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On “YXE Underground”: Meet a Supporter of our City’s Minorities–Haven Seto

 

Those of us who love to learn  about “off-the-beaten-track” ideas and people tend to love podcasts. And among local podcasts, I particularly enjoy “YXE Underground,” from communications specialist (and former CBC journalist), Eric Anderson.

YXE Underground shares the stories of “people who are flying under the radar but still making a difference in Saskatoon.”

As a teacher of English as a Second Language, I often teach and tutor newcomers (new and economic immigrants) who are striving to  integrate into our community.  So I was especially delighted to hear Eric’s episode on  Haven Seto–a first generation Canadian who directs the employment programs at Saskatchewan Intercultural Association (SIA).  In that work, Haven helps new immigrants and Indigenous people find “meaningful employment” in the city. He has been a “servant leader” among us, since 1964.

He also mentors young athletes through the Chinese Martial Arts Academy, creating community leaders for tomorrow.

But until Eric’s podcast, I had not met Haven. Have you? Take a listen!

Home

 

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Overwhelmed by Spring Cleaning? What to do, in this month’s issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter”

April 2023 Vol 5 Issue 4

Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):
Specializing in Entrepreneurial and Linguistic Communication
Let me teach you to tell your story!

Welcome Mid-April, 2023!

After what felt like an interminable winter, we felt on April 8th an ushering in of more seasonable temperatures and sunshine. Nights of minus 20 degrees (Celsius) have finally yielded to minus single- or even plus-digit temperatures. And Saskatchewanians have breathed a collective sigh of relief (and we hope that this week will bring rain, not snow)!

Although it is brief or even non-existent some years (when winter morphs into summer), spring offers small miracles–the return of birdsong, a rapid melt of residual snow, the thawing of the ground for those who farm or garden, and the budding of trees and bushes . . . . Special thanks to those dedicated neighbours who have cleared storm drains this year, so that enormous puddles don’t impede walking, cycling and driving. (Beware those sinkholes!)

And speaking of spring, in “Article One” this month, I’ll discuss the common issue that many Saskatchewanians face this time of year–of “overwhelm” with “spring cleaning”–the need to declutter our living and work spaces.

And in “Storytellers’ Corner” this month, I feature some truly “wretched writing” from expert editors, Ross and Kathryn Petras. Some of it will make you laugh!

And even if spring is a fleeting (barely existent) season in Saskatchewan, may it be a time, good reader, to renew your health by being outdoors, to achieve the culmination of professional accomplishments, and to relax, as summer approaches, with family and friends–all blessings that still grace our lives, even in these late pandemic days.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Shih
Principal
Storytelling Communications
www.elizabethshih.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:

ARTICLE ONE: Overwhelmed by spring cleaning? What to do in this month’s issue
STORYTELLERS’ CORNER:
Purple prose to make you laugh from Wretched Writing by Ross and Kathryn Petras
SHOP NEWS
ABOUT US
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Article One:  Overwhelmed by Spring Cleaning? What to do, in this month’s issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter”

Entrepreneurs might wonder about the relevance of an article on “spring cleaning” to their lives. But recent articles have abounded on how to improve our workspaces (for work-from-home or hybrid offices) and how to shed the severity of last winter by purging and decluttering!

Spring cleaning, when it involves decluttering, can be essential to this newsletter’s theme of “entrepreneurial wellness.” Whether you dig-in up to your elbows with seasonal cleaning tasks (such as cleaning windows, rugs and boot racks), or whether you delegate such work to others, every entrepreneur needs to know how to pitch and purge. So if your home office (or your entire home) lack order and calm, read on!

In an online article last week, CBC journalist Jenifer Norwell addressed why so many of us find “spring cleaning” a grinding chore. Given that economic challenges in these late pandemic and war-torn years have exacerbated both
rental and buyer housing markets, many people—and entrepreneurs, especially—find we must downsize to live and work in smaller spaces.

Consider the “tiny homes” movement and how living as a minimalist has become desirable for a growing number of people, worldwide.

Either purging and pitching excess belongings in your living or work space, or doing a simple seasonal cleaning, many, many people find “spring cleaning” to be overwhelming. But the work won’t “go away” if we avoid it.

