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It's been nine weeks and one day since I found out that my brother died. I keep wondering when I will cease to be aware of the exact number of weeks and days it's been. I am getting better. I can often think about Frederick, and sometimes even talk about him, without crying. I am not only doing my work, but love doing my work. I was challenged, inspired, and exhilarated as we organized and carried out the Global Earth Exchange.

 

But Grief, the trickster I described in my previous newsletter, does trip me up at odd times. The word "brother," for example. Whenever I hear it I experience a sense of shock, as if the person who uttered it has committed an injustice, a sacrilege even, for how can there be such a thing as "brother" in the world when mine has been taken? There is one teabag left in a box I brought home from Frederick's apartment after he died. I do not want to use it, because as long as there is one teabag left, something my brother chose and interacted with survives.

 

His birthday is July 16. I will be leading a youth quest in the California desert that day. I keep wondering if I will mention anything about that to the others.

 

Because I will be out of town and out of range of phone and email for most of the next month, I'm going to prepare the August newsletter before I go, and it will be sent out to you automatically.

 

For fun, I'm inviting you, the readers of the newsletter, to create the content of that issue.

 

Here's a question for you to ponder and respond to:

 

If you could take your ideal summer vacation with anybody in the world (living or dead) in any place in the world, who and what would you choose?

 

Would you like a camping trip with Marilyn Monroe in Yosemite? (The pairings of person and place don't have to make sense!) A few weeks in Paris with Thomas Jefferson? A house on a Greek island with Vita Sackville-West?

 

Send me your answers by Sunday, July 10, and I'll put them in the newsletter. (I'll include your name unless you ask me not to.)

 

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 I was never a Michael Jackson fan. I thought his music was interesting, but the man himself just struck me as too weird to merit serious attention. A few months after Jackson died, however, an Irish philosophy professor who was a participant on our Sahara Camel Caravan and Vision Quest recommended seeing "This Is It," the film that was made during the rehearsals of the big show that Jackson was about to bring to London at the time of his death.

 

My reaction? Suffice it to say that I've now watched "This Is It" six or seven times. I have never encountered anyone who so personifies, so embodies his art the way Michael Jackson embodied music. It is uncanny. Moreover, it has come to seem to me that, by watching this movie, you get some valuable insights on how tips on how Michael (as everyone called him, so I will too) succeeded not only as an artist but as a leader of the enormous ensemble of musicians, dancers, filmmakers, and technicians he worked with.  

 

So here are Seven Tips on Leadership inspired by Michael Jackson:

 

1. Know what you know with your whole being. When Michael Jackson sings, whether on stage or off stage giving instructions to his musicians, it's like music, not blood, is running in his veins.

 

2. Never apologize for what you envision, even if no one else gets it at first. Sometimes faltering, sometimes agitated, sometimes loving, Michael has a sense of what needs to happen in a number. He gives directions in his own way, often using his body to explain concepts. He never apologizes for changing his mind, interrupting the flow, or fine-tuning.

 

3. Keep fine-tuning, but know when to stop. Michael Jackson would not settle for good enough. MJ encouraged his musicians to keeping pushing and thus supersede what they had previously thought they could do. And then he let go and let them make their own art.

 

4. Hire colleagues and co-workers who are as wildly creative as you are, but make sure they're creative in different ways. Well, just watch the dancers and listen to the musicians in this film, how they play off one another.

 

5. Invite these colleagues into the light at every opportunity and relish their shining. Jackson shared the stage with his musicians. They shared it as equals. He did not claim star status and merely allow others to reflect his light. "This is your moment," he tells a singer as he brings her onstage for their duo.

 

6. Your body may not move as fast as it used to, but your soul has even more fire than it did when your were younger, so move with your soul. Michael wasn't quite as fleet at fifty as he was at twenty-five, but if anything his moves are even more soulful.

 

7. Being professional, concise, and strong-willed is not the opposite of being personal, emotional, and generous. Jackson could express his disapproval, dislike, and frustration without ever sounding arrogant or demeaning of others. His responses were often emotional and always respectful.

 

Okay, without further ado I'm going to order the DVD.

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