Living with intention

As I mentioned in the previous post today I read a speech given by a good friend.  The whole speech resonated deeply with me, but the story at the end of the speech was what really struck me.  The idea of micro-service as a way to transform the self was very intriguing.  

Every action has the potential to be an act of service no matter how small.  The key is to perform the action with intention, but in order to truly perform an act with intention one has to be in the moment not focusing on the past or future.  To achieve this I recognize small modifications that need to be made to my day.  I do not need to be as connected as I am.  My time in the morning or evening when I commute can be spent in quiet contemplation instead of cluttered by constantly surfing radio stations.  Practically speaking I can't slow down my commute nor can I walk to work at this point, but I can slow down my mind and be present in those moments.  The big opportunity of micro-service will be when our new family member arrives.  There are going to be plenty of chances to lose ourselves to frustration and take it out upon each other.  However, each chance for frustration is also a chance for service to either the HyWy or our son/daughter.  In a sense it sounds ridiculous, but each diaper changed or feeding is in itself a profound act of service.  For the first 3-5 years a child is not at all self sufficient and as parents we have to selflessly give so the entirety of the first several years can be viewed as an aggregate of micro-service acts.  It won't be easy to maintain this level of awareness, but it is a start to consider it and apply it to today.  My whole day today I have been considering the title of this blog and trying to stay present.  Stay tuned for what happens in a month or two.

I just read that a good friend is giving one of two commencement addresses at UPenn.  After that I read that Karma Kitchen, a project that both the HyWy and I were deeply involved in at one point, has opened an outpost in Japan.  I had a moment to reflect on these two items and where the last ten years after my graduation has brought me.  Along the way I have met some amazing people.  It's interesting in meeting people how you never realize in that first moment where your relationship can go, but in hindsight it seemed so simple.  In ten years some of the people have entered and left my life and some are only just entering, but regardless they have left lasting marks upon me.  I have had the benefit of being a part of truly inspirational projects whose scope and impact I may never fully realize as I'm still trying to understand how they transformed me.  At 33 I feel  like I have lived a life that I'm proud of and this gives me hope for what can be achieved in the remaining 50 or so years ahead of me.  

What is in a name?

As the HyWy and I try to pick a name for our new arrival I have been thinking about things that I didn't expect I would at this point.  I didn't think I would ceaselessly consider the pronunciation of an Indian name by Americans and how Anglicized it could be.  Then I reflected on my own name and all the iterations I have accepted over the years.  Originally when I conceived this post I was going to phonetically write out each iteration, but then I realized that would reveal my name (duh!).  I'm sure there are no secrets about my name, but I'm not going that far.  What I do know is that I subconsciously Anglicize my own name.  I don't completely break it away from it's Indian roots as someone who might crown themselves Harry might.  However, those that do that I know do it for a very very good reason.  After all no one wants to work in corporate America with a name like Hardik or something similar.  Back to my story though, I am making a conscious effort to pronounce my name the way it is intended.  For me that means separating the syllables at a different point than I do and it also means and changing one of the sounds.  One unintended affect of this exercise is that I'm extremely present when I introduce myself on the phone.  At my job I make countless phone calls and I'm often rushing, but now I have to slow down just enough to remember what is in my name.

Live with no regrets

As the HyWy and I near this next phase in our lives I can't help but think about, "how things will never be the same."  Sometimes we think about these things ourselves while musing on days gone by and other times we have that fact reiterated to us by those who have walked this road before us.  However, the more I think about it the more I realize that I'm ready to leave behind those move forward.  However, as we move forward I look back fondly on things we won't necessarily be able to do with the same ease and reckless abandon:

• Getting off work after a long day and going bar hopping for happy hour.
• Going clubbing and dancing followed by late night food and coming home at 5 or 6am.
• Coming home exhausted and laying on the couch watching movies.
• Skipping out on lesser things like laundry and grocery shopping to spend the day with friends.

I'm sure there are more things, but nothing is coming to mind immediately.  On the flip side there is a list of stuff that I'm excitedly looking forward to:

• Getting off work after a long day and just sitting with KB (whether he/she is eating, sleeping, crying).
• Sleeping next to KB.
• Taking photos in the Heisman pose with KB.
• Going to a park on a nice day with the HyWy and KB.
• Waking up exhausted and grumpy, but seeing KB's face first thing.

