In effort to coach my children to the diversity and similarities of the world's religions (known as comparative religious studies), I first needed to refresh and orient my own knowledge of this vast subject. My favorite approach is to synthesize available information into a single-page executive summary. The so-called 'at-a-glance' slide.
I have found the process and challenge of creating a graphically abbreviated view leads to discovery of 'new' information not obvious in the noise and spin of web-sourced, linear, subject-specific descriptions. This 'at-a-glance-synthesis' process often:
Uncovers under-reported themes that have been eclipsed by more socially abundant themes.
Identifies relationships and shared characteristics not otherwise obvious when reading a single-subject description.
Drives clarity around a larger holistic scope
Improves differentiation of the parts of the whole.
Another feature I find important in at-a-glance descriptions is the integration of data alongside the context for that data. This approach is exemplified by the infographics evangelist Edward Tufte in his book 'Beautiful Evidence'. True infographics conceive a rendering of the data to tell the story. While this project doesn't achieve this ambition (since I didn't have a lot of data to draw upon), it is inspired by Tufte's philosophies.
World Religion Summary v2.6
This graphic is an initial attempt at synthesizing the main features of, and associations between, world religions. A historical architecture of belief systems, if you will. Of course massive amounts of relevant and important details are lost with this approach, as with any summarization. The available 'real estate' in this single picture forces trade-offs between readability, content, and equity. Nevertheless, there remains quite a lot of available space to adjust the structure and incorporate additional relevant content.
The chart is loosely organized vertically by the variable of time (history), framed by the Silk Road origins (top) and current adherents (bottom). Differentiating events along the evolution of the Christian churches are also organized vertically, creating the opportunity to depict similar such events for peer religious branches in future editions of this graphic.
The chart is organized horizontally (left to right) with a combination of longitude (geographic origins along the silk road) and relative population-share of adherents by religious category as described in the 2012 report "Global Religious Landscape" published by the Pew Research Center.
While this casual blog doesn't have the formality and efficiency of a wiki, I would encourage respectful contribution to improve upon this graphic in the comments section of this post. I will endeavor to review and consider this feedback for inclusion in future enhancements to this ongoing work. I'm looking forward to learning who discovers this post in this Internet backwater and how our discourse is shaped through publication.
The author Paul Kavitz is a philanthropist, strategic advisor, and father living near Washington DC.
If you are interested in using this graphic in your publication, please leave a comment below with your email address and I'll be in touch.
< Updated May 21, 2018 > v2.4 of the world religions graphic corrects misspellings, adjusts layout for readability, and adds point for summary of non-religious category. < Updated February 3, 2019 > v2.6 of the world religions graphic improves map readability and overall visual integration. Added 'dead' religion category and refinement of descriptions for Dharmic and Taoic categories.
Once in a blue moon, whenever I happened to notice the current Jackpot Lottery was up through the $200m+ stratosphere, I would often duck into a 7-11 and buy one ticket for $1. Always a 'random' pick with no system. I really never expected to win, but I knew if I had that ticket I had that chance.
I always went through the mental gyrations of [what I thought to be] my highly rational inevstment approach:
claim in secrecy
work with a team of top financial/legal/tax advisors
invest and live modestly on a fraction of the interest...no consumer binging for me).
Every time I did the math I goggled at how the fraction-of-a-fraction annuity from these winnings was so much higher than my everyday discretionary budget.
So then came the fun part...the dream part...what would I do with this insane amount of money.
And the answer was always really simple. Spend time with my family, go sailing, continue to pursue my fields of fascination, and start a charitable foundation to help make our world a better place.
And at the end of this exercise I always came to the same conclusion as Lawrence in Office Space. I didn't need a millon dollars, I could just go and do it.
So what I really bought with that one dollar lottery ticket was permission to dream. It was an unncessary device to encourage introspection into what I could just be doing anyway.
What is my super secret, guaranteed, no-fail formula for winning the lottery? Dispense with the ticket and just take that first step towards your dreams.
In this way, I won the lottery at last. In January, I started a donor advised fundinstead of buying that lottery ticket. Following the recommendation of my trusted financial advisor, I went with the reputable organization Impact Assets who provide a wide range of socially responsible investments with good returns. My new donor advised fund allows me to:
invest tax-free
leverage investments to earn a [tax-free] return and create positive social and environmental impact
donate a share of these returns to charities of my choice.
Each year I can contribute more to the fund, grow the pool, and distribute to charitable organizations of my choosing. No paperwork and voilà, I have the equivalent of a non-profit charitable foundation.
Exactly what I wanted to do and I didn't need $200m to do it. It's called the Bluecrue Foundation and I have had SO MUCH FUN deriving the over-arching philosophy behind my eclectic choice of charities. Next baby step is to identify the best charities that reflect our family values and passion for marine conservation. Ella has been helping me with this one...Seaworld Orlando was such an inspiration.
