Post 4: The Clown Index
Posted By: Paul Nielsen, 11/3/2009
There are a number of indices that purport to track our economic health, such as the "underwear index," which is based on the belief that when times are tough people tend to make intimate items last longer. Personally though, I still have underwear from grad school that I have to keep rescuing from the garbage whenever my girlfriend does my laundry. I'm guessing the indicator is based on the patterns of the holes, kind of like reading tea leaves.
Hello, I'm Paul Nielsen from Wunderground Magic, Inc. in Clawson, Michigan, the economic hub of the known universe. (Please make checks out to "Clawson is America's Sales Hub" and slide them under the door at 16 S. Main Street. It's okay to abbreviate the name.)
One of the saddest indices I read about recently is the "clown index." NPR carried the story titled "Clowns Want to Get Paid Too" about poor Mandy Dalton who was not being paid for a gig because the company who hired her filed for bankruptcy. There's nothing sadder than a clown, battered hat in hand, driving to the bankruptcy in her clown car with two or three dozen of her closest clown friends, banging her squeaker fist on the table for emphasis as the drooping flowers squirt water like a rain of tears. You know, come to think of it, there are quite a few things sadder than that, but I digress.
In my line of business I've worked with a number of clowns. (The ones involved in government contracting tend not to wear as much makeup, but they also tend to be a whole lot sillier.) Clowns are hurting. I know one clown who just lost his clown house. He had to pack up all his clown furniture, deflate his balloon dogs, and pack everything in his clown car for the long trip to a clown apartment. Another clown is working three jobs, driving cross-state for low paying gigs, and wants to train to be a police officer. ("Stop, or I’ll unfurl a banner that says 'Bang' from the nozzle of my gun.")
When times are good, clowns tend to upgrade their props. They like bright flashy colors and tend to be hard on their equipment, with a lot of physical comedy. (Have you ever tried getting meringue pie out of a twelve-foot silk streamer?) The last clown prop I sold was a sponge brick, which I assume, the clown was going to try to throw through a plate glass window to abscond with the size 30 shoes that provide the only lasting relief a clown can have after a high speed chase from a band of bungling cops unfurling their 'Bang' guns.
When times are tough, clowns are one of the first entertainers to be let go. No one needs to have a clown when Uncle Harry can cover his face in magic marker and wear that old shirt his girlfriend keeps trying to throw away whenever she does his laundry. Okay, so maybe that's not a good example, and if you met Uncle Harry you'd probably keep him away from your kids too.
Another thing I see is that even when clowns are hired, it is only for the bare minimum show. There are no upgrades for candy or balloons or actual entertainment. People hire the clown to show up, tell a joke, and go. (And don't get me started on the market for joke writers. Can you believe Metromode still hasn't paid me for this comedy gold?)
Post 3: Wunderground Magic's Answer to the Economic Situation
Posted By: Paul Nielsen, 11/2/2009
In case you haven't heard, Southeast Michigan is going through a bit of an economic setback. I know, it came as a surprise to me when I heard it too. (I almost spilled caviar down my new tux.) All I know is I'm not getting any bailout money from the government and neither are you.
While I can't give away free cash, like the people in Washington, I can help you find ways to save money, assuming you have any of it to begin with.
My favorite method is purchasing the inventories of the stores that are collapsing all around me. I've gotten stock, furniture, signage, and even half a dozen rabbit suits, which you'll see put to good use as part of the "great rabbit picket line" in a previous episode of Metromode. (It helps if you have a spark of creativity too.)
We've opened a new, special area in our store selling previously owned props and equipment. Our creative division (Marie) was considering calling this the "flee market," but I kind of wanted people to actually, you know, come into the store, not run away. Then we tried a "garage sale," but Ron bought the garage and hauled it off (which was a problem because it was attached.) "Fire sale" had obvious problems with the neighbors, once the smoke cleared. "Bargain basement" seemed close, but not quite there. So after extensive consultation we dug up (literally) the name "Discount Dungeon."
We've stocked the Discount Dungeon with rare, collectable, and bizarre treasures that would be worth at least a dollar eighty-six if bought new. It's an enormous lot of stuff, including illusions, stage props, close-up apparatus, and everything in between; and with prices so low they'd almost have to lend themselves to some kind of lame joke if this writer didn't go out of his way to avoid bad puns like that. There's almost as much stuff below ground as there is above in the main store. I would name a few, but almost all are one-of-a-kind, and unless you're in the store right now, anything I'd name would be gone by the time you arrive.
