Rise & Shine My Fellow Amigos,

I learned a lot this week but 3 things in particular. The power of social media, the power of planting ideas, and most importantly, I learned that there are many other passionate Albertans out there, who like myself, are not looking to cry foul and engage in deliberately divisive courses of action.

Think back to when we were all just little toddlers… What did we do when we didn’t get what we want? We threw a temper tantrum and as a result, our parents ignored us until we settled down and spoke with reason and rationale (or as much as you could as a toddler). Fast forward the clock to now and it still seems as though there are many folks out there who think that rah-rah petitions and public threats/calls for political figures to step down will go somewhere. Guess what, they won’t.

If we’re going to claw ourselves out of these tough times we find ourselves in, it’s because we show a willingness to come to the table with reason, rationale and a level head. Don’t mistake that for not having passion and vigor. I get it, these are serious issues affecting the livelihoods of many, including myself. But let’s put our energy to good use. Find synergies among our ideas that will help them grow and flourish, no different than how my article last week seemingly found its way onto so many computer screens of people that I don’t even know. That’s the true power of social media and planting productive ideas!

Week 3, 2016. Let’s spin it:

• I think I’ve said my shpeel for the week that was but this is a good follow-up piece by Bruce Anderson, as featured in The Globe & Mail. “Somewhere along the way, we confused the idea of being passionate about our ideas with being obnoxious to people outside our party.” Amen Bruce.

• Thankfully, I don’t ever need to worry about being scouted to become a runway model but this is a damn good TED talk by professional model – Cameron Russell – on the fallacies behind what so many perceive as a life of glamour and fulfillment. I think there are a few themes and subtleties within this TED talk that can be blown up into bigger issues and expanded on but I’ll save my two cents on this for another week…

• “If asked “what do dogs do?”, the response wouldn’t be “serve as pets to humans”. You’d talk about all the shit that dogs do to make themselves happy and live a wicked dog life. Why is it then that we have chosen to define ourselves by the revenue-generating tasks we perform and not by, you know, what we actually do?” – Chris Ackroyd. Every time Chris’ pen hits paper, he’s taking it yard like Big Papi! This article is no exception.
  

• 2015 Year in Focus by Getty Images. This reaffirms the power of imagery. Very cool.

Quote of the Week: “Most people don’t want to be part of the process, they just want to be part of the outcome. But the process is where you figure out who’s worth being part of the outcome” – Alex Morton

Song of the Week: The floodgates are open in Alberta so I think it’s only fitting we get the Led out… “When The Levee Breaks”

Cheers,

Mike