The beginning of the rest of my life

A diary is a very useful way to remember the details of a period in one's life. That's what I intend to do here. My work life, to date, has been about supporting the use of information to entertain, educate and enlighten.....mostly as a magazine and web publishing executive. Then the election of 2000 happened and it underscored for me just how much "information" was being exploited to sway public opinion. And in my opinion, not for the good.

The last 2 years have been about my discovery and transition to use information to promote an understanding about the choices we make and how they affect our world. Much of the progress made in the last few decades to create an educated populace with a bigger world view and understanding seemed to be in regression. Sadly, I've observed that our tolerance for diversity of opinion and people who are "not like us" seems to have been buried along with the bodies in the world trade center. It clearly isn't the world that I'd hope it would be when I graduated from an Alabama high school in 1976.

I've always appreciated the importance of your actions and consequences. I have been taught to believe that it's not about what happens to you, it's about what you cause to happen. With that philosophy emblazoned on my tee shirt, I decided to look around at the world that I wanted to live in and ponder what it was that my generation would leave for the next one. My decision: to make the next period of my life be about creating a better place to live and work.

You begin to ask yourself a few questions as you take this positioning for your new life adventure.

1- What is work about in the 21st century? How does innovation happen and what are the opportunities for people like me?

2- How can my work be an example to others? How can I inspire great work around me and realize economic fulfillment?

3- What's it like to live in this world that we've created? Is it a healthy place?

4- How can you maintain a connection to others in a world that is moving at the "speed of information" and is truly global?

4- How will my work and life affect others.... good and bad?

My answers took several years to emerge. My clarity of thought is still emerging. But I've got some very clear objectives that I seek to accomplish. In my next entry, you will read about how I came to decide on a green renovation project as my entry into a new life adventure.