Text and Pixel Reflections

TSA Fail | Criminalizing Flying for the Illusion of Control as the Metric for "Safety"

2012-02-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

Here I go protesting another social justice situation, or the misuse of TSA and body scanners. See below for categories for news links, my response, recommendations, and questions:

Non-Random Selection of Females
http://bit.ly/ydocT9

Non-Regulated, "Glossed Over" Cancer Risk, and Medically Invasive
http://bit.ly/yyZzmE
http://gizmo.do/zrrIZe
http://bit.ly/yZUZd9
http://on.msnbc.com/yxNDMW

Big as Contrived -- Arbitrary -- Artifices for "Safety"
http://to.pbs.org/xueDHP
http://wapo.st/x5Cinp
http://slate.me/wT0R3u

Did you know that airports could initially opt in or out to TSA/scanners, but now must use TSA, and that some legislators want to make it mandatory for every airport to use a scanner by 2013 via the "SAFER AIR" Act?
http://on.msnbc.com/zgAYdb
http://bit.ly/zf887U

In contrast, the EU banned scanners (good for them!) http://bit.ly/x3ulzy

Even the TSA Author wants TSA dismantled
http://bit.ly/zF7S9N
http://bit.ly/xEDPY4

Passengers who opt out refused access or detained "indefinitely"
http://bit.ly/xDudrj
http://politi.co/xinneC
http://bit.ly/yvNDpG

Obama Signs the NDAA, or Gives more Power
http://bit.ly/yH2xLh
http://bit.ly/zndOLM
http://abcn.ws/zeQ5II

All to Save us from Cupcakes... and Senators
http://bit.ly/vYYpsO
http://bit.ly/wx4pCV
http://bit.ly/yjOF7x
http://abcn.ws/AlU3Ux

Obama minimizes concerns as "inconvenience"
http://on.msnbc.com/win2MW

Are we just Neurotic about Safety?
http://bit.ly/wwZMJT

Collective Grassroots Action against TSA
http://wewontfly.com/act/

What about your flight?
http://tsastatus.net/

My Response | "Good grief, it's as though we've gone back to primal times with a ton of technology to give us the illusion that we're 'modern...'" My criticisms of TSA and the scanners list as follows:

Liability Deterrent: Similar to Medical Management, or the appearance of preventative action if catastrophic event or "isolated" or "anomalous" failure
Psuedo-Science: Overreliance on technology and sight from making certain scientific methods and genres primary over others and due to Unbelief in human collective action; what constitutes "random" selection? How, when, what, and who determines this "random" selection? Does randomness make findings reliable to our conversion funnel, or prove we will find a terrorist with this method?
Primacy of Sci-Tech Genre: What other research methods might better address safety concerns?
Faulty Assumptions: Overreliance on sci-tech and cultural cues for "reality," such as an overdependency on sight, convenience, and large sweeping interventions, risk efficacy, or misses other cues
Cultural Frames: Remember we're operating out of Western paradigms and methods risking us to misunderstand the culture we profile to cause terrorism and so misapply our means
Inhumane: Ends do not justify the means, but influence them and vice-versa
Unlawful: Violating constitutional rights, warrant and search and seizure laws, and privacy
Unhealthy: Sloppy standards, lack of regulation for safety, willingness to risk people's future health to maintain current illusion; I worry that many reproductive and other cancers will pop up on the radar
Offends Liberties: Will I be put on TSA's black list or screened for criticizing them? Even the perception or question suggests amiss
Ecquivocation: Mistaking and equating control for safety and uncertainty for lack of safety
Massive vs. Strategic: Similar to carpet bombing, a sweeping requirement to search passengers and install scanners actually risks a single terrorist act instead of thwarting it; screening everyday and upstanding citizens in the unlikely event that will find a terrorist?
Upsets Check and Balances: Over trust in single administration puts constituents at risk for future abuse of power, or asks people to trust their leader's goodwill and ability to interpret law in ways that match their definition of goodwill, or leaves too much to chance, or endows too much power to a leader in the name of "safety"
Ridiculous: Just look at the cadre of obtained stuff, and a TSA video picturing knives, or circumstancial evidence, does not convince me of the valor or justification of their efforts
Criminal: Complaints of sexual assault, racial profiling, or physical assault or injury offset TSA's rally cry for "safety"
Shrinks Public Commons via Compliance: Does not allow people to perceive contribution, or that their concerns or wants or needs are met, or by subjecting them to varying degrees of search and seizure of property and indefinite detainment is not a genuine opt-out or choice
Economic Consequences: If people perceive air travel to, in the least, hinder travel or commerce or business, then what impact will these practices bear on tourism, business, and our economy?
Lack of Transparency and Access: A blog and social media are nice, but what pathways are people allowed to participate with or correct the decisions that affect them? Of course we've the right to see our accusers, but in our veiled security, can we access even that basic right to transparency?
Lack of Oversight: Who, what, when, and how regulates the scanners and staff for procedure compliance and legal risk?
Lack of Foresight: Relying on the past to determine what we look for now; wrongly assuming terrorists perform in trends when terrorism is akin to organized guerrilla action
Phobic: Profiling by race or gender constitute acts of violence. If we say the ends justify the means, then we agree that we enact violence on another person.

Risking dramatics, think of it this way: Violate the womb, violate world peace. Believe it ok to detain someone who isn't [like] you, and you've just permitted that action against yourself next time the pendulum swings. Not to be confused with a rant, note that by Reacting to Faulty Assumptions and Fear with aforementioned illusion of control, we not only risk our health, our public safety, our founding principles, our economics, and our reason, but => Terrorists Win?!

::: In short, TSA/body scanners restrict freedom, criminalize people for travelling, and will be ineffective overall due to reliance on faulty assumptions. Even if a TSA agent or scanner thwarts a terrorist attack, is the cost sustainable, precise, or right?

My Recommendations | Design safety infrastructure as communication system. Educate on behavior observation and make communication channels for people to report. Gain foresight literacy. Build better opt-out recourse. Study terrorism via cultural foundations and human behavior. Learn dialogic methods to de-escalate, and train your constituents and children.

Locate our "true north," or the direction we want to go and who we want to be as a "free" society, and collaborate cross-sector. Conceive safety not as "detaining criminals," but as public health via collectively contributed verses latex gloved interest. Reroute funds from TSA to those means and ends.

Your Response | What do you think? Do you find TSA scanners effective or ethical? Do you rely on technology to make you feel safe? Why or why not? How? What makes you feel safe? What are you willing to tolerate for safety? Tell us your experiences with TSA. Share your ideas on public safety design. Put more simply:

Do you feel safe flying?
Why or why not?

With a spirit of goodwill,
which has come to imply no criminal intent,
but we know in the context of relationship in conversation
and via open inquiry, demonstrated behavior, and stated intent,
Dena

Author Note

Wondering if I'll "get in trouble" for these critiques and criticisms of the TSA. Blog profiling become part of the "random" selection? Will those I mentioned in twitter put me on a list without my knowing, and so impact my travel experience or blogging access? Time will tell, and hopefully no need to worry, but who can say with the renewed the obsessive cyber security sprint? http://huff.to/xiKZmc

Not to knee-jerk paranoia, but seems errant to me to try to manage a system as always a gray area when legislating liberties and a conflict of interest when those liberties may involve revenue streams with language as, "to support the cybersecurity efforts of critical infrastructure owners and operators..." http://bit.ly/ypEOMV

Renton Cedar River Library Initiative Petition | Invite & Heed Voter Voice to Decide Library's Future

2012-02-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleauges,

I reside in Renton. Be free to read this letter that I submitted to four (to date) news outlets regarding the Library Initiative Petition.

Before I'm a resident, I'm a constituent with a vocational contribution. I apply my vocation to work as a communication consultant, narrative health researcher, photoblogger, and writer to benefit health, education, and the public commons. I volunteer my services as a Renton resident for my passion to speak influence to people's community space. To that end I'm volunteering with the Citizens for the Preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library.

To date three media outlets published this letter (see below links):

Regarding the proposed move of the Renton public library, I invite Renton residents to sign the library initiative petition to put the proposed move on the ballot in April. Everyone, even the Council, benefits from putting the matter to vote. I expect decisions that affect citizens and their community place to be put on the ballot and debated in a fair and transparent manner. I do not argue that moving the library would be a bad idea per se, but I contend the method.

I dislike the centralized method by which the city council voted in favor of moving the Cedar River library. I find it patronizing of the city to hold public hearings and surveys under the pretense of listening to voters, but effectively using said sessions to persuade voters in the likelihood that the initiative petition puts the library move on the ballot. I regret the seeming demise of democracy, or decisions that become more commercialized, marketed, and privatized.

Overall I expect governance to lead with responsible inquiry and to at least be consistent with its claims for fiscal responsibility during a recession. I expected elected officials to keep their campaign promise to listen. If Renton wants to stay ahead of the curve, then it must change its governing style to value voter voice. I expect city leaders to normalize constituents as leaders, too, and not just residents contained in buildings whose property taxes comprise revenue streams. The people ought to influence the nature of their Community Space. When a select few make decisions that ignore public "input," then of what merit can any civic leader complain about a lack of voter confidence and involvement?

I encourage residents to sign the initiative petition to put the matter to the voters. Let the voters decide. To the Council: If you're going to market to constituents, then at least let them guide your market research. Consider the benefit of diverse views, where citizen push back can save you from making a rushed and faulty decision. For instance, are you without a doubt confident that moving the library four blocks will "revitalize" downtown? If you're confident in the move, then why not put it to ballot? We've a vested interest in valuing democratic principles because ideally people will support the decisions that they contribute. Otherwise governing with a centralized style risks forcing citizens to comply with, and pay for, the decisions of a few.

On a related note I expect watchdog journalism from the Renton Reporter. Quality journalism does not resort to persuasion by exclusion, but writes accurately and fairly about matters especially with which the paper disagrees. I expected to see a paragraph about the library initiative petition in Wednesday's section about the city hosted hearings. It's news that at the timing of this letter over 6740 and counting residents signed the Initiative Petition of the Citizens for the Preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library. Even if the Renton Reporter is a pro-government paper as it seems to be, then it's still surprising to exclude mentioning the petition, for the City allows residents to put initiatives and referendums to ballot via petitions per its code.

