Listening to Don Henley today while catching up on things I need to get done, he has this lyric in "Gimme What You Got": Baby picks off your plate, yours looks better She throws hers on the floor Here in the home of the brave and the land of the free The first word that baby learns is "More" Yep. That's such an American trait. As though babies in Africa don't ask for more. I remember thinking in my former halcyon days as a liberal that Don's lyric here was clever. Today it only seems worded cute with absent fact, in a Molly Ivins/Frank Rich kind of way. America is the most generous country in the world. By far.Normally I don't listen to lyrics because most are silly anyway, but this hit me today. I'm reading Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono. This idea is that thinking is also a skill to be honed, not just a native talent inherited through the gene pool. To direct one's thinking, he suggests deliberately wearing six "hats": - White - neutral and objective, concerned with facts and figures
- Red - emotional, "how do you feel about that?"
- Black - careful and cautious, the "devil's advocate" hat
- Yellow - the sunny and positive
- Green - associated with fertile growth, creativity, and new ideas
- Blue - the everything else, organizing mode of thinking
His argument is that a well-rounded, fully thinking person can take any subject/topic and apply any/all hats, then make a more balanced decision.It's a good exercise, and important not to wear only one or two hats too often when making decisions. |