Take a seat in the ball crawl, make a friend

A friend of mine shared the Soulpancake video below on Facebook the other day. As soon as I finished watching it, I felt compelled to share it too. I like the idea of this social experiment so much that I’m sharing it with you today on this blog too. If you’ve seen it before or if you’re watching it for the first time now, I’d love to hear what you think.

Put a small ball crawl in a public place. Invite people to come sit in it and make a friend by asking them questions that are printed on the balls. Sounds weird? Just watch the video and see what happens. I’d love to see this everywhere: on the street, at school, heck even on the side of the road during traffic jams! Just kidding on that last one. Or maybe not.

I’m participating in the WordPress weekly photo challenge on “in the background” on my photography website. Hop on over if you want to see my photo choices for this theme.

I love to realize there’s a way for all of us to become more aware of the people around. Anything that makes us care and be kind to one another gets my two thumbs up. What about the people who really don’t care and are unkind, you ask? They should be the first ones we throw in there! Maybe not throw but really, encourage them to try to care just a little bit, and see if it makes a difference in their lives. I want to bet it would.

Enjoy this video and have a great Memorial’s Day. A big shoot out to all our troops who have sacrificed their lives to save ours in return over the years.

The music inside me

Since last night, it’s been raining here in San Diego and all I’ve got to look at is gray skies and raindrops. Today is one of those days when it feels good to sip some hot tea and listen to good music. So I’ve been playing my Pandora station while working on the computer and I just finished updating my list of Feel Good Songs on this blog.

There’s something magical about music, how it can grab you deep inside and make you feel happy, sad, ecstatic or nostalgic from one song to the next. I remember watching an interview with Sting, my favorite musician, where he said the best love songs are never about “she loves me, I love her”. Instead they’re always about “I love her, she loves someone else”.

Today I feel inspired to share a few famous quotes about music. Do you have quotes about music you’d like to share?

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

“Music is an outburst of the soul.” ~ Frederick DeLuis

“Music is love in search of a voice.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“Where words fail, music speaks.” ~ Hans Christian Anderson

“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” ~ Leopold Stokowski

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~ Berthold Auerbach

“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.”  ~ Billy Joel

“Music can change the world because it can change people.” ~ Bono

And here are a few of my feel-good songs. There are more on my Feel Good Songs page. Do you have some feel-good songs you’d like to share?

Good Life by OneRepublic – Name any other song that mentions both Paris and San Diego 10 seconds apart from each other?

Life is beautiful by Keb’ Mo’ – Ah, pure joy to my ears…

Grace Kelly by Mika – This is the one song that makes me get off my butt and start singing, dancing, and jumping up and down, with or without my kids.

I just haven’t met you yet by Michael Buble – So, if I want to meet the man of my dreams, all I have to do is go to the grocery store and start singing this song? Sorry, got to go shopping!

Beautiful life, beautiful world, beautiful time

As I was going through my car’s glove box this morning to remove the many paper napkins that have piled up over the past few months, I realized I have a few music CDs in there. And I’ve been so busy with life, I can’t remember the last time I listened to any of them. I found a few Sting CDs in the pile, James Blunt, Keane, and a CD with various songs, including one I had completely forgotten about.

It’s called Beautiful Life by the band Fisher. Part of the song has been used for several TV commercials over the past seven years. This song, Beautiful Life, is just… beautiful. If you every need a pick-me-up, this song will do it, every time. I myself can’t listen to it without humming, singing, and smiling from ear to ear, thinking about my two kids. Because this song is all about showing your kids how beautiful life is, how beautiful the world around us is, how to seize the day, look around and notice the small things. And Kathy Fisher, the band’s singer, has one of the most beautiful, purest voices I’ve ever heard. She’s one of those singers who sing with her heart, not her gut.

I’ll let you enjoy this song, so you can tell me what you think. It’s just too beautiful not to share. Then scroll down and hear what other Fisher songs I really like.

Several years ago, Fisher wrote a 30-second song for the San Diego Zoo called Only One You. It’s pure bliss, and it gives me the chills every time I watch this commercial

Feel free to read more about the band Fisher and listen to more of their music on the Fisher website. And I dare you to listen to the song “I Will Love You” while thinking about someone who’s not with you anymore without crying. It’s one of those very sad songs that somehow makes you feel better, if you know what I mean.

Follow-up thoughts on ADHD and divergent thinking

After I wrote my post titled Diagnosing a four-year old with ADHD – really? a little over a week ago, I got a very interesting comment from fellow blogger Nancy at nrhatch. (Thanks, Nancy!) She suggested I read her post Changing Education Paradigms where she features a great video from RSA Animate (I love their videos) enhancing a speech from Sir Ken Robinson. In it, he explains how much off-track our education systems around the world really are. His statement is based on the type of workers we need to prepare for the 21th century’s economy, as well as the way a child’s mind works and what type of schooling can bring the best out of our children.

I love the part where Robinson explains that most five-year-olds use divergent thinking (asking questions such as, what if?, why?, why not? ) but by the time they reach their teens, the education system has crushed their divergent thinking and replaced it with the very uninspired, non-critical convergent thinking. Perfect to create quiet, docile plant workers who will follow their leader without questioning, but not much else. And the increase in standardized testing will only reinforce the use of convergent thinking, as divergent thinkers have a hard time answering standardized tests. That’s because every answer has to be either A or B. There’s no more room for creativity, and imagination is being shunned in our schools. As if it was a bad thing to “think out of the box.”

Out of our minds: Learning to be creative by Sir Ken Robinson

After working almost 15 years in the corporate world, I can tell you most workers can’t even conceive thinking out of the box. You may think I’m stretching the truth, but spend just one hour in a meeting room with middle to upper management people and you’ll understand what I mean. Quite a shame, since our evolving world and its economic challenges will require just that. New ideas, new concepts, new technologies. And our schools are doing nothing to ensure getting our kids will be ready for this new world.

I’m not sure how we can get it so wrong and why we’re not turning things around quickly enough. I’m afraid it’s our responsibility as parents to make sure our kids preserve their divergent thinking skills, knowing how hard the school system will try to crush them. I’ve ordered Ken Robinson’s book “Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative” to find out more about Robinson’s ideas and what I can do for my kids (and a little bit for myself too) to keep in touch with their creative side. I’ll make sure to let you know what I got out of it in an upcoming WWW Wednesdays update.

What do you think about where our educational system is going? Do you think it’s preparing our kids for tomorrow’s world? What do you think can be done to make things right again?

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