Pete Carroll Wants to Change Your Life

Ed note: I think it’s fascinating that corporate America (like Microsoft) and major philanthropy (like the Gates Foundation) feel that they have lessons to learn from Pete. Perhaps we all do. Do you notice the absence of negative thinking and criticism?!

The Seattle Seahawks’ coach is shaping his locker room talks about self-discovery and finding meaning in life for corporate America.

Pete Carroll, 68, has been a tireless advocate for culture-building in Seattle.
Pete Carroll, 68, has been a tireless advocate for culture-building in Seattle.Credit…Matt Rourke/Associated Press

By Matthew Futterman

Pete Carroll has heard the haters telling him what he can do with all his New Age banter, all that talk about self-discovery and the Seattle Seahawks’ culture of love.

He knows there’s a coach on the other side of the country with six Super Bowl rings — the guy who replaced him in New England 20 years ago. That guy obsesses about down and distance and blitz packages, and has built the model 21st-century football organization around three words: “Do your job.” Carroll has one Super Bowl ring.

Carroll swears that’s not how he keeps score, even though he is paid to win football games. It’s all process, he says. Don’t believe him? “I do hear it from people, you know, ‘Stick to your coaching,’” he said last month as the N.F.L. playoffs approached and the Seahawks tried to find their groove. “I don’t care.”

As if to prove it, there Carroll is, suddenly in jeans and a sweater and sneakers, beamed into a digital course on human performance, leading a kind of corporate group therapy discussion about the process of creating a personal philosophy for your life. Tens of thousands of employees at Fortune 500 companies have participated in the training sessions Carroll and his partners have created to help people find purpose and perform better.

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When you have too much time on your hands

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Skyline.Notices 1/9/20

Give-aways

The Seattle Chamber Music Society is holding its Winter Festival in Nordstrom Hall at Benaroya on January 17, 18 and 19 and the following weekend January 24, 25 and 26. The first weekend is devoted to part 1 of the magnificent string quartets by Beethoven; part 2 of the Beethoven string quartets will be performed at the Society’s Summer Festival in July.  As a Board member, Diane Stevens may be able to obtain two guest tickets to attend one of the performances for a couple (or two single persons) who have not attended these performances in the past and who are curious to find out more about this organization which is beginning its 39th season in Seattle.  If interested, please contact Diane at enaidstevens@gmail.com or 206-285-9941. (For additional information on the Society, go to seattlechambermusic.org.) (first-come, first-served, of course)

Marcia Congdon is offering two good seats for tomorrow’s Seattle Symphony concert at noon.  She has a parking pass for Benaroya Hall but there is also a Skyline bus from 8th Avenue that leaves at 11:15 on Friday (and returns when the concert is over about 2:20). The program includes Elena Langer, “Figaro Gets a Divorce Suite” (a World Premiere); Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”; and Felix Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 4, “Italian”.  If you’re interested in these tickets, call her at 206-402-5550 (first-come, first-served, of course).

Expeditions

Val Lynch and Put Barber are heading to the Tacoma Art Museum on Thursday, January 16, to catch the exhibit on the connections between the world-wide Impressionist Movement and Pacific Northwest Artists – “The exhibition will provide visitors the unique opportunity to enjoy signature works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Gauguin, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas, as well as some of the American and Northwestern artists they influenced, including Theodore Robinson, Theodore Wendel, C.C. McKim, and Clara Jane Stephens.”  They will be leaving at 10 that morning and have room for two more people in their car plus guest tickets to the Museum.  If you would like to go, write Put at putnam.barber@gmail.com (first-come, first-served of course).

Requests for help

If you have the equipment and know-how to transfer VHS tapes to computer files, Put Barber would love to have you convert four or five tapes of family memorabilia into a form which he and Val could watch on a computer and send along to other family members.  If you’re able to help with this, please write him at putnam.barber@gmail.com at your convenience.

About this blog post

The goal for this blog posting is to increase the connections among people who live at Skyline in whatever ways make sense. Other kinds of announcements that fit with that goal are welcome.

On Wednesdays, Put Barber will compile any announcements sent to skyline.notices@gmail.com into a list of notices like the ones above, which will then be posted to “Skyline 725 Happenings” (https://www.skyline725.com/) early Thursday morning. Please include your contact information in your message and, if f you prefer to be contacted in some way (text, email, phone, or at a specific time), please include your preference as well.

Please send anything you would like to suggest to be included before 5 pm on Wednesdays to skyline.notices@gmail.com.

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Getting old?

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Socializing, pain and depression study

Dealing with pain can be a significant barrier to staying socially active, but there may be other options for socializing beyond in-person contact that can be beneficial for older adults’ well-being.

