for underperformance, although it can be that. When IBM, one of the original trailblazers of the telecommute, announced last year that thousands of remote workers would have to start coming to the office, observers were quick to note that the company had seen 19 straight quarters of revenue declines.

Likewise, Marissa Mayer’s ill-fated attempt to turnaround Yahoo included a clamp-down on remote work. Of course, Mayer steered clear of blaming remote workers for Yahoo’s struggles, but she did suggest that employees who worked remotely were missing out. Her memo about the change explained: “Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.”

“ Trust your employees to know how best to do their jobs, including where to do them.

—BRIAN CARNEY

History does not record whether any of the affected employees yelped “Yahoo!” in response to the memo, but it’s safe to assume some number of those reactions ended with an exclamation point.

Tale of two companies

For some jobs with certain responsibilities, Mayer wasn’t wrong. But it’s equally certain that for others, forcing them to work where she wanted them to was a mistake.

There are two kinds of companies, according to Jean-Francois Zobrist, the long-serving CEO of the French foundry FAVI: “How” companies, and “Why” companies. The former believe in telling their employees how to do their jobs. They insist on standardized processes and procedures, top-down control, and power and information concentrated at the top. They usually tell their employees where to work too.

To varying degrees, this aptly describes most large corporations today. But there is another sort, what Zobrist calls “Why” companies. They focus on telling their employees why they’re doing what they’re doing and leave the “how” to the individual. FAVI’s factory floor reflected this. Every workstation was customized; machines were often arrayed at what appeared to be incongruous angles relative to each other, and no two places alike, or so it seemed.

In other words, each employee worked in the way that maximized their own productivity, and each was free to experiment to discover what that was. When I and my co-author of Freedom, Inc. visited FAVI while researching our book, we saw custom-fabricated parts racks and tools everywhere we looked.

And each employee could explain why this rack was tilted at this angle, why she made a special rake for gathering parts, and so on. They were creatively engaged in improving their own performance because they’d been given the freedom to do so, and knew they weren’t being measured by anything else.

There were no remote workers on that foundry floor, if only because it’s not easy to cast bronze in your home office. But remote work is best viewed as just one application of that same principle: That employees deserve the trust to organize their work life in the way that makes them most productive.

Do you trust your employees to decide to which group they belong? This is part of an even larger question: Do you trust your employees to decide for themselves how best to do their jobs?

Be a why company

Even from here, in my home office, I can hear the chorus of “Yes, buts…” and “If only it were that simple!” It is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Our book is a full-length examination of the challenges, pitfalls, and benefits of being a “why” company.

When I say remote working is a scapegoat, I mean it often gets the rap for a load of other problems. If you take away the “how,” for example, the “why” becomes extremely important, even essential. If your employees don’t have a clear mission, combined with a shared vision for what you are trying to accomplish together and how they contribute to that vision, they’ll be at a loss for what to do, or they’ll be doing the wrong things because they’re pursuing different goals.

But the problem, in that case, is not that they’re remote. People are just as good at goofing off, being disengaged and performing makework in an office as they are at home or in a Starbucks. Sometimes they’re even better at it at the office because they’re reacting against being “warehoused” for eight hours a day, or more.

The underlying problem is inadequate communication of the company’s “why,” and that employee’s role in pursuing it. Max De Pree, management philosopher and author of Leadership Is an Art, said it best: Communicate lavishly.

Talk to people about what they’re doing, why they’re doing it. Maybe check in on how they’re doing it, but be careful there. It’s all too easy to slip into that “how” mentality or to be perceived that way. Make sure employees know what they’re supposed to be doing, and why, and don’t just do so once a year in a formal performance review, but do it lavishly and as often as possible.

“ Make sure employees know what they’re supposed to be doing, and why, and don’t just do so once a year in a formal performance review, but do it lavishly and as often as possible.

—BRIAN CARNEY

Be a why worker

It may well be that someone in a particular role needs to spend more time in the office. They have a team that hungers for “interactions and experiences” with them, or they’re missing something important about the group dynamic by being away. But if they understand their job, they’ll come to that conclusion on their own, like as not.

