Why Write? “…it is better to speak”

Audre Lorde’s answer to “Why write?” is summed up beautifully by her story about taking the name Gamba Adisa, which means “Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known” in an African naming ceremony.

 What I leave behind has a life of its own…I’ve said this about poetry; I’ve said it about children. Well, in a sense I’m saying it about the very artifact of who I have been…

I started writing because I had a need inside of me to create something that was not there.

A writer’s origin

She came into herself early, adopting a modified spelling of Audrey for “the symmetry” of it. She confidently dismissed discouragement in High School.

I learned about sonnets by reading Edna St. Vincent Millay’s love sonnets and loving them and deciding I was going to try. I learned to write love poems by reading poems I never understood but the words would get me high…I was editor of my high school magazine and I wrote a poem about love. And the student advisor, the faculty advisor said it was a bad sonnet. And I really knew that it was a good one. But I knew that she didn’t like it because of the things that I said in it. So I sent if off to Seventeen magazine and they bought it. And I made more money from that one poem than I made for the next ten years.

In later life she described herself: Audre Lorde was a black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.

Artifacts as a call to action

I came to know her work through “The Cancer Journals” required reading for my daughters in high school.
At that time this is what most resonated with me:

…when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak

Perhaps not consciously – but I internalized – “So it is better to speak”.

And I credit that quote – and this poem – this artifact of her life with inspiring a vastly different future than I’d imagined.

A Litany for Survival 

For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children’s mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours:

For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.

And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.

A Litany for Survival is also the name of a documentary on her life and work. You can hear much of what is quoted above in her own voice.

For more on “Why Write” join our ongoing discussion on writing for life via the Empowering Change Mighty Network or view the second in this ongoing series right here.




Tangible Leadership

  Where we’ve been and where we’re going!

challenge-1024x576

In 2009, David Allen Ibsen
published, “Leading your way out of the recession”.

It was a recipe for what it would take to survive the global economic crisis.

The ingredients included:

• Self Confidence
• A clearly articulated and broad vision
• A willingness to be flexible
• The skill to act upon intuition
• A talent in mobilizing resources (the right type, at the right time)

The skill to act upon intuition” was evident here in Ireland when, in January 2009, Raymond Sexton convened what he imagined would be a “one-off” session to bring a group of colleagues together. The meeting was designed to kick off the New Year and attend to:

• the move from despondency to a sense urgency and passion which would lead to focused actions, individually and collectively
• rediscovering the basic elements of success, in his view- Time, Treasure and Talent
• providing each other with needed inspiration, encouragement, and support
• curating a body of knowledge which would provide participants access to mentorship, connections and empathetic financial resources

The enthusiasm generated that day resulted in a call to “do this again”. In April, they convened Limerick. An ancient city and home of Shannon Development, created by some of the most forward thinking and action oriented change-makers in Ireland. Their initiatives from the 1960s forward have made Ireland the commercial gateway to Europe it is today.

In the three months between those the Howth & Limerick meetings, attendees at the first had launched nearly a dozen positive initiatives. Clearly, Tangible energy was catalysing change.

The momentum generated in Limerick drove the initiative forward to New York City in May. Scheduled on the morning of the annual Ireland Funds Gala, it was enthusiastically received. A July seminar followed in Sutton, Co Dublin and the leadership series was born.

As the series enters its ninth year, with over 60 seminars behind us, it includes 7 annual sessions in Ireland. Thanks to the enthusiasts, ambassadors and conveners we have met along the way, the global outreach now extends from New York to Sydney, and London to San Francisco.

We’ve proven that resilience is born, as the Irish proverb puts it, Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine, “In the shadow of each other, the people live”.

You are welcome to join us in Oranmore, County Galway on 6. October or in London on 17. November for the remaining #Tangible16 seminars.

In 2017, alongside our “events as usual” we will begin to deliver a structured programme designed to offer continuing professional development.