To find out if pain encourages older adults to engage in more online social activity, researchers examined data from 3,401 community-dwelling adults age 65 and better who participated in the National Health and Aging Trends Study in 2013 and 2014. They focused on participants’ reported levels of depressive symptoms, pain, online social activity (using a social network site in the last month), formal social activity (attending religious services or clubs), and informal social activity (visiting or meeting up with friends). Analyses controlled for sleep problems, presence of health conditions or disability, cognitive functioning, engagement in other online activities, and sociodemographic characteristics.

In general, older adults who engaged in any type of social activity at baseline (2013) were less likely to be depressed at follow-up (2014), while older adults who reported pain at baseline were more likely to be depressed at baseline and at follow-up. Digging deeper, the researchers found no difference in baseline social activity (both online and in-person) between older adults with pain and those without pain. At follow-up, however, older adults with pain tended to engage in less formal social activity than those without pain. There was a trend for baseline pain leading to more online and less informal social activity, but this was not significant.

Even more interesting, however, was the finding that online social activity acted as a buffer in the relationship between pain and depression. Older adults with pain who used social network sites were at no greater risk of developing depression than older adults without pain. By comparison, social network site non-users with pain had nearly double the risk of depression at follow-up.

While dealing with aches and pains is a common aspect of growing older, it places older adults at greater risk of developing depression. Engaging in online social activity may be effective in buffering this risk, because it helps older adults avoid the struggles of dealing with pain in public.

Want to keep up with recent research that’s relevant to aging services? Use the form below to subscribe to our monthly InvestigAge email.

Source: Ang S and Chen T-Y. Going online to stay connected: online social participation buffers the relationship between pain and depression. Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences (2019), 74(6), 1020-1031.

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CARE RECIPIENT Q&A ON PREFERENCES REVEALS SURPRISING ANSWERS

Are older adults receiving the type of long-term services and supports (LTSS) they want? A recent study examines whether LTSS preferences match the care arrangements that older adults have, and if this relates to quality of life.

The sample of 1,783 participants came from the National Health and Aging Trends study, a nationally representative survey of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older. These individuals were randomly sampled to respond to questions about LTSS care. To determine care preference, interviewers described a scenario in which an 80-year-old individual, Pat, needs help with bathing, dressing, and getting around inside. Participants were asked to choose the best care for Pat among the following options: living at home with help from friends and family; living at home with paid help; living with an adult child; living in an assisted living facility or Life Plan Community; or living in a nursing home. By asking about care preference indirectly, the interviewers hoped to ascertain respondents’ true care preferences regardless of their own care arrangement.

The majority of participants said that staying at home was the best care option, which was an expected result. However, almost one-third believed that assisted living/Life Plan Community was best. This is a change from past decades. Only a small percentage of individuals felt that living in a nursing home or with an adult child were the best options. In addition, only one-third of participants were receiving care that matched their preference. This was more likely among the oldest participants, perhaps indicating either a change in care or a change in preference over time.  Surprisingly, there was no difference in quality of life between those with preferred care and those with care not matching their preference. The researchers acknowledged that there are many additional factors that influence quality of life, but also suggested that future studies utilize alternate quality of life measures to see if the results change.

Source: Kasper JD, Wolff JL, & Skehan M. Care arrangements of older adults: What they prefer, what they have, and implications for quality of life. The Gerontologist (2019); 59(5):845-855.

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The magic of videos

Thanks Donna D!

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Irish Craic and Humour

Thanks Gordon G.!

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Welcome to a new contributor

Put Barber has come up with the marvelous innovation of a weekly page on this blog which will help our thriving community to be even better informed and sharing neighbors. Please take him up and submit your post for the Thursday flyer – email him at skyline.notices@gmail.com.

Most of the regular Skyline activities like in-house event posting, movies, etc. will be put on the portal care-merge site which Carmen manages. So the focus of this blog page will be more resident-to-resident focused and be a “live” bulletin board.

Thanks so much Put. I can see multiple uses for this page. Many we will discover over time: Need a ride after a medical procedure? Going to Costco and have space? Know of a great hairdresser? Call me if you know a great aide or dentist? The list goes on.