And if they don’t, forcing them into the office won’t help them “get the message.” It will probably just make them resentful and surly, which isn’t a great addition to any workplace.

from Michael Hyatt, Your Virtual Mentor https://ift.tt/2MIc4Gs via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Michael Hyatt #Your Virtual Mentor

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olaluwe · 6 years

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Success may be relative; but still, I know you want to succeed; oozing those material things that markedly define anybody as truly living and not just another survival stats. Success also may be a process and not an event; a journey and not a destination; still I know you want to go the whole hog manifesting finally the non-material qualities of successful people. Tolerance, Compassion, Courage, loyalty, humility to name a few. To start with, everybody definitely would love to have an evidently progressive professional life, loving wife, husband, house(s), exotic car(s) and above all lovely kid(s), aptly described by the holy writ as the heritage of the Lord. I mean we all want to live life to the fullest. And no one can fault that! It's quite noble. But somehow, you are still somewhere down there, hopeful that one day you will finally be able unlock your true potentials and go on to hit the bull's eye of success. However, at best today, you are only a perpetual shadow of your ideal self waiting for like forever to break free from your struggling real self and being tagged unavoidably in the process a perennial underachiever. Defined, perennial underachievers are people, essentially, who in spite of possessing overwhelming credentials to succeed in real time, but have for long instead gelded, huffing and puffing from one near-success situation to the other. Suffering from an affliction I called 'the nearly-to-success syndrome.' 'And nearly, they use to say, don't kill a bird.' Who or what then is the achilles' heel stopping most of us from attaining our much desire fore-heights or peaks as one may put it in life? Before I go on, let me digress a little here with this institutional analogy. If you are a football enthusiast, then you must be familiar with the story of the Dutch national football team (The Orange Gang) and why they are more often than not regarded as football's world perennial underachiever. They are, I can tell you for free, if you're still clueless because they have so far played in three world cup grand finales in 1974, 78 and 2010 respectively and didn't win any. They have also consistently being hitting far below their weight in many other major tournaments in view of their football potential viz a viz their pool of talents. The only major football silverware they have managed to win till today was the Euro championship of 1988. And who can ever forget the Dutch masters like late Johan Cryuff especially, who was easily the originator of the concept of 'Total Football' and one of the laureled three greatest footballers of last century. The other two being the Argentine Diego Maradona and the Brazilian Edson Arantes Dos Nascimento popularly called Pele. 'The Orange Gang' at some point too also boast other marque names like the fantastic trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkard to name a few. Believe me, their inability to win football's most coveted tournament is down to ill-luck or perhaps like they use to say in sporting circle, only those who want it enough get it. Perhaps it is true talent alone is not enough. Same applies to the Spanish national football team, (La Furia Rojas) who have however managed to cover themselves in glories of late and changed their perennial underachiever's tag and narrative forever. Back to individuals which is the crux of this literature, there are basically three things that can cause a man to underachieve in life. And they are : governments, witches and wizard and the self. In other way, we can also rename them as governmental, ancestral/spiritual and personal problems. How then can any of the three be the reason behind our struggle or failures in life? Let's have a go at them one after the other. Take government for instance, it has the power of life and death; and comes directly next to the supreme deity (God) in the order of importance in the daily affairs of humans. Government as an institution of state, through its relevant arms, formulate the necessary laws and enforces same on everybody residing within its clearly define geographical boundary. In any society where the rule of law prevails, those who run foul of these legal grand norms are impartially punished. So you can say it again that the law is made for man and not the other way round. Finally, any member of the society who chooses to breach any portion of this rule book does so at his or her own peril and we've seen it played out time and again. Whatever you do, it's highly expected of you to adequately consult and align yourself with the extant law of the land regardless where you live under the sun because innocent plea would not stand as your defense. Though it exists for the greater good of everybody, government, I repeat, can cause you a lot of predictable and