Oh, and I'm sailing with the kids next weekend too!
Occasionally I stumble across a pattern of juxtaposed thoughts that startle me with the force of revelation. Like the Buddhist sartori...my brief moment of awakening reveals a mystery of the universe to me which thrives briefly in my mind. At best, I share this vision excitedly with a few close and supportive friends who murmur interest and inquiry. Almost never do I capture these thoughts down into words that contribute to our noösphere. Eventually the intensity of my insight fades in my mind with the humdrum of everyday happenings and I fold back into the illusion of the Hindu maya.
Perhaps I don't blog this stuff due to a lack of discipline or focus or self-confidence or too many competing interests/obligations. Perhaps I am subconsiouslly anxious you'll think I'm bat-shit crazy, or overly-intellectual, or boring. I committed myself this time, however, to myself and to my friend Patti Pfeiffer with whom I shared the Cliff Notes version over coffee the other day. I also asked my au pair Erica to hold me accountable for writing a blog TONIGHT. She says just write it from the heart and don't make it too long. It's hard, though because many of these intellectual relationships that are meaningful to me are drawn from decades of personal discovery and insight, each of which I have also not written down. I keep attempting to approach my online authorship like an academic paper...a thesis...a dissertation full of indisputable logic fully referenced through the history of philosophy and science.
Trouble is I just don't have the time to do that. So I need to do what Erica says and just write it from the heart and don't make it too long. So here I go...I'm just going to get it out of my head and hopefully it'll connect with someone somewhere out there. Of course I'm taking a risk in dropping the raw thread of my thoughts out there...you might find me boring, or overly-intellectual, or bat-shit crazy. If this is how you feel, that's fine. I know you'll just stop reading and move on. I know, though, that someone will find this and a connection will be made and that connection will be important.
Christopher Alexander is a hero of mine. In fact, I have not found anyone who has articulated a more fundamental and insightful shift of perspective from contemporary mechanistic thought than he. I felt it in my bones when I discovered his book 'A Pattern Language' and knew it through and through when I read The Nature of Order. He integrates human experience, the physical world, and spirituality into a new metaphysical cosmology. He is an architect of the first order, an inspiration.
Christopher Alexander's masterwork forges a new framework for the nature of order by demonstrating the deep relationships between physical architecture and human consciousness. Alexander's approach towards wholeness, levels of scale, strong centers, and the interdependent relationships between these centers resonates with me. He is an architect of the built world, a creator and appreciator of living space. Because of the persuasiveness of his view, I will make my pilgrimage to experience the wonder of the Alhambra in Grenada, Spain, and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (not Constantinople)
I am not a physical architect, I am an enterprise architect. My profession shapes the structure of organizations, social connections, processes, information, and relationships to achieve goals. When I read Alexander's work, I found very interesting parallels between his views of the built environment, and the social networks and collaboration between people. In an enterprise (an organization of people and resources to achieve a goal) we also find wholeness, levels of scale, strong centers, and interdependent helping relationships between these centers. Businesses are enterprises, but so too are homes, and families, and lovers. Really we find Alexander's concepts of wholeness throughout all of our human experience, not just in the physical world. He just does a particularly artful job of communicating these concepts through the relationships between physical objects and their impact on our emotions and consciousness.
Alexander presents a simplified view of his concepts of wholeness as a system of interacting centers on p.88-89 of The Nature of Order Book One the Phenomenon of Life. I inexpertly render his drawings and description here.
Comparing drawing A and B, Alexander shows that the small shift in the design of B (a simple arch) creates a more complex and interdependent set of centers (the ovals) that support and help (the arrows) than were present in design A.
I know it is a huge stretch to capture this insight in a few short sentences in this blog. It'll make a lot more sense if you read the book...it's worth it. The next stretch comes from the leap my mind made when seeing this. As with his physical configurations, in our our social configurations, a small shift in a relationship between people (with each other or our relationship with ourselves) can create a richer and more dynamic set of relationships in the society and world around us. Neat. A whole bunch of insight emerges out of this view, like a model for the magic in Pay it Forward. Small acts of kindness (which are represented symbolically by the improved configuration between B and A) make a big difference...they just do.
So I inferred without saying it that Drawing B is better than Drawing A. Alexander says it more precisely and wisely by carefully developing semantics for words like 'life', 'wholeness', and their impact on feeling. Again read the book for the real wisdom. The short hand version, though is that B is absolutely better than A and this is not a matter of subjective opinion, it is a matter of fact. Then, if Drawing's A and B are symbolic representations of the configurations of a society, then B is a better society than A. By better, I would mean more collaborative, with greater wholeness and integration, and life. Healthier. Really, the definition of cooperation.
