Consistency – Over a year ago I started blogging what I was grateful for. For reason I don’t fully understand, I stopped at day 8 of 30. So, I am picking myself up, dusting off the inconsistency, and resuming what I started one full rotation around the sun ago.
To that end, I am grateful for just that: consistency, especially when applied to a craft. I remember my Karate teacher, Masaki Sumida, explaining in a mix of Spanish and Japanese that Shotokan was like a boiling a pot of water: if you took the pot of the burner then the water would stop bubbling. Karate behaved the same way and so does everything else. As Kyle Austin one of my first improv coaches explained, “If you want to be good, you have to get your reps in.”
If perseverance is the mother of consistency, then vision is its twin sibling. Consistency has little meaning without a strong ‘why.’ I read a great story about two laborers in 14th century France who were laying bricks for a gigantic cathedral. An inquisitive child asks the first laborer what he was doing. He sneered, “I am laying down bricks.” The child asked the second laborer who seemed to be doing the same job: “what are you doing?” He replied, “I am building a cathedral.” Vision gave meaning to consistency.
This weekend Israel Saginaw, the patriarch of the Saginaw family, passed away. When I think back about all my times hanging out with ‘The Chief’ he was consistent. Consistent in the way he loved his family, in the way he organized his Life magazines in his basement, and listening intently about my life in Texas. I am in Detroit for the celebration of Sol’s life.
Khan Academy – Much like my love of Wikipedia, I am grateful for Khan Academy. For the longest time a world-class education belong to those who won the birth lottery. Now if you have access to the Internet and are curiosity, Khan Academy can teaching you everything from how to balance a quadratic equation to the development of Western democracy. What’s cooler than the democratization of education? Nothing.
Doors- After a coach surfing in Easton Europe in 2010 I became fascinated by doors. First, because every culture and country had doors and it reflected their values and tastes. Second, because doors symbolized opportunity. Recently what has fascinated me is challenging my friends to pick a door that speaks to them and taking their picture in front of ‘their door’. Now that I have formalized the process with a page, I get to me more consistent with my love of doors and the people who pick them.
charliesaginaw 