unforeseen existential problems especially when you chance to stand in the path of its growth and developmental plans. Take for instance the fate of people who were found to be illegally occupying government acquisition lands. There properties have been pulled down right before their eyes and there is nothing they could do as government moved in to forcefully retake what was theirs. Many never recovered. Here, Maroko, a suburb along Lekki-Ajah axis which was demolished and possession taken by the then military government in the state comes easily to mind. Take also the case of continuous urban renewal drive of successive governments in Lagos and other states around the nation; and you can only imagine what its agonizing impact has been for those whose properties and means of livelihood have been affected one way or the other While many are still unable to recoup their losses as result of sudden relocation order; there are many others too who are dead or dying as we speak or still traumatized by the shock of these incidents. That's that! Next is the witches and wizard or put differently ancestral/spiritual problems. Existence generally or the physical, I cannot overemphasize, is a direct product of the spirit. So, nobody can detract from the influential roles the spiritual plays in the life and time of every living. And I mean even negatively. Yes, there is forever one form of opposition or the other against our good intentions, plans, dreams and lofty goals in life. So, like the Yoruba would say : 'One would do well to factor in those whose sworn desire it is to ensure we are not sufficient as we plan one's meal.' Good as the advice may sound, how many of us can confidently say we follow its dictates to the letters? Only a few, I can bet! The majority, at best, are banking on chance. Which is reminiscent of the 'T' in the management's Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat test (SWOT). And it doesn't matter whether you know them or not. There are always powers and principalities that have sworn never to see you and I wear the CROWN or fulfill our glorious destinies in life. This is not conjured up to scare anybody. It's real. The troubling part, if you care, is that the most ruthless of them are often found among our Kiths and Kins. So, like the Yoruba would say, look no further for the devourers are lurked within the roots, stems and leaves of the vegetable. How then can you tell if there is a negative force against your elective existential ascendancy? When your failure is becoming like customary; a recurring decimal. Then you need to seek help from the initiates or true custodians of the God's oracle. Or you take the battle to the enemies armed with prayers, fasting and sufficient watchfulness in no particular order. Note, I don't mean structured experimental failures geared towards achieving specific breakthrough in some scientific spheres as encountered by the American electrical wizard, Thomas Edison, which eventually gave the world its breakthrough incandescent light. Finally, let's get down to the individual or self if you like. Wouldn't it sound strange to say many of us are sometimes our own worst enemies. It is so because many of us are consciously unconsciously containing ourselves. Success of any kind and at any rate, I need to categorically say here is not for people who are either 'too ashamed to face their failures or too afraid to confront their fears.' Many of us are either debilitated by fears of the unknown or ashamed to repeat a process/class/stage that's the prerequisite of our moving to the next phase of our lives. By and large, at the centre of containing ourselves is the issue of obvious lack of preparation; disdain for wisdom which is the only reason the bible says the people perish. Opportunity, I must say happens randomly in life and how be it that we're found to be unprepared when it happens. Tragic! Whenever these happen we're bound to underachieve. And we can only blame ourselves and nobody. How then can we not contain ourselves? It is by striving to release all the creative energies buried inside of us and not permitting anything or anybody to discourage us by stories of never-do-well people around. By always trying new things and being innovative. And by not allowing gloomy economics picture as constantly being painted by some doomsday economic analysts to weigh us down from taking any bold step that may bring about our transformation. By not waiting for situations to become favourable before taking action. There has never been a time in history that things were generally agreed to be favourable for business or anything worthwhile because before we were born stories of economic hardship have always been there and it's not going to go away anytime soon. So, you should dare to step out of your comfortable existential cocoon and into the rough terrains where greatness is made. Finally, to borrow the word of Nigerian Ecclesiastes, renowned teacher and social affairs analyst Dr. Tai Solarin of blessed memory who is reputed to always say to his audiences: 'May Your Road Be Rough' , because to him, there is never an easy road to success or greatness in life. Go and succeed and stop being a perennial underachiever!

