Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
In 1954 right after public hearings humiliated senator Joseph McCarthy, the Senate voted to condemn or censure him. And yet a Gallup poll revealed that 34 percent of voters still approved of him. Life is uncomfortable. The role of a creative is to embrace this discomfort and make something new, anyway.
Happy full moon. Happy Friday.
History
In Oklahoma in the early 20th century it wasn’t easy to be a small-town Cherokee boy who was not only ambitious but also gay.
A snapshot of Lynn Riggs from a collection of letters between the playwright and his partner Enrique Gasque (also known as Ramón Naya), circa 1937 to 1939 Yale University Library
(The story of Oklahoma is) "set at a time when the land these fictional Oklahomans lived on was known widely as Indian Territory—a 31,000-square-mile area where the federal government had been sending the Native groups it uprooted from their homelands in the north and east since the early 1800s. The 1900 U.S. census reported that more than 97 percent of people living in the territory belonged to one of four native groups: the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Creek and the Cherokee. (Playwright Lynn) Riggs was a member of the Cherokee Nation, and Claremore—where both the play and the musical took place—was the town where he’d been born." - Jennie Rothenberg Gritz
Article: Behind ‘Oklahoma!’ Lies the Remarkable Story of a Gay Cherokee Playwright
How We Live
Feeling safe and secure - not being left out of society - has enormous societal benefits.
Image by Ilkka Jukarainen via CC
Late last month the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its annual World Happiness Report, which rates well-being in countries around the world. For the sixth year in a row Finland was ranked at the very top.
But the New York Times reports that Finns themselves say the ranking points to a more complex reality.
Penelope Colston writes: "It turns out even the happiest people in the world aren’t that happy. But they are something more like content.
"Finns derive satisfaction from leading sustainable lives and perceive financial success as being able to identify and meet basic needs, Arto O. Salonen, a professor at the University of Eastern Finland who has researched well-being in Finnish society, explained. 'In other words,' he wrote in an email, 'when you know what is enough, you are happy.'"
Put simply, Finns report feelings of guilt, anxiety and loneliness, and they are concerned about the dominance of global capitalism, possible gains by a far-right party, the war in Ukraine and their relationship with Russia. But the fact that everyone's basic needs are met "makes people feel safe and secure, to not be left out of society.”
Article: The Finnish Secret to Happiness? Knowing When You Have Enough.
Related Article: Why Finland is the Happiest Country in the World – an Expert Explains
How We Live
Poverty persists in America because many of us benefit from it.
Image by Joe Green via CC
"The hard part isn’t designing effective antipoverty policies or figuring out how to pay for them. The hard part is ending our addiction to poverty.
"Poverty persists in America because many of us benefit from it. We enjoy cheap goods and services and plump returns on our investments, even as they often require a kind of human sacrifice in the form of worker maltreatment. We defend lavish tax breaks that accrue to wealthy Americans, starving antipoverty initiatives. And we build and defend exclusive communities, shutting out the poor and forcing them to live in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage.
"Most Americans — liberals and conservatives alike — now believe people are poor because 'they have faced more obstacles in life,' not because of a moral failing. Long overdue, however, is a reckoning with the fact that many of us help to create and uphold those obstacles through the collective moral failing of enriching ourselves by impoverishing others. Poverty isn’t just a failure of public policy. It’s a failure of public virtue." - Matthew Desmond
Article: America Is in a Disgraced Class of Its Own
Communication
"Little" words that enable people to move beyond their own perspective to imagine how someone else would think or feel.
My friend and longtime client, Sally Mixsell, shared this article with me this week. It is profound in its simplicity. Key takeaways:
- "The capacity to shift away from one's own perspective is embedded in the structure of natural language and flexibly deployed at an early age. Children are not fundamentally egocentric.
- "Everyday pronoun shifts convey implicit messages with the potential to foster virtuous character traits.
- "The experiences that are common across individuals are judged to be the most meaningful and resonant. Highlighting commonalities is especially effective in teaching children rules and norms." - Susan Gelman
Article: How Saying “Me” or “We” Changes Your Psychological Response — and the Response of Other People
Personal Development
"Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself." Montaigne on how to live a good life.
“There is no knowledge so hard to acquire as the knowledge of how to live this life well and naturally.” — Michel de Montaigne
"Montaigne said the key to a good life was self-knowledge and accepting our limitations.
"He encouraged people to examine their thoughts, feelings, and motivations and be honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses.
“'Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself,' he said. 'The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself,' he observed." - Thomas Oppong
Article: A Good Life, In a Nutshell — Lessons From Montaigne
Amazing Person
"The freedom of any people can be judged by the volume of their laughter."
Until the Arab spring of 2011, Bassem Youssef was a heart surgeon. In January of that year he was assisting the wounded in Tahrir Square. In March, motivated by what he saw Jon Stewart doing in the U.S., he shot a show of political comedy in his laundry room. He launched it on his own YouTube channel in May of that year, gaining 5 million views in less than three months. Working with a small team he used social media to both showcase his natural talent, and to give voice to the millions of Egyptians who were angry at traditional media's coverage of the Egyptian Revolution.