In all I expect more responsible and courageous journalism and governance that speaks to themes of empowerment and citizen voice instead of using the power of the press and obfuscated governance to persuade constituents of the merits of its own opinions.

Learn more about the Library Initiative Petition at http://rentonlibrary.com/

# # #

In addition, here's my comment in a discussion thread online, where my friend and former Renton resident wanted to know why the Council considered this move at all. Here's my reply:

Here's the Council & King Co history http://home.comcast.net/~stuart.avery/Resources.htm My take: A few councilmembers seem rushed to template Renton after surrounding cities, e.g., City of Bellevue, Washington, and correlating skyscrapers and downtown libraries with economic success. However, I believe each city must reflect its constituents' desired outcomes and culture.

Ultimately I see the library decision of Renton city council, given their determination to market and hurry the move without voter input, as communicating (1) council regarding citizens/voters as residents, or revenue streams, (2) council regarding citizens/voters as a hindrance vs. an asset in decision-making, (3) a larger systemic problem w/centralizing governance, and (4) a larger trend to move governance to marketing, or commercialized space.

Some residents may prefer a managerial "expert" model in decision making, but I don't, especially when the city wants to go into debt and indebt the constituents with the bill (potentially $9M dollars to construct a new library rather than renovating and modernizing the existing library). Throughout his administration, the mayor has promoted fiscal responsiblity as his reason for cutting budget in other areas. To me his decision to indebt his constituents with up to $9M makes no sense and removes a leg of his credibility.

The other leg: at least 2 people, the mayor and another councilmember, marketed their campaign as listening to voters, but voted "yes" to the library move. They did not listen via responding. I wonder if they succumbed to peer pressure? Their "yes" dismissed the expensive survey results where a sizable percentage wrote in "other" do not move the library (it's apparent to me as a researcher the bias embedded in the survey, which didn't even have an option to keep the library where it is).

You can bet voters will remember this, in the least, PR snafoo next election season. I supported and voted for the mayor and at least 1 councilmember in question. You can bet I will reconsider my support next election season. I'm proud of the 1 councilmember who listened and voted "no."

I've championed Renton in my blog as a great place to live, work, and play. I still love Renton enough to care. I see greatness in its potential, and I'm proud to live here and have grown up on Renton's West Hill. Still I do not find greatness in neglecting constituents.

I find greatness in incorporating people into the governance process, and moving beyond that compliance motif to one where people contribute their greatness even if greatness means giving up weekends and recreation time to field petition signatures, or proposing different ideas or options, and even if that greatness means revisiting and adapting one's decisions.

Elected officials need to respect constituent contribution and heed constituent voice. If voters vote "yes" to move the library, barring the city spending taxdollars to market the move with info sessions, pamphlets, and the like, then the city can move forward with confidence and without falling short of democratic due process or violating its own standard championed in campaign season.

As I see it, if the mayor and council (save 1 member who vote no to honor public input) desire to salvage their wobbly stool, then they need to revisit their decision and put the matter to vote. Changing one's mind means you learn and develop your approach as you go. That's life; a dynamic leader needs to reflect and change.

It's ironic for governing bodies to want to bypass the "cost" of elections and make their own decisions. You can't run a city only as a business. Run cities as public commons, which starts first with inviting contribution from people, and then from such findings build or maintain the infrastructure that expresses our public commons. The "if you build it they will come" mantra no longer works as a feasible or sustainable option in city design. Instead design city space via open inquiry that makes paths for constituents to contribute in the decisions and culture that affect them.

Perhaps there's a lingering inferiority complex that doesn't believe that Renton is Ahead of the Curve? Belief influences behavior. A misunderstanding as to what constitutes a thriving sub/urban centre? Additionally as you may recall the elbow jabs at Renton via Saturday Night Live years back. I encourage the City Council to use constituent push back as an opportunity to inquire and adjust. Brings new meaning to "small" government... Better to renege their own assumptions than voter trust.

In short, to answer your question, the council is keeping with larger trends to dismiss voter voice in favor of the seemingly easy quick and local decisions of a few.

I call upon the City Council and its constituents to be proud of, support, and respond to those constituents who care enough to invest months of grassroots efforts to contribute a say in the future fate of their community space. Conceive the City as a living, breathing, sentient being that grows and develops in concert. The City, for instance, can look to public art to reestablish its ethos remembering that

# # #

Thank you's and hat tips to Jill Blocker via Renton KOMO (http://bit.ly/yLuwEe), Jenny Manning via Renton Patch (http://bit.ly/yP5FId), and Ben Johnson via All Renton (http://bit.ly/wdwxpd). Shout out to Stuart Avery and Citizens for the Preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library troupe for their dedication. Still await reply from Renton Reporter...

Update (2012 Feb 07): I spoke with Renton Reporter editor via phone and emailed a shortened version of my letter. I expect it to print in the next edition.

Update (2012 Feb 08): Thanks to Stuart for submitting the petition this morning to the city clerk. Now we transition to communicate why we want the library move to go to vote. It's important to move forward in rapport and speaking of shared interests. We desire to maintain healthy and respectful relations with the Council while communicating our petition to the public.

Thank you for reading,
Dena Rosko, MA-ComL

Food & Society | Why I Eat as a Sushi-Smoothie-Tea-Vegan-catarian, Food via Theology, & Other Encouragements

2012-02-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

Say yes to your health! I'm proud of you for making that step. I know about that process. For me it took 17+ years in the medical industry and chronic illness to make a radical change. That change started in 2008 when I went to a naturopath who helped me learn about my body, nutrition, and consumption.

Since I dealt with illness, I did an elimination diet (not as bad as it sounds unless you're speaking of your ex LOL). It's a short-term temporary diagnostic process. Sometimes our bodies react to food with allergies, hormone changes, GMO (genetically modified food), and sugar sensitivities because of an ongoing ingredient that we eat that flies below the radar.

So I eliminated wheat, dairy, soy, corn (a big issue for lots of people as it's GMO), and sugar. I had already been eliminating food (acidic and dairy) due to my illness at the time. The naturopath let me decide to what extent I'd go "all in," and I decided that it cost me more to be sick and keep doing the same thing over and again expecting a different result. The 17+ years and medical disconfirmation (dismissing me and not acknowledging my complaint) deprived me of peace of mind and reduced my quality of life. So to me it was a blessed sacrifice to make my own changes.

I encourage you to start small, and then build from there, unless you're a "winner take all" personality. For me I need to know the philosophy and options before deciding. I dropped two sizes, slept better, and skin cleared within 1 month. I learned to cook with vegetables and recently rice and slow cookers. I make a large yield that provides five days worth of food.

I make legumes (adzuki beans my fave) for breakfast for their fiber and protein. Fiber and protein make you feel full and they nourish. I ate a lot of root and cruciferous (e.g., cauliflower my fave) veggies. I ate what veggie I craved. As for fats, I eat lots of avocados and cook with grape seed oil instead of butter. The Omega acids and healthy fats do well for our skin, membranes, connective tissue (arthritis), and the healthy fats and cholesterol, such as in nut butters, help our bodies to make hormones.

I developed my food routine. If we traveled or visited people, I'd either pack food that I took with me or ate beforehand. Then I was free to visit and not feel socially inferior from the lack of inclusion in other's food choices. The social part was hardest of all, but I took it upon myself to make dishes and share them. Many people raved at how good my squash/sweet potato/pumpkin seed salad was, for instance. I led by example. Now a few years later people come to me for advice. I eat smaller portions and just naturally stopped eating poultry and red meat regularly.

If I do eat animal protein, I eat seafood/sushi, once-twice per week. If I'm hosting a family dinner where I know the special guest likes red meat, then I buy an organic portion from a small local meat market. I buy smaller portions since I fill up fast, and don't need more than 4 oz of meat/day anyway. Americans eat way too much meat. That's it and I don't think about it anymore. I didn't start out saying, "I'm going to be vegan." I just wanted to reduce or eliminate altogether the frequency, duration, severity, and oppression of the chronic illness. Everyone has their own process. Yet we learn that process in a context. So ask people to support your changes.

After the elimination diet to diagnose, I added 1 food item per day to see how my body responded, but I chose to continue the diet for 2.5 years! I feared being sick again, and opted to stay on the diet. My body felt on overload from all those years. I also ceased the steroid and antibiotic treatments that clinicians prescribed in favor of my new nutrition plan, smoothies, twice daily Neil med sinus rinses, and ice packs (here and here). I needed a reset and the 2.5 years of eating no grain, not even rice, just veggies and meat. Now I eat rice and seafood, and have slowly added fruits.

I advocate a diet that replaces flavor vs. excludes or deprives. Even diet books talk as though life will be dismal and horrible with terms such as "sacrifice," "tasteless," and so on. It's more sustainable effective, and delicious to replace animal fats with veggie fats such as grapeseed oil, refined sugar with stevia, agave, or cinnamon, MSG or cream with spices/herbs/curry, and even ice cream with fruit/veggie smoothies. You don't miss out on the texture or flavor! You just learn to change it. After awhile your body will crave the good stuff and feel horrible when you eat the bad stuff. It will tell you. You produce your body as a living artform! "I will praise God for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psa. 139).

I like that my body and tastebuds changed over time. I craved less salt and sugar. I drink tea daily because I love the morning ritual, the options or variety, flavors, and health benefits. Oolong works wonders for skin, metabolism, weight loss. I started drinking loose leaf tea in 2008. Now I'm a tea connoisseur. Instead of feeling deprived, sick, and left out, I feel special. The neat thing is that there's more resources and social awareness now. If I can't eat vegan, then I'll eat vegetarian (e.g., the lentil soup at an Indian place had butter in it, but that was the only thing that looked good to me, so I ate it). I still love sushi and seafood. I adore veggie biryani rice! I feel satisfied to contribute health even if not purely vegan.

On cost I can say is that it cost me more in money, time, energy, accomplishments, socializing, and confident peace of mind to be sick. It also can cost more to buy hormone-laden meat, processed food, and so on. Remember that diet change means replacement. You're replacing one thing with another. You buy produce instead of chips, or whatever. In effect you save money assuming that your health improves. You pay less perhaps on medications, as I do, and I feel much happier. That's worth it to me.