Next year’s events begin as we “Bring it On” in Howth, Tangible’s 65th event in it’s ninth “new year”!

Oranmore, County Galway

Oranmore, County Galway

 




On depression as a necessary winter before the spring…

suicide placardImagine if we, as a culture, could embrace depression. Imagine that in any life cycle there are, as in nature, seasons. Depression does not always have to be viewed as pathology.

The industrial age introduced clocks, the digital age upped 9-5 to 24/7.

We are not meant to operate outside of the natural order of things. Riotous springs are followed by productive summers. In fall, as energy wanes we’re motivated to prepare for winter and muster the energy to get things done. In winter we accept that little grows, days are short and if we give over to the darkness and rest, we’ll recharge.

I’ve learned from the creative people around me, as well as my own experience, that a depression is a terrible thing to waste. We will emerge from them. When we do, we can allow for the riotously creative personal spring that follows. It will be there when were ready to embrace life again.

To every season there is a time and a purpose.

Accept the winters. And please keep faith, your personal spring will follow.

 

Courtesy GardeningAtTheEdge.wordpress.com

Courtesy GardeningAtTheEdge.wordpress.com

See also: The Rose, Bette Middler’s timeless hit.

“Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows,
lies the seed that with the sun’s love in the Spring becomes the rose.”

Reframe your understanding of it. Imagine it as a love song for yourself.

Seasonal Affective Disorder” (SAD), is also predictable and seasonal, but the above reflection is on the experience of major depression.




On Education, testing not required…

…or even relevant.

The links provided will offer a view into what system changes are succeeding elsewhere. The video below says it all.

Let’s get out of their way, stop lecturing and test less. Let’s motivate and challenge our young people to show us what they can do!

In Ireland, both in the Republic and in Northern Ireland we accept the unacceptable, which looks like:

What needs to change?

Noted education expert Sir Ken Robinson has written and spoken extensively on the subject. Changing Education Paradigms is an excellent summary of the issues at hand.

In Ireland, I invite you to follow the work of ChangED a new think tank focused on challenging us all to drive reforms in education across the island.

ChangEDYou can follow their work on Twitter @IRLChangED and watch for their position papers to be published this fall. The papers will address:

  • Mental Health in Education
  • School Admissions
  • Technology in Education

You can help:

Follow the good news stories, and when a school or a group distinguishes itself, please bring it everyone’s attention. People fear change and nothing alleviates that fear like the success stories.

Like this one:

CM Schools IntroIn Dublin at Donabate Portrane Educate Together, they’re Teaching Empathy, Leadership & Confidence. It is one of 12 Changemaker schools designated by Ashoka Ireland, an international network of social entrepreneurs.

It is when we demand this kind of innovation in education at every school in all levels that it will happen. Empower teachers, principals and parents by getting involved.
Educate yourself!

There is a wealth of information out there about innovative programs from around the world.

I will close with a summary statement of the goals of ChangED and suggest that it be a goal every citizen embraces.

ChangED aims to ensure that education in Ireland has equality of opportunity, excellence in teaching and learning, accountability, sustainability, a global outlook, wellbeing, resilience and an appreciation of the richness of different cultures and languages as its hallmarks.

 

 




Why Write? “…it is human nature to write”

So said Julia Cameron in her introduction to The Right to Write.

We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes us directly and specifically our own. We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and mediation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance as well.

Cameron’s best know tome is The Artist’s Way and it is regularly referenced in lists on the best books on writing. “Show up at the page” is the message – both in pursuit of your art and in the discipline of the “morning pages“. She uses the habit of three long hand pages of writing every morning on awakening as a means to clear the mind of distractions and anxieties, freeing up space for creativity to flourish.

She concludes her introduction to the Right to Write with:

It is my hope that this book will help to heal writers who are broken, initiate writers who are afraid, and entice writers who are standing at the river’s edge waiting to put a toe in.

I have a fantasy. It’s the pearly gates. St. Peter has out his questionnaire, he asks me the Big Question, “What did you do that we should let you in?”

