by Nedra Weinreich | Dec 24, 2006 | Blog, Personal, Social Marketing
This is an exciting time in the Weinreich household. For the second year in a row, my daughter requested and received a butterfly garden kit for her birthday, and we are waiting for the butterflies to emerge from their chrysalids (not cocoons – that’s for moths).
A couple of weeks ago, two containers holding five larvae each arrived. They were tiny black eating machines about the size of a hyphen, feasting on the nutrient medium on the floor of their shared plastic condo. They quickly grew, becoming big fat caterpillars. When each was ready, they hung themselves upside-down (or, ipe-side-down, as my six year old daughter says) from their feet, compacting themselves into short fat Js.
Now here is the amazing part, which I was never able to catch in progress. At the appointed moment, the caterpillar’s skin split open and pulled upward, revealing the chrysalid waiting inside, which quickly hardened with exposure to the air. Inside the chrysalid, enzymes digest all the caterpillar tissue except for the tiny beating heart, and create a rich fluid media in which the butterfly cells start to grow. It’s not that the caterpillar legs turn into butterfly legs and the caterpillar eyes turn into butterfly eyes; all the essential caterpillarity disappears and is rebuilt into butterfliness. This just blows my mind.
The human process of behavior change and personal growth is not exactly like this. Our species is a little messier. When we change, we retain the essence of who we are. It’s unusual for someone to be able to completely remake themselves. And yet, like the caterpillars, we have the potential to change waiting inside us, when we are ready to let it happen.
As we come to the beginning of a new year, let this quiet period leading up to it be a time of contemplation and introspection. Think about what you are proud of from the past year. What did you accomplish? Were you the kind of person you want to be? What do you need to work on so that you will not feel any regrets when this time comes around next year? I’m not just talking about a resolution to lose weight or exercise that starts on January 1st and ends on January 3rd. This is a long-term process of setting goals and working toward them, a la the Happiness Project.
Small steps toward a goal is the best way to do it. If you want to give more to charity, start with picking one organization you feel strongly about, and commit $10 a month to be charged automatically. If you want to be a better parent, commit to spending at least 10-20 minutes more a day per child with your full attention given to him or her (no phones, e-mail, car, TV or newspapers in sight), playing on the floor, sitting and talking, or reading together. If you want to get organized, spend just 15 minutes a day throwing out clutter. Whatever you want to do, figure out how to break it down into smaller, more manageable pieces, or it probably won’t happen.
You can’t go from being a caterpillar to a butterfly overnight, but you do have the potential to become something more than you are right now. In the coming year, I wish you (and me) the strength to face our own individual challenges and emerge more glorious for it.
Merry Christmas to those of you who are celebrating it, and happy new year to all. I am taking a blogging break for the rest of the year (unless I just can’t stay away) and will see you on the other side, along with our new pet butterflies.
Photo Credit: avmaier
Technorati Tags: butterflies, change, resolutions, new year
by Nedra Weinreich | Dec 11, 2006 | Blog, Personal
I really hate the word “meme.” It’s so abstract and academic that you would think it couldn’t be any fun at all. But this is the term that’s used to describe these amusing games of tag that go around among bloggers where you answer questions about yourself and then choose others to do the same.
Ann Handley of the Marketing Profs Daily Fix blog (if you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should – it’s a great community of marketers) tagged me for the latest blogger meme, in which I must share five things you didn’t know about me. I usually balk at sharing these kinds of things (there’s a REASON I have kept them hidden), but since she gave me such a nice compliment, here goes:
- I can touch my tongue to my nose. Not a very useful talent, but my mom’s cousin is the only other person I’ve met who can do it too.
- My Daddy wrestled alligators as a boy growing up in Miami, raced cars and boats, and worked in the Dolphinarium assisting the vets with the sea mammals. My great great grand uncle (or something like that) on his side was Jim Younger of the Younger Brothers, who rode in Jesse James’ gang.
- I sued the Girl Scouts (and won) when I was about 8. It’s a long story, but basically had to do with negligence on their part when I got third degree burns covering my leg at a Girl Scout overnight camp. I had the same burn doctor as Richard Pryor. Got the payout when I turned 18, went on a nice trip to Europe and bought a car. Amazingly, they did not put me on their blacklist for life and let my daughter sign up to be a Brownie.
- I wanted to be a doctor all throughout high school and was pre-med in college (until I discovered that with public health I could reach more people and prevent medical problems from starting in the first place). When I was 16, I spent the summer with my uncle and aunt in Atlanta and worked at a medical clinic where my uncle’s friend was a doctor. An ER doc there took me under his wing and taught me all kinds of things like how EKGs work, how to stitch up a cut, how to take a blood pressure, and he let me try drawing blood on him (he was amazingly brave, especially when I accidentally squirted him with his own blood from the syringe).