In the CBC article, one interviewee commented: “I am finding things I didn’t even realize I had!” Things you’ve lived without for a year, or maybe even a decade (or more), can and should go “out the door.” You don’t really need that old toaster oven or those back issues from eight+ years ago,
of “Time Magazine” or the Times Literary Supplement.

Canadians across all disciplines have reported that reducing unneeded belongings is the best way to make clearer and better-organized spaces that help us both to be productive (at work) and to relax (in leisure time).

When maintaining a space “takes longer and longer to do, that’s a good sign that it’s time to reevaluate,” says Canadian space organizer, Celeste Imus.
The global tidying-up phenomen Marie Kondo has won followers around the world with her approach to decluttering, in which she shows us how to “pare down [our] possessions,” and only keep what “sparks joy.”

Kondo frames the cleaning/decluttering process as positive, not agonizing, and her approach has benefited those who love minimalism. Some have even become professional organizers—making careers out of training and working with Kondo’s methods.

Economist and writer Tim Harford told Norwell that such reorganizing of your space can work well in a kitchen or bedroom, but not in “dynamic situations”–such as workplaces where there is a constant (high) intake of email, digital or hard copy paperwork, or books. Harford says: “When there’s this constant flow of stuff in and out of a working space, Kondo’s method of asking, ‘Do I
really need this? Does it spark joy?’ does not apply.”

So what can we do to make “decluttering” more manageable? Organizer Celeste Imus provides six tips to succeed in the process:
(1) “Start small”: Begin with a small area, like a closet or dresser drawer, instead of feeling overwhelmed by an entire house, apartment or room. Work by one item at a time, so you don’t over-pitch, she says.

(2) “Take breaks”: Don’t work to declutter, purge and pitch for more than two hours at a time, because after that, our brains stop engaging and we can feel “frantic,” pitching out things we should keep, like passports and birth certificates.

(3) “Declutter with a buddy”: Working with someone you trust will make the process more enjoyable and give you a chance to share stories about your things, after which it becomes easier to get rid of some of them.

(4) “Choose comfort”: Bringing items up to table height and working in a well-lit room at a comfortable temperature can reduce the feeling that decluttering is drudgery. Be aware that decluttering is hard on the body, as well as the mind.

(5) “Customize your process”: Know that some organizational approaches might work well for some homes but not always for yours.

(6) “Cut yourself some slack”: Allow yourself to keep some things because they could be useful later, or just because they have sentimental value. Imus says: “Sometimes it just makes you feel comfortable to have the things you love around you.”

And yet, organizers also warn, that what may start as clutter can become for some a hoarding disorder. Jenifer Norwell asks: “ When is clutter just clutter and when is it a hoarding disorder at work?” Psychiatrists say that extremely severe cases of clutter are associated with clinical “hoarding
disorder,” a medical condition that requires ongoing treatment. Hoarding is a form of obsessive/compulsive disorder, in which an individual finds they cannot discard old possessions, even those that have no value.

Purging your home of excess stuff needn’t mean discarding its stories, altogether. Do consider keeping a few items or pieces that have particularly sentimental value.Consider what life would be like without the public who share stories on “The Antiques Roadshow” on both sides of the Atlantic!

In the end, “for some people. . . if they can clear their abode a little bit, it helps to clear their minds,” says B.C.-based counsellor, Murray Anderson. He concludes: “It’s a matter of having sense and order and being able to make space for other things in your lives.”

And now it’s your turn: do you feel overwhelmed by the disorder of your living and/or working space? Do the above tips help to reduce the overwhelm?
Please write in: I’d be delighted to hear from you!
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STORYTELLER’s CORNER . . . .

STORYTELLERS’ CORNER: Words, stories, riddles and jokes on Writing and Editing . . .

This month: “Wretched writing”: Ross and Kathryn Petras on ” ‘crimes against the English language’ “

In a 2012 volume aptly called, Wretched Writing: A Compendium of Crimes against the English Language, sibling editors, Ross and Kathryn Peters, define bad writing as “a felonious assault on the English language.”

 

 

They continue: “It is the lowest of the low. It plumbs the depths of literature and spelunks in the caves of nonfiction. In other words, it stinks. . . . [It] comes in numerous and quite varied forms and modes . . . . exhibiting a blatant ignorance of the constraints of grammar and . . . exuberantly and
brazenly excessive prose. . . . [It] can be marked by overusage of literary tropes or underusage of good taste.”