The Discount Dungeon gives shoppers a way to save on purchases while still getting quality apparatus, because let's face it, if it hasn't fallen apart by now, it's unlikely to in the near future. Anyone who has been to see a Whitesnake concert knows the importance of buying good quality special effects.
Magic lends itself to offbeat and unusual treasures. Magicians love the bizarre, unique, and ancient.(That's why we never get tired of the joke about the magician who was walking down the street and turned into a bar.) Businesses like produce stores, probably not so much so. Look for ways you can reuse and repurpose items to enrich the lives of those around you.
Post 2: Houdini, Halloween, and the Importance of Wonder
Posted By: Paul Nielsen, 10/30/2009
It's Halloween. I was going to regale you with scary stories about ghosts and monsters, but I decided to creep you out even more by discussing the Southeast Michigan region and its economic future. Sorry about that.
Today we're going to delve into Southeast Michigan's past. We have a case study of one man who began with nothing, then went on to die, of course. In between that time, though, he became the most famous name in magic and in show business – Harry Houdini.
Harry Houdini's rise to fame graphically demonstrated that nothing could hold us down and no restraints were too confining. No obstacles, even solid walls, could hold us back; nothing was impossible, even the production of a live elephant. At 5'5", he was bigger than life, a superhero, if you will, that nothing on earth could hold prisoner.
Houdini was a master of marketing and promoted himself through spectacular publicity stunts, like escaping from a strait jacket while hanging upside down over a crowd of people. More recently, local magician Jasen Magic has recreated this stunt with equally spectacular results, but in an entirely different way. You’ll have to see the video for yourself. Such publicity stunts are a great way to draw massive crowds to your establishment. Everyone wants to see some idiot risk their life for your entertainment.
During one such stunt Houdini was bound in chains and lowered by a rope from the Belle Isle Bridge into the Detroit River. To hear him tell the story, the river was frozen over that day, so they had to cut a hole in the ice to lower him through. Even though he managed to free himself from his chains, the swift current carried him far downriver away from his hole in the ice and the only chance of escape. He survived for hours by breathing air trapped in the small gaps between the water and the ice until he could find his safety rope that lead to the hole to free himself. Of course, the Detroit News, which covered the story that day, reported the weather was above freezing. Houdini wasn't above using embellishment to market his ability.
The reason I'm telling you this is that Houdini died right here in Detroit at Grace Hospital. He died on Halloween, October 31, 1926, from peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix. This may or may not have been aggravated by a blow to the stomach he received from a student, but don't let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
Every year on October 31 séances are conducted to try to contact the spirit of Houdini. His wife, Bess, was given a secret code, and Houdini said that if it were possible he would send a message to her from beyond.
What are you doing to create a sense of wonder? Will people still remember you long after you are gone? How can you ignite that excitement and sense of empowerment that inspires those around you to believe all things are possible and that together we will turn these tough times in Detroit around?
Post 1: Out of Desperation Comes Magic
Posted By: Paul Nielsen, 10/29/2009
Hi, I'm Paul Nielsen from Wunderground Magic, Inc. When the good people at Metromode asked me to comment about the southeast Michigan region and its economic future, I thought, "Great, I'll just give them a blank sheet of paper," because, let's face it, right now the future here seems pretty bleak. That should just about cover everything. I've got a mortgage to pay, a son to put through college, a car that's dying, no real job, and I own a magic shop - not really an economic powerhouse there. Then they told me it was an electronic submission, and my scanner got confused when I tried to scan a blank piece of paper, so I colored it black. That just made it dark and bleak and it still wouldn't scan. But hey, they're paying me in free copies of the magazine, so life is looking up!
This week we'll be digging through our bag of tricks to try to produce a miracle that will save metro Detroit. And who better to turn to for miracles than a magic dealer? Alright, don't answer that, there are probably a thousand people out there who are better qualified, but they all took an early buyout and moved to Florida, so you're stuck here with me. I'll try to keep this short so you can read it while you're waiting for the next flight.
If I were a real magician, I could just spend my days plucking money out of the air, which I often do, but then consider, "What would a real magician want with money anyway?" The answer: "All the stuff I’m too lazy to conjure from the air" because it's easier for me to make money that it is to make food out of the air, and unless it comes out of a chip bag, I'm a lousy cook.
