Living Arrows

CLICKtivism- To help modern society, we have to use the tools of the present.

Even a man who lives in complete social isolation and cherishes a solipsistic view on life would dare not deny the definite evidence of technology’s distinctive effect on modern communication. Social media and mobile apps are, by their own reckoning, a way for new communities to address old problems in new ways. 

During a recent trip to visit my family in South America, I couldn’t help but marvel at my cousins who were signing onto Facebook as I remembered how difficult it was for me to shower that morning. (We ran out of water and someone had to fetch more water from the lake.) It was a priority for me to have a decent shower. It was my cousins’ priority to “friend” me. Technology’s redoubtable and addictive properties will sometimes challenge our priorities but, above all, it truly is a great tool for “finding the others”. 

It’s not really about connecting with friends or for braggadocios to post attractive pictures of themselves, it’s for crowd sourcing solutions. Young Kenyans were pioneering the use of text messaging to monitor political conflict in 2010. There are now mobile apps for blood sample analysis, even though women in developing countries are 21% less likely than men to own a mobile phone. Can social media help us move toward democratization?

This past weekend’s Social Good Summit presented and parsed topics and questions like the one above. There were also summits in several other countries and attendees were shown videos of other meetups in Greece, New Zealand, Montenegro, Egypt, and Myanmar. We learned about concepts like Shared Value, innovative websites like ShoutAbout, and new mobile app challenges. It was a summit that marketed humanitarian organizations as we concurrently learned how terrible humanitarians are at marketing.  

The speakers at SGS truly distilled the values of corporations and NGOs who are coming together for social impact: 

Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer of the United States, described his work in the White House as being an incubator of initiatives, not companies. He talked about the Open Data Initiative. He focuses on open innovation and the desire to make new data available and unavailable data usable/downloadable. He reminded us that Government’s decision to make the global positioning system freely available is what fueled private sector innovations like navigation systems (GPS). 

I enjoyed the thoughts of Larry Irving, Co-founder of Mobile Alliance for Global Good. He discussed being connected with a purpose and recited this rarely publicized quote by MLK Jr. - “A great revolution is taking place in the world today…a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation…yes, we do live in a period where changes are taking place.”

Another highlight was Dr. Hans Rosling’s lecture. If you’ve also watched his TED talks, then you can imagine how excited I was to see him live. He reminded us not to think of developing countries as one place. There are so many different levels of development. 

He also had a very impressive pointer.

Deepak Chopra mesmerized the room when he told us that social networks are an extension of our mind. He advised us to create dynamic networks that self-organize themselves. 

Here are a few more quotes from more notables, followed by my favorite tweets from the summit:

Actress America Ferrera

Actor Forest Whitaker with Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano talks to ForbesWomen President Moira Forbes (I was so impressed with Moira’s questions.) They talked about cyber security, regulation, and shared responsibility.

I was also captivated by Arturo Sarukhan, the Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S.  He has a very arresting presence. 

For further resources, please visit the website for Grand Challenges, Half the Sky, We Advance U, 10X10, and Connect To Learn. Connect to Learn is a global initiative designed by Hans Vestberg and the inimitable Jeffrey Sachs (below).

All photos taken by me (Aleeka Kay Edwards)

I imagine ateliers everywhere are occupied by confused people; people obsessing over their art while avoiding the specter of debt. You sacrifice a lot to be an artist, mostly financial security and sanity. Steven Mcgaughey created this website to  keep a semblance of art in his life while in medical school. He promised himself that he would continue to sketch and doodle everyday. It is seemingly his panacea to keeping art in his life as he struggles with finding creating himself.

In “Gastric Subway” (below), his love of design and his passion for medicine live in perfect comity on the overcrowded web. I’m so happy I stumbled onto his work. It’s very rare you come across something so clever:

It would require less than the fingers of one hand to count the number of poems that make me as teary eyed as this Sarah Williams’ poem. I’ve been engaged by it all week and even when I try to invest my mind into other things or secure a modicum of lightheartedness, nothing that has been tried satisfies. I can’t stop picturing coronas of stars and headstones.

