Hungry? Eat…
- Niels Teunis invites us to kill the mission statement and find three words instead.
- Dervala Hanley tweets the death of the MBA.
- Ria Baeck republishes Fancis Moore Lappe on wyas systems can redesign food systems
- Johnnie Moore blogging Dave Snowden blogging some interesting peer learning in the hotel industry.
- Aftab Erfan blogs about a Deep Democracy event in South Africa.
- Peggy Holman is blogging her new book on Patterns of Change and looking for comments
- Henry Mintzberg on the failure of management training
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When I read this Neruda poem, I thought of my wife.
Sonnet XVII
I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
via Neruda.
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I’ve been in Portland Oregon this week working with Native community radio stations from across the United States on an exciting capacity development project. While here I’ve been enjoying the city. Portland, Seattle and Vancouver really are sister cities. We share the same climate, the same eco-systems and concerns, the same look and feel. The histories of the three cities are intertwined by the people that have lived on this coast since the cities were founded. The Columbia is the furthest south outlet of Canadian freshwater on the west coast, so in many ways, what flows nearby here is tied to what happens in the Canadian Rockies. Out in the ocean, the migration of birds, salmon, whales and seals intimately connects these three cities too, even though Portland isn’t strictly a coastal town.
I have been here only once before, on a road trip to California, and I never spent any real time in the city. On this trip, I was staying in a downtown hotel, and working a light schedule, so I had time to walk around and explore. Took in dinner one night at a lovely restaurant, Higgins, which serves local, seasonal food in a west coast style. I also stumbled into the real world version of Powell’s Books which is located in a funky little neighbourhood surrounded by the specialty bookshops that it spawned. It’s a very friendly book store for such a big place, and full of helpful and cheerful staff.
I’ve been travelling by public transit on this trip too. I almost took the train from Vancouver but was constrained by time. Otherwise I would have loved to have gone from Vancouver straight through to San Francisco by train. As it is the only train I will ride on this trip is the excellent MAX light rail in Portland which whisks you from the airport to downtown in a little over a half hour for $2.35.
On my way now to Sausalito to spend the weekend in some relaxed but important conversations around designing a global conference which will be held next year on Hawai’i. Looking forward to being in the Bay area, and at the same time, resolved to return to Portland again soon.