The Invisible Mentor

Archive for August, 2011

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Even though Ralph Waldo Emerson died over a century ago, his work is read and consulted frequently. In 1841 he published Essays: First Series and in 1844 Essays: Second Series, both essay series are still very popular even today. He was an abolitionist and refused to obey the Fugitive Slave Law.

Name: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Birth Date: May 1803 – April 1882

Job Functions: Essayist, Poet and Lecturer

Fields: Education, Literature

Known For: Essay Series One and Two

At the age of 14, Ralph Waldo Emerson went to Harvard College on a scholarship which he made the very most of. At the age of 17 he started journaling, which he continued for over 50 years. When Emerson graduated from Harvard he taught for a while because he was unsure of what to do with himself. Emerson decided to become an ordained Christian minister and enrolled at Harvard Divinity School. In 1826, when Emerson completed his studies, he was offered a junior pastorship position at Second Church in Boston.

Emerson was a voracious reader, digesting works of Zoroaster, Confucius, Muhammad, the Neoplatonists, Jakob Boehme, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Baron de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, the Scottish philosophers, Emanuel Swedenborg, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Madame de Staël. He also devoured Thomas Carlyle’s pioneering essays on German literature, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Aids to Reflection, and Dante’s Vita Nuova.

Emerson married Ellen Louisa Tucker in 1829, a woman whom he loved dearly unfortunately she died about 18 months later from tuberculosis (Emerson later married Lydia Jackson in 1835, and had four children). He was in deep despair about his wife’s death, and organized religion could not give him what he needed during this dark period, so religious doubts arose inside of him. Though the Unitarian church is ideally suited for the questioner, Emerson could not find any solace, and in 1832, he resigned from Second Boston, but this left him with too much time on his hands.

After months of just floundering around, in 1833, Emerson decided to travel to Europe on a 10-month tour to find himself. While he was there, Emerson met with John Stuart Mill, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Carlyle who became a lifelong friend.

When Emerson returned to the United States, he discovered that he could make a living as a lecturer. The Lyceum movement provided lectures on various topics to rabid audiences who were willing to pay for the very best lectures. Emerson had found his stride. After giving lectures using the Lyceum platform for a few seasons, Emerson decided that he would organize his own lectures as well. In 1837 – 1838, he offered a group of 10 lectures on the theme of human nature  to the Boston public. These lectures were later turned into essays and then into books. Leading themes in Emerson’s lectures and essays were man, nature and God.

Emerson looked for the essential spirit of religion. He probed into human reality and the world of nature to release men from a mechanistic view of the world. “[Emerson] believed in a reality and a knowledge that transcended the everyday reality Americans were accustomed to. He believed in the integrity of the individual.” He also believed that reality is discovered through thought and not experience, and “the purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself.” One of Emerson’s famous saying is “Trust thyself.”

In 1836, Emerson published a pamphlet titled Nature, which pulled a group of people known as transcendentalists to him. That same year, Emerson, George Putnam, and Frederick Henry Hedge founded the Transcendental Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 8, 1836.

In 1841 he published Essays: First Series and in 1844 Essays: Second Series, both essay series are still very popular even today. Emerson followed up with Poems (1847), Representative Men: Seven Lectures (1850), English Traits (1856), Conduct of Life (1860), May Day (1867), Society and Solitude (1870), and Letters and Social Aims (1875). Emerson became a leading transcendentalist in the United States. In addition to Emerson and those who founded the Transcendental Club, major figures in the movement were Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Margaret Fuller, and Amos Bronson Alcott.

As a transcendentalist, Emerson opposed materialism, formal religion and slavery, and spoke out against them. He was particularly incensed with the Fugitive Slave Law passed in 1850 and is quoted as saying, “I will not obey it, by God.” Even though Emerson had been apolitical, he registered as a Republican and voted for Abraham Lincoln.

After the Civil War, Emerson continued on the lecture circuit and wrote more books. Society and Solitude (1870), and Letters and Social Aims (1875) were very well received. His ideas influenced Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Sources Cited/Referenced

Encyclopedia of World Biography

UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography

Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Encyclopedia of Religion

New Catholic Encyclopedia

Transcendentalism – Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Anne Brontë is one of six children, and one of the three Brontë sisters who were superb writers – the other two being Charlotte (Jane Eyre) and Emily (Wuthering Heights). The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë is a tale very much about some of the kinds of things that can happen when we are strong-willed and stubborn.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë is an important work because it was written in the Victorian age, and for a woman to defend another’s right to leave a disastrous marriage was quite novel and courageous.  Anne Brontë used the pen name Acton Bell, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is often considered an early feminist novel.

