Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Buddha: Today he'd be working in PR

Buddhism and public relations do the same thing: Frame.  So, it's obvious that if the Buddha were setting out on his journey today he would likely make a stop in PR.

The fundamental of Buddhism is that we change our world by changing our thoughts.  We can position our Dickensian childhood as the reason for our life of misery. Or we can reframe that meme to those wounds were the platform on which our success has been built.  Yes, we treat them as a special gift.  Remember those college classmates who seemed to step off the set of "Father Knows Best?"  Most of them vanished into mediocrity.

The business of PR is to reframe X into a meaningful Y.  Master of PR Hillary Clinton reframed her spouse's betrayal as a rare opening for her to reach people through her pain.  Look where she is now. Ann Romney accomplished something similar when attacked for having been a stay at home mother. 

Some smart pro on the macro level in this field of PR - maybe a Jack O'Dwyer - should knock out an e-book "The Zen of Public Relations."  It can describe the mastery of reframing as a sacred ritual.

 

Chuck Colson, 80, Dead: Taught us the art of the comeback, with a side of courage

It's not for us fellow myopic human beings to judge if Chuck Colson's conversion to evangelical christianity was sincere.  Rather the pragmatic among us analyse this strategy for his dramatic comeback from being a Watergate jailbird to a leader of spiritual values.  He is now dead at the ripe old age of 80, reports POLITICO.  Defeated man tend to die much earlier, including by taking their own lives.

In this era when more and more of us are knocked out of our professional comfort zone, the Colson story has much to teach.  Stripped of his former professional identity, in prison he found an entirely new one.  He made it work.

As I struggle with career upheaval in my own way in the 21st century (Download Geezerguts) I have been inspired by Colson.  In fact, he had replaced comeback Dominick Dunne as a role model for me.  Some of us recall that Dunne was arrested for drugs in an airport while members of his family watched.  He sold his dog to get money for the substances he needed.  Then there he is penning articles on the melodrama of law for VANITY FAIR.

Colson's journey became so riveting when I realized that, after prison, he went out there and stood toe-to-toe with the world.  Watergate, unlike Dunne's fall, was no private matter.  Actually it was a symbol of how power can overtake every decent human impluse in our wiring.   Colson turned out to be a man of courage.  

Easter: Prevent holiday depressive syndrome by becoming a Buddhist

In terms of emotional pull, Easter is a relatively lightweight holiday.   In the Roman Catholic Church, it's the most important one because Christ's rising from the dead proved out his divinity.

However, for those who tend to the depressive side of mood disorders, a holiday is a holiday, that is a potential problem.  There were Easters which put me in bed for most of the day.  Again, society demands upbeat spirits.  Again, I had not been up to it.

Then about 12 years ago I discovered the Eastern philosophy of Buddhism.   One of its key tenets is that we are what we think.  Gradually I retrofitted my thinking and much of the depression lifted.  What I also recognized was that if I fully embraced Buddhism then I was no longer tethered to those special days associated with Christianity.  Indeed, I could simply ignore Christmas and Easter. 

And that's what I have been doing.  Last Christmas, thanks to a global economy, I put in about eight hours work.  This Easter weekend, since it's so long, I will be putting in lots more than eight hours.  I let people who would, it seems, enjoy tormenting me about the expectations the holiday imposes on Christians know from the get-go that I am not Christian.  They don't return with schemes for further emotional mischief.

Brand Roman Catholic: Most serious threat yet

Roman Catholicism has been one of the most enduring global brands.  It survived everything from the reforms of Martin Luther to the imprisonment of its priests convicted of sexually abusing children.  But it might not hold up in the newest threat.  Now it's the brass - monsignors, bishops, and cardinals - who might be going to prison.

In a closely watched case in the archdiocese of Philadelphia, Monsignor William Lynn is on trial for two counts of endangering the welfare of children.  For 12 years it was his job to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.  If convicted, he faces the maximum of 12 years in prison.  Jury selection is now going on. 

CNN's Sarah Hoye quotes CNN legal expert Paul Callan who observes, "For the first time, the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is possibly being implicated in this child abuse scandal in a very, very definitive way."  U.S. prosecutors will be helped in building their cases by the Vatican's contention, when faced with its own U.S.-based leagal action, that the church was highly decentralized.  Decision-making takes place on the parish level.  Therefore, it was off the hook for what occurred, including alleged cover-ups, regarding possible abuse of children. 

A nation of trials taking place with high ranking church officials as defendants is one in which Roman Catholicism doesn't have a chance.  Its credo of forgiveness is too much to ask.

Brand Roman Catholic: Can emotional intelligence save the equity

The sweet spot in human affairs has always been emotional intelligence.  Dan Goleman documented that in the 1990s and David Brooks has brought that up to date with his "The Social Animal."

What has stood out for years is, of course, Timothy Dolan's high emotional intelligence.  He has been a leader in the Catholic Church in New York. Coverage from the media, as we are seeing during his elevation to Cardinal, highlights his sunny, even jolly personality.  No Irish Machine Boss in 1940s Hudson County, New Jersey could be more charming and accessible.

Now Dolan, as a cardinal of the Roman Catholic, might be able to save that global brand which has endured much longer than other brands. This is one to watch.  Within the realm of possibility is that he could become the first American pope.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure v Planned Parenthood: Abortion high profile isssue

We women, at the least the liberal ones, who had come of age when "Roe v Wade" became the law of the land assumed it was a done deal.  Of course, we were low profile about our own choices but we believed this women's choice was a settled issue and we could go on to other matters such as better jobs.

