carolstimmel.net

A facebook “colleague” of mine posted a link to this story.  I rarely follow links, but this one was intriguing. I am working on another book with Don, not surprisingly about marginal experiences and I’m always looking for inspiration.  Written by Andria Nacina Cole, I found How Not to Ruin Your Daughters here at the fiction circus.

Here’s how not to ruin your daughters. First, do not stay married long enough for them to see your head thrown against a glass table. And if you must, divorce the man soon after. While divorcing him, say dramatic things like, “I deserve better.” Repeat these statements (aloud) for the rest of the girls’ lives and couple them with a vow of chastity.

…

This is pretty dark but absolutely beautiful in its jagged edges and unapologetic truth.  Read the whole thing, it’s short and bitter.  But, the question lurks, is this really marginal?

Today, I’m moving on from Tendril, Inc.  I was offered a position quite close to my heart as a Research Director at E Source, in Boulder, Colorado.  I have loved my tenure at Tendril and will miss the many fine people that work to make that company great and compelling.  My position there allowed me to learn the energy industry from the consumer to the back office, and give back to the industry new ideas about saving energy. A heartfelt thank you to the team at Tendril.

At the same time, the opportunity to write, research and work with other researchers on Energy industry business intelligence rang bells throughout my being.  I’m a writer at heart, and I am thrilled by the opportunity to analyze energy efficiency and sustainability issues in a time where this industry is accelerating and reforming as a nascent industry.  I am honored to be able to participate in the conversation.  Please continue to follow my personal blog here at carolstimmel.net and my thoughts on the industry at Watts Ability.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. I was lucky - I found what I love to do early in life. Sometimes that first step is the hardest one. — Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s charitable foundation, lost all of its $15 million in assets invested with Bernard Madoff.

Elie Wiesel

When my life seems to be partly or wholly in ruins, I build on them. I may even use the ruins for the buildings. Second, I will never allow anyone to change my life or destroy what I have done with it,” he said. “Somehow what I must keep in mind is what I think of myself.

Brilliant! In a world that is filled with unprecedented self-indulgence, Viktor Frankl provides rich concepts and a moral framework that is a message of hope and spiritual guidance:

…man is not he who poses the question, What is the meaning of life? but he who is asked this question, for it is life itself that poses it to him.  And man has to answer to life by answering for life; he has to respond by being responsible; in other words, the response is necessarily a response-in-action. [Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning, Viktor Frankl, page 29.]

I’m always privileged to read another Frankl book rife with depth of wisdom and his experience in the death camps of World War II.  If we can’t answer our questions intellectually, we may as well do it existentially.