The story is told from the point of view of Gilbert Markham one of the central characters. And a substantial part of the story unfolds when he reads the diary of Helen Huntingdon. As the story unfolded, for me, it did not feel like I was reading someone’s diary, it just felt like someone was having a flashback. Despite that, Helen Huntingdon’s tale was not diminished in any way.

The story starts off with Helen Graham moving into Wildfell Hall with her young son Arthur. Like any small town, the gossipmongers are dead set on learning her story to prime the rumour mill. Unfortunately for them, Graham is very mysterious and not willing to assuage their curiosity. They show up unannounced at Wildfell Hall, and they also invite her over to their homes. The people in the town think it’s scandalous that a young woman would live by herself even though she had a maid with her.

Finally Graham accepts an invitation from the Markham family. They are surprised that she has a young son, because when she attended church she was alone. Graham is very protective of her son, and is very careful about what he eats, and leaving him alone, because young Arthur is her only treasure. There is a great discourse going on between Graham and Mrs Markham’s eldest child Gilbert Markham. The conversation revolves around Graham coddling and doting too much on young Arthur.

“I beg your pardon Mrs Graham – but you get on too fast. I have not yet said that a boy should be taught to rush into the snares of life, — or even wilfully to seek temptation for the sake of exercising his virtue by overcoming it…and if you were to rear an oak sapling in a hothouse, tending it carefully night and day, and shielding it from every breath of wind, you could not expect it to become a hardy tree…”

At first, Markham doesn’t really like Graham, he is taken in with the more playful Eliza Millward, the vicar’s daughter. He starts to change though, and goes out of his way to accidentally bump into Graham and even develops a friendship with Arthur. He gives the lad a puppy, which delights Arthur to no end. As Markham evolves into a more mature person, he sees for himself how childish Eliza Millward is, and spends less time with her.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Eliza and her partners in crime start to spread horrific rumours about Graham, but Markham doesn’t believe them because of what he has seen so far, and defends her honour. But one evening, after he left Graham who is now bent on leaving the town because of the gossip, Markham goes back to get one last glimpse of her and overhears a conversation, and sees Mr. Lawrence with his arms around her waist.

Markham thinks the worst and makes all kinds of assumptions about Graham and the malicious gossip floating around. He is filled with rage and the following day he assaults Lawrence. Markham avoids Graham and young Arthur, who misses him terribly. Finally Graham and Markham talk and he tells her what he saw and heard. She is quite upset and believes that he should have come to her. Anyway, she gives him her diary to read so that he can understand her and her circumstances.

It turns out that Helen Graham is actually Helen Huntingdon and Mr Lawrence is her brother. Helen escaped from her rich husband, Arthur Huntingdon because she was trapped in a loveless marriage and her husband was corrupting their son. Huntingdon isn’t a likable character and is actually quite despicable, and often the self he projects isn’t who he really is. That’s how he deceived Helen, even though there were warning signs. There are always warning signs.

For example, while Helen and Huntingdon were horseback riding, he tells her about his friend Lord Lowborough who is addicted to gambling and has lost everything. Lowborough declares that he is going to give up gambling. What does Huntingdon do? To make Lowborough forget his sorrow, Huntingdon fills him up with alcohol and subsequently Lowborough now becomes an alcoholic – he has traded on addiction for another. When Huntingdon tells the tale, he finds it quite funny, but Helen doesn’t. She is forewarned but doesn’t heed the call.

Helen’s aunt who raised her, warned her about Huntingdon when he was wooing her, but she firmly believed that she could change him. While they were engaged, part of his true nature started emerging, but she looked the other way. As a skilled writer, Brontë takes you into Helen’s private hell and you cannot help but feel sorry for her and root for her when she tries to escape.

Helen carefully plans her escape and starts working her plan. She is selling her art and saving money to live on when she and young Arthur disappears. Unfortunately she writes everything in her diary, and one day when she is so engrossed with her diary entry, Huntingdon looks over her shoulder, grabs her diary and reads it. He searches until he finds the money she has been saving, takes it away and destroys her art and art implements.

Determined as ever, Helen never gives up hope that one day she will be able to finally leave. When the opportunity arises she takes it.

