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Audio Tidbits

By: Audio Tidbits
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  • Summary

  • Audio Tidbits includes usually short episodes focusing on relationships, family, work, personal leadership and success and other aspects of getting better and better at getting better and better. There are also episodes just for fun and focusing on more serious issues and concerns. Try it. You may be surprised.
    Gary A. Crow, Ph.D. - all rights reserved
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Episodes
  • Children — Angels — Anger

    Children — Angels — Anger
    May 19 2024
    Children: “I love America more than any other country in this world; and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” These words from James Baldwin may capture the essence of being a responsible American. Adlai Stevenson added to this essence when he said, “When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect.” “How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.” As President Clinton observed, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” “What we need are critical lovers of America - patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it.” We can start this work by focusing on the wisdom of Walter Lippmann, “We are quite rich enough to defend ourselves, whatever the cost. We must now learn that we are quite rich enough to educate ourselves as we need to be educated;” and that education must include all of our children, as they need to be educated. Only educating most of our children is not nearly good enough, especially if you are the child who is still being left behind. Angels: “If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil.” What do you think about this pronouncement from Samuel Taylor Coleridge? If you are skeptical about this angel thing, consider what George Elliot said, “The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.” OK, you may still see nothing but sand and are too busy to rise upwards to be an angel. Besides, you’ve never seen an angel and doubt if anyone else has either. Well, it’s just like James Russell Lowell said, “All God's angels come to us disguised.” Voltaire added, “It is not known precisely where angels dwell - whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.” Nonetheless, “Angels descending, bring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love.” It’s like Jean Paul Richter told us, “The guardian angels of life fly so high as to be beyond our sight, but they are always looking down upon us.” “O welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings!” Anger: There is a French Proverb that says, “Anger is a bad counselor.” Although anger compels you to action, it’s like Benjamin Franklin warned, “Anger and folly walk cheek by jowl.” Will Rogers put it this way, “People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing;” and Robert G. Ingersoll like this, “Anger blows out the lamp of the mind.” Should a Korean Proverb be more your style, try this one, “If you kick a stone in anger, you'll hurt your own foot.” Wherever in the world you seek your wisdom, indulging in anger is a major no-no. Even Horace gave it a thumbs-down, “Anger is short-lived madness.” Ambrose Bierce said, “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.” OK, go ahead and lose your temper if you must; but at least take a quick count to 10 as you “consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.”
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    7 mins
  • Noveling: AI Explores The New Self-Help

    Noveling: AI Explores The New Self-Help
    May 18 2024
    A Tapestry of Life In the last episode of Audio Tidbits, I discussed Noveling: The New Self-Help. My point was that most of our personal and interpersonal issues are due to mismatches between our roles and the characters we play in the ongoing novel of our lives. Experiences like depression, stress, anxiety and so on are little more than our minds and bodies telling us that there is one or more mismatches. The problem is not us. Rather it is being in the wrong role or needing to play the wrong character in our story. I suggest you revisit that episode for more detail; but I am continuing the exploration of noveling here. I asked AI to consider Noveling as an alternative to the usual psychological approach to understanding our life stories and how we are or are not coping. That is what I am sharing with you in this episode of Audio Tidbits: An AI take on Noveling in three chapters. Let’s consider the expanded perspective together. Chapter 1: The Novel of Life Gary (That would be me.) was a man of wisdom and experience, an 80-year-old PhD who had spent his life immersed in the intricacies of human behavior. He had worked in mental health, family services, relationships, management, and leadership, gaining a deep understanding of the complexities of the human mind and heart. One day, as Gary sat in his study surrounded by books and papers, he had a revelation that changed his perspective on life forever. He had always seen life as a novel, with characters, scenes, and action unfolding over time. But he realized that the psychological issues people faced - anxiety, depression, frustration - were often a result of a mismatch between their character and role in any given scene. Gary pondered this idea for days, turning it over in his mind like a puzzle waiting to be solved. He began to see how our interactions with others were like the plot twists in a novel, shaping and changing our characters in unforeseen ways. And he understood that we could not change our character role without affecting the other characters in our story, sometimes in ways we could not predict. It was a revelation that broke the stalemate in Gary's mind, opening up a new way of understanding the world and the people in it. He saw that life was not just a series of individual stories, but a vast interconnected novel where each character played a crucial role in the unfolding narrative. As Gary delved deeper into this new insight, he began to see the patterns and connections that bound us all together. He saw how our perceptions and beliefs shaped our actions and interactions, creating a web of relationships that spanned time and space. Gary shared his newfound wisdom with those around him, sparking conversations and debates that challenged the way people thought about themselves and others. He listened to their stories, absorbing the nuances and complexities of their lives, and he offered his guidance and support with a gentle hand and a kind heart. And as Gary continued on his journey of discovery, he realized that the novel of life was not just a story to be told, but a tapestry to be woven together with love, compassion, and understanding. And he knew that he had only just begun to scratch the surface of the intricate and beautiful tale that lay before him. Chapter 2: The Journey Begins Gary sat in his study, deep in thought, trying to piece together his revelation from the night before. The idea that life was like a novel was not a new concept, but the realization that there was a deeper way to understand it had struck him like a bolt of lightning. He decided to reach out to his old friend, Dr. Helen Richards, a renowned psychologist, to discuss his newfound insight. Dr. Richards was intrigued by Gary's revelation and agreed ...
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    9 mins
  • Noveling: The New Self-Help

