KNOWLEDGE PICKER'S ARCHIVE

Pick 60 - Wristify

MIT students are always churning out the latest in innovative technology. While most of their projects are complex in nature, Wristify is not so much. This is a device that is placed on a person’s wrist and is supposed to help regulate their body temperature. In theory it will allow us to be more comfortable during cold mornings and possibly even be able to cut back on electric bills if it works as tested. So I did some research to see exactly what this device does and how it does it.

First off, the prototype, just like our cellphones, must be charged periodically to do what it does. This means we need to plug it in for a charge every day.

The human wrist acts as the alert center for this device. It senses when a person is feeling cold or warm. Anyone who has ever worked in an office building knows there no perfect temperature for everyone. Some people will be hot at 75 degrees and some will complain it is too cold. This is what Wristify does about that: When sensors on the wrist determine that the person is FEELING hot or cold, it sends a pulse of cold or warm air to change that person's perception of room temperature. According to researchers at MIT, this person’s body will be tricked into thinking that the temperature is more to their liking...even though the room temperature has not changed one degree.

Does it work? I am not sure, but it seems that everyone who has tried it experienced positive results. Engineers are still trying to determine the best temperatures to use for the air impulses so that a user will not feel shocked or be taken by surprise when the whisper of air hits their wrist.

Thermal body temperature is an interesting concept and MIT may be on to something that will help people feel more comfortable without paying a high utility bill. The hidden value is rather apparent with Wristify. The human body is complex and is able to take care of itself in ways that we have yet to understand. Through a simple device, we can change the way our entire body feels. It is amazing how our body can take care without outside intervention. But, will the body learn to adapt to these heat impulses and eventually ignore them? That is one detail the MIT folks are trying to determine.

For now, I am skeptical. I would bet that the body sensitivity to heat and cold is not limited to the wrist alone. For this concept to work we may have to wear cloths that do what the Wristify watch does. However, it still might be better to keep us feeling warm or cold as individuals than to heat or cool an entire building in a feeble attempt to meet the demands of everyone at the same time. Who knows, someday soon we may be able to instruct our smartphones to tell our body to cool down when we start to get hot flashes.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Tour 59 - MindDrive

MindDrive, conceived by former president of Atari, Ron Gordon, has achieved what many thought was impossible. When working at Atari, Gordon came across the idea of making games that could be ran by using one’s mind. This was a concept that many had dreamed of, but technology simply was not capable of producing. Now, however, MindDrive has set the platform in which these aspirations can finally become reality.

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

The Other 90%

Ron Gordon, after his departure from Atari, was still obsessed with the notion of the brain. This led him to create the non-profit institute dubbed, “The Other 90%.” This institute was responsible for researching the regions of the brain that seemed to be unused in the average person. Through all of the research conducted at this institute, one of the most revolutionary results has been MindDrive.

Delving into MindDrive

MindDrive is an interface in which a person is able to control devices with nothing other than their mind. Through this, it is possible for people to control computers, wheelchairs and a plethora of other technologies. While this may not be of importance to some people, it has opened up an otherwise closed world to others.

Disabled Advancements

Being disabled means that a person will not be able to partake in many tasks that the average person is able to enjoy. With the use of MindDrive, however, it is possible to play games or become mobile without functioning limbs. Quadriplegic individuals will receive the most benefit from this technology as they will simply be able to move their wheelchair or play their favorite games with the use of their mind.

Video games have been the advancement that many people have truly benefited from. While it has always been possible for the disabled to use other forms of wheelchair control or to be pushed around, being able to play games was impossible. MindDrive allows for this to be done with precision. MindDrive has created their own computer games that can be controlled through the interface. This opens up the possibility of playing many family games together, or simply playing the games solo.

MindDrive requires sensors to be placed on a user’s fingers so that the impulses felt through the skin can be read and the appropriate action taken. This is a dream that is continually evolving for Ron Gordon and one in which will pick up traction with developers in the future. Now, games are accessible to everyone. While Gordon may have known his aspirations would help many people, he could never have realized the hidden value that MindDrive provided for the disabled.