Boy, were we naive.  The abortion issue went high profile today, and in an ugly way.  The influential charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure withdrew itself from its partnership with Planned Parenthood, reports AP.  With that went its financial support.  Last year that totaled $680,000.

Komen contends its decision was due to the fact that Planned Parenthood is being investigated by Congress.  Planned Parenthood, in turn, claims the organization caved to anti-abortion power groups.

What this means is, in addition to women being denied care because of lack of funds, that abortion will be on the radar screen in the presidential campaign.  This could get very ugly.  The president, as a candidate, has to get smart how to play this one.

Christmas: Not an ordinary work day but still a work day

Not only did I work about seven hours today, Christmas.  The clients I did the assignments for were also working.  They promptly responded to the documents I transmitted to them for review.  I did the course corrections.  One even sent the compensation via Paypal to me today.  Yeah, I also got paid on Christmas.  In addition, I submitted a post to Motley Fool, where I am a freelance blogger.  I wouldn't be surprised if it's reviewed and approved this very day or early tomorrow morning, which is also supposed to be a holiday of sorts.

No, Christmas isn't an ordinary work day but, obviously, in a global economy operating on digital time, it remains a day of work.  For a while now, the "sacred" part of Christmas has been absent.  Actually, no traditional institution comes to mind, which was once treated as "sacred," remains that.  The late Christopher Hitchens helped in that area.  After his hatchet job on Mother Teresa most of us felt foolish being too earnest about anyone or anything.

What would Hitch be doing this Christmas if he were still alive?  My hunch is that he would have been writing, at least a good part of the day.  Then he would have taken time out for a wonderful meal with his family and friends and special wine.

Ghostbusters: Hiring them now mainstream

Those nuisance spirits which won't move into the light seem to be growing in number.  Or, at least it seems so if we want to hire a "ghostbuster," one of those experts who have the experience and now-high tech equipment to identify where the spirits are hanging out in our homes and getting them to leave.  A sign of the time, Pat Jordan of THE NEW YORK TIMES has a major article on a ghostbusting team in the southern United States.

To de-haunt a Victorian house I had bought in Fairfield County, Connecticut, I had to import a ghostbuster from Ocean County, New Jersey. That was before I bumped into local Jon Nowinski, who heads up the Smoking Gun Research Association [SGRA], Orange, Connecticut.  Nowinski works both solo and puts together teams for large ghostbusting projects.

For my ghostbusting assignment, it took this woman, who also freelances as a witch, 36 days to catch up with her other spirit projects.  Only then could she travel north, all expenses paid by the client - me. 

It turned out there were two female teenagers who had likely been murdered who had taken refuge under the stairs.  They had entered when I had purchased some 1950s magazines at a flea market. Guess the girls were readers.

The ghostbuster didn't give a warranty that they would stay out of the house.  However, they didn't return, at least when I was living there.  No, I didn't inform prospective buyers of their earlier presence. 

At coffee talks and other special events at SGRA, Nowinski and guest speakers showcase both the old and new kinds of devices used to track spirits and get them to hit the road.  They're busy professionals.

God: Looking in all the wrong places

In THE NEW YORK TIMES, Eric Weiner is right: during the holiday season, the subject of "God" comes up.  Since I am among the 12% Weiner mentions who has no religious affiliation [I flirted with the Quakers last Sunday but there was no match], friends invite me to join them at their house of worship.

What surprises me, in this nation with so many former Roman Catholics, is that the 12% isn't higher.  I attended Saint Boniface and Sacred Heart grade schools in Jersey City, New Jersey and Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  During my second year of graduate school at the University of Michigan I was riding a train to Virgina to visit former Seton Hill classmate Sally Spahn Mennen and, the reverse of Saint Paul, I was struck out of religion.  I was 24 years old.  I figured that was much too long to be affiliated with a religion I had not questioned.  A year later I had a breakdown.  There's no way of determining if there was a correlation between being thrown off my horse and not being able to function but I was spooked.  I have stayed spooked.

It's interesting to note that Chief God Critic Christopher Hitchens is dying.  Yet, he hasn't been signing on any dotted line to become affiliated with any religious organization.

Seances, Naughty Spirits & Cons: Fundamentals of public speaking which resonates

Why do some public speakers transport us to another dimension and others cause us to fiddle with our smartphones?

The answer, I am convinced, is 2-fold.  One is the subject matter. 

Last Wednesday, at the Smoking Gun Research Association [SGRA], Orange, Connecticut, Mary Ann Vlahac, certainly had that. Her topic was Victorian spirituality, with the primary focus on seances, naughty spirits which wouldn't pass into the light, and con artists like the Fox Sisters who duped the grieving into paying to chat with their deceased love ones. 

The second requirement is having one and only one mission: to give the members of the audience something they didn't have before.  For us who attended and hung around at SGRA hours after it should have been closed for the night, what we received was unique insight into how Victorians experienced their world.  Vlahac pulled out all stops to re-create the cognitive and emotional texture of those times.

To do that, the speaker has to be totally selfless, that is, not tethered to the usual self-consciousness which ruins most public speaking.  There was no Vlahac, only a conduit between the past and the struggle for those in the present to understand another time.