The cellular phones we carry in our pockets are actually tracking devices which not only tell our location at all times , but provide information about our current behavior as well as predict our future whereabouts. The authors in an article in NYT writes about the harm of these devices;

“What’s the harm? The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, ruling about the use of tracking devices by the police, noted that GPS data can reveal whether a person “is a weekly church goer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups — and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts.” Even the most gregarious of sharers might not reveal all that on Facebook.”

To read the complete article click on the link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/thats-not-my-phone-its-my-tracker.html

Fayyaz

In today’s competitive environment, every body is trying to excel the next person and does not have the time to take a pause, reflect or enjoy the little things in life. We all want our children to be super achievers and exceptional. If every body is super achiever and exceptional, then what is its value ?

The author. Alina Tugend, writes in her article in NYT:

I wonder if there is any room for the ordinary any more, for the child or teenager — or adult — who enjoys a pickup basketball game but is far from Olympic material, who will be a good citizen but won’t set the world on fire.

“In this world, an ordinary life has become synonymous with a meaningless life.”

We hold so dearly onto the idea that we should all aspire to being remarkable that when David McCullough Jr., an English teacher,told graduating seniors at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts recently, “You are not special. You are not exceptional,” the speech went viral.

“In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another — which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality — we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement,” he told the students and parents. “We have come to see them as the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.”

She writes further;

‘And that’s a problem. Because “extraordinary is often what the general public views as success,” said Jeff Snipes, co-founder of PDI Ninth House, a corporate leadership consulting firm. “You make a lot of money or have athletic success. That’s a very, very narrow definition. What about being compassionate or living a life of integrity?”

As Ms. Kenison said, one of the most important conversations we can have with our children is what we mean by success.

“Ordinary has a bad rap, and so does settling — there is the idea is that we should always want more,” she said. “But there’s a beauty in cultivating an appreciation for what we already have.”

“I know I began writing in an attempt to heal the disconnect between what I observed around me — the pressure to excel, to be special, to succeed — and what I felt were the real values I wanted to pass on to my children: kindness, service, compassion, gratitude for life as it is,” she said.

To read the complete Article please click on the link below; There is also a video of about 7 minutes by Miss Kenison and is worth listening. Separate link for video is below;

Article link;

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/your-money/redefining-success-and-celebrating-the-unremarkable.html?emc=eta1

Video link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olSyCLJU3O0

In New York Magazine, Michael Wolff describes, in an open and frank manner, the painful ordeal his family is going through in taking care of their elderly mother who is bed ridden and has Dementia. Many baby boomers are headed towards sunset, and this article is worth reading to prepare for that journey and  ease the burden on children of making painful decisions by preparing a Living Will and Health Care Proxy.

He writes:

“The traditional exits, of a sudden heart attack, of dying in one’s sleep, of unreasonably dropping dead in the street, of even a terminal illness, are now exotic ways of going. The longer you live the longer it will take to die. The better you have lived the worse you may die. The healthier you are—through careful diet, diligent exercise, and attentive medical scrutiny—the harder it is to die. Part of the advance in life expectancy is that we have technologically inhibited the ultimate event. We have fought natural causes to almost a draw. If you eliminate smokers, drinkers, other substance abusers, the obese, and the fatally ill, you are left with a rapidly growing demographic segment peculiarly resistant to death’s appointment—though far, far, far from healthy.”

To read the full Article, please click on the link below!

http://nymag.com/news/features/parent-health-care-2012-5/

Fayyaz