Archives for October 2015

#PassionPlayers Tom Redwine

Tom is an incredible person and a great friend. He is one of those people I’ve felt I have always known. To be honest, I can’t remember exactly when or how we connected! It just seems like he has always been around, and that is ok with me. I have always admired Tom’s great passion for music, and not surprisingly, that is what he focused on here. Enjoy!

1. How do you define “passion”?

As an urge to create or explore in a specific area or direction. It’s not uncontrollable but it is urgent. You’re compelled by something not terribly logical or very easily explained, and you feel diminished or slightly less “you” if you don’t pursue it in some way.

2. What is your passion?

(Wait, I only get to pick one? Just kidding…) Music! I enjoy just about everything musical; listening, discovering new favorites, making playlists for friends or road trips, singing, playing bass and performing, whether it’s a jam session, open mic, or an actual paying gig.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

I was hooked at an early age; I remember obsessively listening to “American Top 40” and rock & roll radio stations on my transistor radio as kid. I loved watching the Monkees after school on TV. I collected 45’s and LPs (yeah, I’m old), traded, discussed and argued with friends about what we liked and didn’t like, made mixtapes for friends (and girlfriends), and vacuumed up any information on my favorite artists from magazines. “Obsession” doesn’t quite capture it.

My parents started me with piano lessons just before adolescence kicked in; I wound up quitting after my teacher wouldn’t show me how to play “Beth” by KISS. (Teenage hormones & discipline do not mix very well.)

My first real rock concert was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (“River” tour, 1981). That was not my first rock show though; months before, I’d seen my first local bar band and was awestruck by their take on Queen’s “Dragon Attack.”

Later on, my buddy Bert showed me the electric bass. Turns out that I took to the bass more naturally than piano, and soon I’d played a few times with friends in informal jams, which led to playing at parties, being in bands, writing songs, learning how to really sing (and not clear the room), and eventually some paying gigs.

I had a lot of fun working in radio, starting at my college radio station (WUSC) and two local commercial stations (WSCQ & WNOK) before moving into a retail career.

Even when involved in other projects, like community theatre, I kept coming back to music. In fact, the first time I had a chance to direct a play, I chose a musical (“Nunsense”). By the way, you have to be a little nuts to tackle a musical as a first-time director, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Music capped my retail career when I worked in Walmart Radio, first as production manager then general manager, programming music and commercial content for Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs throughout the US and Canada.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

I find music in a lot of places, but I mostly use the internet and Spotify to discover new artists and sounds. Trying to keep my ears open to the new keeps me from getting old! ;^)

Also, I try to play at least ten minutes each day, even if it’s just improvisational noodling. Most of the time I’m actually pursuing a goal, such as learning a new song, writing something, or finding a new way to play something old and familiar. I find You Tube videos to help me learn new songs or decipher a complex pattern. Chord structures and tabs are available on different sites, but I’m mostly driven by my own desire.

5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?

Outside of my piano lessons, I had little encouragement (and quite a bit of discouragement) about pursuing music for a career; when I got older and could see how many different jobs and roles one could have involving music, I realized that my parents and past counselors had been short-sighted. Considering the amazing opportunities that we have via global communication with the internet, there are likely even more opportunities than before. If you keep your eyes and ears open to the possibilities, you’ll likely find opportunities to pursue your passion – and get paid for it – throughout your life. Acknowledge the doubters and try to stay grounded, while you just keep reaching for those stars!

6. Anything else you want to say?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug some of the amazing artists that I’ve been listening to (and I’d love to know who YOU are listening to as well!):

Sara Morgan https://youtu.be/6g488J1sjtY

Stardog https://youtu.be/XxC8ldrXecg

Gregory Porter https://youtu.be/9HvpIgHBSdo

Jason Isbell https://youtu.be/ZtgPeNKpnyw

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats https://youtu.be/1iAYhQsQhSY

Leon Bridges https://youtu.be/pgS_xob1x4A

Chris Stapleton https://youtu.be/4zAThXFOy2c

#PassionPlayers Aaron von Frank

by Margie Clayman

No, I didn't choose this image just cuz their duck Margaret (aka Marge) is featured. Nope! — No, I didn’t choose this image just cuz their duck Margaret (aka Marge) is featured. Nope!