Such writing, they add, is regrettably “timeless,” implicating writers of the past, present and future. Here are some fun(ny) examples to tickle your funny bone this month. If you’ve ever regretted writing poorly, consider that it couldn’t be worse than the following examples:

(1) A blatant case of “purple prose” (i.e. overwritten, under- or un-edited, self-indulgent and excessive writing) comes From Samuel Alexander White’s book, Called Northwest (1943). Every noun in his writing has one or more adjectives, exhausting our imagination:  “Her slim arms, agile as darting javelins, alternately waved and reined, fluttering the open collared, gray, pearl-buttoned waist that she wore with her chamois-colored riding costume and striking tan boots and copper-hued chaps encasing her mobile thighs with whipping jacket
tails.”

(2) Some writers write anatomical impossibilities in descriptive prose:
(a) “She stood at the foot of the stairs, narrowing her eyes and breathing through her hips” (from a short story in The Saturday Evening Post, no date given).

b)“People who leaned over backwards, McCullough thought grimly, frequently fell flat on their face . . .” (James White, All Judgment Fled, 1948).

(3) Some governments and corporations write bureaucratese that says “absolutely nothing about something”: “No unmet needs exist and . . . current unmet needs that are being met will continue to be met” (Transportation Commission on Unmet Transit Needs, Mariposa County,
California).

(4) Faulty translations abound, to the detriment of the English language:
(a) “Here you shall be well fed up and agreeably drunk. In the close village you can buy jolly memorials for when you pass away” (In a brochure for an Italian hotel in the Dolomites area).
And (b) “You are properly exhausted after journey or business work. Worthily divert yourself from boredom and create new sense of perception that makes you completely relaxed and happy, please call on LONGMAN HOTEL where our multifunctional recreations will surely feast your tastes. YOU ARE ADDED WITH FUN. Welcome to Piano lounge, where you could enjoy abundant beverages besides cocktails in an elegant atmosphere while being introxicated With pianists famourse musics from home and aboard. YOU ARE AN EXTRAORDINARY VOCALIST AT KAROKE” (In a brochure from
the Longman Hotel, Shanghai, China).

Do you have a story, riddle or joke on any aspect of writing or communications? Please share it with me; I’d be delighted to use it in an upcoming issue.
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SHOP NEWS:

Thank you to the administrative and operating staff at The Franklin Retirement Residence (Revera), for working hard to support seniors of all ages and abilities, in their later years. The quality of life, including diet, transportation, social activities, openness to home-care support and
other programming are excellent, and have created a positive home for a senior in my family.

 

 

Special thanks to Vinod (Executive Director), Steve, Mason, Charmaine, Dea, Danae, Sharla, Amrit, Bonnie and others whose names I may temporarily have forgotten (with apologies).

Currently, when our senior health care system is woefully neglected and neglectful, assisted living facilities like The Franklin are providing options even for advanced elderly with disabilities in our communities, for which I am deeply grateful.

To tour the various sizes of suites and discuss many options for residents, please contact Daniel Knudsen, at Daniel.Knudsen@reveraliving.com or call (306) 241-1092.

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And even more overdue thanks goes to the mature care professionals of “Home Instead, Inc.” in Saskatoon, including Starr, Amanda, Lavern, Lil, and administrators Rita, Helen and Marina.

Enabling the elderly to “age in place” in homes that are familiar to them is a tremendous service to our community. Thank you to you all.

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Another essential supporter has been my faith group’s parish nurse, the amazing Laura Van Loon. Although mandated to work only a handful of hours each week, Laura deftly arranges everything from infant baptisms (at one end of life) to bedside vigils for those in palliative care (at the other).
She continues to be my guiding light as I shepherd an elderly relative through the complex and very broken bureaucracy of our senior “care” system.

Thank you, Laura!

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Special thanks to Lisa Focardi, organizer of Saskatoon Open Door Society’s conversation circles for newcomers, for welcoming me back as a circle leader, on a schedule that will accommodate my commitments. Helping newcomers with language training brings me (and so many ESL teachers)
much joy.