    Noveling: The New Self-Help
    Apr 13 2024
    Let's dive into the fascinating world of noveling, the cutting-edge self-help tool that's redefining the way we cope with life's challenges. Imagine having a personal guide, a kind of narrative compass, that helps us navigate the intricate stories of our life. That's what noveling is all about. At the heart of noveling is the understanding that our lives are woven from countless stories —stories of triumph, struggle, joy, and heartache. These narratives shape our perceptions and, in many ways, dictate how we confront obstacles. But here's the twist: sometimes, the very stories we tell ourselves can become barriers, preventing us from seeing the full spectrum of possibilities and solutions at our disposal. noveling steps in as a transformitive tool by helping us to unravel these complex narratives. It's like having a mirror that reflects not just our outer selves but the inner tapestry of our thoughts and emotions. By engaging through noveling, we start to see the underlying patterns and "rules" that govern our stories. These aren't just arbitrary guidelines; they're the principles and beliefs that underpin our actions and reactions. Think of it as being handed the pen in the story of our life. noveling empowers us to question, "Why am I reacting this way? What plot twists have led me here?" It's about recognizing that, while we can't always control the storyline, we have the power to shape our character's journey. What's truly revolutionary about noveling is its role in mental wellness and self-improvement. In a world where traditional coping mechanisms can sometimes fall short, noveling offers a refreshing, narrative-based approach to self-help. It encourages us to become active authors of our stories, rather than passive characters swept along by the plot. In embracing noveling, we learn to navigate our lives with a new sense of agency and purpose, understanding that every challenge is an opportunity for character development and every setback, a plot twist leading to new growth. We don’t have just one story. We are the product of many stories. Along with shifting from story to story over time, we have participated in many stories at the same time in days gone by and have key roles in multiple stories today. Our stories mostly blend and mix more or less smoothly but occasionally clash and become incompatible. If things are not going well for us, let’s stop with the something is wrong with us notion. Although we perform well most of the time, in most of our stories, sometimes a story and our role in it is just not working for us. That should not be interpreted as something wrong with us. Right now, it is little more than being in a story we would do better not to be in, having a role that isn’t working for us, or not understanding the role well enough to pull it off. An element constrains our ability to quickly resolve issues with one or more of our stories and our roles in them. Our stories are not all separate and distinct. We can’t always make changes with respect to this or that story without causing unwanted or unintended disruption to others of our stories. We don’t need to fix us or fix someone else in our story. Help for us comes in terms of changing or rewriting our stories on the one hand or changing or rewriting our roles on the other. Either would be relatively easy were it not that we aren’t the only people in our stories and we usually can’t change or rewrite one of our stories without affecting other stories – ours and those of other people in our stories. The story of noveling will be continued in future posts and episodes. For now, give some thinking time to any of your stories that are not working for you and to the story's plot line and your roll. What is the issue with one or both elements causing the story not to work for you. Just keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with you. The problem is with the story line or your role. Help will come with rewriting or recasting the st...
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    4 mins
Social Sciences
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