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Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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Goldilocks in Business
January 3, 2013
— 3 Comments
Three Bears and Goldilocks
My story in business since I returned to commerce now seems like Goldilocks and the Three Bears to me. While learning inbound marketing and social media I attempted to find the right marketing partner. I understand how this works because for years I was the marketing partner for all travel providers (travel agent) , and fancy spas sold my services as a teacher ( employee). Commission is something I have always paid happily, even back when I was young production potter paying a gallery to sell my pots. It is fair, and it keeps overhead where it belongs.
My first guess about the perfect partner was focused on Watsu. I decided that the Watsu people maintain pools which are not fully booked, therefore Floatli would give them something else to sell in their pools. I wandered around from hot spring to hot spring looking for the right one, but this combo was not going to happen, for whatever reason.
Next, I decided that mermaids naturally combined with Floatli and were trending. I learned about the people who are into mermaids, and organized a weekend at a hot spring for mermaids to meet water fitness enthusiasts. This was not the match I had imagined either. I did not suffer terribly through these experiences, mind you. I simply found no appropriate fit for a marketing vehicle.
My digital wanderings had exposed me to Chris Brogan and Anthony Innarino who taught a workshop on sales last year. The well presented course provided the piece that had been missing in my technique. They carefully explained the process of qualifying customers. I had clearly demonstrated that deciding myself that the customer needs my product was the wrong initial step to take. Then they gave me the secret to reverse all errors made in the mama bear’s bed and the papa bear’s bed. To qualify a potential customer you first ask if they want to have a conversation with you about whatever you are pitching. Proceeding without taking this step is the number one way salespeople turn others off forever. The interest as well as the ability to execute has to be there, or you are wasting time. Thanks, Chris and Anthony, that information arrived none too soon.
My target now is Zappos, which fits perfectly because Floatli is the exact opposite of shoes, and Zappos is very sporty. This time, however, I will proceed armed with my new information, and ask the Zapsters if they want to have a conversation about marketing Floatli. That is why I will send this post to them in hopes of a positive response. I believe I can show how we belong together in business, for the benefit of all sentient beings. Gravity meets weightlessness, outside the box (but inside a Zappos box). Please say yes, Zapsters.
Culture Clown at Zappos
Gabriel Whelden, Rebel in Plymouth Colony
January 3, 2013
— 6 Comments
There are many records of my 10th Great Grandfather who ran away as soon as he got to America:
Gabriel Wheldon and brothers deserted ship at Plymouth. To escape punishment and being sent back to England in chains, they went inland to Massasoit’s village at Po ko net, and took to wife a daughter of a brother of Massasoit, although he had a wife in England. After children were born through the good offices of Massasoit and the English at Plymouth not wishing to offend him, consented to try Gaberial and his brothers at the Plymouth court.He was sentenced to dwell at Mattachees on land that was ceded by HighYannough at the request of Massasoit in lieu of certain annual tribute paid Massasoit by the Cape Tribes. One of Gabriel’s brothers went back to England and Gaberial and the other brother stayed in the Colonies. It was many years before Gaberial was made a freeman, and he had to go outside the jurisdiction to become one.
Gabriel Whelden (1600 – 1655)
is my 10th great grandfather
Daughter of Gabriel
Son of Ruth
Daughter of John
Daughter of Abigail
Daughter of Martha
Daughter of Grace
Son of Sarah
Son of John Nimrod
Son of John Samuel
Son of William Ellison
Daughter of George Harvey
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee
The first known Whelden in the line in America was Gabriel Whelden of Plymouth. He is believed to have been born in England, but the date and place are not proven. It is commonly stated that Gabriel Whelden originated in Nottinghamshire, but no records have been found to substantiate it. The author Pope reports he found a record of a land sale in Middlesex county files where Gabriel in 1653 sold land he owned in Nottingham to William Cross. The head archivist of these records, Elizabeth Bouvier has been unable to find any such record.
