Just as a quick follow-up on Douglas Cohen's subscription drive post, I'd like to add a couple of suggestions from Chris over at SFWA who wrote:

When's the last time you gave the gift of a subscription? Or donated a subscription to a local library?

Subscription gifts and donations to your local library! It's brilliant! Tomorrow I'm going to find out what our own local library carries and make sure my favorites are on their shelves. If not, that's next on my list!

Today's blog contribution comes from Douglas Cohen, the slushmaster for Realms of Fantasy. Please read it. Please take it to heart. I'll be subscribing to three short fiction magazines tonight. And I'll be reporting those subscriptions, as requested.

His post is angry in places, yes. Mr. Cohen is understandably frustrated, trying desperately to save a dying genre. And as of this moment, so am I. Without further ado, here's the post that started it all...

This is not a subscription drive for Realms of Fantasy. I repeat: THIS IS NOT A SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE FOR REALMS OF FANTASY.

This is what I'm calling a general subscription drive, specifically for the short story market in speculative literature.

Every year in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction collection, he does a market breakdown in the introduction. In this breakdown, he gives the details about the performances for the bigger magazines in the industry. Yesterday Mercurio D. Rivera was nice enough to email me what Gardner wrote for Realms of Fantasy:

Circulation figures for ROF lag a year behind the other magazines, but their 2005 figures show them registering a 13% loss in overall circulation from 2004, with subscriptions dropping from 17,191 to 16,547, and newstand sales dropping from 9,398 to 6,584 after two previous years in a row of newstand gains, sell-through increased from 20% to 29%. They published good stuff this year by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold, James Van Pelt, Richard Parks, Greg Van Eekhout, and others. Shawna McCarthy is the longtime editor.

Afterward Mercurio told me the other big mags did as bad or worse in their performance summaries.

Well. First, as always, congrats to the ROF authors who garnered these honorable mentions. But this aside, I got to thinking just how depressing the numbers for the short story market have become. It's been on a steady decline for some years, and it's only growing worse. Going by these numbers Realms of Fantasy took a nasty hit, and we're in better shape than most. I'm hopeful our upgraded website will draw more subscriptions when summary for 2006 comes out. That remains to be seen.

Either way, the short story market is dying. We always talk about it, but very few people seem to do anything about it. So it got me to thinking about what I could do. I'm a novel boy at heart, but since coming to Realms of Fantasy I've grown to love the short fiction market. I want to see it go on. But if we keep going as we are, if people keep treating this market like America treats oil, it will dry up. Permanently. Yes, there are online venues and I'm all for them. Anything that promotes the genre is great. But at the moment these venues are fighting to create viable business models. Their ultimate success remains to be seen.

So again. What could I do? Well, it occurred to me how in recent years there have been subscription drives for Talebones and also The Apex Science Fiction & Horror Digest. I think there was also a drive of sorts to save Ralan.com. All three of these drives were successful. Mostly word spread the blogosphere. And people did something.

So I thought to myself, "Hey, what if we did a general subscription drive, to boost the magazines for general purposes? Every subscriber counts." The difference here is that I'm not talking about any specific magazine in danger of dying. There is no immediate urgency. Nothing right now. But like with oil, one day we'll wake up and the magazines could very well be gone. We need to do something now, before that happens.

So I'm asking people to do two things. First, spread this post throughout the blogosphere. Get the message out. Second, if you haven't subscribed to a magazine recently, unless you don't have the $$$ pick one and subscribe! At least one. Saying you don't have the time to read the magazine is a lame excuse. How many of us have books we bought years ago that we haven't read? I do. Add a few magazines to the pile. What's the harm? And if you just read novels, try short stories. Why have you only been reading novels, especially if you want to be a writer? Do you honestly think there is nothing to be learned from reading shorter works? And don't tell me you've tried all the magazines. New ones are always starting. And when a new editor takes over the helm, in many ways that magazine becomes new. (You can't very well tell me you've tried the new Weird Tales. Ann Vandermeer has been the editor a couple of months, sure, but the magazine has an inventory to get through. Her selections haven't been published yet, but they soon will be). Or you can ask for suggestions. I'll answer them. So will other people reading this post, here or elsewhere. The speculative community is cool like that.

