As a Quaker committed to peace, the thought of saying anything good about Alexander the Great may seem odd. It’s fashionable after the event to speak well of conquering tyrants (Hitler excepted): what a splendid leader Napoleon was, and how amazing Julius Caesar was – why he even came to England, the first wave, andContinue reading “Belief, the Ideal Self and Alexander the Great”
Tag Archives: Poetry
The Beauty and the Banal
Today my wife and I visited the Southampton City Art Gallery and had a wonderful time; it’s a place, if you like art, I strongly recommend you visit: http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/sotonartgallery/. The Burne-Jones Perseus collection is absolutely fabulous (and fabulous in the real sense of the word from fable) and reminds me of the essential characteristic ofContinue reading “The Beauty and the Banal”
Outside In or Inside Out Poetry?
I read a poem recently that was written by a well known – famous even – English poet. The poem had been specially commissioned for a leading charitable organisation that was dealing with poverty and homelessness. To be fair, the poem was interesting – on its own terms. What he had done was artfully constructContinue reading “Outside In or Inside Out Poetry?”
The Beautiful Disgrace of Burn’s Night
Sometimes one has to admit that something so beautiful can be a disgrace. We have just passed just such a moment for the English. I am referring to Burn’s Night, of course, that marvellous invention of the Scots, celebrated on the 25thJanuary! To digress a moment, I think it would be true to say thatContinue reading “The Beautiful Disgrace of Burn’s Night”
The nebulous, the subjective and the sub-conscious
I find when I talk about motivation I frequently have to admit three things: that motivation, as a topic, is nebulous, subjective and mostly ‘sub-conscious’. What do I mean by this? When Dr Johnson, of dictionary fame, was asked, What is poetry? He famously replied that this was like asking, What is light? We allContinue reading “The nebulous, the subjective and the sub-conscious”
Playing darts with Dr Dave
Last weekend I went on an expedition with Dr Dave Richards, the great business strategist (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/drdaverichards). In fact we decided to have a brief weekend away to re-charge. Our destination was the tiny fishing village of Polperro in Cornwall. Tiny is a good word for it; as is remote – you certainly need to beContinue reading “Playing darts with Dr Dave”
The Mapping Motivation Series 