In 2008 Seattle was on the verge of closing many local public schools and at the same time considering building a new prison. I knew that the State of Washington planned for prison construction based on 4th grade reading scores, so we are essentially planning for failure. I joined a campaign to put the decision to build a jail on the ballot and joined together with several activist folks including Tim Harris of the local paper Real Change. We held a fundraising breakfast for the campaign and they gave me a chance to speak on the choices in front of us as a community. I was definitely on fire for change. That year I also wrote an op-ed which gave me yet another chance to communicate the inequities of our decision to plan for failure rather than invest in success up front.
Internal & External Coherence
Andrea Hiott, the creator of the podcast Love and Philosophy, interviewed me early on. It was one of the most personal conversations I’ve ever had publicly. It is a deep dive into what has shaped me and how it’s formed my view of the world and my ‘waymaking’ within it.
Listen to the interview here:
Break the Pattern Before it Breaks You
This year I launched a YouTube channel called ‘Rollin’ Different’ and has become a place for me to post my novice song-writing skills and short bits of wisdom related to creativity and a heart-led life. A recent post confronts the challenging truth that if we aren’t willing to shift old patterns, they will come calling and force the shift onto us in a more uncomfortable way. I’ve run into so many walls in my own life as I tried to avoid looking at, and then breaking, old patterns. My hope is this wisdom might be a good catalyst for others in this moment.
Escape From Your Own Alcatraz
A post from my YouTube channel Rollin’ Different. Recognizing I always had the key to unlock the 'jail cell' of my own difficulties. The world I have lived in comes from the ideas & beliefs I hold onto, contributed to by the ideas & beliefs of the world around me, internalized by me and my need for safety and for fitting in. So I Invite us all to see that the key to let us out into a much wider, more creative existence sits quietly but certainly in our pockets. Check and see!
Creativity in the Workplace
After leaving Arts Corps and returning to government to learn how to enliven the creativity of individuals working inside large institutions, filmmaker Brian Quist offered to film me talking about what I was learning about creativity in the workplace. He filmed me in context and much of what I said back then still rings true, although my passion to help reinvent government has waned somewhat. I am not sure it will happen in my lifetime. However, I’m still just as passionate about individuals finding their creative powers and using them for good inside of the institutions they work within.
A New Metaphor for Education
A quick hit on how schools might be adapted to consider the whole child. And to imagine we are all much like a plant that needs the right organic conditions, the fertile ground, to grow well.
Why Creativity is Essential
This short clip was filmed by my colleague Steve Miranda who was teaching at the Puget Sound Community School. He was doing a deep dive on the value of creativity and teaching creative habits of mind. I had been on a run of speaking gigs talking about creativity. This one probably sums it up best when I said that if we couldn’t access the ability to challenge more of our assumptions, we might find ourselves, as a civilization, just running headlong over a cliff!
TEDx Tacoma
The timing of this talk could not have been worse for me personally. I was asked in 2009 to give one of those 18-minute TEDx talks in Tacoma, WA. But my son’s dad and I had just split and I was submerged in a sea of sadness. Somehow, I pulled some thoughts together with a slide show of images and proposed an idea around creativity -- that our souls were seducing us to come home to ourselves, to be ourselves in all our authenticity, and this journey would enliven our creativity, guaranteed.
As Donald McKinnon says in his book, In Search of Human Effectiveness, “The most salient mark of a creative person is courage… the courage to stand aside from the collective and be in conflict with it if necessary; the courage to become and to be oneself.”