- I have a very strange range of musical tastes. Though the first record I ever bought with my own money was “Donny and Marie’s Greatest Hits,” once I discovered Rush and Pink Floyd I became a closet rocker (none of my friends at the time listened to anything but top 40 and new wave). But my music collection includes everything from Air Supply to Judas Priest to Beethoven (the second movement of the 7th symphony makes me cry every time!) to Ella Fitzgerald to Hank Williams Jr. to Duran Duran to the Bobs to Pearl Jam to Beck and pretty much everything in between.
So there you have it. I have opened the vault. Now it’s time to pass on the fun. I am tagging:
- Beth Kanter – because she shares so much knowledge, but I don’t know that much about her
- Katya Andresen – because her blog is fun to read, and she seems to have done a lot of interesting things in the past
- John Anderton – because I keep learning fascinating tidbits about him, and I’m sure he has much more he hasn’t revealed (besides, he’s just getting his new blog off the ground and needs a little push to post)
- Toby Bloomberg – because I would like to get to know her better
- Craig Lefebvre – because he’s the one who got me started in blogging
Tag – you’re it!
photo credit: Margie Mueller
(Isn’t this a great picture? I love the negative space between the two shadows – it looks like an upside-down woman throwing her head back laughing.)
Technorati Tags: five things meme
by Nedra Weinreich | Nov 21, 2006 | Blog, Personal
One of the things I’ve figured out as I’ve gone through life is that the key to happiness is in wanting what you have, not in having what you want. And I am very lucky to have everything I could possibly need. As Thanksgiving comes to America on Thursday, I beg your indulgence as I recount the things for which I am grateful this year:
- Number one are my wonderful, loving husband and two amazing children (along with my whole extended undysfunctional family)
- My health and well-being
- Clients who I love and whose causes I believe in wholeheartedly
- The opportunity to do meaningful and fulfilling work every day that makes a positive difference in the world
- Soldiers, police and firefighters who voluntarily put their lives on the line to keep me and my family safe
- The right to practice my religion in peace, speak my mind, and have a say in what happens in my government
- The ability to eat a Thanksgiving dinner without worrying where my next meal will come from
- Living in Southern California, where it’s been in the upper 70s and 80s in mid-November!
- The beauty of this world, from the dew on a spider web to the indescribable purple of dusk
And, what would a blogger be without her readers? Thank you to all of you for caring what I have to say and for spending some of your precious minutes reading my blog. I wish you and your families a very happy Thanksgiving.
by Nedra Weinreich | Nov 16, 2006 | Blog, Personal
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman died today at age 94. His ideas about a free market economy changed the world. He also applied these concepts to the education system, as an advocate for school choice through the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation.
Through a project I have been a part of, I had the pleasure of seeing him and his wife Rose speak at two different occasions in the past year. The first was at a celebration of the 50th anniversary of his introduction of the idea of school vouchers as a way to minimize inefficient government spending and provide a better education for those stuck in the worst public schools. Milton and Rose — both about 5 feet tall and walking with assistance — spoke and answered questions with wit and passion. The years had not diminished their intellect in the least. The keynote speaker that evening was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who towered over the Friedmans when posing for a photo op. Schwarzenegger spoke about how when he was a new immigrant to the US starting his bodybuilding career, he turned on a television in his hotel room, which happened to be showing the groundbreaking series (and book) Free to Choose. He was captivated by the ideas Friedman talked about, which shaped his own political ideology.
Last May, I led a workshop on social marketing at a strategy meeting sponsored by the Friedman and Gleason Foundations, at which Milton and Rose were the dinnertime guest speakers. I was honored to see my name next to theirs on the program, but quite intimidated when I heard that Milton might come sit in on my session. I thought, “How could I teach Milton Friedman anything about marketing?” But it turned out that the traveling had been a little too hard on them to make it to my morning session. I never did go introduce myself to Milton and Rose — I was just a little too starstruck — but now I certainly wish I had.
My condolences go to Rose and her family, as well as everyone at the Friedman Foundation. Milton’s memory will certainly be remembered for a blessing.
Technorati Tags: milton friedman
by Nedra Weinreich | Sep 10, 2006 | Blog, Personal
Each September 11th, I force myself to pick away the scabs that formed on my psyche on 9/11/01. It’s painful. It hurts. But reliving the emotions and experiences I felt on that day is the best reminder of why we must fight and win against the people who hate us simply because we love freedom. Thank God I did not lose anyone I know that day. And though I was scheduled to be on a plane to Chicago on 9/12/01, I was lucky not to have decided to start on my journey a day earlier.
The thing I find that helps me best connect back is putting myself in the shoes of the people who found themselves in the Twin Towers that day. Or in the Pentagon. Or on one of the hijacked airplanes. What did they experience? What must have gone through their minds as they realized what was happening to them? What would I have done if it were me? These are impossible questions to answer, yet through this storytelling in my head, I am able to change the abstract numbers 9/11 into its meaning on a human level.
