The Challenge of Representing Time to a Teenager in New Story

The Challenge of Representing Time to a Teenager in a New Story

I look at my open hand. Yes, it's true … it's not even imagination any more. I can see clearly my past, present and future and spark of choice resting on my palm. They may be invisible shapes in the sensory world but the meanings are written clearly across my brain along with a surge of power that respecting my Timeline is now up to me ... 

excerpt from A Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand. 

My first blog introduced the rationale and quick summary of a new e-book called A Teen Girl Makes Time in the Sand. There are three basic reasons for writing this timely e-book.

1. How to stop social media from taking advantage of a rash and brash teenage brain still in development personified here as a Giant Clown Face of epic proportions...

2. How to start looking at value of Time and power of choice as a super power tool to avoid making bad mistakes that may affect or change the total Time Line...

3. How to use diagrams as a base for discussion of growing up in a mass media social world, and structuring the experience of time without counting numbers. (Blog 3)

It is worth noting that there was a major challenge in representing the value of Time, especially to young vibrant teenagers who view life as inevitable passion to grow up on their terms with their technical gadgets. 

Ask a teenager what is the most valuable thing or power you have and the answer, most probably, won't be time itself.  After all, what happens today is not as important as to what happens tomorrow for fun, excitement, group and self-identity.

In fact, for most people, the primary focus of time is counting numbers in a tactical system measured by minutes, days, months, years, decades, etc.  However, how do you count or measure the quantity of EXPERIENCE which is the content between the numbers?  It is the quality of experience and foresight that makes the difference…but how do you explain this to a 14 year old?

So the story progressively explains the "shapes" of Time as circles for the Present, blocks for the Past, and open-ended lines for the Future.  It is easier to picture how they may be interconnected on a time line and web of life. 

The Yesterdays, whether good or bad, can pile up like a wall not to be replayed or rebuilt. The Tomorrows are visionary directions of hope. They can embody huge amounts of time. But Today is the only living circle of opportunity where to choose your future life lines or directions.

But here is the strangest paradox of Time. It can only be managed in a very small time frame called TODAY. And TODAY can sometimes be sparked by a tinier matter of CHOICE.  

Herein lies the tragedy or the triumph.  As tiny as choice may be, it holds the seeds of reaction, decision, habit and everything else in between.  Doesn't it make better sense to broaden the scope or power of this moment?

The climax of the story is to discover a super power tool that respects the passage of time as a simple exercise to enact in immediate situations to help make a smart choice in respect to Time itself.  It answers the early question:

What would you do differently if you had the choice of seeing the future?

A Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand makes sense as a grandmother leads her young granddaughter to talk about her experiences in a "Selfie-Celtie" world, her regrets, and redemption to believe more in her true self and natural abilities with positive ways to connect to the internet. 

Check this unique e-book with many simple diagrams to help explain the complex infinity of making good choices and living wisely. 

Your experiences, with or without teenagers, and comments about the passage of time are important to share and learn from.

Sincerely,

Annemarie 

 

Excerpts:

Thinking back, there is no training how to deal with changes in technology when my brain's biology remains unchanged.  A teenager is still young, still curious, still wants to be liked, feel attractive, praised and rewarded again and again...

They buy into the electronic Hall of Mirrors where everyone is watching and comparing themselves, trying to find some piece of wisdom in a crowd or mob, not sure how not to stop suckling from an alternative reality not their own.  

But all is quiet. I think there is something wrong with this picture when a young teenage brain in normal growth patterns of fitting into normal society also has to try to find a place in a newly fractured culture of Social Media without rules, constraints or limitations with abnormal expectations of adulthood.

Yes, I certainly have made bad choices in the past but they are now a wall of blocks behind me and there is a vision of a more open-ended and liberating future ahead of me….
I see a room full of yesterdays; but also a bright circle of today where I can make real living choices using my super power tool.

…..       

Introducing The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots on Earth Day

INTRODUCING: The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots on Earth Day, April 22, 2019

"Young people: They care. They know that this is the world that they're going to grow up in, that they're going to spend the rest of their lives in. But, I think it's more idealistic than that. They actually believe that humanity, human species, has no right to destroy and despoil regardless.” Sir David Attenborough

There are many reasons for writing this Water Sprite with Roots story on his journey to find Cyclical Truths especially on Earth Day in honor of this "blue speck" in the universe.

