The Eleven September 2019

The Eleven – September 2019

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Creek near Carson, WA
Greetings!
I hope you’ve been having a great Summer. If this is your first time here, welcome! I’ve been writing this newsletter, The Eleven, since 2008 – that’s right, 11 years! How time flies 🙂 This month I want to share with you some thinking I’ve been doing about world/neighborhood change – the concept is basically issues vs. candidates.
There are many ways to effect change in our world, and boy does it need changing. From logging old-growth forests in the PNW to climate change, we have our work cut out for us. There seems to be mostly one path towards change that is encouraged in our society and that is getting behind a candidate or political party. If that’s exciting to you – by all means – I do think it’s a valuable service – especially voter registration and voting! And, the type of work that is involved in politics is not for everyone. It can often be confrontational – and I think the biggest problem might be our inability to get behind leaders. Leaders are people and people are fallible. We want perfection in our leaders and it’s just not going to happen. So, we get stuck trying to get behind Warren, Sanders, Harris, or a local leader and then feel disillusioned when their humanness is revealed. For some, it’s no matter, and they’ll keep on fighting for their candidate(s). For others, though, there seems nowhere else to go where one can make a difference. I think issues are a great place for many people to put their energy.
The Case Against Leaf Blowers by Singer
I’m going to use an example that I’ve been working on for the past year. Eliminating gas-powered leaf blowers (GLBs). If you’d like to receive news on this topic, click here .
About a year ago I met Michael Hall at a candidate meet and greet for Joanne Hardesty who was running for Portland City Council (she won!). Michael had just written an article I’d read about gas-powered leaf blowers and raised the issue in this meeting. That led to our meeting and Michael invited me to join a group of people who meet at his house every 2 weeks to discuss what we can do to eliminate GLBs in Portland and beyond.
There are a lot of interesting aspects of meeting together as a group (homemade baked goods being one of them!). There is a lot of warmth, shared vision, and a chance for group members to shine, successes, challenges – just like with a candidate running for office. The difference is that if one stays with the issue there’s a real chance that something can be changed. Long-time readers of this newsletter know that I’ve been involved in societal change for most of my adult life.

How to use Nextdoor.com to effect Neighborhood Change

I posted an article about my love of Nextdoor.com and why it’s useful a few years ago. Since then, my thinking about nextdoor.com has changed and grown. I see Nextdoor as a much more powerful tool for neighborhood change than I did in the past.

Read more
albertideation.com

Working on an issue rather than via a candidate or party really is a completely different thing. Here are some issues I’ve been working on at the neighborhood level. There is something about working with a small group, too. So, if any of this has resonated with you and you have room and interest in your life to make a difference at some level in society, pick an issue and see what you can do. If you’d like to discuss which issue might make the most sense for you to get involved in, please write me and let’s talk.
On a personal level, I’ve been doing a bunch of yoga lately. I got to visit Breitenbush for 3 days last week, which is one of my favorite places on Earth. Last weekend I attended Epic Jam #2 in Carson, WA ( pic @ the top ) – and got in some great playing with some of my favorite musicians. This week I get to hear one of my musical heroes – Martyn Joseph, of Wales, perform in a house concert and Dave Bromberg on Saturday! Btw, I didn’t make it to Burning Man this year – though after attending so many years sometimes it feels like I’m there while the event is going on 🙂
Here comes Fall. I hope life is treating you super fine.
Keep in touch and let me know how things are going.
Sincerely,
Albert
PS – If you want to keep up with politics I’ve found an interesting channel. Robert Hubbell of LA writes an interesting newsletter 5x a week and I’ve been very inspired by it. For instance, he encouraged people to put https://vote.gov in their email signature lines with this note:
Visit Vote.gov to register to vote and to learn about voting requirements in your state. Tell a friend.
If you go here, you can subscribe to his newsletter. Like mine, you can hop off at any time.

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The Eleven – June 2015: Summertime

The Eleven

Hello, and welcome to my monthly e-letter, The Eleven. This is where I have shared my latest thinking about the world and my life for the last 8 years. The newsletter goes to about 3,000 people. If this doesn’t interest you, and you’re more interested in my classes and such – please take a moment and update your profile below. Thanks.

Jerry Garcia
Albert as Albert Einstein
Me, thanks to Zen Achilles

I want to talk about the classes I teach for a minute. I started by teaching classes on how to use Facebook in my living room. I loved it – I really have taken to teaching. That led to connecting up with Constant Contact 3 years ago. They like how I teach and brought me into their Authorized Local Expert program. I’m provided with content about email marketing and social media to present locally and via webinars. Generally, the ideas are sound and I add in my own special sauce derived from my personal experience and that of my clients. That has led to me knowing a whole lot about newsletters and other online marketing tools. Here’s my current thinking on the topic.

Please come join me for one of these classes and send your friends to me. Whether this is your world or not, everyone can use new skills and I think you’ll find my presentation style refreshing. Also, my classes offer a safe and easy opportunity to network – they are filled with small business owners who are often looking for people to hire or collaborate with. So, if you’re looking for opportunities; are considering beginning a new venture; or are curious about small business issues, come on down. Also, I have been inviting some really interesting and cool marketers into the mix. For tomorrow’s class – David Baer of Baer on Marketing will be joining me. He’s a driven and exciting guy – and makes Facebook marketing a lot clearer. Later in the month I’ll be joined by Tshombe Brown, an inspiring coach and speaker.

Music break: Click on the title above for a taste of what the Grateful Dead were doing 50 years ago. And will do again in a few weeks in their fare thee well tour. My dentist is going. My best friend from college is going. Due to climate change and ears that don’t love flying, I didn’t try for tickets, but I hope to watch some of the action via pay-per-view in Portlandia. This may also have to do with my Early Onset Grumpiness.

Life continues to be interesting. The other day my friend, James Curtis, sent me this beautiful mandolin. I’m loving playing it – click on the pic to learn more about this master luthier!

James Curtis Mandolin

Personal News: I’ve been off sugar (mostly) for the past month. That’s led to some weight loss, and Eecole tells me my body is probably a lot happier without the white devil! I’ve been doing a bunch of reading/listening/watching, lately, and I’m especially enjoying Tim Ferris’s podcasts. I’ve noticed feeling jealous when friends tell me they’re in school, so I’m making a point of spending as much time as I can studying – reading, learning Spanish and watching inspirational videos. If you have anything in this realm you’d like to recommend, please let me know. Thanks!

Meanwhile, our sunflowers are growing taller by the day. Oh, and I started teaching a co-counseling class for men. If you’re interested, let me know, we’re just getting started. We’ll meet bi-weekly for now at my place in SE Portland.

The world keeps turning and we all are doing the best we can.  Me included 🙂 If you need help with something, please let me know. I could use some more connection in my life so feel free to reach back if you feel moved to. Being car-free, I’d especially love invites to get out and hike in the hills!

Take care and have a great Summer!

touch of gray, kind of suits you anyway :)
oh well a touch of gray, kind of suits you anyway 🙂

Sincerely,

Albert