Posted in Advocacy, happiness, In the Neighborhood | 1 Comment

The lady and the owl

This short documentary introduces us to the McKeevers, who care for injured owls. They live in the country and have built special cages for different purposes and species. There are many ways of being wounded, yet many ways of being cured

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New Feature on Skyline725

Starting later this month, Skyline 25 Happenings will have a new page on Thursday every week.  Edited by Put Barber, the page will consist of messages from residents and staff for residents.  Some of the things that may appear are:

  • Offers of surplus tickets to events outside the building. (“We have two tickets to the Symphony on Sunday, but we can’t attend.  If you’d like to go, email this_person@this_address.com.  First-come first served.” Or: “I have two tickets to Act on Tuesday, but only one of us can go.  Let me know at this_person@this_address.com if you’d like to join me.”)
  • Requests for help with small-scale challenges. (“I’d like to reserve room at this B&B in Italy, but the owners only speak Italian.  Can someone help me explain my requirements?  Let me know at this_person@this_address.com.” Or: “I have a some stuff I’d like to donate to the rummage sale at my church.  Can someone with a car help me get these things out of my apartment and delivered.  Let me know at this_person@this_address.com.”)
  • Offers of expeditions.  (“I’m going to the Whatcom Museum of Art on Saturday for their show on Nutcracker Dolls.  If you’d like to come too, let me know at this_person@this_address.com.   There’s space for two more in my car.”)
  • Invitations to join in volunteer activities. (I’m going to Town Hall at 2 on Wednesday to help with collating packets for junior high students coming to a debate on immigration policy.  If you can spend an hour with this cheerful group, please come to the West Entrance a little before 2.  Any number of willing hands will be welcome.”)

If the people who are organizing these activities send me the necessary information, the new page might include:

  • Announcements of new additions to the sign-up book next to the Concierge Desk.
  • Welcome for new residents when they move in
  • New brief bio submissions
  • Changes of time or location for regularly scheduled events
  • New items available at the Corner Store
  • Requests for suggestions for movies to be shown, books to be read by the book-group, or other similar ideas

As the above lists suggest, the goal for this new blog post is to increase the connections among people who live at Skyline in whatever way makes sense.  Put will let you know promptly if whatever you send him doesn’t seem suitable, but the fence is going to be pretty low and pretty far out in the field.  He’ll be putting the page together (as a list of items) on Wednesdays, so send him (skyline.notices@gmail.com) anything you’d like to appear on some future Thursday before Wednesday of that week.

If you have any questions, let Put know at putnam.barber@gmail.com.

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How do you like writing assignments?

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Oh, don’t worry. He’d never start a war!

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Older People Need Geriatricians. Where Will They Come From?

By Paula Span in the NYT:

Linda Poskanzer was having a tough time in her late 60s.

“I was not doing well emotionally,” she recalled. “Physically, I didn’t have any stamina. I was sleeping a lot. I wasn’t getting to work.”

A therapist in Hackensack, N.J., Ms. Poskanzer was severely overweight and grew short of breath after walking even short distances. Her house had become disorganized, buried in unsorted paperwork. The antidepressant she was taking didn’t seem to help.

Her son, visiting from Florida, called his sisters and said, “Mommy needs an intervention.”

One of her daughters made an appointment with a geriatrician — a physician who specializes in the care of older adults. Dr. Manisha Parulekar, now chief of geriatrics at Hackensack University Medical Center, suggested her new patient take action on several fronts. She arranged for a sleep study, which found that Ms. Poskanzer suffered from apnea. She prescribed a different antidepressant, and physical therapy in a pool to help rebuild her stamina.

And weight loss. Eventually, the geriatrician agreed that bariatric surgery made sense. Over nine months, Ms. Poskanzer lost 75 pounds; she has shed another 15 since.

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800 Columbia event

It happened about 12:20pm today. That’s the little parking lot across from St-James.

Posted in In the Neighborhood | 2 Comments

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Winter 2020 Courses

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Washington (OLLI-UW) invites adults over the age of 50 to come together to share intellectual interests and make new friends through a range of exciting programs. Learn for the joy of learning, without tests, grades or papers. Courses are offered in Everett, Mercer Island, Mukilteo, Redmond, and Seattle. Links to titles and details on these courses are here.

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And this year I will ….

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The USAF Band Holiday Flash Mob at the National Air and Space Museum

Starting with a single cellist on the floor of the National Air and Space Museum’s Milestones of Flight gallery and swelling to 120 musicians, The United States Air Force Band exhilarated museum visitors yesterday with its first-ever flash mob. The four-minute performance featured an original arrangement of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring/Joy to the World,” led by the Band’s commander and conductor, Col. Larry H. Lang. Unsuspecting museum visitors including tourists and school groups were astonished as instrumentalists streamed into the gallery from behind airplanes and space capsules, and vocalists burst into song from the Museum’s second floor balcony. Also available in high definition

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Singing Mozart in the MRI shows how overtone singers can hit two notes at once

In polyphonic overtone singing, vocalists manipulate their tongue, mouth and throat to produce two tones at once. While the technique has emerged in disparate societies, it is thought to have originated in (and is most commonly associated with) Mongolian culture. For this video, the German singer Anna-Maria Hefele entered an MRI machine to perform Mozart’s ‘Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling’ (‘Longing for Springtime’), alternating between ‘normal’ monophonic and polyphonic overtone singing. Produced by researchers at the Freiburg Institute for Musicians’ Medicine in Germany, the MRI imagery provides an extraordinary peak into the distinct differences between these singing styles, revealing yet another marvel of human physiology.

