Archive
Archive for September, 2009
-
Mildred
Wisdom comes from many places.
A certain kind of wisdom born of a sense of the sublime and the ridiculous came from Mildred, my quintessential Jewish mother-in-law. She was a change agent from an earlier time. A nonprofit nana who believed in making the world a better place, one pot roast at a time. “Do good and eat, kindeleh (Yiddish for child)! Oy! God forbid you get sick. So, don’t be such a big shot. Wear a sweater.”
While I come from a family marinated in Confucianism and other kinds of Chinese ways at looking at life, marrying Seth and catapulting myself into a casually Jewish family made my life wonderfully and forever meshuganah (Yiddish for crazy), filled with moments that make me scramble for my sketchbook.
Like this zinger.
And that, dear readers, is how I became a nonprofit knitter in the Year of the Poodle, my life in pictures.
I miss Mildred everyday. If you have a Jewish mother-in-law story, I would love to hear it!
Well, dear readers, here is a guest post from Josh Hanagarne, the formidable force behind the World’s Strongest Librarian. When he posted a call out to do a guest post for his readers as a marathon, I sent in my two cents which, of course, he turned my topic question upside down every which way and came up with – tada! a quintessential WSL post for you. Enjoy it and let us know what you think!
The Post That Would Not Sit Still
Hoong Yee asked me to write something about the glass being half-full or half-empty. Specifically, am I a glass half-full or half-empty person?
Like a true artist–or is it lame-o? Diva?– I took her advice, sort of ignored it, and started writing a post called “Why Do We Create Things?”
Fortunately, it cycled back around, but not quite in the way I expected.
So!
Is the glass half-full or half-empty?
Clichés
It’s hard for me to hear this question without rolling my eyes. I’m an upbeat person but I’m not immune to the occasional groan when I’m confronted with an overused phrase.
Now, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a worthwhile question. It’s not the question’s fault that it’s been repeated so often that it’s become trite for loathsome squids like myself.
And yet, whenever I hear the question, what I hear transforms into: “Is the glass half- full of what?” I blame Chip Kidd, author of The Cheese Monkeys. A Wonderful Book That Has Sidetracked This Post
The story centers on a few college students and their graphic arts teacher. At one point, their wonderfully named professor, Winter Sorbeck, offers the following critique of a student’s project.
“She took lemons and made lemonade. It’s too bad she had to go and turn it into pee.”
How does this apply? This is my first memory of hearing a cliché turned into something completely different. That became my defense mechanism. From then on, whenever I heard something “tried and true,” it immediately morphed in my ears.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right” became “Two rights are right on!”
“No pain no gain” became “Gaining weight is painful on a date.”
I have no idea what either of those phrases mean…but The Cheese Monkeys is definitely worth reading.
To Answer The Question Hoong Yee Asked
To answer Hoong Yee’s question of whether I’m a glass half-full person, I say yes—provided the glass is full of something I like. Orange juice, for instance. If the glass is half-full of sulfuric acid, I don’t want anything to do with it.
But I am an optimist, and that is why I stay curious: because it takes a good attitude to keep learning. Curiosity takes effort. Effort and persistence lead to progress, and progress leads to feeling good.
I call feeling good and looking forward to tomorrow optimism. If that means the glass is half-full, so be it.
I just might not say it quite that way.
And the answer to the question Hoong Yee didn’t ask
Why do we create things? Because we’re curious. Because we want to fill a lack.
I took a look at Hoong Yee’s immaculate blog and my subconscious said: This blog lacks a brief review of The Cheese Monkeys, a lot of rambling, and it definitely doesn’t have any incoherent gibberish.
Hoong Yee, we did it! Mission accomplished!
Whether we created something worthwhile together, I’ll leave to you, dear reader…but don’t blame Hoong Yee. I hacked into her blog and typed this mess without her knowledge.
Josh Hanagarne
Get Stronger, Get Smarter, Live Better…Every Day
About the Author: Josh Hanagarne writes World’s Strongest Librarian, a blog with advice about coping with Tourette’s Syndrome, kettlebells, book recommendations, buying pants when you’re 6’8”, old-time strongman training, and so much more. Please subscribe to Josh’s RSS Updates and Stronger, Smarter, Better Newsletter to stay in touch.
This is a picture of Hal, a member of my board, Kenny, our fabulous caddy for the day and Seth, my husband, on the golf course earlier this summer. It was a lot of great laughs, Cuban cigars and an all around fun day for all of us. I am following my list below and in particular, #7.
I love lists. They are easy to read and easy to write.
Fred Wilson wrote a post the other day with a list of ten characteristics of a great company. Read it and you will see that the thinking behind this list could be the same driving force behind a great nonprofit.
