What a great week!
Wow! It's great when stuff just clicks.
First, a bit of background. As you can see on my profile, running is one of my interests. I'm not as passionate about it as some; nevertheless, in the last two and half years I've run 3 marathons and 2 half marathons, and I'm currently signed up for one of each. I run more as a tool for fitness (blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, all that) than for pure love of the activity. Still, I must admit that I like running more than, say, riding a stationary bicycle.
I mention this because I want to make an analogy. Lots of the time when I'm training, it's very routine. It's not bad, but it's nothing to write home about either. Just another day. The same is true about working toward the better world, whether it's blogging or wiki work or reading a book or surfing various relevant web content. Lots of times it's pleasant but not truly thrilling.
And then there are other times, both when running and when working toward my new mission, where it really IS thrilling, and both happened this week! On Sunday morning (having partied at Truls' 40th b-day party on Saturday night), I got up about 5:50 in order to join some friends (I was invited by Juls) at a hilly local running spot. Not usually the recipe for a great workout, but this particular Sunday I was in a different place and had one of my best runs of the past year. Just gotta love that!
Then on Wednesday morning my wife, Nilofer, and I got together for coffee with a woman (we'll call her "Della", just because that's her name) that I had heard was on a mission somewhat parallel to mine. Well, I don't know about you, but sometimes those connections just don't quite work. This time, however, it really did! Della is co-founder and president of the nascent Institute for Infinite Peace, which is current a stealth-mode non-profit start-up. (That combination of hyphenations is meant to be wryly oxymoronic.) The Institute will be stepping out in the next few months, but if you look for a website at this very moment you will come up empty. Hold that thought for a month or two, and you'll get a different answer. Probably get an update here, for that matter, so I know you're going to watch this page. Right?
Once I got a sense for our resonance, poor Della had to endure the pent up gushings and ramblings I had been unconsciously tucking away for several weeks (months?). The good news is that Della is extremely gracious and tolerated my exuberance with good humor. Even better news is that there are probably some real opportunities for collaboration. We are both very much optimists, and will tend to see possibilities everywhere, but I bet a nickel that the possiblities in this case are more than illusions.
Coming directly out of this very auspicious (pardon my unbearable wiki-ness of being) beginning, Della connected me to my (wait for it...) doppelwiki! It turns out that the Alliance for a New Humanity has also had the (truly inspired) notion that a wiki could be the ideal tool for connecting and informing well intentioned world changers! Theirs is called (shocking!) ANHwiki (Ed note: sure I'm biased, but I think WinWinWiki has a weensie edge in coolness of moniker. But what do you think? To vote for your favorite, dial...)
Sorry..., kind of lost it there in "link land". So I went to to ANHwiki and had me a look-see. Turns out they have some need for wiki maintenance folks; I have some desire for some web visibility. I think there's some real potential for a joint effort! That is to say, as far as I'm concerned, there's a great opportunity! Could be that's just me, though (after all, I'm a known optimist), so we'll need to wait and see whether ANH sees it in a similar light. I've dropped them a note. Keep your fingers crossed! Could be a win-win, and wouldn't that be perfect?
So, as you can perhaps tell from my subtly (uh-huh) lighthearted tone, I've been experiencing a slight "pinch-me" feeling all week. If this is what comes from pursuing one's passion, I have to say, I recommend it.
First, a bit of background. As you can see on my profile, running is one of my interests. I'm not as passionate about it as some; nevertheless, in the last two and half years I've run 3 marathons and 2 half marathons, and I'm currently signed up for one of each. I run more as a tool for fitness (blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, all that) than for pure love of the activity. Still, I must admit that I like running more than, say, riding a stationary bicycle.
I mention this because I want to make an analogy. Lots of the time when I'm training, it's very routine. It's not bad, but it's nothing to write home about either. Just another day. The same is true about working toward the better world, whether it's blogging or wiki work or reading a book or surfing various relevant web content. Lots of times it's pleasant but not truly thrilling.
And then there are other times, both when running and when working toward my new mission, where it really IS thrilling, and both happened this week! On Sunday morning (having partied at Truls' 40th b-day party on Saturday night), I got up about 5:50 in order to join some friends (I was invited by Juls) at a hilly local running spot. Not usually the recipe for a great workout, but this particular Sunday I was in a different place and had one of my best runs of the past year. Just gotta love that!
Then on Wednesday morning my wife, Nilofer, and I got together for coffee with a woman (we'll call her "Della", just because that's her name) that I had heard was on a mission somewhat parallel to mine. Well, I don't know about you, but sometimes those connections just don't quite work. This time, however, it really did! Della is co-founder and president of the nascent Institute for Infinite Peace, which is current a stealth-mode non-profit start-up. (That combination of hyphenations is meant to be wryly oxymoronic.) The Institute will be stepping out in the next few months, but if you look for a website at this very moment you will come up empty. Hold that thought for a month or two, and you'll get a different answer. Probably get an update here, for that matter, so I know you're going to watch this page. Right?
Once I got a sense for our resonance, poor Della had to endure the pent up gushings and ramblings I had been unconsciously tucking away for several weeks (months?). The good news is that Della is extremely gracious and tolerated my exuberance with good humor. Even better news is that there are probably some real opportunities for collaboration. We are both very much optimists, and will tend to see possibilities everywhere, but I bet a nickel that the possiblities in this case are more than illusions.
Coming directly out of this very auspicious (pardon my unbearable wiki-ness of being) beginning, Della connected me to my (wait for it...) doppelwiki! It turns out that the Alliance for a New Humanity has also had the (truly inspired) notion that a wiki could be the ideal tool for connecting and informing well intentioned world changers! Theirs is called (shocking!) ANHwiki (Ed note: sure I'm biased, but I think WinWinWiki has a weensie edge in coolness of moniker. But what do you think? To vote for your favorite, dial...)
Sorry..., kind of lost it there in "link land". So I went to to ANHwiki and had me a look-see. Turns out they have some need for wiki maintenance folks; I have some desire for some web visibility. I think there's some real potential for a joint effort! That is to say, as far as I'm concerned, there's a great opportunity! Could be that's just me, though (after all, I'm a known optimist), so we'll need to wait and see whether ANH sees it in a similar light. I've dropped them a note. Keep your fingers crossed! Could be a win-win, and wouldn't that be perfect?
So, as you can perhaps tell from my subtly (uh-huh) lighthearted tone, I've been experiencing a slight "pinch-me" feeling all week. If this is what comes from pursuing one's passion, I have to say, I recommend it.
posted by Curt Beckmann at 8:50 PM
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