Excuses are nothing but that. So pick a magazine. Again, it doesn't have to be Realms of Fantasy (although it can be). Make it Fantasy Magazine, or The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, or Weird Tales. Get your fantasy someplace else. I don't care. Just get it. Or get some science fiction from Asimov's or Analog. Or if you think online mags are the next wave, then go to Baen's Universe or Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. Or maybe there is smaller magazine you're been kind of curious about. Subscribe. Help them take the next step in their publishing timetable, or help keep them alive. And if you're not sure which magazine to subscribe to, another option is to go to Ralan.com and see which one looks interesting.

Don't be that schmuck who litters because you figure someone else will clean up your mess. Everyone who reads this genre and isn't subscribing is making that mess, causing this market to wither and die. And don't tell me why this won't help. Just spread the word and subscribe. Now. If you don't, that's why this won't help. Because every subscription does help. Negativity and the word "but" are not welcome here.

And yes, I am putting my $$$ where my mouth is. Interzone is publishing my premiere story, very likely next month. Far be it from me not to support them for recognizing my brilliance. I just charged a one-year subscription to my credit card before posting this rant.

This genre has given us all so much. Isn't it time we give something back? Books are fine for the moment, at least compared to the magazines. The magazines need help. Badly. So get to work or be a schmuck.

My thanks to Mr. Cohen for getting this started. I'd also like to add Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine as another option. (I just received Issue # 30, and I can't wait!)

I'll add more of my own thoughts to this thread later tonight or tomorrow, but for now, please, go pick up a subscription to any of these wonderful magazines, or to the magazine of your choice. Especially within the speculative fiction genre. Short stories need our readership if they are going to survive.

Although much of my writing focuses on fantasy, I enjoy dabbling in the realm of science fiction, too, from time to time. I grew up reading Heinlein, McCaffrey, Card, LeGuin, Asimov, Bradbury... all the while dreaming of a future in which the magic of technological possibility had finally arrived.

I love my cell phone--so much like those Star Trek communicators--but I can't use it to get myself beamed off the planet.

I love the fact that we have ships that travel into orbit on a regular basis, but they have yet to travel between the stars.

I know there are others who share both my enthusiasm and my disappointment. Young Triston, for example, was tremendously disappointed to learn that he wouldn't be getting a light saber for Christmas--not a real one, anyway. He's still convinced that the trouble lies in his age, rather than in the imaginary nature of the weapon itself.

"You could get one for yourself," he says, "because you're a grown-up. And then maybe for Christmas I could just hold it for a minute..."

But I do love those moments--those precious, beautiful moments--when it dawns on me that we might be approaching those dreams more rapidly than I had realized.

Last week I was down with the flu--this week too, truth be known--and in the midst of my self-pitying misery, as I was bewailing my abject boredom to an empty room, the cell phone rang. Much to my surprise, it was a computer calling me from Blockbuster, reminding me that I had movies due in the store.

Okay, the computer didn't know I was sick, it didn't know I was bored, and it wasn't calling to remind me that I could watch those movies. It was calling to remind me to return them. But in my bed-ridden delirium, the two scenarios seemed pretty close.

Maybe we're halfway there after all.

We would all know exactly how everybody felt, all the time.

Growling would be a socially acceptable response to annoying behavior.

Frisbee would be considered the sport of champions.

We would all go running every day.

We would all own closets full of tennis balls, but nobody would play tennis.

We would all have beds in every room of the house... and in the office... and in public lobbies.

We would all run to the door to greet every family member whenever they came home.

There would be no such thing as prisons--all unacceptable behavior would be dealt with immediately.

We would never do anything that wasn't any fun.

