Pick 84 - Daily Routines vs the Pandemic of 2020

Perhaps the most disruptive force of the COVID-19 pandemic was not its threat to our health, but the stress it provoked by forcing us to change our daily routines. 

In his book on the daily routines of creative people, Mason Curry informs us that  all creative people seem to depend on daily rituals and routines to remain productive. In the process of citing many examples, he forces us to consider the hidden value in the rituals we employ to keep ourselves going.

 

Daily Rituals - How Artists Work

Edited by Mason Currey

Apr 23, 2013 | ISBN 9780307273604 

 How do we do meaningful creative work while also earning a living?

 Is it better to devote ourselves wholly to a project or to set aside a small portion of each day?   

 When there doesn’t seem to be enough time for all we hope to accomplish, must we give things up (sleep, income, a clean house), or can we learn to condense activities, to do more in less time, to work smarter, not harder?

Are comfort and productivity incompatible, or is the opposite true: Is finding a basic level of daily comfort a prerequisite for sustained productive work?

Whether work/learn from home was a welcomed change or a nightmare, most of us might agree that breaking routines, developed in childhood, was a treacherous experience. Being forced to do so by an enemy that seemed invincible, made it all the more so.

 

Routines simplify our busy schedules and give us structure.  Sometimes the only way to make it through the week, even in "normal" times was to switch on auto-pilot, turn off our brain, and just let routine take over.  In fact, Psychologists tell us that our brains need routines and rituals to remain well.

1. Routines help minimize uncertainty.
   • Our brains don’t like uncertainty. Uncertainty engages the fight-flight-freeze-appease part of our brains (the amygdala) which can stifle clear thinking. Routines, however, give us a greater sense of control. This creates certainty.  Our brain loves certainty and stability.
2. Routines make space for clearer thinking.
   • In the front part of our brain, the pre-frontal cortex, executive functions like planning, abstract thinking, social intuition, and emotional control occur. However, that part of our brain tires easily. The more we use it, the more it tires which can affect our ability to think clearly, make wise decisions, and relate to others well. However, when we create routines and habits, the brain stores those routines in our habit centers (basal ganglia). As a result, routines free up working space in our pre-frontal cortex so that we can think and concentrate better on new tasks and relationships.
3. Routines can reduce the drain on our daily energy.
   • Ego depletion refers to the concept that we all possess a limited pool of mental resources available for self-control and willpower. And it gets used up during the day. If we spend that resource on activities that could be routinized, we waste energy that we otherwise could dedicate to more important tasks and relationships. Routines help conserve our energy for what’s most important.
4. Routines help us focus and maintain attention.
   • The ability to pay attention to what’s important is a key to successful living, leading, and learning. When we are scattered (Where did I leave those keys?) attention gets diluted. Routines, however, can help us direct our attention toward what really matters.
5. Routines help quiet the tyranny of the urgent.  

•  The tyranny of the urgent beckons us to worry about insignificant issues that seem important at the moment. The term rumination describes the mental process of rehearsing something that happened in the past or something that might happen in the future. The tyranny of the urgent breeds such rumination. Routines help us focus on the life’s essentials rather than spending precious time trying to prioritize everything
  

Since there is hidden value in those routines and rituals that we once took for granted, we should not forsake them entirely. An effective Life Coach would assure us that realigning our daily routine doesn’t have to be difficult — there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Just adapt it to our current reality. We can continue to do the things we normally did before the pandemic disrupted our lives. Simple routines like waking up and going to bed at the same time each day are still under our control. The rushed breakfast and hour-long commute to work can now be replaced by a leisurely and healthy breakfast. This can be followed up with a second-cup of our favorite coffee or tea. Since we, no longer need to spend time getting appropriately dressed for work, we might just brush our teeth, wash our face, and change into a comfortable sweat  suit just in time for our AM Zoom conference.