In the nebulous world where the difference between the real and the imagined is only a matter of perception and preference and in what direction the sun's beams are slanting and in what direction the shadows are falling, there is cast into the atmosphere a young water sprite to begin his cyclical journey in one of the Earth's most essential cycles. He takes this undertaking very seriously and calls it his mission of Cyclical Truths. His accounts and feelings set a purpose and demand for morality for all generations in preservation of a finite planet.

His short name is Corddo-mont, and he personifies the most valuable, but limited resource, known as pure, fresh water.  He is unique because he is also part plant with retractable roots and cellular chloroplasts with which to make his own food from the sun's energy.  This gives him a unique perspective on the symbiotic interdependence among plants, animals and even micro-organisms at the four important levels of healthy ecosystems..

He is young, ebullient and curious with an attendant sense of humor and freshness of experience.  Along the way, he encounters various experiences that impress him with a number of cycles that describe the cooperative natural world where everything has a purpose and a right to exist to maintain potential.  In fact, he won't admit it, but he has formed a close bond with a special micro-organism known as a rotifer.

He becomes more aware of his vitality as he learns about the difficulties that threaten and exploit his nature; even to become an agent of pollution to gravely affect the myriads of life-forms that rely on his solubility factor and all-embracing sustenance.  A unique encounter impresses him with the most abundant carbon element found in all organic matter including the hydrocarbons in fossil fuels.

It is only with his encounters with humankinds that he feels a loss of self; and learns consciously,sometimes painfully, the truth of the need for conservation and preservation of balance in nature.

This story combines imagination, fantasy with scientific reality. The figurative language personifies the water sprite as a friend we should all care about his manners, fears and hopes.  Because he shares an affinity with any organic life form derived from carbon and hydrogen, he can communicate with other beings and express their stories from their realities. Most importantly, they help explain the cyclical truths that are very real and essential to ecology and the Earth's bio-systems.    

   

It is important to introduce this valuable superhero water sprite with roots on

 Earth Day, April 22, 2019.

By relating to his journey, you will also relate to Cyclical Truths and understand the confluences of Climate Change speeding out of control:

....The highest reliably recorded temperatures on Earth have happened in the last couple of years. Temperatures have reached 129 degrees (oven temperature) plus humidity. How can people work? What if “no-go zones” continue for weeks on end? How will humans survive before forced migration? 

...Climate change will have major and unpredictable effects on the world's water systems, including an increase in floods and droughts, powerful storms, and causing in turn, an impact on food supply, displacement and conflict.

...Polar ice is melting, coastlines are receding, rising sea levels threaten entire nations on low-lying islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, increasing ocean salinity, degrading the iconic Great Barrier Reef.

...Climate change is shifting the seasons with extreme weather conditions such as precipitation patterns which will impact farming and agriculture, a source of food and livelihood for more than half of the global population.

It is time to treat our Blue Planet with respect and spirit of Ecology where every community has a purpose, right to exist and maintain potential. 

Check out this valuable story for all ages today.

Your comments are always welcome.

Sincerely, Annemarie 

Excerpt: My thoughts wander about the kind of ecology that humankinds believe in, as I have witnessed. Do they get it that natural life begins with DNA in a nucleus, one celled animals and plants, then species and then an ecosystem? Do they know that every small ecosystem is part of the total large biosphere on Earth that connects them all; water, air, food, resources, and shelter? Do they realize that perpetual growth, industry or destruction of any habitat is not sustainable on a limited planet? 

INTRODUCING: Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand E-Book

Introducing:  TEEN GIRL FACES TIME IN THE SAND

They buy into the electronic Hall of Mirrors where everyone is watching and comparing themselves, trying to find some piece of wisdom in a crowd or mob, not sure how not to stop suckling from an alternative reality not their own... (excerpt)

On one hand, there should be no reason for a story like this for teenage girls in the process of fulfilling their natural roles as young women.  On the other hand, this story is essential for every teenage girl to read and understand the significance of making a smart choice with respect to her Timeline.

Who doesn’t have a daughter or sister or know a young teenage girl who seems attached to her cell phone but who is really on the leash?  Who is leading whom?

There are three reasons to read this e-book:

1. How to stop social media from taking advantage of a rash and brash teenage brain still in development

2. How to start looking at value of Time and power of choice as a super power tool to avoid making bad mistakes that may affect the total Timeline

3. How to use diagrams as a base for discussion of growing up in a mass media world personified here as a Giant Clown Face of epic proportion.