Every business would be a family business.

There would be no such thing as strip clubs, but restaurants would be open all night long.

No one could be a drug dealer because everyone could smell them from a mile away.

There would be no such thing as cities because nobody would ever leave farm country.

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New from the comments...

We'd stay mad at people for about 10 seconds, and then we'd decide it would be more fun to go play some more. --Contributed by Cynthia Collett.

We'd all save water because taking a bath wouldn't be quite as much fun as sploshing about in muddy, smelly puddles! --Contributed by Michelle from the land "down under."

The area around the local dump would be considered prime real estate. --Me. Inspired by Michelle's comment, I just thought of that one.

One of the things I love most about designing logos is that these "simple" little symbols are so contextually complex!

On a business level, a logo designer has to ask, "What does your business do? What kind of customers are you looking to attract? What sort of relationship do you want to have with them, and what first impression do you want to make? "

On a cultural level, a good designer has to know what various symbols mean--both to the "dominant" culture and to any "subcultures" that the business wants to reach. What feelings and impressions do different colors, shapes, and images evoke?

And there's a highly personal aspect to logo design because the right design is the one the client will be proud of. He or she should get a little jolt of energy every time they see their logo--whether it's on a business card, on a product, or on the back of a truck.

The difference between good and great design is often in the consulting work that ideally precedes the design process. Customers almost always have some idea of what they're looking for ahead of time, but that doesn't mean they will know how to communicate it.

So a good designer asks a lot of questions about colors and symbols and feelings and about the customer's business concept. A great designer then helps the customer analyze that information to discover a good direction for the logo.

Being a great designer is as much about great consulting as it is about great design.

After all, the designer is essentially being hired to represent the client to his or her customers every single day, day in and day out, potentially for the life of the business. Designing is about more than just eye candy--it's about helping the client to take their business wherever they want it to go.

1. You can't remember the last time you ate, but you have vague recollections of peanut butter and some stale crackers you found in the back of your desk drawer.


2. You can't remember the last time you slept a full eight hours, but... nope, you just can't remember.


3. You're so used to talking to your significant other by phone that you start calling random people "Honey" on your business line.


4. Your favorite thing about Sunday is that the phones at the office stop ringing.


5. Your least favorite thing about Monday is that you have to start sharing the fridge again.


6. The weekend routines of your office cleaning staff are programmed into your calendar.


7. You're spending so much time at work that your family starts scheduling appointments.


8. You have ten weeks of TV shows on your DVR that you've been saving to watch "when you have the time."


9. The business contacts in your address book outnumber the personal contacts by at least thirty to one.


10. Your primary annoyance over project assignments is that they're taking so much time away from your other project assignments.

So I get this promotional letter in the mail today from BellSouth. It's addressed: "Informed Consumer."

Now I have to wonder... if they really think I'm informed, then why are they still sending me mail?

Logically, I think they should be sending this stuff to the uninformed consumers. I don't suppose that would look good on the envelope though.

If I'm going to receive junk mail, I prefer the kind that just says "Current Resident." It might be inconvenient, but at least it's honest in its anonymity. "Current Resident" says "Look, we don't know you. This harassment isn't personal. We're just bombarding everyone." In the electronic age, when even identity is for sale, anonymity is a rare thing. It makes me realize how much the world has changed since my grandfather's generation.

When my grandfather lived with us--this is a while back now, somewhere circa 1980--one of his habits that I found to be rather eccentric was his daily routine of answering all his mail personally. Even the junk mail.

Letters from Sears would receive a polite, hand-written note in return. "Dear Sirs: Thank you for your kind offer dated Wednesday, April 24. Fortunately, our dishwasher is in excellent condition and is serving our needs quite adequately. However, should we find ourselves in need of such an appliance in the future, we will be sure to consider your fine products."

Needless to say, my grandfather was on every mailing list in the country. He passed away over twenty years ago, and mail still shows up for him from time to time at the family household.

