On this #July4 2016 W-End: Thoughts on #Liberty, #Compassion & The Possibilities....

As I write this, it is now "officially"July 4 as America celebrates its' independence day.   It has been a working weekend for me as I have watched a season of the West Wing as I work through some plans for the Daily Outsider--it was great to be able to be supportive as the corners were curated and the Twitter Channel was worked through.

It has also been a week as I have been witness to the wonder of Community spirit in Action.  I reflected upon it briefly when I was on NextDoor earlier today for the Community.    Whether it was the City of Laguna Niguel Run in the Park or the vibrancy of St. Timothy's Catholic Parish, it was just such a joy to be witness to it all.  

I wanted to be "dark", but I was so moved by this as I watched episodes of the West Wing with this on Blame and Compassion: 




If it was within my power, I will force every single candidate to listen to this 3 minutes and to really sit back and think about our future especially as America along with all the other episodes of the 7 seasons of the West Wing to really think about and reflect upon the promise of America.   I wonder if that can be possible.

As I will be away on Community Commitments and gear up for a challenging quarter at #Outsiders and beyond, I finished this on Twitter Earlier in support of @DailyOutsider before making sure @DailyOutsider goes dark for July 4: 

@DailyOutsider before being off 4 #July4th hope all enjoy #quote & the latest wish all a safe & happy 1 ✨✨💥🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/M9w4WKhdku

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) July 3, 2016

As I finished this, I saw this on my "hike daily" feed:  

"You have to make it happen-Denis Diderot" 

& this courtesy of +Jonathan Huie that is one of my required readings and #outsiders features it prominently in the "Thought For the Week" Corner: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident:
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson [Declaration of Independence]


They who can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands
is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.
- Jimmy Carter

It is up to us...isn't it? 

Happy 4th!!!

Working away w/Brief Thoughts On The Eve of July 4 W-End here in the United States...

It has been quite a quarter.    It has admittedly been a challenging Quarter as I worked on a transition for The Daily Outsider, evolved this site into more of a "personal space", got to know and leverage the Medium Platform and continued on-going Community Outreach Efforts.         As I am launching the 3rd Quarter of 2016, I remain hopeful and optimistic--as I took heart in this admonition from the great Hank Aaron:

“My motto was always to keep swinging.
Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly
or having trouble off the field,
the only thing to do was keep swinging.”
~ Hank Aaron 

As I wish all a Happy & Joyous 4th of July, just got this from +Pandora hope all enjoy as I also helped to lanuch a +Pandora corner at the Daily Outsider as well!

Happy 4th to all!!!

Celebrate America’s birthday all weekend with good food, good company, and good jams.

Hipster BBQ Rap BBQ

Hip Hop BBQ Classic Soul BBQ

Thought 4 the Week & a 4th of July Wish

It has been an interesting week--and it is only Tuesday.     I ran across this which I earlier shared on my Facebook Wall which moved me quite a bit--what I hope and pray I can live up:

“One tree can start a forest, 
One bird can herald spring, 
One smile can begin a friendship, 
One hand can lift a soul,
One star can guide a ship at sea, 
One word can frame the goal, 
One vote can change a nation, 
One sunbeam can light a room, 
One candle can wipe out darkness, 
One laugh can conquer gloom, 
One hope can raise our spirits, 
One touch can show you care, 
One voice can wake up everybody, 
One life can make the difference. 
Be that one.”
~ Author Unknown

 

I wanted to wish all a Happy & Joyous 4th of July and as the 3rd Quarter of 2016 is at hand--Onward with the Journey!!!

View of the Week: On #Brexit, #Change & Other Thoughts

Now that #Brexit is,  reality,  We are faced with a new World Order.      Can it be the end of the UK?  Can it be the end of Europe as we know it?     Some interesting questions to think about as I got this from the ever-eloquent Geoff Colvin.

Wishing all a great weekend.....

