How with all this rage shall beauty hold a plea?

For those that don't know, Ralph Williams is a legendary professor at the University of Michigan. He gave is final, final formal lecture last week. He spoke about many things, but in that lecture and in the lecture he gave as the capstone of the "Of Human Bonding" class, he made reference to the devastating, complicated and exceptional moment in history we currently live in. I am going to attempt to organize my core beliefs in advance commencing my first position after being a full-time student. I feel as if I--and others of course--don't know what they hold as their core beliefs beauty shall never hold a plea.

I'll start with a list, and then try to cull out the beliefs even further. This will take several iterations, I suspect.

Core Beliefs:

• People are good. At the very least they are more good than wicked.
• Life is valuable.
  
• Everything does not happen for a reason, but there are reasons for what happens.
• Listening is more important than speaking and following is more important than leading.
  

Heuristics:

The big-4 (in no particular order)

1. Try really, really, really hard.
2. If it is at all possible, show love and respect (my understanding of the golden rule).
3. Give others the benefit of the doubt.
4. Be honest (to the self and to others).

• Do not be fooled by seemingly paradoxical situations. For example, do not think long-term or short-term...do both.
  

• Do not settle.
• Act deliberately.

Now, to meditate on these and then try to see how the beliefs and the heuristics clash and coalesce. What values will emerge from these beliefs and heuristics?

Last Daily Column

This was my last published piece in The Michigan Daily. I've included it because the paragraph I cared about most was edited out. It would've been the last paragraph of the column.

Neil Tambe: The leaders and the best?

By Neil Tambe
On April 15th, 2009

It's true that I admire most of the spirit, rhetoric and tradition of this University. I never walk on the Block M in the Diag and I would propose under the West Engineering arch at midnight if I could someday. I fully believe providing education of arts, sciences and truth is essential and noble. But some traditions are flawed. For example, one phrase I take issue with comes from the line in our fight song that ends with, "...the Leaders and Best." It’s a great line, but we as college students aren’t the “leaders and best” yet because we haven’t exercised leadership and excellence in the real world, where it matters most. Even if what we do now already has an impact outside of campus, it doesn’t justify the title of “leaders and best.” What we do now is the bare minimum citizenship requires. The work we do here as students is still valuable but it should not be all that we aspire to accomplish.

I think the pomposity that comes with slogans like “leaders and best” is dangerous. We, especially those of us graduating this year, are walking into a lion’s den of a world. We must address domestic issues like Social Security reform, class conflict and accessibility to health care among dozens of other meticulous, complicated issues. As people of the world, we must deal with bio-terrorism, overpopulation, climate change, water shortage and nuclear arms proliferation, to name only a handful of challenges. These problems don’t have easy fixes. I fear our University of Michigan arrogance distracts us from the treacherous road ahead and how hard it’s really going to be. We have too many challenges ahead to be delusional about our accomplishments, abilities and entitlements.

Our generation already has a bad rap. We’re narcissistic. We insist on having things our way and struggle with taking criticism in stride. We lack professionalism and the ability to follow through when problem solving. We feel entitled to anything we may want when we don’t necessarily deserve it.

But at the same time, our generation has amazing qualities. We’re tremendously capable, curious and technologically savvy. We're able to work in diverse groups of people like no generation before us. We’re ambitious and we also volunteer a lot. We care about the world around us and want to make this planet a better place in any way we can. Nobody can tell us we aren’t fired up, because we are.

We have a befuddling situation before us. We have the opportunity to be one of the greatest generations, and I believe we can face our challenges and live up to our aspirations of a better society. We’ll have to rally together and overcome our differences while still taking advantage of our diverse perspectives and talents. We’ll need to have long, arduous, frustrating conversations with each other to figure out the best courses of action. We’ll each have a role to play, one no more important than any other.

As University students, let’s focus on earning our maize and blue colors. Before we start calling ourselves the leaders and best, let’s have an unbreakable will to overcome the challenges we face. Let’s be brave enough to believe in what is right, courageous enough to commit to what is right and unselfish enough to do what is right. If we advance the public good, there is no doubt that we will become the leaders and best.

