Jane Addam's model

Jane Addams, Nebel laureate, started the first American settlement house in Chicago. During the observation of the 2nd 20 year-period, she was quoted as saying, "Our hope of [social] achievement...lies in the complete mobilization of the human spirit, using all our unrealized and unevoked capacity."

This is a wonderful statement summarizing in a sentence my vision of the possibilities for our world and for humanity. With Hull House's founding she decided to focus on "the nurturing of the human spirit", offering clubs, parties and cultural events and college extension classes for working-class people. This mirrors much of my vision for developing the Uptown Theater. I'd add integrating all classes, becoming a classles society. Also we'll have a primary focus on a wide range of daily seminars rather than college-like classes.

You can read about how she started it and her inspiration in a new biography:
Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy by Louise W. Knight (Hardcover - Published and available now at Borders..)

My son shine's with a great blog post lead

My son Dan thought I'd relate to the following web log post: (I did)

I remember telling my friends and family that I was going to submit some comics to become a syndicated cartoonist. I don’t remember even one person predicting I would succeed. Thousands of wannabes submit comics for syndication every year and only a few get contracts. And most of those comics fizzle after a few years. My entire art experience included frequent doodling plus getting the well-deserved lowest grade in art class in college. That was my total preparation for my new career.

I sent my samples to several comic syndication companies. One syndicate helpfully suggested that I find an actual artist to do the drawing for me. United Media had lower standards and offered me a contract for Dilbert. That turned out to be a good move on their part.

You can refer to the full post at this address:
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/10/in_over_my_head.html

If you read the whole post you'll get much of the flavor I'm aiming for with this whole quest of thewowcenter.com and with all my other related projects to come, and my book.

inequality the issue, not diversity

The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality (Hardcover)
by Walter Benn Michaels (Author)
Some unique and extraordinary insights and recognitions:

Judging the truth or validity of anything based on judging the source
On page 191 of this new book, the author makes a remarkable observation:

The validity of an argument does not depend on the virtue of the person making it.

I would add this applies to any assertion, not just an argument. This also applies in any case were the person's life doesn't seem to show evidence that they have followed this assertion.
If we look to substantiation of an idea in the person's life, i.e. in their behavior or their results, our observation and judgment can be based on the wrong things. First we may not notice where this applies in their life, if at all. Much more important we don't explore for substantiation of its truth openly on our own.

It's not about honoring differences (not that differences don't deserve to be honored)
On page 192 he points out uniquely that the solution doesn't come from being nicer to homeless people, it's that

no one should be homeless.

He suggests that the issue is inequality. I'd suggest a more accurate distinction would be helping people to see their full power to create the results they want, whether it be a home or any thing wanted.
We'll never solve problems of lack by giving things to people or being more humane. I've found that to be true in a careful study of how economics actually works.

I've created a program I call Infinite Economics TM. In this original perspective I boil down all of economics to the fulfilling of wants. I then asked how many distinct ways are there to have what you want. After I asked this question and explored all the possible ways, it occurred to me that money was not any of those essential ways. It could be part of any of these ways but did not have to be for any of these ways to work. By understanding these ways, 7 of them, we could use each way as an abundant pathway to have anything we want regardless of the access to money or not. This recognition I've come to recognize is liberating and be a guide to economic growth for anyone starting from any point. These seven ways are asking, trading, receiving a gift, sharing, finding (what belongs to no one), creating it and last divine intervention (a gift from God, if you will. I've created a seminar to empower people to expand economically starting anywhere, even with seemingly nothing.

If you'd like to learn more about Infinite Economics TM and/or starting a group to develop these ideas, contact me via e-mail on this site.

Upside thinking and energy

I've coined a term I call

would-working

. That is, when taking on a project or possibility, instead of figuring out why you can't do it or why it will be

difficult

, that you look for the reasons you can do it and the advantages and support you have going for you. This is a form of upside thinking. Looking for rewards and benefits of an action…
and looking for anything you can use or that will help you get the result.

Remarkably, when you take this approach, an upside approach (optimism) you get supported from within (an optimal result). To quote an article in Parade Magazine,

6 Ways To Have More Energy

, (P. 4 October 8, 2006): Every thought…is accompanied by a cascade of biochemicals called neurotransmitters.

In general, thoughts that are optimistic, grateful and loving result in feel good neurotransmitters called endorphins.

The same feel good chemicals are produced during exercise [ANY activity physical and/or mental], love-making [any expression of love] and meditation [any experience of serenity, peace, ease]. By contrast, thoughts that are fearful [especially when inappropriate, i.e. based on false conclusions] angry [same] or hopeless [especially when hardly any possibilities have been explored] increase levels of stress ( stress is not an accurate characterization for them) hormones, which make us feel tired, anxious and irritable.

Learning to focus on the positive (what I call the upside) can do wonders for energy levels.

I have explored this effect for decades and can verify that you can pretty well count on this phenomenon to increase energy.

Hospitality

Hospitality has been a continuing theme in my life. Sometimes the lack of it is in my face and sometimes I see when I leap in the opposite direction almost automatically. Yet, I feel so strongly about it and care so deeply.

I grew up in a household were grace and charm and welcome were the usual in social situations at home and out in public. Yet, while driving my dad would emotionally show the opposite, often with aggression and danger. This could be the case at home too from time to time. My dad bought a restaurant, a '50s diner, a grill. Almost always everyone was made to feel welcome, that they were a guest. At times he'd fly off the handle, and the mood was anything but welcome.

When I brought friends or neighbors, growing up, I loved to make them feel at home, to accommodate and to serve them. I enjoyed this in my dad's grill also. As a husband along with my wife, I continued to invite family, friends and my chiropractic patients into the house and often out socially. In my practice was an extaordinary standard of accomodation.
Despite a full schedule, I always made room for another. People would get an answered phone at any hour, and I'd usually invite them to come in right away if necessary.

In a new book, Setting the Table,the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer, an entrepreneur who opened a restaurant in Manhattan (N.Y.City), with no training or experience in restaurants, and he now operates eleven thriving, famous and honored locations, each a different, imaginative concept.

He says, "hospitality is when something happens FOR you. It's abscent when something happens TO you." He goes on to credit, "understanding the difference between service and hospitality has been the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipent feel. He continues, "Service is a monologue--we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. to be on the guest's side requires listening to that person with every sense, following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropriate response. It requires both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top." The last line in the book about how he wants customers to feel: "This is the place that most makes me feel I've come home."

Other key thoughts: " 'Shared ownership' develops when guests talk about a restaurant as if it was theirs. That sense of affiliation builds trust and invariably leads to repeat business." He suggests, "Err on the side of generosity." And finally, "Wherever your center lies, know it, name it, believe in it. When you cede your core values to someone else it's time to quit."

As I reflected on this distinctive and useful perspective on hospitality, it occured to me to imagine what our lives and this world would be like if this became a standard of behavior and interaction between people in all waks of life,

What do you ache for?

The dreams and aspirations I ache for are what I am sharing with you on this Ultimate Life Blog.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer, author of The Invitation (see Amazon.com) and other inspiring message books, (also see her web site), wrote the following message as it appears on her book's cover:

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know If you'll risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive...."

(read the rest of the invitation on her web site)