The Wheeldon/Wheelton family, which has not yet been connected to Gabriel Wheldon, finds the earliest spelling located to-date is Whyldon (christenings of sons of William Whyldon at Astbury, Cheshire: Matthew, 14 Dec 1574; John 14 Mar 1584; per LDS IGI ). In “Homes of Family Names in Great Britain”, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1968) H. B. Guppy noted that the surname Wheelton as “peculiar” or “confined mostly to this county [Cheshire].” He indicated it was more specifically associated with Macclesfield. The surname is concentrated in the ancient Parish of Prestbury, which originally included Macclesfield. Additionally, “pockets” of Wheeldon ~ Wheelton individuals settled in the Cheshire / Derbyshire / Staffordshire border area known as “The Potteries.”
Was Margaret (Oguina) a Wampanoag?
Gabriel married Margaret Diguina (or Oguina), who may have been Gabriel’s second wife. Some say that Margaret was a Wampanoag Indian, although it is hotly disputed by many genealogists. Accordig to the Wampanoag theory Oguina was a child of 6 years in 1608 when a British fishing vessel picked her up along with other Wampanoags along a beach on Cape Cod. She was taken to England where she baptized and given the English name Margaret. She eventually married Gabriel Whelden.
Oguina was a daughter of Quadequina who in turn was a son of WAasaneginN. These geenrations were of the Algonkian nation of Massachusoi and tribe of Wampanoag.
Oguina’s descent is as follows:
1- WASANEGIN, born by 1554 begot 2-QUADEQUINA, born 1576. This year is determined from the fact that he was born in the year when the “Great Light” went out. European astronomers noted in 1576 that there was a Solar Eclipse. He, QUADEQUINA begot 3-OGUINA, born 1602 @ Wampanoag village in what is today Rhode Island.
Gabriel Whelden and Margaret (Oguina) had the following children:
- Ruth Whelden, who married Richard Taylor, and who died December 1673 in Yarmouth, Barnstable County, Massachusetts.
- Henry Whelden, who died 28 October 1694
- Katherne Whelden
- John Whelden, who died 20 November 1711
- Ralph Whelden
Gabriel died January 1653/1654 in Malden, Massachusetts. Following is his Last Will and Testament:
In the name of God, and in obedience to his comand (according to my bounden duty) I, Gabriell Whelding, of the Towne and Church of Maulden, being weake and sicke in body, do make my last will. My body to be layd asleepe in the bed of the grave, in the Common buriing lace for the Inhabitants of this Towne. I give 10s as a Small testimony of my true Love to the Church of Maulden, to be payd into the hands of the Deacons within a month after my decease. i give all my estate in Maulden, consisting of house, Frame Lands, cattle, and corne, (together [with] what money is due unto me from William Croffts, of Linne, to Margaret Whelding, my wife, who I appoynt my sole executrix.
In the presence of: Nathaniell Vphame, James Larnard, Michaiah Mathews, with others.
The part that seems far fetched to me is that Margaret was taken to England as kidnapped child. However, a recent piece of good luck on this very blog has introduced me to a fellow descendant, Ron Turner, who has more information about the story. The clues are many, and my interest could not be higher.
Mini Time Machine in Tucson
January 2, 2013
— 1 Comment
Mini Time Machine
enjoying exhibit
Santa on the roof
bedroom doll house
Antique music box
Santa rides
Santa naps at home
courtyard
relief minis
enchanted land
My neighborhood in Tucson contains one of my favorite museums of all time. I have been to a specialty miniature museum in Basel Switzerland several times that is elaborate. To have a high quality specialty museum with changing exhibits near my home is priceless to me. A visit to the Mini Time Machine is a blast for all ages. The detail and concentration involved in creating these tiny items will blow anyone’s mind. The more you look the more you see. All the exhibits are completely childproof, and the museum provide stools that kids can carry that will lift them up to eye level at the displays. I have been there for a museum fund raising party which was incredibly fun. They do make arrangements for private parties as well.
Unite and Lead
January 2, 2013
— 1 Comment
“Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist (1749 – 1832)
Capitalism does not require, nor naturally create great a disparity in wealth between the highest and lowest standards of living in a society. To create free markets we do not need to throw regulation out the window to favor a few insiders. We need to harmonize. We need to focus on lifting the entire society out of the sociological and economic gutter. The black plague in Europe sparked the Enlightenment after the Dark Ages. When people saw the oppressive and powerful upper class die at the same rate as all other classes, a great Wizard of Oz moment occurred. The belief in the old order was shattered, and a search for new knowledge was launched. Tyrants are all the same, dividing to conquer. Harmony requires, above all, keen listening skills. Can we use this moment, in which our government is in shambles, to abandon the old order for the good of all mankind? Can we retire the importance of ostensibly winning and loosing for long enough to seek a better way? Could this be the end of the American Empire as we know it?