Lifestyle changes require paradigm shifts. My pastor says that belief determines behavior. I'm not speaking of struggle. If you struggle to do something, then you've at least conceded that in part you want to change. Yet if you don't believe that health can improve with food consumption, then you most likely won't change what you eat. If you want to change what you eat, then you need to develop your own philosophy of food, to learn information, and to build a support network. Reflect on your adversity and desired contribution and outcomes in life. Does your food lifestyle support those? Make your changes in kind.

Another positive way to think about diet change: Nutrition. Consuming nutrient dense foods such as veggies means you may improve your immune system and be healthier overall. God made the world diverse and colorful. He could have given us rice porridge, but I just love the color and festivity of veggies. I agree that there's something to the Daniel diet. I like most of all his trust in the Lord in the face of being colonialized. Daniel chose the lifestyle that he knew to be healthy and God-honoring even among those in power who disagreed.

You will find many different diet ideas. Often they come and go as trends. So I encourage emphasizing core principles in your eating: Eat many portions, 80/20, or most veggie product as possible, and less meat or sugar, and replace your animal or processed flavors with healthy and plant derived ones. Take caution about food allergy, which is where the elimination diet can help. Keep a food journal to help you remember what you ate and what happened. When you reintroduce a food, your body will often tell you if it doesn't tolerate the food.

On convenience, it seems convenient to put in a pre-made dish in the micro or what not, but not if it makes you sick. Experiment! Enjoy it no matter what you do and no matter how hard it seems at first. Some dishes will flop, but odds are you'll find something you like and stick with that. I take 1-2 Xs/week to make a dish, and it doesn't take me that long. Then I put it in the fridge. Veggie food prep is easier to clean up (less animal grease). Now I feel a bit more freedom. I might fudge here and there, but overall I know I've a pot of some kind of veggie or cup of smoothie at home.

I look to Scripture for wisdom and motivation to help with change. Scripture says to be transformed by our minds (Romans 12:1-2), and that God has given us all we need by his power for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). So even though change seems overwhelming or impossible, as improving my health via food, "we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us" (Phil. 4:13).

Scripture says that "it's better to suffer for doing evil than for doing good" (1 Peter 2:20; 3:17), meaning that you'll suffer pain whether or not you change your diet, so even in negative terms you can choose the nature of your suffering to an extent. Note that I don't mean "blame the patient," for that performs violence, but that reasoning helped me to choose my food path.

God writes his law on our hearts (Jer. 31:33). Sometimes food change feels as punishment in many forms, such as social exclusion, lacking flavor, or just the angst of changing one's routine. Yet we've freedom to govern our lives as living and changing. Living things need to change to grow. So even if you change your food habits for a short time, and don't like it, then you can change to some other food choice, and so on. The key includes deciding by your conscience a doable goal for good change.

Be encouraged that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13) and don't give up at least too soon. For me I committed to 20 days elimination diet. I remember feeling so hungry one evening that I ate a green bell pepper. Yet isn't that what God gave us to eat? Why is eating a green bell pepper weird, deviant, or undesirable? After all, I felt much better afterwards! Note the irony in how food industry, which indeed must account for growing population and global problems such as drought and infestation, confusingly flips and obfuscates our food normal.

God created food for a reason, and often exposes that reason in the design (I've a theory that how a food is shaped helps that part of the body! e.g., Avocados=testicles in Spanish and sprouts look as sperm, and in all seriousness investigate correlates with diet and reproduction, rheumatology, endocrinology, and so on!). So even though it seems overwhelming and expensive at first, a plant-based and self-governed diet change is actually simple. It's just the initial change that can be hard.

I began to understand the politics of food, or the conflict of interest with money, the FDA, medical, and food industry. It's not so much about saying no to animal product, for God gave permission to eat meat (e.g., Deut. 12:15), and removed barriers to outreach by saying, "What God has made clean, do not call common" (Acts 10:15; context 10:1-11:18). Ask what in your case will be compassionate and beneficial.

Elsewhere Scripture chastises animal cruelty as "wicked" (Prov. 12:10), calls our bodies the Holy Spirit's temple (1 Cor. 6:19-20), and says, "all is permissible, but not all is beneficial" (1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23). It may be permissible to eat meat, but we each must decide to what extent does [fill in the blank] benefit us.

Building from Christ's imperative to shine as a city on a hill (Matt. 5:14), we also must consider our impact on society as a whole. If we expect health reform, then we must consider how and why we reform our habits. Yes we choose to heal, and part of our testimony includes how and why we respond to our health. God may allow physical suffering, but I appreciate acquiring resources to make changes. I ask God to heal me, to bless our efforts, and to make us to prosper.

Practically, if we eat food that grew up in a diseased, crowded space, then that disease spreads to our bodies. So for our health's sake, practically, even if not ethically, it makes sense to in the least eat organic and sustainably non-GMO farmed meat. In any case as Christians we must "choose this day whom we serve" (Josh. 24:15) and the freedom to heed what our conscience tells us is beneficial. As women we listen to our inner bear, and I believe we can hear our intuition better when we take in a healthy and beneficial lifestyle of our choosing.

Happily Healthy (above series)

After a clinic visit (above)

Quite sick here (above)

I told God that though I didn't need health per se, my health constitutes a resource, and I wanted to be healthy to contribute. Changing your diet won't preclude you from sickness necessarily, nor do my gains over the last few years preclude responsibility and accountability of medical clinicians who, with the medical system, reneged their responsibility to ethically, humanely, and effectively treat or cure my illness. I ask God for health, and people for help, including myself.

So that's my reasoning and Judaic-Christian theology behind my food choices. Mostly I want to encourage people, so if what I've said helps, good. If not, then let me know or be free to file it away. Put another way, as must be said nowadays, I'm not a "licensed medical practitioner," even though I contend that health knowledge must not be siloed into an monetized medical industry "expert," just don't sue me if you dislike my advice.

Make friends online at FB and twitter; many foodies out there for ideas! Check out my recent "Likes" on FB for a list of Veggie pages, or just web search "plant sourced diets," "vegan," "vegetarian," "pescetarian," or "GMO" to learn more about different food debates, lifestyles, and recipes.

How does food influence your quality of life?

Be free to post questions in the comments!

Love!
Dena

Education Reform | Designing, Organizing, Communicating, & Delivering Education for Happy & Healthy Societies

2012-01-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

I agree with President Obama that "higher education is not a luxury; it's an economic imperative." However, I regard education as a societal imperative.

Catalytic Questions

Will Obama's proposed changes to education benefit or perpetuate? How do we communicate education reform?

Background

I graduated happily with an MA in Communication and Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University and a BA in English and Communication with emphases on Creative Writing and Mass Media Studies from the University of Washington. I currently consult organizations for communication strategy and develop narrative health.

I'm seeking a doctorate program where I can expand my interests in applying the arts, communication, and leadership to transforming health, education, and the public commons. I desire to do so in a fiscally responsible and prosperous manner. I've embarked on what has become a 3 year quest to locate a doctorate program for my goals and family. I desire to teach my themes as an adjunct professor, design innovative and beneficial approaches to education and health, and consult civic leaders and organizations on the latter. Digital media and leadership sensibilities require me to study implications for cyber law and governance within my foci.

I've surveyed the landscape, and now proffer my ideas on education reform as follows:

Chief Complaint

The surface complaint involves access to education, and the underlying chief complaint include the paradigms and culture codes that drive it. Here's one example of how the system backslaps the situated, or blames students for going into debt. I hear such sentiments in the housing industry also, or that blame people who take/took out 2nd mortgages to finance a home. At first glance it seems that there's a cultural bent towards the status quo, but an angst about how things are, which to me begs the question: How can we reform a broken system if, when it comes down to it, there seems to be a lack of cultural support?

In any case, "Keeping College Affordable and Within Reach for All Americans" language makes me wary, not in the access POV, but b/c of the meritocratic implication I hear, and I fear that legislators believe access to mean lowering quality standards, which to me sounds like an -ism. Do they believe their students to have it in them to succeed? "Race to the top" language still reeks of the meritocracy that legislation allegedly changes. More bonds won't fix it, more loans won't fix it, and a .pdf list of "available" financial aid won't fix it. If we're to improve access, then that language won't work anymore.

Containing constituents in for 6-8 years, and less than half who complete a doctorate at that, burdens their energy, snuffs out their enthusiasm, and breaks their bank as well as that of educators and taxpayers. A less than 50% completion rate nationwide discourages and leads to disillusionment in a culture that already codes education as only meritorious for utility and money.

A meritocracy doesn't help the human need to design, organize, communicate, and deliver a holos society together. A meritocracy uses standardized tests and other metrics for achievement to position the ruling class. A primal meritocracy becomes territorial and embeds obstacles in the system, e.g., higher education, to prevent students from succeeding, for if students succeed, then they compete with the territory. The ruling class then back slaps the students' efforts, criticizing them for their debt and discrediting their ideas or contribution that pose a threat.

Meritocratic concerns, primal or not, raise questions about access. Why is edu so hard to access? Why do learners need to work 6-10 years to earn a degree, and why are times to complete so long? The latter hinders access as well: access to a credential that helps people apply their themes to society, and access to income. Leaders use the same metrics that depleted education, among other sectors, in the first place. We must reconceptualize and redesign our higher education programs altogether before proposing cost.

Current political landscape causes me to worry that education, even basic K-12, won't be available to future generations mainly because our culture both devalues education and applies rigid metrics that limit access. For instance, Obama's proposal to prevent interest rates from doubling in July '12 and adding more work study only perpetuates -- if only highlights -- the problem.

We have reduced learning to method, or the "how" motif prevalent in US culture (Block, 2002). We fight for our place in the pecking order of perceived social and economic value instead of showing instead of telling culture and society our value. We've the dominance of the PhD, which overtook the ladder climb of the Doctor of Arts (1930s-1980s). Each carries its paradigmatic assumptions and language at times an artifact of historical development and culture codes.

Now an allegedly saturated market with PhD begs the question: How and why does a PhD matter with its inch wide and mile deep contribution? Again we silo knowledge and so reduce it to territory driven by the colonialist assumptions that we must "master" knowledge. Could it be that we've discomfort over mystery, over what we don't know, and prefer an illusion that we contain knowledge in ourselves as our own resource?

