Saturday, June 1, 2013

Coda - Looking Ahead

For the past six weeks I have been taking an online course:  A Crash Course on Creativity.  It is offered via Stanford University and is taught by a remarkable lady, Tina Seelig.  You should Google her or find some of her lectures on the Stanford website. Try here:  http://dschool.stanford.edu/bio/tina-seelig/
This week our final assignment included a course summary.  I had 22,000 classmates from around the world. Seeing their work, the potential for innovation and change is huge.  The bad news is there are relatively very few people my age taking this course.  The good news is that a huge proportion of those taking the course are under thirty. Below is the coda I wrote for my summary.


Coda – Looking Ahead

In early December of 2012, almost exactly six months to the day as I write, our son and brother, William, died of an accidental heroin overdose.  At his memorial service, our family made a pledge to William.  We promise to do everything in our power to educate and inform people about drug abuse and its prevention, to provide ever more enlightened treatment for addicts, to help make treatment options for addicts more readily available, and to remove the stain of shame surrounding this disease.”  That is where I hope to devote the time and energy to apply what I’ve taken from this course.  It is work that requires the mindset of an innovator.  There are assumptions to be challenged, problems to be reframed, and patient observation always.  It is about taking the chewed gum and dog shit of my life and turning it into something beautiful and meaningful.  The task is ahead of me.  I’ve new tools to use.   

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