Of course a change in configuration could go in another direction, say from B to A, where there is less wholeness, less life, less integration, less collaboration. A disintegrating society. A depleting ecology.
Let's call this the societal extension of Alexander's physical concept of the wholeness and order of the built environment.
Cloud Atlas: Love, Fear, and Belief as Forces
So with this model echoing in my mind, I recently happened to catch a video trailer for the movie Cloud Atlas on a US Airways flight to Orlando. It captured my attention, and when I landed I pulled it up on Youtube to watch again and again and again. Here it is:
I haven't yet seen the movie (I'm now reading the book), but this trailer riveted my mind upon the messages contained therein, and in particular one spoken by Tom Hanks in the tralier. "Fear, Belief, Love... phenomena that determine the course of our lives. These forces begin long before we are born and continue after we perish."
So this perspective of fear, belief, and love as forces is profound to me. I truly admire the giant intelligence of Antonio Damasio in creating an integrated view of mind, body, and emotion and puncturing the prior scientific paradigm that mechanistically separated these functions/structures... a paradigm with its origins in the Cartesian model of René Descartes. Damasio like Alexander finds fault with such mechanistic separation of feeling from 'hard' science. But what if Damasio doesn't go far enough. What if our 'feelings' he links to the evolutionary representation of body state (well being) is limited even within it's genius. What if our perceptions of fear, belief, and love are our soul's responses to the underlying spiritual physics of the universe.
If the forces of fear, belief, and love are distinct from our beings, then perhaps our being responds to these forces with feelings of fear and love and belief. My sartori emerged from the intersection of this concept of these metaphysical forces and the extended model of wholeness and life described earlier and symbolized by Drawing A and Drawing B.
Love is the force that guides us towards those relationships which create greater 'wholeness' and 'life'. LOVE is the force that can propel us from a configuration of relationships symbolized by Drawing A to those symbolized by Drawing B. It is a creative and motive force that builds subtle connections between things which in turn shifts the centers all around it (not just the things being connected). Small shifts cause profound changes across all levels of scale.
Fear is a force that impedes each of us (and society) from achieving greater 'wholeness' and 'life'. FEAR keeps us from moving (symbolically) to the configuration of relationships in Drawing B.
Belief is the underlying foundational force of our perspective that enables the world represented in Drawing A or the world in Drawing B. Beliefs can be limiting (I can't possibly live or imagine or desire a world other than 'Drawing A') or beliefs can be empowering (I believe Drawing B exists, I want it, and I will make it happen).
This picture captures this concept of belief rather well (imagine 'Comfort Zone' is like 'Drawing A', 'Magic happens' is like 'Drawing B')
In the story of Cloud Atlas, our souls keep returning, learning from generation upon generation of mistakes, until one day we finally create the configuration of relationships intended by fate. A greater wholeness.
I like this a lot.
Fear is a choice
A short time later, fortune flung another movie trailer across my path, shown here:
After Earth is a completely different movie (a sci-fi action movie starring Will Smith) than Cloud Atlas. This tralier happened to also emphasize fear in a way that I enjoyed interweaving with the cosmological model I just described. Will Smith's character says, "But if we are going to survive this, you must realize that fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me...danger is VERY real. But fear is a choice."
In my abrupt shorthand of this blog (which is WAY WAY too long already), this message on fear is twofold. In Damasio's mind/body/emotion integrative model, our body creates the feeling of fear (in our limbic system) which is important for survival. However, it is important for us to use our cognitive processes to override this when overwhelming fear impedes our chances of survival. It is in this physical sense that the movie After Earth most probably intends.
But I especially like this notion of 'fear is a choice' when I regard it's application to the self-limiting beliefs and behaviors that keep us from moving to 'where the magic happens' in Drawing B. This is the sense I believe the Roosevelts' intended:
"The only thing we have to fear is, fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt.
So what does this all mean?
If we act with love in our lives, embrace empowering beliefs, and transcend fear, we move ourselves and each other towards greater wholeness and life. Towards our destiny. And these shifts aren't limited to ourselves and those we touch directly, each act fundamentally shifts everything around us for the better.
And this scales infinitely, as was so aptly taught by the priest at the 'Donuts for Dads' mass I attended this morning with my kids (they were so excited): If we ALL share our talents and gifts as God intends, miracles happen.
As David Mitchell wrote in Cloud Atlas, "My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?"
So at last I have shared this, I am at peace, and I can now go to sleep.
Today I buried our family cat, Spike. Digging his grave was a strenuous task...through cherry roots and orange clay. Other easier options were available, but none befitted his stature within our lives. He wasn't an easier-option cat, and he deserved to be memorialized with a well-chosen grave. A sad cold February toil, alone.