A main challenge is the difficulty of talking about the value of a Timeline with teenagers who often see Time as a gift of beauty, vitality and invincibility with no visible ending.  It is a normal to trust that success will be delivered with age and purpose in mind.  Youth is a time for curiosity, exuberance and self-discovery as well as mental and social development.  

However, in a brief matter of a decade or so, there has been a transformation of subjects and thoughts unlike anything experienced in human history where Internet Communication has created Great Changes in our society and culture forever with no safety nets for young brains.  Teen girls, especially, are surrounded by a brand new vocabulary and motivation in a Selfie Domain with no training or denotation.

And therein are two problems. First, a general lack of knowledge how to cope with this new subject matter. Usually, any new subject requires learning with clear objectives like any other study; preparation, asking questions, analyzing content, decision making and evaluation.  Unfortunately, there is no training for young girls at any level to gain any kind of understanding much less mastery over these overwhelming changes.  Ignorance and confusion are a lethal mixture.

Young developing brains naturally respond to curiosity, endless stimuli and challenging contrarian messages and too often they are left victims through no fault of their own.  There is nothing more tragic than a 14 year old girl who is influenced to make bad choices and pays for those mistakes for the rest of her life surrounded by negative circumstances. A bright beautiful spirit lies broken and, in some cases, can die.

The second problem, based on lack of not understanding the context, is how young girls are taken advantage of by mass media which brainwashes their minds with adult prerogatives.  For example, how unnatural is it for young girls to sexualize their bodies to be "LIKE" adult images or role play? Part of this assault is their addiction to their cell phones and manufactured Selfies.

The challenge in helping to overcome these problems is to show teenagers the importance of making a smart choice as a pivot point on the future Timeline instead of thinking of their choice as a given right to follow their own sense of direction and belonging.  They are natural risk-takers, and don't like to be preached to help avoid life's bad turns when engaged midstream in huge unprecedented changes all around them night and day.

They would rather learn from their peers.

The key question is asked in chapter one: "What if, you had the power to see the future and how your actions today may affect it? Would you make the same choices today?"

And so, this story is told of a young adolescent girl's journey.  Amazingly, it covers a period of three days of discussion and contemplation to turn her life around, with a nightmarish dream included.  It follows her struggles in a hyper media environment, the realization of her rash and brash adolescent brain, her descent into drug addiction, her nightmares of media control, and her gradual awareness of the transient TIME measured not by numbers, counting hours or days, but with blocks and circles of experience as first drawn in the sand and explained by her Grannie.

She learns about a super power tool as a simple exercise to respect Time itself, as if it could be held in her hands, to help make smart choices in immediate kinds of situations.  This tool or idea, simple as it is, becomes even more powerful in the context of normal social rites of passage into adulthood and surviving in a social media Selfie circus. 

The time is right to discuss these problems and solutions.

Check out the e-book.

Included are ideas for using positive selfies and cell phones. If interested, also available are ten lesson plans to practice the ideas in the e-book.

Comments are always welcome,
Annemarie

New website: https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com


Excerpt: One Selfie swipe will instantly show me images and words with as brief an engagement as I wish. There is no debate; it's not a relationship. It can show me ignorance, intimidation or threats, bombast, or absolute fakery.  It is normal to favor only cosmetic standards with plastic interventions and sensational spectacles where regular common everyday things and people no longer matter.  

Is this what communication has flat lined to … short term attention spans, immediate reaction, fear and anxiety and judgment calls without facts?

New Beginning for an Old Tired Network Marketing Story

New Beginning for an Old Tired Network Marketing Story

…redemption begins minus the common hype and struggle

Who doesn't have dreams to live above the average day-to-day existence?

Who doesn't want financial security in a changing New Economy?

Who doesn't believe in people helping each other to succeed?

I entered the field of network marketing home business because I wanted to believe in such potentially positive answers.

First, it was about participating in the proactive wellness industry with doctor formulated supplements versus mass manufactured store shelf fillers. Then there was an elixir from sea grass with PubMed references. Next promotion was a tonic based on ancient ayruveda medical herbs with doctors' stamps of approval. And yes, it was easy to justify expensive monthly auto shipments if they were filled with promises of good health. Just to be sure I knew what I was talking about, I completed a two year online course to become a Certified Nutritional Supplement Distributor.

Second, as e-commerce on the internet evolved, it was logical to switch from physical distribution to promote a free application to override search engines to find the lowest prices on products, to help brand local businesses and share in worldwide affiliate pools. Yes, this was the next BIG WAVE with a monthly subscription fee of only $29.