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Entrepreneur of the month: Meet Silvana Cracogna, ESL teacher and administrator, Global Infobrokers! This month’s entrepreneur is my fellow ESL teacher, Silvana Cracogna, coordinator and facilitator of language programs at Global Infobrokers (home of the Praxis group of schools).

Silvana has been the primary assistant of Praxis -Global CEO Monica Kreuger for over 10 years, but prior to that taught ESL to various students, including children in a Korean elementary school.

Born in Argentina, Silvana moved to Saskatoon with her parents when she was eight years old.  She earned a BA in Spanish at the University of Saskatchewan and an MA (focused on Latin American literature), at the University of Ottawa.

While at university, Silvana was a teaching assistant, taught ESL to a Pfizer employee from Colombia, and to two RCMP employees. She was later certified in a 150 hour TESOL/TEFL course through Global Leadership College,
while she was also working for Praxis.

While Silvana prefers teaching adults, she has also worked with teenagers and children, including some with varying abilities.

Silvana looks forward to taking new ESL students, although she currently works full-time for the Praxis School of Entrepreneurship. She comments on why she loves teaching ESL: “I love languages and helping people acquire the
ability to work within a new language. . . “There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing the lights go on, as students navigate the world with new-found skills.”

Thank you Silvana for your commitment to the ESL industry. And I hope we can collaborate in the field soon!
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Four years after undertaking nine months of programming through startSMART at the Praxis School of Entrepreneurship (PSE), I continue to find fruitful relationships with talented individuals, including Silvana Cracogna and Deanna Litz.

All of this is only possible due to the vision of Global Infobrokers’ CEO, Monica Kreuger; VP Global Infobrokers Inc., Brent Kreuger; and Praxis program administrator and Principal, EDM Business Services, Elaine Mantyka.

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ABOUT US:
Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country.

Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications.” I now help newcomers to Canada land better jobs by improving their English skills; I help small-sized businesses close more sales by communicating more effectively; and I help major companies tell their legacy stories.

Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my CASL-compliant
website (www.elizabethshih.com).

After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss projects with you!
Please visit my website for more information (www.storytellingcommunications.ca)

 

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A Warning about the Rise of AI from Geoffrey Hinton (“The Godfather of AI”)

Last week, it was announced on CBC that British-Canadian Computer Scientist Geoffrey Hinton had resigned from Google. He did so in order to speak out against potential dangers of the “monster” he helped to create–AI (Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, and many other platforms). Hinton foresees that AI will outdo human intelligence and endeavour.

Over the past 40+ years, Hinton has broken the ground on machine learning. Some view him as having made AI possible. Now, as CBC reports, he wants to see it slowed down and regulated for the good of society. Human intelligence will soon be supplanted by AI, he said in interviews with Don Pittis and Nil Koksal: “and due to national and business competition [notably between the US and China], there’s no obvious way to prevent it.”

On May 3rd, at the international “EmTech Digital” conference, Hinton commented that there’s a risk that AI could destroy humans: “In a few years time, they may be significantly more intelligent than people.”

He says we must try to keep AI controlled “when due to national and business competition, there’s no way to prevent” its supremacy. Hinton says AI can be benign but fears it’s inevitable that it will be used for harmful things. He fears what will happen to a world “where there [are] bad actors who want to build robot soldiers that kill people.”

As CBC business journalist Don Pittis cites, “Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) now joins climate change and nuclear Armaggedon as ways for humans to extinguish themselves.”

En route to that, Hinton remarks that new technology “will soon strip away jobs,” leading to a destabilizing gap between the rich and poor that current politics will be unable to solve.” Increases in productivity at work will see many workers turn redundant, so out of work, while the rich get richer and the poor, poorer.

“Fortune Business Insights” published a report that the global AI market size, valued in 2022 at “$428 Billion (USD) and in 2023 at 515.31 Billion (USD)” is now projected to grow by 2030 to “27 Trillion” (USD).

Daily and weekly activity on AI platforms is rapid-paced. Google DeepMind and LinkedIn have launched “Pi,” a competitor to ChatGPT, in order to keep current. The Canadian company, Thomson Reuters, says it’s planning “a deeper investment in artificial intelligence.”