Aaron and his wife Susan are two of the coolest people I know. The amount of passion they have for several things is transparently not only in their work but also just in conversing with them. Also they are disgustingly smart. I highly encourage you to check out Grow Journey – I have been a member for about a year now, I think, and I am overwhelmed with how much I have learned, how much I need to learn, and how much work goes into the project. I am hoping Susan agrees to be featured in this series as well, but in the meantime, enjoy Aaron’s responses!

1. How do you define “passion”?

Passion is what anchors your ship. My life trajectory hasn’t been linear because I’ve sampled a lot of things in search of something I cared deeply about; something meaningful that could capture my imagination and my interest for a lifetime. Once I found that thing, I no longer felt the need to keep “sailing.” (I’m not literally a sailor, I just think that’s a useful analogy.)

2. What is your passion?

I guess to the outside world, that “thing” is known under a few different terms: organic agriculture, agroecology, permaculture, etc.. Basically, transitioning human society from extractive models to regenerative models (ecologically, economically, socially). That starts at the foundation of a civilization, and food production is the foundation of every civilization. It helps define our relationship with the planet and with each other.

As an example of that: hunter-gatherer, pastoralist, and horticultural societies perceive themselves as part of nature, not separate/removed from it. They tend to be much more decentralized in their social hierarchies and inclusive of women. Their spiritual worlds are comprised of human and animal gods, male and female gods. Nature is sacred, the provider of life.

If you look at agricultural societies, particularly those with origins in the Middle East and Europe, you see a different cultural narrative. For instance, the word “lord” means “keeper of the grains.” This was the local strongman who hoarded and doled out food and/or protection to his subjects. As such, it makes sense for those societies to create a male king God that mirrors their male-dominated, hierarchical societies. What’s interesting to note is how often throughout history agricultural societies have collapsed as a result of over-exploitation of their local environmental resources. Due to thousands of years of extractive agricultural practices, the Middle East is largely a barren desert now; whereas it used to be one of the most fertile, verdant regions on earth.

Throughout the history of agriculture, when the soil was ruined and food could not be produced or local populations expanded beyond the land’s carrying capacity, there were two options: 1) expand/conquer, or 2) collapse. If you’ve studied history, you know that’s why agricultural societies are inherently expansionary, militant, male-dominated and hierarchical. Our religions mirror that reality.

So, IMO, food is much more than a cheap pile of calories on your plate. Given that there are 7+ billion of us inhabiting a planet that experts say has about 60 years of productive topsoil left, our food production models are rather important. We can’t afford to be extractive with that model: we’re destroying our oceans, our atmosphere, our soil, causing the anthropocene extinction, etc. in the process. The sand is running out of our hourglass. Up until a few hundred years ago, there were only a few hundred million people on earth, so these patterns weren’t that big of a problem. We’d just move somewhere else or there would be a local population collapse that didn’t really impact another society living on the other side of the world. Now, we’ve run out of planet and we’re still pretty far away from being able to hop to the next rock in our solar system, terraform it, and make it habitable for life as we know it. NASA is working on that problem though.

The important point is that it doesn’t have to be this way; these are choices. Societies change; culture is malleable. As Buckminster Fuller said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” So when more and more research is piling up showing that we can grow all the food the world needs without using pesticides, herbicides, etc. while also building soil health, species biodiversity, and without removing the carbon from our soil and dumping it into the atmosphere—that’s a demonstrably better model on multiple levels. We know how to do it. People are doing it. Researchers are proving the efficacy. It just takes a while for a transformation as big as this one to work its way through, and these aren’t notions that many people on the outside understand or care about. It’s hard to boil it down to a bumper sticker slogan.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

When it consumed me. When I obsessively read about it and experiment with it on our own tiny piece of earth. When I unconsciously steer conversations in that direction. I guess I’m an organic food evangelist.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

Thankfully, my wife and I have found a way to turn our passion into a business via www.GrowJourney.com. We’re close to being able to do that full-time now, and it will be really nice to have our passion be our work. You know the saying, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I think that’s fairly accurate, although building a business inevitably involves very hard work and doing things you don’t necessarily love (or know anything about when you’re getting started).

