An article, a conversation with a friend, a speech-in everyday life we often run across things that demonstrate a distinction, provide clarity, or inspire us. In this column, Landmark Forum leaders share those thoughts and ideas with you.
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Joe Dimaggio, Landmark Forum leader
The instant the ball rolled between Bill Buckner's legs New England broke into a collective moan. Mets fans uncontrollably squealed with glee. Then it was over and there was only silence. Local taverns packed with people watching Game 6 of the 1986 World Series suddenly filled with malice and fans walked away leaving money on the table. Boston's long awaited world championship was there—and then it was gone. All that remained for Red Sox fans was the grim certainty of an inevitable loss in Game 7 and more proof that this was not the year. The Red Sox didn't have a chance. This team and its fans didn't recover from such defeats. Never had and never would.*¹ Sports fans have a tendency to get attached to the games, the players, the seasons. The players, larger than life, are personal heroes; they pull the curtain back on greatness and let their fans play a part. But in Boston, that was not to be. For many years, whatever momentary hope Red Sox fans may have had—thinking perhaps this time they could win—was eclipsed by their team's continual string of losses. It was the conversation in their neighborhoods, their schools, their families, even among their politicians. They knew they'd blown it in 1918 by trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees, and since then they just couldn't get back to the top. The state of affairs for Red Sox fans was a hard, cold reality—the way it was. The context hovering over them was that “the Sox” weren't winners. (Luckily, I was a Yankees fan.) Read full story
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Juli Kamin, Texas, USA
Watching the evening news, when something upsetting is beamed into our living rooms, most of us mourn quietly and briefly before we turn off the TV, go to bed, and eventually forget about it. Not Juli Kamin... she decided to do something about it.
While participating in Landmark's Advanced Course, Kamin created an organization that is known today as Cherish Our Children International (COCI). COCI is a nonprofit organization that aims to alleviate the suffering of children—regardless of ethnicity, nationality, or health—and to ensure that these children are raised in a loving, family-oriented environment. More than a decade later, COCI has helped get many Romanian orphans on their feet, but also provides a nurturing living environment for orphaned children in Kenya's slums, arranges tutoring for Serbian orphans, and funds a soccer program in Israel that brings together Jewish and Arab children. Today, Kamin helms a 26-person-strong board of directors. COCI is thriving in several countries around the world and has partnered with other like-minded organizations to maximize the number of children it can help.
Read full story
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What's "Real?" Is It Open for Invention?
Gale LeGassick, Landmark Forum leader
(Oh, those silly humans! So desperate for their absolutes!) Every day new research, new facts, new situations require us to reevaluate fundamental aspects of "reality." When our realities and what we've "come to know" get called into question, we lean toward what's familiar—we tend to see things that confirm our views more vividly than those that contradict them. We construct "realities" and forget we were the ones who constructed them. The answer to the question what does it mean to be human gets looked at only through that lens. But who's to say that's reality? Where do "realities" get constructed? Might whole other realities be possible? This is about creating—and literally bringing into existence—possibilities for living that didn't exist before.
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Seniors, Start Your Engines
Max Vodane, New Zealand
When Max Vodane gave an 80-year-old woman a spin on his Harley a few years ago, he had no idea he was about to launch his SELP project. "I visited an assisted living facility because a friend of mine wanted to surprise his grandmother, Audrey, with a motorcycle ride." Seeing the look on Audrey's face after the ride—a look Max describes as joy and freedom and pure delight—he realized that he could bring that same experience to other seniors. |
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The Landmark Education newsletter, for graduates of The Landmark Forum, is a quarterly newsletter offering articles from Landmark Forum leaders, stories by Landmark Forum graduates, and other Landmark Education news. Go to the Landmark Education newsletter
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