Category: Daily Blog

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Shocking Where A Year Leads Us

I am back in my second semester of graduate school and we just had the first two days of our social change class.  A year ago I was just applying to be here and it is absolutely shocking how in the short time I have learned so much and have become so close to so many incredible people.  The following post is an entry I wrote after I applied to this graduate program.  Finishing up two days in such an impactful class on social change adds support to what I was thinking before coming to Little Rock, AR.

Entry from January 29th, 2012

This last week I needed to write a short essay for something I am working on.  After I wrote it, I thought it necessary to post it on the website to help describe what I mean and feel with the “We Are All Involved” campaign.  Also, coming after a week where we had the state of the union address as well as the resignation of Gabrielle Giffords were great supporting reasons to post this essay.

WE ARE ALL INVOLVED

In the past few months, I have taken on my own personal mantra, “We are all involved”. We hear it when President Obama speaks and we hear it when the Republican candidates are in their debates, positive social action can only happen when we are all working together.  Unfortunately, this can not only be said, but action needs to follow these statements in order to keep our integrity.  For that reason, I identify as an activist; someone who is actively encouraging myself, as well as others, to be alive and conscious in our world, helping to better all of our communities. 

            Being alive and conscious means actively participating in the decisions that are being made around you while being vulnerable to the habitual resistance to social change that we constantly encounter.  I feel with all my heart that with repeated action on how we have great impact on each other, positive social change will happen.  With repeated action, education and responsibility, the curve for social involvement can increase tenfold.   Repeated action, education and responsibility, I believe, would lead to a higher standard of social accountability in which not only would we collectively be there for one another, but we would hold each other accountable for our actions.

            The vision of my mantra, “we are all involved”, would be to see constituents holding their elected officials accountable for their pre-elected campaign promises.  In this vision, I see neighbors helping one another with childcare, ways of going green, and basic community actions that we have seemed to be lost throughout our country.  This vision also has the highest value for our education; where teachers are not just babysitters, but are the educational hub to our society in which we praise them and give them the gratitude they deserve while holding them responsible for our future.  This vision is heightened social involvement where we all benefit.

            I feel an obligation to use my voice and interpersonal skills to invoke social involvement whenever I can.  I see it done with my staff at work and with my friends in everyday situations.  Much of my life has been in the restaurant world as a leader.  My most valuable management technique is that I lead by example.  Leading by example is the best way to accomplish heightened social involvement from any activist who may have similar goals because fortunately, people just need to see it being done. Once a path has been cleared, they will assist and add with verve and tenacity.  Social action, social responsibility, social involvement or however one would like to title it can be accomplished once we all acknowledge that we are all involved!

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Current Kinecting: Hurricane Sandy and the Rockaways

Thank you to everyone already helping out with the relief from Hurricane Sandy.  In Queens in Long Island there is a place called the Rockaways that has been devastated.  Unfortunately because of geography, local politics, damage and debris, clean up is not happening as efficiently and with a sense of urgency as it needs to.  Temperatures are dropping and residents are without the tools to get through this.  Below is a list of links for you to help or share.  If you have links to add, please add them in comment boxes.

Right now, Project Kinect is in contact with local leaders in the Roackaways to get food, water and tools to them out of Little Rock, AR.  If you are able to assist with this endeavor, please email me at gregg@projectkinect.com.

*If you donate money, Project Kinects asks that you first make sure you are donating to an organization that will be giving the procedes directly to those who are in need of relief.

 

Most immediate right now are: Please contact Project Kinect with any information on donations of the following goods

                             Work Boots: Mens sizes 11-14

                            Batteries

                             Blankets

                             Water 
Here are some additional needs that are most urgent.

Links for Further Assistance 

 

 

 

 

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A Reminder: Inspiration

Today I had the luxury to ride for four hours with someone who I have established a deep connection with since arriving to Little Rock. While driving, we began speaking about inspiration and how it impacts our daily lives.  For anyone who has read my blog, followed Project Kinect or spent even just a little time with me most likely has been witness to my emphasis on inspiration.  Inspiration is necessary in order to get positive change moving forward.

I thought that I would post a couple previous thoughts on the topic of inspiration.  The first is from my blog while I was doing a two-week journey on figuring out what I was going to do next in my life. This is from the summer of 2010.  If you’re interested, here is the beginning of the two week journey.  Keep in mind it was an off the cuff experiment and was intentionally just written and not edited.  Here is Day 7 discussing inspiration and making sure we have inspiration catalogued somewhere so we can easily access it.

