An unfortunate truth about law school is that it can be a real downer.
It’s expensive, demanding, and remarkably difficult. As a second year law student, I have spent the past two years watching most of my friends go through profound personal changes, often observing people I love spiral into cynical patterns of thought. I think those of us in human rights law have a particular tendency to fall into such cycles, and I’ll admit I have gone through phases of severe negative emotions myself.
As a bleeding heart and eternal optimist, I’d like to offer some advice to those going through a similar experience. This post is blunt and riddled with smidges of sarcasm, but it is also a true capturing of my experiences, and comes from someone who has found sincere happiness and fulfillment on the legal path (yes, there are a few of us!).
It might be rough out there, but don’t let it wreck you.
(image courtesy Shutterstock)
1. Stay in denial
Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I do think it’s important to remember the benefits of delusion. You can sit around all day thinking about the debt you’ll be in, the hard work your career in human rights law will entail, and the fact that you’ll likely feel overwhelmed and underappreciated for significant portions of your working life.
And why wouldn’t you? All of those points are true, right?
Yes, mostly they are. But there are other truths on the subject worth exploring as well.
Although learning to be rational and realistic is an important aspect of your legal career, sometimes the solution to stressful thoughts is simply not to dwell on them. Debt is scary, and examining world problems will inherently be an overwhelming experience. However, as a human rights advocate, it will be important to always remember the rewarding nature of your work and the satisfaction that comes with feeling good about what you do.
So don’t dwell on the negative. Focus on the positive realities of the field and ignore the rest as best you can.
2. Surround yourself with equally delusional people
The problem with law school is that it’s filled with lawyers—folks who spend their days reading and re-reading heart-wrenching cases as their debt radically accumulates (debt they’re incurring so they can afford to be hazed, broken, and scoffed at).
But here’s the good news. Law school is also filled with intelligent, passionate, and optimistic people. Sometimes they’re just hidden in the background of the day-to-day drudgery.
Law school gives you the profound privilege of connecting with bright, persevering individuals. Focus on those people—they’re the ones who will further your happiness and support you in your career goals, not serve as a daily reminder of the pitfalls of your future vocation.
It takes courage and skill to be happy during difficult phases of life. Don’t give up, and surround yourself with others who haven’t either.
3. Intern or volunteer at a human rights organization
Internships are an essential component of a legal education, and it can be terribly tempting to accept a position from the biggest law firm or most renowned judge who offers. Although people told me I was crazy and stupid for throwing away such opportunities, I knew that in order to make an educated professional decision, I had to experience human rights law as a student.
It’s a difficult fork in the road to encounter, and this choice is not for everyone. But I wouldn’t trade my internship experience for anything because it opened my eyes to the incredible things I could actually do with my degree. Furthermore, because it’s such a complicated division of the law, I now have experience in international law, United Nations protocol, immigration law, federal courts, business law, tax law, constitutional law, government law, legislation, policy work, political analysis, and many other fields that intertwine with the subject of human rights. I have met role models, made connections, and gained perspective on what I can do within the boundaries of my profession.
Currently, I work in a civil and human rights lobbying firm in Washington, DC, and I can’t imagine a better experience. Every day I am surrounded by optimistic people who radiate joy, passion, and hope. We have hard days, but our good days are so profoundly fulfilling, it makes it all worth it.
4. Remember what a treasure your education is
You might have heard the phrase “the world doesn’t need more lawyers,” but the truth is that the world does need more human rights advocates in all professional fields. Education creates many chances for personal improvement, but for me, it also opened doors to helping others.
My education is my most valued possession. It has been emotionally draining, financially difficult, and overall I expect it to be one of the most difficult things I will ever go through in my life. However, it has also equipped me with an unusual skill set and understanding, and has been the most important investment of my life.
Some days, I feel cynical, small, and overwhelmed. I want to declare my work a losing battle, throw my hands up, and walk away. However, that’s when I take a moment to step back and remember how lucky I am to have such an incredible opportunity. I have the chance to educate myself, understand the world, and use my talents to help others.
Who could have all that and stay cynical?
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Victoria Slatton is a second year law student at Pepperdine University and a passionate advocate for human and civil rights. She believes in justice, equality, and the true value of mischievous behavior.
On Tuesday, March 11, Idealist will launch a new network to help practical dreamers all over the world connect and take action on the issues that concern them. Preparing for the debut of this imaginative new effort has gotten us exploring the many facets of dreams: what are their purposes, their powers, their opposites?
Welcome to Dreams Week on Idealists in Action.
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Philadelphia speaks in murals. The city is home to close to 4,000 painted public-facing walls, many of which illustrate people, ideas, and events of import in local history. Venerated West Philly community organizer Herman Wrice has at least two dedicated to him.
But no one is immune from the whims of the real estate market, even the most trailblazing grassroots leaders. Last year, one of Wrice’s wall-side tributes was obscured by a new building; last month, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program organized community members to repaint its likeness a short distance away.
The Herman Write mural near N 34th Street and Spring Garden Street gets fenced in.
(image via hiddencityphila.org)
Read this great NewsWorks post for more on Wrice’s impact and legacy, and find out whether one-size-fits-all latex painting gloves live up to their name.
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Who do you dream of immortalizing with a mural in your neighborhood?
On Tuesday, March 11, Idealist will launch a new network to help practical dreamers all over the world connect and take action on the issues that concern them. Preparing for the debut of this imaginative new effort has gotten us exploring the many facets of dreams: what are their purposes, their powers, their opposites?
Welcome to Dreams Week on Idealists in Action.
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We’ve written a couple of times lately about wants superseding needs in a social good context: Sonia Manchanda’s DREAM:IN project asks people from Bangalore to Brazil about their hopes and dreams instead of what they think their community needs, and Anne Koller’s TAPIN art collective asserts that the best social good efforts come from a place of personal passion, not a feeling of obligation.
To be sure, helping people to meet their basic needs will always be a noble goal, but are there times when prioritizing their desires over the bare essentials might be the greater service (ie: buying a homeless girl a doll instead of a toothbrush)? Or, in the grand mix-up of the human condition, are wants and needs really so separate? And if they are different, how do we define them? Is food a need, but love a want?
Turns out this topic is on a lot of people’s minds right now. Here’s a smattering of current conversation:
The University of Kansas publishes an online Community Tool Box of resources for people who want to up their social good game. In a section for community leaders, called “Understanding People’s Needs”, it takes a decidedly different tack than Machiavellian leadership texts of the past: “What do people want from a leader? What do they need, or what do they think they need? … While this section is properly titled ‘Understanding People’s Needs,’ it’s important to realize that a good leader will understand what people just really want, too.”
By contrast, this thoughtful post by Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History director and blogger Nina Simon suggests we “stop talking about what people want and need as if they are different.”
She goes on to explain that while we might, for example, know what a dog needs (ie: two cups of food per day), museum visitors “are human beings. They are complex. I’ve spent a lot of time reading and engaging in visitor research, and I don’t feel like I have a grasp on what visitors need separate from what they want.”
“Does a mom want a program that includes her kids, or does she need it? Does an artist want an exhibition that stimulates his work in new ways, or does he need it? … I don’t know if someone needs grounding in core content or exposure to new practices. I don’t know if they need to be empowered or provoked. I do know a bit about what they respond to, what they ignore… But what do they need? I assume they are just as changeable and complex as any person in that regard.”
Even public services peeps are getting in on the action: the London-based, awesomely-named Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce published a report titled, “What do people want, need and expect from public services?” draws on survey data from a variety of sources to “identify key themes in public attitudes to services.”
