Tea with McNair

• do you see what i see?

 Late on Empty Highway 24



The freeway was deserted tonight. Now when I say deserted, I don’t mean there was unusually light traffic, I mean deserted as in abandoned, empty, NO CARS. There were no cars around me (all four lanes), in front of me (for about half a mile, then the road curved), and not one car behind me. It was a few minutes before 10:00 PM and it was strange. Eery. And in my active imagination a bit apocalyptic. Somebody call Jack Bauer, please. (I was on Hwy 24...cue the spooky coincidence music.)
    Where is everybody? Did I miss the legendary horns of the Second Coming? I had been at a lecture on the campus of U.C.Berkeley. Maybe Berkeley really is the Rapture-Free Zone. What happened? Was that section of 24 closed and I had found a secret on ramp that no one else knew about?
    Then, at a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap some impulses passed by a diffusion of a neurotransmitter--a.k.a. synapse--my mind leapfrogged to things I know, that no one else knows.
    I don’t know. Like an empty Hwy 24 through Berkley and Oakland, what have I discovered that only few others know, so far.
    Here’s what I know. Everyone is born with a creative spirit. (Now when I say everyone, I am thinking particularly of you, dear reader and Tea sipper.) The anthropologists who roam the earth watching us humans say that in every people group and culture that they have observed, all children are fully creatively expressed by age three.
    You and I were singing, dancing, drawing, inventing stories, painting, making up adventures, playing dress up, and more--all by the time we were three years old. We did this all naturally, without parental prodding. It was the work of our creative spirt that we all arrive here with as standard equipment for humans, it is factory installed.    
    Then, at age five or six (according to our observant anthropologist friends), our natural creativity begins to recede. Not coincidentally this is the time that we begin to live life in rooms with rows of chairs facing the same direction -- formal
    Give up. Stay in bed. It is too late now.
    Or . . .
    You can recapture your creative spirit. Today. Start by taking the risk to believe that it is possible. You are not on the highway alone.
    What do you dream, imagine, and hope for? I believe those are all, the still small voice of your creative spirit...shhhh, listen.…
    “Can I come out and play again? Please.”
    Say, “Yes!” Do it now.
    Soon the highway to imagination will be full again.
    I’ll see you there. education. It erodes our natural creativity 60 to 70 percent in those early years of schooling. By some estimates most people's creative spirit is 90% diminished by age twenty!

~ McNair

By the by, my popular video, IMAGINU!TY: Recapturing Your Creative Spirt, contains TWO presentations on one video. In the first half I make the case for your creative spirit and how you can re-ignite it. Then, as the presentation continues, I share my straight forward and playful brainstorming process.

Drawing, above,  first concept sketch of Disneyland (CA) by Herb Ryman. Click to enlarge and enjoy a detailed (in focus) version. THe first drawing of the Magic Kingdom!

This is the method of brainstorming I employed during the ten years I was at Disney, as an Imagineer, on design teams for four new theme parks. This video contains the same presentations I make at corporate gatherings everywhere. It is designed to be used as an in-house teaching tool for your team or your family.
    You can order copies of my video through my personal website, www.mcnairwilson.com. If you write the word “TEA” on the memo line of your check, postage & handling is FREE -- no matter how many videos you order.  Sorry, no phone or credit card orders at this time and no DVD version, yet. Please include a phone number and/or email contact with your order, just in case.

"In all my years with the National Speakers Assoc., I have never seen anyone receive a standing ovation as long as the one they afforded McNair. He moved and inspired a crowd of professional speakers in a way that has not occurred before. McNair is a true inspiration."
     ~ Gary C. Purece, Past President,

               National Speakers Assoc./No. Cal.