Day 5 Beliefs and Inspiration

Inspiration comes from so many different avenues. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come all the time, that’s why we have to be able to record what inspires us and be able to access it. While I was watching Grey’s Anatomy today, I realized that one of the reasons that I have been such an avid fan for such a long time is because I am always inspired by it and am able to go back to it and watch it again and again to get those feelings repeated. That is the main reason why such a show as Sex and the City are so popular. Yes, entertainment value is there, but so is inspiration.
Inspiration and Spirituality. There are of course, many reasons why we, as human beings are spiritual. It is a way to come together in communion. It helps keep us balanced and grounded and holds us accountable to the actions we take. Above all these things though, it inspires us. I must say, because for some of you reading that don’t know me as well, when I mention spirituality, it doesn’t necessarily mean religion. It can be religion, meditation, exercise, Wicca, or whatever. For me, it is Rilka’s Letters to a Young Poet. When I really get into the thick of life, I go back to it. I have been through probably, at least, twenty-five copies. I give them away, write too much, or just get the most out of them. It is one of my touchstones.
 
This weekend I am going to log down my areas of inspiration, continue with what I believe in while mixing it up with my wants and my needs. At the end of the weekend, day 7, I’ll bullet point the week and have a full list of these topics. Once that is there, I have a funny feeling integrity is going to sneak its way in and we will throw that up against our lists.
The last part I want to write about stems from another T.V. show. I have recently fell in love with the show Parenthood, thanks to hulu.com, and the season finale paralleled this little journey. The matriarch of the entire family is going through the exact same thing that we are. It is just a reminder that this is a check and adjust system for our entire lives, not just now. The other thing that was mentioned was that you have to be actively participation in your life. I’ve taken quite a few courses with Landmark Education, and this is a reoccurring idea with that organization too. We cannot sit on the sidelines of our life. If we do, we will vanish and there will be no evidence of our existence.

 

This is a post from June twenty-third of this year.   It really gets to how inspiration leads to momentum.

Beginning with Inspiration

What do you do with inspiration once you have it?  We have to remember that inspiration doesn’t always stem from a great or beautiful happening; it can be ugly and sad yet still inspiring.  To be inspired, you just need something that triggers a movement inside you.  Something that is compelling or moving enough to make you sad, angry, extremely happy or so overwhelmed that you have to find out more about that particular subject and share it with someone.  That is inspiration.

Unfortunately, inspiration gets lost much too quickly today.  It gets lost because we don’t want to notice it or we have so many other “important” things happening, that we let it fall to the side where it can just be an amazing feeling one moment followed by the next task, or, we are just too lazy to do anything about it.  When we are struck with an inspiration, we often look at it with an all or nothing attitude.  A forty something man or woman sees a professional hockey game or figure skating competition and think to themselves “I really wish I could do that but it’s too late for that”.  Well yes, it is too late for you to get the next gold medal in the Olympics, but the inspiration there is not all or nothing.  In our realm of life, there are so many ways that we can use that moment of inspiration and make it into a tangible action that moves forward and gains momentum.  For these two forty something adults, they could sponsor a skate team, start a fundraiser to buy skates for children in their community, learn how to skate or take their children skating.  There is so much space in between all and nothing that we have freedom to let an inspiration guide us.

I find it funny in a way that we so often say to ourselves, “but what can I do?” when somehow, we can watch a singing competition on television and are able to call in and vote.  We are inspired by the performance to pick up the phone and make that call to vote yet we still say in our everyday lives, “what can I do?”

As I continue to show you what I am doing through my project, Project Kinect, please really start answering that question to what you can do?  There are so many possibilities that many are probably not even thought up yet in your head. While we have been helping at the kitchen next to the once Church of Christ, a woman who had been stopping by for supplies found herself inspired by what was happening at this kitchen.  She found herself with nothing but time and now she is volunteering two days a week there at the kitchen.

Inspiration is just the start to creating something possible and real for anybody.  Many times, inspiration can just be what gets an idea going. The idea itself inspires someone to use their resources which then builds into a large united change from a cycle of inspired thoughts stemmed from one person.  Never underestimate how large or small your contribution is when inspiration pipes its vocal chords.  Anything you do when you are inspired is greater than not doing anything at all.  It just takes a conscious effort of not sliding into an all or nothing attitude but, finding out what is in your reach that you can make a contribution.

Inspiration is really just momentum; Kinetic energy that is sitting there ready to move forward through some vehicle one way or another.  The next time you feel that momentum, test yourself and see if there is something you can do with it to benefit someone else.  I think that moment, that small millisecond of a moment, right there is the moment that each one of us has the ability to change who we are as a whole society and possibly get ourselves moving in a more positive direction.  We are all involved.

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Happy 4th

Today is the day to feel like a community.  Whether we are together watching fireworks, with loved ones at a barbecue, or just staying in the air conditioning watching the festivities, we get the chill that causes our hairs to stand up because we feel one and complete as a country. Unfortunately,  that feeling needs to be able to happen more than one day a year.  We need to find a way that we are constantly standing side by side, ready to support one another in the good times and the bad instead of being ready to pounce on one-another’s jugular because we don’t see eye to eye on every point. 

This country was built on the freedom of having our own views, creating our own lives without taxation and the ability to have fair representation.  We are all together in this and we all created the circumstances that we are in.  Now together, on our independence day, lets really start looking at how to move into the future as one organized group who are unified and strong, not fighting and weak.  Everyone of us have worth, we just have to find that out together.