Their findings include interesting need/want tidbits like this: “A number of factors that drive satisfaction with customer service across public services can be identified: delivery, timeliness, information provision… However, the importance of different factors can also vary for different types of service; in health, for example, being treated with dignity and respect is seen as especially important by the public.”
Threads of the desire vs. necessity conversation are also visible in trends like human-centered design and flat organizational structures. Next thing you know, The Godfather will be asking his associates what they’ve always dreamed of doing.
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What do you think? Is dream-forward thinking a passing fad, or are we on the brink of a priority renaissance?
On Tuesday, March 11, Idealist will launch a new network to help practical dreamers all over the world connect and take action on the issues that concern them. Preparing for the debut of this imaginative new effort has gotten us exploring the many facets of dreams: what are their purposes, their powers, their opposites?
Welcome to Dreams Week on Idealists in Action.
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Viva and Michael, the stars of #PopScope
(photo credit: CG)
The night sky is one of those amazing human universals: it’s probably safe to say that everyone, everywhere, has at some point looked up at it and said, “Whoa.”
At least, Michael and Viva have. These two “civil servants by day, community enthusiasts by night,” are the creators of #PopScope, a new series of public astronomy nights in Ottawa, Ontario designed to reconnect people to the night sky—and to each other.
Michael was always something of an astronomy nerd. Growing up in Chicago, he had a telescope but couldn’t see much more than the moon because of the light pollution in the city. Viva grew up in India and though she loved stargazing, she never really thought she’d get the chance to look at the heavens through something like a telescope.
When the two became friends later in life and realized they both loved looking at stars, they decided to do something about it.
“We pooled our government paychecks, found a cheap telescope online, and set it up on the street,” Michael says.
What happened next was pretty amazing.
“We had a bunch of random people stop and ask us questions. There was this one guy on the street who just stopped and started telling us all about the moons of Jupiter. We figured with all this interest, maybe there’s some sort of pent-up desire in Ottawa for people to have the chance to talk about astronomy,” Michael says.
#PopScope will give people the chance to do just that. By setting up telescopes in three major areas around the city—downtown, a low-income neighborhood, and a nature preserve with darker skies—starting on this year’s Earth Hour, they’re hoping to share the wonders of the night sky with anyone who wants to drop by.
“We want to make this really accessible to everyone. The idea is to cater to people who are curious about the night sky, but maybe don’t have the means to have a telescope of their own,” Viva says.
Although telescopes tend to be on the pricey side, Viva and Michael’s dream has been made possible by the Awesome Foundation, which gives $1,000 microgrants to (awesome) community projects like #PopScope.
#PopScope isn’t the dynamic duo’s first community-building project. Last year, Viva and Michael set up a pop-up library called #BookStop to activate public spaces and encourage people to read.
“Both projects are trying to get people to have those conversations that we usually don’t have. Book Stop was with books, and #PopScope is through the night sky,” Viva explains.
And with all of its sparkling, twinkling splendor, the night sky is a pretty good conversation starter.
“The stars really touch many aspects of human culture—religion, geography, travel,” says Michael.
“But as the majority of the world becomes urbanized, we’re losing the night sky to light pollution,” he explains. “It’s too bad, because I think it’s so relaxing and calming to look at the sky and realize that all your problems are not very big compared to the size of the universe, to a star that’s hundreds of light years away.”
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How do you dream about sparking conversation in your community?
On Tuesday, March 11, Idealist will launch a new network to help practical dreamers all over the world connect and take action on the issues that concern them. Preparing for the debut of this imaginative new effort has gotten us exploring the many facets of dreams: what are their purposes, their powers, their opposites?
Welcome to Dreams Week on Idealists in Action.
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“Why is it that we seem to come up with solutions to problems or think in a less inhibited way shortly after emerging from sleep?” asks this recent Fast Company article by Jane Porter.
These habits will help you catch those good ideas before they float away.
(image courtesy Shutterstock)
Read the post to learn about the creative benefits of sleep and some time-tested ways to harness the power of your slumber state after you wake up. It might make you doubt that setting your alarm clock for 30 minutes earlier each morning is the worst possible thing you could do.
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Have you experimented with first-thing-in-the-morning creative or problem-solving efforts? Tell us about them.
On Tuesday, March 11, Idealist will launch a new network to help practical dreamers all over the world connect and take action on the issues that concern them. Preparing for the debut of this imaginative new effort has gotten us exploring the many facets of dreams: what are their purposes, their powers, their opposites?
Welcome to Dreams Week on Idealists in Action.
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Erica Thomson reads to strangers in the park as part of Dreamland.
(image courtesy Dreamland)
What would you think if you were walking through a park and happened upon a bed, a rocking chair, a lamp, and someone reading stories? Would you think you were dreaming? Would you think your dreams had come true?
Welcome to Dreamland.
Dreamland, a new social art exhibition created by Erica Thomas and Amy Conway, seeks to blur the lines between public and private spaces. By constructing intimate, comfortable, story-time scenes using bedroom furniture in the middle of public spaces, Dreamland creates wonder and sparks conversations between strangers.
“We’re both really interested in the connection between public and private, intimate and not. How do those things cross and how do you break down those barriers?” says Amy.
Dreamland’s exhibitions aren’t limited to the physical objects in the scene; the artists also sit in the rocking chair and read stories to passersby, making the whole thing reminiscent of a child’s bedtime.
“Everyone has some sort of connection with being read to—or wanting to be read to—so there’s something there that people instantly connect with. Form there, it’s up to them if they want to participate,” Amy says.
So far Dreamland has set up shop in one location in Mt. Tabor Park in Portland, Oregon. The reactions have been diverse: some people are totally into it and doze off in the bed. Some people giggle and take pictures. Others curiously watch from a distance.
“You’re going up to Mt. Tabor and you never expect to see a bed set up there. That’s a little bit of it, that interruption of the day, a magical experience when you don’t expect it,” says Amy.
“The whole project—from carrying it up, setting up, and starting to read—created instant interactions with people who were curious about what we were doing,” she says.
Amy and Erica (whose artist collective shares a name with this project) are both full-time artists in Portland. Amy is also a writer, mother of two, and regular volunteer at P:ear, a nonprofit that provides creative mentorship to homeless youth. Erica is finishing her MFA in art and social practice at Portland State University and writes for Bitch Media.
Together, they hope to expand the scope and reach of Dreamland to include other types of civil spaces—libraries, bus stations, and (in their dreams) the DMV.
The big challenge with this kind of project in public spaces is, of course, logistics and permissions. But Amy and Erica have found the local government to be very cooperative so far.
“If you ask the right person, in the right way, they’ll want to help and they’ll be interested. People generally like to have people come and ask them a strange request. Even though it’s kind of a nut-and-bolt conversation, it is kind of fun to be asked for a strange thing,” says Erica.
“The basic premise is kind of like a hug, you know?” Amy says.
“People want a hug. And people want to lie in a bed in a public place and listen to a cool story.”
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What’s your dream way to create wonder in your community?
On Idealists in Action, we love to tackle your biggest obstacles to doing good. One we hear a lot is, “I don’t have the skills or knowledge to start something.” This week, we’re taking that behemoth down.
Another way you can defeat the obstacles in your path is by joining the Idealist Network—a new online and on-the-ground platform we’re designing to help people everywhere connect and take action on any issue that concerns them, locally or globally. Sign up to attend our online launch on March 11 and see what it’s all about.
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Sometimes you need to bring in the professionals.
(image via IMDB)
Here at Idealist, we’ve written many times about harnessing the power of community to get things done. We can do more together, and tapping into the skills and knowledge of other people is a big part of why.
While finding collaborators with mad skills can be relatively easy if you’re already integrated into a niche community or have buckets of money, it’s harder when geography, time constraints, or lack of funding eat into your ability to find that special someone you just know is out there.