“I convinced people they should write,” I tell him. The great gates swing open.

I share her fantasy.

For over a dozen years now I have facilitated groups exploring both The Artist’s Way and her three subsequent books on writing – The Right to Write (1998), The Sound of Paper (2004), the latest Write For Life (2023).

The lastest is the third in her series of 6 week/6 chapter explorations of The Artist’s Way.

It’s may be subtitled “A Toolkit for Writers” but what comes through is the generosity of spirit and goodwill in sharing her methods and process.

It does read like her “love letter to writing”.

If you’d like support in showing up at the page, get in touch!

Email, Book a Discovery Call, or join Empowering-Change in The Artist’s Way

 




Leadership, Tangible style

“Do as I say, not as I do!” …or not!

When Tangible Ireland began in 2009, we were experiencing a lot of that kind of leadership in Ireland.

Founder, Raymond Sexton believed that an emphasis on the positive was required.

• What was going well?
• Who were the people driving the success stories?
• Did anyone else believe we were better than our bottom line?

He began to examine what drove excellence in leadership both at home and abroad.

The perspective was that of an engineer and project manager experienced in helping multinationals invest and build facilities in Ireland, a homecomer returned from a decade in Australia, and a closet historian.

Who the Irish are in Ireland and who we become when we go abroad is a fascinating study.*

And the many Tangible ambassadors, partners and guests have joined him in studying it – up close and personally, across the island of Ireland and worldwide.

There have been over sixty Tangible seminars in global cities – Dublin, London, New York and Sydney; regional capitals – Belfast, Limerick & Galway; and in the urban & rural villages that lie at the heart of Irish life and values – Howth, Kilmallock and Crossmaglen.

There’s a common denominator in all these communities. We honor our original associations, whether counties, communities, schools, or team affiliations, we pay it forward and take care of our own. We are industries, joyous, playful and determined.

Here’s what we do:

Imagine the simplicity of a “3 pinned plug” and the energy it channels. It’s the way each Tangible Seminar is designed. We showcase and model the best business and civic leadership in a region by:

• focusing on the maverick and entrepreneurial “live wires” – the local leaders driving change
• highlighting and sharing connections to the startup, trade & inward investment support offered in the Republic and in Northern Ireland
• recognising our citizens at home, abroad and in transition, uniting them in their efforts to prosper both here and across the Diaspora

Here’s what we’ve learned:

• at home and abroad our values never change
• our Diaspora represents our greatest asset; vast supplies of human capital available for spending and investment
• our citizens never cease to be our citizens

Here’s what we believe:

• Personal, business and trade relationships empower us individually & collectively, in our new lands and across Ireland.
• Our citizens never cease to be entitled to be heard.
• At home, abroad or in transition, we owe each other a duty of care, including responsible stewardship of this island, economically, environmentally and politically.

This drive for excellence in leadership and best practices reflects our duty of care to the next generation by making this island fit to come home to, or to never be forced to leave.

We are survivors.

Who we are and who we become, whether we stay here or go abroad needs to reflect our best hope for the future of our Irish or Northern Irish children and grandchildren in the Americas, the EU, the UK, Oz or elsewhere.

To join us in San Francisco on Thursday, 21. July  or at the annual Ambassador Summer School here in Ireland follow the links to register.

For a great summary of why Tangible travels the globe in search of “live wires” – here it is:

*…who we become when we go abroad as described by one of our own:

Beehan; psychosis

 

 

 

 

 




Possibilities, Practicalities & Performance

I’m pleased to be leading the team running #BizCampAND this Friday, 11. September.

The theme of the day is “What it Takes”, and we’re delighted to have 21 speakers confirmed.

We’re highlighting the possibilities we can imagine, practical skills we can acquire and how best to poise ourselves for peak performance.

Possibilities

Seven successful local entrepreneurs will share their journeys. The businesses they’ve built are in artisan foods, purpose built software, a home for creatives and a retail + online sales enterprise to support job creation & training.