5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?

Hmm, I try not to give blanket advice because everybody’s path is different. So, I guess my advice would be try not to take any single person’s advice as the one way of doing something. You know yourself better than anyone else. Keep learning and exposing yourself to interesting things and interesting people until you find something that consumes you. Hopefully, it’s something you can make a career in, but if not, you can still do lots of good work in a hobby, your spare time, or as a volunteer.

6. Anything else you want to say?

Yes, when you’re done reading this, take a few minutes out of your day to read this 30 year study by Rodale Institute (done in coordination with the USDA and University of Pennsylvania): http://66.147.244.123/~rodalein/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FSTbookletFINAL.pdf. Then start voting with your dollars and forks three times each day.

#PassionPlayers Josh Gippin

by Margie Clayman

Today’s feature for #PassionPlayers is my cousin, Josh Gippin. Josh has always been someone I look up to (I also adore the fact that he is one of the few cousins I have who is older than me). Josh has been true to his passions for an awful long time now, and he is holding true to that while also being a great father and husband for his family. Here are his answers to my questions!

1. How do you define “passion”?

Passion is what fuels my engine. Without it, I feel my life would be at a standstill.

2. What is your passion?

My passion is to bring about social change through documentary film.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

How did I know this wasn’t just a passing fancy? I only know now, in retrospect, but I couldn’t have predicted that I would keep making films. I might have given up on this passion long ago, especially when we started having kids and I felt the pressure to make ends meet.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

On the contrary, it nurtures me. If I couldn’t make films, or work for social change in other creative ways, I would feel empty. Using my gifts to make the world a better place is what gives my life meaning.

Be sure to check out Josh’s awesome documentaries at Joshua Tree Video Productions.

#PassionPlayers Ty Sullivan

by Margie Clayman

I feel like I have known Ty forever, but in reality I think we have only been friends for five years. I met him via the illustrious #usguys tribe on Twitter, for which I am thankful. Everything Ty says below explains why I wanted to highlight him, but what he doesn’t talk about is how he works tirelessly on behalf of No Kid Hungry. It is a great cause and he does a great job pushing the message without being pushy. Here are Ty’s answers to the magical six questions 🙂

1. How do you define “passion”?

Passion is that euphoric moment when the universe, your private universe mind you, balances its self due to an action that completes you has been accomplished. It’s a warmth that takes control of our bodies and minds when something we know is a part of our chemical make up is satisfied.

2. What is your passion?

My passion is singing, making others feel good, making humans smile and making someone feel like they just had a WOWnderful moment are several of mine. To limit ourselves to one passion is robbing ourselves of so many chances to elevate our body and minds need to pacify the passion in us all.

3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?

These are things that are just who am I am. Now, clearly we go through moments of fleeting passions like collecting items that give us joy (baseball cards, Star Trek things, rose petals in between book pages) but they all fulfill the passion. As long as we keep our core passionate items it’s OK to add to it and subtract to it as is it all comes into play with each other internally.

4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?

I practice it everyday. I make it a part of my routine. Actually “make it” and “practice” is more chore sounding when it comes to passions. I allow myself to do these things that are my passion so that I feel whole. I do this by hosting a comedy formatted trivia gig twice weekly so I can get out there, show who I am and make people smile and feel good through humor and connecting with them. Making them part of an experience through humor and challenging the mind. Also, a day doesn’t go by that I don’t do something that gives back to the universe through a good deed. It can be as simple as re-posting a project a friend on social media is passionate about or stopping to make sure the homeless person you see daily has a buck or a soup.

5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?

We all have something that floats our boat. something that gives us a hint of joy. If you are unsure how to channel your passion take some quiet time to sit and reflect on it.

Start a slideshow in your mind of all the things you like to do, things you like to engage in and see how your body reacts as those images pass through your mind. Did your lips grin a little on one particular one? Did your heart race a bit more on another? If they did then hit “save” on them mentally and those are things that you are probably very passionate about.

6. Anything else you want to say?

Passion is what keeps us alive. So many people feel passionless or that they don’t have anything to be passionate about and that can be a recipe for issues that may need further addressing to avoid depression and other darker things and places.