Fortunately, there are a lot of resources online that can connect you with talented people whether you’re looking for pro bono consultants, mentors, board members, volunteers, or creative partners.
We have to say, Idealist is a good place to start. By searching the profiles of other Idealists like you, you can find and connect with like-minded do-gooders in your area (and around the world).
Here are a few other options we think are especially handy-dandy:
This Google-powered resource connects you with “real help from real people in real time.”
The gist: Search for real-life people who can tutor you in a variety of practical (and very specific) subjects like building a website, cooking Indian food, or reading sheet music. You find a teacher you want to work with, agree to a time, and “meet” over video chat.
The pros: You can read reviews of the teachers before you sign up with them, and many of them are really legit and well-loved. The site is easy to use and great if you’re looking for one-on-one help from the privacy of your own home.
The cons: You need a Google account to use this site. Also, the teachers set prices for their sessions. Most are pretty reasonable (about $1/minute) which is often about the same as what you’d pay for a private lesson IRL, but depending on what you want to learn and how many instructional hours you need, it could get expensive.
This microvolunteering site connects nonprofits with professionals who want to donate their services.
The gist: Nonprofits register and create “challenges” (for example: create the best logo to help promote an upcoming fundraiser). Users can search by type of challenge and type of organization to find projects they’d like to help with.
The pros: If you post a challenge on the site, multiple users can “accept” it and post feedback. That means there are a lot of ideas flowing and a nice collaborative feel to everything. If you’re a volunteer on the site, there’s also a lot of choice involved. With over 15,000 challenges posted, there really is something for everyone.
The cons: The site is a little clunky to navigate and can be overwhelming at times. Nonprofits also have to pay a small fee to post challenges and there’s no guarantee that someone will “accept” your challenge (or that you’ll like what they post).
3. Catchafire
This matchmaking site’s mission is to “provide talented individuals with meaningful pro bono experiences in order to build capacity for social good organizations.”
The gist: Professionals search for projects they want to work on. When they find something they like, they apply for the position. Catchafire sets up an interview, and if it’s a good fit for both sides, they get to work. Projects are in areas like branding and marketing, communications and public relations, design, strategy, website, HR, technology, and finance.
The pros: This site is easy to use for both professionals and nonprofits. The application and interview process also ensure that there’s good chemistry in the working relationship. Catchafire is a great tool for longer-term projects—for example, a 60-hour fundraising project or a 20-hour infographic design project.
The cons: There is a small fee for organizations to post their projects on the site, but if the quality of work you’re getting in exchange is as good as the examples I saw, it’s totally worth it.
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What sites are missing from our list?
On Idealists in Action, we love to tackle your biggest obstacles to doing good. One we hear a lot is, “I don’t have the skills or knowledge to start something.” This week, we’re taking that behemoth down.
Another way you can defeat the obstacles in your path is by joining the Idealist Network—a new online and on-the-ground platform we’re designing to help people everywhere connect and take action on any issue that concerns them, locally or globally. Sign up to attend our online launch on March 11 and see what it’s all about.
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I’m kinda over the hero thing.
In contrast to their ancient origins in epic poetry and lofty myths, heroes and heroism today seem to have gotten wrapped up in our cultural view of altruism.
Although the meaning of “hero” is in that delicious group of highly subjective nouns that people love to debate, I tend to think it’s a bad idea to call those who engage in good and generous acts “heroes.”
Adorable child superheroes aside, when we conflate superhero stories with commonplace altruism, it implies that acts of goodness and giving are somehow extraordinary and outside the range of normal behavior.
In Elizabeth Svoboda’s new book What Makes a Hero? The Surprising Science of Selflessness, the author attempts to reveal whether or not this is true. Is it normal for humans to be generous? What would possess someone to rush into a burning building to save another person? Why would someone who lives in poverty donate money to a charity?
The book presents an interesting overview of scientific research related to the study of altruism. Moving from evolutionary biology’s conversations about why helping others is beneficial for us as a species, to the economics of helping, into psychology and neuroscience, Svoboda rounds up some truly fascinating findings.
Brain researchers like Jordan Grafman, for example, have traced altruism to surprising parts of our brains:
“While we often tend to think of altruism as a kind of sophisticated moral capacity we use to squelch our urges to dominate others,” Svoboda writes, “new evidence suggests that giving is actually inherently rewarding: The brain churns out a pleasurable response when we engage in it.”
Oxytocin-releasing acts like charitable giving and volunteering seem to translate to improvements in our overall health and well-being. A University of Michigan study found that older adults who reported helping others regularly were 60% less likely to die during the five years of the study than the non-helping control group, for example.
But Svoboda doesn’t just examine the theoretical study of selflessness. She also examines the practice of “heroism” today, speaking extensively with psychologist and Stanford professor emeritus Phil Zimbardo who designed the famed Stanford Prison Experiment. Today Zimbardo studies the practice of goodness and has helped to develop a “heroic education curriculum” to encourage young people to be “everyday heroes.”
By presenting examples of “heroes in training,” like students at the ARISE High School in Oakland which put Zimbardo’s curriculum into practice, Svoboda tries to identify how all of us can train ourselves to be heroes. Her findings are essentially that we need to: a) be aware of what makes a hero (the science behind it, understanding altruism), and b) try to put everyday heroism into practice.
Svoboda ends the book by asking, “What excuse do any of us have to hold back from fulfilling our heroic destiny?”
While this question is posed to inspire the reader’s imagination, it strikes me as a loaded sentiment. Why does heroism have to be a “destiny”—why can’t it just be who we are? Instead of focusing on extreme self-sacrifice, it might be more realistic to focus on small acts. Instead of trying to be heroes, let’s try to be humans.
What I think would be an interesting subject for Svoboda’s next book is the science of collaboration. Instead of examining what makes us heroic as individuals, I’m more curious about our combined efforts as groups (such as in Idealist’s new network!). How can we better foster teamwork between people, and what’s holding us back from doing this more of the time?
I say we ditch the capes and capers of conflating heroism with everyday goodness. But maybe that’s just me. What do you think?
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Do you like to spread good ideas? Do you like connecting dots and people? Join Idealist on March 11 as we launch a new global movement for action and change!
We recently learned of a Canadian holiday called Family Day, celebrated in many provinces on the third Monday in February. We second the notion that recognizing the importance of family is, well, important, and are pleased to pay homage this week to clans large and small, given and chosen, with Family Week on Idealists in Action.
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Don’t be shy.
From Kurt Olson: computer programmer, cub scout leader, skier, maple syrup artisan, fisherman, amateur evolutionary anthropologist, gumbo aficionado, and (what he’s talking about here) folk musician. Also, dad of Idealist Communications Intern Rebecca Olson.
Kurt and Becky
I started learning to play the accordion when I was 40 years old. I often think about how much better I would have been if I had started earlier. My advice to people who want to start any kind of passion project is to start today! (Although no matter when you start, it’s never too late.)
Another piece of advice is don’t be shy. If you’re lucky enough to meet someone who shares a common interest with you, you should make the effort to get to know them. Someone might say, ‘Hey, you should stop by sometime.’ You should always follow up with them.
I’ve also learned that music really is all about people: making friends jamming, playing, teaching, learning, forming a “band.” It’s all about the community you create when you play and share your music.
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Find strength in empathy.
From Mary Ellen Mooney Hurley: vegetable goddess, empathizer extraordinaire, looks good in a hat, and possibly mother to the world—but definitely mother of Idealist Software Engineer Derek Hurley.