$tokens to Feed the Chickens

Pick 58 - Collateral Cleanup

As the only child in my household, I was the goto kid for all chores that might normally have been shared by brothers and/or sisters if I had them. As the first-born and only son, I was on the top of my father's short list for cutting the grass, washing the cars, weeding the flower beds and whatever other chores he thought I was old enough to handle. However, nothing on his list pre-empted the chores my mother gave me. These included clearing the table and doing the dishes, dusting and vacuuming and putting away the finished laundry. I did not dare to ask for an allowance as did most of my friends. Instead I was expected to earn my money. Each chore had a non-negotiable value. Washing the car was worth 25-cents. Cutting the grass with our push mower was also worth 25-cents. Most everything else was worth 5-cents unless I was the main beneficiary of the service. Folding and putting away laundry might be done per gratis if most of the laundry was mine. Although I may have resented it at the time, I came to appreciate the sense of responsibility and understanding of productivity that this early childhood training gave me for adult life. I also learned the hidden value of collateral clean-up.

When my mother cooked a meal, she tended to leave the pots, pans and utensils for clean-up til after the meal. This made doing dishes a real challenge for me. When my father cooked, he usually cleaned up the pots, pans and utensils as he prepared the meal. By the time the meal was served, only the meal dishes remained for me to wash, dry, and put away. Seems he had done some stints as a cook and dish washer in his teen years. In a busy restaurant, pots, pans and utensils are in constant use. You either clean up as you go or risk having food orders back up while you are waiting for something to be cleaned.

The hidden value in collateral cleanup goes beyond food preparation. My mother's general rule of household organization was: "A place for everything and everything in it's place." I may have had to do more dishes when she cooked but there was never any doubt about where to store them once they were washed and dried. My father, on the other hand had no such rule. If I was not available to help him with clean-up he would usually put stuff wherever it might fit. I don't know why he operated this way, but apparently in those busy restaurants, there was never a need to store anything since it was in constant use the hours he worked in the kitchen.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 57 - Smartphones

A few months ago, I did not even know what the term "smartphone" meant. I knew it had something to do with cell phones but assumed it was one of those cleaver marketing terms used to create a need for something we never knew we needed until a team of smart marketeers got us up to speed.

Then, Verizon offered a deal on the new Android that I could not resist. And, within a few days I became a smarty myself. At least I felt a lot smarter knowing that my cell phone could not only deliver my e-mail but could respond to verbal commands and take dictated messages that it would whisk off to the few friends who could read them on their smartphones. What I did not realize was the hidden value my ownership of a smartphone conveyed to those marketeers.

Photo by Matam Jaswanth on Unsplash

Then I came across a report prepared by Live Science*. It compares smart phone brands with user profiles.
The most significant comparison: Apple vs Android. Live Science found that iPhone users tend to be over 35, female, educated, liberal, and earning an income of more than US$200,000 per year. They may or may not be tech savvy, but don’t have time to “tinker” with menus. The iPhone may also be regarded as a status symbol with a reputation for being the highest end product sold.

Android users live in more rural areas, are more politically conservative and are much more likely to be male. Many have never traveled outside of their home country, love pets, Comedy Central, and for whatever reason, Yahoo Mail. A university professor told Live Science that Android users may be forming an iPhone counter culture as a backlash against the people that they perceive to be Apple users aka city living limousine liberals.

The Live Science report noted that Blackberry users tend to be highly introverted urban dwellers and are equally distributed across the sexes; Windows Phone users are politically moderate suburban moms. Users of both brands may be daring and individualistic; others might perceive somebody who is using older generation devices to be a luddite from a bygone era.

Now I know WHY I traded my old Blackberry for an Android. The marketeers had convinced me that sturdy and reliable were out; smart was the hallmark of the next generation. Now I just have to convince myself that it is worth the extra bucks to be smart.
--------------

*Live Science information provided by David Worthington

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 56 - Easter Eggs

To this day I still cannot make the connection between Easter Eggs, chocolate rabbits and the Christian message which is celebrated on this day. I have fond memories of coloring hard boiled eggs with my mother when I was around 7 years old. I also remember hunting around the house for chocolate eggs that were allegedly left for me by the Easter Bunny. That was always on Easter Sunday morning after church services where I learned about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

goodhousekeeping.com

The hidden value in that message was that, like Jesus, we do not have to turn to dust at the end of our life but under certain conditions, we can go on living in a different way. Whether that different way was better or worse than the life we left behind depended on whether we obeyed God or not. If not, our chances were pretty slim to none. When we die, we are dead...period...end of story. However, if we believe in God and try our best to obey the laws of God as Jesus did, then we can rise from the dead like Jesus and go on living forever like the characters in that Twilight movie. I never fully understood it but I could accept it because no one I had known ever came back from death and told me whether it was true or not.