On the upside, the magic business is almost recession proof. We don't make money in a bad economy or a good economy, and in a mixed economy we're still the ones standing out on the street corners, hat in hand, doing tricks for change. (Hey, buddy, can you spare $25,000 for the tuition at Michigan?)
Some of the best magical effects rose from desperate situations.
For example, the most famous magical trick (despite the fact that no magician actually performs it anymore) arose at a time when traveling magicians, and other undesirables, would often catch small animals for a meal if the day's donations didn't pan out. On this particular day, the local equivalent of the ASPCA stepped in and said, "You're not going to hurt that rabbit, are you?" Being a magician, the performer lied through his teeth and said "Of course not. It's part of the act." He pulled out the hat that was obviously empty after asking for spare change, and the rest is history.
Of course there are rare exceptions, like David Copperfield, who just bought an island in the Bahamas to store all the money he makes. David Blaine, despite not having any actual personality, is able to win over network executives to give him a special almost every year. Criss Angel does even better by putting together an entirely new show every week. And then there's that masked guy who is on entirely too often.
When finances are tight, magic is a great way to earn extra income. Performers earn several hundred dollars an hour and can do several shows a day, primarily on evenings and weekends. Learning the props isn't as difficult as learning to sing or dance, and let's face it, if it took a lot of talent would they let me do it?
Post 3 - Playing in the Sandbox: Facing the Challenges of Collaboration
Posted By: Britany Affolter-Caine, 10/26/2009
Collaboration sounds like a great way to achieve organizational goals
when resources are limited or going it alone is not an option, but it is
very hard work every step of the way. The process of collaborating
challenges organizations and individuals in a multitude of ways, not
least of which is the balancing of competing interests.
In my last blog, I outlined five basic elements of successful
collaboration: participation and engagement; developing common purposes,
mission and vision; leadership; linking mechanisms; and dispute
resolution mechanisms. Each must be in place to facilitate the doing of
collaboration, but the form they take and level of attention paid to
each varies depending on the stage of collaboration in its life cycle.
For example, the time spent on soliciting participation and true
engagement along with the development of a common purpose for the
collaborative venture is much greater in the early stages, while the
type of leadership exhibited evolves from inspirational at the early
stages to strategic and shared in the middle to later stages. Linking
and dispute resolution mechanisms may initially be flexible, but evolve
to be more formalized over time and experience. As noted before,
however, there is never a greater risk for failure than in the early
stages of collaboration where challenges are greatest and experience is
limited.
The greatest challenges come from perceived threats of autonomy,
identity, competition, and value. What does it mean to share a project
with another organization? What will my stakeholders think of our
collaboration with these new partners, and how will they see the
benefits? What will we have to give up, and is it worth it? Will staff
continue to discern differences between us and partners? And the
questions go on.
In my research of colleges and universities that collaborated to promote
new programs, courses, or even new campuses, there was a big difference
in the relative ease of collaborating when the collaborative venture
created something wholly new versus when each was asked to give
something up to share a collective resource.
For example, a group of five colleges in close proximity to each other
all have a hard time continuing to support their individual German
language programs. The outcome is likely to be that they all will have
to shutter these programs except for one. For the greater benefit of the
community, the presidents decide to collaborate by pooling their
resources and creating a common German program. Faculty members are less
thrilled because over the course of this collaborative venture, they
will no longer be able to keep their full-time positions on their own
campuses – it is a loss for them. Surviving the early stages, the
faculty members discover over time that they find the sharing of a
greater number of students from other campuses to be exciting, and the
collegial support across the institutions is an added benefit. They begin
to promote and become engaged in the collaborative venture and are
better equipped to handle the changes and challenges they face along the
way.
To use a playground analogy, it is much easier for us to play in the
sandbox with others and build a big castle together when we each come
with a full set of tools than it is when we each come with only a few
tools and have to share a shovel and bucket between us. When
organizations and individuals are asked to give something up, it is so
much harder for us to collaborate even when the end result is a big,
beautiful sand castle.
But like the faculty, time paves the way with experience and the
development of trust with our partners to forge an interest of the group.
