Wisdom

If it's mentors we're nominating, I think I'd be about the last picked. Not the last probably, because I certainly never want to hurt anyone. It's not as if I don't have anything to share. Mentors are supposed to be trusted counselors to the inexperienced, and for what it's worth I've been experienced. Oh wait, maybe that's a disqualification for being a mentor? Anyhow,the main reason I'd be so far down on the list is I lack a certain wisdom. Wisdom, it seems is not only knowing what is right and and true, but also being able to put an action to it. That's the part, the wisdom, I lack.

Among the blogs I read are several that pursue the subject of peak oil from one direction or another. Most observers concerned about the ramifications of being on the downside of Hubbert's peak also seem to be quite hep to the consequences of global climate change too. For my part I'm convinced of both, but sometimes reading what I do gives me a big headache, and other times heartache. What I really want to hear is that everything is going to be alright, but I think otherwise.

Dave Pollard has a post up What Happens Nest: A Timeline for Civilizational Collapse. Here's a snippet:

A number of readers have asked me for an "elevator speech" that describes how I think our civilization will collapse by the end of this century. Being more of a "picture" person I decided to try to answer that question graphically. The result is shown above.

Go there if you think you can stomach it. It's a compact post which lays out the predicament we find ourselves. My usual response to articles like Pollard's, although I substantially agree with them, is paralysis. What am I to do?

When I start writing blog posts, I have a general idea for the direction they'll take, but the post almost never seem to go that way, or at least travel a straight path in that direction. The inspiration for this post was the delight I felt reading an email from a young Ugandan lad with whom I'm supposed to be in a mentoring relationship. So far, mostly it seems we talk past each other. But in this email he told me not to forget to include a poem for him. I don't write poems, but I had been including poems written by real poets in previous emails. To get feedback that he thought this a tradition worth keeping up pleased me. I enjoy searching for poems online and selecting something I like and think he might too. In short I felt sense of gratitude for how, even though it's hard to point to any real practical gain in the relationship, his presence enriches my life.

I started out saying I'd be among the last chosen to be a mentor, but in reality I was invited to take part. I participate in a social network called Ned and I think that the page about the Butterfly Project can be read by anyone. The point is that it's not only the relationship with the student I'm paired with that's gratifying, but also the online relationship with other students and people interested in the project.

So, this post began with the idea of convincing others to consider mentoring a young person. And I certainly wanted to link to a very dynamic set of Web pages at Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Well, then my mind started to wander. Oh and the tendency for my mind to wander is yet another reason I'd rank myself low on the list of possible mentors. A certain degree of concentration is necessary and negative examples really are never as effective as positive ones. I hit upon the notion of experience in defining what a mentor is supposed to be. From there I went to Youtube and watched multiple renditions of Are You Experienced. In the background for trying to write a convincing post is this gnawing feeling of paralysis in the face of apocalyptic dread. The sense of purpose the young students in the project have is quite the antithesis of this feeling. They want advice about how to proceed with tangible projects, and the gratitude I feel for their optimism and determination makes me want to be sure the advice is good.

One thing even a little exposure to teens quickly assures is they can smell a phony in a heartbeat. That's why "Do as I say not as I do" never succeeds as a strategy. Of course there is something quite real about apprentice relationships. The Cynefin Framework is a simple model to describe situations. It's really quite simple, there are: simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic situations. Apprentice relationships are especially good for complicated situations where there are best practices to apply. Most trade involve very evolved sets of skills, the trades are complicated and it takes time and concentration to master them. I think when people think about mentoring relationships we most often think of the transmission of best practices. But so many of the pressing problems of today seem complex or even chaotic. While students might not really be thinking outright about complexity, really it's simpler when someone tells them what to do, in the face of complexity thinking for themselves is going to be more useful in the long run.

I neglect this blog. Part of it is that I can't imagine why anyone would read posts that start out going in one direction but end up meandering all over the place. The simple solution to that problem would be for me to stop doing that. Alas, I wish I would, but I'm not sure I can. It's also a relief not to imagine that I actually can convince anyone of anything, even if I seem to start from that premise. The blog started with the premise of convincing people to consider ways they could be of service to people in Africa, especially online. Over the years of this blog, I've certainly questioned the wisdom of this premise, but never questioned the value of the friendships I've made. I don't write much about my contacts in Uganda because often the conversations are private. It's one thing for me to tell about myself, but quite another to tell about someone else.

I think online collaboration is useful and rewarding. I also believe I've got to be more serious about making more in person collaborations. What my readers think, and hope to do, is for them to discover; although I have a keen interest in hearing about it. My sense about the complex and chaotic situations we all face today is there are no silver bullets, certainly not one big and simple fix. Doing everything we're suppose to is what got us in the fix we're in, so doing more of it even more earnestly isn't going to get us out of it. The best approaches, if they come along at all, won't come from the center.

Apart from the students in the Butterfly project my interlocutors in Uganda aren't so young, but they are younger than I am. Everything we've done together has been to try to create something good with all sorts of attendant concern that maybe it's not so good at all. There's little money, there's ordinary problems on the ground, sickness and health, progress and setback, and constant reminders of how vast the territory of my ignorance really is. I suspect my relationship with the Butterfly project will be more of the same.

