Tag: creativity

Rise up a genuine leader

Rise up a genuine leader
Who is driven by moral character and integrity
Who commits to truth and responsibility
Who models personal discipline and accountability
Who earns respect by giving it
Who is humble in self-imperfections and gracious in others’
Who nurtures trust and collaboration

Rise up a genuine leader
Who is we-oriented, not me-oriented
Who articulates vision with clarity and infuses pride in purpose
Who disables barriers to people development
Who confronts social ills with positive solutions
Who seeks understanding and resolutions in contentions
Who fosters creativity and inspires hope

Rise up a genuine leader
Who can undo chaos and create order
Who is composed instead of clamorous
Who promotes diversity of viewpoints in unity of purpose
Who invests in people and worthy dreams
Who is transparent, trustworthy, and teachable
Who upholds faith in a better future and spurs actions toward it

Rise up a genuine leader
Who values people and ideas over profit
Who knows virtue sustains character, but its absence destroys it
Who is considerate instead of caustic
Who brings competence with candor
Who discerns realities with compassion and directs resolutions with care
Who influences people to mutually elevate lives, institutions, and ideals.

Rise up a genuine leader
Who is attentive to needs of the people and builds their spirit
Who overcomes personal ego, arrogance, and unethical behavior
Who rejects conflict mongering
Who is consistent and persistent in value-added contributions
Who equips and empowers other leaders
Who builds an enduring legacy of transformational results

The gift of neurodivergent thinking

different perspectives bring unique solutions

This complex image was generated by a young man with autism spectrum disorder. He used a computer program he wrote that solved for the roots of millions of polynomial equations, plotted them on a complex plane, then stacked and colorized them by density on a logarithmic scale. Is that something you can do?

Not many of us, anyway. People who are neurodivergent think differently than we neurotypicals. As a result, they benefit from such unique perspectives that they can often come up with new and creative ways to solve problems. What appears to be a weakness in the way they learn—especially during school age, where teaching methods, textbooks, and testing systems simply do not meet their needs—is actually a unique strength, given the time and freedom to develop.

The creator of this image, and of many others of widely varied design, is our son, who had an awful time in school, but who is now a Research Engineer. Learn more about his story in the book he co-wrote, found at tinyurl.com/4c6bxw4s. To see more of his copyrighted “polyplot” designs, see tinyurl.com/plyplt.

A Man of Many Faces

Looking just as I remember

Recently rediscovered in my cache of things inherited from my maternal grandparents is this simple series of paper-covered wood blocks. Depicting the forehead, eyes and ears, nose and mouth, and neck and upper chest, this vintage toy’s four interchangeable blocks can be arranged into dozens of kooky faces for pure entertainment and inspirational imagination.

It was a toy Grandma kept at her house for when my brother and I visited. She kept it in a small pasteboard box that originally contained an Airguide DIXON desk thermometer-hygrometer, which was undoubtedly my Pappy’s, and which is also undoubtedly lost to time.

But time was the very gift this vintage toy afforded: in my childhood, an escape to creative imagination and fine motor development in our chubby little fingers; and to my grandma, a respite to catch her breath from our incessant activity. And today, a snatch of time travel: back to the simple, carefree days at Grandma’s house.

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