Find your passion and find others who share in that same passion as it leads to community, safety and most of all LOVE.

The Short Fuse – Thoughts on #DwarfismAwarenessMonth

by Margie Clayman

Last year around this time, I read the story of Lamar Hawkins III. He was a middle school student who according to his mother was an easy target for bullying because of his “stunted growth.” He was bullied so relentlessly that they moved to an entirely different state, but the cruelty continued.

A couple of months before that, another very young man, Jonathon Short-Scaff, committed suicide for the same reason. Relentless bullying targeted at his short stature made him feel so helpless and powerless that he ended up taking his own life.

More recently, Bill Klein, whom you may know from the show The Little Couple, admitted that he has faced depression and thoughts of suicide because he was bullied so badly.

It feels like Little People are unprotected targets, especially when surrounded by other kids who are desperate to look “cool” and “normal.”

The Nomenclature

What is a Little Person? Little People of America posts this definition to their website:

Little People of America (LPA) defines dwarfism as a medical or genetic condition that usually results in an adult height of 4’10” or shorter, among both men and women, although in some cases a person with a dwarfing condition may be slightly taller than that.The average height of an adult with dwarfism is 4’0, but typical heights range from 2’8 to 4’8.

The most common type of dwarfism is called achondroplasia. Some famous people you may have heard of who have or had this kind of dwarfism are Billy Barty, Gary Coleman, Warwick Davis, and Peter Dinklage.

I do not have achondroplasia, but at 4’5, I am what they call a proportionate dwarf. Many people think that it’s ok to call me (and really any Little Person) “midget.” In fact, most people are unaware that this term is highly offensive. Why is it offensive? “Midgets” are often featured in freak shows. That is how various people of short stature are promoted. I’ll let you take it from there.

Why is awareness important?

It seems like every day and certainly every month we are encouraged to mark something new. We have National Pie Day, National Coffee Day…it’s getting kind of ridiculous. Unfortunately, that means some truly legitimate causes that need attention are going to get lost in the shuffle. Still, you might be wondering why there needs to be a Dwarfism Awareness Month. Take a gander at this video from Jon Novick. I’ll wait here for ya.

I’ve had a lot of experiences like this in my own life. I have heard people yelling, “Hey Midget, Hey Midget” as I walked down the street. I have heard kids asking their parents as I stand in line, “Why is she so short?” I have walked by people and have seen them stare.

Big Deal (No Pun Intended)

OK, but everybody gets picked on for something. People who are overweight get bullied. Super tall people get bullied. Why do we need this awareness crap about Little People?

There are a few reasons why I think this is important.

First, people are killing themselves because they are getting bullied over their height. This seems to be more common in boys, but I do not have specific numbers.

Second, people do not seem to know that making fun of Little People, asking rude questions, or otherwise bullying Little People is wrong. There is something inherently funny, for some reason, in picking on Little People. Maybe society in general does not find us threatening so it’s sort of cathartic. I don’t know. But the number of people who are unaware of how offensive some of their comments are is alarming to me.

Third, parents do not seem to know how to educate their children that staring or asking rude questions is wrong. Often, when a child asks, “Why is she so little?” the parent will say something like, “I don’t know honey.” Very seldom does the parent try to hush the child and indicate that saying such things loudly is rude.

Fourth, and based on the most recent factor, Direct TV recently ran an ad on television featuring Randy Moss. The commercial featured a “petite” Randy Moss who just had cable, and at the end of the commercial Randy Moss says, “Don’t be like that Randy Moss,” as they show the “petite” version trying to reach something on a high grocery shelf. The fact that people would a) think this ad is acceptable and b) run it with no qualms is highly disturbing to me. You can read more about that here.

I want people to get educated. I don’t want to hear about any more children taking their lives because parents aren’t teaching kids that making fun of short people and/or Little People is simply wrong.

October is Dwarfism Awareness Month. Please learn a bit more about Little People, and consider if you have ever behaved in a way that might have made someone feel truly small. If you have questions, please ask me. Let’s make this an opportunity to learn.

Image via https://lpa.memberclicks.net/dwarfism-awareness-month

Archives for October 2015

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