Brian Geremia

A poem about gratitude.

2011-03-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

"You're well taken care of,"
The woman said to me
When I called about the tuition
That my family will pay.

"I am," I said, as I shuffled
Notes that I'd forgotten
Over the weekend when my mind
Was where it wanted to be.

"I am," I thought, as
I ate eggs with hot sauce
And read the paper
During my lunch at home.

I knew it when
I went outside and felt the sun
On my face and saw it
Dance on the water in the pool.

I knew it when
I laid to bed and an arm
Draped over me, like the wings
In the Hopkins poem I love.

Reflection on 'Stumbling Upon Ancestry'

2011-02-22T23:50:00.000-08:00

My friend and colleague, Brent Pottenger, recently penned a nice poem:

'Stumbling Upon Ancestry'

We stumbled upon Ancestry figuratively when we started our first business together three years ago.

We stumbled upon Ancestry literally when we created Ancestry this year.

We'll keep stumbling...

In the meantime, I wrote a short literary analysis on the poem (poem below):

Brent Pottenger's poem, 'Stumbing Upon Ancestry,' offers an astute reflection on the need to create re-vitalized institutional models to serve as platforms for re-imagined economic systems. In the first couplet, Pottenger writes, 'From the ashes they will rise: Institutions that we newly derive." The ashes reference the remnants of brick and mortar institutions from past generations that crumble amidst economic stress. These institutions, typically top-down, tradition-based businesses, lack the shiftiness to navigate the curves of a changing cultural course. Inflexible, top heavy structures cause years of toil to tumble, the pieces scattered.

Re-constructing a dismantled conceptual structure requires creativity and confidence to inject a fresh rhythm and the perceptiveness and humility to respect the wisdom of those who came before us. Focusing on the power of place-ism and bottom-up tinkering, new institutions will 're-create fractally' and 'scale up locally.' The new institution will emerge to enlighten and enliven local ecologies that crave the presence of individuals and collectives who do things that re-enforce the 'harmony' of our interconnectedness and the 'dignity' of our existence.

"Stumbling upon Ancestry"

From the ashes they will rise:
Institutions that we newly derive.

Institutions that we re-create fractally;
That is, institutions that we scale up locally.

From the individual to the family;
From the family to the community:
We'll band back together in harmony,
And help each other regain our dignity.

That is, we'll organize society like Mother Nature;
And we'll do good locally in order to do good globally.

From this platform novel interactions will emerge;
Serendipitous collisions of ideals will be our spurs;
And we'll stumble upon organizational structures by thinkering.

That is, we'll we'll stumble upon Ancestry

Krista Tippett, Karen Armstrong & T.S. Eliot

2011-02-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

T.S. Eliot is an author I bulldozed through in a survey course in college. I didn't appreciate his wisdom with his works couched in the middle of a thick anthology.

Recently, after hearing Karen Armstrong on Krista Tippetts's Being podcast, I re-engaged Eliot's work. Armstrong states how Eliot's poem, Ash Wednesday, was a pivotal factor in re-focusing her spirituality.

In particular, this passage struck Armstrong, and it strikes me, too:

'Because I know that time is always time

And place is always and only place

And what is actual is actual only for one time

And only for one place

I rejoice that things are as they are and

I renounce the blessèd face

And renounce the voice

Because I cannot hope to turn again

Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something

Upon which to rejoice.'

The spiritual life requires dealing with the horrors of life gracefully; one such horror is that moments in time are not fixed -- people, experiences and structures to which we ascribe 'divinity' merely slide by. We slide by, too, but our egos affect our ability to realize it. So, how do we deal with this? This poem instructs us 'rejoice that things are as they are,' a concept that settles nicely into the Ignatian framework of finding God in all things. Yet Eliot extends this principle properly, acknowledging that to rejoice is not enough; instead, 'I rejoice, having to construct something upon which to rejoice.' Since nothing is fixed, each of us must continually and creatively construct that which is to be rejoiced. In doing so, we create our own unique thread of the divine that connects us directly with the universal.

Nine Principles of Cooperative Communication

2011-02-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

From the essay, "Nine Principles of Cooperative Communication" by Steven Jenkins:

1. Try to pay full attention.
2. Aim at understanding.
3. Try to be patient.
4. Try to accommodate others.
5. Don't express negative emotions.
6. Sympathize and empathize.
7. Avoid hurtful speech.
8. Be reliable, honest and sincere.
9. Take an interest in others.

This essay introduced me to the cooperative principle, which states that people who obey the principle 'will make sure that what they say in a conversation furthers the purpose of that conversation.'

I prefer to enact the principle rather than obey it and I find it most valuable as a way to manage my internal conversations, forming a solid framework for my outward communication and interactions.

These nine principles are important aspects of my spirituality and they overlap nicely with Jesuit philosophy, the religious/spiritual tradition I identify with primarily.