Over time, we will develop routines that help us grow more comfortable working and learning in the comfort of our own homes. In fact, many of the WFH veterans have grown so used to their new routines that they do not want to return to the old ways of working. So if employers find that WFH employees are equally or more productive than those who want to gather in factories and office buildings, they may find ways to accommodate both.

 

 

Pick 83 - Gifts for People With Disabilities.

 When your child’s development does not match what is typical for their chronological age, it can be challenging to find age-appropriate gifts that they will truly enjoy. That’s especially true for tweens and teens with significant disabilities.

The Mighty

 To add some happiness and excitement back into gift shopping, look beyond toys and games to find gifts that are both age and developmentally appropriate. The best gift ideas for a teen with significant disabilities can be found in one of these areas:

• Experiences – With quarantines and shut-downs, it is challenging finding safe experiences outside of  home. But, with a little creativity, you'll find ideas that are safe, fun, and often inexpensive as well. Here are some ideas to consider:

• • Zoo pass or membership
  • Drive-in movies
  • Drive-thru Christmas light displays
  • State park pass for trail hiking and walks
  • Botanical gardens

• Room décor – What young adult doesn’t want a bedroom that reflects their personality? You can do a complete makeover that includes painting walls, setting up new organization systems, and outfitting the bed with a new comforter and sheets or a smaller scale project, such as adding a new string of lights, throw pillows or a beanbag chair. Whether it’s a total transformation or a smaller project, tweens and teens usually appreciate an update that makes their space feel more comfy and cozy.

• Personal care – Think about those little splurges that make day-to-day life a little brighter. Some ideas include: scented lotions, fuzzy socks, hair products, lip balm, massage pillows, weighted blankets, bath bombs and essential oils.

• Subscriptions – Teens and Tweens enjoy music and movies, so subscriptions to music and TV services are gifts that can be enjoyed all year round. Also growing in popularity are subscriptions to themed boxes, which can be a wonderful monthly surprise. Check out subscription boxes for items such as books, sensory kits, craft projects, and more.

Finding just the right gift for any loved-one has many hidden values. Greatest of these is finding joy in holiday shopping for friends or family members with developmental disabilities. It can put a little extra magic into your holiday season.

 

Pick 82 - Procrastination

My first find on the value of procrastination came when I started school. My teacher was a Catholic nun whom we called "Sister Janet" or "Sister".

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

Sister explained that she belonged to an order of Catholic nuns. It started in Germany a long time ago. She and the other nuns at my school were teachers but other members of her order were nurses. They worked in hospitals.

Preschool or Kindergarten was not an option in those days. Every member of my first grade class was a school newbie. So Sister Janet spent the first day laying out the rules for success in her class.

Her favorite saying was "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today." At our tender age I doubt any member of my class knew what she meant. In our world of play and simple chores, tomorrow was a place our parents often talked about. Our world only existed in the here and now.

Everything was new and puzzling on that day. It was the first time any of us had to sit still at a desk while an adult talked.

Sit still and be quiet was rule #1 in Sister's class.

Do not speak out unless Sister asks you a question. That was rule #2.

Raise your hand if you had a question or wanted permission to go to the bathroom.

Do not leave your seats until dismissed by Sister at break time or the end of the day. A bell would ring to alert Sister, but we were to ignore the bell. Only Sister could give us permission to leave.

I can't speak for my classmates but the end of that day could not come soon enough. The second I heard that bell, I wanted to run out of that classroom. I would jump in my mom's waiting car and get home to play with my neighborhood friends.

The bell rang and Sister gave us each a book to "take home and bring back covered tomorrow." I took the book and met mom. 

 

I told Mom that I had to bring back the book tomorrow. I did not tell her the covered part.

At that time we could play outside until the streetlights came on. That is what I did. I would cover the book when I came back inside. That is when I learned the dangers of procrastination. I was too tired to cover the book. I went to bed believing I could cover it in the morning. That did not go as planned. Mom wanted to leave early. So I took the naked book, and we headed off to school. What happened next programmed me to avoid procrastination for the most of my life. In later life, I discovered there is value in procrastination.

Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But unless you had Sister Janet in First Grade, that may be difficult. As an adult, there are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you focus on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well. At times, I am the "absent-minded professor." I may forget to shave, or eat, or even look where I am going while thinking about a writing project. My mind is absent from the everyday world because it's hard at work on an important topic. That's the hidden value in procrastination. Putting off work on small stuff to work on big stuff.

With all due respect to Sister Janet, getting outside to play after school is bigger stuff for a 6-year-old than covering a book.

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Pick 81 - Divisiveness

Divisiveness in American Culture

Strike up a conversation that touches on religion or politics and the sparks of division fly out almost spontaneously. This is nothing new in American culture. It was present even before it found its way into the Declaration of Independence in 1776. 

Photo by Max Okhrimenko on Unsplash

Many of the American Colonists were happy with the benefits accorded them by the Parliament and King George III. This included the right of Merchants to trade with other English colonies including those in Canada; protection from piracy at sea; protection from foreign invasion by enemies of England; and a reliable means of transportation between England and the Colonies for both people and merchandise. A hidden value that is often overlooked in the study of Colonial America is the role that divisiveness played in uniting the 13 Colonies against the rule of King George III.

Governance

In royal colonies, governors were appointed by the Crown to represent its interests. Before 1689, governors were the dominant political figures in the colonies. They possessed royal authority transmitted through their commissions and instructions. Among their powers was the right to summon and dissolve the elected assembly. Governors could also veto any bill proposed by the colonial legislature.

Gradually, the assembly successfully restricted the governor's power by asserting  control over budgets, including the salaries of the governor and other officials. A governor could find his salary withheld by an uncooperative legislature. Governors were often placed in an untenable position. Their official instructions from London demanded that they protect the Crown's power from usurpation by the assembly; at the same time, they were also ordered to collect more colonial funding for Britain's wars against France. In return for military funding, the assemblies often demanded more power.

 

To gain support for his agenda, the governor could reward supporters by appointing them to various offices such as attorney general, surveyor-general or as a local sheriff. These offices were sought after as sources of prestige and income. He could also reward supporters with land grants. As a result of this strategy, colonial politics was often divided between a governor's faction (the court party) and his opposition (the country party). So the seeds of divisiveness were sown on American soil long before it became politically acceptable.. 

Divisiveness Within the Councils

The executive branch included an advisory council to the governor that varied in size ranging from ten to thirty members. In royal colonies, the Crown appointed a mix of placemen (paid officeholders in the government) and members of the upper class within colonial society. Members served at the pleasure of the King. When there was an absentee governor or an interval between governors, the council ran the government.

 

The governor's council also functioned as the upper house of the colonial legislature. In most colonies, the council could introduce bills, pass resolutions, and consider and act upon petitions. In addition to being both an executive and legislative body, the council also had judicial authority. It was the final court of appeal within the colony. The combined roles promoted the divisiveness that arises when there were disagreements over legislation that affected wealth or status in the colony. 

Divisiveness Within the Assemblies

The lower house of a colonial legislature was a representative assembly. Members were elected annually by the propertied citizens of the towns or counties. Usually they met for a single, short session; but the council or governor could call a special session  when needed.

 

As in Britain, the right to vote was limited to men with real estate holdings sufficient to ensure they had a vested interest in the welfare of their communities".  Six colonies allowed alternatives to land ownership such as personal property or tax payment that extended voting rights to owners of urban property and prosperous farmers who rented their land. Groups excluded from voting included laborers, tenant farmers, unskilled workers and indentured servants and anyone who lacked a "stake in society"making them vulnerable to corruption.

