Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
As Doris Lessing observes, frightening news tends to blind us to the forces of creativity and discovery that surround us. Here's a few examples I picked out of the data stream this week.
Happy Friday.
Retail, Customer Experience, Corporate Social Responsibility
"When you fully commit to what you believe in and change your lifestyle to accommodate that vision, the universe starts providing the resources and the energy to keep pursuing that vision."
I've mentioned the Bay Area's Tanforan Shell station in a previous letter. But this week I stumbled upon on a long form article about the enterprise that reveals it to be much more than just a vegan gas station. It is a one-man consciousness-raising art project that is completely re-defining the retail experience.
There is, for example, a life-size T-rex in a top-hat with a hip-hop boombox that for much of the previous administration had a model Trump in its mouth. There's the Zoltar machine right next to the ice machine. There's the all-night car wash that is modeled on amusement rides to provide an immersive "self-care wash experience, a sound healing experience", complete with light show and its own FM channel. There's the music played at the pumps, from ambient to Gregorian chants. There's the fact that they give a full 10% of their profits to local charities.
Franchise owner Bobak Bakhtiari was motivated to make the change after watching a film on factory farms. "I was like, wow," he said, "for the last 40 years of my life, I've been sponsoring terror essentially. And contributing such immense misery to these animals. So I decided, okay, this store has to be plant-based...and not only plant-based, but a source of advocacy and education–as comprehensive as possible."
Article: Why is This Interesting? The Tanforan Shell Edition
Emotional Intelligence
"The more emotion words caregivers use, the more emotion words their children learn."
 Batja Mesquita studies the role of emotions in social integration. Photo source: KU Leuven
"When Bara parents on Madagascar tell their children to show tahotsy, or label their children’s behavior as tahotsy, they introduce their children to the cultural goal of obedience in the hierarchy. When an Ifaluk mother calls on her young son to show fago, she introduces him to the emotion that is marked by taking care of another person; she implies that throwing a piece of coral rubble at your two-year-old cousin is incompatible with fago.
"Similarly, when European American or German parents label their own or their children’s behavior as angry, they introduce their children to concepts of blame, personal accountability, fairness, and also to the goal of defending your autonomous rights. Once their children show some maturity, Japanese parents teach them omoiyari (roughly, empathy): episodes of omoiyari will be highlighted, or carved out, in everyday life.
"A child’s learning of an emotion word is not so much starting to recognize their own deep mental states, to which a caregiver does not have access after all, as it is to connect a cultural concept—tahotsy, angry—to an unfolding episode. Parents constantly provide their children with emotion concepts to disambiguate what is going on. Especially towards the second year, when children start using emotion concepts themselves, parents use emotion words very often. In one study, urban Japanese mothers used an emotion word between once and twice per minute during interactions with their two-year-old sons. The more emotion words caregivers use, the more emotion words their children learn." - Batja Mesquita
Article: What Science Can Tell Us About How We Express Ourselves
Teaching
"Students will produce work if you reach them where they are and take notes on what they're interested in."
"Thomas Mayfield had a major problem to solve in his fifth-grade classroom.
"'I'm not good at adding. I don't know how to regroup or borrow. I'm not good at subtracting. Or I don't know my facts yet, and I'm a fifth-grader,' Mayfield's students used to tell him.
"The 42-year-old math teacher from Fort Worth, Texas, took their frustrations to heart. He knew it was important to try something new, especially because most of his students were also struggling outside of the classroom.
"'Single parent homes, incarcerated parents, low financial stability — a lot of that was going on,' he said.
"Mayfield teaches at Title I schools, where at least 40% of students are economically disadvantaged. He grew up going to these types of schools in Fort Worth, too.
"To reach students in a way that was familiar and inviting, he brought rap music to the classroom.
"'It's built confidence,' he said. 'It helps to build a less traumatic experience, and they feel like they're invited and welcomed into the classroom.'" - Mia Estrada
It worked brilliantly. Within one semester state scores rose and productivity went up. Kids started caring more about coming to school and attendance went up. Parents who had previously shied away from school events were really enthused about coming to their kid's performances. It worked so well that the practice was extended throughout the whole school system.
Article: After a Texas Teacher Saw His Students Struggling with Math, he Turned to Rap Music
Self-Care, Emotional Health
"Name your emotions. Take action. Know your limits. These seven mindfulness-based strategies can help you stay grounded while caring deeply about the world."