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hotfitnesstopics · 6 years

Quote

Katie Bolden's weight-loss transformation can only be described as remarkable. (OK, and maybe a few other words like "amazing" and "insanely inspiring," too.) In just three and a half years, she managed to naturally drop a whopping 150 pounds, shedding half of her overall bodyweight and gaining some muscle in the process. We caught up with Katie, now 31, to learn more about how she got the impressive job done, and we walked away with plenty of tips and motivation for slimming down. Read on to learn more about her incredible journey from 280 to 130 pounds, and be sure to get even more behind-the-scenes details on her aptly named personal blog, Huff 'n Puff to Buff 'n Tough. Related: The Absolute Best Piece of Weight-Loss Advice I Ever Received Time For a Change Before diving into her weight-loss journey, Katie struggled through a host of health complications. She was diagnosed with angina, a type of chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart, and told by doctors that she was "on the verge of a heart attack in the near future" if she didn't address her weight issues. In 2010, she received a diagnosis for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a chronic condition that causes ovaries to enlarge and grow multiple small cysts on their surfaces. Two years later, Katie's doctors gave her a prediagnosis for multiple sclerosis (MS) after dealing with a series of neurological issues, including going temporarily blind in one eye. "My dreams of being a mother were being threatened. I knew it was time to change." Needless to say, her weight was taking a toll on her health, and it all came to a head when Katie began struggling with infertility. "The thought of possibly not becoming a mother was a terribly painful one," she told POPSUGAR, adding that the "possible reality" of losing her ability to walk, run, and see due to MS "scared and shook [her] to [her] core." In February 2013, Katie weighed in at 280 pounds, and she began altering her food and exercise habits to get on track with her health, once and for all. A year and a half later - in September 2014, to be exact - she welcomed a baby girl into the world, which motivated her even more to continue her journey toward a slimmer waistline and fitter lifestyle. Related: Bob Harper Says the #1 Key to Weight Loss Isn't Diet or Exercise - It's This Her Diet Swaps Right off the bat, Katie started following the 80/20 rule, which she describes as "80-percent clean eating and 20-percent sweet, treats, and cheats." Allowing herself to enjoy her favorite foods every now and then was crucial to her weight-loss success, she told us. "I felt like I was way more successful on my journey without restrictions versus putting a ton of restrictions on myself like I have in past attempts with weight loss." "I felt like I was way more successful on my journey without restrictions versus putting a ton of restrictions on myself like I have in past attempts with weight loss." She began by having one cheat meal each week and eventually worked up to indulging in them only one to two times per month, sometimes more depending on her mood or the occasion. "I started noticing the fact that I didn't want cheat meals as often anymore and saw better results only having them one to two times a month," Katie told us. In addition to following 80/20, Katie counted her calories and macros, using the MyFitnessPal app to record her food and keep portion sizes in check. "I started cutting back on a lot of the sugar and fast food that I was eating," she told us, adding that her diet was "mostly high protein, low fat, and moderate carbs." Nowadays, Katie eats five to six times each day every two to three hours. Related: This Is the Food Shandra Stopped Eating to Jump-Start Her 92-Pound Weight Loss Newfound Exercise Habits Katie truly didn't hold back when throwing herself into the world of exercise. She started by working out four to five days each week, focusing on both cardio and weightlifting and following online workouts and DVDs. "For cardio, I started running, or attempting to run anyways," she said, adding that she "couldn't run for more than 30 seconds, sometimes less." She was also swimming, hiking, and doing some plyometrics for cardio. She maintained a pretty genius mindset when it came to her exercise plan: she mixed activities she truly enjoyed doing (like swimming and hiking) with ones she didn't necessarily enjoy (like running and weightlifting). That sounds like a solid balance to us! Now that Katie has lost the weight, she switches up her workouts depending on what her current goals are, whether it's maintaining, strength building, or losing fat. If she's simply trying to maintain, she works out four to six days each week, doing moderate to heavy weightlifting each of those days and cardio for three to five of those days per week. Related: 25 Surefire Tips to Help You Lose Those Last Few Pounds Strutting Her Stuff on Stage Katie's young daughter was certainly a big factor that motivated her to push through her weight-loss trials, but there was another factor at play: her desire to partake in a bodybuilding competition. The idea to do so came to her while hiking with her husband. "I had been so proud of myself for how far I had come in just a few short months," she recalled. "I said to my husband, half joking and half serious, 'Do you think that I could ever do a fitness competition one day and possibly even win?' He told me that if I worked hard, then yeah, [I] could do it." In Spring 2017, after dropping 150 pounds, she did the damn thing when she participated in a World Beauty Fitness & Fashion bodybuilding competition. The best part? She won first place in the transformation division, all while proudly putting her post-weight-loss loose skin on display. Look at her shine! "Although I don't wish or choose to live with [my excess skin] forever, I am rocking the hell out of it for as long as I am forced to wear it." In 2018, Katie has plans to do a few contests in the body transformation category before having her excess skin removed once she gets the funds to do so. But for now, she's pretty content with how her body looks. "Although I don't wish or choose to live with [my excess skin] forever, I am rocking the hell out of it for as long as I am forced to wear it," she said. "I wear it with pride until it is time to part ways!" How's that for your daily dose of body positivity? Words of Wisdom Of course, we couldn't help but ask Katie to offer up advice for anyone looking to similarly transform their bodies like she did, and she explained how it's important to create "fun goals that have nothing to do with the numbers on the scale or losing a certain amount of weight within a certain time frame." On top of that, persistence is truly key. "A little self-belief and telling yourself that you will get there eventually no matter how long it takes will take you very far on this journey! And always remembering that not every day will be perfect, even when you are years into the journey." Write that on a sticky note, and don't forget it! from POPSUGAR Fitness https://ift.tt/2F9QBme via IFTTT