 

Tax issues and budget decisions originated in the assembly. Part of the budget went toward the cost of raising and equipping the colonial militia. As the American Revolution drew near, this subject was a divisive topic between the provincial assemblies and their respective governors.The perennial division between the colonial governors and the assemblies are viewed, by some historians, as signs of a rising democratic spirit. However, those assemblies generally represented the privileged classes, and were protecting the colony against unreasonable executive encroachments. Legally, the crown governor's authority was unassailable. In resisting that authority, assemblies resorted to arguments based upon natural rights and the common welfare. This supported the notion that governments derived their authority from the consent of the governed. This belief became the tipping point when the Continental Congress met to consider the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Without a belief in consent of the governed, no British Citizen of that era could contemplate Independence because that would violate the Covenant between the king and his subjects--a covenant blessed by God. Fortunately most of those chosen to represent their respective Colony in this matter were more inclined toward the consent view than to the covenant view.

Reunification and Resolve

In May 1776, the Continental Congress called for the creation of new governments "where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs have been hitherto established" and "that the exercise of every kind of authority under the ... Crown should be totally suppressed". The Declaration of Independence in July further encouraged the states to form new governments, and most states had adopted new constitutions by the end of 1776. By tradition and the political protocol of that era, the revolt against King George III should never have taken place. We can speculate that  the other colonies under English rule in the 18th Century, including Canada, Australia, and India, were not divided in their belief in the covenant so they never reached the tipping point at which they withdrew their consent to be governed by the Crown. And that is the hidden value we can find in the divisiveness that still agitates Americans. 

 

“Geography divides people only if the people allow it - faith divides people only if the people allow it - intellect divides people only if the people allow it - politics divides people only if the people allow it. So, unless the people allow it, nothing can tear our world apart. Unless you allow it, nothing can tear our society apart.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkanjali: The Sufi Sermon 

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Pick 80 - Consent of the Governed

The phrase consent of the governed refers to the idea that a government's legitimacy and moral right to use state power is only justified and lawful when consented to by the people or society over which that political power is exercised. This idea is called popular sovereignty. The Declaration of Independence had stated this idea clearly when it said: "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

In a democracy, people give implicit consent by accepting the laws and services of the government to which they pledge their allegiance. They also give enforcement authority to that government to deal with those who break the laws. This authority is, itself, derived from the consent of the majority and always expressed in writing that is open to oversight by the judicial branch of government. The role of the judicial branch is to ensure the enforcement of laws complies with the intent of the legislation that created the law. Each decision rendered sets a precedent for future cases. This turns a static set of laws written for one era into a dynamic set of laws that accommodates the changing values of those governed by the laws. It also ensures that the laws are applied equally to those governed by them.

Although the "consent of the governed" was applied in a unique way in those democracies that sprang up in the 18th Century, it is actually an ancient concept that influenced the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Israelites long before it found its way into the Declaration of Independence. The primary difference was in how "consent" was obtained.

• The Egyptians obtained consent by making it part of their religious dogma. Consent to be governed by the Pharaoh was the only path to eternal life. 
• The Greeks obtained consent through logic and rational choice. Greeks loved wisdom and gave their consent to men of wisdom.
• The Roman consent was aligned with an insatiable need for law and order. It also helped when a leader was able to conduct and win wars. Caesar and his linage were especially adept in this feature.
• The Israelites found it easy to give their consent to be governed by Prophets who spoke directly to God. However, in later years they reverted to being governed by kings to whom God delegated this authority. 

In the 20th Century, new methods of gaining the consent of the governed came into play. Coercion, fear, and violence were employed by unscrupulous totalitarian leaders to obtain and secure the consent of those they chose to govern. 
So today we who are fortunate enough to live in a democracy where our consent is given freely and protected in a written contract, We The People need to appreciate the hidden value of that phrase. We get to renew that consent annually on Election Day. Let's use it wisely.

Pick 79 - The Pandemic

The current global battle with CORVID-19 might be the last place to look for hidden value, but this dark cloud may have both a silver and a gold lining.

