Conversations on Calhoun, January 28, 2012.

The Center for Imaginative Action held its’ first one-day retreat on Saturday. Can you imagine my immense gratitude to all those people that cooperated to make this event a success? We all met in a room that overlooked Lake Calhoun. Our food was catered by the chef extraordinaire Carrie Watson, and by Lucia’s Restaurant. The quality of the food was exceptional. How Lucia’s consistently turns out high quality cuisine on a daily basis I will never know.

Our purpose was to explore the relevance of Freud, Jung and Steiner to our daily lives. We drew a map of the philosophic territory with compass and ruler and learned about The Great Chain of Being. Before the day was over, we had created our own personal Red Book using Dr. Jung’s masterpiece as our template. Everyone had begun to imagine what he or she really wanted in his or her lives, and we wrote about it, meditated on it, painted about it, and learned a method of making it happen. It was an extraordinary day. 

If this is of interest to you, give us a call to plan a retreat in your area. The next retreat in Minneapolis is scheduled for Saturday, March 24.

A Sharper Mind, Middle Age and Beyond

It seems that more and more scientists are realizing the benefits of continuous learning and “inner fitness”. This is a piece written by Times reporter Patricia Cohen who is the author of “In Our Prime:  The Invention of Middle Age.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/a-sharper-mind-middle-age-and-beyond.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=a%20sharper%20mind&st=cse

An Excellent Day in NYC

My wife Alecia and I are in New York City this week. The temperatures are above average for New York and well above average for Minneapolis. I have walked 12 miles so far through the sublime Central Park. It is a challenge to get ones’ head around the park. According to some sources it contains 843 acres and 26,000 trees. These 843 acres represent some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Yet, in a city know for its’ greed, the developers were banned and we have this jewel.

You witness there a constant stream of joggers, walkers, bikers and tourist bikers along the way. The park is very well cared for. Men and women trimming the trees, raking the flowerbeds, picking up the litter and garbage. As a person that grew up in the 1960’s I have to say it seems like an honor to walk around The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Have you ever seen those shots of her being caught by a photographer enjoying the park alone? New York City is a precious place. Those who know me understand that I prefer living in Santa Monica, the beach community within Los Angeles. That is true, I may be one of the last, but I love LA. Yet, New York City is very hard to beat.

Consider my day today. I am sure you know the type of days when you start out spilling and burning yourself making morning coffee? This day was the opposite of that. I left the apartment about 8:20 and immediately ran into one of my students from the Steiner School and her mother. Sheer coincidence (synchronicity?) led me to see, at the mere breaking of dawn, two of my favorite people in the world. Then I arrived at the home of my friends who invited me to see their daughter, and three other former students of mine, participate in an assembly at her new Waldorf School.

The Brooklyn Waldorf School really has something good going. Their new home is in a spectacular building. I have seen the full spectrum of Waldorf initiatives from the smallest to “the legendary” (in their minds at least), and the Brooklyn Waldorf School is an inspiration. We were honored to be in the 4^th grade room during snack and observed them during recess. My friend took me on a full tour to allow me to understand the opportunity that this beautiful space affords.

Afterwards we ran some errands and then went to Eataly for lunch. What an elegant experience we had at Manzo!  The food and the service were spectacular but did not compare to the conversation that my friend and I had. I explained the mission of the Center for Imaginative Action to him, and not only did he get it, he is living it. My friend is a life long creative type, who has had tremendous success in his pursuits and now has decided to learn to become a pilot. This forces him to develop the exact precision of a scientist, which Carl Jung would have seen as the opposite of his actor/artist personality. Now he gets to be an accomplished creative person with precise thinking skills, in Jung’s terms a more individuated person.

As if that was not enough, tonight Alecia and I attended a “Music on 4” house concert on the Upper West Side. Abbie Gardner of Red Molly, Pete Kennedy of The Kennedy’s, Abbie’s father Herb Gardner on the trombone, and Craig Akin with his base circa 1850. These artists produced an incredible acoustic performance. Here are a few of the photos Alecia took.

Now, after this great day in NYC, we are home in our apartment and feeling very grateful for the city, the people in the city, and the fact that we are here. With all the troubles in our country, and the history of mistakes that we have made, let's allow Central Park in New York City to be a symbol of America getting it right.

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The Joy of Quiet

The Joy of Quiet

On this morning of January 1, 2012, the day my new business “goes live on the web”, I woke up to our normal Sunday ritual. I made the coffee, the fire, gathered the Sunday New York Times and Alecia and I sat quietly together reading in front of the fireplace. 

Starting a new venture is either scary or exciting depending on how you look at it. I truly have no idea of what will happen. Yet I have my clear vision of the service that I want to provide and am certain that there is an unmet need in the marketplace.

As I moved through The Times one section at a time I came to the “Sunday Review”. I skipped the first page entirely and read several of the inside pieces. Then, when I was about ready to throw the whole thing in the “already read” pile, I noticed that on the front page there was a circle. Circles have been sacred symbols in many cultures and that fact alone seemed to grab me out of my habitual routine. At the bottom of the page was an opinion piece written by the author Pico Iyer called “The Joy of Quiet.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?src=me&ref=general

This article will be required reading for anyone attending the daylong or weeklong retreats that my new business offers.

Everybody knows that electronic screens, whether offered by TV or computers or smartphones have taken over our daily attention. Mr. Tyer hits the nail on the head with his observation that, “The only way we can do justice to our onscreen lives is by summoning exactly the emotional and moral clarity that can’t be found on any screen”.

On this first day of the year 2012, The Center for Imaginative Action, in the name of bringing peace and quiet back into our lives, begins to offer its’ services at www.imageact.org.