I'm working on figuring out what I'm working on

That's how Maira Kalman answered a question from the audience about her upcoming work. It's so true: some days I make lists, but mostly I move through my days finding inspiration. Last night's talk, presented by the Center for the Humanities at UW-Madison, delivered.


2012/10 Maira Kalman from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

She is inspiring and funny. What I liked best about her is that she knows what she is good at and is unapologetic about all the rest. She is great at collaboration.  Which means that she does cool things like illustrate the Talking Heads song that runs through my own head the most often. And she knows what she likes (ironing) and is pushy about getting to do what she likes in different places, with interesting people, to unusual ends.

What I like doing is making connections. Between ideas, between people, between places. So I am taking on projects right now that are interesting, that makes sparks fly, that feel easy because they require me to do what I am good at. So I get something back: I feel useful and will see results. In my neighborhood. In otherwords, in my world.

That's the hope. Spring is the time to feel hopeful! The final slide in Kalman's talk is of a work of art by an artist whose name I can't remember. It says "NOT EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY BUT SOME THINGS WILL."

True.

Organizing thoughts

"If American businesses could be convinced to ramp up their philanthropy to just 1% of pretax earnings (1/2 of what it was 25 years ago), an additional $8 billion would be injected into the nonprofit field each year."

-Curt Weeden

I'm starting a blog because Penelope Trunk said to. She is very convincing. She has a strong voice and big ideas that often stick in my brain for days. 

My big idea these days is that more money from the private sector is key in keeping Madison, where I live, a nice place. I love it here and am raising my kids here and don't want to move. But it's not perfect (Don't all our kids deserve perfect!?!) and the suburbs around the city are getting ranked higher in CNN Money's list. Recent elections suggest that people in the rest of Wisconsin think we in the Capital are smug and spoiled.

One thing I like about Madison is that the scale of the city (I live downtown) feels functional, like the best kind of European city. Full disclosure: I grew up living in and traveling around Europe. That was in the 1980s. It's been a no-brainer for me my whole life that socialism makes good sense. Clearly that is not happening any time soon! So here I am starting a blog with the word Money in it!

Basically, I'm coming to terms with capitalism.

I have two little kids, which forces some level of pragmatism, and am practical by nature anyway. I am frustrated when people seem to be ignoring what seems obvious to me. Yes, climate change is happening. No, unions are not particularly popular these days. Yes, the school system in this country is still teaching kids as if it's the industrial era. No, taxes are not high enough to cover normal, decent things like education and health care but still, somehow, they are going up for the average American.

And money is being made. Not just the big CEO salaries. Even during the recession, many businesses are booming. I'm reading a great book called Smart Giving is Good For Business that is rocking my world. So, I know I can't be the first person to wonder why those of us in the public and non-profit world are so disconnected from, and scared of, that money.

Task number one: Find other bloggers talking about this.