Celebrate Depth

    My childhood in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s was full of sayings and proverbs and quotes “as my grandmother used to say”.

    Repeated themes ran through them: lessons that children were expected to absorb in order to become useful cogs in society's wheel.
    I have been thinking, recently, about some of these: don't judge a book by its cover; beauty is only skin deep; don't judge the marmalade by the label on the jar.
    I was still a child when the American Civil Rights leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said
    "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Look Within   
        These concepts all teach that we do well to look beyond the surface of anything presented to us. The lesson: it's what's inside that matters.
    I still believe this, – perhaps because the programing was successful – it has become an underlying part of how I approach the world.
    I was blessed with a very verbal learning style, suited to the education fashions of the time, and a very poor visual memory. As a result, I have very little interest in the surfaces of things. I do not care about decoration or fashion: I want my clothes to keep me decent, and, when necessary, warm, otherwise, I invest little thought into them.
Look Behind
    My life experience has taught me that the visible is such a small part of any physical thing, that it is nearly – not entirely – irrelevant.
    What can be seen might not even relate to that which is within. The credits of any movie teach this lesson. After the cast list, however small, there is a long catalogue of workers and organizations who helped bring the story to the screen. They did not perform for viewers, yet without them there would have been nothing to view.
    They are technicians working with light, sound, location and costumes. They are editors and writers; directors and producers; set decorators, designers, animal wranglers, casting companies and stunt performers, and there are more. The workers we do not see far outnumber the characters in the film. Value is brought to the project by that which is not seen.
Look Inside
    Surfaces exist as a barrier between outside and inside, and my focus is drawn to that which is within. The work I do is connected to Unseen energies in the universe: to the vibrations and frequencies which, like the invisible, unseeable wind, are revealed by the effect they have.
    The modern world is Shifting towards this focus. Our surroundings are made up of items and spaces which are no longer beautified by curlicues or external art.

    Consider the iPhone. The closest we get to carved patterns and scroll-work is by asking for it to display on the screen.
    Value and beauty are no longer encoded in appearance, but about function. A well designed device, system, or project will to adapt to the needs of any individual using it. Design is centered on the user: the human, who will experience this with mind and thought.
    The plain, flat, glass screen of any laptop or e-reader or similar device is important only for being the access to point to the value within.
Look Forward
    Learning to look past what we see is part of adapting to this new world. When we allow for the personal motivations of others, we are less likely to judge them by our own standards. When we allow for differences in understanding, we can be expansive in our communications.
    A new society is developing rapidly, and it is not obsessed with ostentatious or superficial surfaces. Our lives are directed through intention and emotional intelligence, neither of which can be seen. The time has come to look deeply, for it is there that the world is born.

    I have been supporting clients through change and growth since the 1980s.
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