Mary Ellen
Derek
I grew up in an upper middle class family that never had to worry about making the choice between eating and paying bills, and I married into a similar lifestyle. But when that ended abruptly, I found myself wondering how I would meet all my financial obligations and still be able to feed myself healthy, nutritious food.
I went back to college to obtain my BS in rural sustainable sociology to better understand the obstacles those in need face daily. When I moved to the island of Kauai to finish my studies, I got involved with a local garden that supplies the main food pantry with produce. I have since taken over the operation, helping to feed over 300 families weekly, for free, with nutritious green vegetables.
My advice is to get out and get involved in local support groups dealing with the underprivileged. See what they face daily and look inside yourself—you’ll find the passion it takes to give unconditionally to others.
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Stay open to possibilities.
From S. Amelia O’Leary: registered nurse, crocheter of comforts, total hottie, and mom of Idealist Community Affairs Manager Megan O’Leary.
S. Amelia and Megan
My passion project began when I learned to crochet at 20 years old. 30 years later, as a labor and delivery nurse, I was shocked to learn that there was little or no support for families that came into the hospital expecting to deliver healthy babies, but instead experienced neonatal loss.
I wondered what could I do to help in these times, and began crocheting baby blankets that parents could use as keepsakes to remember their lost child. I never knew that what started as a hobby would become a part of my career and provide me with a deeply moving way to connect with others.
My advice for those considering starting a personal project is to keep your eyes and hearts open to the possibilities of where and how your passion could be of service to others.
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Focus on the goal.
From Steve Davidson: former aeronautical engineer, psychologist, and investment consultant; current Ironman, productivity guru, world traveler, and hot tub enthusiast. Also, dad of Idealist Community Manager Kim Davidson.
Steve’s Ironman tat!
Kim and Steve
One man’s opinion: You only do a hobby if you enjoy it. You do a passion whether you enjoy it or not.
For me, this has not just been about becoming sufficiently fit to complete an Ironman. I found that all the training and preparation has enhanced my overall well-being. How I feel. How I relate to others. How I accomplish other tasks. My outlook. Everything.
One of the big challenges of triathlon is one that’s true of life in general: you never know what you are going to get on a given day: in this case, it might be wind, rain, heat, etc. But with preparing for the Ironman as with any other big project, I can offer this advice: begin with the end in mind. Have a clear, compelling goal.
Want to ask your passion-project-having parents for their advice and share it with us in the comments? We know you do!
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Do you like to spread good ideas? Do you like connecting dots and people? Join Idealist on March 11 as we launch a new global movement for action and change!
We recently learned of a Canadian holiday called Family Day, celebrated in many provinces on the third Monday in February. We second the notion that recognizing the importance of family is, well, important, and are pleased to pay homage this week to clans large and small, given and chosen, with Family Week on Idealists in Action.
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My mom is an ever-loving maverick.
Septuagenarian bicyclist, landlord of historic homes, singer in the choirs of churches she’s not a member of… The lady has always rocked life with gusto and generosity, and very much to her own beat.
Me and Mom in Colorado in 2013
This could not be better illustrated than by the over 20 years of letters she’s faithfully written to me and my older brother.
The story goes like this:
My bro went away to college in 1992, and our mom started writing him a letter each week to keep in touch. A single-spaced, front-and-back letter, type-written on a typewriter. (To preempt the question that often comes next: yes the typewriter is electric, but Mom has actually never liked it and would prefer to go back to the even older days of manual!) When I moved cities to start college six years later, she began copying me on the weekly letter—yes, with carbon paper—and mailing a copy to each of us.
A sampling of letters from throughout the years (all begun with “Hi Miss”—my mom’s salutation for me)
Sometimes the letters are embellished by hand-written notes in the margins, the odd enclosure (newspaper clippings of interest; a piece of fruit leather), or stickers and doodles on the back of the envelope.
The content of the missives, too, is always up for grabs. A weekly edition is never without whatever family news Mom has recently generated or become privy to, but additional discussion topics range from current events to timeless philosophical quandaries to the insight her book club buddy had at last week’s meetup.
I couldn’t commit to combing all 780 letters I have squirreled away in various files and folders in time to write this post, but even a random sampling through the troves turned up gems like this:
RE: The water restrictions placed on Colorado residents during times of drought: “Can only water lawns twice a week now for three hours each. HELP!!! How will this place look without that green carpet? The grass helps hold in moisture for the trees, too, don’t forget. I say: flush your toilets less! Shower less before sacrificing our lawns!” —August 19, 2002
RE: My brother, just before his marriage: “You are a powerful person and have the ability to do wonderful things for your new family. I’m thrilled that you have taken on this responsibility. Though I do have to say that the two of you seem awfully serious to me; Dad and I were far more playful. But your situation is sooooo different, as are the times. I just hope you’ll play together, too. Play is so important.” —May 9, 2004
RE: This and that? “Bonjour! Ah, that word brings back 8th grade memories and a wonderful French teacher. I still remember several French words which come in handy for crossword puzzles. Say, what would you think of a seven-foot guy who makes his living dealing with bail bondsmen, insurance frauders, vehicle stealers and more—living in our backyard cottage? Pretty colorful, you’d say? Even exciting?? He doesn’t like people to know where he lives (of course), and think of the added security we’d feel with him here!” —January 19, 2014
People often have a hard time beliving me when I tell them about my mom’s letters. As a younger person, her practice didn’t seem out of the ordinary, but of course as I’ve gotten older, the unusual factors that combined to birth and maintain such a habit have risen to my consciousness: my mom’s great dislike of the telephone and (subsequently) the Internet; her unbending commitment to staying in touch with her far-flung kids—without breathing down our necks; and her drive to write 1,000 words a week—meaningfully and entertainingly—while claiming to be a terrible writer.
Mom’s letters have kept a quiet but enduring lifeline between us, undisturbed by time or space. They’ve allowed me insights into her history and personality that I doubt would have been revealed during phone chats or over email. They’ve certainly given me something to look forward to in my mailbox each and every Thursday—a particularly happy thought during weeks when I’ve been fired, dumped, or sick. Whatever’s been happening, Semper Fi: the letter will always be there.
Of all the reasons to laud these weekly missives, the one I’ve had on my mind the most lately is how grateful they remind me to be of my singular mama. She’s about to be 71 and in kicking-good shape, so I hope to have a couple more decades of letters coming to me. But even if her last letter was the last ever, I’d be set for life with all she’s committed so far.
Mom, if I ever have kids, they’re getting a weekly letter, too. Hopefully snail mail will still be around.
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Which of your family’s traditions blows your mind? Share with us in the comments.
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We recently learned of a Canadian holiday called Family Day, which is celebrated in many provinces on the third Monday in February. We second the notion that recognizing the importance of family is, well, important, and are pleased to pay homage this week to clans large and small, given and chosen, with Family Week on Idealists in Action.
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You’d be hard pressed to find the parent who says, “I want to squash my kids’ dreams every way I can!”
Every dad and mom worth his or her salt wants their children to grow up creative, stimulated, and dreaming big, and they make every effort to encourage these traits. But at Idealist, we’re all about good things getting even better, so we asked child and family psychologist Aparna Sampat for her tips on encouraging kids to imagine without borders.
Here are three zingers we pulled from our interview, straight from the doc herself:
1) Ask, don’t tell.
When young kids are drawing or coloring, they usually start out with everyday sights: say a tree or a house. But if the tree is round or the house doesn’t have windows or doors, a common reaction from parents is, ‘Oh honey, that’s not how you draw a house/tree. Let me show you,’ and they proceed to draw it the ‘correct’ way. This can really stifle creativity; it makes kids think things have to look a certain way to be ‘right.’