http://www.fitnessclub.cf/2018/04/katie-lost-150-pounds-in-3-years-and.html

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theestaticmarketing · 7 years

Text

5 Productivity Hacks to Bring Content Creation From Failing to Flying High

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/_-M0ewKtg8Q/ <img width=”600″ height=”360″ src=”http://ift.tt/2EHBeBb; class=”attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image” alt=”Hot Air Balloons” srcset=”http://ift.tt/2GfDhJP 600w, http://ift.tt/2o7ODbp 300w” sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px” /> <img class=”aligncenter wp-image-23815 size-full” src=”http://ift.tt/2EHBeBb; alt=”Hot Air Balloons” width=”600″ height=”360″ /> Let’s just get this out of the way: I don’t know anything about hacking. I’ve never hacked anything in my life, unless you’re describing my golf swing, or you count using a <a href=”http://ift.tt/2o2msv9; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Game Genie</a> to cheat at Sega Genesis back in the early ‘90s. In general, I find terms like “life hacks” and “growth hacking” to be… well, hackneyed. But you know what? Blog titles that include “hacks” — or other strong and compelling descriptors such as “surprising” or “critical” — have a <a href=”http://ift.tt/2o7Kc06; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>greater tendency to gain viral traction</a>. Sometimes a simple data point like that can be the springboard you need to uncover inspiration. Which brings us to the purpose of today’s post. Here at TopRank Marketing, <a href=”http://ift.tt/2o0UArx style=”font-weight: 400;”>we have an insanely talented Content Team</a>. Legitimately some of the best writers and strategic thinkers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working alongside. But even these awesome pros are not immune to the occasional creative rut or swoon in productivity. It comes with the territory. Recently the team came together to discuss some of our personal methods for overcoming content creation slumps and getting back on track when we’re dragging. I figured I would share some of the most salient pointers to come out of that meeting here, so other marketers can benefit and maybe adopt a few of them during their own periods of stagnation. Hacks, insider tips, pearls of eternal wisdom — whatever attention-grabbing name you’d like to apply, I just hope you find these practical tips helpful in enhancing your productivity and elevating your content marketing success. (And feel free to comment with your own if you have tricks that work for you.) <h2>#1 – Embrace the 5-Second Rule</h2> <img class=”size-medium wp-image-23816 alignleft” src=”http://www.toprankblog.com/wp-content/uploads/5-Second-Rule-213×300.png” alt=”The 5-Second Rule Book Cover” width=”213″ height=”300″ />Last year, Mel Robbins published a book called “<a href=”http://ift.tt/2o8qzoW; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage</a>.” The premise behind this guide to conquering self-doubt and procrastination is rooted in psychology. Basically, the crux is that because our brains are wired to avoid risk, we are innately predisposed to abandon many ideas and plans almost as quickly as they arrive. Robbins challenges us to overcome this inclination by forcing ourselves to take some sort of action to move an idea forward within five seconds of the thought crossing our consciousness. It can be small and it doesn’t always have to lead anywhere. But it’s all about getting past your initial misgivings and, in some way, turning an idea from concept into reality. So, next time the notion of a blog angle passes through your head, take the step to jot down a note, or even a loose outline. When you’re struck with the spark for a content campaign, but not quite sure about it, discuss it with a colleague or at least record a quick voice memo on your phone. Basically, stop saying “later” and start saying “now.” By following this approach, you’ll find yourself with a whole lot more to work with, and it might just be that a passing fancy you’d have otherwise pushed out of mind turns into something great. [bctt tweet=”Stop saying “later” and start saying “now” when an idea crosses your mind. – @NickNelsonMN #ContentCreation #ContentMarketing” username=”toprank”] <h2>#2 – Start with Your Conclusion</h2> A classic writing tip from fledgling novelists is to draft the ending of a story first, and then work your way up to it. This same advice can be aptly applied to any content writer who is struggling to get a piece off the ground. When I’m sitting down to write something new, I frequently find that getting started is the toughest part. You need a strong, compelling introduction, and in many cases can’t proceed until you’ve got one worked out. Another issue can be that once you’ve surpassed that initial hurdle, you start wandering and get sidetracked from the main points you’re trying to make. Writing your conclusion before anything else can remedy both of these issues. Since