Black Sheep Ancestors
January 1, 2013
— 5 Comments
black sheep in dreadlocks
When a family member does something disgraceful or distasteful the general way it is handled is by denial. The person who commits suicide or bigamy or general black sheepery is dropped from the story. Three of my grandfathers, fall into this category. My paternal great-grandfather, Edward Ewing Scott, married another woman while he was married to my great-grandmother who had 4 young daughters at home. My other paternal great-grandfather , Jason A Morse, was referred to as a bum, had a wild Cherokee wife purported to be a witch (after his boy’s mother died), and was never mentioned favorably to me. I very recently have seen his picture which was sent to me by a cousin. My mother’s father, George H Taylor, killed himself at home leaving his 10 kids orphaned during the depression. I have never seen a picture of George H, and did not know about his suicide until I was a teenager. One of my first cousins had a very elaborate suicide downtown Houston in the 1960’s which brought the subject back to light. I remember thinking how weird it was that nobody had ever told me. His wife, my grandmother, had died at home as well, in childbirth. I knew about that, but not his suicide. This denial makes it very hard to find information about the black sheep and how they blackened themselves.
This is your shadow family. This is the information that has specifically not been given to you in an effort to protect you in some way. This is the nature that is hidden in an effort to improve the self-image of the family through spin. Everyone wants to believe that his or her family represents the best and most worthy genetic material. If you can remember your parents being imperfect, then you can extrapolate how imperfect your entire tree really may be. If you look closely you may be frightened that we all descend from loonies. If you look more closely you will see how this evens out over time. The concept of the family curse is as real as the family glory and royalty. We have all arrived at this point in history together because of a long line of imperfect beings who survived and tweaked the story along the way.
My First Job, Singing and Costuming
December 31, 2012
— 3 Comments
When I was 17 I was quite the singer. I sang in an acapella madrigal group in my high school in Texas. We were super professional thanks to our director, Frank, C “Elephant” Coulter, choir director extraordinaire. This small college town in Texas was all about football, the bonfire, and the war in Viet Nam. Frank came to work every day overdressed like a rooster and somehow instilled pure passion and discipline into high school students who generally wanted to slack. When I graduated Frank got me a job in Cherokee, North Carolina, where he spent the summers with his wife working at a theater company in the Great Smoky Mountains. Frank and Elizabeth ran the canteen, a snack bar and meeting place for the crew after our production 6 nights a week for the public, Unto These Hills.
I was the lowest paid and the youngest member of the company. I was a singer in the choir, which was live with an organ accompanist. I quick changed a few people each night including an eagle dancer into Andrew Jackson. There was much body paint involved in the eagle dance, and the stage is dirt, so costumes needed the weekly deep cleaning we did on Mondays in the costume shop. I sewed and repaired costumes for the first week while we were in preparation to get the show ready. Fittings were needed for actors and dancers, who were true to form, very theatrical. Our head eagle dancer was from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and could perform an entrechat huit. He also had a glass eye that he used to take out to scare the young Cherokee boys in the dressing room. When I see the above version of the eagle dance the costumes are familiar but the rest has lost quality. I am glad I was there when we sang it in the Cherokee language live and in person. You can never go back, especially if it has been 44 years. I recently visited Margaret Dorn in New York City, who sings for a living. We recorded a technically awful but sincere Eagle Dance Song and sent it to our friends in Raleigh who still know how to sing it too. It was certainly fun while it lasted.
My Tribe and History
December 31, 2012
— 6 Comments
Plymouth
It is enlightening to track my personality archetypes while I track my ancestors. There are similarities, highs and lows, temporary dead ends in both. You can’t change the ancestors and you can’t change your archetypes, in the same way that you can not rearrange the stars in the sky. When I was new in the genealogy game I went to Tulsa to meet a cousin based on only family legend and no facts to discover/confirm our Cherokee bloodline. We had a great time, but came up empty on the Native American theory. We both wanted it to be true, but my cousin’s husband was insanely convinced without any evidence. He really wanted a Cherokee wife. He was the worst detective I have ever seen.
