Black Beauty remains one of the most popular novels ever written. Anna Sewell’s “autobiography of a horse” is estimated to have sold nearly as many copies (40-50 million) as the complete works of Charles Dickens (50 million.) Not bad for … Read More
Author Archives: Al Etmanski
We Believe: Manifestos, Creeds and other Declarations
Manifestos, creeds and declarations are making a comeback. The Leap Manifesto – A Call for a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another continues to make waves. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s controversial manifesto presents fifteen suggestions for raising a … Read More
Forget Your Perfect Offering
Forget your perfect offering, advised Leonard Cohen. There will always be another shiny concept or tool so much better than the ones you currently use. And consultants, who describe a perfect world within reach should you decide to hire them. … Read More
P(reaching) Beyond the Choir
The real choice isn’t between preaching to your choir or preaching to the choir that is competing with you. That’s one minority group, coalition or movement preaching past another minority group, coalition or movement. Your messages are pretty well scripted … Read More
Axing Alarming Adverbs – The LY Pledge
Toni Morrison, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner started it – The LY Pledge – to lessen the unbearably excessive use of adverbs in political debate. Morrison’s adverb usage rate is the lowest of any of the world’s greatest writers, including Hemingway. Her … Read More
The Lakehead of Democracy
When I was growing up there were a couple of small sized cities at the head of Lake Superior named Port Arthur and Fort Williams. Everyone referred to them affectionately as the “Lakehead.” Including the people who lived there. The … Read More
Stash Your Plan in the Cutlery Drawer
Imagine a restaurant review that focused exclusively on the cutlery on the table. “What about the meal?” you would ask. Indeed. Knives and forks aren’t the meal. They are merely a means to a hopefully delicious end. Sadly in the … Read More
Take a Leap – Take a Bold Leap
The formal system not working for you? Ensnared in its lethargy? Drifting in the momentum of its outmoded approach? Then take a leap. Not onto what exists. Wrestling once more with its inefficiencies. Trying to make a silk’s purse out … Read More
Shannen’s Dream
Sadly, Shannen Koostachin will never make the list of the greatest women in Canada. Not because she wouldn’t deserve it – she led one of the biggest youth-led children’s rights campaigns in Canada – but because she died in a … Read More
It’s Good to be Lost
One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to not make any decisions. Not because I didn’t want to but because I didn’t know what I was dealing with. It was a disorienting experience. I had come from … Read More