Young and Old
It would appear that December is just around the...well, it's here. My, the end of the year coming so quickly and with it, the almost obligatory summation holiday letters that are sent out to friends and family as an annual stay-in-touch ritual. The advent of email and perhaps WhatsApp have dented the idea of sending or receiving a physical snail-mail card, and the glittery strings of such dangling over the fireplace mantle might soon be doomed to the museum of relics. But I'll admit that I still enjoy that feeling of opening the envelope, even if the card inside has little more than an initial or a signature. I am still on "a list" or perhaps more appropriately, a personal list (conversely, I loathe the churned out cards from insurance agents and other commercial ventures, a job likely spun off to an assistant or secretary who is likely swamped with additional work but receives little credit...my opinion). And yes, I still tend to dash out the physical --if generic and produced in multiples from my printer-- version of my own holiday letter to my friends and family, this year's letter ending with the simple "loved the past with you, would love to keep it going."
Friendship and family are like a moving conveyor belt at this time of year, a period of reflection almost forced upon us as surely as being pinned to a hospital bed with an unexpected disease or injury. How much longer? What would/will you change should you make it out of here? Do you have any regrets over how the past year went or even, overall in your life? Sometimes, such as when visiting my mother, I think of that simple viewpoint changing just from where you are located. The person in a locked facility --an institution, a prison, a lonely motel room-- must certainly be looking at things in a different manner, for even if changes were wanted, the options would be few (except internally). Nonetheless, one only has to look outside and realize that nature cares little for our little shenanigans; the cold arrives without delay now and for those who are not ready she has but little compassion, valid reasons tossed aside as easily as a grasshopper & ant story.
Still, as cherished as the friends of my age are, I continue to be impressed with the young people I meet, not only physically but those about whom I read in print and media. Their creativity and innovation are encouraging for in some sense they remind me of my youth, a time when the minimum wage (at $1.65 per hour, a huge raise at the time) made it seem impossible that I could ever escape my dingy apartment and make a move in the world. After utility bills and long hours and cars breaking down, there seemed little left. But it was youth and it was fun. And it seemed that once the rocky seas of such life began to calm a bit, I felt that I could venture out and change the world...didn't (don't) we all? Jump to now. It's still happening. So before this gets too maudlin about looking back and what did or didn't happen, here are just a few examples of exciting developments (and there are many, many such examples)...
Colleen Costello, 25. Some five years ago, her grandmother entered a hospital because of a fall. But she got sicker, not better. MRSA. Like C. difficle, this can be introduced into your body in even the most sterile conditions (catching these in hospitals is growing more common) and the young Costello (a student of biomedical engineering at the time) wanted to know why. You've likely already heard about the power of light, how some forms of light are used to sterilize water in remote areas of developing countries. She did as well, and with her fellow student friend (a mechanical engineer), they looked into a specific spectrum that attacked specific molecular forms of bacteria, mold, yeast and fungi (but harmless to humans). Enter VitalVio...already in use in many major hospitals, VitalVio is an invention so subtle you may not realize its function as you pass through its lighted doorways, but now many more patients will leave without harm.
Andrea Streshta and Anna Stork, 30. It was dark...is dark. And if you have no light (imagine yourself camping), what happens? You quit reading, you quit cooking, you stop and stumble...go to bed until the sun comes up and you can see again. But what if you had light, and it was compact, perhaps even inflatable? This was the thought behind Luminaid (successfully pitched at Shark Tank), a blow-up lantern with a solar cell and LED light attached inside. 50 hours of light on just a single day's charge. As Stork told Inc.: ...light is the beginning to dream about the future. But their goal was to help and 70 countries took their offer. And people wanting to buy their lamps (they now have outdoor patio lights in several colors) can join their Give Light, Get Light program...one light bought means another light donated to those in need. Cool...light.
Matthew Griffin. Special Ops Ranger. Face to face in Afghanistan, eyewitness to the "what good is war" question. But factories were open and operating, as long as war was happening. But what about afterwards, asked Griffin? Instead of making boots for soldiers, couldn't the factory continue to make similar consumer goods, like flip flops? Enter Combat Flip Flops, now a $1 million business that Griffin told TedX was: ..."Business, Not Bullets"--flipping the view on how wars are won. Through persistence, respect, and creativity, we empower the mindful consumer to manufacture peace through trade. In another piece in Inc. he added: There's a great saying, "Borders frequented by merchants seldom need soldiers." The company even makes jewelry from detonated land mines. Part of its profits go to educating girls in Afghanistan and clearing unexploded ordinance in Laos, as well as to creating jobs in other war-torn countries...one step at a time.