Daily insights on leaders and leadership By Geoff Colvin

June 24, 2016

Imagine what’s going through the mind of every developed country’s leader. Virtually all of them had endorsed the losing Remain side in the Brexit referendum, and now they’re wondering, What if that referendum’s equivalent had been held in my country? Nationalistic, anti-immigrant, isolationist movements are rising in France, Austria, Poland, Denmark, and elsewhere in the developed world. While those movements are usually described as right-wing, the Leave supporters also included a left-wing faction of older trade unionists and younger socialists, and every developed country has plenty of those too. Collectively they’re people who believe they got the bad end of the deal in the opening of the world to freer trade, migration, and acceptance of unfamiliar cultural values. The big news from Britain is that those people are a majority there, and now leaders around the world are wondering if they’re a majority in his or her country. IfHillary Clinton wins in November, she’ll face a similar issue: Trump and Sanders supporters, though opposed to one another, are united in their fury over how today’s economic and cultural order has treated them, and together they may constitute a majority of the electorate. The Leavers in Britain have had the satisfaction of giving established authority a poke in the eye, but now they’ll have to face the consequences of doing what was worst for them. Britain and the Leavers will likely be less prosperous than they would have been in the EU. Despite the drama of the vote, very little has been resolved. The No. 1 agenda item at the next G20 meeting, in September, seems clear. # The scorching pace of change is such a common theme in business that as a concept it puts me to sleep. But an example can make it interesting, and a bit of news yesterday suggested a good one. BlackBerry reported earnings and said handset sales were down again; its global market share in smartphones is less than 1%. In this political season the news recalls memories of when Barack Obama became president in 2009 and demanded that federal techies figure out how to get him a secure BlackBerry phone, which he felt he couldn’t live without. Think back a bit further. In the mid-1990s Motorola ruled the world of cellphones; now a Chinese company, Lenovo, owns the brand, and Lenovo and Motorola phones combined have about 6% of the market. After Motorola, Nokia was king; it has since left the business. Then BlackBerry phones became so addictive they were called Crackberry; now Wall Street analysts say they wouldn’t be surprised if the company shut down its phone business and focused on software. Today Samsung and Apple dominate the industry; analysts estimate that last year the two of them made 105% of total smartphone industry profits and that Apple alone made 91%. That’s five leaders in this $400-billion industry in less than 20 years. We sometimes forget that Apple entered the business only nine years ago; next Wednesday is the anniversary. Business didn’t used to work like this. Everybody now repeats platitudes about the pace of change, but extremely few are able to internalize this reality and keep winning in the new environment.

Working Away w/Notations On @LagunaNiguelCty; #EURef; #Peace & Believing in Rainbows......

It has been quite a week--what else is new?

For me, the week started on a very high note as I had the pleasure to be at blessing of St. Timothy's Catholic Parish Food Pantry as our Parish Priest, Monsignor Urell, blessed the opening and offered a prayer as we began a new era at the Pantry.    For me, it continued as I worked away on on-going daily projects,  was on the parish campus this past Wednesday and thereafter chaired the June 2016  Laguna Niguel Traffic Commission Meeting.     It is frankly fun to be witness to Democracy in Action as residents were before our Commission deliberating as it did--proud of my fellow Commissioners, the City Team and the Community who were reflective, informative and engaging as they were.     One of the highlights of the past month was this publication in Route50 (a +Government Executive  project) that the Route50 Editor, +Michael Grass , did such a fantastic job supporting--and I for one am grateful to him in my capacity as Chair of the Commission and as a resident of the City for taking on this project as he did: 

Working away...very glad to see how @LagunaNiguelCty was featured in such a positive light..... https://t.co/hiHe4mQCWV

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) June 23, 2016

It was also another fabulous week in the City of Laguna Niguel as the second phase of Crown Valley Park was opened up.   I was a bit bummed that I missed it--but being at the Food Pantry was imperative as the team served some 34 clients today.     I also remain hopeful because of the next generation as The Aliso Niguel Second Harvest Food Bank Club plans on their Monthly Food Drive at the Ralphs in Aliso Viejo this coming Sunday--and as they will be having their mobile food pantry on August 6.   

Beyond the boundaries of our City,  +City of Laguna Niguel , it is quite a challenging World as the World awaits the result of #Brexit as I  just got a tweet that YouGov Poll is giving the "Remain" (#EURef) Campaign the edge as the counting has begun.    The Guardian just noted how the UK is fractured--how it heals will be part of the focus at #Outsiders especially in light of the profound fissures within the Conservative Party.     

 One very bright spot is the peace between Colombia and the FARC rebels.  I was so glad to see this from the Guardian earlier today:

I  commend President Santos as he noted, "....Now that we have agreed peace, as head of state and as a Colombian, I will argue, with equal determination their right to express and to continue their political struggle by legal means, even if we never agree. That is the essence of democracy to which we welcome them.”       Across the border in Venezuela, though,  people are going hungry and as Brazil continues to deal with profound political turmoil as the Olympics loom.      This is as I have been working away in support of Daily Outsiders with the latest out of India on the continued dominance of Narendra Modi.    I was quite disturbed by another development about how a Trump Advisor will not oppose Israeli Annexation of the West Bank claiming that no one knows how many Palestininans live there--going against decades of US Policy.    

As I look to a weekend of service supporting Second Harvest, I popped into twitter to check on the latest that the folks at +BrainyQuote have shared--and this one I decided to share on the eve of the weekend:



Remaining ever so hopeful as I wish all the best of weekends as I hope all enjoy the periodic #quote feeds over my personal Twitter Feed and the latest that the team +Paper.li  publishes for me daily.

Onward!!!

Working Away........

It has been a rather interesting day already as I caught glimpses of the great debate going on in London right now on the great Debate as Britain prepares to vote.  

It was also a bit of a retrospective day of sorts as I caught glimpses of the Dalai Lama's speech before the California State Legislature (available at the Daily Outsider tomorrow) along with catching up on two of my favorite New York Times columnist, Roger Cohen and David Brooks which I had the pleasure to share on my Personal Twitter Feed today.     David Brooks' focus was especially poignant about how resilient the grass roots are and how the communities are dealing with the profound fissures of challenges and change.     It was also a day that I caught an interesting "Food For Thought" seminar done by Success with interesting thoughts and ideas by the always energetic +Peter Diamandis on the possibilities of the future--and the simple point he noted in his Abundance 360 newsletter I captured in a Management & Leadership Primer I did in my personal notes here. .   The need to be able to disrupt oneself is as old as life itself.