We Are All Involved!

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Project Kinect Most Currently

Thank you for visiting Project Kinect.  For those who are new to this website and are not familiar to Project Kinect, please spend some time with my journey page.  Project Kinect was originally a year-long grassroots travel project to create a new definition for the word community.  From March of 2011 to February of 2012, I traveled the country discovering what different forms of communities are doing to better themselves while documenting these findings in order to share with other communities in similar circumstances.  The  website is built so that you can see what I did, who I met and other extraordinary things that were happening in other parts of the country.  If you would like to just watch some or all of the videos, please check out the Youtube Channel for Project Kinect.

For everyone who wants to continue following Project Kinect, please continue to check out the website.  I will continue to add great things I see that involves connecting and community as well will continue to respond to emails and posting your great events to the community boards in your different cities.  Also, make sure you continue to check current kinecting as well as the work in progress, The Norman Rockwell Project.

In the future, I have plans to create Project Kinect into a nonprofit that primarily works on assisting in community growth whether it is a community that needs to rebuild after a natural disaster or a neighborhood that desperately needs help and resources to regain it’s sense of community.  Until then, I will be getting my masters at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.  I will keep all of the great things me and my fellow classmates are doing right here on the website so you can follow along as well as take any volunteer opportunities that may come up because of our activities.

Thank you all for the continued support and please email me with any additions, comments or events you would like to share with me and Project Kinect by emailing gregg@projectkinect.com.

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The Importance of a Detour

This last week I had planned on making an exciting road trip across country.  If you have been a follower of Project Kinect, then you know I am a huge road trip person.  Ever since I was twenty, I’ve taken one, two or sometimes three big road trips a year.  It is the best way to see our country and leads to spontaneity and experiences that we may have not been exposed to if we were taking a different way of travel.

Well this road trip was going from Wisconsin Dells to Austin, TX and then onto San Antonio through El Paso and then finally to Los Angeles for a few weeks and then back through Colorado.  Even though this was my plan, something much greater than me was saying my plan was wrong.

I should have been more vulnerable to the things happening around me in the days leading up to the trip.  My car is not at the full potential of a car that is going to be driving across country but I didn’t focus on that point. I decided to get fixed only the parts necessary to get from point a to point b.  This would mean taking a trip with no cruise control and not air conditioning; not my one of my best ideas. The finish to admitting that this idea wasn’t a thoroughly planned trip was that as I was leaving my grandmother’s house, my car completely stopped.  I was in reverse when the connection from the battery was interrupted.  I called the mechanic and he rushed over to my assistance.  With no more red flags, I took off for my trip.

I was moving smoothly until I was half way through Iowa.  Just as I was getting into the Des Moines city limits, my car started to lose acceleration.  I was pushing on the gas but the car wasn’t moving any faster.  This was also in the middle of a storm and I figured maybe my car was hydroplaning and I just was over reacting but when my car was dead on the side of the road, I realize that I was under reacting.

I sat there for about three minutes and then began to think of the next thing to do.  I didn’t panic, but I couldn’t think of what I should be doing.  I should have thought to call 911  but that didn’t even come to mind.  Thankfully a man pulled up in his red truck who happened to be a mechanic.  He looked under the hood quickly and then had me try to get the car going but it just wasn’t working.  Then the hail began and he jumped in the car and called 911 for me. With this phone call, he also got the emergency road service dispatched.  A state trooper showed up who then waited until my tow truck arrived.

The storm finally let up and before I knew it, I was in Howard’s tow truck on my way to an area that had a Firestone, Sears and some a selection of hotels to choose from because it was looking like I was staying Des Moines for the night.  Howard was the driver’s name and not the company name.  It’s surprising on how much you can learn about someones life in the span of a twenty-minute drive.

When I got to the mechanic, I then realized how kind and genuine everyone had been. I will always believe in the kindness of people and this experience just re-affirmed it.

The next day I awoke in my Econo-Lodge hotel room, fully slept and ready to take on the world.  The mechanics called to let me know that my car was ready and as I got to my coffee destination with ideas in my head, I sat down to make an alternate plan that wouldn’t leave me in a similar situation of break down.  So, with thought and conversations with parents as well as loved ones that I was going to visit, I made the decision to go up north to my father’s cabin and spend the rest of Memorial Day weekend there.   The detour really came when I found myself at dinner in Minneapolis with old friends. Sitting there in the presence of two of the most phenomenal people I know, mean while making new friends with people who had joined us, I became fully conscious that a plan had come about that was perfect in which I made not one decision.  As dinner was ending, I realized that the main purpose of this trip was to get myself together as well as to connect with close friends going through similar situations.  It wasn’t the friends I originally thought I would see and surely staying the night in a strange city wasn’t the way I thought I would collect myself, but it was exactly what I needed.  As I was going to bed that night in the hotel room, my friend Dina texted me, “it’s all working out in a perfect way!” It really did.

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