So instead of correcting them, try asking questions. ‘Oh, you drew a tree? Tell me about it. Does it have leaves? No? Okay, cool, a tree without leaves. Would a bird like this tree?’
Provocation will make them imagine more, and having to explain their design will get them to think more about its form and function.
If you can’t quite tell what’s going on in Junior’s picture, try asking him to explain it.
(image courtesy Shutterstock)
2) Couches are for sitting?
I was in a family’s living room once and their two young boys were wreaking havoc on the couch—pretending it was a pirate ship and jumping on and off. The mom became irritated and concerned that they’d damage the furniture or the floor, so she admonished them: ‘Couches are not for jumping; couches are for sitting.’
While I sympathized with the mother’s concerns, I had to think: are these kid ever going to be able to see things outside the box? Where will they be able to exercise their imaginations? They’re at the age when we develop a sense that multiple perspectives exist and not everyone is thinking what we’re thinking—when a banana can become a phone, etc.
The problem for the mom in this case was not that her boys were being imaginative, but that they might be destructive—yet that wasn’t the problem she addressed when she disciplined them. She could have explained the actual issue and given them a choice between playing more gently on the couch or picking another place to play—without so narrowly defining what household objects are ‘for.’
There are lots of “right” ways to sit on couches.
(image courtesy Shutterstock)
3) Use your words.
On the street once, I saw a boy who clearly wanted to get a hold of his dad’s cell phone. The dad took a moment to retrieve it from his pocket, and the boy swatted his hand with impatience. In response, the dad swatted the kid’s hand back! The message he sent there was: when you’re frustrated, it’s okay to lash out instead of crafting a productive reply.
To encourage his son to build his powers of creative communication, the dad could have said, ‘Whoa! Are you frustrated? Did you want this phone sooner than I could give it to you? Tell me how you’re feeling.’ Even if the child just nods in reply, that exchange is a good way to demonstrate how clear, calm communication can help solve problems, but that it does take practice.
When we act out physically instead of taking the time to think about and articulate our problems, we blunt our creativity and put up a wall between ourselves and others. The self-expression that kids—and all of us—can cultivate through our words is usually a more useful tool than an open palm.
Sampat sums it all up by saying, “Kids’ minds start out boundless. They don’t impose limits, even unintentionally. So all we have to do is not shut them down.”
“Just think: what would my kids be creating right now if they didn’t think they could do wrong?”
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How do you encourage the kids in your life to be practical dreamers? Tell us in the comments.
Dr. Aparna Sampat is a licensed psychologist who works with children, adolescents, young adults, and families in New York City. She can be reached at asampatphd@gmail.com.
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We recently learned of a Canadian holiday called Family Day, which is celebrated in many provinces on the third Monday in February. We second the notion that recognizing the importance of family is, well, important, and are pleased to pay homage this week to clans large and small, given and chosen, with Family Week on Idealists in Action.
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Families are nothing but trouble.
I think this is the conclusion you’d have to come to if you were a visitor from Mars and wanted to cobble together an idea of what “family” means. If you took even the most cursory survey of the United States’ cultural output—from the the Kardashians and Hiltons in tabloids, to the good-but-depressing literature of Shirley Jackson and Jonathan Franzen, to TV talk show hosts from Donahue to Ricki Lake—it would be hard not to arrive at the notion that families are the root of all our problems, cause us nothing but consternation, and are often best escaped from.
With this static always in the air, I think I felt a bit like a visitor from Mars a few months ago, when I stumbled on a blog written by a guy who actually seems to enjoy his family life—and enough to write about it! With sincerity and humor! I pinched myself.
(image via The Art of Manliness)
I subsequently got lost in The Art of Manliness’s “Relationships & Family” section for a while, fascinated by posts like:
Seeing a guy so psyched about his family that he feels compelled to spend a lot of his time writing a good-quality blog about it gives me palpably more hope for our collective future.
Another feel-good read I tripped on was a short post by The Healthy and Fit Homeschool Mom, entitled “Breakfast for a Hardworking Man”:
(image via The Healthy & Fit Homeschool Mom)
When was the last time you read something as sweet as this?
The author elaborates a little more on her family’s simple but affectionate breakfast rituals, but the sentiment is well summed up in these three lines left by a commenter: “When I was a kid my dad left work at 5:00 am. My mom was up with him and made him a hot breakfast, just like she did us before school. It was such obvious sacrificial love.”
Are you trying to make me cry??
I’ll just share one more, which is a triumph of a bit different sort.
Jen Bauer blogs about life with her partner Kendra and their three children on Adventurous Moms. While it’s not all fun and games (there are definitely posts about life under DOMA, conception difficulties, and the legally-necessary act of adopting her own daughter), Jen’s chronicles are largely expressions of biophiliac enthusiasm about life with her family.
Take this recent snippet from the Outdoor Adventures tab:
(image via Adventurous Moms)
Here in New York City, we’ve been decrying this winter’s dumps of frozen detritus—but Jen and company are turning snowflakes into lemonade and choosing to tromp around all joyfully in it together. I, for one, could take a lesson.
Well, there you go. Three top-notch blogs to make even the most jaded and curmudgeonly among us remember that there can be a lot more to family than arguments, grudges, and annoying holiday travel.
There can also be radiant, irrepressible, joyous love.
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Tell us why your family’s not a bummer!
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At Idealist, the sporting world is not our usual beat. The Olympic Games, however, hit us where we live as an inspiring, international gathering of outstanding individuals and teams (not unlike our own new network!). So we’re taking this opportunity to pay homage to excellent athletes, winter beauty, fun games, and a host of other concepts we could tie (even tenuously) to Sochi. Welcome to Olympics Week on Idealists in Action.
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If you’re like me, you’ve been looking for most of your life for a combination charity food drive, beauty pageant, costumed shopping cart race, pub crawl, talent show, nonprofit fundraiser, and (most importantly?) chaos generator.
Luckily, the Chiditarod is here to answer our call.
Chiditarod competitors get down in 2013
(image via Chiditarod Facebook)
In the grand traditions of the original Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska—and the urban genre-founding San Francisco Urban Iditarod and New York City Idiotarod—Chicago (get it? Chi-ditarod?) started their own race in 2006 and has since become a strong presence on the now-nationwide annual urban Iditarod scene.
How do they stay so strong?
This year’s Chiditarod is on March 1. Ladies and gentlemen, start your carts.
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Chiditarod registration closes this Saturday, February 15. If you’re in the Chi-Town area and want to sign up, or if you just want to read more about the event’s history and gawk at some funny photos, hit up their website.
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At Idealist, the sporting world is not our usual beat. The Olympic Games, however, hit us where we live as an inspiring, international gathering of outstanding individuals and teams (not unlike our own new network!). So we’re taking this opportunity to pay homage to excellent athletes, winter beauty, fun games, and a host of other concepts we could tie (even tenuously) to Sochi. Welcome to Olympics Week on Idealists in Action.
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Stereotype: Jocks are boring.
Broken by: Hubertus von Hohenlohe, wacky Mexican ski rock star
Hubertus von Hohenlohe gets a gold metal in awesome.
A world-class photographer, pop star, and (incidentally) German prince, he’s also a six-time Olympian in men’s Alpine skiing, and the only athlete representing Mexico in the winter games. And he’s 55 years old.
“We (in Mexico) are 100 million people and the only chance we have (of winning a medal) is up to me, but we don’t have to look at it like that. You have to see it as I’m an ambassador of this country, an ambassador with style and a human force that goes beyond the result,” Hubertus says in this interview for CNNMexico.
To represent Mexico, Hubertus has opted to compete while wearing a special Spandex ski suit patterned after the traditional dress of Mariachi musicians.