Posted in Music, Science and Technology | 1 Comment

The dancing species: how moving together in time helps make us human

<p>Dancers in traditional dress, Kenya. <em>Photo by Kate Holt/Flickr</em></p>
Kimerer LaMothe is a philosopher, dancer and scholar of religion. She is the author of six books, including Why We Dance: A Philosophy of Bodily Becoming (2015). Formerly on the faculty of Harvard University, she currently lives in upstate New York.

Dancing is a human universal, but why? It is present in human cultures old and new; central to those with the longest continuous histories; evident in the earliest visual art on rock walls from France to South Africa to the Americas, and enfolded in the DNA of every infant who invents movements in joyful response to rhythm and song, long before she can walk, talk or think of herself as an ‘I’. Dancing remains a vital, generative practice around the globe into the present in urban neighbourhoods, on concert stages, as part of healing rituals and in political revolutions. Despite efforts waged by Christian European and American colonists across six continents over 500 years to eradicate indigenous dance traditions and to marginalise dancing within their own societies, dancing continues wherever humans reside. Any answer to the question of why humans dance must explain its ubiquity and tenacity. In so doing, any answer will challenge Western notions of human being that privilege mind over body as the seat of agency and identity.

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How to get off that crane

Thanks to Gordon G. Mountain climbers enjoy!

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Faster, faster!

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Huh? Trump on windpower

It’s hard to believe the following, or maybe it’s not. The fact checking site, Snopes, confirms the following from our current President. Thanks to Dorothy W. for finding this.

“…We’ll have an economy based on wind. I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it [sic] better than anybody I know. It’s [sic] very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none. But they’re manufactured — tremendous, if you’re into this, tremendous fumes, gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So [a] tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything — you talk about the “carbon footprint” — fumes are spewing into the air, right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything, right?

So they make these things, and then they put them up, and if you own a house within vision of some of these monsters, your house is worth 50 percent of the price. They’re noisy, they kill the birds. You want to see a bird graveyard? You just go, take a look, a bird graveyard? Go under a windmill some day. You’ll see more birds than you’ve ever seen ever in your life …”

Citation

The remarks included in the meme are shown in boldface above. Occupy Democrats did not misquote Trump and quoted word-for-word from his actual remarks, though the creators of the meme made slightly different punctuation choices to those we made.

They also left out a short section where Trump explained his purported knowledge of windmills: “I’ve studied it [sic] better than anybody I know. It’s [sic] very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none.” That gap should have been reflected in the quotation with the use of an ellipsis, but the omission did not distort the meaning or sense of what Trump said, and we therefore issue a rating of “Correct Attribution.”

Although his remarks were somewhat garbled at times, Trump appeared to have been making the point that the construction of wind turbines causes carbon emissions (“tremendous fumes”). For what it’s worth, it’s true that building and maintaining wind turbines does leave a carbon footprint, but analyses have shown that the overall negative environmental impact of wind power is far outstripped by that of the fossil fuel energy sources that wind power is intended to replace. 

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New Zealand Ban on Most Semiautomatic Weapons Takes Effect

The law, passed after the Christchurch massacre in March, outlaws military-style semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles. It will be enforced as a gun buyback and amnesty program ends amid debate.

In April, Mike McIlraith, acting superintendent of police, showed New Zealand lawmakers an AR-15-style rifle similar to one of the weapons used in the mosque shootings in Christchurch.
In April, Mike McIlraith, acting superintendent of police, showed New Zealand lawmakers an AR-15-style rifle similar to one of the weapons used in the mosque shootings in Christchurch.Credit…Nick Perry/Associated Press

A sweeping nationwide ban on most semiautomatic weapons took effect in New Zealand on Saturday, as a monthslong gun buyback and amnesty program ended amid debate over its success.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had announced a temporary ban just days after a terror attack on two mosques in Christchurch in March that left 51 people dead and was streamed live on Facebook. Weeks later, all but one of Parliament’s 120 lawmakers voted to make the ban permanent. It outlaws military-style semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles, and some gun parts, and violators face five years in prison.

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