While reading her diary, Markham better understands why Helen is the way she is. Helen is still bent on leaving the town. By this time, Markham is very much in love with her. Helen leaves, and via Eliza, the gossipmonger, he learns that Helen has returned home to take care of Huntingdon who has taken a severe fall. For someone who didn’t indulge to excess, Huntingdon would have been okay, but his excessive drinking and eating made his condition far worse.

What would make a woman return to a horrible marriage?

Helen was virtuous, and felt it was her duty because there was no one else to help Huntingdon – all his friends had disappeared. She no longer loved him, and would never love him again. While nursing him back to health, Huntingdon still wasn’t nice to Helen, but she stood by his side, and it came to the point where he expected her to be there for him 24/7. He improved considerably, and was out of danger, but fell back to his old ways with indulging too much and finally succumbed.

It takes a while for Helen and Markham to finally get together, and you see how we create our own barriers in our lives by the stories we tell ourselves. Each of them are waiting for the other to make the first move, and make up stories in their heads about why the other hasn’t acted, sounds familiar? Though this book was published in the1850s the lessons are applicable today. We cannot change others, we can only change ourselves. If people have problems, marriage will not solve them, they take those problems into the marriage.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë is also about love, loss, redemption and forgiveness. I recommend The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but it’s  not a book that you can whip through quite easily, you have to think about what you are reading so you can enjoy and digest. There are lots of twists and turns so you have to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to really appreciate what it has to offer.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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We have talked about problem solving and generating great ideas on this blog a few times, but it’s never a bad idea to be exposed to other techniques or related techniques. Recently I attended a presentation “The Secrets of Creative Problem Solving” by Otto Schmidt hosted by Innovation Initiative. The Innovative Initiative is a non-profit forum supporting innovative businesses, so many inventors are members. The technique outlined below is also good for inventors who need some stimulation.

Key Objective for Creative Problem Solving

• Observe and notice more
• Improve ability to analyze
• Learn and use problem solving
• Practice solving real problems and situation

Observe and Notice More

• Scan: Notice and identify as many details as possible. Gather a set of details which the mind processes into ideas, concepts and understanding.
• Search: Consciously find details.
• Focus: Make clear in the foreground, middle or background. What the senses make clear is what the mind will think about.
• Attention: A willingness to give things time.

Improve Ability and Analyze:

Examine things methodically by separating into parts and studying interrelations to discover essential features.

1. Take things apart and put them back together. Notice the relationships when putting it back together, can you leave parts out?
2. Look from different points of view.
3. Use your imagination and determine the orders and steps. Why in that order?
4. Notice cycles or systems in the world. An example they gave is to look at your digestive system, if you take it away, the body stops to function.
5. Sort things in different ways.
6. Look for double meanings and hidden elements (parallels to past problems).
7. Find “ING” Words (Gerunds). An example: Say for instance your task is to build a superior bicycle, what are the important things you have to think about? Using “ing” words you would probably come up with sitting, pedaling, steering, braking, levering, changing, rolling, balancing, turning, protecting, rotating. You would use this concept with other problems.

• Problem Solving (Graham Wallas Creativity Model)
• Preparation: Data collection
• Incubation: Laying the issue aside, unconscious processing
• Illumination: Aha, new ideas emerge
• Verification: Check it out

Problem Solving Model Simplified

• Identify the real problem.
• List ways to solve it.
• Plan and test solution.
• Review the effectiveness of the solution.
• Adjust the solution.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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Further Reading

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

The Art of Invention

Creative Problem Solving

How to Read to Problem Solve

Do You Have This Critical Workplace Skill?

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This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Tommy Douglas the Father of Canadian Medicare and Interview with Helga Iliadis, Assistant Deputy Ministry.

Mondays at the Salon

Many times we waste a lot of time preparing instead of getting started. When we walk, we put one foot in front of the other, and in no time we have covered a lot of ground. That’s what happens when we start a project, task by task we move forward until we are finished.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Starts Beneath One’s Feet

Booked on Tuesdays

This week we reviewed The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky which gives us a glimpse into gambling through the eyes of a gambler.

Review: The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Wisdom Wednesdays

Tommy Douglas is the Father of Canadian Medicare. Even when the doctors went on strike because they objected to medicare, Douglas and his party held firm and eventually medicare became a reality in Saskatchewan, and ultimately in all of Canada. Douglas was an advocate for the most vulnerable and worked tirelessly to effect change.