it’s always smart to have the beginning and ending of a post tie together, you might find the pathway to your intro by taking this approach. And as you progress through the drafting process, you’ll always know exactly what the end destination is. <h2>#3 – Keep a List of Recent, Authoritative Statistics</h2> Sometimes, statistics can provide the backing we need to substantiate a point. But finding the right one isn’t always a quick or easy task. Getting bogged down in research is often one of the primary culprits in waning productivity. If you have a team of writers on hand — particularly ones who cover similar topics or niches — it can be helpful to create a central doc with up-to-date stats from trusted sources, such as respected media publications or verified research organizations. Trim off older items as they lose relevance, and continually add in new ones. You’ll want to be careful to avoid the trap where everyone on your staff starts using the same numbers and sources over and over again, but in general I find this practice to be a strong productivity-booster and time-saver. <h2>#4 – Dig Into Data</h2> Stats are not only able to contextualize and reinforce a case we’re trying to make, but they can also illuminate a case worth making in the first place, or provide direction on how to proceed. For example, the insight I mentioned earlier about “hacks” being a clickable blog post title made me wonder: “What ‘hacks’ do I actually know? What kinds of hidden pointers could I surface that might actually be useful to our audience of smart marketers?” Revelations can be found in insights about particular types of content that resonate within your industry (articles and studies about trends are good sources), or a conclusion drawn from your own Google Analytics (“Wow, look at how well posts about Topic X have performed!”). Data points are stories waiting to be told, and they are almost infinitely abundant in every industry and vertical. [bctt tweet=”Data points are stories waiting to be told. Dig into them to find inspiration & overcome #ContentCreation slumps. – @NickNelsonMN” username=”toprank”] <h2>#5 – Reckon with Writer’s Block</h2> It can be tough to get unstuck when you hit a wall in content creation. There’ve been countless instances where I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit wordsmithing one particular sentence, or figuring the best way to transition from one idea to the next. In these cases, it never hurts to move on to something else for a while and then circle back later. You can leave yourself a placeholder, as simple as [XXXXX] or more referential like [something about hacking and Game Genie]. This enables you to accomplish other stuff and return with a fresh mind. Painful as it may be, you should even consider simply getting something down on the page in these moments, even if you don’t think it’s good. A 2012 article in Psychology Today on the subject of <a href=”http://ift.tt/2o5GS6P; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>overcoming writer’s block</a> argued that this can be necessary to achieve that frequently elusive “flow.” “Here’s the truth about writing (or any other form of self-expression): If you can’t accept the bad, you can’t get to the good,” wrote Barry Michels. “It’s as if the flow is pure, clean water trapped behind dirty, disgusting sewage. If you can’t welcome the sewage and let it flow through you, you’ll never be able to get to the pure stuff.” Such a lovely metaphor, isn’t it? <h3>Put Your Content in Flight</h3> Ready to see how high your content can fly? Try incorporating these tips into your routine and see if they can help give your productivity a lift: <ul> <li style=”font-weight: 400;”>Challenge yourself to take action on every content creation idea as soon as it strikes you.</li> <li style=”font-weight: 400;”>Try breaking your routine by writing the conclusion to your next post before anything else, and see if it helps make your process more efficient.</li> <li style=”font-weight: 400;”>Create a centralized doc with your most-used sources of stats and insights, then share it with your team and encourage them to add.</li> <li style=”font-weight: 400;”>Analyze data trends from your own past content as well as the industry at large to identify hot topics for your audience.</li> <li style=”font-weight: 400;”>Alter your writing approach to overcome writer’s block.</li> </ul> Otherwise, if you’re interested in learning more about how we do <a href=”http://ift.tt/2o7OFQz; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>content marketing at TopRank Marketing</a>, check out our services page or reach out and give us a shout. We’re all about driving growth, without any hacking required. The post <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://ift.tt/2EEzJUr Productivity Hacks to Bring Content Creation From Failing to Flying High</a> appeared first on <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://ift.tt/2wbPbmy Marketing Blog – TopRank®</a>.