I linked to the Tutor/Mentor site because there are so many really thoughtful articles there. Most people when they're thinking about collaborating will think closer to home than Africa. I know of no better site than the Tutor/Mentor Connection to find out more about collaborating with young people regardless of where you are. At the site are hundreds of pages which plainly explain many types of relationships. And you won't go far before discovering that the Tutor/Mentor Connection has a distinctively wise approach. It's much too simple, yet I'm tempted to say that the key ingredient is the importance of relationships. All relationships don't resolve into us and them, indeed the best relationships begin and end as we. Along the way there is good we can create with others, even if at the end there's no real escaping our predicament.

The photo is of a fungus growing under a butternut tree a few weeks ago. It looks like a brain don't you think?

Networks

In many ways my mother had pretty elegant tastes; that is, she liked things well-made and that announced their use and purpose forthrightly. But she was also fond of tacky little plaques with aphorisms on them. I suppose it was her way of suggesting that it would be unwise to toss out folk wisdom too quickly.

The other day I was reminded of something on a plaque that outlined "The Rules of the House:" If it cries; love it. I went to the spot where the plaque is supposed to be to check to see if there were other good rules on it. I was surprised to find the screw it once hung from, but no plaque. I fiddled with the screw a bit and realized it didn't have enough purchase to be stable and tightening it to make it so didn't allow enough of a head to hang a picture. A longer screw is in order. Apparently the darn plaque must have fallen down once too often and I'd stashed it away. And that must have been some time ago because I don't remember anything about it.

The trouble with the sort of folk sayings my mother hung about the house all through my growing up is they seem so obviously right, it hardly seems worth the trouble of reminding about them. Clearly, my taking down that plaque and not registering a blip on my memory shows how little I've paid attention.

I haven't written a blog post in over a month, I kept thinking to myself: I'll get a round to it. Oh yes, and as you can see from the picture, a part of my inheritance is a Round Tuit. A fine Round Tuit it is, no doubt purchased with care at one of America's finest souvenir shoppes.

Before Christmas last I joined Omidyar.net. Omidyar.net is a social networking site. What makes it unique among the many social network sites is its simple purpose to help people discover that every individual has the power to make a difference. There are so many remarkable people there, many whom I'd discovered elsewhere on the Web. Omidyar.net isn't the easiest network to be involved in; it's a "roll up your sleeves and get to work" sort of affair.

Among the many discussion threads at ONet are discussions about open space technology and social networks. The discussions are of a very high caliber; the sort of high level discussions that give even ordinarily chatty types like me pause before jumping right in. Daniel Bassill is one of the most erudite participants in these threads. I've had his blog Tutor/Mentor Connection on my Bloglines blogroll since well before joining the ONet community. Tutor/Mentor Connection is primarily concerned with matching young people in the Chicago area with adult tutors and mentors. Their approach to this and their use of the Web so impressed me I subscribed to the blog.

Recently at ONet Daniel Bassill contacted me about a blog exchange Tutor/Mentor connection is hosting in May and June. I was flattered to be contacted, but that also set off a minor crisis of confidence about this blog. I've never figured out what purpose this blog serves, except perhaps as an outlet for my babbling-on, and thus sparing some unsuspecting victim their ear and patience with me.

But truth be told, I've harbored ambitions for the blog. I've wanted more Americans in general, and more people around Pittsburgh specifically, to consider what they can do in service to people in Africa.

My sense is that people struggle everyday to provide the requisites of our survival. As hard as it seems for all of us, those of us living in the USA and other rich areas of the world have enormous advantages. One of the consequences of this state of affairs is a complacency about the enormous challenges people face. We lull ourselves into thinking that the problems aren't ours. But all people are part of the human family, whose lines, we now know, thanks to advances in science, are much closer than we ever imagined before.

My complacency astounds me. For example, yesterday I read: "World Food Programme Forced to Cut Food Rations to Northern Uganda by Half" (also here). This is quite significant news, at least one would think so for someone like me who claims an interest in Uganda. But I didn't save the links to that story in my running notes or to del.icio.us and I couldn't remember off hand where I'd read about it. Did I ignore the news simply thinking there's nothing I can do about it? I'm not sure really, but I am sure that I will hear news of the consequences of it through Pittsburgh's Africa Project.

Like everyone, I'm part of many implicit and explicit networks, although I hardly feel very connected, like the connected-to-many people that kept the number of hands a letter addressed to a person in Stanley Milgram's Small World experiments to about six degrees of separation. Try your own letter chain here. The point is that the suffering from hunger in Northern Uganda is something, even as unconnected as I am, I will hear about in personal terms.

Daniel Bassill does great work and has thought and experimented with social networking for many years. With all that accumulated knowledge, the idea for the blog exchange is deceptively simple: The idea is for people to tell their stories and to share ideas about how we can build better connections. We need to build better connections, our lives and the lives of many depend upon it.

What stories do you have? Will you get around to sharing them? I'm hoping you will.