Masks that might have worked in the past

The silver lining comes in the form of knowledge about dangerous viral outbreaks that might have remained hidden if the outbreak had not occurred in one of the most heavily populated areas of the world. Although the initial response of local authorities was one of denial and cover-up, that changed rapidly once the Central Government stepped in and took charge. It emulated what might happen in an ant colony once the soldier ants realize that the Queen is in jeopardy. The entire colony is put on alert. Infected cells are isolated and all work activities halt until the danger is over.

Had the Central Government not alerted the World Health Organization and governments around the world, the resulting pandemic might have taken the lives of billions of people before it could be contained. Thanks to the cooperation among world leaders and scientists, we now have an arsenal of weapons to stem its rapid advance and may even find way to stop this invisible enemy in its tracks.

Beyond this silver lining, we also have a gold one. We have learned that the human race is not immune to extinction. CORVID-19 is a stealth weapon that humans neither control nor understand. It does not respond to divisive rhetoric or class status. It is not obligated to any special interest group nor does it bow to any earthly power. Our only defense against it is to practice the Golden Rule on a global scale.

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Pick 78 - Universal Product Codes

As you stand in line to check out gifts purchased in any Big Box store this Holiday Season please remember George Laurer. Had he not developed an efficient way for retailers to identify products and their prices at checkout, the lines you now face would be much longer. In fact, last-minute shopping would be a privilege available only to those who had the means to shop at stores frequented by the rich and famous--not folks with limited means like us.

 

Any of you who are old enough to remember what Holiday Shopping was like before Laurer's time  will recall dozens of clerks standing at cash registers waiting to serve customers on normal shopping days. Often, a clerk might enter the wrong price at the register or the purchase price was different from the advertised price. This resulted in an anxious phone call to Accounting to verify the price. Meanwhile, those waiting behind you threw irate glances your way. How could you not know that the ticket price did not match the advertised price?

George Laurer, the engineer whose barcode reader transformed the entire checkout process,  died on December 10, 2019 at the age of 94. He was an electrical engineer with IBM in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park in the early 1970s, when he spearheaded the development of the Universal Product Code, or barcode for a group of grocery stores. It utilized a patent submitted by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver in 1949 for a code patterned on concentric circles that looked like a bull's eye. The patent was issued in 1952. Silver died in 1963.

Woodland joined IBM in 1951 hoping to develop the bar code, but the technology wasn't accepted for more than two decades until lasers made it possible to read the code efficiently without error. 

Woodland moved to Raleigh in the early 1970's to join a team at IBM's Research Triangle Park, N.C., facility. The team, headed by Laurer,  developed a bar-code-reading laser scanner system in response to demand from grocers' desires to automate and speed checkout while also cutting handling and inventory management costs.

Woodland and Bernard Silver were students at what is now called Drexel University in Philadelphia when Silver overheard a grocery-store executive asking an engineering school dean to channel students into research on how product information could be captured at checkout.

Since he already had earned his mechanical engineering degree, Woodland dropped out of graduate school to work on the bar code idea. The only code he knew was the Morse Code he'd learned in the Boy Scouts.  One day, he drew Morse dots and dashes in the sand as he sat on the beach and absent-mindedly left his finger marks in the sand where they traced a series of parallel lines.

 

It was a moment of inspiration. Instead of dots and dashes he would use thick and thin bars.

According to GS1 US, the American affiliate of the global standard-setting UPC body, IBM promoted his rectangular barcode that led to a standard for universal product code technology. The first product sold using a UPC scan was a 67-cent package of Wrigley's chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in June 1974. The value hidden in that one transaction has since mushroomed into 5 billion products worldwide every day.

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Pick 77 - Trash Talk

Twenty years from now historians are likely to recognize the 2016 Presidential Campaign as the first time Trash Talk was introduced into political campaigning. They will also report that the highly paid political pundits did not understand why even the most conservative voters accepted, even admired such behavior.  By the time campaign managers began to understand this phenomenon, it was too late to resist or emulate it. Had such disruption broken out in the Progressive camp, the Conservatives would have used it as an example of how low Democrat candidates were willing to go in their search for votes. But it broke out in the Conservative camp amid a stable of  16 upstanding, Bible toting, Constitution quoting Republicans.  Only The Donald and his entourage were able to see the hidden value is such behavior. This was not the first time in American political history that social or technical change set new standards for success in politics.