Could it be possible that most people could afford $29 a month to be part of a compensation matrix which paid out over 60% of world wide earnings to associates?

For the first time I heard the term "democratic" business opportunity for the masses. Yes, it seemed the right time to brand myself as fair and democratic home business mentor. 

Yes, it was time to post my Mission Statement because no family should be disenfranchised from the New Economy.

However, you probably also realize, that between the first and second enterprise were years of work and commitment to learn to function as an internet marketer in a rough and ready wild west frontier of internet marketing.

As often is the case, it is only with hindsight, that the futility and ultimate tragedy of broken dreams and wasted time becomes painfully clear. Yes, if you want to, you may compare it to a sad divorce where both parties seem to have tried their best but failed miserably to meet their goals. On one side, the heavy-duty magnetic promoters who set the early marketing standards as proclamations that building lists with vast traffic would lead to easy gold mines; and, on the other side, ordinary folk stoked with dreams without the essential skills were suffocating on their dust slowly.

How has your experience been like?

Would you agree that this network marketing and internet marketing coalition based on so much determination on both sides has fallen apart with such disappointment? Do you have your reasons? Does this mean you give up, feel a victim, or do you revamp, face the truths via results, and join the New Digital Economy with the right goals minus the two biggest blunders? What other options do we have with advancing technology? And is it possible to reconcile the strengths of both?

You are invited to check out a report with connections to the Big Picture:

Internet Marketing Exposed

Right reasons to make Money from Home

Internet Marketing Explodes

Network Marketing #1 Blunder...Be A Dreamer

Network Marketing #2 Blunder...Be A Leader

Getting to Know a Mastermind System for True Leverage

As well, check out the Self-Franchise Report.

What is the ONE system that is complete enough to cover all the bases and essentials of internet marketing but creative enough to specialize in your products?  You can take these tools for a test run to see if they may work for you in an effective, time efficient way with excellent follow-up service to make your company or website stand out with the personal touch as necessary.

I look forward to your questions, comments or mind streams for a better understanding and coping with what is happening to our world and internet.

Sincerely,
Annemarie Berukoff

Note: this is Blog 3 in a set of 3 to help explain the background and reasons for creating new personal website. 

Blog 1: Who Am I? Who Really Cares? Why Bother?

Blog 2: Is There a Better Way to Open the Mind?

Is There A Better Way to Open the Mind: Mind Stream or Mind Map

Is There a Better Way to Open the Mind: 

Mind Stream versus Mind Map?

How many ways can you define or describe your mind? The mental process cannot be held in your hand for contemplation. Our bony skull encloses our brain as a solid, bloody, nerve-cells infrastructure with at least 8 distinct interconnected compartments. Yet, somehow, our invisible but all powerful mental processes emanate to drive our actions and emotions.

Age old question: Is there a difference between the brain and mind? Does the brain build the mind or does the mind build the brain? For example, there would be no language if there wasn’t a walnut-sized location on the brain's left side and with language there is development of a knowledge base. The good news is that modern technology has opened this "black box" for scientific examination and extrapolation. And there are specialists who study mental processes like psychologists and psychiatrists.

But for most of us, we are not brain scientists or psychiatrists. We are all human beings who need to harness our mental functions and energies in order to fulfill our existence. We try to observe, understand, experiment, adapt and solve problems within logical facts or illogical imagination. We believe in abstractions and unseen spirits. We follow our conscience in thoughts, feelings, responses, fears and even dysfunctions.

Sometimes words fail in manifesting this refractive, limitless power whereas a visual diagram can speak volumes. Think about Aristotle's statement seriously: "Thought is impossible without an image." Can you think of anything where an image doesn't suddenly appear? I can't.

Visual language is defined as using visual elements to convey meanings, ideas and emotions at spatial levels versus linear verbal language. Note that visual expressions are not only found in art drawings, but also in construction, acting and dancing and as such they are fundamental to human thought .

MIND MAP is a common way of starting with a central KEY WORD to visually organize structure, analyze and find relationships to solve problems and make big picture decisions. Supporting details are based on other words...what you already know or expect.

MIND STREAM is defined in this context as starting with an INDIVIDUAL IDEA aware of a continuum of choices able to change at will. It is more open-ended to discovery...an organic flowchart for personal exploration of new concepts. Importantly, a good mind stream also includes positives, negatives and neutrals. It has more aptitude to use visual language to enhance meaning.