So in the sandbox, we make small talk with the
other kids, we show off our skills at making turrets and moats, we have
a laugh at ourselves for being a mess, and we begin to trust that
the other isn't going to make off with our coveted shovel. We have
experience throughout the effort arguing over the placement of a tower
and the dragon, who will place the flag at the top, and who gets credit
for the overall design with our parents so that as each new dispute
arises, we are more skilled at resolving them on our own.
So what do we do, in addition to developing and maintaining the five
elements outlined above and in the last blog, in the early stages
when we find ourselves outside our comfort zone and unsure whether we
want to give something up or how to communicate our effort with our key
stakeholders? We keep our eyes on the prize, recognize this isn't easy,
prepare ourselves for the onslaught of messy details and daily
challenges to our sense of identity and purpose, open up to consider new
and different ways of solving problems and reaching objectives,
establish a healthy distance from crises that threaten to break the
effort, and maintain a boundless sense of humor.
It's the same thing our parents and experience taught us long ago in the sandbox.
Post 2: The Behaviors and Mechanisms that Promote and Sustain Successful Collaboration
Posted By: Britany Affolter-Caine, 10/23/2009
It has taken organizations and people in the Metro Detroit community,
as well as across the state, a long time to merely talk about
collaborating. This dialogue and openness to working across
organizations set in motion the development and launch of several
collaborative endeavors targeting some of our biggest problems. This
achievement, however, is only the beginning, signaling the long, hard
road to actually doing collaboration – a difficult and risky venture
for all types of efforts and organizations.
In the doing, we can learn from successful inter-organizational
collaborations working at varying life cycle stages. My research, based
on higher education organizations and informed by the organizational
literature, identified five basic elements that are common across
collaborative ventures: engagement and participation; developing common
purposes, mission and vision; leadership; linking mechanisms; and
dispute resolutions. This first three are behaviors, while the remaining
two are mechanisms. A deeper look into each of these will help to
provide a better understanding of the complexities associated with collaboration.
It is only a first step when organizations decide to collaborate. The
act of doing collaboration is done by individuals. Rank and file
administrators and staff need to decide that it is important
enough to invest their personal resources and engage the collaborative
process as change champions. These individuals must work not only within
their own organizations, but also with their external counterparts.
Common to these individuals is the difficult balancing act between
loyalty to their own organizations and the additional dedication to
collaboration that offers potential opportunities to support
organizational objectives. The bottom line is that people make
collaboration happen, but at a great deal of personal risk both within
and outside their organizations.
Usually organizations are on the same page in terms of achieving a
particular objective when they come to collaboration, but this is not a
done deal once the contract is signed. Partners must develop a common
purpose, mission and vision for their collaboration as its own endeavor.
Finding common ground, unfortunately, is limited because there will
always be competing interests or values. Only patience, time, and
experience enable greater congruencies and pathways to finding the
common ground. In other words, this behavior is particularly challenging
for new collaborative efforts and therefore is of critical importance.
Leadership is an important element of managing alliances, and it can
and must originate from multiple levels in an organization. Positional
leaders (e.g., presidents, CEOs, VPs) set the direction of an
organization to collaborate, and the rank and file leaders (e.g.,
directors, managers, coordinators) enact collaborative activities –
both are essential to the overall success of a collaborative effort.
These leaders also exhibit several common characteristics – ability to
build support and consent across partners, and high levels of
self-monitoring, which is the ability to fit into multiple situations
and environments as needed. In other words, collaborative leaders have
to be chameleon coalition builders.
The glue for collaborating is the same as the glue for families and
organizations – personal relationships. And the sharing of information
and trust is critical to building and maintaining relationships. To
facilitate the flow of information and conveyance of trust, many
collaborative endeavors develop linking mechanisms.
Linking mechanisms can include an informal ad hoc team of change agents charged with doing the collaboration across the member partners to a formal,
institutionalized separate entity that serves all the members for the
exclusive purpose of facilitating collaboration. Regardless of the type,
collaboration succeeds when there is some form of mechanism that links
partners and promotes and supports the collaborative endeavor.
Finally, collaborations demand a mechanism for resolving disputes.
Conflict is a universal reality for organizations and individuals
engaged in collaboration. Disputes will regularly arise because tension
is constant between partners as the values and objectives of each
partner compete for attention and resource allocations. Successful
collaborations find mechanisms – both formal and informal – for
resolving these issues. These include the more institutionalized method
of outlining a process within a collaborative contract to relying on
individuals to share information as transparently as possible to
communicate the reasons and purpose behind decisions and actions as a
foundation to finding the win-win.