Then we reach faculty status and project our genre, method, or our philosophy onto our students. Not so fast: I've many professors who broke that mold and contributed to my journey. However, we force students into our mold when we design an admissions protocol and program that requires learners to apply with a faculty's "like" interest, theme, method, or genre. Show me the crossovers, speak to me about desired contribution, respond to your learners, challenge cultural norms. Otherwise, we don't improve education; we perpetuate it.

Do we as academics even locate our desired contribution, vision for our work, and niche to fill in our genre or social need? Institutions and government leaders rekindle the debate on the price tag of a liberal arts education reducing education to valid only via an monetized metric, and the conflict continues as to what constitutes being "worth" investing resources. Is it possible to break out of the pendulum swing for a broadly applicable education process?

More than that, education as is now does not aptly respond to the need to develop a holos society. More on that later.

Recommendations

Recommendations include transitioning from meritocracy and siloed separatist attitudes to designing programs that guide vocational development, cross-sector contribution, utilize communication technology, improve digital and foresight literacy, and envision a holos society that keeps in step with societal changes (see Laszlo, 2001; Naisbitt, 1984). I define societal as all the sectors that we organize to build society. I include socio- political, legal, cultural, interpersonal, or the situated and systemic. We design systems, e.g., education, with which the situated, e.g., you and me, live.

I figure a change to meritocratic assumptions will benefit higher education. Just as with health reform, we need to reform our paradigm before reforming how we organize/communicate/deliver, and that before reforming how we pay for it. Contrary to US code, we need to reflect with foresight on our sector's vision and mission for society, and then embed that vision into our strategy. Talking about how we pay for it, while a logistical and tactical resource to consider, comes last. It's as if I went to a job interview and asked first thing what I assumed they'd pay me before even discussing and discovering overlap my/their desired contribution. So discuss money last to allow for brainstorming now.

I encourage programs to embed their vision/mission/desired outcomes into the program strategy, and to scaffold the dissertation in to improve time to completes. Redo your admissions protocols to ask for the learner's vision/mission/desired outcomes. Standardized tests don't guarantee student success. With conflict of interests in monetizing said tests, such tests obfuscate our process and treat knowledge as though it's siloed into our memory. If you require a test, then choose or develop one that tests process, but take care on your assumptions and culturally contrived motifs for what constitutes reasoning ability. Build your program to flex with multiple frames of knowing (see Carey, 1999).

Assess your program design and core values before you assess potential students' potential contribution. There remain no guarantees in a mortal world. Even so admit learners holistically, or based on their vision/mission/desired outcome, motivation, community involvement, writing, interactivity, and so on. Be creative. Ask students to write their own letter of recommendation. Let them speak for themselves. Disband the "right fit" verbiage to avoid reducing your program to a container, too. By all means make social media channels and hire someone to field inquiries. Some students won't even apply if you don't communicate in digital media because digital media comprises a resource and point of access.

I advocate a modular design of coursework instead of the waterfall approach (e.g., courselist, comps, dissertation, defense). A modular and scaffolded approach overlaps each, but for the service of the a priori ab initio, or aforementioned first principle, or the program's desired contribution. A modular program would have shorter terms, each with a thematic focus and method, one with community service/employment overlap, one with a community project, a few with course lists, and, at 1-2 intervals per year, one with dissertation development. Note that the dissertation scaffolds into the program.

Value creative freedom in research. Such can be done within the program themes and desired contribution, especially if you admitted learners appropriate for your program. The dissertation can be a hypothesis or discovery-driven research, special project, or essay. Each module will build upon the learner's bibliography and program themes. The degree program will allow individualized option for learners to apply their themes to the degree genre. The goal is to create programs with 3 year time to completes that maximize the learner's theory, praxis, and a societal benefit.

Encourage learners to create creative texts or projects to study instead of rehashing, testing, or applying a previous theory or method. Remind them to design their social and medical research with open-ended, follow-up, and thematic questions via dialogue. Teach them what it means to confirm a participant (building from Anderson, Cissna, & Arnett, 1994; Cissna & Seiberg, 2005; Chase, 1996). Emphasize innovation and inquiry, which go beyond internal review boards and correspondance. We need to step up with a confirmation and contribution ethos in our work. Both researcher and participants contribute and confirm process and findings. Heed Block's (2009) call to educate and lead for community.

In addition make programs marketable for learners beyond a degree title, or design the program where the student can teach and consult, and/or write, advise civic leaders, start a business, and so on. Many learners won't reach the luxury of tenure, and that job status may not last, either. People need a diverse, but thematically focused, portfolio to earn an income. Hire more adjunct faculty who also do something else. Make the program vocationally diverse. Allow learners to design their courselist based on their desired contribution, skills, and gifts.

Utilize communication technology instead of fear it. CMC enhances your relevance, interactivity, and digital literacy. Learners need to work with co-located and distributed teams. Their work will require global teams. Change the assumption that "real" is only "in-class" and mix up the delivery modalities to include communication technology. Provide a "history of" your discipline course so students understand that it's impossible to master an entire body of work, but make it doable and lend perspective, insight, or proffer context so learners know how, where, and for what purpose to situate their work in an existing genre, or allow them to develop another.

Learners can elect to focus on up to 3 themes/genres (vs. disciplines, e.g., health), and apply their modalities to benefit that sector. Be creative in your teaching, which requires courage and foresight to see past the offense, hype, or hysteria of the "new." For instance, I suspect that gaming can help political discourse by teaching collaboration, cooperation, innovation, storytelling, and creativity. So it's a theory-praxis program.

Embrace emergent and discovery-driven thematic research and do not worry about its discursive mess. Return the exploration (not frontiersman) motif to research. You need not be an "expert" in your student's method, genre, or philosophy. You learn with them. Of course this pressures time when you've 40+ papers to read, and you worry if you're delivering quality. However, who says you stop learning when you reach professor status?

Learners need not, building from Ramage (2005), fill or "pursue" a readymade degree in which to fall, but someone who believes in them as a colleague, contributor, and member of society and then together helps them translate that belief into treatises, essays, projects, and research design. Otherwise we risk oppressing the students by expecting them to continue our paradigm. Faculty let me explore my themes within the disciplinary genre, but did not confine me in their preferred methods or paradigms.

In addition we need to enhance digital literacy, collaboration, and flesh out cyber law. Digital and social media contributes to education with its embedded interactivity and storytelling. I've developed my recommendations here from conversations in social media over several months. I see cyber law as a niche to develop for the public commons. I perceive past assumptions, or silod meritocratics, at odds with the collaborative and sharing culture in digital media, which includes multi-modal channels such as internet, social media, and mobile technology (see Chvasta, 2003).

Reframe students as learners (process), constituents (contributors), and influencers (leaders). Emphasize education as development, which requires a program that allows for that process to take place.

For holistic design and sustainability, we can no longer afford to silo knowledge, or study a topic an inch wide and mile deep. It will take eons for others to "mine" that info and we need not bootstrap our system, or make it totally reliant upon ourselves. Note the primal scene in delivering education to protect our siloed territory.

Thus, education reform needs more opportunity for interaction and collaboration embedded into the requirements. After all, we expect our politicians to have broad shoulders that care about outcomes, or to work together for a common goal. We must develop such leaders.

Include family instead of imply learners must separate (there we go again to the silo) family from learning with the patronizing imperative to "balance work and family." Rapoport, Bailyn, Fletcher, and Pruitt (2002) already made a case that doing so comes from a gendered meritocratic norm. Confront the US cultural norm for siloing vs. sharing, competing and merit vs. collaborating and contributing to community.

Know the demands that adult learners face in child-bearing, elder care, work, and their own self-care. Provide supportive resources beyond educational brochures. Build infrastructure, such as breast-feeding stations and day cares, and offer hybrid delivery that utilizes communication technology to reduce, but maximize, on-ground requirements. Doing so reduces travel time, displaces carbon footprint, and may prevent drop-outs while expediting time to completes and empowering students to apply their studies in other life spheres. We must design programs that embed our core values because those systems influence outcomes.

Note that the ends and means don't justify each other, but influence and reflect the ethos of our process and outcomes. We must account for the justice and mercy in our social sectors, including education, where doing so means we are honest about our contribution. No more can we backslap students for going into debt for school any more than we can spank mortgage product owners for going into debt for a house. The system and the norms need to change just as do our situated habits. Assuming that the family is the first nation, then changing to a supportive and contributory norm, well imagine how that will help even politicians finally work together.

Resist the urge to swing the pendelum with wedge issues with holistic life at stake. Who are we to say what primary metric, theory, text, paradigm, or philosophy in use ought to be a primary mode to educate? Note that education as process resists, ideally, polar points or positions in favor of dialogue and confirmation. Otherwise we risk perpetuating hate speech by building oppressive systems that stereotype learners or people groups with whom we disagree over philosophy, method, or framework.

Design programs that respect freedom as a means to thrivability. In a free society tolerance means putting up with, but that virtue hinders drawing nearer to collaborate for solutions. I suggest compassionate and skillful contribution as a more effective or at least desireable virtue because then you must make the effort to draw near in conversation with someone else for a shared vision or goal instead of subordinating them to the imago mei or even ma/paternalism carved into our education system.

To that end, I encourage faculty, departments, and universities to break down political barriers within academia before expecting politicians to do the same. In lack of resources it's tempting to powerhold and fight over who gets what with a spirit of fear. Instead of framing your ask for your department, discipline, or university only, or crafting your message in making wedge issues out of which academic genre is better, interact with people and universities other than those in your department or school. Be that standard and benefit that we expect of others.

Invite collaboration beyond the conference or bibliometric of citing each other's work, journal primacy, which can risk conflict of interest and bias, amount to peer pressure or lead to in-fighting, and hinder constituent health, just as clinician referrals do. Offset journal dominance. Challenge notions that the printed and published are "permanent." Acknowledge blogging and other digital media as relevant citations and publications. Learn digital culture's norms for giving credit. Vouch for transparency and sharing.

Account for the pendulum swing that often shapes discourse. Notice the primal scene of making one text or genre or discipline primary (see Hunter, 1999). Doing so affects access because you monetize and credentialize one genre at the expense of others. Quit framing your method or paradigm as a reaction to the former.