Two have developed consultancies which are a direct outgrowth of their “day jobs”. Still driving those businesses they also serve to educate and inspire others in their industries.

Ranging in age from their twenties to fifties, most are doing jobs none imagined when they left school – and that is a key message BizCamp wants to deliver: Ordinary folks ‘like us’ can accomplish what once seemed like extraordinary things – by simply doing what they love with passion and extraordinarily well.

Practicalities

Entrepreneurs are made, not born! Thankfully we live in an era where programs exist to support our learning curves. You’ll meet seven professionals ready to illustrate what it is that we don’t know we don’t know.

There will be practical training and advice on sales, marketing, tendering and finance. There’ll be nothing dry or didactic about it. Four of the 6 experts are entrepreneurs themselves. They’ve started businesses, struggled with the same things you do and have come out the other side.

There will be two bankers ready to take the intimidation out of approaching banks for traditional finance, as well as offering their insights into alternatives.

Performance

The dream is one thing – getting in shape to sustain and drive it is quite another. Our speakers will explore “design thinking”goal setting, and putting down our digital devices to achieve balance in our lives.

They will cover the “relationship building” that characterises 21st century sales and identifying the “priority tasks” that keep us focused.

We’ll also hear about “extraordinarily ordinary people doing ordinarily extraordinary things” – which is, in fact, our experience of most “Bizcampers”.

 




Ireland 2.0 – America, try ‘Ctrl, Alt, Delete’

Hate SpeechMany of you post these images regularly – from the safety of your American homes. Please rethink them.

I used to live there – now Ireland is my home. It has been since November 2008.

It is not always safe here on the border. Our world is different than yours.

I live and work between Dublin and Belfast. I am privileged to carry both US & Irish Passports.

The UK government honors my Irish Citizenship conferring upon me every right of her citizens. I was welcomed when I established my business in County Down. I have been as free to live in Northern Ireland as the Republic.

We are 32 counties of residents on the island of Ireland. 17% of us were born elsewhere.

Our average life span is 80 years; longer than yours. We all have a vote. We could even vote to unite Ireland. Take a long view – it will likely happen. The island has been populated for over 12 thousand years. The British have been here only 850.

Governments in the 21st century amount to “taxing authorities”. We don’t raise armies to protect these borders, we live in the EU. Our borders are collectively protected.

Things are better in the Republic for Protestants and in the North for Catholics* than for African Americans across much of the US – So I’d argue your civil rights movement needs your attention more than ours.

Consider this:

  •  In NI we don’t pay our own way – the UK government (and every British taxpayer) subsidises 70 p of every £1 floating through our economy.
  • In the Republic we have mortgaged our grandchildren’s futures to bail out the excessive spending of the “boom”.

Try this:

  • Ask a patient on a gurney at an A&E (ER) in the Republic if they’d cross the border for better medical care?
  • Ask a dole recipient on either side of the border if their Northern/Southern neighbours have a better deal. Then ask either government if they could afford the burden of more mouths to feed and care for?
  • Ask a US or other foreign corporations in the Republic employing thousands and contributing millions to the economy if they’d have come to the 6 counties given the higher corporation tax?
  • Then ask those corporations located across Northern Ireland if they would have gone to the Republic without the heavy subsidies the UK government offers for R&D, training and facilities.

STOP the madness, please. There is not a strong enough political class anywhere on the island of Ireland to effectively govern a single county, no less the 32.

  • Leave us to our learning curves – let us do what it takes to survive. Consign your leftover venom & bile to history.
  • Your rhetoric inflames your compatriots here to build bombs, kill innocents and wreck our recovering economies.
  • You foment this hate from safe living rooms amid ample resources and opportunities.

This is Ireland in the 21st century, our young people united in sport, the Queen at Croke Park and with the Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland touring the now restored Crumlin Gaol. Having both spent time there during the Troubles, they used the occasion to thank her for her hospitality.(Both served time)Ireland21stCent

I’m sorry our ancestors emigrated to America under duress. I’m sorry you are emotionally stuck in the pain of their loss. I’m sorry you have not made peace with Ireland’s political reality in 2015.