These five elements – engagement and participation; developing common
purposes, missions, and visions; leadership; linking mechanisms; and
dispute resolution mechanisms – are ingredients to successful
collaboration. They are the behaviors and mechanisms that enable us to
recommit ourselves to collaboration beyond the initial agreement to
partner up, and lead us to achieving together what we cannot do alone.
And yes, collaboration does sound a lot like marriage, for which it
shares many similar principles for success. It also shares a similar
failure rate.
The bottom line is that it is not enough to talk about collaboration – we
must also recognize the work in doing collaboration.
Post 1: Talking Collaboration, Singing Kum-Ba-Yah... And Now the Work Begins
Posted By: Britany Affolter-Caine, 10/22/2009
Recently I was asked what was my biggest lesson learned over the past
year, and I responded that it was my surprise at how much closer we in
Michigan are to truly collaborating. In past blogs, (writers) were
calling for leaders and organizations to consider collaboration, to
seriously talk about regionalism, and to align and leverage the many
assets across independent organizations for a common goal – to
transform southeast Michigan and the state as a whole. And then this
dialogue took root and our esteemed organizations and their leaders
began to initiate collaborative ventures to address the problems of
economic development, research, education, and talent retention.
Intern In Michigan falls into the latter category and involves a large
and ever-expanding network of collaborators across Detroit and Michigan.
Everywhere our team goes, we hear people's excitement and willingness
to participate. It gives us all a tangible satisfaction to have a
program to address a common problem, and an opportunity to work outside
the lines of our individual organizations for a greater good – for the
possibility that we could collectively make a difference.
We realize that we cannot work in isolation, and we recognize the
contributions of other efforts to launch internship tools to serve
students and Michigan. We operate with the understanding that so many
organizations and individuals have been working towards the same
objective – to retain and attract talent – all of whom should be
welcomed into a collective effort. In the development of a smart
resource for connecting talent and employers through internships and an
interest for ease of use for users, we are actively seeking engagement
of organizations across the state to utilize a single database and
matching tool. The win-win is that each participating organization will
receive recognition as an individual organization promoting internships
and talent. As one might imagine, much of our time and effort is devoted
to developing relationships and building collaboration across the
state.
The bottom line is that never before have leading organizations been
willing to consider, discuss and initiate collaboration as a means of
transforming Detroit and the state – a critical first step in doing
collaboration and realizing transformational change. The implication,
however, is that there is much hard work to come in doing collaboration.
In other words, saying it ain't doing it.
For example, earlier this year I decided to run a half-marathon. It
would be my first, and it took much time and lots of thinking to
determine whether or not this should be something I invested time and
effort into doing. Once the decision was made, my friends congratulated
me, I got excited, and I wrote up a lofty training plan. Weeks went by
and I did not execute that plan, but felt confident that given my background as an athlete and coach, I could skate through it. My husband, an
experienced marathoner, challenged me (okay, bugged me) about not being
serious about achieving my goal. Finally, I started seriously running.
Some of these runs were euphoric while others were humbling (to say the
least).
I found that regularly I had to recommit myself to my goal –
it wasn't enough to have made the commitment when I registered for the
race, but to make the decision to run a half-marathon every time I got
out of my comfort zone or it interfered with my other plans. I found out
that saying it ain't doing it.
This is true of all inter-organizational collaborations, including
Intern In Michigan, where we struggle nearly daily to recommit ourselves
to the collaborative process that challenges our identity, leadership,
expertise, and purpose.
It is true that people would not engage in collaboration unless they have
no other options. The reasons for this barrier relate to the incredible
investments of limited resources (e.g., time, money, autonomy) and the
relative risk incurred. Inter-organizational collaborations are high risk
joint ventures where the failure rate is estimated to be between 30 and
60 percent.
There is an entire body of research out there that looks at why
organizations collaborate and what the positive and negative impacts are
of collaboration. There is less known about the how to collaborate – a
process-based inquiry that is challenging to track and study; but it is
the how that can provide organizations with a road map through an
uncomfortable, challenging, and anxiety-laden process for which most
organizations have no prior experience.