• quotations from chairman elwood

Raised In Captivity ~ No. 1

My father possessed an unwavering belief in people.
One of my favorite example was, at the time, a quite simple and ordinary moment. It had happen thousands of times in my life, at least.
    I was visiting my mom and dad for the evening--they lived about 40 minutes from me in the Los Angeles area. As the three of us were preparing to sit down to a simple family dinner my dad stood in front of the refrigerator, holding the door open, he asked me, “What are you drinking? Milk, ice tea, Coke, juice, water, wine...”
    I was, quite simply, baffled. I went over to him and looked him right in the eyes and said, “You’ve known me all my life. When have you seen me drink anything other than water or milk at dinner? Why do you even ask me that?”
    Without skipping a beat my dad said, “A person can change.”
    I was in my late thirties at the time.
    It sounds little and insignificant, but it was his essence. He really did hold out hope for every one. His creativity, wit, and fresh thinking lasted all of his years. Even during this last three years when his mind was fogged-in by Alzheimer's, he remained playful, and ebullient--virtually boiling over with life.
    One morning, during his last days, I was to take him out to breakfast--his favorite meal.
    “Would you like to go have some breakfast?” I asked.
    Smirking, he answered, “Only if we go right now.”
    Holding the menu and scanning it with alert eyes that could no longer decipher the words or give name to the overly-colorful photographs of food, he looked at it with great interest.
    “They have quite a selection here.” I said.
    “I can see that.”
    “Do you know what you’d like to have?” I asked.
    “One of each.” Continuing to gaze through the thick pages.
    “How about pancakes. You like pancakes, don’t you?”
    “Only if there close by.”
    We both laughed.
    “Me too.” As the waitress arrived. “Two stacks of buttermilk pancakes and a big plate of bacon.” And as I closed my menu to hand it to her he said.
    “I’ll have the same.”
    We all laughed.
    I had heard these lines for years, every syllable. Each one employed to make life a bit more playful and zesty.
    As a boy, visiting our favorite hamburger joint in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, we’d sit at the count--my dad, my brother, and I--and my dad would tell the cook, “Three burgers with everything.”

    Then, looking at us, he’d add, “What do you guys want?”
    He refused to go through life on any path with too many footprints on it. Many paths he was the first to go down--with machete and whoopee cushion in hand. His peers in the educational world spoke often of his creativity and pioneering risk taking. And everything was done with a sense of grace and lasting belief in his Creator and the power of the human, creative spirit.  
    Leaving the pancake house that morning I asked him, just outside the door, “Would you like to grab some breakfast?”
    “Only if we go right now.”
    He couldn’t remember that we had just eaten, but he never forgot to have fun.
    I will never forget him and his belief in me--and every ONE he ever met.

    ~ McNair

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The above is excerpted from my book, RAISED IN CAPTIVITY, A Memoir of a Life Long Churchaholic. I added a bit to it for this blog post, but the book is a collection of real life stories of growing up in a “religiously--addicted” community, and a family that saved from the darker sides of those experiences. Autographed copies are available through my personal website:

www.McNairWilson.com

I must tell you that the book has been enjoyed by folks with backgrounds in Roman Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, and a rainbow of Protestant traditions. One of my favorite, unsolicited endorsements on Amazon.com:

“If you change the labels, the story is still the same. For many of us, McNair Wilson has painted (with great accuracy) our spiritual heritage (the good, the bad, the ugly, the ridiculous) with his vivid recollections of "life in captivity." It is, indeed, an irony that, while we were supposed to be learning the tenets of spiritual "freedom," many of us were acquiring emotional straight jacket's in which to live out our spiritual "liberty." McNair Wilson shines his hilarious spotlight on this dark corner of our faith. It was of infinite value to me that he did not throw out the babies of grace and honor with the skewering bathwater. This book is a MUST READ for those who grew up in a culture of faith which did not celebrate creativity or non-conformity. You will see yourself/family/church on every page and be thankful for the freedom to recall,learn from and laugh at the past.”

- - Anita Renfroe, Author
      The Purse-Driven Life

> lassie, get help!