Easter Eggs are a different story. First of all, they are delivered by the Easter Bunny and everyone knows how prolific bunnies can be. Start with two and before long you have a dozen. It will not take long for that dozen to turn into a lot of dozens and that is a lot of life from just two rabbits.

I am not sure how the Easter Bunny got tied up with the chickens that produce colored eggs, but I do know that chickens--unlike rabbits--come from eggs. I used to think that those live colored Peeps you could get at Easter came from colored eggs but now I know better. Anyway, since every egg is a chicken in the making, it is easy to see that eggs represent the cycle of life. Each egg is the rebirth of the chicken that laid it. But it is also true that rotten eggs cannot produce a chicken. That is not true for people. Rotten people can produce more people, but they do not have to be rotten people. I guess that is the hidden value of the Easter Message. But I still can't tell you why the Easter Bunny holds the patent on Easter eggs.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 55 - Spurious Correlations

This Sunday the two best teams in the National Football League face off in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII. In addition to bragging rights for the winner, there may be some hidden value in the outcome. Back in the late 1960's a group of geeky data analysts started tracking the correlation between the winner of the Super Bowl and the fate of the Stock Market for the rest of the year. (I told you they were a bit geeky) Perhaps after one too many beers they predicted that the outcome of the Super Bowl could forecast what was going to happen to the U.S. stock market over the next 12 months. So they began accumulating the data each year thereafter and, by golly, there was a clear correlation.

The so-called Super Bowl Stock Market Predictor claims that if an original NFC team wins the prize, the stock market will end the year up, but if an original AFC team wins, the market will end the year down.

This seems like a ridiculous correlation, but from 1967 to 1988 the indicator was right 90.9 percent of the time - 20 out of those 22 years. Since then the accuracy has decreased, but it still hovers at around 76.7 percent - a predictor. When was the last time the advice from your Broker hit the mark 8 out of 10 times?

In geek terms this is called a spurious correlation because the rationale for the correlation is totally off the wall. Yet its track record is as solid as the gold in Fort Knox. Maybe more so because few, if any, investors have seen the gold in Fort Knox. Many who have followed this Predictor have seen their portfolio turn to gold in a couple of years.

The Super Bowl Stock Market Predictor is not the only spurious correlation with hidden value. Has anyone noticed that when the DJIA goes positive on a Friday, the price of gas usually increases a few cents on Monday. The opposite is also true. Use this hidden value to decide whether to fill er up on Friday or Monday and you will be ahead of the game most of the time.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 54 - Fake Girlfriend

Even if I had thought of this when I was in my youth, it would not have been technically feasible. Yes. I could have conjured up an imaginary girlfriend...many of us had them in high school. But the geeks of that era were always at the bottom of the popularity totem pole so we had to rely on our imagination to assuage our deflated egos. Yet time was on our side. It was not the popular high school jocks who went on to earn six figure salaries, but those awkward geeks that could get us to the moon and back, design awesome muscle cars, and put a personal computer on the desk of everyone that was intrigued with video games or tracking their finances on a spreadsheet.

Of course, things have changed since those days and it seems the jocks are back at the top of the totem pole--at lest those who really are good enough to become stars in college and draft picks for Pro Teams. So it did not surprise me when a certain college football star was apparently duped into a relationship with a fake girlfriend. That was sheer geekery! And I don't think we have seen the last of it.

I just came across this in one of my on-line news letter feeds:

If your Facebook profile is feeling lonesome, or nobody really believes that your unseen Canadian partner actually has the flu (a nod to Broadway’s Avenue Q), a Brazilian service will conjure up a fake girlfriend to round out your virtual identity.
NamoroFake.com will create the appearance of a love interest on Facebook for US$40, or offer up an ex-lover for $19.00 if your deception should be both dishonest and frugal.
Namoro makes the lie convincing through matching you up with your “girfriend’s” fake profile, complete with 30 days of comments and the quintessential relationship status change. Everybody knows that it’s not ‘official’ if your status doesn’t say so. That’s today’s youth’s version of a “promise ring.”

I am not trying to say that there is some hidden value in having a fake girlfriend. We surely have enough true lies to contend with in our current times. Just sayin...geeks may not be popular but they can be very clever--especially when technology is on the playing field.

ez does it!