So as one door closes another opens.

When to introduce...

As our little legume grows within the HyWy I have been thinking more about parenting.  One of the big questions on the minds of parents these days is when do you "introduce" the kid to television.  While I think about that I'm not particularly concerned with the answer.  The question that sticks in my head is when to introduce the kid to Google/Wikipedia.  As with the former question the obvious scenario that looms is that the kid would discover the forbidden fruit when at a friend's house, but there is no point in worrying about that.  Growing up both the HyWy and I would ask our parents questions about how things work, how things were made, what is this, what is that, etc.  I remember in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes how the Calvin's dad would make up an elaborate explanation when he didn't have an answer and I always thought that was funny.  I want to have these opportunities to learn things and experience discovering them with KB, but the window of opportunity has shrunk considerably since our childhood.  Now any question we don't have an answer is literally a few clicks away.  Do I want KB to have such instant gratification?  Do I want to miss the opportunity to make up answers?  Most definitely not.  I'm not saying that I want to teach KB the wrong things, but I want to be an active part of KB's learning.

Musical cartography

What is the first thing you do when you hear a new song or group?  Today you might hit Shazam on your smartphone, then link to YouTube to watch some videos by the group/singer, and maybe then look up Wikipedia to read about the group/singer.  My whole life I have enjoyed what I would call musical cartography or musical mapping.  When I was discovering rock and heavy metal my cartography led me from U2 or Metallica back eventually to the Delta Blues.  Today my musical cartography focuses more on sampling and one of the most intriguing examples in recent memory is the Rihanna and Drake song "I'll Take Care of You".  When I first heard this I fell in love with the background music.  I love the melody and I set about figuring out what this song was about.  This led me to a remix version with vocals by Gil Scott Heron.  The remix was done by someone named Jamie xx and I would assume he was the one that placed the melodies that loved.  However, the Gil Scott Heron version made me realize I also really liked the lyrics and I was curious what the "original" version sounded like if Jamie xx added in the beautiful melodies.  That led me to the original Gil Scott Heron version.  From here I learned that this was no more Gil Scott Heron's song than it was Jamie xx, Drake, or Rihanna's.  The true original version was written by Brook Benton and recorded by Bobby "Blue" Bland.  Bobby Blue is a very famous blues and R&B artist whose most recognizable work is "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City", which went on to be sampled by Jay-Z.  There are two lessons I took from this exercise: first it always comes back to the blues or R&B and second that Gil Scott Heron is very amazing.  He reminds me of Bob Dylan in that he was an incredibly gifted writer with an incredibly unique voice.  When I compare all the versions of "I'll Take Care of You" I can't help but feel that as much as I least like the approach for the Drake/Rihanna version I think it might be the best.  From here the debate rages on about what it means to be a fan who learns about Gil Scott Heron in this manner vs. an original fan.  My thinking is if one arrives at the same destination their journey there, in these situations, doesn't matter as much.  

Movies, rides, and video games

After seeing The Lorax recently I left the theatre wondering whether I had just walked out of a video game or ride promo.  Where in the past movies were made and then their story, characters, setting, etc. were adapted to create video games and rides today another approach is taken.  A movie is created with the vision of a video game and ride tie-in.  The movie then obviously has content, which would fit well with a ride or a video game.  This makes me question what is the purpose of creating a film?  I would think that it would be a form of artistic expression or something to that effect.  Now it seems as though the purpose would be cross platform development.  The problem this creates is artistic expression is sacrificed in favor of what would be cool on a ride or what would work well in a video game.  Imagine a producer arguing against a scene, but that gets overruled as it would only spend an extra 100K to create and would add to a ride.  It doesn't matter though.  The movie is losing it's foothold as the primary revenue stream.  A theme park with souvenirs, admission, food, etc. is the largest revenue stream.  Almost all of that revenue stays "at home" or with the parent company (most likely the ones who made the movie).  The video game with it's longer term entertainment factor, 'educational' aspect, and medium price point is the secondary revenue stream.  Movies in the theatre are the smallest revenue stream as they lose market share to downloading, Netflix, and shrinking audience sizes on rising ticket prices.  I guess this is a shift in the entertainment market.