InFlow = OutFlow –> No Overflow
Man, it’s been two weeks since I’ve posted here. All I can say is that my brain has not had much Overflow in recent weeks. Right now all my web surfings, musings, ideas, worries, imagination, and mental energy are devoted to projects that literally suck the attention directly from my cognitive faculties.
Prayer, Family time, Friends, and sleep are my only refuge from this cognitive saturation. And the sleep one is shaky – I get up each morning, not when the alarm goes off, but when I come to the realization that I am no longer dreaming, am thinking about work, and might as well get up and go get paid for it. About 5:15 a.m. on average.
But who’s complaining? Most of this is good stuff, gifts and blessings, opportunities, doors opening. But all gifts and no wasteful play time make Jack a dull boy, an infrequent artist, and a bad blogger.
Work: I have a number of opportunities that are allowing me a chance to apply facilitation skills, systems thinking, organizational learning, knowledge management, and strategic planning. For the first time since I graduated in 2000, I feel like I am finally merging my degree with my day job. But that means if I haven’t surfed by your blog during a break at work for several weeks, I was probably Googling for resources on Appreciative Inquiry or process ontology or some such arcana.
PREP: Heidi and I are developing a marriage education class that will not only help our marriage and give us a chance to further our mission as a couple, but will provide us a chance to supplement our income at a time when we probably need to think about getting one of those massive “Homeschooler” vans to carry our collection of children around (plus assorted friends.)
Futures Research: A recent return to a long-time reserach gig on the future of parenting in America still occupies a slim slice of my mental pie.
Strategic Planning: Helping a local church to make a strategic decision about the future growth of their school. A great project to merge my education with my personal beliefs while cutting my teeth as a solo futurist. But I have a feeling this is going to be a bigger project than I intended, more intense. A good amount of my Internet time is related to research on this.
The Damn Election: An alarming amount of my worry budget (and my discretionary surfiing time) is going involuntarily to this damn election. I guess I have an irrational hope that if I read enough news and blogs, I’ll find something to reassure me that everything will be OK and our Civic Landscape is indeed not going to Hell. No luck so far. I won’t reveal which way I’m voting (I don’t want a to have a political blog) but I will say that the best I can hope for is gridlock, so my presidential and congressional votes are going to different parties. But, until Nov 2. (or once the Supreme Court makes its decision) this irrational fear occupies my remaining Web time. I can’t help myself.
Heck of a long excuse for not posting regularly or coming by your site, but there it is. I’ll be back. Bear with me.