The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Gelett Burgess’

Perseverance

Tony started bright and early, cleaning up his room,

Soon he found he had to stop and make a little broom;

So then he went into the yard to get a little stick,

But the garden needed weeding, so he set about it, quick!

Then he found his wagon he intended to repair,

So he went into the cellar for the hammer that was there;

He’d just begun to build a box, when it was time for dinner;

And that’s why Tony’s father called his son a  ”good beginner.”

Source: Goops & How to be Them, Gelett Burgess, page 81

Are you like Tony a good beginner, or do you always finish what you start? How many projects have you abandoned because you kept on moving from one thing to another? How many books are on your night stand? What tips do you have for being a good finisher?

For me, I am not big on multitasking, and I try to focus on one thing at a time. I tried to read several books at a time and I couldn’t finish any, so I went back to reading one book at a time. And, if I am reading a book that I have to, that I find boring, to ensure that I finish the book, I develop a strategy where I read X number of pages a day and do so in one sitting. My strategy may not work for you, but that’s what works for me.

Having stick-to-it-ive-ness in life is not easy, but for those who want to excel in life, it simply is a must. What strategy do you have for stick-to-it-ive-ness?

Book List: Goops & How to be them: A manual for polite infants with 90 drawings

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• The Myth of Multitasking (scientificamerican.com)

Review of The Little Father by Gelett Burgess

I decided to read a few more works by Gelett Burgess who wrote the People Cow poem. I put The Little Father on hold at the library and later found out that it was a children’s book. No problem, I thought, I could review it for this blog. I read The Little Father in less than 15 minutes. My initial impressions were that I had wasted my time, and that it did not make any sense for me to review it since there was not much substance to the book.

Several hours later while reflecting, I wondered if I was being fair so I made a commitment to read the book again since it is so short. The following morning when I awoke, many issues danced around in my consciousness, and I realized these were issues that the book could have been raising. Have you been in a situation where you changed your mind after a good night’s sleep? I reread The Little Father and wrote the review.

Mr. Masters, a very obese man, had a four year son Michael. There was no Mrs. Masters but we were not told what happened to her, whether she had died or just simply left. Mr. Masters had the habit of drinking Indian ink, which is presumed to make him shrink. The more he drank his Indian ink the more he shrank. And soon he was the size of Michael. At this point Mr. Masters stopped more or less being a father to his son and was more of a pal. They played with Michael’s  toys and shared clothes since Mr. Masters had been a frequent visitor to his tailor having to constantly have his clothes adjusted to fit his shrinking frame.

Mr. Masters was the topic of conversation among his neighbours and the neighbourhood children often ridiculed and made fun of him about his small size. But, Mr. Masters did not stop there, he kept on drinking the Indian ink until Michael had to use a microscope to see him. Michael is now taking care of his father and has been doing so for a while now.

The Little Father made me very angry. What would possess a father to do something so dumb, I thought. But the more I processed the information, the less angry I became. In life we have role reversals, where the child takes care of the parent as in eldercare. Except that this does not apply here because the child is only four years old and the parent is 42 years old.

So what other issue is at play? Should we speculate since the story is a bit scanty when it comes to information? Is it our responsibility to fill in the gaps? In life, we never have enough information, and often have to fill in the gaps based on “intelligent” assumptions. Did Mrs. Master leave Mr. Masters because he was obese? Did his neighbours and coworkers ridicule him because of his size? Obese people are often discriminated against, so this is a plausible assumption.

Was Mr. Masters often ignored by society, made to feel like he was insignificant and invisible, so now he works hard at becoming invisible, until he is indeed invisible to the naked eyes. Is this fair to his four year old son who now has to fend for himself? I am a deep thinker, have I gone off the deep end? Am I making too much out of this story, after all it is a children’s book. Should I take The Little Father at face value? If I do this book does not work for me.