The Old Astronomer To His Pupil

Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, — I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then till now.

Pray, remember, that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data, for your adding as is meet;
And remember, men will scorn it, ’tis original and true,
And the obloquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.

But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learnt the worth of scorn;
You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn;
What, for us, are all distractions of men’s fellowship and smiles?
What, for us, the goddess Pleasure, with her meretricious wiles?

You may tell that German college that their honour comes too late.
But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant’s fate;
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.

What, my boy, you are not weeping? You should save your eyes for sight;
You will need them, mine observer, yet for many another night.
I leave none but you, my pupil, unto whom my plans are known.
You “have none but me,” you murmur, and I “leave you quite alone”?

Well then, kiss me, — since my mother left her blessing on my brow,
There has been a something wanting in my nature until now;
I can dimly comprehend it, — that I might have been more kind,
Might have cherished you more wisely, as the one I leave behind.

I “have never failed in kindness”? No, we lived too high for strife, —
Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life;
But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still
To the service of our science: you will further it? you will!

There are certain calculations I should like to make with you,
To be sure that your deductions will be logical and true;
And remember, “Patience, Patience,” is the watchword of a sage,
Not to-day nor yet to-morrow can complete a perfect age.

I have sworn, like Tycho Brahe, that a greater man may reap;
But if none should do my reaping, ’twill disturb me in my sleep.
So be careful and be faithful, though, like me, you leave no name;
See, my boy, that nothing turn you to the mere pursuit of fame.

I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak;
Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak:
It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars, —
God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t now include one of my own poems. I have a book of poems that I wrote. At one point I wanted to print them and distribute pamphlets to the homeless. 

Vents, tirades, release

Explosions and eruptions

Corrugated panels flatten at the roar of childlike tantrums

Spreadsheets of wishful thinking

Excel

Spitting out rants and gargling thoughts

In order to lather conditions

Start pulling strands of fiber from drains that suck effervescence

Fall forward into flames of the unheard

Marking darkness with release

(Source: realitytvgifs)

Spectral looking and fueled by nothing, Ms. Perkins walked towards me and I almost gasped at the condition of her face. Neither sunglasses nor clumps of makeup could cover the discoloration surrounding her eyes. Still, she was as lively as ever as she told me why she needed a ride to the doctor. I see her only about once every two years but I make an effort to keep in contact. Hanks of her grey hair were the only distraction from her shocking appearance and demeanor, which was both dependent and aggresively active at once. 

My mother met Ms. Perkins in C-Town grocery store when I was ten years old and seduced her into giving me and my sisters piano lessons for practically free. We didn’t learn until months later that she was a seasoned piano and violin playing prodigy who once had a salable name- Gloria Perkins.

I slogged away at piano; practiced for hours. I wasn’t musically inclined like my younger sister but I was diligent in my studies. By high school I was uncontrollably peeing on piano stools at musician competitions (this actually only happened once) and by college I was playing in church during the spring breaks. My college essay was titled “Gone Chopin for Music” and I even played a few times for friends at my university until one day when a student at Brown made me realize that I was, in fact, not good enough to be playing near a student at Brown.

Ms. Perkins’ feet were always shod in cute shoes (even though the lessons were held in her own home) and she wore broaches that she hand-made. I wish I still had the broach she designed for me. It didn’t stop there. She is also a brilliant painter. The art gene is riddled throughout her body. It really is all she has. I think I remember her referring obliquely about a man she dated but it must not have been a real love since I never caught her looking off into space, daydreaming…missing. She wore makeup, yes. Always wore makeup. But this was not for a man, it was for us. So much so that the one time we went to her house unnannounced, I recall she didn’t even open the door .

She lives in the same house she grew up in. By spurning tv and other gadgets, she tricks herself into living in the past. She often references her performances as if they occurred a few days prior when in fact they were decades ago. Years ago she owned dogs but as they died she replaced them with cats. It was her tawny cat that greeted her at the front door when we returned from the doctor’s appointment. 