His namesake Supertail
He was buried on Groundhog Day, 2013. Had he seen one, he would have instantly despised groundhogs. He would have kicked their ass. Over the years, he battled raccoons, and large dogs with grit and bluster, emerging victorious every time. As a kitten, he even battled his own reflection in the mirror, stopping when he realized this looked a little silly, and pretended it never happened.
On reflection, I don't believe Spike despised other animals, for in all other ways he had a very gentle nature. Perhaps he just rejected the assumption made by these rivals that somehow he was on their level. He was not. He took his place alongside people. We were his peers and he belonged with us. When we went for a stroll through the neighborhood, he joined. Not like a dog might join, full of reckless curiosity, and certainly not to be led as a subordinate. (Concerned for his safety, we once attempted a cat harness/leash. We discovered on a leash Spike would have to be dragged, with the leash removed he would walk alongside just fine.) No, Spike joined because we were his family, and since we were walking so would he.
He behaved as a free person. He believed it too, and belief is a powerful thing.
So while Spike was intolerant of other animals, he was exceptionally tolerant of people. Especially of little Ella and Ethan. He gave tremendous joy to my children, for which I am grateful.
Ella bonding with Spike
Spike enjoying life upgrades
Sketches of Spike by Ella Kavitz
Spike waited patiently his whole life for me to accept him as a peer. When at last I did, he died. He visited me his last night alive, and we said our goodbyes. I attended his final moments as his equal, not owner. As his life-long companion there to ease his suffering, I rubbed his neck and cradled his head when he drifted peacefully to sleep for the last time. He was a good cat.
A quarter century ago, in the height of John Hughes' movie glory, my high school experience was shaped by the movie Ferris Beuller's Day Off, released on VHS video tape in 1987.
Like Ferris, I was a senior who thought it would be cool to ditch school and have some fun. Unlike Ferris, my day off in rural North Carolina would be devoid of options like the contemporary art gallery, stock room trading floors, and fine dining he enjoyed in Chicago. My light blue pickup truck was no 1961 Ferrari GT California, but it was sufficient to entice two cute girls (juniors) to ditch school with me to watch this movie together.
A small but important 'coming of age' moment in my life.
Of course the real protagonist/hero of that movie was not Matthew Broderick's invincible Ferris for ditching school, but Alan Ruck's vulnerable Cameron Frye for daring to break the rules and mustering the courage to declare, "I'm going to take a stand."
The character arc of Cameron's transformation transpired in a single day, but for real people like me transformation usually takes much longer. As a goal-oriented person, I have curated my life to resemble the parable of "The Big Rocks in Life". My recent 'big rocks' had become points of pride: graduating with my master's of public policy in May of this year, followed by finishing my first Ironman distance race at Lake Placid in July. As I pursued these 'big rocks' I've also attended to the 'gravel' of work projects and kid projects and home projects, and the 'sand' of bills and cleaning and grocery shopping and everyday life.
For all the goals and projects that I get done in my life, I experience a strong sense of satisfaction. Each serves to help provide focus, direction, and motivation in my life.
Despite these accomplishments, over my lifetime I have accumulated a sizable inventory of incomplete intentions that just spin around in my head time and time again. I intend to become proficient in Spanish, I intend to start a garden, I intend to build a kick-ass treehouse, I intend to accelerate market-uptake of Fitness Intelligence, I intend to evangelize my governance architecture ideas via the Bluecrue Institute, I intend to establish a charitable foundation.
Sometimes these unfinished ambitions lead to anxiety about not doing enough with my life, and sometimes I feel regret for there never seeming to be enough time. The information age seems to have accelerated my creation of these intentions, so at times my negative feelings around incomplete goals overwhelm my positive feelings of goal attainment. In his book 'Getting Things Done' (GTD), best-selling management consultant David Allen coined the word "open loops" for these unfinished internal commitments. His solution in a nutshell: follow a process to get the 'to-dos' out of your head and into an external system, manage by 'what is the next action', and prioritize. By using Evernote and metadata recommendations from The Secret Weapon, I have had good success with the GTD process. But while I now get even more stuff done in a week, I also capture more 'stuff I want to do' in a week too.
Even with this system, though, I still faced a basic problem:
What do I do with my 'open loops' I don't want to let go that never seem more important than the 'tyrrany of the urgent' on any given day?
Allen's recommendation? Keep these on a 'Someday' list and review/prune this list weekly. Trouble is, in a busy, kid-filled, goal-oriented life, what if 'someday' never comes?
Someday...I gotta find the name of that song from the Trailer to "She's Having a Baby"
One such 'open loop' had languished near the bottom of my priority system for twenty-five years, ever since I ditched school that time to watch Ferris Beuller's Day Off.
