Clare Consultation, LLCDuck – Duck – Eagle
Remember the game we played when we were little? The one who was “it” walked around the outside of a kiddo-circle tapping every next person on the head. “Duck.” “Duck.” “Duck.” “Duck.” “Duck.” “GOOSE!” Then the running commences. The “it” child takes off like a shot – running around the circle. The “goose” child tries to catch them. If caught, “it” stays “it” – if not, the new “it” starts making the duck/goose… Read More
Backward Thinking
Since 1996, I’ve included a suggestion in several syllabi for graduate courses. Each of the courses was required in the curriculum of students preparing as social science practitioners: therapists, educators, public administrators. Each had significant content drawn from scientific knowledge bases. And, because I was teaching them, each had significant content devoted to artistry. It’s been three decades since I made the decision to become an academic and devote my work life… Read More
On the Cusp of 2014 – Change and What Endures
Soon the calendar will shift for another roll through dates, through seasons and all the moments we have no way of knowing from here. Each of us lives in our own contagion of this following that. The unavoidable change that is living itself can sometimes feel unnerving — or at least the anticipation of it, the impossibility I already mentioned of knowing completely any change before it happens. I’ve been writing this… Read More
<500 words to honor our Elder, Nelson Mandela
This week I had the distinctly privileged new millennium opportunity to sit in a microbrewery with a web design specialist. “Websites are, at best, for linking good minds in support of human community and the planet we humans share.” I knew I liked her. Somewhere in the mix I asked about blog length (you who follow EX:Change know mine can be lloonngg). She said, “Max 500 words.” I was impressed. I’m giving… Read More
Neuroplasticity and Gratitude
I was never much of a fan of talk about the biological bases of behavior. Already in the mid 80’s, there were innovative graduate programs popping up to explore brain-based treatments more nuanced than conventional treatments like ECT, Labotomy and psychotropic medication. Nonetheless, I remained decidedly a proponent of the nurture side of things. This bias came in large part from working with kids in schools and seeing the folly, and really… Read More
Wasp stings are annoying — The crashing unpredictability of severe weather is deadly
Ok — From Fracking the past two weeks to wasps. Tipping my hand here: I find myself thinking of the former at the causal edge of ongoing climate degradation while the latter live on the continuous curve of the climate’s changes. That, of course, places wasps in the company of all breathing and otherwise animate things (like people, rivers, pine cones, lentils …). In particular, wasps have been on my mind because… Read More
A Mandan-Hidatsa Elder and Civilian Warrior Speaks of Fracking
Today is Veteran’s Day. Today we honor people who have placed their lives on the line to recover peace. Per Capita, more Native Americans serve in the U.S. military than any other ethnic group. In recent data out of the Department of Defense (2010) the contrast shows up in the fact that while Native Americans make up 1.4% of the total U.S. population, they compose 1.7% of the country’s military. Over 20%… Read More
Fracking — Any Hope of Listening Here?
NOTE: Here’s a brief statement by a conservation writer and a response from a person with another opinion. Both are residents of the same area of Montana. My question to myself – to all of us – is how can these two people listen to one another? How can they be in conversation toward some level of understanding – even action? Is it possible? And before I leave you to read their… Read More
Shutdown — One Viral Video and a Sort of Bipartisan Response
[NOTE: Viral Video from title — http://www.votevets.org/home] [later NOTE: It’s 10-16 around 10:00 PST — the headlines I see say it’s over. This is a relief. Now the clean-up starts. And, by way of apology for any implication that furloughed Federal workers were not experiencing significant financial and professional stress (but rather were only on “paid vacation”), I offer this link to the real stories of real people — all Federal employees severely… Read More
Wolves, Humans and the Errors of Fast Thinking
So, a few years ago a Nobel Prize winning economic scientist named Daniel Kahneman took a pretty astonishing look at cognitive, biological and psychological habits of minds faced with the need to make judgments or decisions. His observations show up in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Needless to say, there’s a lot in this book. One powerful trend Kahneman found in human decision making indicates that when we make quick… Read More