Friday, June 22, 2012

Composing a Life

On my wish list for any town I live in is that there is a university or college nearby.  I am lucky enough to have two in Tampa, the University of South Florida (go Bulls!) and the University of Tampa.


It was through the University of South Florida that I heard Maya Angelou speak several years ago, an experience I won't forget.  


This last April I had the pleasure to hear Mary Catherine Bateson speak, also at the University of South Florida.  To be honest I had not heard of Ms. Bateson before my friend and yoga instructor asked if I would be interested in going to the lecture so I did some research. Ms. Bateson is the daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson - that alone made me sit up and take notice.  What a fascinating life her early years must have been.  


Ms. Bateson is also an author of several books, two of which specifically called to me:  Composing a Life and Peripheral Visions.  I have mentioned before that I turned 50 this year and it seems a good time to pause and take stock of my life.    I have been asking myself the typical question: am I happy both in my personal and professional lives?  What could I change to make my life more fulfilling?  I have always said there is no such thing as a mid life crisis, to me a person has many crisis's throughout their life - it is a means to grow and learn.  In researching Ms. Bateson I found this quote on her webpage: "We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn."   Bingo!  I definitely wanted to hear this woman speak!


Ms. Bateson specifically was lecturing on inter-generational communication, aging and the life cycle.  The audience was diverse in age which is always a good sign.  My notes on the lecture are such: 
      
Active wisdom
Listen to the wisdom of others
Good observers
Process of communication must complete the loop
Participate and learn
Don't be spiritually deaf

I have these notes written on a piece of paper stuck on my wall at home.  I am curious what your thoughts are on them?  Where are you at in your life journey? 

As a final note in case anyone at USF reads this post - the parking for this lecture was terrible.  I ended up at a metered parking spot that cost .25 per 10 mins and the maximum time was 1 hour.  I constantly worried I was going to get a ticket.  








1 comment:

  1. Thanks for telling us whay you're up to. It sounded like an inspirational lecture

    ReplyDelete