A mind stream is closely related to a literary device called stream of consciousness which is described as writing as you think without regard to sequence, syntax, or logic as it floats within various levels of reality.

Both are helpful for brainstorming, planning, simplifying, analyzing and drawing on the brain's creativity. Another way of thinking is that a highway map is handy to find where you want to go; however, following a mountain stream can uncover unbelievable things yet to be discovered. Therein lies the difference if we can train our minds.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, fixed or fluid. Do you like to follow word maps or create mind streams?

Sincerely,

Annemarie Berukoff

Note: Blog 2 (out of 3) that sets the context for a new personal website called HelpfulMIndstreamforChanges.com
Blog 1: Who Am I? Who Really Cares? Why Bother?
Blog 3: New Beginning for an Old, Tired Network Marketing Story

Who Am I? Who Really Cares? Why Bother?

Who Am I? Who Really Cares? Why Bother?

...every Content lives in Context

NOTE: these 3 blogs outline the background and reasons for creating new personal website called Helpful Mindstream for Changes.

Until you reach this 70 year plateau, it is hard to manifest these strange new feelings of I am getting old. What do I have to show for my long years? Will my remembrances have any value? For me, this dawning seemed to happen on my birthday waking up to face a dark curtain behind which were my remaining years as few or many as they may be. The sense of mortality was awakened as well as any tangent of immortality after my life ends. No fear, no worry, just possible regret that my work, my thoughts, my spirit would be buried without cogency mixed in with the rocks and dirt.

So I have decided to take this virtual space to share my mind streams. My life's journey so far has been both average, different and beyond comprehension why I would spend so much of my youth in libraries rather than at parties. Therein, perhaps, there may lie some lessons for future generations.

I was raised in a pioneer home within a homesteading family with four brothers where electric power and rotary telephone service were experienced in my teen years. Core values of hard work, discipline, cooperation, pride and gratitude were as deeply engraved as the wood grain in the logs in our small house. I earned my Education degree and taught for 24 years both in big cities and rural communities. I was able to take early retirement in order to pursue my passion of entrepreneurship in the only venue open to me, mainly the network marketing home business. Believing that any strong work ethic would succeed, starting with the right goals and answers, and making all the mistakes and misconceptions have also garnered some valuable lessons to share in future blogs.

So what are the particular peculiarities I uniquely wish to share with others on such a powerful and interactive platform like this? Is there something I can teach from my experiences having lived the pioneer mindset to the technological meshing of electronic data dispersed in bits and pieces where tweets are mere pebbles skipping across a vast knowledge base…

"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."

In my shortened timeline, I need to plot some definite intentions.

Here are some realistic objectives of what I would like to accomplish with my new  website and blogs:

...compile some reports on internet marketing for those who need to market their brands on the world wide web with personal insights and one recommendation.

...write an  e- book about shattered dreams of teenage girls in this Selfie Age that ends with a well defined strategy to make better choices at the right time. Include hands on exercises to explore developing mind patterns.

... review and improve a children's book about the Adventures of a Water Sprite together with a activity book that invites children to explore the intricacies and balances of natural cycles…time to take a break from wild games and Disney World caricatures.

... rework the theories behind exercises for Adventures with Ideas and implement Brain Cards ( vs Brain Bags) where you don't have to stay within the lines. Early in my career I became fascinated with Visual Literacy as a mode of communication and will revisit again the difference between percepts and concepts (Perception before Cognition)...makes for some good debates way beyond the flicker of tweets.

...and, of course, have some creative thinking fun to share ideas and transformations along the way.

Finally, if you hear a common refrain in this introduction, feel free to introduce yourself. If you feel Age has increased your trudging but not your value of experience please share your impressions, mindful unsung contributions and your particular peculiarities. Imagine how our accumulated wisdom can transform our way of thinking and help others enjoy the Bigger Picture or Vision of Life.

PS: Here are some quick examples of mind streams based on my objectives. Do you prefer the verbal outline or visual diagram still very open-ended?

I look forward to your comments, ideas and suggestions.

Sincerely,

Annemarie Berukoff

Blog 2: Is There a Better Way to Open the Mind?
Blog 3: New Beginning for an Old, Tired Network Marketing Story

It certainly makes your heart feel good to rummage around in former studies...to think that maybe your wrinkles and lapses may not have been in vain.

….