By raising some eyebrows this time around, he’s hoping to raise the profile of Mexican athletes in future Olympic games.
What a “style ambassador” wears to compete in the Olympics.
Stereotype: You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.
Broken by: Jacki Munzel, 50-year-old speed skating powerhouse
Four years ago, Jacki Munzel was watching the Winter Olympics on TV with her daughter.
“We looked up at the TV and speed skating was on… She said, ‘You could try speed skating.’ And something inside of me, that fire from within, it grew and I was like, ‘Yeah, I could do that’,” Munzel said in this KSL interview.
Jacki had never speed skated before she made the decision to start training for the 2014 Olympics, though she wasn’t totally starting from scratch.
A professional power skating coach who trains NHL players, Munzel has been ice skating her whole life. In 1984, she even qualified to go to the Olympics for figure skating. But tragically, when a life-threatening eating disorder took her off the ice for those games, Munzel put her Olympic dreams to rest.
Then, thirty years later, after much training and re-training, Jacki ranked in the top ten for speed skating nationals and beat her personal best by 15 seconds in the U.S. Olympic trials.
Although her time wasn’t fast enough to get her to Sochi this year, her story proves that, well, there’s always 2018.
Jacki was a fierce competitor against speed skaters younger than her children.
Stereotype: Girls aren’t strong enough to ski jump.
Broken by: Lindsay Van, Jessica Jerome, and women athletes the world over
For the first time EVER, women will be allowed to compete in ski jumping at this year’s Winter Games.
This is partially a result of the efforts of two U.S. women skiers, Lindsay Van and Jessica Jerome, who spoke out about the injustice of being excluded again and again by suing the Vancouver organizing committee for gender-based discrimination in 2010.
“I didn’t do it to prove anything, but people needed to see that women in this sport are capable of jumping really far, and we’re capable of having our own event,” Van said for NBC Olympics.
The lawsuit raised enough attention that in April 2011, women’s ski jumping was approved as an official event for the Sochi Games.
We’ll be cheering for all of the women ski jumpers who compete this year as they soar through the air like magnificent Valkyries!
Lindsay Van flies the length of 1.5 football fields, NBD.
[image via Sparknotes]
What inspiring, kooky, or otherwise amazing athletes are you rooting for this winter?
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At Idealist, the sporting world is not our usual beat. The Olympic Games, however, hit us where we live as an inspiring, international gathering of outstanding individuals and teams (not unlike our own new network!). So we’re taking this opportunity to pay homage to excellent athletes, winter beauty, fun games, and a host of other concepts we could tie (even tenuously) to Sochi. Welcome to Olympics Week on Idealists in Action.
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When you think of the Olympics, you probably don’t think of international collaboration. In fact, many of the most famous moments from past Olympic Games are competitive struggles between two nations.
However, the Olympics would never be possible without an impressive effort by each country involved to set aside their differences and come together for two weeks every four years.
This year, the Winter Olympics are taking place in Sochi, Russia. Amidst the controversy surrounding the current games, it’s easy to forget that multiple Olympics have been boycotted for various reasons. In recent history, the United States and its allies boycotted the 1980 Olympics held by the Soviet Union, while the Soviet Union and its allies returned the favor when Los Angeles played host in 1984.
Adorable bear mascot or not, Jimmy Carter boycotted the 1980 summer games in Moscow due to poor U.S.-Soviet relations. (image vis Dmitri Melnik/Shutterstock)
In short, it takes a massive amount of compromise, understanding, and cooperation to host the Olympics, and we at Idealist would like to celebrate Russia for taking on the task. Yet we know this endeavor is just one collaboration taking place between our two former-enemy countries every day, and we thought we’d take this opportunity to highlight another excellent example that’s about to get underway.
The National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) is a combination museum, exhibition space, and research organization based in Moscow. It was established in 1992, around the same time the Russian Federation was created from the fall of the Soviet Union. Its mission is to aid the development of contemporary Russian art within a global context.
To do this, the NCCA often partners with arts organizations from other countries. On February 23rd, the last day of the Olympics, the NCCA will welcome the venerable experimental, collaborative new music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars to Moscow. These visitors from New York City will participate in a five-day residency with 11 Russian artists in a partnership they’re calling the Bang on a Can Institute. If you’re in the Moscow area around the end of this month, you can check out one of the group’s performances.
Experimental music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars will be welcomed to Moscow for a five-day residency immediately following the Olympics. [image via Stereogum]
By entering into this collaboration, all the musicians involved will learn something new and have an opportunity to expand their knowledge of their craft. Just think of the many other masterful musical collaborations that have taken place through the ages (particularly in the 1980’s)! Of course, regardless of what these musicians compose together, the cultural interchange will be worth the effort.
So when you’re watching the Olympics over the next two weeks, remember that the games aren’t just about getting a gold medal. They’re also about international unity, and about the hope that we can create a better world by interacting with and learning from people that come from different nations and cultures.
And, of course, they’re about curling.
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What are some of your favorite international collaborations?
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Following last Sunday’s punishing Super Bowl, we came across this interesting Mental Floss article that gave us pause. It begins:
After a Big Game in any sport, fans and players are going to be clamoring for commemorative merchandise, often just minutes after the game ends. To meet this demand and cash in on the wallet-loosening “We’re #1″ euphoria, manufacturers and retailers produce and stock two sets of t-shirts, hats and other merchandise, declaring each team the champ.
Huh! So that means the world is now in possession of a great grip of “Broncos: Super Bowl XLVIII Champs”-printed textiles, yeah? What on earth can be done with them?!
Apparently, until 1996, the suckers were just incinerated. What a waste! But since then, the nonprofit World Vision has been collecting and distributing the swag to less affluent people overseas.
This interesting infographic tells the tale:
![nfl infographic updated1 Where Does The Merchandise Go From Losing Super Bowl Teams? [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://www.bluesodapromo.com/wp_blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/nfl-infographic-updated1.jpg "Where Does the Merchandise Go From the Losing Super Bowl Teams")
Interesting infographic courtesy of Blue Soda Promo
What’s your take on all this? Tell us in the comments.
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At Idealist, we envision a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives, and we support everyone’s right to help others. So we were interested to learn about the Human Rights Foundation’s (HRF’s) recent effort to spread information to North Koreans living under censorship.
“These balloons are an information lifeline to ordinary North Koreans, who have no means to learn about the world beyond the lies of their government,” said HRF president Thor Halvorssen in a press release.
“The international community often focuses on how little we know about life inside North Korea—but the real story is that North Koreans know little to nothing about the world we live in,” he continued. “Most are unaware that there is an alternative to repressive tyranny. We are helping to change that.”
Information: up, up, and away!
(image courtesy HRF)
The creative campaign made use of 20 large weather balloons that distributed information from the outside world directly to North Koreans. On January 15, the balloons traveled over the border between South Korea and North Korea, and carried leaflets with information about democracy, along with transistor radios, USBs loaded with the entire Korean Wikipedia, and even DVDs of South Korean soap operas.
The Human Rights Foundation worked with a group called Fighters for a Free North Korea to pull the launch together. A previous attempt was made in June last year, but was canceled at the last minute for fear of retaliation. At the time of this writing, it was unknown how many of the materials actually found their way into the hands of North Koreans.
Read more about the Human Rights Foundation’s launch here.
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What other information-spreading efforts do you know about that have a dangerous side?
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This past January 20th, the Idealist video team traversed the neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon to visit some awesome service activities happening as part of the MLK Day of Service. The thousands of volunteers they encountered clearly did a lot of good for the organizations they were helping, but they also told us it wasn’t just about giving back—it was also a fun, easy, rewarding endorphin rush.