As I reflected upon this day, I dug up this very interesting interview with Dr. Oliver Saks which is as perceptive as ever and speaks volumes:



As I embraced his thoughts, I also had a chance to visit Values.Com and picked this up--It reminded me as I read this about the interview Jox Cox's Husband, Brendan, had with SkyNews to thank Britain for all the support shown.    It took a lot of guts and courage by him to do this--I don't know how he was able to work up the courage to convey the tragedy to his two young children.

As a point of personal retrospective, Gordon B.  Hinckley was a former President of the Church of Jesus Christ of later Day Saints,   One of his cousins, Helen Hinckely Jones and her late husband, Ivan, took me in and supported me in the early years and I am forever grateful for their gracious heart and counsel in the early years:

Brief Personal Thoughts on Movies & Love: "Susan Hayward" Thanks For Knowing You

I began my Monday by visiting St. Timothy's as our Parish Priest, Monsignor Urell, blessed the new Pantry as we began a new era at the Pantry.  I look forward to being at the Parish Campus Wednesday.

The love, compassion and care I saw Monday led me to think through two fabulous movies that depict love, commitment and a sense of compassion.   Two of my favourite movies are the President's Lady and the Soldier of Fortune.    I admit they are "Hollywood Productions"!!     Both of them are stories of love that transcend it all. I ran across a full clip of the 1953 film with Charleston Heston On YouTube and could not help but be taken by the love that Andrew Jackson for Rachel--and how he kept every promise:  



This was also quite telling: 

Enough said!!!

Onward. 

Working Away w/Thoughts on @realDonaldTrump; #JoCox, #MoreInCommon & #Hope

What an interesting week so far..and it is only Monday!!

The headlines (that the team @ #outsiders also released on Twitter and on the Main Site) had to do with the continued disarray of the Trump Campaign after a weekend that Mr  Trump called for racial profiling citing Israel as an Example.   The +Haaretz.com 's Chemi Shalev laid it into him by quoting his late Father, "....Don't Do us Any Favours".

As the media onslaught on the Trump campaign has begun in earnest, one of the few outlets that seemed to be on the forefront was the Daily Show and this clip was telling about the contrast between the GOP and our friends north of the Border:

I reviewed reporting from the Washington Post that the Clinton Campaign and its' allies have reserved $ 117 Million (that's Million)--while Trump has Zero--it was funny how the Washington Post's Daily Trail had to emphasise twice that it was "Zero".

As I was working away supporting the work of #outsiders, I was moved beyond words (and shared it on my Personal Facebook Wall) by the tributes to the fallen British Member of Parliament Jo Cox.   It will be quite a week in Britain as Britain decides on Thursday whether to stay or leave the European Union.    This is as The US Senate voted down attempts at trying to close loopholes regarding Guns citing Due Process and 2nd Amendment Issues.   I was not too surprised frankly despite the valiant efforts by Senator Chris Murphy that Senator McConnel and Senator Cruz labelled as Political Stunts.        

As  I work away on my academic and educational commitments for the week,  I was listening to Herb Alpert on +Spotify  and "After the Rain" is one of the selections that gave me a sense of pause that things are going to be OK which I hope all enjoy by clicking on it here.     I also got permission from the team to dig up one of the +Jonathan Huie compilations appropriate to a sense of hope and optimism essential--and how it is up to us as +Jonathan Huie said to "change the way we see things" : 

We don't live in the world of reality,

we live in the world of how we perceive reality.

- Bryan Singer 

There is nothing true anywhere,

The true is nowhere to be seen;

If you say you see the true,

This seeing is not the true one.

- Abraham Lincoln paraphrasing Lao Tzu's Tao te Ching

Even those things which seem out of reach of our choice

are governed by how we choose to perceive them.

- Mary Anne Radmacher 

Seeing the light is a choice, not seeing the light is no choice.

- Douglas Horton 

Those who are highly evolved,

maintain an undiscriminating perception.

Seeing everything, labeling nothing,

they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness.

Thus they are supported by it.

- Lao Tzu

Change what you see,

by changing how you see.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

On the Eve of a New Week.....

The team @ #outsiders was good enough to pick this up and share it on the #Outsider Facebook Wall and let me share it as well as we begin a new week:

Onward to the new week with all its' possibilities

As I reach a Personal Milestone of 200 Posts: Sharing a A Pandora Musical Interlude To Celebrate on this #FathersDayWeekEnd2016

On this occasion of my 200th Post, I wanted to "cyber celebrate" by sharing these stations I hope all enjoy as I wish all a great Fathers Day Week-End and Wish all a Happy Fathers' Day!!!

Hear songs from old favorites plus under-the-radar indie artists that will be huge this year. All before your hipster friends.

Today’s Indie Indie Pool Party

Indie 500 Indie Rock