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 53 - The FED

For nearly eighty years after the charter for the Second Bank of the United States was allowed to expire, America was without a Central Bank controlled by the Federal Government. After various financial panics, particularly a severe one in 1907, many Americans, especially Farmers and owners of small businesses, lobbied Congress for banking and currency reform. They wanted a ready reserve of liquid assets that could be used to expand and contract currency and credit seasonally within the U.S. economy.

In response to this lobby, the Aldrich–Vreeland Act was passed in 1908. The direct result of this act was the establishment of the National Monetary Commission in 1909. Over the next four years, the Commission prepared and proposed major changes in U.S. banking and currency laws. The final report was submitted to Congress on January 9, 1912. Its recommendations ran 59 sections--most of them very controversial in those times. The proposed legislation was known as the Aldrich Plan, named after the chairman of the Commission, Republican Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island.

The Plan called for the establishment of a National Reserve Association with 15 regional district branches and 46 geographically dispersed directors primarily from the banking profession. The Reserve Association would make emergency loans to member banks, print money, and act as the fiscal agent for the U.S. government. State and nationally chartered banks would have the option of subscribing to specified stock in their local association branch.

Since the Aldrich Plan essentially gave full control of this system to private bankers, there was strong opposition to it from rural and western states because of fears that it would become a tool of certain rich and powerful financiers in New York City, referred to as the "Money Trust".

From May 1912 through January 1913 the Pujo Committee, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, held investigative hearings on the alleged Money Trust and its interlocking directorates. These hearings were chaired by Rep. Arsene Pujo, a Democratic representative from Louisiana^.

In the election of 1912, the Democratic Party won control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. The party's platform stated strong opposition "to the so called Aldrich bill for the establishment of a central bank." However, the platform also called for a systematic revision of banking laws in ways that would provide relief from financial panics, unemployment and business depression, and would protect the public from the "domination by what is known as the Money Trust."

Now, a full 100 years later, we are still searching for the same relief from the same financial woes. Both political parties appear to have retained their policy positions regarding how to solve these woes, but no one seems to be asking the key question: Is there some hidden value in the function of the Federal Reserve that we have overlooked. The FED has served our financial interests well for most of the hundred years it has been in operation. Why is it failing us now?

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 52 - Character

Back in my school days traits like persistence, curiosity, self-control, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence were actually taught in school and at home. There were no tests to determine how much character training we had absorbed each month. No text books or other training devices were used to instill these traits but, somehow both our parents and our teachers knew if we were making progress or not.

Looking back, I suspect our parents measured our progress against their own. Like that old saying: "the apple does not fall far from the tree." If our father lacked persistence, he expected us to pick up the slack and finish what we had started. If our mother lacked self-confidence, we were expected to overflow with it. No. There were never any direct scoldings or pressure about persistence and self-confidence. It was more like nurturing; that subtle smile when you finished a difficult task, the words of encouragement whenever you tried out for the team or a part in the school play. They were little character building exercises taught using the activities of daily life.

Our teachers used a different yardstick. They measured us against our classmates and in many cases against the results they had attained with students who had gone before us. These days we consider it unfair and even prejudicial for teachers to make comparisons like that. But we need to remember that in those days incidents such as Columbine and Sandy Hook were unthinkable. And therein may be the hidden value in ad hoc character building lessons. They not only taught us about the importance of character, they taught us how to nourish it in ourselves and in others.

It is too bad that guns are so much easier to obtain than good character.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Tour 51 - Live and Let Live

I was so depressed last night thinking about Health Care Plans, the

economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement

funds, and the Sandy Hook incident .... I called a Suicide Hotline.

Pick 50 - OFF button

I had just gotten one of those new smart phones and had it with me at the meeting. As requested, I made sure it was off when the meeting began. About 5 minutes into the meeting I heard this strange sound coming from my pocket. I looked around to see who had failed to shut down their cell phone because I did not recognize the ringtone. Gradually all eyes turned to me and I realized the sound was coming from MY phone. With a blush of embarrassment, I fished the phone out of my pocket and desperately searched for the OFF button. There was none to be found. Then I remembered what the Instruction Book said about that. Apparently, this phone is so smart that it just puts itself into hibernate mode when it has not been in use for 5 minutes or when you disconnect at the end of a phone call. This mode saves the battery but keeps enough of the electrons waiting so they can come alive in an instant. Any incoming call or text message will do it. All cell phones I used in the past had a very definite OFF button. Apparently, that concept is gone the way of the 8-hour work day and lights out. In our 24/7 culture we are never expected to sleep--only to hibernate when our services are not required. I was outsmarted by my own Smart Phone and there was nothing I could do about it except find the instruction for silencing my cell phone when I did not wish to disturb others.