The 1906 mid-term elections saw the incursion of political speeches on radio. This skewed the expected outcomes of well-planned campaigns towards the candidate with the most commanding radio voice. 

According to Don Hewitt, the producer-director of the first-ever televised presidential debate, voters who watched the debate on TV the night of Sept. 26, 1960,  were certain  Sen. John F. Kennedy had won.  Those who heard the event on radio, were just as certain Vice President Richard M. Nixon was the clear winner. The televised debates did not enlighten voters, they entertained them.  This gave the most charismatic and likable characters a leg up on election day.

The use of insulting or boastful speech by a popular candidate left the Republican Party Establishment dumbfounded.  It is one thing to interrogate political opponents with complex policy questions or to catch them off guard with facts they cannot deny, but the use of  invective intended to demoralize, intimidate, or humiliate opponents was reserved for WWE Smackdown events.

Either Donald Trump was not aware of this unwritten prohibition, or he was the first politician to recognize that trash talk has become the new standard for any kind of verbal performance--including political debates. If so, we must credit him with finding the hidden value in trash talk and using it to his advantage. While Sarah Palin might have bordered on trash talk when she elevated Joe the Plumber to celebrity status, she never found the hidden value in it. If she had, Sen John McCain might have won a term as President and laid the ground work for Governor Palin to become the first female POTUS.  

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Pick 76 - Evil

 

Evil, in a general sense, is the opposite or absence of good. It is generally seen as taking multiple possible forms, such as the form of personal moral evil commonly associated with the word, or impersonal natural evil (as in the case of natural disasters or illnesses), and in religious thought, the form of the demonic or supernatural/eternal.

We have all met people who either believe in God, are Atheists, or just don't care. Each professes their view of how the world, as we know it, came to be. Some attribute it all to a Higher Power they call God. Others believe in the Big Bang and random chance. Many are too busy trying to survive to pay much attention to such questions.

Still, they all share one belief in common: they concede that evil exists and can touch every human life at will. So how is it that we empower evil through fear, jealousy, and self-hatred but are reluctant to empower good through faith and selfless love?

Perhaps that is the hidden value in evil. It drives us all to question our existence and ponder the origin of both evil and good in the world as we know it.

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Pick 75 - The Lottery

We now know the record-breaking $1.6 billion  Powerball Lottery was split three ways. As of this writing, only one of the three winners have come forward to claim their share. The other two are either waiting on advice from their Financial Advisors or perhaps they collapsed when they realized the enormous life changes this event would bring on. Regardless, this lesson is not about winning the Lottery but about the faith required to place one's hope in a $2 Lottery ticket.

Photo by Lance Grandahl on Unsplash

Likely many ticket buyers do not accept the advice embedded in the paper bills  they use to purchase the tickets. Nor do they realize that advice will be repeated millions of times over should they actually win the lottery and spend the cash. Yet the very act of buying the ticket implies that they trust in the power of the Lottery to somehow fix any problem they may have. And the only hope they have is a 1 in 300 million chance of winning. They fail to find the hidden value in playing the Lottery.

Photo by Jorge Salvador on Unsplash

Take a good look at the green side of the paper bill. Just below The United States of America ID and the bill's value are the words "In God We Trust"  It does not point us to the Federal Reserve or to the Federal Government for life changing hope. It refers us clearly and simply to the God of our understanding--a power greater than ourselves. Yes. That Higher Power can be Powerball, but a 1 in 300 million long shot does not give us much hope. Still the awesome thing about our country is that we are each free to place that trust and find our hope in any power, even Powerball. That is the hidden value in the Lottery.

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