In September of that same year Egypt's ONTV offered him his own prime-time, mainstream show, the first Internet to TV conversion in the Middle East. At its peak that show had between 30m and 40m viewers each week, more than a third of Egypt's entire population.
And that was more than 10 years ago. Since then he has been arrested by the Mohammed Morsi government, emigrated to the U.S., been named one of the "100 most influential people in the world" by Time magazine and one of Foreign Policy magazine's "100 Leading Global Thinkers". He's even hosted the Emmy Awards. And he's still working his comedy. Last month he played to a packed room at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Video: Bassem Youssef. This is a terrific summary of his career in just three and a half minutes.
Video: The Daily Show - An Egyptian Satirist in America - Bassem Youssef This is a brilliant critique of America's role in the Middle East. Jon Stewart, we miss you.
Wiki Page: Bassem Youssef
Social Messaging
Research shows that companies that succeed in uncertain times are those who are attuned to what matters to stakeholders.
"The Hellman’s Make Taste, Not Waste campaign aims to decrease food waste by showing people how mayo can turn leftover food into tasty flavor adventure. It’s a move that exemplifies how a brand can help consumers be more sustainable, well beyond the point of purchase."
"You might be thinking now is not the time to take on the lofty goals that come with organizational purpose and the integration of environmental and social strategies into your business, let alone all the change it would bring with it.
"Those very initiatives and your own purpose-driven leadership have the potential to solve your most pressing business challenges. And research shows consumers not only expect this from you, they’ve never been more eager to prove it: 96 percent of consumers say buying from purpose-led brands is important despite soaring inflation rates and a looming recession — and 50 percent are willing to pay more for these products." - Charles Taylor
Article: 5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Brand with Purpose
One-liners
Article: Immigration Affects Crime Perception, Not Crime Rates
Article: Museums Are Improving Life for People With Dementia
Article: The Culture Wars Are Energizing Feminist Bookstores
Article: Immigrants Generate an Outsize Share of Patents
Playlist
Video: Rising Appalachia - Silver (LIVE from Preservation Hall)
Rising Appalachia is led by two sisters, Leah and Chloe Smith. Deeply rooted in the spirit of the south, their music is woven with bright threads of multiculturalism and activism.
"Rising Appalachia’s soulful folk-roots sound traces back to parents who prioritized culture and diversity, and to the grassroots music communities that dot the hills and valleys of the Deep South. Countless weekends spent at fiddle camps like the Swannanoa Gathering, immersed in what they affectionately call 'Appalachian trance music.' Through thunderstorms and hot summer nights, firefly-chasing and bullfrog belting, they developed an affinity for the forests, groves and hidden treasures of rural Appalachia.
“'Our mom and dad are folk fiddlers,' Leah elaborates. 'Both have been playing in old-time jam circles since we were babies. There was music in our house five days a week. On weekends, fiddle camps and contra dances. Mom is a jazz pianist, too, even starting a gospel/Appalachian/jazz singing group with a dozen women who rehearsed at our home. In many ways, Rising Appalachia was predestined, an extension of the family tradition.'"
"...Those disparate scenes first seeded Rising Appalachia’s unicorn sound. Before long, the women welcomed the voluminous talents of multi-instrumentalist David Brown and world percussionist Biko Casini. Each player wields an appropriately eclectic skillset, proven essential to the group's sonic gumbo for more than a decade. Later, they added virtuosic fiddler/cellist Duncan Wickel, a prodigy from the same Appalachian summer camps of their youth." - B. Getz
Weekly Mixtape
This one is inspired by the soft groove that Rising Appalachia channels so well.
Mixtape: Into the Mystic, Easy Now #5
Image of the Week
Kelmscott Manor is near Oxford, UK. It was the home of William Morris, founder of The Arts and Crafts Movement in England. This image of one the manor's attics was shot in 1896 by Frederick H. Evans.
"Frederick Evans is best known for his exquisite photographs of English cathedrals but his first experiments with the camera around 1883 were photomicrographs and landscapes. The British bookseller won an award for his microscopic studies of shells in 1887 and earned soaring praise from critics when he exhibited his cathedral series in 1890. The details of his architectural studies were softened by ethereal light, an effect accentuated by his use of Cristoid film and masterful platinum printing.
"He was an advocate of 'pure' photography, printing his negatives without manipulation. At the opening of his exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society in 1900, he explained that 'Our cathedrals are rich enough in broad and subtle effects of light and shade, atmosphere, grandeur of line and mass, to be content with pure photography at its best; nothing need be added from the artist's inner consciousness to make it more impressive or beautiful.'"
Google Arts & Culture Page: Kelmscott Manor: Attics
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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