Despite her grievances, she’ll probably live until her hundreds, I predict. Mostly thanks to her life as a nonsmoker, teetotaler,and as a person so far removed from anything unrelated to the arts. So, when all these gimmicks that we live everyday go the way of the dodo, Ms. Perkins would have known no different as she never paid attention to them in the first place. 

” Affairs of the heart come and go, and so do life and death…but music just continues.”- unknown

Ten-year-old violin prodigy Gloria played with the National Symphony Orchestra

Ms. Perkins now (almost 90 years old)

The first thing you notice when you meet Matthew is his skin. Yesterday morning I had prepared myself for our sit-down by reading his hagiography on the Harvard website. From his picture on the website I didn’t glean how luminous his skin is, so inviting even under the shade of his worn baseball cap. His pearl skin was dotted with a few red patches which made me even more curious about where he’s been and all that he’s seen. Matthew Bonds was leaving for Rwanda soon but we were meeting to talk about the work I’m doing for his company. I’m creating their website and launching their social media campaign. 

Matt has his PHD in both ecology and economics. He joined the Harvard faculty after a fellowship in sustainable development at Columbia University, where he was mentored by Jeffrey Sachs (gasp). He analyzes the relationship between ecology and economic development and focuses on how health care can promote economic growth in poor regions. In Rwanda he works with Partners in Health to measure socioeconomic impacts. I wanted to eat him whole; parse everything that he was about to tell me. 

I asked so many questions. At first my questions revolved around his company, since that was the purpose of our sit-down. (To create the website, even though I’ve read the facts, I wanted to get a face-to-face sense of the public weal.) Then I jumped right into personal questions. I wanted to know everything about his career path.

Then I told him a few reasons why I was so actively transitioning careers and why I loved international development. He had, of course, never watched an Anderson Cooper segment. I didn’t dare mention Wendy Williams. Nonetheless, he made a few statements that I found to be so insightful.

1. “The funny thing about fame is that it’s amplified the closer you get to it.”

So true. Most people who work in media still obsess over hosts and taking pictures with celebrities to post on their blogs/twitter. It’s interesting. You would think that because it’s their job they would be less sycophantic. 

2. “It’s so much more fun to be stressed out about things you genuinely care about.” 

While it’s stressful for me to be transitioning into a career in international development, it’s also fun to be meeting someone like Matthew and inhaling his wisdom. I rather be doing this than writing a research packet on a crazy woman who takes her toddler tanning. 

3. “It’s never too late.”

Matt said his sister went to medical school at 33 years old. She’s 38 now and just starting her residency. It was kind of him to tell me her story. 

It’s been a rainy week but I definitely have seen the light. 

A blog comment I recently read mentioned dysconscious racism. Dysconscious racism is a distorted understanding about inequity and cultural diversity. I had never heard the term. So, naturally, I felt rising pangs of guilt and frustration at not knowing that there are names for the variant degrees of racism because I’m black and should know these things. You can breathe a sigh of relief- This blog post is not about racism. It’s about learning and my quest to know everything. 

I (luckily) can’t afford to go back to school so I’ve been forced to become an autodidact and allow my self-taught methods to put my brain on severe overdrive.  With new insight also comes sadness for me about all the things I did not know, producing a mix of satisfying knowledge and unsatisfying resolution. I regret spending the early aughts of 2000 begging for love and the rest of that decade hating myself for being unlovable. I wasted a lot of time on “unimportances”. I chose not to think. It was complete mental indolence. While I’m happy now and I’ve completely changed things around this past year by transitioning careers and having only positive relationships, I can’t help but have regrets for all the time wasted on inexorable depression. I’m reading a lot about entrepreneurship and the updated crowdfunding bill (HR2930) and trying to think of a business plan that could help people with depression. I don’t have any good ideas and that frustrates me even more, especially as I sit here watching celebrities pitch clever ideas on “The Celebrity Apprentice”, where I’m actually learning a lot about marketing from a former Playmate.

I’ll swindle smarts from everything from a seducer to a survey. The source is irrelevant, I just want to learn. 

* I don’t think Aubrey O’Day is a seducer. I just like alliteration. She seems so lovely and intelligent.