These images are not icons of nationalism. They are hate speech. That you would encourage violence to be visited upon yet another generation is despicable.

If you passionately believe in a “united Ireland” then come. Move here, work for a political solution, work to bring out the vote and work for an economically sustainable Ireland.

In the meanwhile – do not overtly or inadvertently encourage violence. Do not encourage or support dissident activity. And do not undermine the Police Service or either government.

Here’s why:

The Wikipedia entry for the activities of just one dissident group in the 6 years between my arrival & November 2014 is over 2500 words. 

The heinous acts committed by “other” dissidents encouraged by the rhetoric of  26+6= 1 over the same 6 years, are not even included.

Let me introduce you to Northern Ireland men Ronan Kerr, Omagh, David Black, Cookstown and Stephen Carroll, Banbridge. All are dead. All killed at the hands of madmen (and women) in service of this rhetoric.

Mark Quinsey, Birmingham and Patrick Azimkar, London were young sappers stationed here in 2009 and due to ship out to Afghanistan the next day.

RIP 26+6

More than likely their families had not yet begun to pray for their safe deliverance from extremist terrorists.

Life here is far from perfect – but since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement things have and continue to be improved. Many like me work tirelessly to see that this continues.

Learn from the best among us!

Take Maeve Aine Kerr, the mother of murdered Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr. Pictured here, she has born this tragedy with dignity and grace collecting his University Degree at the commencement he didn’t live to see – and still urging more Catholics to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

In November 2014, 12 “dissidents” (read terrorists) were arrested in Newry and more weapons were seized in Dublin.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness’ whose life is regularly threatened – was threatened with an RPG in February 2015. How many innocents would likely die in the fallout of a rocket propelled grenade? How many RPGs might the dissidents possess?

Nothing changes here until we, our emigrants and the descendants of generations of our emigrants begin to care more about our collective, living children than we or they, hate the enemies of our ancestors.

The centenary of the Easter Rising next year will be enough of a flashpoint. In the meanwhile, please respect our need to build bridges and not intimidate our neighbors.

I will return to America at least three times between now and that centenary. I will likely visit New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Florida, Chicago and San Francisco. I am happy  to continue this conversation in person. Get in touch. Email eve@eveearley.com or contact me via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

 

 

 

* See graph p 25 of linked article.




Career Check-Up

What is a “Career Check-Up”?

Careers are like relationships – the more you value them, the less you take them for granted.

Whether you are in your “dream job” or working at something that covers expenses, pay attention!

Ask yourself:

  • Are you putting your best foot forward every day?
     If not, what would that look like?
  • If you interviewed for your job tomorrow…
     Would you get it?
  • Have the job requirements or responsibilities changed since you assume it?
    Does your supervisor/manager know?
  • Are your accomplishments, awards and new qualifications acknowledged?
    Have you brought them to the attention of your supervisor/manager?

imagesNot sure of the answers? Get in touch!

We can help you focus on what’s next.

Skeptical? Book a preliminary appointment. The 1/2 hr consultation is free.




The Irish Language

My relationship with the Irish language has evolved over the half dozen years I have been here.

It’s doubtful I’ll learn to speak it, I’ve little facility with language, but what I’ve learned about it has certainly informed my understanding of the people of this island.

Three people opened the door to that understanding.

Carol Conway, Freelance Catalyst, facilitator and youth leadership trainer was the first. I’d no idea that she “had Irish”. She’d studied it for the love of the language.

She held my frustration with the use of it – often politically on the border – as a weapon designed to divide an audience into “them vs us”.

“Eve, you won’t understand the Irish people until you’ve studied the Irish language .”