Just as the whir of the VCR motor engaged to spin the movie to life, we saw the theatrical trailer for another upcoming John Hughes film "She's Having a Baby". This short promotion lasted maybe 30 seconds and depicted a cacophony of scenes from that movie, including Kevin Bacon sitting in a shrinking office, an ovulating wife, feminine temptation, and a finale dream scene with him in a straitjacket on a rocket car hurtling towards a brick wall in the desert. For me, this sequence conveyed very strongly the incessant cadence of married/family life, always just-on-the-edge-of-control, filled with tasks, responsibilities, and obligations. How like John Hughes to capture this essence of our culture and life experience.
What's interesting to note, is that while I've not seen that theatrical trailer for over a quarter century, I just recalled trailer storyline in enough detail to write it down. I can't remember anything in detail from 25 days ago, much less that many years ago. That artistic expression was so compelling, it imprinted and remained distinct within my memory over all these years.
I believe that the trailer soundtrack was the key ingredient that made this vignette so memorable. The simplicity of rhythm and tempo were dance-like and kinetic not unlike Phillip Glass' music from Powaqqatsi. This soundtrack from the "She's Having a Baby" trailer embedded within my soul and never, ever left me. I would remember it at times in my journey through early adulthood, through my travels, my marriage, my children. The song was linked to those images from Hughes' movie, but it certainly transcended it. I could hum it anytime, but I could never find it's name.
That became an open loop. What is the name of that song from the Trailer to "She's Having a Baby"?
What a tiny open loop. Certainly one that never rose higher in priority than studying for an exam, cooking dinner, or spending time with a friend. Definitely something to either just let go, or put on the 'Someday' list. Over my life, I've been able to let a lot of intentions go, but something about this intention just kept resurfacing in my life. Every six months or so, in fact. Not only a tiny open loop, but a tiny nagging open loop.
Long ago, this open loop couldn't easily be closed for a couple of reasons. It wasn't listed on the soundtrack for "She's Having a Baby", and the Internet hadn't yet exploded with fingertip instantaneous access to the world's knowledge. Nowadays, such an intention can't even hatch, because when I hear a song I like... Shazam!...I not only know the name, but I can replay it on Spotify before the song even finishes playing. Maybe I could have found the name of the song earlier, but the cost of finding it far outweighed the urgency...and I had plenty of other things to do with my life.
Fast forward to a decade later, in 1997 as online search services first started to spring up. Downloadable music...youtube...wow. Now every time this open loop tickled my brain, the promise of browsing the limitless web re-energized my rare and brief attempts to close this loop. Alas, my search attempts were fruitless. The pattern of this open loop for the ensuing 15 years became:
Remember my intention
Search
Fail
Get on with my life (but the loop remains open)
I falied in part due to the rigidity of my approach. I only ever searched for information on the trailer to She's Having a Baby. When Youtube sprang up, I never varied from this original search pattern. The reason this pattern never worked is that the producers created TWO types of theatrical trailers, and the only one that I could EVER find online was the longer variant with narration and a horrible background track (seen here). The shorter version with that memorable soundtrack was nowhere to be found. Every time I parked the intention, I told myself I'd check again one day...perhaps someone would post the better varient at last.
Pages 1 2
In mid-August of this year, after making the difficult decision to opt out of a spontaneous week-long vacation on a Disney Cruise to Alaska, I applied myself instead to pressing operational necessities. My home needed to shift from Summer chaos to Autumn structure, ready to receive our new au pair and send the kids to school.
While this was a task that always fell to me this time of year, what was unusual this time is that I had the house all to myself. Wow.
Making the seasonal shift went swifly without having to simultaneously manage the daily family life-support system. I was able to exercise, progress all my work projects, AND even deliver online scorecards to all the athletes at the Wildwoods triathlon. Talk about Getting Things Done.
By the time Friday rolled around, all of my big-ticket commitments had been ticked off the list, so I jump in the car early and head for my regular morning swim at the YMCA. Water and workout feel great, and I begin my drive to the office in an enthusiastic and motivated mood. Listening to NPR Morning Edition, WAMU airs a little segment on the DC theatre season, and what do you know...in the background, they're playing THAT SONG from the She's Having a Baby trailer.
I absorb the music again and it rekindles my ambition to find the name. Serendipity had offered her reminder of my intention on a day when I can actually do something about it. I glance at the clock on the dashboard and at 9:30am I tell myself "TODAY IS THE DAY THAT I'M GOING TO FIND OUT THE NAME OF THAT SONG!"