Reflect with foresight on what you want your situated and systemic desired contribution to be. Then show stories of people and groups making a positive difference together to that end. In all I propose designing programs for a reflective learning/vocational benefit. Ideally this approach improves time to completes, sustainability, and rapport with the hosting locale. Respect reciprocity: Give back to your hosting locale!

Enmesh social justice of some tone into your program. For me that ethos explains the implications of the fear/love dialectic and the fear-->judgment-->hate-->death progression (1 John 4:18-19). Design program themes to respond to common human experiences such as mortality awareness and fear, and provide loving interventions for the many woes that follow suit. Design your program with foresight understanding what the next generation wants. Their cultural norms will influence your potentially shrinking or overly bloated application pool.

So care for your learners, each other, and society, and love what you learn and do with this wild and glorious life. Design programs with overlapping modules that value holism. Observe that holism includes transformative influence, mind/body/soul, relationships, economics, and other frames of knowing (building from Carey, 1999). In other words, care for your students' job prospects as much as you care about the ethos of your process and the student as a whole person both situated and systemic.

Require an ethos in their design that desists reducing participants to people outside of themselves, or primal containers of their predecessers. This outsider or separatist primal mindset that objectifies and thus reduces learners leads to power abuse such as police pepper spraying or shooting rubber bullets at students. Shed compliance initiatives in education; allow the learning to be discursive, overlapping, interdisciplinary, multi- modal and channel, interactive, vocational, holistic, and otherwise messy.

Practically, we can't keep piling our genres as they develop over time and expect our progeny to consume and contain it all. Embed a participatory ethos by participating (building from Behar, 1996; Denzin, 2003; Russell, 2004). Work together! Develop compassion that way. Watch your program flourish. Consider the benefits of networking and designing education programs for diplomacy, or even friendship (building from Tillmann-Healy, 2003).

To recap

We need to offset the primal scenes in education in favor of collaborative contribution, societal benefit and health, sustainability, and efficacy.
We need to replace meritocratic assumptions with holism and an ethos for learner contribution and societal benefit.
We need to reconceptualize our programs in terms of classic vocational development, transformative influence, and vision/mission/desired contribution.
We must reflect on what and why of our process and the implications of our method before deciding on how to allocate resources.

My Desired Contribution

For my part I aim to write and consult politically in my area to contribute to education reform. I propose a narrative health approach recognizing that this approach constitutes one genre, modality, and language. Even so, narrative health assumes and embeds holism in paradigm, design, and practice. Narrative health involves realizing aesthetic intent (building from Conquergood, 1983; 1985; 1998; Mattingly, 1998; Pelias & VanOosting, 1987).

A holistic paradigm considers and includes all frames of knowing and learns how to apply them per context and sector via per means and ends. Most importantly, proffer reflective learning to engage focus and contribute vocation for a situated and systemic benefit.

I encourage candidates, educators, and artists to use social media to inquire of and interact with their constituents. The metric is the interaction and not broadcasting. In this way social media can help politics by aiding content producers to be more in touch with the people whom they serve. Consider the benefits of designing communication systems that listen, where listening and responding also constitute communicating.

I'm interested in contributing to education reform via consulting and co-writing a paradigm shift for education book section, and translating that to networking with civic leaders. I seek to study writing as applied to health and the public commons (e.g., education, law, leadership).

My "credo" or mission in my work stems from this biblical imperative: "Wholly absorb yourself in your gifts that God has given you so that everyone will see your progress... Pay close attention to your teaching so that it will save its hearers including yourself" (italics added, 1 Timothy 4:14-16 NASB). So for me education means vocational development, which comes down to a vocationally holistic imperative, or reflecting on (quiet) and applying (activity) God's calling via his spiritual gifts.

Normatively, Christians use those to build the church and to reach out or "shine as a city on a hill" (Matt. 5:14) with the ever-nudging credo: "all things are permissable, but not all things benefit" (1 Cor. 10:23). Do we shine in our example in education? Do we seek a benefit in our education?

Such principles transfer. I appreciated Moreland's (1997) call to apply one's calling in academia, Palmer (1990; 1998; 2000; 2004) and Buford (1995) on vocation, and Schultze's (2000) emphasis on communicating for life and peace. Move beyond the inferiority complex of believing we must always be starving students barely nudging the working class ceiling. Transition from this inferiority ego to a public service mindset.

My friend told me, "You have a right to prosper. It's sinful to not charge for your services." She put a new spin on "sin" and challenged my paradigm that I'm a starving artist, and I realized that we design systems for dominance when it's better to design them for social benefit. Develop people via vocation, reflective learning, and program themes in a modular program designed to succeed in a timely fashion so that learners can contribute their genres and modalities as influencers and contributors.

Beyond all that, I like to challenge assumptions, translate academic language, and explain the culture codes and primal scenes driving paradigms. Mostly I dig to unearth guiding principles, and hope be an holistic influence. I write about what I learn desiring to draft reform. I interweave the writer's happy solitude with fieldwork in volunteering and consulting.

In the field, whether education, health, or civic, I apply guiding principles via my modalities. I discern the nature of my contribution since I've been in the field. I've interacted with people and their context. Allowing others to help and shape my contribution humbles me and benefits outcomes. So whether or not society monetizes my contribution, I keep at my craft.

Conclusion

Practice and normalize such heartfelt and holistic academic anthropology that responds and shapes the situated, systemic, discerned, and applied. Opt for a holistic society, and design education for that purpose and with that process.

I've a hunch that education as vocational development, again vocation in the classic sense that draws on a learner's adversity, gifts, desired skills and contribution, provides a healthy happy approach to education. We need programs that improve access to a learner's intent and communal benefit with shorter times to complete, paradigm shifts from merit to holism and competition to contribution, and a modular adaptive design.

In all a successful degree program does not ecquivocate to a gauntlet unless of course you run it as a primal meritocracy. That's the metric for a primal meritocracy. The key is to make education more flexible, doable, compassionate, and sustainable. Doing so requires offsetting meritocratic assumptions and practices that perpetuate reductionism, separatism, and containment. Freire (1970) and Parker Follett (1918) provide timely reads for education and democracy.

Performance will be required regardless the framework. Remember that a doctorate of philosophy is a philosophy of a discipline. We must pride ourselves in a high, not low, completion rate. Education must not be for the oligarchy or meritocracy, but a living, flexible, and growing entity that, practically speaking, is but an important season in people's lives. Constantly apply and weave your academic themes with your organizational life in all its sectors. Bridge your program with your hosting locale's needs. Be communally relevant and holistically beneficial.

Remember that enlightenment refers to the Latin meaning of "education," and "vocation" the voice that calls in the wilderness. If we're to design a Holos civilization, or a healthy society, then we must bring together our frames of knowing to a process that progresses theory-->praxis with an ethos for contribution of a beneficial kind. In times of loss, whether recession or an election year, we do well to respond to fear/phobia cross sector/team with courage and resilience to benefit the person and the deliverables.

Such concludes holistic leadership, the umbrella theme under which my efforts to reform how and why we communicate about health and leadership for the public commons. Consider the benefits of designing, organizing, communicating, and delivering education programs that help people to thrive as they contribute to a happy and healthy society.

Learn More

Read more on Obama's suggested changes to education:

Read more about my recommendations for education reform. Access my research and consulting.

Contribute

What education design, assumptions, paradigms, and outcomes do you recommend as ideal? Why, and then How?

For the win,
Dena

References

Anderson, R, Cissna, K.N., & Arnett, R.C. (Eds.). (1994). The reach of dialogue: Confirmation, voice and community. Hampton, NJ: Hampton.

Behar, R. (1996). The vulnerable observer: anthropology that breaks your heart. Boston, MA: Beacon.

Block, P. (2002). The answer to how is yes: Acting on what matters. San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler.

Block, P. (2009). Community: The structure of belonging. San Francisco: Berrett Koehler.

Buford, T.O. (1995). In search of a calling: The college's role in shaping identity. Macon, GA: Mercer.

Carey, M.R. (1999). Heraclitean fire: Journeying on the path of leadership. Dubuque, IO: Kendall/Hunt.

Chase, S. (1996). Personal owner ability and interpretive authority and narrative research. In R. Josselson (Ed.), Ethics and process in the narrative study of lives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Chvasta, M. (2003). The mediated life; ‘And I loved her’. Unpublished essay. Retrieved October 26, 2010, from http://www.cas.usf.edu/~mchvasta/luckydip/mediatedlife.pdf

Cissna, K.N., & Sieburg, E. (2005). Patterns of interactional confirmation and disconfirmation. In J. Stewart (Ed.), Bridges not walls: A book about interpersonal communication (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Conquergood, D. (1983). A sense of the other: Interpretation and ethnographic research. In I.M. Crouch, & G.R. Owen (Eds.), Proceedings of summer/conference on oral traditions (pp. 148-155). Las Cruces, NM: New Mexico State University.

Conquergood, D. (1985). Performing as a moral act: Ethical dimensions of the ethnography of performance. Literature in Performance, 5(2), 1-13.

Conquergood, D. (1998). Beyond the text: Toward performative cultural politics. In S.J. Daily (Ed.), The future of performance studies: Visions and revisions (pp. 25-36). Annandale, VA: National Communication Association.

Denzin, N. K. (2003). Performance ethnography: Critical pedagogy and the politics of culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Hunter, L. (1999). Critiques of knowing: Situated textualities in science, computing and the arts. New York & London: Routledge.

Laszlo, E. (2001). Macroshift: Navigating the transformation to a sustainable world. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Mattingly, C. (1998). Healing dramas and clinical plots: The narrative structure of experience. New York: Cambridge.

Moreland, J. (1997). Love your God with all your mind: The role of reason in the life of the soul. Colorado Springs: NavPress.

Naisbitt, J. (1984). Megatrends: Ten new directions transforming our lives. New York: Warner.

Palmer, P.J. (1990). The active life: A spirituality of work, creativity, and caring. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach (10th anniversary ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P.J. (2000). Let your life speak: Listening for the voice of vocation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P.J. (2004). A hidden wholeness: The journey toward an undivided life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pelias, R.J., & VanOosting, J. (1987). A paradigm for Performance Studies. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 73(2), 219-31.

