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Personal Journal
In 1970, Dr. Chuck Porter suggested
I begin a journal. A journal is distinctly different from a diary. A
diary chronicles events over time. A journal documents ideas. He said,
"there will be moments when an insight, idea or understanding will suddenly
crystallize. Unless you record it, over time it will be lost." Nearly 30 years and hundreds
of pages later, I can confirm that Chuck was exactly right. The value
of a journal is immeasurable. My formal education laid the foundation,
but it was people and experiences that honed my skills, solidified my
understandings, and brought perhaps just a bit of wisdom. Allow me to offer a few brief
entries: May, 2, 1988, Udapor, India
I shared tea with Dr. K. Shrimali,
on the porch of his home in the small village of Udapor. Dr. Shrimali
was the India's first minister of education following independence,
serving under Nehru for nearly two decades. He was a close personal
friend of Gandhi, and was jailed for his participation in non-violent
protests for independence. Shrimali was a humble, dedicated
man. One of his comments touched me: "If there is any rationality in
the world, if there is any hope for the future, then it is sustained
and delivered through education. But it must be an education that welcomes
ideas, discourse, dialogue, and even disagreement. Education transforms
through openness, not closure." November 7, 1986, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Shared a conversation today
with Sylvia Clark. "Michael, the road to good intentions is often paved
with hell. But you must continue to do that which you know is honest
and correct." June 4, 1971, Honolulu,
Hawaii
I wanted to photograph a sunrise
-- Terry Smith and Ron Heller agreed to go with me. I woke them at 4:30
a.m., and we drove through downtown Honolulu, up the North Shore highway
to a small beach facing east. I built a bonfire from drift wood, while
Ron and Terry went to sleep on the sand. As I was setting up my tripod
and adjusting my camera in anticipation of dawn, Terry, from Lovelady
Texas, looked up with bleary eyes and said, "Mike, don't ya know ya
could be taking the same picture on the other side of the island at
9 o'clock tonight." I was dumbstruck. Of course,
he was correct. In Hawaii, the spectral emission of a sunrise is the
same as a sunset. From that moment onward,
I always asked, when considering any problem or task, "what's on the
other side of the island." A journal is a very important
tool. It has served me well. Life's experiences have been the basis for
my most fundamental education. |
J. Michael Adams: Offering Insights
Some Favorite Quotes
The task of a university
is the creation of the future.
Alfred North Whitehead
Give me the liberty to know,
to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
John Milton, 1674
Everybody is ignorant, only
on different subjects.
Will Rogers, 1942
No sane man will dance
Cicero, 43 B.C.
The next best thing to knowing
something is knowing where to find it.
Samuel Johnson
An unfair method sometimes
used to gain control of an organization is to attend all the meetings.
Ashleigh Brilliant, 1982
There are two ways of exerting
one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
Booker T. Washington
The ink of the scholar is
more sacred than the blood of the martyr.
Mohammed, 592 A.D.
It is the nature of man
as he grows older, to protest against change, particularly change for
the better.
John Steinbeck
Personally, I'm always ready
to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill, 1941
Since we cannot know all
there is to be known of anything, we ought to know a little about
everything.
Blaise Pascal, 1654
There is nothing permanent
except change.
Heraclitus, 475 B.C.
To limit the press is to
insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare
the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.
Claude Adrien Helvetius,
1771
The definition of insanity
is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome.
Henry Ford, 1927
Favorite Cartoon
1978 Frank and
Earnest cartoon is copyright and trademark of Bob Thaves, used with
permission.
Favorite Restaurant
The Bukhara
Diplomatic Enclave
New Delhi, India
For reservations call 011- 91-11-301-0101
Order the Northwest India frontier
leg of lamb
Some Favorite Books
Edwin A. Burtt, In search
of Philosophic understanding
Lee G. Bolman & Terrence
E. Deal, Reframing Organizations
James Clavell, Shogun
Malcolm Forbes, They Went
That-a-Way
The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin
Robert A. Heinlein, The
Past Through Tomorrow
Larry Niven, Ringworld
Favorite Poems
My candle burns
at both ends,
It will not last the night;
But Ah my foes, and Oh my friends,
It gives a lovely light!
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay,from
Figs from Thistles
* The poetry pictured at the
top of the page is by Shawqui, from an untitled Egyptian poem
in support of educational reform
[cited in Khouri, Monah, Poetry
and the Making of Modem Egypt, E.B. Brill]
Favorite Links:
http://www.adage.com/section.cms?sectionId=195
A treasure for information
on population, cultural and market trends in the US.
http://phc.mpr.org/
Minnesota
Public Radio's Prairie Home Companion
Home Page. I am a keen fan of Garrison Keillor.
http://www.slate.com/
Very contemporary, on-line
magazine. Good graphics!
http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/
Same as above. Must reading!
http://www.quizland.com/cotd.htm
Like a good crossword? The
interactive puzzle changes everyday.
http://www.fdu.edu/
Fairleigh Dickinson University's
main page. A great school. Check it out.
http://www.refdesk.com/
Need to find something or someone?
Bob Drudge has assembled an incredible number of reference links on this
page. I use it almost daily.
http://www.nextgenerationbook.com
Introduces Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation written with my friend and colleague, Angelo Carfagna.
Email address:
president@fdu.edu
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