Labor is the Most Glorious

This morning's Chinesepod lesson finds Jenny and John explaining a song in honor of May Day (May 1st, International Labor Day). The version of the song I hear is sung by a youth chorus, apparently suggesting to young people not to make like the "butterflies that play all day" but instead like the "magpies that make new homes" and the "bees that collect honey." In other words, "love to work and love to study."

Jenny, the podcast's local Chinese teacher, explains how this song was very popular in here kindergarten and primary school days. When pressed by John to ask how she feels about the song, she dodges and repeats that it's about trying to get students to love work and not play too much--without much effect. While all Chinese in her parents' generation would have known the song, Jenny remarks, its popularity and influence today is less strong.

Meditation

It's amazing how hard it is to think about nothing. A friend here told me about a month-long retreat he took in Burma where no one spoke for 30 days. He spent much of the day pacing around a monastery compound and just meditating, "trying to turn off the noise," surprised by how difficult a task that was even after several hours a day for 4 weeks or more.

It doesn't look like the amount of noise we'd all like to escape from sometimes is heading into decline any time soon. In fact, it seems like it's only beginning to ramp up. From mobile computers to connectivity between software connecting people with others all the time, there's always a gadget or interaction that you could or should be attending to.

My experiment is trying to take 10 minutes a day to slow down and figure out if there's any positive effects. I think Day 1 was a success as I didn't fall back asleep while trying to be quiet, breathe deeply and relax. To be continued...

Giving

One of the biggest takeaways from the Doris Kearns Goodwin bio of Lincoln was the propensity Lincoln had for utilizing kindness to fit into his unique leader's toolkit. He could at times be the most meek guy in the room, but his assertiveness when it was time to make a difficult decision, and the resolve he showed in sticking to his guns, won him the respect of his colleagues. Most importantly, his deep capacity for sympathy and objectivity allowed his decisions to be made with uncommon factors in mind, frequently allowing favors to others and building up a powerful reserve of social capital that propelled him to the presidency later in life.

I recently discovered the tabloid business news site Business Insider, which had a glowing review of Wharton professor Adam Grant's recent book Give & Take. Grant, the youngest ever tenured professor at one of the world's greatest b-schools, blends sociology and psychology in documenting how "givers"--selfless professionals who do favors for others while asking for nothing in return--are routinely the ones that get the most financial and other gains out of other professional and personal relationships. Essentially, he is mapping out how true Kanye was in saying "don't mistake kindness for weakness." (Was that Kanye West? Anyways...)

Today I went to mass in China for the first time in years. The ceremony at Beijing's oldest cathedral, founded by a Jesuit consultant to Chinese emperors, eunuchs, and officials named Matteo Ricci in the 17th century, was presided over by a priest who chose the topic of "love advertisement" as the theme for his homily. The idea basically was: love, displayed in more complicated ways but more often in simple kindnesses, is infectious. It draws people to itself and, meaningfully for a Christian congregation, it possesses a tremendous converting power that belies its meek appearance.

I took issue with the evangelical nature of the direction the homily went, but was fascinated by the crux of ideas connecting with both Goodwin's and Grant's discussions of kindness and leadership. Something seems to be in the water (or at least my water) pushing at this idea of the powerful kindness.