I suspect it will not be long before our smart phones will gain the upper hand. We will be able to silence them but that will not prevent gentle vibrations, blinking lights, or any other means of getting our attention when they have been awakened out of their hibernation state. That is the hidden value of having an OFF switch on electronic devices. It was our last hope for breaking away from the always on lifestyle. Oh well...perhaps a new service industry will come about because of this. Instead of Cruises and Sunny Beaches, there will be OFF-line zones where, for a fee, you can roam about completely free of all electronic signals whether from Wi-Fi or Land Line. In the end, many Third World countries may find that is the one luxury they can afford to provide and they will thrive on it.Til then we need to carefully read those instructions for the care and nurturing of our wireless communication devices. Like many of our kids today, they are getting too smart for us to manage without professional help.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 49 - Control

Recently as I was listening to the News reports about the storms that had decimated the northeast portion of the US, I experienced one of those hidden value moments. As is par for the course with storms, people were reporting what they’d done to prepare for it, and what they would have done differently had they taken it more seriously. As they talked, the TV cameras panned over some of the devastation and it was at that moment that I had my epiphany: there are some things in this world that you can do absolutely nothing about.

I know that sounds like basic knowledge but it wasn’t the concept that stunned me; it was the unrealized RAMIFICATIONS of the concept. Suddenly, I perceived that I can’t control everything in my environment. There are forces and people out there large and powerful enough to knock me aside like a windblown leaf . Worse yet there’s absolutely nothing that I can do about it. I can't control them. I can't change them. I can't even avoid them.

As I thought more about it, other forces started coming to mind: the ebb and flow of the ocean, the waxing and waning of the moon, and even the behavior of the people around me. The one thing that I can control, though, is my attitude toward it and that’s a huge thing. As a matter of fact, it’s that characteristic that defines who I am as a person and how happy I am able to be. As Abe Lincoln once said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be”.

Perhaps that’s the hidden value of realizing that there are some things that I simply can’t do anything about; that it’s OK to let some things go and to be happy with the result even if it is not what I had planned. The storms of life come and go. I have no control over most of them. My decision to accept the results with a happy or sad outlook is the hidden value in adversity. That is the only real control I have in any situation I face.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 48 - Facebook

I usually try to keep the tone of this blog upbeat and engaging, however today I learned something about the hidden value in photos on Facebook that we might prefer to keep hidden...
Seems a data researcher by the name of Alessandro Acquisti has developed a new data capture and analysis application that enables him to collect intimate information about anyone who posts photos on Facebook. All that is needed to start the search is a snapshot of the person of interest.

Acquisti has been working with a team of researchers to determine what personal information could be gleaned from a single digital photo. In one experiment, Acquisti and his team surveyed students at a North American college. The researchers shot a photograph of each participant, and then handed over a questionnaire to be completed on site. Even as students were completing the paperwork, their photos were being processed with facial recognition software scanning images from Facebook profiles. By the time the students had finished their anonymous questionnaires, the researchers were able to positively identify nearly one third of the individuals by name.

On first blink, this ability to identify a person by his or her photograph isn’t unsettling. However, Acquisti also showed how his team was able to use a known identity to glean personal information such as social security numbers, birthdates and even current addresses.

In an earlier study, Acquisti and his team were able to predict the social security numbers of many living persons by comparing them to dead individuals who were assigned numbers at similar times, and in similar geographic locations.
In other words they found hidden value in a simple photograph placed on line in a social media forum such as Facebook. The photo links to a profile; the profile reveals sensitive, personal, information that may have immense hidden value to someone other than the person in the photo.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 47 - Noggin Knowledge

My mom had a lot of unusual sayings. Some of them were funny and some were so subtle that it took years for me to figure them out. Oftentimes when she was tapped to drive me to some event she would call up to my room "Are you ready or ready's brother?" Since she came from a family of a sister and two brothers I guessed she might have heard that when she was growing up. I was an "only" child so it did not make much sense to me til years later amidst the frustration I had getting my own son out the door on time. That's when her meaning hit my noggin: In some far-away imaginary place "Not Ready" is the brother of "Ready" That simple but subtle question was her way of prodding me along. It was not sarcastic or mean-spirited. It simply asked me to chose my identity with the sense that Ready was her favorite but I was free to be either of the two.