Thomas Clement Douglas, Father of Canadian Medicare

Perspective Thursdays and Workshop Fridays

This week we featured Helga Iliadis, Assistant Deputy Minister ServiceOntario. Iliadis has changed jobs a few times, and even industry, but has always been able to transfer her skills and build on them. She firmly believes that we shouldn’t sweat the things we cannot change and instead focus on what we can change. Here are Part One and Part Two of Helga Iliadis’ interview.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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Interviewee Name: Helga Iliadis, Assistant Deputy Minister

Company Name: ServiceOntario

Website: http://www.ServiceOntario.ca

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Helga Iliadis:  I was born in Germany and have been living in Canada since I was two. I’m currently married to an incredible Greek gentleman, 37 years this coming September. We have two sons, and my career for the past 39 years has been completely focused on customer service.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Helga Iliadis: Over the years I would say that the lines between my personal and work-life have become blurred. For example, I consider my colleagues – when I have worked with them over an extended period of time – as my extended family. And the work that I do often brings me every bit as much joy as the personal aspect of my life that I treasure. The way I integrate both aspects of my life is by prioritizing, so that I can spend time with my loved ones and the people that mean the most to me. And my other strategy would be to multitask and make every minute count, including those minutes that are meant just to relax.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Helga Iliadis:

1. Identify the values that you wish to shape your life.
2. Constantly strive to be the best you can be.
3. Give without thought of return, you will be amazed at the outcome.
4. Whatever is meant to be will be.
5. Happiness is a matter of choice not chance.

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Helga Iliadis: I spend time with family and friends that I love. I love to listen to beautiful music and I really enjoy communing with nature, and if I can combine any of those things it’s even better.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Helga Iliadis: I’m an extrovert so I tend to love bouncing ideas around others, whether I’m working with just another individual or a creative group. I find that in that environment one idea sparks another and before you know it a great plan emerges.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Helga Iliadis: There are a lot, but the one I would pick is, “Whatever you want, give it away.” The reason why this quotation impresses me so much is that it’s simple yet profound and it applies in so many areas of your life.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Helga Iliadis: Success is in the eye of the beholder, it really means achieving your goal, whatever that goal may be. And I find a repeatable formula for that success is first of all to be clear about what you would like to accomplish, next in order to achieve serenity to recognize which elements in that situation you have little to no control over, and it’s important to accept that you don’t have control over those elements and then just choose how you’ll respond to them. After that you want to identify all of the elements that you do have control over and brainstorm options for yourself, and then finally you would choose the option that will most likely help you achieve your goal. The beauty is that if perchance the first time around your plan doesn’t work, you are not a prisoner you can always revisit.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Helga Iliadis: I learned that there are an infinite amount of paths to success. For many people, I know that revolves around having a very deliberate one-year, two-year, five-year plan for your career, but for me what has worked over the years is to completely focus on the work I’m doing in the present, to work at becoming the best that I can possibly be in that role, and I find that when I take that approach and if I leave myself open to continuous learning, the opportunities for the future have always presented themselves.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Helga Iliadis: This question took me back to the question about the formula for success. That is the advice I would share to be really clear about what you’d like to accomplish, think about what you can’t control and how you choose to respond to it, look at everything that you can control and brainstorm your options and then choose the option that will help you to be successful.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Helga Iliadis: I am not going to go to the place of famous leaders, rather I’m going to think a little smaller. I would love to meet four people, my two sets of grandparents whom I never knew. If I had that privilege I’d like to sit down and hear about their lives, what they went through, and I’d like to hear all about my mom and dad and what they were like as children. That would be a precious treasure.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Helga Iliadis: There are so many wonderful books out there, but one in particular that stuck with me over the years I would say is Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It was a wonderfully, easy read. The power that was in it for me was the concept of living a principled life, that your principles are essentially the bedrock upon which your life is built, applied to both your personal and as well as your work-life. That would be it.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

Helga Iliadis: I’m always an optimist so I’m going to assume that the deserted island that I would spend my time on would sustain a simple life, so I’m not going to take basic supplies. I would take a suitcase full of books and if I have to stick with things that fit in a suitcase I would also take a little kitty-cat for company. I thought to myself, “if only my husband could fit in the suitcase I would gladly take him as well.” As to what I’d do with all that time, who knows? again it would be a matter of communing with nature, reflecting within and continuing to learn.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Helga Iliadis: The limitless possibilities! And particularly, the limitlessness of human potential, that’s what I find truly exciting.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Helga Iliadis: The things I love the most are listening to beautiful music and being at one with nature, those are absolute balm to the soul.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Helga Iliadis: That was easy, health and happiness for my children.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Helga Iliadis: I’m doing something that I love with people I love.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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