I like to think of these straggling missives as more personal, somehow, than the junk mail I get myself. I think of some hopeful soul somewhere wondering why they never hear from him anymore, sending out one more letter or catalog on the off chance that they might be able to spark up that old dialog again.

There was a certain politeness in my grandfather's day that we have lost utterly as a country. Mail was really intended for people back then. It wasn't just scatter shot across the suburban bow.

Of course a lot of other things have changed too, and many of them for the better. I love my computer. I love my cell phone. I love the Civil Rights Act of 1965. But I don't like the fact that businesses have stopped worrying about annoying people. What's the world coming to when we stop being concerned about each other?

Believe it or not, I wish I had the time to answer all my own junk mail personally. I'd still know it was junk mail, but at least I'd have the luxury of behaving otherwise. In the end, my grandfather had it right. The world may have become anonymous around him, but he never gave in to it. To his dying day, he still treated every soul with dignity.

Continuing in yesterday's theme from the life blog--on focusing our energies by saying "no"--I've been thinking about things we really ought to be saying "no" to as a society.

I'm not talking about the legal kind of "no," as in statutes and fines and jail time. I'm talking about the informal "no's" that we learn to take for granted as a culture. As in, "Stop, honey. It's not polite to stare." Or even, "No, no, sweetheart, don't touch the gum on the sidewalk."

Well, we're all grown up now...

Actually, I take that back. Some of us have grown up. I happen to know several "grown" men who still think that the natural methane byproducts of baked bean consumption are the height of hilarity. But suffice it to say that most of us have grown up, and after three or four decades, we're finally coming into our own.

People used to call us "Generation X"--thanks to one guy who was apparently suffering a personal crisis of identity and nonetheless enjoyed the good fortune of finding a publisher. But we're not the lost generation anymore. We're not living in the shadow of the baby boomers or the cold war. Now we're living in the shadow of rising oil prices and global warming.

My point is, we've evolved.

Gen-X has become Gen-Net, the networked generation. Among the lot of us, we have the power today--right here, right now--to completely transform our culture overnight. Together, we can say "no" to just about anything and make that "no" a reality. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to organize!

First off, let's say a unified "no" to the current state of women's fashion. I've about had it with women's clothing that looks like it fell out of the 1950s version of the Stepford Wives handbook. One of the reasons people always think I'm about 10 years younger than I am is that I dress about 10 years younger than I am. I just can't bring myself to adopt the soccer mom sweater set as an expression of "style."

I think the real problem here is that there aren't enough straight men in the fashion industry. Let's face it, if straight men were in charge of designing women's clothes, we'd all be wearing lingerie to the grocery store. I'm not saying that's what I'm hoping for, but it would be a lot better than looking through a hundred June Cleaver outfits for one little red dress.

I know, ladies, I know. You're concerned that you don't have the figure for that kind of thing anymore, right? Well I'm convinced that if women's clothing were designed by straight men, I'd actually be working out every day. And drinking plenty of water. And eating vegetarian meals...

Not only would I have the figure of an 18 year old, but I'd probably live to enjoy it for a hundred and twenty years.

Besides which, men don't care. Honestly, they don't. When you think about men making jokes about some girl not looking hot enough, think about where you remember hearing it. Ninety percent of the time, you heard it on television. Is that how we're judging reality now? By television? Please.

Real men love women. Love us. Every beautiful curvy inch of us. I promise! So turn off the TV and go show off a little. That is, if you can find anything sexy to wear.

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[Photo by David Pu'u. And no, it's not me. It's my friend PJ Clark.]

I'm heading down to Florida for a trade show this coming week. I'm going to try to post to the blog anyway, but I can't promise it will happen...

Turns out the company signed me up at the last minute and couldn't get me a flight. They were quite apologetic, but I told them I didn't mind. And I really don't! I'd rather drive!

A six-hour drive may seem a bit nuts, but I think it's better than flying. It's not a fear thing for me. Believe it or not, it's a convenience thing.