While searching it is important to be open to discovering that for which what you were not looking. When I find a Plymouth Colony ancestor I am generally excited, fill in the blanks with some black britches and some assumptions. Richard Taylor was no regular Pilgrim. He fell in love and married a Wampanoag chief’s daughter. I have a tribe in Massachusetts. I never would have guessed this, but I am thrilled out of my mind. My 12th great-grandfather,Great Sachem, had been exposed to English fishermen, and had learned some language from them. He walked into the Pilgrim camp and said “Welcome Englishmen”, to the great surprise of the Englishmen.
Wasanequin Great Sachem Wampanoag tribe (1554 – 1617)
is my 12th great grandfather
Quadequina Wampanoag (1576 – 1623)
Son of Wasanequin Great Sachem
Margaret Diguina Weeks (1613 – 1651)
Daughter of Quadequina
Ruth Whelden (1625 – 1673)
Daughter of Margaret Diguina
John TAYLOR (1651 – 1690)
Son of Ruth
Abigail Taylor (1663 – 1730)
Daughter of John
Martha Goodwin (1693 – 1769)
Daughter of Abigail
Grace Raiford (1725 – 1778)
Daughter of Martha
Sarah Hirons (1751 – 1817)
Daughter of Grace
John Nimrod Taylor (1770 – 1816)
Son of Sarah
John Samuel Taylor (1798 – 1873)
Son of John Nimrod
William Ellison Taylor (1839 – 1918)
Son of John Samuel
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
Son of William Ellison
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
Daughter of George Harvey
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee
I am very interested in my tribe, and have already had contact from a fellow descendant who has some proof of our Nativeness. I am looking forward to his input and learnring more about my roots. Ironically these people helped the Pilgrims survive, but the tribe has no reservation today. This is an overview of my First Nation Family:
Pokanoket is a tribe of Native Americans who trace their their lineage back thousands of years beyond the colonial days of the United States of America. We trace our ancestry through the bloodlines and the written and oral history of our people. We are the people of Massasoit Ousamequin, Massasoit Wamsutta, and Massasoit Metacom. We are Philip’s people, the people of Metacom. We are the people who celebrated the First Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims in 1621. We are the people who have endured much and who have returned, after a long journey through history to the present day and continue to look forward to the future.
Pokanoket is also a Nation. The Nation of Tribes you may have heard of referred to as Wampanoag ( pronounced wahm – peh – noe – ahg ) was known to our ancestors as the Pokanoket Nation. The Pokanoket Nation, also known as the Pokanoket Confederacy or Pokanoket Country, was comprised of a multitude of Tribes.
Each Tribe was comprised of Bands and Villages and the Pokanoket Tribe was the Headship of the Pokanoket Nation.
Pokanoket is also our home. Prior to the time of the pilgrim’s arrival in Plymouth, which used to be Patuxet, the realm of the Pokanoket included portions of Rhode Island and much of southeastern Massachusetts, including the surrounding islands around Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.
The Pokanoket social organization developed in a manner that differed from neighboring Native American Tribes, since Pokanoket was more socially structured and layered, as well as more politically complex.
Unique to the Pokanoket Tribe were the spirtual and military elite, know as the Pineese (Pineese Warrior), who protected and served the Massasoit (Great Leader). They are the spiritual guardians of Pokanoket Nation.
Pokanoket believed seven to be the perfect number of completeness, for we still believe in the Seven Spirits of the Creator.
On the Bus or Off the Bus
December 27, 2012
— 2 Comments
Merry Praksters
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all – suspicion. –Demosthenes
How can we cultivate a healthy sense of disrespect and suspicion that is mindful of and careful with the opinions of others? We see no mature examples set by politicians. Religious leaders all teach healthy disrespect for worldly authority. Some religions teach that all worldly authority is to be shunned because of the wicked nature of it. The nuns on the bus dissing the Pope showed healthy suspicion of politicians trashing the poor to be elected by the rich. There was a saying that resonated back in the hippie world. “You are either on the bus or off the bus.” The phrase came from the book The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test by Tom Wolfe. We also talked constantly about revolution, and the end of the empire. Bob Dylan, The Dead, Angela Davis, Black Panthers, SDS….. it was all very meaningful….and then it faded like morning dew in a folk song. Perhaps these nuns were hippies who never lost the baby faith.
