Poetry Pals interfaith creativity program featured in Chicago Tribune

Poetry Pals--our interfaith, intercultural creativity kids program I've described previously--made it in the Chicago Tribune this week. I think it's a fitting way to reflect the holiday season, amidst all the bad news of conflict and partisanship, to once again share our story of interfaith cooperation and celebration of diversity through creativity.

Right now Poetry Pals is in search of Board Members, volunteers, funding and donations to help with our mission--thank you for spreading the word. Please like us on Facebook and email us to be put on the regular Poetry Pals email list.  I've reposted the story and provided a video link below.  Adam

 CLICK HERE FOR THE TRIBUNE VIDEO

Kids learn the rhyme and reason of religious differences
Poetry program brings together Christian, Jewish and Muslim students for a day of sharing   Chicago Tribune

By Susan Berger, Special to the Tribune  7:09 p.m. CST, December 19, 2011

The fourth-grader from Chicago's Sacred Heart Schools said he was happy he got to visit a synagogue.

"I didn't know what was in it," said Luke Penner.


Amin Wahdam, a student at Muslim Community Center Full Time School in Morton Grove, didn't know that Jews light candles for the eight nights ofHanukkah to commemorate the ancient story of one night's worth of oil lasting eight nights.


And Noah Srulovitz, a student at Solomon Schechter Day School's Northbrook campus, said he never knew that Christians are celebrating Jesus' birthday on Christmas.


Catholic, Jewish and Muslim fourth-graders are learning all kinds of things about one another as they explore different religions and dabble in the world of poetry through Poetry Pals, an interfaith effort started by a Jewish educator who realized that her life was too homogenous....CLICK HERE FOR REST OF ARTICLE.

Wishing you a happy holiday season! Adam

Miracle Innovations--Come on, Humans!

Creative insights from top business innovators: Click here.  Is there a dark side to creativity?  Click here. For more on creativity from Adam, use search field (top left) or click on keywords (bottom right) on his Innovation on my Mind blog.

I just remembered that I forgot to lock my car, so I look out my window, press a button, and almost a block away I see my car flash and automatically lock itself. For a moment I don't take this now-commonplace act for granted and acknowledge what it is: a miracle. Human-created, technological magic. Something a decade ago I would not have considered to be in the realm of possibility.

The mesmerizing clocks and gears in 3-D Hugo

Breakthrough innovations--miracles of mind (and nowadays usually technology) that redefine how we do things and often could not be predicted by what occurred before--are the elusive dream of many current businesses and the catalyst for new industries and economic growth. We also need breakthroughs right now to solve the challenges of an America that has forgotten how to collectively solve problems, dream together and invent a new future. 

Perhaps like you I have been feeling pessimistic about the state of our culture--despite my creative rabble-rousing I am in many ways a very practical person--but something about watching Hugo, Martin Scorcese's new 3D movie, shook up some optimism in me.  Movies in many ways are the ultimate manifestation of current human creativity, requiring hundreds of talented people coming together to create as engaging an experience we can have while seated.  And I finally understood that 3D movies are a breakthrough--that my experience watching Hugo was qualitatively different from any movie experience I'd had before (I have not been an avid 3D goer) and that movies now were being reinvented in a way I hadn't really thought possible.

Artificial Leaf that can store solar energy

Add to that the truly amazing innovations featured in the recent Time Magazine "Invention Issue" (You may have to be a subscriber but worth picking up a copy) and suddenly I'm finding myself believing that humans can make miracles. Perhaps you've already met Siri, the iPhone digital assistant who can respond to your verbal requests like never before.  There is also DRACO, a new virus killer that may change the length of colds forever, as well as an artificial leaf that can effectively convert and store solar energy.  Not to mention 3-D chips, virtual textures, laser headlights, mind reading software and solar airplanes and so many others proving that miracle inventions will continue to change our world. Undoubtedly we'll soon adapt to them and take them for granted but they will continue to mesmerizingly come at us.

So for a moment, as this year ends, I'm embracing these miracles and believing that breakthroughs don't have to be only technological.  We are ready to change our politics, our economic paradigms, our distractions, our materialism, our stress--how we solve problems, get along and care about each other.  It only takes a small shift, a bold idea, a different way of seeing or communicating or being.  That may be a miracle but we humans can indeed do miracles.