It’s always great to serve on MLK Day, but remember that orgs need help all year long. You can search for thousands of ways to give back in your community, while getting some ‘good’ yourself—just visit Idealist.org/act.
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How did you serve on MLK Day this year? Would you describe it as easy and fun?
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So what’s an all-male, gender-bending dance troupe from Mobile, Alabama to do?
WERK.
Prancing to glory!
(photo via MemphisRap.com)
Prancing Elites have worked super hard in the almost 10 years since their founding: bringing their life-affirming art to new audiences; helping people rethink stereotypes about men, the South, and Spandex; and bringing back J-Setting just in time for Beyoncé to make the “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” video.
Along the way, they’ve garnered a lot of Idealist-approved street cred. Highlights include:
Today, we celebrate Prancing Elites’ continuing dedication to their ideals, art, and individuality—whether the reception they face is happy or hostile. Go, guys!
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Has your self-expression ever caused a stir? Tell us about it in the comments.
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This week on Idealists in Action, we’re exploring the concept of Home.
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Seems like it should be easy enough to make a new friend in the comfort of our own city or town, right?
Many of us encounter hundreds of people over the course of our day, but how often do we actually say hello and make conversation? If you’re like me, probably not very often. Most people (myself included) can be shy about interacting with strangers, because we fear we might somehow be taken advantage of.
But do we really have reason to be so concerned?
“Hey, is that tea good?” Why not strike up a conversation with a stranger and see if you can make a new friend?
(photo courtesy Shutterstock)
In 2010, at the University of Cologne in Germany, researchers Detlef Fetchenhauer and David Dunning created an economic game that required people to accurately judge the trustworthiness of strangers in order to win. They found that participants considered 52% of strangers trustworthy, even though a whopping 80% of strangers were actually deserving of their trust.
The big takeaway for me here was that the chances of encountering a trustworthy person are much greater than the chances of meeting someone who wishes you harm. If you’re super-cynical or risk-averse, you might say you’d rather practice caution than encounter someone with ill intentions. That’s fine, but if you don’t take the risk, you’ll miss out on meeting the 80% of strangers who are awesome.
If that’s not enough reason to reach out, consider this: the same study also confirmed that the biggest root of our cynicism is a lack of experience with strangers. What does that mean? Well, we established that approximately 80% of people are trustworthy, but if your first few encounters with strangers involved the 20% of untrustworthy individuals, then you’ve probably become skeptical about forging new friendships with mysterious people. On the other hand, if you’ve mostly encountered strangers from the trustworthy 80%, then every stranger is likely to seem more like a potential friend than threat.
Either way, remember that the odds are in your favor. If you’ve had some negative experiences with strangers, try reaching out and increasing your sample size—you’re due for an encounter with someone belonging to that 80%.
Turning strangers into friends is easier done than said. Read that again—it’s not a typo! This is thanks to the handy-dandy method I’ve drafted for creating a more stranger-friendly community wherever you call home. Caution: it sounds a little more like a dance craze than a fail-proof method for making friends, but bear with—it is tested and true.
My prescription for stranger-friendly cities is called the “UP, down, side to side method.” (No worries if you still prefer UP, down, side to side as a dance craze—feel free to bust the moves while walking down the street. No judgment here.) However, it has little to do with shaking-it-up or shimmying-it-down and everything to do with how you interact with your surroundings:
My final plea comes even more directly from the heart: I ask you to be the type of person that shows others how kind strangers can be. We know that the most despairing communities and hardened individuals need kindness the most. So why not break the cycle and show them some goodness? Go ahead and get started with a little UP, down, and side to side action. It’s great for making friends out of strangers (and can also provide a nice little cardio workout).
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Jennifer Prod is a Minneapolis-based blogger who believes in the power of creativity, positivity, and chocolate chip cookies. She’s written about happiness experiments and proliferating kindness on Idealist, and is always cooking up something on her blog, Apartment Wife.
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This week on Idealists in Action, we’re exploring the concept of Home.
When it comes to workspaces, whatever works for you is best.
(image courtesy Shutterstock)
As a generally unkempt person, I tend to take issue with the “messy desk, messy mind” principle that tidy folks occasionally bring up (usually with one eyebrow cocked). But it turns out that science is on my side.
New studies are showing that it’s less important to rid your workspace of clutter than it is to design and organize a space that fits with your personal tastes. When we have control over the look and feel of our workspaces, it increases our productivity and all-around efficiency.
Psychologist-turned-writer Dr. Christian Jarrett explains this—and other new workspace organization research—in the 99U article “The Perfect Workspace (According to Science)“.
Though he asserts that individual tastes rule, Jarrett does have some decor ideas that work well for most people. Try working these into your own personal decorating scheme:
Choose rounded furniture and arrange it wisely
If you have the luxury of designing your own workspace, consider choosing a layout and furniture that is curved and rounded rather than sharp and straight-edged.
Creating this environment has been linked with positive emotions, which is known to be beneficial for creativity and productivity (added bonus: there’s also less chance of knocking an elbow or knee on a sharp corner).
Take advantage of color, light, and space
Choosing the right color and lighting scheme for your office is one of the simplest ways your environment can enhance your performance.
For instance, exposure to both blue and green has been shown to enhance performance on tasks that require generating new ideas. However, the color red has been linked with superior performance on tasks involving attention to detail.
Make use of plants and windows
If you only do one thing to optimize your workspace, invest in a green plant or two.
Research has repeatedly shown that the presence of office plants has a range of benefits including helping workers recover from demanding activities and lowering stress levels.
But however you decide to decorate or organize your space, says Dr. Jarrett, the most important thing is to do whatever you can to create “an office space that you feel happy and comfortable in.”
Messy desk, it is!
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What kind of space do you do your best work in? Share with us in the comments.
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This week on Idealists in Action, we’re exploring the concept of Home.
Drew Philip boarding up the windows of his house in Detroit.
(photo by Mike Williams, via Buzzfeed)
Drew Philip was 23 years old when he bought his home in Detroit for $500 at a live county auction.
This powerful essay, originally published on Buzzfeed, chronicles how the author rebuilds his house—and makes himself a home—out an abandoned building filled with plastic bags, rotting carpet, and broken car parts.
Although Detroit has been talked about a lot lately—both as an almost post-apocalyptic cityscape of decay, and as a new hotspot for young, poor, (usually) white artists—the author describes the community he’s discovered there in terms of its kindness:
It’s been happening quietly and for some time, between transplants and natives, black and white and Latino, city and country—tiny acts of kindness repeated thousands of times over, little gardens and lots of space, long meetings and mowing grass that isn’t yours. It’s baling hay.
It’s the Detroit that’s saving itself. The Detroit that’s building something brand-new out of the cinders of consumerism and racism and escape. I’ve attended a four-person funeral for a stillborn baby that could have been saved but for poverty. I’ve nearly been shot by the police during a stop-and-frisk. I’ve seen three structure fires within a block of my house. But I’ve also walked out of my house to see hundreds of tiny snowmen built by neighborhood children. I’ve seen tears in the eyes of a grown man releasing a baby raccoon into a city park that he had saved from being beaten to death by teenagers.
Some scrappy teachers just opened a school in a formerly abandoned building behind my house. I stretched a ladder through the missing window of the abandoned house next door and nailed it to the kitchen floor to reach the peak of my own roof.
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Have you ever taken on a tough project that’s brought you a better sense of home? Tell us about it in the comments.
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As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this week and people across the U.S. come together to help each other and work toward solving our common problems, we’d like to pose the question: what exactly is social good?
Coincidentally… Welcome to Ideal-to-Real Updates, a series where we check in with idealists taking action on their good ideas to see what they’ve been up to and what gems of wisdom they’ve been learning.