Ramage, J. (2005). Rhetoric: A user’s guide. New York: Longman.

Rapoport, R., Bailyn, L., Fletcher, J., Pruitt, B. (2002). Beyond work-family balance. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.

Russell, L. (2004). A long way toward compassion. Text and Performance Quarterly, 24(3/4), 233-254.

Schultze, Q. (2000). Communicating for life: Christian stewardship in community and media (4th ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.

Tillmann-Healy, L. (2003). Friendship as method. Qualitative Inquiry, 9, 729-749.

Express Yourself! | Expression Project || Dena [2012]

2012-01-21T14:13:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

Remember that game in Kindergarten? You know, write under the face the emotion name? Every so often I do self-portraits for that evasive profile pic. This morning I decided to be fun with it, and turned vanity into an Expression Project:

I came up with the idea for an Expression Project to

have fun/be funny,
be comfortable in own skin,
value emotions, or offset criminalizing emotions,
fine tune awareness as a photographer, e.g., posing,
humanize people in photographs vs. call them "subjects,"
express as a pathway to interactivity,
improve mindfulness of the power of self expression,
decrease fear of "being exposed,"
transition impression management to "expressive presentation,"
generate positive pairing for expression,
break down walls to connect with others,
add more expressions than the smile,
consider impact and efficacy in conveying the self,
enhance compassion and empathetic understanding,
empower public speaking,
include the researcher in the project,
offset harmful views of body image,
produce a positive self image,
reframe vanity to defer to holism, or health,
transition from containment/consumer motif, e.g., "have," to identity,
lead by example,
and to laugh at self,

or to otherwise embrace the power of expression.

To establish a "baseline," I photographed with/at the same

time/day,
lighting environment,
camera (mobile phone!)
production software,
location,
clothes,
colorspace,
cropping,
and vertical/horizontal framing.

I opted for grayscale to reduce any other distraction in the image save the expression. I used the same editing process in Lightroom and IrfanView. I did not caption the images with my interpretation or "favorites." Here I'm trying to be interactive (see below). I wore red because I like red, and so I shared my favorites in color elsewhere.

I suspect that this project can benefit people. I offer it as an expressive arts modality for consulting for those navigating change, stress, or loss. Here the person(s) must do their own expression project.

Barring all else, I'll let you know if I receive any calls from Hollywood...

What emotions do you see expressed above? I encourage you to create your own Expression Project! Start with yourself first! It's fast, easy, fun, and you might learn a new side of you!

Strike a Pose!
Dena

As a person thinks in her heart,

so she is...

~ Prov. 23:7

Winter Storm | Night Walk in the Snow! [2012]

2012-01-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues!

We enjoyed a night walk yesterday (1/19/12) in the falling snow:

We accumulated ~5" snow (1/18) + 0.5" ice (1/19) + 1-2" snow (1/19). I took care when walking on such a snow-ice sandwich with James' REI Yak Trax as the snow caved soft in some places, especially at the base of curbs, and rock-hard and uneven from footprints and snowplow snowballs in others. The most awesome KEEN socks via Nordstrom Rack kept my feet warm and dry. Also we navigated around fallen trees from the ice storm.

If driving speed's an indication, then some seemed to be overconfident. I jumped out of the way of a speeding wannabe-hummer, whose driver felt it appropriate to swing wide in my pedestrian direction to park in an empty lot. Plus 95 car accidents in 8 hours on the first day in Pierce and Thurston counties, and disrupted flight schedules. Aside from all that, I'm proud of Seattle- and Renton- ites for exercising restraint by staying off the roads when possible. I encourage continued caution when driving and walking.

I recall the storm of 1996 [Gov. Lowry transcript]. I returned home on Christmas leave from my first undergraduate semester at Multnomah University. James and I, plus our neighborhood friends on Renton's West Hill, walked outside for a good three hours or more at night.

During that walk we stopped by a greenhouse, and at 10 pm the owners tended to their plants with heat lamps. We walked to Fred Meyer, where I bought green thermals and left the store much warmer! James held out his hand to help me up and down embankments. We weren't yet dating then, but we were interested! During that storm, James and I invested a better part of our morning pushing people's stuck cars.

I smile to think that 16 years later we walked about our current neighborhood as a 6-year-old married couple. I appreciate a connecting sense of time that, though life's seasons seem discursive and distance us from those we love, a new yet familiar shared experience brings us back.

I love the quiet and brightness of snowy evenings. The white snow enlarges the trees and buildings and makes them seem closer.

During this storm, James recovered from a cold, and I sat and watched the snow fall. I'm grateful for shelter and that our power stayed on most of the time save a brief 20 minute power outage yesterday morning with intermittent internet connection that died out at night.

Night walks work fantastic to ease cabin fever, which I did not have. I enjoyed chatting with neighbors, hearing kids gleefully yell and swear at the cool factor of large and crazy ice, and scurry about in ridiculous looking yet warm attire with everyone else:

We went to the store twice, the lights of which flickered, and then at my insistence ate sushi:

All in all a fantastic night. I awoke to this glorious sunrise as the eaves dripped and tree branches breaking the fall of ice sheets that crashed to the ground in pieces:

Watch now for flooding.

Keep up to date with weather, King County Metro, Washington state declarations, and school closures. Note safety measures for power outage and stormy weather. Access more weather posts and a havoc recap. Beware of falling ice as the ice melts and breaks off of trees and eaves. Make the most of it and find a way as we did to enjoy this La Niña adventure!

Special thanks to all the folks who contributed their part to serve during this storm, including government staff, energy workers, reporters, bloggers, tweeters, neighbors, and just everyday you for checking in on loved ones:

What about you? How did you enjoy the storm, or make the best of it? How are you managing the thaw?

Stunningly & Remarkably
Albeit to be Respected,
though Some Constern,
Fun!
Dena

P.S.

Back to PNW normal! Rain! 20 Jan 2012. Renton, Wash.

Winter Storm | Snow & Ice [2012]

2012-01-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues!

Enjoy these images of the beautiful, yet hazardous, snowfall and ice rain here in Renton:

Here's two brief videos of the snowfall followed by a pixel-roll:

James photographed these on his morning walk (2012 Jan 19):

Our Subaru arrived just in time from Chaplin's in Bellevue! Subie handled fantastic! Here's me driving it in the snow for the first time to practice (thanks James for car and photos):

Note the broken, fallen, and flayed tree branches, which have caused power outages for upwards 70K Washingtonians. Gov. Gregoire declared a state of emergency. Notice the green ferns laid flat by the weight, and the growing icicles.

Lest you scoff at we Washingtonians, observe that we do not pre-treat our roads for the once or twice per season snowfall (the salmon, undercarriages of our cars, and water bodies thank us). Even Wazzu, due to highway closures, closed.

Keep up to date with weather, King County Metro, and school closures. Note safety measures for power outage. See more weather posts.

Drive/walk/be safe out there, and stay warm! I will most likely add more photos with our upcoming photo walks. As for me, snow storms remind me of fun times sledding down my hill with my childhood friend and drinking hot cocoa afterwards.

Here's a haiku I wrote about the storm:

Snowflakes as puzzles

Interlock clinging to trees

Sharing Winter warmth

Let it Snow,
Dena

In Protest of SOPA & PIPA | This Artist's Response & Letter

2012-01-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

I submitted the following letter to my civic representatives today to join the protest of SOPA/PIPA. Wikipedia launched a blackout of their site yesterday (1/18/12) to protest SOPA/PIPA, and other sites followed. My letter emphasizes me as an artist to correct erroneous assumption that SOPA/PIPA help artists (they do not as follows):

I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I work as a communication consultant, photographer, and writer. I urge you to vote "no" on cloture for S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act, on Jan. 24th. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. It does not deserve floor consideration. I urge my representative to vote "no" on SOPA HR 3261, the corresponding House bill.

Note the difference in effectiveness and sustainability in health and education. Digital approaches to collaboration can change those two sectors; key world events in recent years have already shown how digi-collaboration changes politics. I dislike monetizing what people need, and people need to communicate and collaborate their contribution to build healthy societies. Yet I know people need to earn a monetized living to pay for necessities, and I also know the frustration of people "stealing" my art online. In any case, law in US is becoming more centralized and not in a democratic-republic-socialist way.

I do not equivocate democracy w/"free" market capitalism b/c such does not exist when you have an oligarchy or otherwise setting value over goods and occupations, or worse, when you have a gov't allowing corporations to sell jobs overseas, aka outsourcing. How then will people "make" money to "drive" the economy and "save" us from the recession? In other words, the prior used metrics no longer apply. I find pretentious at best b/c the whole system seems contrived. Thus PIPA and SOPA will be ineffective to bring about the desired outcome of monetizing and siloing knowledge.

I write elsewhere that we need to transition our culture of siloing knowledge and meritocracy to collaboration and contribution. Imagine the cross sector benefits that can take place in health and education with such a paradigm shift. Observe how paradigms and assumptions influence how we design, organize, and deliver systems. It's important to pause and reflect on the what and why behind our approach before we arrive to "how." I see PIPA and SOPA as a knee-jerk "how to" fast fix on corporate interest to continue siloing knowledge and thus perpetuating a divided society with economic disparities that hampers creative contribution.

In this way, and in its unqualified language, I see SOPA and PIPA as acts of violence and not as the intended "protection" for corporations. These laws will not help our economy, but will hurt them, and set a poor example for the constitutional right to free speech that the US espouses and for the failure of which criticizes other nation states.

Be that as it may, PIPA and SOPA lack precise language that qualifies power and thus does not provide a reasonable check and balance. Notice that people online freely adopt a licensing culture of sharing, innovation, and _precise_ due process. Creative Commons and bloggers who link attributions provide two such examples. I blog for my research and consulting practice, and it will burden my marketing if I must police those who contribute content or comments, or my affiliates.

Worse still, doing so creates a policing culture. We do not want to be in a position where people no longer question authority; to me, that willingness to question authority rings at the heart of why America came into being. So I encourage you to draft legislation that precisely handles and delivers its intent, and most of all that encourages values for free speech, artistic contribution, economic innovation, and that also addresses those perpetrators that have caused economic havoc on many, e.g., housing crisis. Help Bernie Sanders with his cause instead of wasting time on this poorly drafted legislation.