The post 5 Productivity Hacks to Bring Content Creation From Failing to Flying High appeared first on Magic Money Success Your Trick To Freedom.

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befoundonlinemarketing · 7 years

Text

5 Productivity Hacks to Bring Content Creation From Failing to Flying High

Let’s just get this out of the way: I don’t know anything about hacking. I’ve never hacked anything in my life, unless you’re describing my golf swing, or you count using a Game Genie to cheat at Sega Genesis back in the early ‘90s. In general, I find terms like “life hacks” and “growth hacking” to be… well, hackneyed. But you know what? Blog titles that include “hacks” — or other strong and compelling descriptors such as “surprising” or “critical” — have a greater tendency to gain viral traction. Sometimes a simple data point like that can be the springboard you need to uncover inspiration. Which brings us to the purpose of today’s post. Here at TopRank Marketing, we have an insanely talented Content Team. Legitimately some of the best writers and strategic thinkers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working alongside. But even these awesome pros are not immune to the occasional creative rut or swoon in productivity. It comes with the territory. Recently the team came together to discuss some of our personal methods for overcoming content creation slumps and getting back on track when we’re dragging. I figured I would share some of the most salient pointers to come out of that meeting here, so other marketers can benefit and maybe adopt a few of them during their own periods of stagnation. Hacks, insider tips, pearls of eternal wisdom — whatever attention-grabbing name you’d like to apply, I just hope you find these practical tips helpful in enhancing your productivity and elevating your content marketing success. (And feel free to comment with your own if you have tricks that work for you.)

#1 - Embrace the 5-Second Rule

Last year, Mel Robbins published a book called “The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage.” The premise behind this guide to conquering self-doubt and procrastination is rooted in psychology. Basically, the crux is that because our brains are wired to avoid risk, we are innately predisposed to abandon many ideas and plans almost as quickly as they arrive. Robbins challenges us to overcome this inclination by forcing ourselves to take some sort of action to move an idea forward within five seconds of the thought crossing our consciousness. It can be small and it doesn’t always have to lead anywhere. But it’s all about getting past your initial misgivings and, in some way, turning an idea from concept into reality. So, next time the notion of a blog angle passes through your head, take the step to jot down a note, or even a loose outline. When you’re struck with the spark for a content campaign, but not quite sure about it, discuss it with a colleague or at least record a quick voice memo on your phone. Basically, stop saying “later” and start saying “now.” By following this approach, you’ll find yourself with a whole lot more to work with, and it might just be that a passing fancy you’d have otherwise pushed out of mind turns into something great. [bctt tweet="Stop saying “later” and start saying “now” when an idea crosses your mind. - @NickNelsonMN #ContentCreation #ContentMarketing" username="toprank"]