Hinton has started a new Toronto-based company, “Cohere,” that is trying to raise $250 Million to mitigate the risk and loss that AI may usher in. One option for good, Hinton conceded, amidst so much worry, is “AI alignment, where intelligent computers work in harmony with humans, or at least don’t wipe us out.” Businesses have an opportunity to invest in a strategy to slow down the advance of “God-like AI.”

If such impending doom strikes fear into us, Hinton hopes that we can get the US and China to agree to fight against existential threats, as they did with nuclear weapons: “We’re all in the same boat with respect to existential threats so we all ought to cooperate on trying to stop it.” We need multi-government “treaties” like those which have prevented nuclear war.

In this period of uncertainty, when bullying, psychopath leaders (e.g. Putin, Trump) have already perpetrated wars and/or manipulated elections, Hinton says we want “symbiosis with AI–but it’s not guaranteed.”

And now it’s your turn. How do you think we can keep AI safe in different ways in global communities? What aspects of your life and work have already been radically altered by AI?

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Weird English idioms and some history behind the “Ides of March” in this month’s newsletter!

March 2023 Vol 5 Issue 3

 

Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):
Specializing in Entrepreneurial and Linguistic Communication
Let me teach you to tell your story!

Welcome Mid-March, 2023!

After enduring unseasonably cold weather for the first 10 days of March, we have seen temperatures gradually rise, as we reached a calendar milestone— the famous “Ides of March!” You may recall that March 15th is the day when Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated (in 44 BCE, an event made famous by Shakespeare’s tragedy in 1599).

Although Saskatoon sidewalks and roads continue to be slick with ice, for the most part, there are no toga-clad conspirators, waiting with daggers for us at work! (Perhaps the risk is why some of us prefer self-employment? Lol!)

If such “workplace safety” isn’t relief enough, our daylight hours are lengthening beautifully and, after a stretch of grey days, our familiar prairie sunshine has returned!

I expect that none of you, good readers, were accosted (much less, assassinated) by Roman senators (or other “back-stabbing” colleagues) on your commute to work, yesterday! And hopefully, you weren’t headed for the Theatre of Pompey, either. . . . You may remember Wayne & Shuster’s
famous retelling of the story of Caesar’s demise on the Ides of March, from his wife Calpurnia’s perspective: “I told him, ‘Julie, don’t go!’”).

After having addressed serious philosophical and psychoanalytic concepts of stoicism, shame and resilience in recent postings of this newsletter and my blog, today I share some more lighthearted “fare.”

In “Article One,” I present some “weird and wonky” English idioms from a list compiled by the team at Tefl.org in the UK (from whom I earned my accreditation to teach ESL, in 2021). Newcomers and native English speakers alike may have been puzzled by some of these expressions.

And in “Article Two, “Word Nerd’s Corner,” I present some humourous aspects and history of the date of March 15th, more than two millennia after the date gained its murderous origins. (Thinking Edward Gorey, anyone?)

May the coming of spring dispel any superstition from your minds, good readers, so that yesterday’s “Ides of March” will connote no disloyalty or violent ends!

Sincerely,
Elizabeth
Principal
Storytelling Communications
www.elizabethshih.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:
ARTICLE 1: Ten weird English idioms from Tefl.org (in the UK)
STORYTELLERS’ CORNER:
Some history behind the date, the “Ides of March”
SHOP NEWS
ABOUT US
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Article One: Ten weird English idioms from mentors and colleagues at TEFL.org (UK)

While other languages may be very direct and use fewer figures of speech, English has many idioms that arise everywhere, whether in ordinary “watercooler” chat to official government documents.
Some of our simple phrases sound normal to native-speakers, but very odd to newcomers as they study English:

(1) “The Elephant in the room”: The metaphor of the “elephant” generally refers to a controversial or difficult topic that most people want to avoid. The idiom as a whole is attributed the Russian writer, Ivan Krylov, who wrote a fable (in 1814) of a man who visits a museum, observes small trinkets but not a large elephant in the room.

Fyodor Dostoevsky then used the idiom, writing in his book, Demons (1871-1872), that “Belinsky was just like Krylov’s Inquisitive Man, who didn’t notice the elephant in the museum.”

(2) “You can say that again”: This idiom can cause confusion, as it seems to ask a speaker to repeat themselves, when it means simply to express agreement on something. For instance, if I tell you that the weather is unseasonably cold for late March, you might say, “You can say that again!”