This is why, when I found out about the 2,996 Project last week from Carol of planningblog, I knew I had to participate. The project consists of tributes to honor each victim of 9/11, each created by a different blogger and posted on September 11th. I was randomly assigned to write about Amy O’Doherty, who lost her life in the World Trade Center. When I first clicked on the site to get more information about her, I gasped because in the picture above, she looks almost like me. Another “there but for the grace of God go I” moment.
I had to do a lot of searching to find information about Amy, but here is her story:
Amy O’Doherty grew up in Pelham, NY, and attended St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York, graduating in 2000. A professor there who had her in four classes said of her:
She was a true pleasure to have in class: always doing every homework, carrying class discussions (especially in Money and Banking!), and such a hard worker.
After graduating, she moved to New York City into her first apartment and worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, an international securities firm with offices on floors 101-105 of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
A profile in the New York Times read:
To Amy O’Doherty, in her first job and apartment, Manhattan’s streets emanated excitement and its air, promise — of new friends and smart conversations over steaks at Morton’s, and of unlimited success. Of what Geraldine Davie, her mother, called “the largeness of life.” Ms. O’Doherty, 23, loved her job as a broker’s assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald. “Financing, trading, bonds,” said Liz Gallello, a childhood friend. “She wanted to take it – the career, the city woman lifestyle – as far as far it could go.”
She was delighted with her five-story walk-up — so small, said Ms. Davie, that “Lilliputians should live in it.” She filled it with dozens of framed photos of friends from Pelham, N.Y., where she grew up, and from camp, college and work.
“She was soaking up that great New York style,” said Ms. Davie. “Picking up that New York language. She didn’t know it but she was living her bliss.”
On September 11, 2001, Amy managed to place a call to her mother in the moments after the crash. But she and a thousand more of her colleagues were never heard from again.
This
picture of a friend or family member searching for Amy in the days after breaks my heart. When we remember the people who were killed on 9/11, we also have to think about the thousands of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, other family members and friends whose lives were forever shattered that day. The victims number many more than 2,996.
Amy was clearly loved by many. I will leave you with this heartfelt poem written in her memory by her friend Diane Huggins:
Just as the sunflowers you loved you were bright and cheery in every way,
You loved your colleges and your job that was well displayed.
You had a kind, generous heart that never strayed.
You felt life should be savored not just lived from day to day.
A master disciplinarian with both gentleness and firmness conveyed.
You were always smiling and laughing just a beautiful person surveyed.
You had a great sense of humor, upbeat so full of fun and play.
You implanted heart prints on many hearts that love will never stray.
Shopping for yourself and your mother was always a great thrill and okay.
If mom Geraldine wanted something you indulged her without delay.
You were happy when mom accepted your gifts, they were like beautiful bouquets.
You were and forever are her precious daughter, a true gift of love so to say.
Beloved sister to Maura you shared a close friendship so fine,
you continue to guide her with your spirit of love that is very well defined.
Loving daughter to James he misses the times you intertwined,
He sees your love living on in each twinkling star that brightly shines.
There is a beautiful star in Heaven that to him alone has been assigned.
You live on in your family forever dwelling in their hearts and minds.
you’re their guardian angel and their greatest hero and gift divine.
We must never forget. I rented United 93 to watch tonight. Let the hurt begin.
Technorati Tags: 9/11, 911, September 11, 2996, united 93
by Nedra Weinreich | Apr 25, 2006 | Blog, Personal
This Sunday April 30 is the Save Darfur Rally to Stop Genocide on the National Mall in Washington DC. Other rallies will be happening in cities around the country on that day. If you are able to attend one of the rallies, speak up for those who have no voice. If you cannot attend a rally in person, you can be there online via the Virtual March for Darfur — sign your name and be counted.
About a year and half ago, I started speaking at Los Angeles-area schools to raise students’ awareness about the situation in Darfur and slavery in Sudan. I was amazed at how engaged the students became with this issue, with many of them selling green bracelets to raise funds and getting involved with local events. In fact, they formed a group called “Teens Against Genocide” with students from 20 different area high schools and held their own rally in front of the Federal building last Sunday.
If you would like to learn more about the situation in Darfur, which is particularly poignant on this Holocaust Remembrance Day, take a look at information from the Save Darfur Coalition and/or watch this movie from Physicians for Human Rights. Then check out this list of 10 Things You Can Do Right Now from the Genocide Intervention Network.
“Never again,” which is what the world said after the Holocaust, and again after Rwanda, has to mean that we do something when we know that genocide is happening. We take action. We’re already too late for 400,000 people murdered by their own government. Millions more refugees are counting on us to help them. Let’s be their voices.
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