A few young people, and by no means alone. And this is not to leave out some of the mega-companies also trying to do good, an entire article devoted to them in a recent issue of Fortune. For-profit or not-for-profit, the idea is there. Hope and yes, change the world and change our outlook, like Nike which "disclosed that 71% of footwear and apparel uses Nike Grind, which is made of recycled polyester and other materials" or the massive Unilever which "reported this year that over 600 of Unilever's warehouses and distribution centers now send zero waste to landfills." Zero. That's better than me! With the arrival of December, we can reflect in many ways on yet another year going by quickly. But much has happened, and continues to happen. There is indeed good out there and perhaps we should reflect on that instead of the negative so prevalent in the media. It's been a good year for young and old. And that's just in looking back...imagine the way forward.
Friendship and family are like a moving conveyor belt at this time of year, a period of reflection almost forced upon us as surely as being pinned to a hospital bed with an unexpected disease or injury. How much longer? What would/will you change should you make it out of here? Do you have any regrets over how the past year went or even, overall in your life? Sometimes, such as when visiting my mother, I think of that simple viewpoint changing just from where you are located. The person in a locked facility --an institution, a prison, a lonely motel room-- must certainly be looking at things in a different manner, for even if changes were wanted, the options would be few (except internally). Nonetheless, one only has to look outside and realize that nature cares little for our little shenanigans; the cold arrives without delay now and for those who are not ready she has but little compassion, valid reasons tossed aside as easily as a grasshopper & ant story.
Still, as cherished as the friends of my age are, I continue to be impressed with the young people I meet, not only physically but those about whom I read in print and media. Their creativity and innovation are encouraging for in some sense they remind me of my youth, a time when the minimum wage (at $1.65 per hour, a huge raise at the time) made it seem impossible that I could ever escape my dingy apartment and make a move in the world. After utility bills and long hours and cars breaking down, there seemed little left. But it was youth and it was fun. And it seemed that once the rocky seas of such life began to calm a bit, I felt that I could venture out and change the world...didn't (don't) we all? Jump to now. It's still happening. So before this gets too maudlin about looking back and what did or didn't happen, here are just a few examples of exciting developments (and there are many, many such examples)...
Colleen Costello, 25. Some five years ago, her grandmother entered a hospital because of a fall. But she got sicker, not better. MRSA. Like C. difficle, this can be introduced into your body in even the most sterile conditions (catching these in hospitals is growing more common) and the young Costello (a student of biomedical engineering at the time) wanted to know why. You've likely already heard about the power of light, how some forms of light are used to sterilize water in remote areas of developing countries. She did as well, and with her fellow student friend (a mechanical engineer), they looked into a specific spectrum that attacked specific molecular forms of bacteria, mold, yeast and fungi (but harmless to humans). Enter VitalVio...already in use in many major hospitals, VitalVio is an invention so subtle you may not realize its function as you pass through its lighted doorways, but now many more patients will leave without harm.
Andrea Streshta and Anna Stork, 30. It was dark...is dark. And if you have no light (imagine yourself camping), what happens? You quit reading, you quit cooking, you stop and stumble...go to bed until the sun comes up and you can see again. But what if you had light, and it was compact, perhaps even inflatable? This was the thought behind Luminaid (successfully pitched at Shark Tank), a blow-up lantern with a solar cell and LED light attached inside. 50 hours of light on just a single day's charge. As Stork told Inc.: ...light is the beginning to dream about the future. But their goal was to help and 70 countries took their offer. And people wanting to buy their lamps (they now have outdoor patio lights in several colors) can join their Give Light, Get Light program...one light bought means another light donated to those in need. Cool...light.
Matthew Griffin. Special Ops Ranger. Face to face in Afghanistan, eyewitness to the "what good is war" question. But factories were open and operating, as long as war was happening. But what about afterwards, asked Griffin? Instead of making boots for soldiers, couldn't the factory continue to make similar consumer goods, like flip flops? Enter Combat Flip Flops, now a $1 million business that Griffin told TedX was: ..."Business, Not Bullets"--flipping the view on how wars are won. Through persistence, respect, and creativity, we empower the mindful consumer to manufacture peace through trade. In another piece in Inc. he added: There's a great saying, "Borders frequented by merchants seldom need soldiers." The company even makes jewelry from detonated land mines. Part of its profits go to educating girls in Afghanistan and clearing unexploded ordinance in Laos, as well as to creating jobs in other war-torn countries...one step at a time.
A few young people, and by no means alone. And this is not to leave out some of the mega-companies also trying to do good, an entire article devoted to them in a recent issue of Fortune. For-profit or not-for-profit, the idea is there. Hope and yes, change the world and change our outlook, like Nike which "disclosed that 71% of footwear and apparel uses Nike Grind, which is made of recycled polyester and other materials" or the massive Unilever which "reported this year that over 600 of Unilever's warehouses and distribution centers now send zero waste to landfills." Zero. That's better than me! With the arrival of December, we can reflect in many ways on yet another year going by quickly. But much has happened, and continues to happen. There is indeed good out there and perhaps we should reflect on that instead of the negative so prevalent in the media. It's been a good year for young and old. And that's just in looking back...imagine the way forward.
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