The Continuing Story of The Integral Kids—1. Bobby

The Continuing Story of The Integral Kids—1. Bobby

[This is the first story in a series of stories titled, The Continuing Story of the Integral Kids. The Integral Kids don’t know for certain if you’ll like them or not (the stories, not the Integral Kids—who wouldn’t like them?) but think that if you don’t like them you’ll definitely have a greater appreciation for why you don’t after you’ve read them, as well as for all those other things you don’t much care for, do care for, and life in general with all of its grand mysteries and wonders.] Integral: Necessary to make complete; essential or fundamental. Kid(s): A child or young person. You couldn’t make out distinct noises. Everything that gave off sound, even those things you wished you could isolate, that is—you would have wished you could isolate them if you knew those sounds were there—cause if you’d been aware of their presence your ears would have sent certain signals to your brain letting it know that those were the kinds of sounds that made life, life—all jumbled together to become one big whirling, twirling kaleidoscope. To give you more of an indication of it, it was the kind of situation that if you were to shout in a fella’s ear real close up, and that fella didn’t see you do it, then he’d probably not even notice; meaning, you could get away with a whole lot of stuff if you happened to be a particular type of person who liked getting away with particular type stuff when the situation allowed for it—or as those particular type people would say with a wink—called for it. This one kid though, Bobby, was a different kind...
Israel & Iran: A Love Story? [TED Talk]

Israel & Iran: A Love Story? [TED Talk]

They want to respond. They want to say the same thing. So… now it’s communication. It’s a two-way story. It’s Israelis and Iranians sending the same message, one to each other.” – Ronny Edry, Israeli graphic designer Given the contentious nature of relations that exist between Israel and Iran, it is a wonder that one man, Ronny Edry, could start a whole new dialogue between the peoples, simply by creating one poster on Facebook. That poster [the image above] said: Iranians, we will never bomb your country, We [heart] You.” The following quotes are from Edry’s TED talk. In it he details how that poster led to many more posters, conversations, and the revelation of love between Israelis, Iranians, and many others: On March 14, this year, I posted this poster on Facebook. This is an image of me and my daughter holding the Israeli flag. I will try to explain to you about the context of why and when I posted. A few days ago, I was sitting waiting on the line at the grocery store, and the owner and one of the clients were talking to each other, and the owner was explaining to the client that we’re going to get 10,000 missiles on Israel. And the client was saying, no, it’s 10,000 a day. (“10,000 missiles”) This is the context. This is where we are now in Israel. We have this war with Iran coming for 10 years now, and we have people, you know, afraid. It’s like every year it’s the last minute that we can do something about the war with Iran. It’s like, if...
The Connection Revolution

The Connection Revolution

The internet let’s connection multiply.” The above and below quotes are by author Seth Godin, taken from the video, The Icarus deception, featured below. Industrialization is fading as an engine for economic growth. We went from a trained crafting, making two or three or four things a day, to a team of people making two hundred or two thousand or twenty thousand items a day.” Now you often here about a factory going away and ten thousand people losing their jobs. They’re being replaced by computers and robots. So the industrial revolution is being consumed by technology. The alternative, what the internet has created, is the connection revolution.” The fact that you can put your work into the world and have it seen by a thousand or ten thousand or a hundred thousand people is magical. All of these platforms are there, they don’t take a lot of technology. What they take is the guts to go into the world, say what you have to say, and own it.” Image: “20110224-NodeXL-Twitter-internet archive profile photos” by Marc Smith on...

Side By Side – In Memory Of The Newtown Victims

As a response to the Newtown shooting, As One Song put together this song & music video within a few days after the shooting as a collaborative effort by people from different parts of the world affected by the Connecticut shooting. In the words of As One Song: The global network of As One Song was shocked by the recent tragedy of the Newtown shooting. It opened our eyes to just how much violence there is around us, and how persistent are the effects of this violence on our children’s minds. We feel strongly that only by changing our environment—what we see on TV, what we hear on the radio, what we consume online, what surrounds our daily route from home to school—can we hope to raise a generation that rejects violence. No laws could ever substitute a fully inclusive loving attitude to all parts of our society – the loners, the outcasts, everyone. If we can show our kids more of that, if we could all participate in this, if we see this as the most important action we can take today, then we can promise our children a better year next year, a better...
Remembering Henry Addleton’s New Year’s Resolution

Remembering Henry Addleton’s New Year’s Resolution

Usually, he’d think it: “You’re your own man. You make your own destiny.” Occasionally, he’d speak it, sometimes with the addition of a final exclamation mark, or in particularly dire times, a question mark.  It was his mantra, his constant psychological companion. “And why shouldn’t it be?” he’d think. “After all, it’s the kind of adage grandfathers bestow to toddlers on their knees. It’s the spiritual pronouncement of self-made men!” But for Henry Addleton, it had yet to bring him fortune or fame. Had he done something wrong? Was there perhaps some set of instructions that certain individuals possessed, and he did not? And if so, why them and not him? Why was it always that Henry, delightful Henry, time and again suffered the cruel hand of fate? How could it be that such a lovably affable, miniature, stooped, stout, near sighted, hard of hearing, bow legged, missing the index finger on his left hand, inexplicably somehow never stricken with polio, bald man could not be asked to the table, to partake in the feast of victory, if but only for an aperitif? And to make matters worse cherished letter writers, the good years, if they were ever really good, had now long since faded into the should-have and could-have-been’s of yesteryear. So in the quiet of his one room apartment on the outskirts of Cleveland, on one particularly rain soaked New Year’s Eve, Henry made a resolution. He wrote it in big black bold letters, so he wouldn’t forget it. He wrote it with a permanent marker, so it would always remain. He wrote it on every door, every window,...
The Deeper Message Behind A Dr. Seuss Childhood Classic

The Deeper Message Behind A Dr. Seuss Childhood Classic

http://youtu.be/_eulSbXIjzk Christmas Day is in our grasp, as long as we have hands to clasp! Christmas Day will always be, just as long, as we have we! Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart, and hand in hand!” –Dr. Seuss Whoever grew up in North America in the mid 60’s/70’s surely remembers our favorite famous Grinch friend from the story land of Dr.Seuss. That favorite childhood classic carries even a deeper message than what we could possibly imagine and can easily be applied as a source of medication for endless social crisis issues we are experiencing today. As in this clip suggests, that even after the Grinch managed to take away all the Whoviller’s worldy material possessions, decorations, feastly foods etc., he still was unable to destroy their festive atmosphere because they had one another. Because the Whoville residents were connected to each other through their hearts. That meant that even all of a sudden though it appeared that they had lost everything and perhaps this should have disturbed their atmosphere and caused stress and  insecurities, it actually produced an even stronger connection because they had each other for support and that is something that can never be replaced or fulfilled by excessive material possessions. The Grinch, who was an extremely unhappy lonely person because he passed a very hard life and although he appeared so extremely nasty and ugly on the surface, and did not have the tools to connect properly to others such as the Whoville residents,  had to steal their possessions and try to destroy their festivities in order to feel he was of worth,...