By 9:30pm I'm heading upstairs to read Dr. Mark Hyman's "The UltraMind Solution" and as my foot touches that first step I stop in shock. The entire day has elapsed and I have spent absolutely NO time looking for that song. My quarter-century intention that had languished on my 'Someday' list was about to be shelved once again, even though 'Someday' had actually come.
So instead of going upstairs, I turn around and sit down at my computer to revisit my question. At first, I try the same old approach of searching for the teaser/trailer video segment on Youtube. Nothing. Again. Exasperated, I just type this question into the google search field: "What is the name of that song from the She's Having a Baby trailer?"
What do you know...it was that simple. The 6th result referenced a nearly identical question in 2004 by 'Saluco' on Adtunes. Apparently the identity of this song had also haunted others, including Saluco. My hairs stood on end.
The simple reply by 'Sophist' was "Music for a Found Harmonium" by Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
I just stared at that line for a long while, unsure at first... finding myself apparently and suddenly at the end of my quest. Slowly, deliberately, I opened Spotify and typed this title into the search bar and in less than 2 seconds, I was but one click away from confirming whether this was the answer I had sought.
It was.
Once the eerie opening chord was finally joined by that unmistakable orchestral fugue, I knew that I knew this song. At last.
And this knowledge was accompanied by the remarkable taste of a new varietal of emotions: Sublime satisfaction, relief, self-esteem, joy. The confidence that even vintage loops can be closed.
Something unlocked in me to close another open-loop legacy...
Within a week, I found the Academy Award winning animation, "The Man Who Planted Trees" whose title I had been looking for nearly as long. This is the fictional story of Elzéard Bouffier who transformed a barren landscape into a wellspring of abundance with his patient dedication to a task. He was one of God's [endurance] athletes, and showed "that man could be as effective as God in tasks other than destruction."
These discoveries of music and classical storytelling were swiftly incorporated into my life, serving as an agent for growth and shaping my children's world experience. Penguin Cafe Orchestra's most popular piece, "Perpetuum Mobile" became Ella and Ethan's favorite for the entire month of September.
These two very small, seemingly inconsequential discoveries began to unlock other possibilities with other intentions...
Other 'Someday' loops, relative youngsters of only 7-years old, were closed before Autumn ended. I finally went to a performance at Wolf Trap (how easy was that) to see 'The King and I' with my mom. Really only 10 minutes of organizational effort, but the real trick was allowing myself to go.
Then, in early October I went sailing on Annapolis Harbor. I have loved sailing all my adult life, with excursions across two continents. However since returning from Australia seven years ago, I had lost touch with this passion. As the craft departed the mooring and sliced between water and wind, I once again experienced that unique, deep and spiritual pleasure. I committed to integrating sailing into my lifestyle and bring this to my kids.
By closing these lingering 'Someday' loops, more room opens inside of me. Possibilities emerge. Imagination blooms. Life and growth awaken.
So my advice to myself, and to you my dear reader, is this: The tyranny of the urgent is always upon us. There will always be a reason to defer that seemingly small intention on the 'Someday' list, and if you keep doing that, Someday will never come.
But if you can give yourself the day off, try taking an open-loop intention off the 'Someday' list and do the next action to make it real.
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
This was the second half-ironman distance race of my triathlon career, and my first hosted by an official Ironman™ race franchise. The Eagleman race, held in the coastal flats of Cambridge, MD, is one of the few remaining half-distance courses in which participants can qualify to compete in the renowned Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. This circumstance draws over 1500 strong athletes from throughout the world into an intensely competitive field to pursue a top spot and the dream of Hawaii.
A half-Ironman distance sounds short...only HALF of an Ironman...but the distances are still daunting: a 1.2 mile swim, 56 miles cycling, concluding with a half-marathon 13.1 mile run, for a grand total of 70.3 miles. Perhaps for this reason, the World Triathlon Corporation refers to this formidable distance as Ironman 70.3 and not a half-Ironman.
I was able to register for the sold-out Eagleman Ironman 70.3 at the prompting of my friend Andrew through a charity slot with Team PVA. This group raises funds to equip paralyzed veterans with the support needed to compete in triathlon. Through the generous donations of my friends, family, and co-workers, I was able to raise a substantial amount towards this great cause and join my fellow athletes in Team PVA at Sailwinds Park in Cambridge for packet pickup midday Saturday. After warming up 30min on the bike and familiarizing myself with the transition area, I racked my bike in Row 3, Aisle H, 3rd in from the left - #588.
My alarm at 4:15am Sunday began the day, and my journey to the starting line. Everything was readied the night before, and I lathered on 50+ sunscreen for what promised to be a scorcher. Via car via shuttle I made my way to the transition area to set up my gear. This is an important step for me; knowing everything is ‘just right’ in transition often brings me the confidence I very much need in a race with so much uncertainty. It paid off this race, with a T1 (swim to bike) of 1:54 and a T2 (bike to run) of 2:29, placing me in the top 15% of my division (Male 40-44) in these transition stages known as 'the fourth discipline of triathlon'. Alas, that was the last of my certainties...for the wicked goddess of endurance sport was about to dish out a day of damage on me and my fellow competitors.
