Learning to Fall – Philip Simmons

Philip Simmons at age 35 was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, a terminal disease in which you gradually lose all motor capability. In Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life, Philip presents a series of essays – thoughtful, gentle observations on being human. Philip reminds us that life is terminal and that it never turns out as we expect it to. Loved ones die, careers crash, health fails. We are always falling down. And it is in the very falling that we discover the preciousness of life.

Given that in the last two years my company went bankrupt, my roommate and dear friend passed away from brain cancer, I got sick and wasn’t able to work for a year, I can relate to things falling down. Sometimes it’s overwhelming, but the flip side is that priorities become pretty clear – living life with a loving and open heart, staying healthy, being available to those I love.

This is a good book, especially if you are facing fundamental life uncertainty. It is reassuring to see that the uncertainty is what really underlies everything and that one can learn to live fully and well with it.

New neural pathways

Posted on May 17, 2003 at 4:45 pm by Elise

Small triumphs. I learned how to do a backwards crossover today in my ice skating class.

What’s a backwards crossover? Skating backwards in an arc generated by picking up one foot and crossing it over the other foot.

No big deal, unless you are 42 and decided 3 months ago that you wanted to learn how to skate and you are as terrified as I am of falling on your tush on that cold, hard ice.

The old adage is that it is much harder to learn new things, especially those requiring physical skill, the older you get. This may be true, but it is really hard if you don’t even try. And the older we get, the more reluctant we are to look stupid, and the less we are willing to take risks.

I’ve been reading lately about the latest research in brain neuroplasticity. What they’ve found is that the brain continues to build new neural pathways throughout our whole lives, as long as we require our brains to perform new functions such as learning a new language or a new motor skill.

Every week I go to my ice skating class and every week I get just a fraction better. What I learned last week, as difficult as it was then, is much easier this week. This must come from the brain creating stronger neural connections.

Although children can pick things up faster, I have found that I’m learning as fast if not faster than most of the kids in the class because of my better ability to focus my attention.

Focused attention creates new neural pathways. Go brain go!

The Mind and the Brain – Schwartz and Begley

In The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force brain researcher Jeffrey Schwartz and Wall St. Journal reporter Sharon Begley explore the extraordinary discoveries in brain research over the last 20 years. When we were growing up we were taught that the brain pretty much is fixed by age 10, and after that no new neurons are made. For a 100 years it was believed that if you had a stroke and lost functioning over one part of your body as a result of damage to the brain, you just had to live with it. New imaging techiniques in the last quarter century have enabled researchers to precisely map functioning of different parts of the brain, down to the millimeter. What has been discovered is that new neural pathways are being forged in the brain throughout our whole lives, depending on how we use our mind. Wherever we focus our attention is where new neural connections will be made.

Continue reading →

Life of Pi – Yann Martel

Yann Martel spins a magical story with Life of Pi. In this book, he recounts the boyhood of Piscine Patel whose parents were zoo keepers in India. Pi is fascinated both with God (simultaneously practicing Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism) and zoo animals. When the ship he is taking with his family and some of the animals sinks in the Pacific, Pi finds himself castaway on a 26 ft life boat with an injured zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a 450 lb bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Soon only the tiger and Pi are left on the boat and Pi is left to use his wits to survive the elements and keep from being eaten by the tiger. Pi realizes that he can’t kill the tiger and must learn to become his master in order to survive the ordeal. The interactions with the animals and Pi’s journey are all metaphors for living a spiritual life. The underlying current of the book is that Pi must master his own dark-side, his fear and despair with vigilance and compassion. Much like the Buddhist saint Milarepa who finally mastered the demons who were torturing him by accepting them and befriending them, Pi masters himself and the tiger Richard Parker. There’s much more too it, but telling more would give away the story. Simply, the book left me with sense of wonder and sadness from how one man survived the tragedy of losing his family and the 7 month ordeal of being lost at sea.

Dave Neeleman – JetBlue

Posted on April 30, 2003 at 11:29 pm by Elise

Heard Dave Neeleman, founder and CEO of Jet Blue Airways give a talk at Stanford’s School of Engineering last night.

I flew Jet Blue once, to NYC, and was impressed with the experience – all leather seats, spacious leg room, multi-channel TV in every seat, and all ticketless. So I was curious to see the force behind this company.

What I didn’t anticipate was how soft-spoken and understated he appeared. Here’s a man who didn’t take stock options when they were offered.

Why? Because he already had 20% of the company, and that was enough. He donates his salary to a fund for helping employees who are facing catastrophic events in their lives. He spends at least 3 hours a week on his own airline flights, interviewing every passenger and helping out the crew members serving snacks and cleaning up after the flight. Talk about walking your talk. On top of all that he has nine children.

His parting words of advice to the gathered couple hundred aspiring entrepreneurs was to ask yourself, “if your company went away tomorrow, would anybody miss it? Would the customers miss your products or services? Would your employees miss working for your company?”

Important questions. Good reminder that we all want our lives to have meaning. There’s no reason that this fundamental desire should fly out the window with regards to work.

The Perfect Heresy – Stephen O’Shea

The Cathars were a sect of renegade Christians in the late 12th century in what is now Southern France. They were pacifist vegetarians who shunned materialism, believed in the equality of women, thought the Catholic church had no God-given authority, and believed Jesus was more mythological than historical. Their popular and growing belief system was such a threat to the Catholic church that the church launched an all out assault for a hundred years to stamp them out, thus giving birth to the inquisition. Pope Innocent III, the same pope that granted legitimacy to St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic, paves the way for hundreds of years of future brutal repression by endowing Simon de Montfort with the task to make war on the cities who harbor Cathars. Stephen O’Shea’s recounts this history in The Perfect Heresy, a compelling story filled with medieval warfare, atrocities, courage and ultimate despair as the last Cathar leader is burned. This was a great read. I could not put it down.

Thank you to Mark Vestrich for this recommendation!