Utilizing the blogs of others (e.g., Kurt Metzger, Roger Gullickson,
Kyle Caldwell) who laid the foundation for a collective dialogue about
collaboration as a regional strategy for addressing the challenges that
we face, I will lay out five basic ingredients to the collaborative
process that are common across successful inter-organizational
collaborations: engagement and participation; development of common
purposes, mission, and vision; leadership; linking mechanisms; and
dispute resolution mechanisms.
In the next blog, we will look at these ingredients. The third blog will
look at fitting it all together and developing a takeaway. It is my intention to illuminate the difficulties and challenges inherent in actually doing inter-organizational collaboration and provide greater understanding of the five
basic elementsthat are common across successful collaborations. These
are certainly not the only five, but provide a start to our immersion in
collaboration.
Post 2 - Beyond Turfs and Towers: The "Ego Free Zone"
Posted By: Anuja Rajendra, 10/19/2009
Q: What is the "Ego Free Zone"?
The world is comprised of groups, cliques, and individual achievement. Groups and cliques constantly vie for attention and individuals strive for achievement against others. These actions are all ego-driven and are based on the premise that something or someone is better than the other.
Through the layers of every such drama twinkles a space built upon trust, comfort, support, and mutual success. Enter the "Ego Free Zone". In the Ego Free Zone (EFZ), the burden of one-upping another is lifted off shoulders, the scrutiny of physical form rendered irrelevant, and unity is completely uplifted by common ground. The EFZ is an environment where human beings feel safe, energetic, equal and light (both from the outer form layers lifted off them and from the illumination from deep within self). The EFZ unleashes energy within and around, creating kinetic results for individuals, organizations and communities.
I learned about the concept of being without ego from Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, and came up with the term "Ego Free Zone" after a student, who also reads Tolle, described Bollyfit classes as being "without ego".
Q: How does BollyFit create an EFZ?
While Bollywood movies glamorize the unattainable, the aesthetic, and the young in a highly ego-centric representation, the magnificent music and artistry in these movies weaves a thread of pure peace, love, and joy that does exist within each of us. BollyFit harnesses this idealism, the best of Bollywood, into the fabric of the EFZ. The rest is neither natural nor relevant.
BollyFit's EFZ unravels knots and students sweat gracefully and laugh and learn together loudly. Choreography synthesizes music and dance styles while, in the sweat of the dancers, simmers a marvelous Michigan Magic – all ages and backgrounds connect and unleash energy beyond the confines of color or age of skin, transcending political, religious, and economic assertions. Strangers sweat similarly.
No one has more clout because she has more dance training, grew up in India, or is as thin as a rail. Culture and dance are important but what we're doing really is peeling back the layers of the outer form, realizing the dancer within, and connecting her with the dancers in the room and the dance of the universe. Individuals genuinely care about each other, develop trusted friendships, and become a respectful team that dissolves drama and dances delightfully.
Q: How can BollyFit's EFZ be applied to Michigan?
BollyFit is fitness through dance – Indian dance with Bollywood music. Given the cultural slant, one might expect long-term BollyFit students to be only young, Indo-centric people. Or for diverse people to come in and out of class chatting casually and then go their own way without much in common. One might also expect that outspoken opinions (from choreography to costumes) undermine teamwork. However, these experiences seem to be more the exception rather than the rule. I believe that this is because we have removed particular interests and stereotypes from the equation and relate to one another at the core of our being. Whether it's festivals we perform at or friendships we foster, this this thread weaves seemingly disparate interests together, dissipates knots, and a purposeful collective energy unfolds.
I personally believe that Michigan can learn something from this phenomenon and enter the EFZ. Michigan has been hard hit by the recession and its "matka" has broken. Now is the perfect time to reassess where we are and where we want to be as we move forward as a state. Let's change our focus from individual 'End Zones' to a collective EFZ.
We are a richly diverse state in culture, religion, and ethnicity. We may all be different on the outside. And yes, we all have different life experiences and backgrounds. Whether it's the UAW or the automotive companies, the Republicans or Democrats or the cities or the suburbs, each of these groups might seem inherently different on the surface, but at the core, we are all connected as people and have a unified purpose to better our state.
When we see the world in this light, and know we all have the same light within, it helps us to listen to, and integrate, each other's ideas in an open way, without ego, and produce powerful and unexpected results. Connecting at this level evokes passion and unites people coming together through self-organization. How about if we all just take a deep breath, break the matka of the egos, and dance in the Greatness of our Lakes?