Riding a bus on a regular basis is interesting. Some buses promise more excitement than others. I ride the bus everyday and my bus is fairly tame as buses go. So, my observations here will be more of an appreciation of the prosaic than tales of the wildest and wooliest bus riders ever. My observations about my bus rides come from being a people watcher and some interactions with my fellow riders. Being a rather shy person, I do not strike up a lot of conversations, so my views derive predominantly from the stories I have invented about some of my favorite fellow riders. Let me introduce you to my friends.

First, there’s Jean. Just like all the characters that follow that is not her real name. I do not know her real name. But, Jean is a character. She watches over bus rules, routes, and procedure like a mother hen. Cross certain lines at your own risk if Jean is aboard. She...

It has been a while since I have written and I have missed it. Things have been very busy. I have also struggled with the material I have wanted to write. I have felt my topics have a been a little weighty and perhaps overly personal, which caused me to pause a little. However, as I go back to my original purpose for writing this blog, I realized that I just need to write about whatever is on my mind and not self-censor too much.

I have been thinking a lot about a question. What is the real me? That is, if you strip away all things superficial and superfluous what is left? Is that the real me? I think about what the real me is not in terms of small talk at a party or the information that might be on a baseball card, our personal “stats” if you will, if such a thing existed for everyday people. Those things we might say about ourselves as we meet a stranger or what might be on...

Today is a day that I will not forget. I witnessed a great man moved to tears over a great personal triumph. This great triumph was only personal in the sense that he had given so much to achieve it, and frankly without him it could not have been achieved. But, the beneficiaries of this feat were the people he had set out to lift and serve. For this, and other great accomplishments, his name will be in the history books. As I think about what I experienced today, aside from seeing the display of emotion, I am deeply moved by the fact that his tears were the manifestation of the joy that came from reaching a milestone in his personal mission. This accomplishment was not the result of someone else’s vision, it was genuinely his own. It was truly his mission. By mission I mean the work he was meant to accomplish and that perhaps only he could do.

I would argue we all have a...

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I just wanted express my appreciation on the day we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. for his work and mission. He gave everything for his dream. Not many people do what he did with his too-short life, but his example and inspiring words reverberate and remind us there is still work to do to fully achieve his dream.

Let freedom ring!

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”

~George Bernard Shaw

As a preamble, let me say this post is more an admonition to myself than anything else. Getting that out of the way will allow me to just say what I want to say without a fear of coming off preachy. Frankly, all of my posts are exhortations to myself with a hope that others may find them useful. I feel better already having said that.

So, now to the point. The world is filled with naysayers. But, what would this world be without the people who fearlessly went to the edge of knowledge, art, and technology and pushed those boundaries as far as they could? It seems inevitable that anyone who dares challenge the status quo will be met with a din of derision from the naysayers. However, the creators with real vision are unmoved by detractors and press on despite the people who say...

lagom (Swedish)

sufficient, enough, adequate, just right

Happy New Year!

I have a friend at work who in lieu of resolutions chooses a word as a theme for the year. I really liked this idea, and I gave it a try last year. As I cogitate on my 2015 word, a most intriguing word comes to mind. It is a very elegant word in that it has a fairly dense meaning within its five letters. The word is lagom. Lagom is a Swedish word that means “sufficient, enough, adequate, just right.”

I think the notion of “just right” is an interesting ideal. “Enough” is a powerful concept. Lagom conveniently binds these two things together beautifully. Lagom, for me, speaks to moderation. Further, Lagom implies a healthy minimalism. I struggle with truly living lagom. It seems there is always one more thing, activity, etc. that I “need” in my life. All the complexity I add through things and...

Cogitatively is fundamentally about being more thoughtful. To take that a step further, this blog is about seeing the world differently, from different angles and through different lenses. I want to examine this idea of seeing differently through the lens of art. Art is a large tent including various media such as painting, sculpture, photography, music, poetry and prose, as well as other creative pursuits. I will speak to visual arts in this post.

Art is often viewed as the province of the ultra-wealthy. So, we might experience something of an allergy to the elitism embodied in art. Others may see painting, for instance, as irrelevant in a world where digital cameras are ubiquitous. Why paint something that can be captured faithfully with our iPhone? Or maybe we see art as frivolous and fundamentally unimportant. I will argue why I think art matters and how it helps us to see...

“People behave sometimes as if they have two selves, one who wants clean lungs and long life and another who wants dessert, or one who wants to improve himself by reading The Public Interest and another who would rather watch an old movie on television. The two are in continual contest for control.”

~ Thomas Schelling

I came across Thomas Schelling’s 1980 essay, “The intimate contest for self-command” some time ago. I found the title itself and the articulation of the challenge really interesting. To reiterate, it can be as though we have two “selves” constantly at battle for control of our will. Personally, I have often wondered why I cannot simply do the more sensible, rewarding thing. Such a battle between “the selves” can be so exhausting and demoralizing.

Beyond Schelling’s lyrical title and description of the problem, I will admit I found his list of tactics of limited...

What if someone were to invite you to join them on a journey that never ends? Would you join? I think we as humans do not like the idea of something that never ends. I believe we think in terms of beginnings and ends. We love a good book or movie and we anxiously await the ending. We crave resolution, and a perfectly ordered denouement. Perhaps, in our personal lives we crave “ends” when what we should expect and embrace is the endless journey.

In my initial post, I revealed that I am a perfectionist.  One of the symptoms of this perfectionism is the belief that in the not-to-distant future I will arrive at some transcendent state where an awe-inspiring perfection is achieved. In this state, I am capable of anything.  In fact, everything is easy.  There is no grind.  My mind is clear.  My abilities are perfected.  In short, it is what I would call a glorious arrival. I contend...

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I do not recall when or how I first came in contact with the quote from Goethe. However, it had a pretty immediate effect on me. In fact, “I make the weather” has been an absurd little reminder to myself that no matter what happens the way I...