She got my attention with two relevant aspects of the language:

  • The absence of the possessive to have. I don’t have a coat. It’s the coat on me or the coat beside me.
  • Tenses are constructed differently. We haven’t had a conversation – the absence of a “past perfect” means we’re “after having a conversation” and after living here, one learns to ask, is anything really in the past?

The net effect informs our use of English – and I’ve heard it posited – makes us the storytellers we are.

Linda Ervine, is a Belfast teacher and an Irish Language evangelist. She sees merit in teaching the “Hidden History of Protestants and the Irish Language” going so far as to suggest that in refusing to become familiar with it we deny the connection of the language to the culture of Ulster.

Beyond opening my eyes to the inclusive nature of the language she opened the door to tolerance. In delivering “The Hidden History of Protestants and the Irish Language” as a talk at the 2012 PUP Conference she even addressed my intolerance of what I once thought was a Northern Irish ignorance of grammar. It’s not! *

This abstract is from the Slugger O’Toole blog on the event.

Linda Ervine spoke about the “hidden history of Protestants and the Irish language”. In what was probably the best delivered session, she explained how she had been filling out the recent census online when she looked back at the 1911 census and discovered that her husband’s relatives had lived in East Belfast and spoke both Irish and English. Yet their signatures were listed on the Ulster Covenant. Linda deduced that their knowledge of Irish wasn’t linked to their politics…

She quoted Douglas Hyde, son of a Church of Ireland minister, first president of Ireland and founder of the Gaelic League in 1893, an organisation set up to preserve the Irish language. In 1905 he said:

The Irish language, thank God, is neither Protestant nor Catholic, it is neither a Unionist nor a Separatist.

 Linda went on to illustrate how Irish is behind many place names, and words and phrasing we use in everyday vernacular. She also pointed to the Red Hand Commando’s motto which is in Irish! During the coffee break, several delegates signed up for Irish language classes at East Belfast Mission!

She concluded that language was neutral, only a tool to communicate.

She drove home Carol’s point about the structure of the language and what we have carried over into English. Things she used to correct about her Belfast students’ grammar were actually correct in Irish. This among people who are many generations removed from Irish speakers.

She is “Beating swords into plowshares” in Belfast.

And lastly, a cultural and evolutionary observation which bears out the message of both women:

Anthony McCann has proposed imagining an Irish cultural equivalent to “Ubuntu

Garaiocht: An Irish Value for an Energised Ireland

A linguist, musician and  a coach he reflects on Garaiocht as a deeply hopeful value which allows an understanding of the possibility of potential and an openness to a deeply hopeful future.

The link will take you to a brief video describing it in greater depth. In short- imagine the folks of this island – at our convivial best, in good company with a pot of tea and the time to express ourselves in stories. This concept of Garaiocht embodies:

1. Nearness
2. Hereness
3. Withness
4. Helpfulness
5. Conviviality
6. Continuous Action (verbal noun – a noun that acts as a verb) Can’t have an absence of action in the notion of Garaiocht
7. Mutual support/interdependence
8. Resourcefulness/Entrepreneurship the ability to make the best use of the resources that you have (opportunities for helpfulness)
9. Response-ability appropriate to context. Leadership quality with its core values at the heart of Irish life This notion of leadership which is not authoritative – not reliant on command and control.

In “sourcing” the wisdom from this ancient language – he reiterates Douglas Hyde’s point, Linda Erivine’s point and Carol Conway’s widsom when she told me:

You won’t understand the Irish people until you’ve studied the Irish language

We can better understand each other with the gift of a language that predates our generations of conflict. A language that is neither Protestant nor Catholic, it is neither a Unionist nor a Separatist.

Thank you Carol, Linda and Anthony – for opening the door to knowing what I might never have otherwise known!

For more on this subject: “Beating Swords into Ploughshares”

 

 

* at 16:55 Linda Ervine discusses the structure of the language. To “twig on” begin a bit before that for a fascinating overview of the words that have entered the Northern Irish vernacular directly from the Irish.

Here’s a  2022 update on Linda Ervine’s work