"As a clinical psychologist who specializes in giving people the tools to cope with intense emotions, I know how difficult it can be to remain positive — or simply balanced — while caring deeply about our world. Some of my clients say they can’t stop doomscrolling, others engage in unhealthy behaviors to tune it out and many bounce between the two extremes.
"But it is possible to anchor yourself if it feels as though you’re slipping into despair about the state of the world. I rely on these seven mindfulness-based strategies for myself and my clients to stay grounded." - Jenny Taitz
Article: How to Follow the News Without Spiraling into Despair
Design, Color
How an obscure manifesto for "spiritual synesthesia" sowed the seeds for the US’s 1920s Chromatic Revolution
Valspar, Ladies Home Journal, March, 1927
"Blending Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist principles in a soup of Eastern philosophy, adding a dash of Neoplatonist hermeticism and social Darwinism, before stirring these ideas with a sprinkle of romanticism — one of theosophy’s clearer aims was to preach a spiritual transcendence. But while the group’s theories petered out, those on the spiritual force of color, written by the movement’s great British proponents Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater in Thought Forms (1901), have not.
"Their illustrative tome revolved around geometric logos and brilliantly colored diaphanous shapes, in what they considered a treatise on 'atmospheric thought.' In their universe, the music of composers Wagner and Mendelssohn resonate in clouds of color exploding over parochial English churches. Clairvoyants could perceive an individual’s auras and said individuals could direct thoughts at others for 'definitely marked effects.' Envisaged as a chromatic mental state, the 'pure pale rose marks that absolutely unselfish love' could morph into the 'dull crimson of animal love.' As a sort of manifesto for spiritual synesthesia, it was a novel book to publish before Modernism had even appeared." - Ellie Howard
Cue the brand managers, creative directors and retail designers.
Advertising
It turns out that Frank Zappa was an ad man, too.
"In 1967 I hired Frank Zappa for $2,000 to do the sound track for this animated TV commercial that I was animating and producing. It won a Clio award for 'best use of sound.' It was the beginning of a two year relationship that had me filming 14 hours of footage to be used for a film he called 'Uncle Meat'." - Ed Seeman
Video: Zappa's Luden's Cough Drops
Learning
“How Many Psychologists Does It Take ... to Explain a Joke?”
 Janeane Garofalo | Live from Here with Chris Thile
"Many, it turns out. As psychologist Christian Jarrett noted in a 2013 article featuring that riddle as its title, scientists still struggle to explain exactly what makes people laugh. Indeed, the concept of humor is itself elusive. Although everyone understands intuitively what humor is, and dictionaries may define it simply as 'the quality of being amusing,' it is difficult to define in a way that encompasses all its aspects. It may evoke the merest smile or explosive laughter; it can be conveyed by words, images or actions and through photos, films, skits or plays; and it can take a wide range of forms, from innocent jokes to biting sarcasm and from physical gags and slapstick to a cerebral double entendre.
"Even so, progress has been made. And some of the research has come out of the lab to investigate humor in its natural habitat: everyday life." - Giovanni Sabato
Article: What’s So Funny? The Science of Why We Laugh
One-liners
Article: After fish developed limbs, some might have returned to swimming.
Article: When coal was new, Americans hated it.
Article: Design lessons from guitar pedals
Playlist
I had never heard of Von Wegen Lisbeth, but apparently my friends in Berlin are all over them. I see why. This music is soft, swinging and very groovy. It's perfect music for a sultry summer day.
"There are many, many English-speaking artists who have come through the famous Hansa Recording Studios in Berlin. It first gained worldwide fame in the '70s when David Bowie recorded his song "Heroes" there. Even though the city, and the building itself, have changed a lot since then, Hansa still welcomes bands. For our Sense of Place: Berlin series, we recorded a handful of English-speaking, Berlin-based artists there — but today, it's a live session recorded at Hansa from a band who sings in German. They're called Von Wegen Lisbeth and while you've maybe never heard of them here in America, in the German language indie rock world, they're a pretty big deal — they're on a major label, award-winning, have millions of Spotify streams, 85,000 Instagram followers. So we're honored to give you a live sneak peek of a song in this session that won't officially be released until September, and because they drop a pretty surprising piece of information — given their fame and success — later on in our interview." - Raina Douris
Radio Article (4 songs): Berlin Indie-Pop Band Von Wegen Lisbeth Shares New Music on 'World Cafe'
Image of the Week
Bruarfoss Waterfall, Iceland
Article: Majestic Topographic Photos Frame the Rugged Textures and Serene Colors of Earth’s Landscapes
What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
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