Please say no to SOPA and PIPA in favor of more fair and precise legislation that allows for transparent and due process, to Say No to Communication Violence, and to respect freedom of speech and the culture of sharing and innovation online.

Thank you for considering my request. Be free to contact me for interviews or consulting on public commons reform in my interests: health, education, and cyber law.

Kindly and respectfully,
Dena M. Rosko, MA-ComL

The Problem

In addition to monetizing and siloing innovation, I write elsewhere how governments often respond with impression management, especially concerning the cyber realm, such as in a case in my city where the city threatened law suit and penalized (demoted, early retirement) officers for their alleged participation in an online video that criticized the SCORE jail.

Does this imply that my blog post here can also be criminalized, and with SOPA/PIPA, punished two-fold? One for posting my criticism of what I regard as an unjust reaction and a misunderstanding, at best, of how social media works, and the other for somehow inadvertently violating SOPA/PIPA's ambiguous yet far reaching terms? On the latter, I don't see how my blog violates SOPA/PIPA save requiring me to now police interactions, which smacks against the connectivity culture that I aspire to create.

Implications and Questions

Now here's a seeming catch to my protest of SOPA/PIPA. Here's a happy photo of me with my copyright certificate for my Master's thesis. The Electronic Frontier Foundation lists concerns over Expanded Attorney General Powers, Corporate Right of Action, The “Vigilante” Provision, & The Anti-Circumvention Provision.

Does my protest of SOPA/PIPA contradict my desire to protect and license my research? Will I be sued or blocked because I post a photo of the Copyright office's logo, or a photo of a book title? Will my city as a be able to sue me for posting something it wants to protect? Will I be sued for linking to copywritten sites? Clarify my confusion here.

Siloed assumptions do not necessarily benefit or directly target a crime; therefore, yesterday's assumptions do not necessarily benefit drafting cyber law for today's digital collaborative culture/economy. Better to design a transparent system with precision, equal access, and due process to cite, refer, track, and build upon works. Creative Commons and good 'ole fashioned reference style lists, e.g., AP Stylebook and the MLA Style Manual, and bloggers who normalize modes of giving credit, e.g., linking to site or statement authors, provide a few such examples.

The difference in those three examples: the credit is not necessarily monetized or contained or not shared. It's important for honesty, fidelity, authenticity, and accuracy to give due credit. You must know who developed an idea to ask them to explain it. Yet I'm aware that "there's nothing new under the sun" (Eccl. 1). However, the same book also prescribes, "to everything a season..." (Eccl. 3). Yet, did the same person write that? Is there continuity in thought? Continuity and attribution do at least connect to veracity.

Whatever the case, it's time to adopt assumptions and paradigms in developing cyber law. I suggest themes for collaboration instead of siloing, and contribution instead of meritocracy. Either way you shake it, your created work will take a lot of just that... work. My thesis illustrates both points: it took a lot of work, and I post as a full text PDF on my blog while copyrighting it at the same time. I completed my thesis as a partial requirement for my MA in Communication & Leadership Studies. Therefore, I needed to "prove" that I wrote it.

In other words, assuming that artists don't want to starve and in this present economic infrastructure need to monetize a trade to pay for living expenses, then should we protect copyright? I go back to effectiveness and precision. So are we at an impasse? What solutions do you see to this problem? Should we legislate the internet at all? If so, to what degree and why? If not, why not, and what can we do instead? These questions assume that at least by appearance the law ecquivocates content protection.

My point is that I believe SOPA/PIPA to be ineffective, lacking precision, too broad in its power, and drawn for corporate interests that, even by appearance of the word "protect," actually hurt artists' and others' contribution. We need to adjust our paradigms for cyber law and improve digital literacy instead of criminalizing online content and certainly before legislating that, as my fabulous 10-year-old cousin queries, "that new thing called the internet."

Learn More

In any case, I seek to consult organizations, included government, on paradigmatic shifts, communication strategies, leadership principles, vocational development or learning process, and narrative approaches to benefit the public commons, or health, education, and law sectors. Learn more about my research.

Learn more about SOPA/PIPA at

Library of Congress full text [PDF]

Khan Academy

Mashable op-ed
CNET Impact FAQ
Facebook's Position

Want to join the protest? Sign these petitions. Your petition not on the list? Post your link in the comments:

Fight for the Future | Main [w/video]

Fight for the Future | Artists

SOPA Strike

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Google

Advocate responsible media. What do you think? What do you assume about copyright? What provisions or climate lead to an innovative society? Be free to share your opinions in the comments.

Updates

From freepress:

In the last 48 hours more than a dozen senators have come out against the Protect IP Act (PIPA), and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just announced he’s postponing next week’s vote on the bill.

But PIPA isn’t dead yet. Even after more than 10 million people urged Congress to stop this legislation, some in the Senate still aren't listening.

Even Mark Zuckerburg tweeted opposition to SOPA/PIPA. So SOPA halted in the House. Round of applause to the combined 13M people who protested PIPA and SOPA during the 1/18/12 Blackout.

I received this email from Sen. Cantwell (1/23/12):

Dear Mr. [sic] Dena,

Thank you for contacting me about the internet streaming of copyrighted material. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue.

On May 12, 2011, Senator Leahy (D-VT) introduced S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act. Under current federal law, U.S. law enforcement officials and holders of copyrights, trademarks, and patents, have limited legal remedies available to combat internet websites that are registered in foreign countries but operate in the United States by selling products, services, and/or content that violates U.S. intellectual property law. If enacted, the proposed legislation would create an expedited process for the Department of Justice and intellectual property rights holders to shut down through a court order these websites by targeting the owners and operators of the Internet site, if known, or the domain name registrant associated with the Internet site.

While I am supportive of the goal of protecting intellectual property, I am deeply concerned that the definitions and the means by which the legislation seeks to accomplish these goals will have unintended consequences and hurt innovation, job creation, and threaten online speech and security. On November 17, 2011, I signed a letter along with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) objecting to the bill as it is currently written.

On December 17, 2011, Senator Wyden introduced the "Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade" (OPEN) Act (S. 2029), of which I am an original co-sponsor. The bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee, where it is currently awaiting further review. The OPEN Act is a more effective approach to stop foreign web sites that are found to be primarily and willfully used to infringe intellectual property rights. The OPEN Act builds on the existing legal framework used by the International Trade Commission (ITC) for addressing unfair acts in the importation of articles into the United States, or in their sale for importation, or sale within the United States after importation.

Our trade laws have yet to catch up to deal with the global digital economy. The OPEN Act recognizes that the Internet has created new opportunities for foreign products to reach the U.S. market and that there is little difference between downloading a pirated movie from a foreign website and importing a counterfeit movie DVD from a foreign company. For those foreign web sites that are determined after an investigation to be primarily and willfully infringing, the International Trade Commission will issue a "Cease and Desist" order. The "Cease and Desist" order may also be served on financial intermediaries that provide services to that foreign web site, compelling financial payment processors and online advertising providers to cease doing business with the foreign site in question. This would cut off financial incentives for this illegal activity and deter these unfair imports from reaching the U.S. market.

The OPEN Act addresses the same challenges as the PROTECT IP Act, while protecting freedom of speech, innovation, and security on the Internet. The challenge of rogue web sites is one that many nations face. The United States has always been seen as a leader on Internet issues. Laws we establish in the United States regarding the Internet are likely to be used as models around the world. And because the Internet is global in nature, it is important that we carefully consider how the laws and policies we adopt in this area may be received and translated by other countries.

The Protect IP Act was scheduled to go to the Senate floor for a procedural vote on January 23, 2011. Due to the effective grassroots advocacy and public outcry against the bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has pulled the proposed legislation from the floor calendar.

I appreciate Majority Leader Reid's decision to postpone a vote on the PROTECT IP Act. America's economy thrives on innovation and freedom of speech. We can't afford to rush an Internet policy that could trample on our innovation economy. The American people clearly spoke and their voices were heard. As we move forward, I'll continue to advocate for a policy that protects both creative content and online freedom of speech.

Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter. You may also be interested in signing up for periodic updates for Washington State residents. If you are interested in subscribing to this update, please visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

For future correspondence with my office, please visit my website at
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

My email reply (1/23/12):

Thank you Senator Cantwell for making time to reply to my concerns about SOPA/PIPA. In addition to my concerns about hurting innovation, free speech, and creating a policing internet culture, I also feel concern over trade laws that could potentially negatively impact international diplomatic relations. I encourage a bi-directional approach that allows for foreign trade without only advancing US interests abroad. Thank you for your consideration and time.

Kindly and respectfully,
Dena M. Rosko, MA-ComL

I also emailed via his website Sen. Wyden, who introduced the OPEN act:

Dear Sen. Wyden,

Thank you for opening comment for the OPEN act. I've shared my views on SOPA/PIPA, OPEN, and my paradigm behind cyber law at http://bit.ly/zYxMLm. I consult organizations in health, education, and cyber literacy at http://www.textandpixels.com.

Thank you for your consideration and time.

Kindly and Respectfully,
Dena M. Rosko, MA-ComL

My greatest concern over any legislation of the internet involves the impact on free speech, content creators/artists, innovation, and international relations. I encourage civic leaders to consider the opportunity to reach out with constructive diplomacy via the internet instead of policing foreign use.

While I'm for protecting copyright, the language and application must be specific to that end and always allow for a conversation to take place. The interaction, after all, is the metric when it comes to digital literacy and media. To that end I recommend that civic leaders ensure that they understand cyber culture before writing legislation.

Perhaps civic leaders can open fields online for people to input their ideal cyber copyright legislation in keeping with collaboration and innovation. In addition, add social media profiles for proposed legislation and hire someone to respond to people in those feeds. The current "share" buttons do not suffice as they are uni-directional, or are intended to broadcast/promote. Go for the interaction, and see the cyber law principles and application develop and improve as you more readily engage people's input.

I'm grateful that Sen. Cantwell took the time to set up an albeit automated response to my inquiry. Learn more about the OPEN act and share your views.