{ instructions no. 2 }

Only do what only you can do. On everything else: delegate, get assistance, do it quickly and just good enough to get it done. Save your best effort for projects that really matter. Whsketch books I make photocopies of all the pages that are a part of an on-going project. These copies are for reference only and will never be seen by anyone but me (and the art school students I hire to do such odd jobs for me. Their instructions are to “get a good clean copy of every marked page. Straightness doesn’t count.”) With those copies--and there are scores of them--there really is a level of quality called “good enough.” (It’s one notch below “fine” and just above “That’ll do.”)
    I use a lot of generic (non-name brand) products for my life. Windex costs more, but does not clean the big windows in my loft any better than the generic store brand glass cleaner. I believe there are “generic” solutions to the many mundane items on life’s over-crowded “To Do” list. These generic solutions serve just as well as the “name brand” way of getting things done. So, too, with the many errands and chores of life, I believe that “good enough” often does just fine. I reserve my high-functioning perfectionist leanings for important stuff. To be sure, my perfectionism is always right there beside me, incessantly tapping me on  the shoulder, “Can I help? Let me do that. I can fix that.” Too often, I give in, unfortunately.
    With most day-to-day errands, house work, laundry, etc., the quickest way to get it done is fine by me. I can iron a dress shirt very well, thank you. But I do not. I highly recommend Mr. Lee and staff at Ideal Cleaners. This gives me more time to create, imagine, write, draw, read, nap . . . do what I do best and many others cannot do for me.

> Between Reason & Recess: Your Next Assignment

Make a list of 3 to 5 regular activities in your life -- other than personal hygiene, and morning ablution. You may NOT use written words to make this list. You may draw a picture of each activity, cut and paste photos from magazines, download them off the web and print-cut-and-paste them, or take a photo of YOU doing it. make each task a page in your sketchbook.
    On the opposite page list three possible solutions for doing each activity quicker, easier, and cheaper. Explain, briefly how this will save you time, money, and creative brain cells to spend more time on projects you love and that ONLY YOU CAN DO. (You may use your writing to list your solutions, but pictures will stick in your brain better.)
    The world isn’t waiting for you and me to have a spotless kitchen or surgically scoured bathroom. However, more than a few folks are waiting for your ________ (name of project), and my next book. I was going to sort my recently washed socks, towels, and sweats this morning. Will you forgive me for writing this blog post instead. Do you think less of me now that you know there’s a stack of clean socks in my life, unsorted for THREE DAYS? (If that does bug you, you’re welcome.)
    For “extra credit” on this project, share one of your solutions in the comments section of this post (click “Comments” below.) One of my big hopes for this blog site is that it will be conversational. If you have left a comment you might check and see if anyone has responded to you--I certainly have. I’d love to hear your time saving, brain sparing ideas. I’m sure many of you are better at this than I am. While you’re at it, tell a friend who you know spends to much time on the details of daily life, that you are working on this. Just forward the link to this post. Make it about you, not pointing the finger at them.
    A number of actively creative people I have talked with in my workshops over the years, bemoan to me that they are terrible at the business side of their life.
    “How are you at auto mechanics?” I ask.
    “Huh?”
    “Don’t you do your own car maintenance?” I poke on.
    “ ‘Course not. I know almost nothing about car repair.” They say.
    “Really! Me too. And my car mechanic has never written a book, had a cartoon published, or directed a play. But he loves working on cars, So, I make him happy and  I let him do mine. Thus, he lets me do books, plays, and all that stuff I love and am getting’ better at the more I do it.”

    In a few minutes I am going to make my morning protein smoothy, shower--quickly--and go sit in one of my favorite San Francisco cafes (for several hours) and work on one of my new books. I will wear unmatched socks ‘cause I ain’t spending a moment sorting them until...never.

 

“If you don’t do you,  You won’t get done,
And the world--Creation--will be incomplete.
But when you do you...You inspire me!”

- McNair

P.S.  If you are new to this blog and do not know about the "Between Reason & Recess" series of exercises designed to stimulate and expand your creative expression, I have created a special (secret) blog site with ALL the Between Reason & Recess exercises together in one place. Go there NOW! Begin with "i know a place."

{Hwy. 880}