We are talking a lot about how Queens Council on the Arts can work with emerging nonprofit arts groups to become great and will be rolling out some exciting opportunities over the next few months. I always seem to find myself reading venture capitalist blogs for insights and Fred’s list catalyzed my thinking.
Here is my response to his post:
hi fred
i am always thinking about what makes a nonprofit organization great and here is my list of ten traits:
1. a great nonprofit questions every move it makes by asking “how does this move our mission forward?”
2. a great nonprofit builds niche services, never duplicates
3. a great nonprofit can scale successfully providing maximum impact with minimal overhead
4. a great nonprofit staff uses the pronouns “we and us”
5. a great nonprofit leader is a presence but works as an connector, aggregator and curator of creative energy
6. a great nonprofit treats everyone as a potential partner
7. a great nonprofit hangs out with great people! See photo above.
8. a great nonprofit board loves to succeed together and bring in like spirited folk
9. a great nonprofit defines what success means with compelling data that is transparent
10. a great nonprofit is a creative consensus
a list is a great place to start thinking about how to be even better at what we do.
thanks for riding the f train.
hoong yee
Big blue beach house
Beware of the “two gallons of paint” trap.
Two gallons of paint, and many more thereafter has resulted in a painstaking, frustrating, exhilarating transformation of my house. Formerly the eyesore of the block, it is now the Wow House of Beach 124th Street in Rockaway Park, Queens. I love reinventing perception!
A deep rich Van Deusen blue covers the shingles, white trim, and a battleship grey front porch!
We sit on the porch in the evening after an afternoon on the beach and feel like real grownups! Home improvement is not like nonprofit knitting and therefore an area of big scary unknowns for me. However, this is not brain surgery. This is something lots of people do fairly confidently. If I can make something out of two balls of yarn how hard could this be? I was determined to figure out a path to success from two cans of paint to Wow!
Well, here is my sketch of our house in progress.
One thing about being in a house with three boys – yes, I mean three including Seth, my husband – is that I have no choice but to live by my wits, being outnumbered. One of my tactics is to keep cool. No matter how strong the temptation is to shriek, “Are you kidding me??!!!” to whatever madness they toss at me, a perfectly calm demeanor is a must. But my favorite tactic works magic like mojo every time. This, dear reader, worked like a charm as we faced one of summer’s greatest challenges – the assigned reading assignment.
“Oh crap! I can’t believe I have to read this book about a journey of an interpretive dancer searching for herself in the inner landscape of her wounded soul while snowshoeing across a frozen lake in the middle of the night.” Frowning, Sky flipped through the pages of his book, his eyes zeroing in on the thickness of the spine. “Almost two inches I have to go through before she finds herself.”
“Listen, all she needs is a guy in a sleeping bag and she’ll know exactly where to find herself. That and a bunch of blood sucking freaks should do it.” Seth is always of the opinion that a story with no plot can be instantly redeemed with sex, scary monsters or aliens. He sent me The Look meaning: kids, what do they know?
“What the heck is a flocked floral foil damask?” Sky barked. Now mind you, I could have easily piped in with an answer to that one but I sensed this could be going somewhere else and I was a bit intrigued. “Hey Remy! I bet you can’t say that three times fast without spitting on yourself!”
“You’re on! flockedfloilflookdaskockfooflalskdoraloildamflofloffloffask!“ Remy gurbled triumphantly. Never was he one to back down from a challenge. To this day, I am still amazed how he can burp the alphabet backwards. “Keep reading. That book has cool stuff.”
Clearly I have little to add to this exchange other than the ability and now, the obvious desire, to escape into the kitchen, wring my hands and wail – Why can’t we ever have a normal conversation?
When you have a not-so-little boy glaring at his summer reading assignment you will be faced with many grunts and growls, perhaps even a one syllable answer of, “Boring!” whenever you ask him about the book. When you have a husband sprawled over the den couch clutching the remote and a larger teenage boy doing his best to say “flocked foil floral damask” three times between gulps of soda you will have a situation on your hands that calls for cake.
A cake to fill the air with the sounds of its making and the scent of its baking. A cake that brings the boys following their noses back to the kitchen table. An everyday kind of cake to go with everyday conversation or tongue twisters. Such a cake I will be happy to share with all of you. It is by Molly Wizenberg who writes the oh so charming Orangette blog.
A slice of this cake would be perfect enjoyed on the porch on a late summer afternoon. We intend to have ours with a fresh fig from my friend Sophie’s garden. Whatever fruit comes your way will be a splendid companion to this cake.
No, I can’t make the assigned summer reading assignment go away or say anything three times fast in polite company. I will however, be at the ready to make sure there is cake to confront the madness.
And, dear reader, if you have happen to know a great summer reading book for an eleven year old who likes horror movies, please let me know!
I write for love and money. It is my everyday passion. What's yours? 