The first surprise was the announcement of a substantial increase in water temperature from the day before. 79.6F may sound like it’d make for a more comfortable swim, but it also disqualifies wetsuits according to USAT rules. This means anywhere between a 10-30% slower swim as we lose the streamlining and buoyancy offered by a wetsuit, and a corresponding increase in the internal energy required to get through the stage. Not daunted, I entered the water with 352 other men aged 40-44 for my first large wave mass start. Treading in the choppy Choptank River, I peered to the horizon trying to make out the dim orange dot that marked the first turn buoy of the swim. The starting horn blared and what followed was sustained pandemonium. Clear for the first 10s and then bump, kick, grab, dodge, smash as we each strove to gain a lead on our rivals. It took at least 15 minutes before I escaped regular collisions and regained the technique driven into my muscle memory from 6 months of swim training with Coach Rob over the past winter. I escaped the Choptank River 44 minutes 31 seconds later in the top third of my division, panting and sprinting through transition to mount my bike and begin the second event.
The good news about the Eagleman bike stage is the pancake flat, 56-mile course inland through the scenic Blackwater Sanctuary. The bad news is the seemingly impossible perpetual headwind which seemed to find a way to drag at me always, despite the circuitous course. Again, my training showed an improvement over my last half-Ironman event up to an [I thought respectable] average of 19.3mph and a total time of 2:54:09. Alas, this wasn’t nearly enough against the hyper-fit cycle-monsters of Eagleman. Early and fresh in the ride I sustained a good top speed of 22-23mph and still found myself DROPPED by a power-chick with a Zipp-wheel Cervelo P4 and aero helmet.
Key lessons:
I need more training time on my bike, particularly in the aero position
I am not well fit for my bike...the aero position is still uncomfortable and my seat isn’t high enough or far enough forward causing my thighs to work too hard and my back to ache
I have COMPLETELY outgrown my bike: I must continue to plead my case for this luxury Christmas present before the 2011 season.
As the temperature steadily ticked upward towards the 3rd hour of my race, I couldn’t decide whether to bless or curse the headwind. All said though, I hydrated and fueled very effectively on the ride with Infint Ironman-formula, thanks to the very wise guidance of my coaching team at R2R, and this saved my bacon on the next stage.
After racking my bike back in transition, I loped down the gauntlet of cheering volunteers past the run exit, gathered my bearings, and hardened my focus on the half-marathon ahead. What happened next was one of the highlights of my race. I [actually] recognized six-time world champion Natascha Badmann running back towards the finish on this out-and-back course. I cheered her on and she smiled and waved [at me]! The wonderful thing about triathlon is that the pros still race the same event as amateurs. The Swiss Miss certainly lived up to her friendly reputation.
Having oriented to the run, I took stock of my body’s condition. I was hot, and I had to pee, but otherwise I felt good. I decided to throw away 60s on a stop at a port-a-loo, just so I didn’t have to think about urinating for the next two hours. Inside the port-a-loo was an OVEN which reinforced what a hot run this was going to be. Exiting the toilet back onto the course created the illusion that it was cooler. Only relatively though...the 90F+ temperature and 90%+ humidity conspired for a heat index over 103 degrees. Add to that the heat radiating off the shade-less, blistering pavement and you’ll understand what happened next: runners started ‘blowing up’ all over the place, unable to run.
This caught me off guard at first, since it is rare that I pass people on my [typically] weakest stage. Then I realized I was surviving due to the wisdom dispensed days earlier by my expert coaching team at R2R. Following their advice, I had held back a bit during my bike, restocked water at the bottle exchanges, and was now holding back a bit on the run. At each volunteer station, I gulped water and endurolytes, sometimes with goo, instead of the seductively sweet and cool Gatorade. I dumped ice water on my head and chest, and crushed ice into my hat and back jersey pocket every chance I got. My pace wasn’t fast, but it was surprisingly steady, and I had reminders all around me of the hazards of quickening the pace. Runners sobbed in the medical tent, vomited into the verge, and [literally] cursed the sun...angry with disbelief that their months of training were being thwarted by the evil elements of that day.
Sometime around mile 5, still running, I realized I had poured so much water and sweat down my back, that my socks were saturated. Fortunately I had selected the tech socks from the Eagleman registration swag-bag instead of my cotton sponges from home, so my feet didn't prune too much. I switched to slow-drip ice from then on. I remember looking down at my feet and thanking them (out loud) for continuing to run.