Urge your senator to oppose PIPA, especially those on the fence. Note that legislation ought not be bought. This bill alleges to protect industry, but impinges upon free speech of the citizen and hampers innovation. On those counts I continue to protest.

Thank you for reading,
and Say Yes to Building a
Collaborative & Contributory
Culture & Society,
Dena

The Oregon Coast | Cannon Beach

2012-01-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleauges,

Enjoyed this pixel roll of Cannon Beach, OR, a fantastic and favorite Pacific Northwest destination on the Oregon Coast:

Our regular Seagull (above series)

The Ocean Lodge at sunset (above)

Cedar wood fire at The Ocean Lodge (above)

Panoramas by James (above 2)

Guess what time of year? Fall! We enjoyed the mild and sunny weather that year with rainfall only on our last day. In addition to the beautiful sunsets, we enjoyed the eateries and fun shops.

Destination in Love,
Dena

Shine Bright! | More Sunshine, Sunrises, and Sunsets

2012-01-13T15:20:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

Periodically I enjoy posting about the Sun. For post #275, I share this pleasing genre. Enjoy this pixel-roll of sunrises, sunsets, and sunshines mostly from Renton and Seattle:

Gorgeous N Stunning on 2012 Jan 13 (above series)

T[h]ree Hearts! (above)

Christmas Day 2011 (above)

Christmas Eve 2011 (above series)

I like the soft golden glow in this one (above)

Coulon Park by James New Year's Weekend 2012 (above)

It's a plane for Jet City! (above)

As ripples on a pond... (above)

Sci-Fi sunset? (above 2)

Indeed the Great Pacific Northwest (GPNW)
has it's gray days! (above)

Tips of skyscrapers in Seattle N Bellevue (upper R; above)

Lake Washington-Cedar River Watershed (above 2)

A favorite. Does this image speak to you? How? (above)

Rock Garden Sunrise (above)

Blue Sky Fluffy Cloud sandwich!
PS/I like clean, crisp, fresh Winter air (above 2)

View of Renton from the West Hill (above)

14 Jan 2012 Renton (above 5)

Sunset streams through evergreen trees
Federal Way, Wash. (above)
Super Bowl Sunday, 2/05/12

Soft light at Tukwila, Wash. warehouse (above)

February Sunset, Renton, Wash. (above)

Dreamy+Sultry Sun/Blue Break! 26 Jan 2012 (above series)

Another melancholy favorite (above)

I love the crisp, fresh, and clean Winter air. For that reason the sunrises and sunsets seem more grande. Turns out that Winter passes as no "old man" after all! More as a terrible beauty!

A friend, after viewing these, described God as the most talented artist. I stand and compose the frame in awe. Notice how each sun scene looks unique and different--an animated canvas if I ever saw one. So here's to living life large, bright, and alive!

Check out more sun-related posts!

Shine Bright!
Dena

Year in Review [2011] | Events & Reflections for 2012

2012-01-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

Enjoy my nod to the New Year 2012 with this pixel-roll of events and reflections on 2011:

Events

This year we enjoyed much activity with graduation, travels, and supporting James on race day (running):

I volunteered, contributed to community events, and continue to develop my consulting and career. Ongoing consulting projects include Hestia, an upcoming women's retreat center, a political campaign, Global HealthShare Initiative, Luther's Table, and the Library initiative petition:

Last January I participated with the Gonzaga Career Trek (highly recommended for GU alumni and learners). In April I attended the SU/GU Leadership Conference. Straight after graduation, I reported for jury duty. The clerk dismissed us early by the second day:

I've continued my nearly 3 year inquiry for a doctorate program and have submitted applications. I continue to develop health narrative and ideas for education reform. I began to curate Narrative Health as a topic via @scoopit. Each contributes to my interest in applying intersections in writing to health, education, and law as a public commons:

I write about food, tea, and society, or scalable healthy habits that benefit my health and happiness:

James and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. I jokingly tell folks that we're old enough for 1st grade now! Seriously, consider your relationships as human development and perhaps we can all be more gracious:

My campaign and civic consulting help me to feel more connected to my locale and people, who are more as neighbors than strangers. So I encourage volunteering via your gifts and vocation. I benefit and contribute to community building while helping my psych-social health at the same time. Plus I've made new friends:

Most recently I attended the WIKISPEED Seattle Open House to learn how software development, agile, and cars combine for a social benefit. By virtue of proximity I feel the cool factor rising!

We appreciated our hometowns' downtown cores, including Seattle and Renton. I continue to run The Living Memorial to develop community via digital storytelling in loss and Say no to Communication violence to raise awareness and solutions for healthier communication. For fun I co-contribute to social media for I love Renton and Seattle born & raised:

I prepared for transitions by applying what I learned in my thesis. I create narratives, which beats at the heart of my intent in developing Community Profiles (105 to date and growing). In 3 months I increased my blog likes by 400+ with my tactic to mention agencies and organizations salient to the community post. This method reflects unique page affirmations with feasibly more unique page views. This method garnered fun connections with artists, activists, bloggers, and tourism agencies. I continue to generate positive pairings with change as I stop trying to adapt to change and instead create, contribute, and share content:

In this way I make friends and broaden my reach. I feel that I'm not changing per se, but growing and emptying myself of the errant assumption that I can contain my life in myself. We must share our creative lives to know life freely.

I've cherished fun times with friends:

Holiday Season

... to every season

turn,

turn...

~ Ecclesiastes 3

Thankfully I've parents and family who gave me happy holiday memories growing up. I often look forward to the holidays as family and, recently, community events.

For holidays 2011, I applied my consulting and photography to volunteer for community service organizations. I had not volunteered during the holidays since high school, and I wanted to give the gift of compassion via vocational service. Indeed Russell (2004) reminds me that even research must evoke a compassionate approach via participating with the dynamic of study. So I forewent my holiday card send out and busied myself with covering events.

By Christmastime James and I both fell ill, so I canceled most of our holiday plans. While initially disappointed, I realized as I watched the setting sun on Christmas eve that I had yet to simply appreciate Christ's person, promise, and impact on me. I smiled as the best candle light service ever torched the sky in gold:

Thankfully we both felt well enough to attend our family dinner Christmas evening:

Most of all this year, I've adored watching the sun rise and set!

Reflections

I reflect during the New Year. This year a few actions came to mind: Courage, Relax, and Savor.

On Courage, I'm learning that courage means saying "no" to an opportunity to choose another. This deceptively simple decisioning can challenge me if I'm afraid of what I might lose, either the opportunity itself or the possibility of failure. Yet we need Courage to live by vocation consistently. There will be seasons of burn out, distractions, naysayers, and self-doubt. Stick with me and stick to your message. Notice the life course of your intended endeavor: eventually you must put yourself on front street and publicize your credo. Make it worth all of our while and stay the course!

On Relaxing, well, after years of transitions and graduate study and health inquiry/recovery, I bemuse if I'm more at ease working than relaxing. This dilemma may occur in impassioned individuals. Remember that to finish the race you must rest once in awhile. Relaxing likens to rest, but with a spirit of fun and intentionality.

On Savoring, I realized that savoring prompts my intent to make an aesthetic text to process transitions (building from Conquergood, 1983; 1985; 1998; Mattingly, 1998; Pelias & VanOosting, 1987). Instead of conceiving change as loss, I assume that all in life demands an accounting, and so has a flip side or dialectic. Thus, we can move forward to learn how to savor even our adversity. Learning to savor helps me through difficulties, which this fun and upbeat post doesn't necessarily reflect. Here I'm reminded of Phelan's (1993) paradigm that performance, including photographs, reframe instead of represent.

Savoring, then, provides a virtuous motive and behavior and bears outcomes for narrative health as psych-social therapy and for communicating health reform. Simply put, I desire to savor my spouse and appreciate God and each moment and effort.

I have been writing a manuscript on reflective learning, and my short-term goal includes finishing and publishing the thing! Of course first I want to employ a group of interested persons to read and proffer feedback. Publishing ought not equivocate with permanence given the interactivity and continuity of today's digital texts (see Chvasta, 2003).

Holiday Collage via Gonzaga University's Virtual ZagWall!

So here's to Courage, Relaxing, and Savoring in 2012!
Dena

References

Chvasta, M. (2003). The mediated life; ‘And I loved her’. Unpublished essay. Retrieved October 26, 2010, from http://www.cas.usf.edu/~mchvasta/luckydip/mediatedlife.pdf

Conquergood, D. (1983). A sense of the other: Interpretation and ethnographic research. In I.M. Crouch, & G.R. Owen (Eds.), Proceedings of summer/conference on oral traditions (pp. 148-155). Las Cruces, NM: New Mexico State University.

Conquergood, D. (1985). Performing as a moral act: Ethical dimensions of the ethnography of performance. Literature in Performance, 5(2), 1-13.

Conquergood, D. (1998). Beyond the text: Toward performative cultural politics. In S.J. Daily (Ed.), The future of performance studies: Visions and revisions (pp. 25-36). Annandale, VA: National Communication Association.

Mattingly, C. (1998). Healing dramas and clinical plots: The narrative structure of experience. New York: Cambridge.

Pelias, R.J., & VanOosting, J. (1987). A paradigm for Performance Studies. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 73(2), 219-31.

Phelan, P. (1993). Unmarked: The politics of performance. New York: Routledge.

Russell, L. (2004). A long way toward compassion. Text and Performance Quarterly, 24(3/4), 233-254.

Spokane, WA | Riverfront Park

2012-01-05T16:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Colleagues,

Enjoy this pixel-roll of Spokane's Riverfront Park, which we visited when I studied for my MA-ComL at Gonzaga University (Go Zags!):

Riverfront Park enjoys 100 acres of land of the 3 million acres once protected and respected by the Spokane Tribe, including the Spokane River, which flows 111 miles, and Spokane Falls. The park's rich and varied history includes Expo '74, or the World's Fair themed, "Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh New Environment." About 5.6 million people attended the Expo then. In present day we enjoyed watching people play in the fountain on the hot summer day. I liked the perennials and tower.

As for me, I graduated with a MA in Communication and Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University. I appreciated visiting scenic grounds while studying for my degree. See more Gonzaga, read about my graduate studies, and visit my growing collection of Community Profiles.

Children of the So/un,
Dena