What Would My Ancestors Do?
December 23, 2012
— 1 Comment
Sears Cemetery, Barnstable
You do not need to hold a seance to contact the spirits of the dead. You can use a few facts, or many facts if you have them, to query your ancestors. These are not fictional characters of history, but your DNA connection to the past. The novels you have read in your life can not possibly match the drama of the story of your particular historical survival. Your ancestors handed down to you an ethical will. Those who left no written document have nonetheless passed values to the future, with less precision. You are now actively creating the history and the ethics you want to survive in the world.
I started to study my ancestry to learn about the ethical will of my people, whoever they were. My mother had never described her family in any racial terms. I was taught that the Taylors were, in no uncertain terms, Confederate Rebels. My mother, Ruby Taylor’s very large family all lived in Texas. They were involved in religion to a much greater degree than our family living in Pittsburgh. The went to church at least three times a week, including Wednesday. They did a bit of holy rolling and other practices foreign to me. Indeed, my great grandfather Taylor fought in the civil war and received a Confederate pension in Texas in his old age. He was a farmer and preacher in the Church of Christ. This story was the known history of the Taylor tribe, and even this information was never retold to the Taylors of the 1960’s.
What nobody knew at the Taylor family reunion in Houston on the 4th of July each year in the 1960’s was that our Taylor forefather and his wife’s uncle had been burned at the stake as Protestant martyrs in England. Now that is what I call a Rebel. The roots of each family feed the ethical expression (also known as fruit) of the family spirit. The tongue speaking, chicken frying Taylors of Humble/Houston all shared a particular extreme view of the Bible that freaked me out when I was young. The Pentecostal experience, when I was exposed to it, frightened me. Now that I know about the stake burning it all makes perfect sense.
My forefathers and mothers in the grave yard pictured above lived in Holland, then sailed to Plymouth to build a shining city on a hill, creating a strong, complex ethical will. They had a lot to say about the way they thought all cosmology worked in harmony with government. They had strong convictions by which they lived and died. Now that I know more about the lives of these elders in my tribe I have a greater responsibility. I can no longer look at Thanksgiving as a bunch of stuffing. I need to discover the meaning of the Puritan Ethic they created. The values they held are more significant than the physical goods they once owned in old Cape Cod.
On the surface they all seem to use the Bible as an excuse for their own human folly. Just under the surface is the fact that humans have always indulged in folly to learn the folly of our ways. What did they learn? How can we acquire wisdom from their knowledge?
All God’s Children Got Shoes
December 18, 2012
— 2 Comments
This song has been going around in my head as I focus on my goal for 2013. I plan to convince Tony Hseih that Floatli is the perfect official company sport of Zappos, so he will want to market it with me. Normally they take already developed products being sold elsewhere and market them. I want the Zapsters to partner me to refine and package it to perfection with me as well. What I can offer is an international trademark on the name Floatli, my expertise, and a fun versatile product that works for sports as well as therapy and training. It is a perfect match for Lake Mead, or the inevitable pool for employees downtown that will be in the future. When I visited them I was really happy to know they can pull off such a pure and direct match between the core values and the results. Floatli also works from the core, and is fun. I came within a few yards of Tony as I was leaving in my Zappos shuttle back to Vegas. I had a giant urge to blurt out my intentions, but I thought better of it. Now I have thought about it, and I am clear. I want to Zap, and believe I can convince the Zappsters of the merit of Zapping with Floatli. We will work this from the ground up, starting with the most important of all things, shoes. Once I know which shoes to wear, then I will enumerate the core values and how we align perfectly, fluidly, and even geographically. Yo, Tony, I am going to convince you, and you will like it. I want to Zap with you for the benefit of ALL the sentient beings. Resistance may not be futile, but Floatli is a lot more fun (one of our mutual core values).
He’s Got Shoes
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