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Last July, we wrote about Shannon Mouillesseaux, a New York state native with a passion for international development.
At that time, she shared with us her idea for a penpal and travel exchange project that would match at-risk students in the U.S. with kids in developing or war-affected countries.
Shannon with a family in rural Oman, where she was recently stationed.
We recently caught up with Shannon again to ask about the status of that project, and what else she’s been up to in the past year and a half. She wrote to us from her current post as a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) protection officer overseas, assisting refugees and helping advocate for those who are unlawfully detained.
Through the Idealist blog, I learned of a great project already underway, which has a strikingly similar objective and approach to what my project aspired to do. It’s called Project PeacePal. The executive director Sarah Wilkinson and I connected and have remained in touch to support one another. For one, I was able to refer another Idealist member who had connected with me, following the blog post, to PeacePal to assist Sarah with social media efforts.
Shannon would love to collaborate with PeacePal in the future, but she’s currently involved with all sorts of other projects: setting up iSurvived, an advocacy and support group for UNHCR staff who have survived trauma; creating a website to connect and support global aid workers around the world; and writing a children’s book series to encourage cultural and humanitarian awareness.
I am *always* working on what I call “my personal projects” on the side of my work. Most of them have a similar theme: to educate people about realities in the global South, advocate for aid workers, and help improve our development models and systems, which I think are largely outdated and in need of retooling.
I feel propelled to act on behalf of other humanitarian staff in order to better protect and support them. After all, how can we expect to be effective in our roles as development workers if we don’t first ensure that we are healthy and adequately supported? As the environments in which we work become decreasingly secure, our organizations need to take action to better prepare us, protect us, and support us. We each have a role in advocating for this, too.
As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this week and people across the U.S. come together to help each other and work toward solving our common problems, we’d like to pose the question: what exactly is social good?
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Sonia Manchanda and the DREAM:IN project started with a simple idea: instead of asking people about their needs, find out their dreams.
As a co-founder of Idiom Design and Consulting in Bangalore, Sonia thought the design thinking approach, where solutions arise from human needs, was too simplistic and too top-down to create new value and meaning, especially in emerging nations.
People are more complicated than a list of needs, after all. And for the complex nation that is India, with its great divides between rich and poor, marginalized voices often go unheard. Empowering people to dream reveals what is truly meaningful in their lives.
“If you can hold a mirror up to people and ask them about their tomorrow and understand the future they’re imagining, then you’re actually doing a good job already,” Sonia says.
In 2011, in collaboration with Carlos Teixeira of Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, the team trained 101 youth from all over India to go to its smallest towns and ask people what they want for themselves, for their communities, for the world.
They traveled 15,000 miles by road and rail and filmed thousands of conversations with people from all walks of life. The DREAM:IN “imagination network” was thus born.
Sonia holding “dreamcatching” conversation cards
(photo via yourstory.com)
The “dreamcatching” methodology seamlessly combines ethnography, design research, and filmmaking. It goes like this: a facilitator holds up a series of conversation cards that feature images from advertisements: a date with a Bollywood starlet, driving a fancy car, etc.
Once people can laugh about the things society wants them to dream about, they’re encouraged to let their imaginations loose and get to the heart of what they really want. The ultimate goal is to move past the fears that so often freeze us.
“A lot of people may think, ‘I may hate this job that I am doing, but if I don’t go outside and carry bricks on my head and help build this house and get my daily amount, then I’m not going to survive. I don’t have the time or the right to dream. I shouldn’t be dreaming,’ ” Sonia says. “So there are all these fears and anxieties, and there’s nothing worse than the death of dreams.”
DREAM:IN shows that dreams are alive and already inside of people—you just have to want to discover them. What the group has found is a beautiful array of humanity at its most hopeful, with dreams ranging from opening a museum to creating a newspaper for rural communities to seeing a tobacco-free India—and much more.
And the team doesn’t hit the snooze button there. Once dreams are collected, they share the data with design scholars, business leaders, change agents, thought leaders, bureaucrats, venture capitalists, and others to inform future development in the country.
Dreamcatching boards. To date, 1901 dreams have been captured.
(photo via DREAM:IN on Flickr)
Since its founding, DREAM:IN has morphed from a project on the fringes of Idiom into an independent venture centered around open innovation. The ultimate goal? A dynamic database of dreams and a global network to help bring those dreams to life.
One of the ways DREAM:IN is getting there is by putting select dreamers and seasoned entrepreneurs in the same room for a series of Dream Camps—where things like start-up advice, ideas for funding, encouragement, and connections are shared—to help transform dreams into reality.
“Start early, prototype fast” is the guiding principle. Young entrepreneurs are trained in Dreamscaping, a scenario methodology, and the Dreamplan, a business plan tool.
“It’s good to have your head in the clouds and be imaginative, but also have your feet planted firmly and moving steadily on the ground,” Sonia says.
Dream Camp 3 held last April to help people “dream, believe, and realise.”
(photo via DREAM:IN Facebook page)
Despite societal challenges—older generations conditioned to rigid ideas regarding jobs and social mobility, for example—many dreams have already taken flight thanks to DREAM:IN. Youth, especially, are inspired to see local problems as opportunities.
One young boy invented a machine to incinerate sanitary napkins that often get clogged in toilets, which is starting to be installed in colleges. A law student who had long dreamed of becoming a small business owner changed his professional course and opened a canteen. Another duo created a reusable water bottle for attendees of rock shows.
DREAM:IN has already been replicated in six universities in Brazil and three in China. And this year, they’re launching a product brand with farmers in Tumkur and creating a groundswell of entrepreneurship across South India with over 100 academic institutions. They also plan to create tools and educational materials based on their methodology for people to copy and encourage more dreamers in communities around the world.
This openness, Sonia believes, is ultimately at the heart of good, lasting, and scalable innovation.
“At the same time you have a dream, it’s already somewhere out there in the universe,” says Sonia. “It’s a shared thought. So it’s better you go do it, do it openly, and include all the others who may think similarly to what you’re thinking and make it a big shared dream.”
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We hear you, Sonia! On March 11, Idealist will be launching a new network that will help dreamers worldwide take their next steps. To learn more and get in on our launch event, sign up here.
Share your own dream and help others by joining DREAM:IN. What are you waiting for?
I started Idealist in 1995 because ever since I was a boy growing up in Mexico I’ve believed that things don’t have to be the way they are.
Today I know with every cell of my body that we can do better than this.
Don’t you?
Don’t you often see or read something that makes you think, “It’s 2014, and this is happening? Why?!”
Probably for many reasons, all of which can seem beside the point. You know that this—whatever story or situation struck you—is wrong or sad or scary or a horrible waste, and that together we should be able to do something about it.
On Tuesday, March 11, Idealist will launch a new network—online and on the ground, in cities, villages, schools and workplaces—that will help people everywhere connect and take action on any issue that concerns them, locally or globally, online and in person.
The heart of this movement will consist of people all over the world who want to use every available tool—from social media to a bulletin board on a village tree—to inspire and catalyze action and collaboration in their own communities.If this is you, if you like new ideas and you enjoy connecting dots and people, I hope you can join us.
We’ll start with a live online presentation, take your questions, and then start building this movement together.
To accommodate people in every time zone, we’ll do this twice, first on March 11 at noon EST (17:00 GMT), and then again that evening at 11:00 pm EST (04:00 GMT on the 12th).
For more details about this event, to sign up, and to see how other people around the world are responding, please RSVP here.
For a bit more about why I think real change is possible, and why we need your voice in this conversation, please click here.
And if you know other people who should also be at this table, please invite them, too.
Thank you, and all the best to you and yours in 2014!
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