The Habit of Being Friendly

I know that you're busy, I know that there are things to do and I know that your mind is probably pre-occupied with a 1000 matters that matter but I still think it is worthwhile to find the time and inclination to smile, nod and say 'Good morning'.

Seems to me that when I wandered through Nepal, did a speaking tour of India and whenever I present in New Zealand folk are still in the habit of being friendly. Now, I know some of you may be suspicious that a smile or nod or 'Namaste' may have intentions other than friendliness but I prefer to smile back, nod first and/or enjoy the moment of connectivity that a 'G'day mate' can bring to the world.

When I backpacked the world for years on end I spent some nights in a remote Youth Hostel in the West of Ireland and on its wall was a note that said 'There are no strangers here, only future friends'. Magic.

But have no fear; a nod, smile or greeting doesn't mean you have to be indebted to a lifetime of friendship it just means that you've taken the time to notice others on the life journey. It just means you are a sign of a little good will. By adding to the pool of good will we may just help the Planet cool a little and not be an angry, hostile place - a little bit of Heart Warming can do a little bit of Climate Cooling.

What the world needs now is... more smiles, nods and 'Good morning, good morning to you'.

Big City Walking

I don't have accurate memories of learning how to walk but I'm pretty sure it took me a while to master the standing up, the one foot in front of the other and the moving without teetering. For most, including me, when it comes to learning how to be pedestrian it happens slowly. And now it is happening again.

Not that I am struggling with standing up and the basics of one foot following the other but I am struggling with learning how to walk in big city crowds. Having moved from Perth to Melbourne I now face twice (or more) the size of city pedestrians. Walking involves breaking into and through walls of folk. Passing pedestrians means going wide and often into the gutter. Getting somewhere on foot means learning to appreciate that other people are walking without a purpose. Big city crowds incorporate people who like to stroll, then stop suddenly and simply enjoy standing in the middle of a footpath.

Learning to walk BIG city style is akin to learning how to drive bumper cars without the cars.

Then again, learning anything requires a bit of bash, crash and stumble & fall. Always better to see the challenge as an adventure in side show alley rather than getting hot, steamy and suffering pedestrian footpath rage.

HOPS - Higher Order Presentation Skills

The HOPS - Higher Order Presentation Skills: Making Complex Simple. Making Simple Deep. Making Deep Engaging. Making Engaging Real. Making it all come to life.

A National Tour for National Speakers Association to help each presenter/educator bring uniqueness, originality, creativity and shine to presentations.

HOPS require speakers/trainers/teachers to discover the Design Artist within and to present courageously. It takes more risk, but done well, results in a deeper learning experience for all participants (including you).
Bookings @ National Speakers Association Australia 1800 090 024.

Cracks in the Jetty

As a kid I was afraid to walk on the Esperance jetty because I thought I would fall through the cracks. Now, let me make it quite clear here that I was not a super thin kid so there was no actual way I could possibly slither.

I am not sure when the cracks stopped having power over me. There was no Karate Kid moment, no climactic arm pumping Rocky run, no triumphant knock out blow… just one day, in one set of holidays, where I forgot about the cracks and walked up the jetty without worry.

Decades later I was watching Jack Nicholson in the movie ‘As Good As It Gets’. His character wouldn’t step on any of the cracks in the New York pavement. I laughed, smiled and kind of understood.

If the character had come to me for advice I probably would have said to him ‘just get busy enjoying other stuff in life and somehow the cracks dissolve’. Better still, I might even attempt singing some Leonard Cohen lines from his song Anthem:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget the perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

I have learned to love the cracks in life: cracking up, giving things a crack, things being crackerjack. Life is more interesting with a crack or two.

Waves Across the Nullabor

When you take a slow (or fast) drive across Australia you get to drive 'the longest straight stretch of road in the World' or so the sign says. 1000 kilometers east of Perth on the Nullabor Plain you hit the 90 Mile Straight (146 km). No bend, no kink,no deviation. The only trouble with no kinks in life is that they can sometimes make you become complacent.

One of the many beautiful things about the long drive across Australia is that more often than not when approaching on-coming traffic you and the on-coming driver exchange a little wave of the hand in passing. Sometimes you can go for hours without on-coming traffic, other times there can be three of four vehicles in the space of an hour. These little waves, these acknowledgements of the passing 'ships in the night' help to keep focus, help to jolt complacency. They may be only little waves from seemingly 'complete strangers' but it is a way that long haul drivers look out for each other. It's a way of saying 'Mate, keep alert. You're not alone. It's good to see you.'

Little waves are important in life whether we are driving long straight roads or walking bending streets in a thriving metropolis. Human beings need connectivity, we need to acknowledge and be acknowledged as part of a whole. Little waves in the form of a nod, a knowing smile, a gentle hand, a thumbs up... are ways of reminding us to reach out and understand. Let's not take our fellow folk for granted. Little waves can keep us trucking.

A Wide Brown Land For Me

In the Thinking Caps book there is a piece about 'Calling Australia Home' and the values of mate ship, giving things your best shot and a fair go for all. Each year I fly over Australia 30 or 40 times and this wide, red dirt land disappears in 5 or 6 hours of reading, doing a crossword or two and having a meal. It has been many years since I drove across Oz (I hitched across several times in younger years when the World was a different place) and it really is a wonderful thing to do. In a slow drive across this land you notice subtle changes, hues of color, diversity of landscape and you sense the rugged and ragged beauty. You also appreciate some of the great challenges of distance that rural and remote Australian communities face. I am so glad we are not just all cities and I am so glad that we have taken this slower time (Coo-ee Time) to journey. To dip our toes into various beaches, to sense the heat of 45 degree days when the wind can cook you and then to enjoy the spray of a late sea breeze.

Years ago Macca and I wrote a song called Cooee Child based on a poem I wrote as Marc Diffen and I sat on the granite rocks outside of Mt Magnet. 'Go gently within the morning, go slowly within your day, go with your eyes wide open, Cooee Child the word is spoken... let's walk about this wondrous untouched land...' As we walk about this wide and wondrous land I am reminded to breathe deeply in nature, particularly when so much of our lives is in cities and on planes.

Thinking Caps on www.glenncapelli.com

Multiple Personalities

It's funny but I bumped into someone recently who said 'Glenn Capelli, weren't you the footballer?' In my early years my 'identity' was that of the kid down the oval kicking a footy, the young bloke leading a side onto a field, Capa the Captain. Two knee operations later and I have to conclude my days of kicking a footy, so I get my knees to take up marathon running. For years I ran a minimum of 10KMs a day and usually far more. My best Marathon time was 3 Hours 15 Minutes and I was aiming to break the magic 3 hour mark when (as might be guessed) the knee collapsed again.

From 'identity' of Footballer, to Runner and then to Hobo. For a lot of the 1980s my possessions were all rolled into a backpack as I chucked laps of the World - kibbutz in Israel, four summers of Camp in North Carolina, months in Kenya, trains in Europe: sleeping rough and sometimes not sleeping at all.

It's funny how many identities we are tagged with throughout life - footballer, runner, hobo, husband, business person, teacher, guy on radio, speaker... but I hope whatever identities we are tagged with, no matter how the world sees us, that we maintain the identity of being a Learner at our core. To experience diversity and continue to learn from it, to experience others beneath their 'identities' and to continue to learn from them.