If it were a fourteen-hour drive I would have protested. But driving is only about an hour and a half longer than the flight when you add it all up. The drive to the airport, the wait at the airport, the flight, the drive to the hotel... That's four and a half hours right there, easily.

I'd rather take my time driving. I can head out whenever I'm ready, I don't have to worry about packing carefully, and I can take my time on the trip. I can stop and see the sights. I can talk to friends and family on my cell phone. I can stop and eat when I need to, and I can choose anything from a salad to a steak dinner.

Plus it's a nice long stretch to myself, to relax and unwind. Can anyone honestly say that about a plane flight?

And as for that eccentricity, there's one more thing driving does for me that flying can't: having my car with me gives me the illusion of freedom.

Could I really just get up and leave the show? Not without getting fired. Like I said, it's the illusion of freedom. Or maybe it's a real freedom that I would not choose to exercise short of disaster. Either way, I'll feel better knowing that my car is there--the American symbol of independence. And I drive a Jeep, no less!

I'm not going anywhere near the beach, but I might even pack up my surfboard--or maybe my boogie board--just to complete the fantasy. If I have to spend a week landlocked in a hotel, I can at least daydream on the way there.

Someday... "no child left behind" will become a meaningful reality. Some children will still learn more math, more art history, more science, or more philosophy than others. But every child will have his or her specialties, and every child will honor and develop those specialties to their greatest potential and their utmost joy.

Someday... we will enter the marketplace with our unique gifts, confident in their value. We will not lose any sleep over those talents or passions that we do not possess because we will understand that teamwork is the natural order of humanity. We will expect to find others whose joys and abilities complement our own.

Someday... all organizations will be partnerships, and all workers will be partners. The very idea of "employees" will be considered feudal and barbaric, a mark of distant history. Partners will be responsible only for their highest calling. To give up one's calling will be considered impossible, unreasonable, unimaginable.

Someday... all tasks will be valued equally. Developing new products, managing inventory, and maintaining the cleanliness of a store or workspace will all be seen as critical to the whole and therefore incapable of being valued separately. And being valued equally by society, all people will value themselves.

Someday... all despicable work will be eliminated. We will create and provide clean energy solutions, healthy work conditions, and safe living environments for everyone. Anything less will be considered unacceptable. Those who choose to take on our deplorable tasks during the time of transition will be held in the highest esteem.

Someday... our joys in our accomplishments and the strength of universal self-worth will eliminate all feelings of inferiority, jealousy, bitterness, and hatred. Fully embracing ourselves, we will fully embrace each other, and no one will ever again know loneliness, fear, rejection, or despair. Knowing our true value, no one will be forgotten.

Someday... we will understand that the freedom to live our joys depends inherently on the contributions of those who complement our own talents. We will understand that our greatest strength lies in each other. Valuing all of humanity--profoundly and reverently valuing all of humanity--we will finally know Peace on Earth.

I'm at the grocery store this past weekend, and I see these signs everywhere that look like sale tags. The bright yellow markers are spread out here and there along the shelves, proclaiming one bargain or another.

Here's what they say: "Everyday Low Price!"

So, not sales then. Just the illusion of sales. A trick to snare the subconscious mind.

Don't get angry with the grocery store. It's not the store's fault. This is how our culture approaches human decision-making. Caveat emptor--buyer beware. Lying is bad, but subtle manipulation is just good marketing.

I have to wonder, what would the world look like if our highest value were a profound respect for the rights of others to make their own decisions? Can we even imagine what such a world would look like?

I think we can begin to imagine it. It's not that we're bad people. It's just cultural training.

Here's that training again in another context...

"Hey, honey, let's go see that new action film tonight."

"But we saw that other action film last time, remember? Let's go see the new dramatic one that's out."

"That wasn't really an action film last time. That was more of a comedy, really. We haven't seen a real action film in forever."

"Sure we have. That film last month was an action film, remember? And this new film has some action in it. You saw the previews, right?"