(3) “Lose your marbles”: To lose one’s marbles is to forget something, be frustrated or confused by something. These connotations are common, especially in UK English, since competitive marble playing has occurred for centuries there, and with much attention.

A secondary meaning known better in Canada, connects “losing marbles” with “cognitive deterioration” (i.e. insanity). “The mail deliverer must be losing his marbles today, because he stooped down while delivering our letters, to pet our Rottweiler.”

(4) “Butterflies in my stomach”: The metaphor of having insects occupy your digestive tract reflects the feeling of “flutters,” or nervousness about something. This idiom gets trotted out when you have a job interview, go on a blind date, or worry that a costly parking ticket awaits you, as you leave an appointment that ran late.
So, when you are nervous, your mind kicks into “fight-or-flight” mode, and this causes a fluttery feeling in your stomach or digestive tract..

(5) “Easier said than done”: This is an unusually literal idiom which refers to something that is challenging to do, but may not be acknowledged as such. So a newcomer student might say, “I’m going to master the perfect conditional tense” today, when that is much easier said than done.

(6) “To let the cat out of the bag”: refers to revealing a secret, especially if it occurs by accident. To accidentally reveal a surprise retirement party to a good friend would be a typical example. TEFL friends clarify that the idiom “has nothing to do with cats, or indeed, bags.”

(7) “Hit the sack” or “Hit the hay”: these are two idioms that refer simply to “going to bed.” Historically, human beds were not always bought in furniture stores (“move over, IKEA”), so people commonly rested their heads on some loose fabric (sack) or even on some harvested farm crops (hay).

(8) “The best thing since sliced bread”: In the US, where sliced bread was first sold in the 1920s, it was advertised as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry, since bread was wrapped.” The convenience of buying pre-sliced bread led to the simplified phrasing of “the best thing since sliced
bread.” Americans started to apply the term to all kinds of modern conveniences and it persists today.

(9) “The bees’ knees”: this idiom was part of a popular movement in language in the 1920s that used the animal kingdom to create fun expressions of praise. This idiom means something of high quality; and there other idioms that had similar meaning, such as “the cat’s pyjamas” and “the sardine’s whiskers.” While none of these may strike you as terribly persuasive today, the 1920s were a completely different time, linguistically.

(10) “It takes two to tango”: TEFL writers say that the “tango” originated in the border between Argentina and Uruguay and was considered a “risqué and working-class” dance when it began. Now it’s a regular influence on network television, such as on the American program “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Do you use any of these weird and wonky idioms in your conversations in English? Do you know some that didn’t make it to the list? Please share; I’d be happy to post them in a future issue!

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STORYTELLERS’ CORNER . . . 

STORYTELLERS’ CORNER: Words, stories, riddles and more on writing and editing . . . Some history behind the date, the “Ides of March”

• The word “Ides” (the 15th day of a month) comes from the Latin word, “idus,” which refers to the middle day of any month in the ancient Roman calendar.

• The Ides refer the 15th day of the months of March, May, July or October; and the 13th day of the remaining months.

• There is much superstition surrounding the origins of the date, but in fact it only marks the first day of a full moon in every month (falling between the 13th and the 15th days).

• Part of the negative connotations of the “Ides” is that they were designated as the date to settle outstanding debts each month in the ancient Roman calendar. Debtors who could not pay their debts were typically thrown into prison or forced into slavery. Therefore, the “Ides” were thought to be especially unlucky days.

• The connotations of an unlucky day with particularly disastrous implications is, of course, tied to Ancient Rome. Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was murdered on the “Ides of March” in 44 BCE. Historians have said that Caesar’s senators murdered him out of fear that his popularity would turn him into a dictator (and them into slaves).

• A lot of the story surrounding the “Ides of March” comes from Shakespeare’s sensational dramatization of the murder of Julius Caesar. For instance, Shakespeare dramatizes that Brutus was Caesar’s best friend and the leader of the assassination plot, which are not true.
In fact, there were three conspirators, among whom Decimus, not Brutus, was most trusted and known by Caesar. And it was Decimus who led the murderous plot.