What was edited out:

I hope we don't go down in history as the greatest generation. I hope we do down as the generation that never walked away from a challenge or passed a problem onto its children. I hope we are remembered for acting to keep the world spinning safely on our watch, not for the applause of men but because we wanted those after us to live better lives. Instead of the greatest generation, I hope we are remembered as the humblest generation. I believe in us. If you do too, let's get to work.

Fire Talk 2.0...I found it!

I posted previously in (Fire Talk 2.0 - What Motivates Me/4.11.09) that I had lost my original sheet that I had written up. Thankfully, I finally found it. Here is the original prose, in its entirety. I made one set of revisions which are in red strikethrough text on 4.3.09.

Fire Talk 2.0 - What Motivates Me (Original text written immediately after University of Michigan Dance Marathon on 3.22.09)

My inspiration is Nakul Bhansali, because he was wrong--the cost was his life--for the wrong reasons. He caught Dengue Fever, he was misdiagnosed and did not receive proper treatment. This does not reflect the suffering he faced, which was great--all he could do in the end was whimper in delirium for an apple while his body crackled; like fire, it is said. He was wronged by people, organizations and institutions.

Any case like this--with or without similar specifics--must never happen again in human history. There are two things which must be protected and enabled: life and virtue. In Nakul's case, both life and virtue were obviously compromised.

The most dangerous villains of life and virtue are people, organizations and institutions.*

So, I resolve for myself the following: life and virtue must forever be enabled and protected from the people, organizations and institutions than mangle them. Doing so is my supremest and sincerest conviction.

* - The most dangerous people, organizations and institutions are public ones, which is why I think enabling/protecting is most important in the public sphere.

Writer's note: I decided to strike the word "people" several times, because I do not believe the problem is with individuals. I believe that individuals are good inside, at the very least they are more good than wicked. The problem is not with individuals, the problem of wickedness comes from aggregations of persons, I think. Persons are not complex, people are complex.

Wordle is sweet

This web-app is sick.

"you're living the dream baby"

I think I've managed to somehow meet all the best people on campus...

gChat from this evening:

Hans: be thankful for the things you've been given, the friends you've been surrounded by, the opportunities you've had, the memories you've made, and be hopeful for the future that awaits you

it's really all you could ever want

you're living the dream baby

me: I think you've just managed to sum up everything I'm feeling in one gchat message.

Hans: ha, I'll take that as a compliment

Fire Talk 2.0 - What Motivates Me

University of Michigan Dance Marathon (UMDM) ended at around 4pm on a Sunday. The experience of it all and one particular conversation with someone--I'll spare her name here since I haven't asked her permission to mention it--about "[not] completely drinking the kool-aid about anything" inspired me to draft this...proclamation of sorts...immediately after the event. It's something I've been mulling over for the past year and this is the second version of my "fire talk".

It is a succinct version of what motivates me. Of course, being a dutiful husband, father and community member (if I'm so fortunate) supersedes this to some degree. My original copy went through the washing machine (I think, hopefully I'll find it), which I'm really upset about. It is recreated for safe-keeping here.

My cousin Nakul is someone I think about almost daily. A few weeks before I started the 9th grade, he was bit by a mosquito carrying Dengue Fever. He suffered tremendously (it is said that his body crackled like fire and he whimpered for an apple near the end) before he died. Years later, I realized his death had monumental impact on my life. I do not bring him up as an example for public-health advocacy. Rather, his case is something I bring up because it is an example of institutional failure.

Institutions and organizations play an immense role in determining our lives. They can allow for the beauty in our lives to flourish or they can make the world grim. They can destroy our moral fiber and make us less than human. Virtuous things, I think, are what makes life beautiful and worth living. Virtue and life must not be destroyed, they must be enabled and protected.

There are too many things in the world that negatively affect our lives that we cannot control. However, we can control, develop and transform institutions and organizations--so we must. Enabling and protecting life and virtue from the institutions and organizations that mangle them is one of my supremest and sincerest convictions*. Enabling and protecting life and virtue from the institutions and organizations that mangle them is what fires me up.

Addendum* - Public organizations, namely the US Government, are the class of organizations that I think are most influential, potent and dangerous. Consequently, transforming public organizations into protectors and enablers of life and virtue is my ultimate passion and commitment.