"Yeah, but it's not a real action film. This one is a real action film. And it has that actor you like in it..."

How much time do you suppose we spend in a single lifetime trying to convince people to do things they don't really want to do? I hesitate to even guess. But if we really respected each other's feelings on a fundamental level, conversations would run in entirely different directions.

"Hey, honey, let's go see that new action film tonight."

"I'm not really in the mood for an action film. I'd be interested in seeing the new drama that's out, though. Would you like to see that?"

"No, that one doesn't sound very interesting to me. Do you want to go see different movies?"

"Not really. I'd rather spend some time together this evening. Is there something else you'd like to do that I might enjoy too?"

I'm not talking about refusing to compromise. Sometimes we're willing to sit through a less-than-thrilling movie for someone we love. Sometimes we're not. But easily accepting "no" for an answer would leave more room for people to say "yes" more often.

When we know that our deepest feelings will be respected, we have a lot more energy left over to explore new experiences, to stretch our boundaries, and most importantly, to take care of each other.

The creative force that animates human thought depends on the integration of two completely different minds. This is true of every human decision.

The linear mind is the mind of analytical thought. It likes to move from step one to step two to step three, in an orderly and predictable way. This mind understands cause and effect, presents stories in chronological order, and gives lost travelers directions to the nearest gas station.

The non-linear mind is the mind of intuition. It likes to cast a wide net, recognizing new connections and identifying new possibilities. This mind deals in emotional imagery, in flights of fancy, and in playful exploration.

All human thought integrates the two, but the balance between them can shift dramatically between one task and another. "Thinking outside the box" depends on purposefully activating the non-linear mind.

There's no great mystery here. Calling on the non-linear mind is simple once you understand its nature. If the linear mind is a Buick on the streets of suburbia, think of the non-linear mind as a bumper car driven by an eight year old: it's playful, it's unpredictable, and it thrives on chaos.

And like any eight year old, it's relatively simple in its motivations, providing us with several fool-proof ways to engage it in any activity.

1. Play. The non-linear mind gets bored easily. It hates routine, and it hates being serious. If you want to think outside the box, you have to act outside the box. Any "free form" activity will help break the routine and activate the non-linear mind. Random doodling, "stream of consciousness" writing, and free association games are all good ways to free the mind from its traditional linear patterns.

2. Dream. The non-linear mind loves to daydream, and the wilder the better. Focusing on the realities of time and budget constraints will keep that childlike mind in permanent "time-out." Temporarily giving yourself permission to dream big can unlock the kernels of more practical yet highly innovative ideas.

3. Get active. Movement is an easy way to engage the non-linear mind, especially if that movement doesn't require much mental focus. Small motions like tossing a coin, squeezing a "stress ball," or spinning a pen--anything that provides activity while allowing us to keep "half" of our mind on a problem--can stimulate out-of-the-box thinking.

4. Practice the art of mild distraction. Anything that lightens our focus without breaking it entirely can activate the non-linear mind. Even if "most" of our mind has shifted to the new task, returning to the "problem" task at random intervals will stimulate random thinking. Whether you're making coffee, eating lunch, or simply working on something else for a while, distracting the linear mind will make room for the non-linear mind to shine through.

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It's a warm spring afternoon in rural Georgia, and the clan has gathered for young Laurana's birthday. The back yard is decked out in neon pink--pink streamers, pink balloons, pink gift wrap, pink party hats, pink icing on the cake... Even Reese Witherspoon would be jealous.

In Laurana's family, birthdays are county-wide events. Several friends from school have been joined by aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, second-cousins, cousins-once-removed, and a few scattered relatives of undefined relationship who continue to qualify as "family" purely on the merit of showing up on a dependable basis.

"When are the games?" someone asks. It sounds like an innocent question, and no one would later remember who started all the trouble. So many of life's disasters begin in the same way, with one simple wrong turn.