#2 - Start with Your Conclusion

A classic writing tip from fledgling novelists is to draft the ending of a story first, and then work your way up to it. This same advice can be aptly applied to any content writer who is struggling to get a piece off the ground. When I’m sitting down to write something new, I frequently find that getting started is the toughest part. You need a strong, compelling introduction, and in many cases can’t proceed until you’ve got one worked out. Another issue can be that once you’ve surpassed that initial hurdle, you start wandering and get sidetracked from the main points you’re trying to make. Writing your conclusion before anything else can remedy both of these issues. Since it’s always smart to have the beginning and ending of a post tie together, you might find the pathway to your intro by taking this approach. And as you progress through the drafting process, you’ll always know exactly what the end destination is.

#3 - Keep a List of Recent, Authoritative Statistics

Sometimes, statistics can provide the backing we need to substantiate a point. But finding the right one isn’t always a quick or easy task. Getting bogged down in research is often one of the primary culprits in waning productivity. If you have a team of writers on hand — particularly ones who cover similar topics or niches — it can be helpful to create a central doc with up-to-date stats from trusted sources, such as respected media publications or verified research organizations. Trim off older items as they lose relevance, and continually add in new ones. You’ll want to be careful to avoid the trap where everyone on your staff starts using the same numbers and sources over and over again, but in general I find this practice to be a strong productivity-booster and time-saver.

#4 - Dig Into Data

Stats are not only able to contextualize and reinforce a case we’re trying to make, but they can also illuminate a case worth making in the first place, or provide direction on how to proceed. For example, the insight I mentioned earlier about “hacks” being a clickable blog post title made me wonder: “What ‘hacks’ do I actually know? What kinds of hidden pointers could I surface that might actually be useful to our audience of smart marketers?” Revelations can be found in insights about particular types of content that resonate within your industry (articles and studies about trends are good sources), or a conclusion drawn from your own Google Analytics (“Wow, look at how well posts about Topic X have performed!”). Data points are stories waiting to be told, and they are almost infinitely abundant in every industry and vertical. [bctt tweet="Data points are stories waiting to be told. Dig into them to find inspiration & overcome #ContentCreation slumps. - @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]

#5 - Reckon with Writer’s Block

It can be tough to get unstuck when you hit a wall in content creation. There’ve been countless instances where I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit wordsmithing one particular sentence, or figuring the best way to transition from one idea to the next. In these cases, it never hurts to move on to something else for a while and then circle back later. You can leave yourself a placeholder, as simple as [XXXXX] or more referential like [something about hacking and Game Genie]. This enables you to accomplish other stuff and return with a fresh mind. Painful as it may be, you should even consider simply getting something down on the page in these moments, even if you don’t think it’s good. A 2012 article in Psychology Today on the subject of overcoming writer’s block argued that this can be necessary to achieve that frequently elusive “flow.” “Here’s the truth about writing (or any other form of self-expression): If you can’t accept the bad, you can’t get to the good,” wrote Barry Michels. “It’s as if the flow is pure, clean water trapped behind dirty, disgusting sewage. If you can’t welcome the sewage and let it flow through you, you’ll never be able to get to the pure stuff.” Such a lovely metaphor, isn’t it?

Put Your Content in Flight

Ready to see how high your content can fly? Try incorporating these tips into your routine and see if they can help give your productivity a lift:

Challenge yourself to take action on every content creation idea as soon as it strikes you.

Try breaking your routine by writing the conclusion to your next post before anything else, and see if it helps make your process more efficient.

Create a centralized doc with your most-used sources of stats and insights, then share it with your team and encourage them to add.

Analyze data trends from your own past content as well as the industry at large to identify hot topics for your audience.

Alter your writing approach to overcome writer’s block.

Otherwise, if you’re interested in learning more about how we do content marketing at TopRank Marketing, check out our services page or reach out and give us a shout. We’re all about driving growth, without any hacking required.

The post 5 Productivity Hacks to Bring Content Creation From Failing to Flying High appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

5 Productivity Hacks to Bring Content Creation From Failing to Flying High posted first on http://www.toprankblog.com/

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