• Caesar was not warned to “Beware the Ides of March” by an anonymous soothsayer (in Shakespeare’s version). The omen was actually “Beware the next 30 days,” uttered on February 15, 44 BCE by an Etruscan soothsayer, called Spurinna (historians tell us).

• Dictator Adolf Hitler chose this day in 1939 to attack and seize the provinces of Czechoslovakia.

• Some parts of the world observe March 15 with national holidays that are not deemed unlucky, such as Constitution Day in Belarus; National Day in Hungary; and even Youth Day in Palau.

What was your “Ides of March” (yesterday) like?

Do you have a concept, story, joke or problem involving any aspect of writing or communications? Please share it with me; I’d be delighted to use it in an upcoming issue

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SHOP NEWS:

Every month brings new ways for me to thank my Raj Manek mentor and dear friend, Monica Kreuger. This month, she included me, among other team members of Global Infobroker’s ”Praxis School of Entrepreneurship,” in a deferred Christmas party.

A death in Monica’s family sadly occurred shortly before last Christmas, pre-empting the usual holiday festivities.

But amazingly generous soul that she is, only three months into the new year, Monica graced Elaine Mantyka, Deanna Litz, Silvana Cracogna, Grace Wang, Carmen Karin Rosner and I with pampering spa services (including several kinds of facials, sugaring, ion cleanses, foot wax, eyebrow and nail
treatments!).

It was heavenly! Missing but in our thoughts were also team members Marie Weinkauf and Jolene Watson. (On who the magical service providers were for the evening, see below.)

And in Monica’s impeccable way, the food was scrumptious, featuring the charcuterie and desserts of local entrepreneur, Colleen Middlemiss, of Colleen’s Catering.

Thank you, Monica, and to fellow entrepreneurs of the Praxis team, who have learned from Monica’s genius and generosity!

Entrepreneur of the month:
Writing two days after the above evening spa event, my skin still feels great. So I’m delighted to shine a spotlight on the service providers at Bailey Kreuger’s woman-owned business, “Drop Dead Gorgeous Day Spa.”

Along with estheticians Sara Kreuger, Megan Kent and “Essentials” hairdresser, Crystal Hill, “Drop Dead Gorgeous” provides a wide variety of services that will make you feel as beautiful as you look, including facials and skin care, lashes and brows, hands and feet, makeup application, hair
removal, tanning, tattooing and permanent makeup.

As proud daughters of amazing entrepreneurial parents, Monica and Brent Kreuger, Bailey and Sara belong to the Chamber of Commerce and support “Totally Locally Saskatoon.” They do so by also promoting the work of entrepreneurs who are among their regular and loyal clients.
Ready to feel as gorgeous as you look? Visit their website or their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DropDeadGorgeousDaySpa !

There are always new businesses and new ideas to promote and discuss. Please write me to shareyour stories! . . . . But for now, this is a wrap for mid-March!

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ABOUT US:
Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country.

Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications.” I now help newcomers to Canada land better jobs by improving their English skills; I help SMEs close more sales by communicating more effectively, and I help major companies tell their legacy stories.

Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my CASL-compliant
website (www.elizabethshih.com).

After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss projects with you!
Please visit my website for more information (www.storytellingcommunications.ca)

 

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On International Women’s Day, kitchen table wisdom on shame, from Brene Brown

American social psychologist Brene Brown has developed a professional speaking and consulting career (rooted in her psychological research), that shares everyday (what I term “kitchen table”) wisdom that nonetheless strikes listeners to their core.

Recently, on International Women’s Day (March 8th), while doing research for another project, I happened upon one of Brown’s TEDTalks that I had not heard before, on how shame affects women and men (and she implies, young and old, Western and Eastern cultures, newcomers and lifelong citizens)—a no-holds barred insight that in shame, the worst (most unempathetic) critic is ourselves. It will have started outside ourselves, with someone likely in our early lives. But we have internalized it by necessity and now incorporate it as part of ourselves.

When charting a path toward shame, Brown earlier contends that human “vulnerability is not weakness,” but instead involves “risk, exposure, uncertainty, [and] fuels our daily lives.” She says that vulnerability is our most accurate measure of courage. To let ourselves be seen, to be honest.” Vulnerability is “the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.”

 

But when trying to understand the relationship between our vulnerability and the courage we need to act on it, Brown rightly stipulates that we have to talk about shame.