My mom grew up during the Great Depression but her parents were able to weather those times without having to pull any of their children out of school to work. She graduated high school in 1939 then continued to work in an Ice Cream Parlor where she met my dad who was a Merchant Marine. They were married on Memorial Day 1943, and used Gas Ration Coupons gifted by relatives to drive to Harrisburg for a one-day honeymoon. My dad, who was now a conscripted Merchant Marine, returned to sea the next day. As the youngest child it fell to my mom to take care of her recently widowed mother. She got a job as a seamstress in a shirt factory and became very proficient at operating a blind stitch sewing machine. Since she was on "piece work" she often got caught up and prodded the Foreman to get her more work. Apparently the befuddled Foreman would ask her what other work she thought she could do to fill the time. Her reply was always the same: "I am paid to sew--not to think. That is your job." Guess that is why she often encouraged me with this saying: "What you don't have in your noggin; you have to have in your feet" It took me a long time to figure that one out too until I discovered that the sewing machines in those days were controlled by foot pedals.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 46 - Pop's Stories

Pop was only 14 years old in 1932 when he was cast off his family island and told to fend for himself. Now that America is headed down that same road again, I would like to share how Pop not only survived but earned his place as a standing member of that Greatest Generation.

Pop could spin a story with the best of them, but I never got that interested until I faced a job loss in the midst of the Carter Recession. It wouldn't have been that bad for me alone but I had a wife and two young children to support. What's worse is that my job loss was of my own doing and therefore I was not eligible to collect unemployment benefits nor would it be easy to find another job in the same profession. You see, I was a high school teacher suffering burn-out so bad that the thought of going back to school left me in a state of depression. With little useful business experience to show prospective employers and unable to collect unemployment benefits I stayed awake many nights worried sick. Pop assured me that we could move in with him and mom if worse came to worse, but I could tell that he dreaded that possibility more than I did. That's when I began to pay close attention to the hidden value in the stories he would tell me. In a subtle way he conveyed five important survival skills that got me through hard times then and still do today:

1. "In God We Trust" appears on our currency for a reason: Trust in God--not the Government
2. Be humble enough to accept help from any friend or stranger willing to give you a hand up.
3. Learn from everything you do--even if it does not appear to have value at the present time.
4. Be flexible in your goals but never bend your principles to achieve them
5. Give back whenever you can and in any way you can.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers

Pick 45 - Compromise

We are hearing a lot about the need for compromise these days but it must have some hidden value that our politicians have not found yet because we don’t see much of it. I wish they could have observed a recent event I observed while visiting my grandchildren the week before the General Election…

The three of them were in the living room floor squalled around one of those giant cartoon coloring books. The piece of artwork in question was a picture of an elf packing gifts into Santa’s bag and there was a debate about what color the cheerful chap’s hat should be. One child argued that everybody knew that elf’s caps were green, and the other pointed out that if they colored it green, then the holly leaf in the band wouldn’t be visible; it should obviously be red.

Neither child was willing to concede until the third one, the youngest, jumped in. She suggested a green hat, a red band, and a gold holly leaf. He was, after all, a magic elf and could have golden holly in his cap if he wanted. The two older children thought for a few seconds and happily agreed, but the one who had wanted a red hat had a condition. She agreed to the green hat if the jacket could be red with a green belt. The other two agreed readily and the teamwork commenced.

Later, I took a few seconds to commend the youngest mediator on a job well done, and her reply was stunningly simple. “We just wanted to color, and it was only a hat.” Wow, out of the mouths of babes! I realized in that moment that compromise wasn’t an intricate skill that one learned in debate class in college; it’s a survival skill that each of us learns as toddlers, or maybe we’re born with it. After all, we see it happen in nature all the time. A tree bends in the wind instead of standing stiffly because if it didn’t, it would die. It’s the nature of things; bend or break.

When I looked into those guileless blue eyes and considered her words, it occurred to me that the hidden value of compromise is two-fold: happiness and progress. She knew what she wanted and found a way to make it happen. The other two shared the same goal, and were willing to offer up some goodwill and bend a bit on the details in order to finish the picture. In the end, everybody was happy and the project was complete.

It would appear that our children have a better handle on running things successfully than those whom we pay to do so. Maybe our politicians should have mandatory babysitting duty this holiday season with the hope that they’ll find the hidden value in guileless compromise before the winds of change break our nation.

$tokens to Tip the Pickers