photo courtesy of Connecticut Health Foundation
What title(s) or categories of titles do you identify with?
This belief that names, titles, likes, hobbies, skills can define oneself I find to be ludicrous. How would we think about ourselves if the IRS, benefits of national identity and family legal structures etc. were not operative. At this moment you can identify me as 390 (my street number) or 3/5ths. Very few of us that identify with the African continent will ever know our name. For the purposes of this social communication endeavor, I can be identified as Thomas Robert Ficklin, Jr. in order to render more an homage to my father.
One of the exercises in CLP is about identifying and clarifying our own personal values. We each identify our top 5 values, writing one each on 5 index cards. Then we have to drop one… and another… until we are forced to choose our number 1, top value. What is your current One right now and why?
My current and at the time of CLP 13 core value is the desire (which is contradicted by the evidence) that if we could all just see our common red blood running through our veins rather than our skin color, then there would be peace on earth good will toward men. My personal value desire is contradicted by the blood lust and savagery that still persists. That in fact somehow the spilling of the blood of someone else evokes pleasure. Consider the super widespread visual enactments of gruesome killings rampant in our consumer media world dramatizations.
What is one big, burning leadership question you are wrestling with these days?
This entire question is part of the problem. The belief that there is something called leadership is a fool’s quest. Yes, like the birds that fly in formation with one bird in front or like the queen bee’s world, hierarchies do seem to emerge. And somehow, what we consider to be from the dawn of civilization someone, or the best fighter or some family, or some family head, or some king appears to be in charge. Perhaps we cloak this word leadership around courageous misfits who are either imprisoned or who slay their adversaries by any means necessary, given the tools available to them.
The Current is one of the CLP blog sections, intended to draw our attention to current, pressing concerns, opinions, feelings, thoughts or other reflections. Is there anything related you’d like to share, at this point?
The “Current” is truly a drop of water, a wave, a stream, a brook, a pond, eventually tumbling into the ocean. There is no one interest that should occupy totally your interest inventory. Whatever one thinks about at that precise moment is the current matter, and dare I say the matter of currency. The neo-liberal trap of believing that “our issue” is urgent and not equal to all others is one of the major errors of this era of umpteen flavors of ice cream and infinite download menus of distraction.
What inspires you, gives you hope these days?
I will experience my 69th revolution around the sun on July 10th. What more inspiration do I need. All is well.
Introduce us to someone you are/were close with personally (e.g., family, teacher, friend, mentor), who shaped (or shapes) you and how you view leadership and possibility for a better community/world?
No one person comes to mind. I have been blessed throughout my life, at every stage of my life with friends, family, teachers, coaches, ministers, and more who have provided guidance and assistance.
How do you recharge, restore your fire?
The worthy intention of recharging is understandable. For me and I mean this deeply, the search for the external salve and visual-auditory-touch-sight-taste sense stimulation is a futile quest. To remain calm in the eye of the storm is the key regardless of where your mortal body is located on the planet and regardless of whether it is awake, asleep, conscious or “unconscious.”
Cultivation of the Prana is the key.
What do you recommend to us, in each of these categories:
- Reading – Hitler’s American Model, by James Whitman
- Listening – to your heart
- Eating – at least three or four food colors per day
- Watching – your mind
- Laughing – at yourself
- Wildcard – best blender to purchase: Vitamix
To get in touch with Tom directly: tomficklin@aol.com / cell 203 768 3390
Learn more about and connect to Tom via: Blog — Youtube Channel — Facebook Profile — The Tom Ficklin Show (WNHH) — LinkedIn — Tumblr — Twitter
Facebook pages Tom administers and invites you to peruse:
The Tom Ficklin Show (Citizen’s Television) — Ficklin Media Reports — The Ficklin Media Group — Black History Month 2018 and Beyond — Black Artmusicculture — Black Media — Black Politics — Black Economics — Black Education and Scholarship — Black Health — CT for Social Change (also Connecticut for Social Change website) — Women’s History Month 2018 and Beyond