“We learn about the deepest emotions not from studying vulnerability, but from studying shame,” what Carl Jung called “the swampland of the soul.”

We can’t have a conversation about sexism, racism (or other -isms), Brown asserts, without talking about shame. When people start talking about privilege or success, they get paralyzed by shame.

Yet, “no one who gets on a stage never fails,” she insists. “I have failed miserably many times. I don’t think the world understands that.”

She famously cites the US President Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena” speech: “It is not the critic who counts. It is not the man who sits and points how the doer of deeds could have done things better, how he falls and stumbles. The credit goes to the man in the arena, whose face is marred with dust and blood and sweat. But when he’s in the arena, at best, he wins. And at worst, he loses. But when he fails, when he loses, he does so daring greatly.”

Life is about “daring greatly,” about “being in the arena,” Brown contends: “When you’re striving to dare greatly, shame is the gremlin that stops you when you’re about to walk on stage, that says, ‘Uh-oh. You’re not good enough. You never finished that MBA. Your spouse left you. Your Dad wasn’t in Luxembourg, he was in Sing Sing. I know those things happened to you, growing up. I know that you don’t think that you’re pretty enough, or smart enough or talented enough or powerful enough. I know your dad never paid attention, even when you made CFO.’”

Shame is what stops us. “And if we can quiet it down and walk in [to the arena] and say, ‘I’m going to do this,’ we look up and the critic that we see pointing and laughing, 99% of the time is who? It’s us.”

Shame drives two big tapes: “never good enough” and, if you can talk it out of that one, “who do you think you are?”

Shame is not guilt. Guilt is a focus on behaviour (“I did something bad”). Shame is a focus on self (“I am bad.”)

Brown asserts that “shame is highly correlated with addiction, depression, violence, aggression, bullying, suicide, eating disorders. You need to know even more that guilt is inversely correlated with those things.”

“Shame feels the same for women and for men,” but it is also calibrated by gender. (Shame for women is “Do it all, do it perfectly and never let them see you sweat.” ) Shame is a “web of unobtainable, conflicting, competing expectations about who we’re supposed to be. And it’s a straight-jacket. For men, shame is not a web of unobtainable, conflicting, competing expectations. Shame is one: Do not be perceived as weak.”

Shame is an epidemic in our culture and underlies many kinds of brokenness.   “[T]o get out from underneath it, to find our way back to each other, we have to understand how it affects us and how it affects the way we’re parenting, the way we’re working, the way we’re looking at each other.”

“Empathy” is shame’s  antidote. “Shame grows on secrecy, silence and judgment. But if you . . . douse it with empathy, it can’t survive.”

When we feel ashamed, Brown says, the two most powerful words when we can use are “’Me too’” (cited before many women used to term to disgrace perpetrators like Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein). Brown says: “If we are going to find our way back to each other, vulnerability is going to be that path. It’s seductive to think that we’ll go out into the arena and ‘kick some ass’ when we’re bulletproof and when we’re perfect. But the truth is that never happens.”

And “even if you enter the arena “as ‘perfect’ as you can muster, what your listeners [clients/ students/colleagues] want is not for you to be perfect when you go in there. That’s not what we want to see. We want you to go in. We want to be with you and across from you. And we just want for ourselves and the people we care about and the people we work with–we just want [you, as Roosevelt said] to dare greatly.”

As Brown has since commented in other talks and books, “Braving the Wilderness,” often a landscape of shame, is what each of us must do. She says: “The whole idea of the wilderness being those times when we stand alone and those times when we go out on a limb, the times we walk away from what we know, our ideological bunkers and our beliefs, braving is the tool to help us manage the wilderness. . .

There will be times when standing alone feels too hard, too scary, and we’ll doubt our ability to make our way through the uncertainty. Our shame for past mistakes can creep in on us, on all sides. Someone somewhere will say, ‘Don’t do it. You don’t have what it takes to survive the wilderness.’  This is when you reach deep into your wild heart and remind yourself, ‘ I am the wilderness.’”

We must get past ourselves, with all of the shame and related baggage we carry, to reach the sky above.

This is a truth for men as well as for women, and for those who experience themselves in-between, everywhere—a truth for every day and not only for one nominated as “International Women’s Day.”