• How do our actions make others feel diminished?
• Do we discriminate against others because they do not look like or behave in a manner that society expects?
• How can we be in harmony with others?

I recommend that you read The Little Father because I would really like to know what you think and how you interpret the book.

Further Reading

Culture, Obesity Stereotypes, Self-Esteem, and the “Thin Ideal”: A Social Identity Perspective, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 33, No. 4, August 2004, pp. 307–317 ( C
2004), Paul A. Klaczynski, Kristen W. Goold, and Jeffrey J. Mudry

Obesity, Self Esteem and Wages, National Bureau of Economic Research, June 2009

Weight Discrimination: A Socially Acceptable Injustice By Rebecca Puhl, PhD

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• Fathering (distractible.org)

Purple Cow

Ideas abound and are everywhere. You will see them if you are open.

Where do you get your ideas from?

My friend Elizabeth Winter from Contact Professionals Alliance read my blog entry about Gelett Burgess‘ poem The Purple Cow and suggested that I do a follow-up post. Burgess became associated with the poem and he was not happy about it, so he wrote a follow-up verse to The Purple Cow.

If you remember from yesterday, here is the original poem:

The Purple Cow: Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who’s Quite Remarkable, at Least

I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one!

And here is Burgess’ follow-up:

Confession: and a Portrait Too, Upon a Background that I Rue

Ah, yes, I wrote the “Purple Cow”—
I’m Sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you Anyhow
I’ll Kill you if you Quote it!

When you read  Confession: and a Portrait Too, Upon a Background that I Rue, what comes to mind? For me, I immediately think of regret. How many times have you done something that you later regretted doing? Or are you someone who doesn’t believe in regret?

If you did something remarkable, something pioneering, in the eyes of others, and you gained “notoriety” for it, would you be able to deal with all the attention? Do you think you would later regret your actions? Think on this! Do you think Burgess’ response to being associated with his poem is reasonable? If you were Burgess, what would you have done differently?

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What Does Gelett Burgess’ Poem The Purple Cow Mean?

Photo Credits

Avil Beckford & Clarecia Christie

Sometimes it is okay to go down the rabbit hole because you never know where it might lead. Acting on your curiosity often leads to wonderful discoveries. I was reading John Forde’s e-newsletter article “Short Words, Bigger Word Power,” in which he talks about his friend David Deutsch giving him Gelett Burgess’ essay “Short Words Are Words of Might.”

I have never heard of Gelett Burgess, and the name of the essay intrigued me so I wanted to find out more. I conducted an internet search and came across the poem The Purple Cow and got the idea for this blog post.

The Purple Cow

(Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who’s Quite Remarkable, at Least)

I NEVER saw a Purple Cow;

I never hope to See One;

But I can Tell you, Anyhow,

I’d rather See than Be One.

By Gelett Burgess (1866 – 1951)

What is a purple cow? Cows are not purple, so a purple cow must be an anomaly. Reading the Wikipedia entries for the many ways in which the purple cow phrase is used, it states, “the examples retain the common theme of a sense of something out of the ordinary.” The poem also reminded me of Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, which I read over five years ago.

The subtitle – Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who’s Quite Remarkable, at Least – for the poem is very telling. A Purple Cow is a metaphor for something that is out of the ordinary, something remarkable. Would you want to have experiences that are out of the ordinary? I would! And, would you want to be a Purple Cow?

Standing out is not necessarily a bad thing. What if you were a pioneer? Wouldn’t it feel great to be a leader, to establish a trend, to be first to market?

Today, too many people conform, and many do not want to take a chance and be that Purple Cow, to stand out from the rest. To conform is to be comfortable, and many of us like to feel comfortable. How about for today, we step outside of our comfort zone, and do something that is not very comfortable, do something remarkable.

I may be out to lunch, and that is okay, but, what does The Purple Cow poem mean to you? And would you want to be a Purple Cow, even if it is only for today?

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Gelett Burgess and the blurb

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Phot Credits: Public Domain