Back in the 70s, when I first arrived in London to train, the big scandal was group teaching.

Of course, EVERYONE KNEW you could not teach Alexander's discovery in groups. It was almost a heresy back then, a betrayal of principle. What are you thinking!?

Except that "unreasonable" teachers started to teach in groups.

The story I heard - back then - was of an infuriated Dr Wilfred Barlow, at the last STAT AGM he ever attended, pointing a finger quivering in anger at Walter Carrington:

"It is because of you!"

THE POETRY

By the river in Kyoto. I remember.

Family. Two girls lying flat, a father writing. The river flowing by.

Tribes. A dad holidaying his brood. Takes the time.

Blood. Girls. Teenagers about to fly. Different times of life.

What holds all this together?

THE ENGINEERING

Most people, when planning their website, worry about the content.

Wrong thing to worry about.

***

(actually, it's better not to worry about anything. Shantideva, an Indian sage in the 8th century, had the final words to say about that:

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?
If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?

Thanks for putting an end to that one Shanti-san)

****

Carlos Ghosn is a Brazilian born, French-educated son of Lebanese parents who has lived in Japan for 18 years. We both arrived in Japan in the same year.

He's had a little more impact than me!!!

BUT.

Like me, he uses interpreters all the time.* Morimoto-san is his gesticulating, passionate, interpreter. She follows Carlos everywhere "except the rest room." She's well known for capturing his mood and conveying that in Japanese.

Amongst the executive staff at Nissan’s headquarter in Yokohama, the saying goes:

One of the delights of my current life is working with a variety of teachers from all over the world. They often inspire my daily epistles - I swiped today's Subject line off a Texas gal just 10 minutes ago. (Thanks Julie, now put that gun away.)

Why do these teachers and students come?

Not to get rich. None of us are rich. Are you rich?

Perhaps we are philanthropists masquerading as professional teachers…

Here's what you've most likely already given:

Better question – who writes a blog on Xmas day?!

I do. Why? Well, why not?

The day is to celebrate the things that make life worthwhile: love, compassion, friendship, family, giving, receiving.

Xmas a great time to practise generosity of spirit.

On July 4th, 1907 Willie Keith stood helplessly in Battle Creek, Michigan watching a fire consume his precious factory.*

Willie was 46, yet he had launched his company barely a year before. He’d already worked for 25 years as the unofficial business manager for a famous Seventh-day Adventist Sanitarium (re-invented from the word ‘sanatorium’) under the shadow of his gregarious and extroverted brother Dr John Henry.

Numbers matter.

Every area of knowlege involves numbers and mathematics, even philosophy.

When you tune in, numbers both reveal and predict behaviour.

“Wow daddy, everywhere here has free Wi-Fi.”

My two girls – 14 and 17 - are with me in Japan. We are wandering around inside the sultry envelope of a damp Tokyo summer. Of course, two teenage girls are way more interested in free WiFi than temples and boring stuff like that. Unless there’s a photo op…

“Hey dad, take my photo walking down these stairs.”

Why? I wonder.

“I want to post it to Instagram.”

Instagram. Right. Still trying to figure that out.

When did another person last say to you: “You don’t understand!!!”

Whenever a person tells you that, they are right. You don’t understand their story. You only understand your story about their story! It’s natural, except…

How do you get past that?

Previously in my blog – “Standing Is Just A Story You Tell Your Self” – I asked you to explore the way that you and others stand…