At mile 6.55, I strode over the turn-around timing pad and began my return home.
At mile 9, I couldn’t believe it but some f**ing horse fly decided to wound me further by biting big chunks out of my sun burnt shoulders. I was in Dante’s Inferno, following the poet Virgil through the seventh circle of Hell, fed upon by the Harpies. Swatting my arms about, I picked up the pace briefly to pass some other poor tortured soul in the hopes that the insect would switch targets. I succeeded...sorry #447. The TriColumbia Eagleman event organizers should post upon their registration website, “Abandon Every Hope, Ye Who Enter Here”.
At mile 12, winding my way through twists and turns of the infernal 'ninth circle' along the Choptank shoreline back to the finish line, I heard an angelic voice beckoning me out of my hell. Like the mythic Beatrice, there stood my friend, having finished her own epic Aqua Velo competition, energetically cheering on the Ironman 70.3 competitors and awaiting my passage. This second highlight of my race was EXACTLY the boost I needed when most needed, for which I am eternally appreciative. Thank you so much, Lynne!
At mile 13, with 1/10th of a mile to go, my heart rate monitor beeped. This signaled a spike to 170bpm...higher than my course-steady-range of 158-162bpm, a sign that I too was beginning to blow up. I crossed the finish line strong but spent at 5:58:31, setting a PR under grueling conditions, happy that this race was finally over. Hey, I was only 105 slots away from qualifying for the World Championship in Kona...the closest I’ve ever come.
Now for my Oscar Awards acceptance moment (without the Oscar or any Award)...
I want to thank my coaching team at R2R for their wisdom, science, and experience in helping me achieve my personal best, especially Coach Rob Colburn who transformed my swim over the winter, and regaled me during our post-swim coffees with invaluable Ironman lore. I want to thank my triathlon buddies Ryan and Lynne for their friendship, enthusiasm, and accountability as we each worked together to improve our athletic performance. I want to thank Coach Andy of Team PVA for his event logistics support, for assembling a strong athletic fundraising team, and for his dedicated support for veteran paratriathletes. I want to thank the team at Fitness Intelligence for helping visualize my race performance and goals. Most of all I want to thank my wife Camilla, my kids, and my au pair for supporting the training I needed to get me to the starting line and for managing the weekend while I battled the elements at Eagleman. ALSO and ESPECIALLY for Camilla’s openness towards purchasing a sweet new tri-bike this coming Christmas [wink] [wink] [nudge] [nudge]!
For a cookie afficionado, declaring the most delicious cookie in the universe is a big call. However, having finally sampled Bill Granger's delicious recipe from his signature cookbook 'bills food', I leave it to the reader to concoct, sample, and verify this claim for yourself. Recipe as follows:
150g (5 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, softened 230g (1 cup) soft brown sugar 1 egg, lightly beaten (free-range - ideally from Dragon Creek Farm) 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 125g (1 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour 1 teaspoon baking powder a pinch of salt 235g (2 1/3cups) rolled oats 175g (1 cup chocolate chips) Must be dark chocolate, 60-70% cacao
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Line three large baking trays with baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until fluffy and smooth. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and mix lightly. Add the oats and chocolate chips (loads) and stir to combine.
Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on the baking trays. Flatten the balls with a fork dipped in flour. (Make sure the flattened cookies are really thick or else they will bake 'crispy' and not convey the wonderful texture that is the signature of this cookie). Bake the cookies for 20 minutes, or until pal golden. Remove from the oven and cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 30.
Our very reliable and fun-loving au pairs (Maren & Emmy) took our little dragons to the Vienna Halloween Parade. The local newspaper ran an article on the event featuring this photo. How much fun does that look?!?
Hey, having discovered the wonders of facebook, we've been much more active at keeping our friends up to date through social networking. If you haven't already, find us on Facebook and we'll bring you in to our latest updates. In the meantime, here are Ethan's first school photos for your enjoyment.
Great fun with our neighbors and a whole passel of kids. The wine flowed as freely as the conversation, while the kids enjoyed the jumping castle (a.k.a. moon bounce), swimming, and puzzles. Milly made the day by quickly drumming a cake on request. Yay!
We celebrated National Night Out with our neighbors. The jumping castle was a hit with the kids and the ice cream sandwiches that didn't melt were fantastic!
Ella made friends with Officer Sophia Grinnan whom she met last month at the Fair Oaks police station. Her daddy helps the police keep people safe through Volunteers in Police Service.
Well time flies - little Ethan is 2 already! Wow it was a hot day, but we had a family party outside with grandma and grandad, and a custom cake, champagne and a Pooh Bear theme - his favorite. Other than anything to do with cars of course - he even got new car running shoes that have wheels on the bottom.