Most of us understand how much we mean to our close friends and family, but it's easy to forget how much our "presence" can mean to others, even outside of these intimate circles. We simply haven't yet internalized the profound connectedness of the modern world.

I was born on the very cusp of the computer generation. I am young enough that the first personal computers were released on the market when I was still in high school. I have fond memories of learning the ins and outs of my Radio Shack TRS-80--a model I should have kept since it would have been a collector's item by now--when modems were clunky boxes that you physically smashed against your telephone's headset and software was stored on cassette tapes that you had to pause and rewind just like your VCR.

The day is coming when young adults will no longer know what a VCR is.

But I am old enough to remember a time before VCR's, before cable television, before cell phones, and  before answering machines....

Once when I was working for Corporate America, my supervisor--you remember Bill--walked into my cubicle while I was playing computer solitaire. I froze mid-mouse-click, a deer in the proverbial headlights. He had seen instantly what I was doing. All I could do was wait for the fallout.

After staring at me coldly for several agonizing seconds, a mask of scathing disapproval replacing his habitual smile and slamming my heart through the floor, he suddenly melted into playful laughter.

"I'm kidding!" he blurted out. "Oh, you should have seen your face! But listen... seriously... you really need a better game than that. Here, try this one."

He commandeered my keyboard and surfed over to a shareware site, cheerfully extolling the merits of the new game while I could do nothing but stare in silent fascination.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Hindu gods, Ganesha is the elephant-headed god of overcoming obstacles. He also happens to be the patron god of writers. Apparently writer's block has been around for quite some time.

I realize that a belief in multiple "gods" is considered sacrilegious by some. Both Christians and Muslims, for example, are quite strict about their belief in the One True God. But these arguments have arisen more from semantics than from any underlying philosophical divide. Even if there is only One God, still there are many aspects of God--truth, justice, honor, integrity, trust, faith, joy, peace... Using the word "god" to depict the Hindu representations of the divine is really a misrepresentation of Hindu beliefs.

Hindus believe that all reality is One. There is only One God because there is only One Everything. So I'm perfectly happy to call Ganesha the divine aspect of Mighty Faith--just one of many aspects of the One True God--if that will keep us all on the same page.

Here's a little prayer I wrote myself that I like to offer up to Ganesha whenever I'm stuck on a writing project: "Beloved and Mighty Ganesha... I'm stuck... Please help me... Amen."

If a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes a back rub is worth a million. Surrounded by a world of thought and intellect, we forget sometimes how important the physical world can be to our emotional health.

The emotions that we face in everyday life can't always be talked out. Sometimes they simply have to be lived through. Grief, for example, is a normal and even healthy response to the loss of a loved one. Any emotional health specialist will tell you that grief must be "processed," not avoided. No quick pep talk is going to bring you out on the other side of that sorrow.

Depression is even worse--an inability to grasp the potential for future happiness is a specific symptom of the disorder. But even the common "upsets" of life such as break-ups, disappointments, let-downs, and simple frustrations over uncontrollable situations all share the same dilemma. None of these lend themselves easily to intellectual comfort. At times like these, we need to learn to approach our emotional problems in more physical ways.

When it comes to management, "motivating people" is a popular topic. Managers often talk about implementing various reward systems and motivational techniques, but for me, human motivation is a lot simpler than all that.

I don't think managers should approach people by trying to "motivate" them. Instead, I think we should be trying to engage them.

When considering any kind of "reward structure," remember that "rewards" place a lot of emphasis on the hierarchy system. You don't "reward" a superior. You don't "reward" a friend. You "reward" people who are beneath you in the hierarchy, and everyone knows it. So "rewards" can be a subtle way of reminding people of their "place."

If you want your direct reports to put their best foot forward, you aren't likely to get there by trying to buy their enthusiasm--or their loyalty.

The best manager I ever knew quickly became both my mentor and my friend. I have never felt so motivated to work hard and do a good job for a "boss" in my life. But he never once gave me a "reward." Here's what he did do...