The other day I was in a business meeting. The meeting started on time…but the video projector did not. We tried multiple computers and settings until we finally concluded the thing was broken. We were at a stand still. We were working on some database design tasks and we really needed to all look at the same screen in order to accomplish our meeting objectives.

I looked around the room and saw 6 laptops. Everyone had a screen directly in front of them. I thought (to myself) “What if they could all see what I’m seeing on their screen?” Then the solution dawned on me. Mac OS X Leopard has built in screen sharing (via iChat or direct connection with VNC). I opened my computer for screen sharing and had everyone else in the room connect to my computer so they could view my screen in a window on their laptops.

Now not only could everyone see directly what I was doing on my screen, but we had another major benefit. Each meeting participant could also interactively control the screen whenever desired. This feature actually led to some confusion as multiple people tried to do something at the same time causing the mouse pointer to jump around or keys typing. By the end of the meeting we had established a new meeting norm for “hands off”. Everyone was required to put their hands up in the air “hold up style” and let designated driver do the work when we handed off control.

This is now possibly the preferred method of working. Even if we had the projector working…we could still allow people to connect this way on their laptop. It really made things easier and added some new dynamics to the meeting that made for fun and productivity.

One of the “Child at Heart” themes is experiencing things for the “first time”. A great way to do this is through travel. Travel expert Rick Steve’s calls traveling “heightened living”. Like children, when we experience things for the first time out senses are more alive. We see, hear, smell, feel, and taste things that are new to us.

Often we don’t take the time to explore the world we live in from day to day…like a tourist would if they were here. There are many things we don’t notice and perspectives that we don’t get because we simply don’t take the opportunity to move out of our home and away from the TV. Many times it takes someone visiting us from out of town for us to go and see some of the amazing things we have right in our own backyard.

I plan to provide some suggested itineraries in my blog that will help people explore some new areas. Most of them will be focused on the Twin Cities area…since that’s where I live. In any case, the ideas and principles can be used anywhere you are.

Choosing an activity – One of the things we enjoy doing is taking a map of our area and spreading it out on the table. Note something interesting. All the green stuff indicates parks. All the blue stuff indicates water. Both can provide a wealth of interesting venues for exploration. Pick one at random and then make an outing to go visit. Pack a picnic lunch or pick up some sandwiches on the way and enjoy. Cities can also provide a lot of interesting options. Pick a new mall to explore. You’ll feel like you’re on vacation because it’s simply something that you don’t do that often. We tend to get stuck in our familiar surroundings and always go to the same shopping area that is closest to us.

So this particular day we planned to a little staycation to downtown Minneapolis. We’ve had light rail here for a few years and I’m never ridden it. We also have this landmark that looks like the Washington Monument with windows. It’s called the Foshay tower. So with those two things I’ve never experienced we set out for a fun day. Along the way we ran into some other fun things.

Here’s our itinerary for this fine Saturday:
10 am – Arrive at the Mall of American and park in front of Bloomingdales. It’s free parking at the mall. We took a quick bathroom break for the kids before we set off for the day. Walk down the stairs outside in the parking lot and get to the start of the Hiawatha line light rail. Kids under 6 are free so we purchased 2 adult tickets for $1.75 in the machine and then took the rail to downtown Minneapolis…Nicollet Ave. On the way we passed the old city hall and our daughter thought it was Cinderella’s Castle. Who need’s Disneyworld?

10:45 am – We tool a leisurely stroll down Nicolett Mall. We peeked in Gaviidae Plaza to look up and see the Phoenix water fountain. http://www.gaviidaecommon.com
We then went up one floor to the skyway and walked through Sak’s Fifth Avenue to the fountain in the IDS Crystal Court. From here you can see the restaurant Basil’s that is famous for the intro to “Mary Tyler Moore” show. We grabbed a bag of the greatest oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and a drink at Potbelly Sandwich Works.

11:30 am – We continued our walk through Macy’s and onto the street level. There were lots of photo opportunities. Down near Peeve Plaza and Orchestra Hall in front of Brit’s Pub (a great place for “bangers and mash”, shepherd’s pie or fish and chips) we saw a group of people doing “Morris dancing“…a form of English folk dance. They were having a lot of fun. One of the dancers told me “This type of dancing used to be done by the youth at harvest time in Europe but today it’s mostly old people with beards.” I thought they were mostly young at heart.

12 pm – We backtracked with out destination the Foshay Tower which is now the W Hotel. The national historic register operates the observation deck on the 30th floor (open daily from 12 noon-9 pm). It’s $8 for adults and free for kids.
It was really interesting to get a great view and some good photos from so high up. One kid said “Wow! I can see the whole universe from here! This is the funnest day I’ve ever had.” We learned some really interesting facts about the tower and the history surrounding it. We had a delicious lunch at the Key’s Cafe on the first floor.

2 pm – Taking a relaxing stroll back down Nicollet Mall we ended up at the Minneapolis Public Library. They have a great area for kids there and we took the opportunity to read some books to our girls.

3 pm – We hopped on the light rail again and took it back to the Mall of America. I’ve driven that road alongside the train countless times but it looked completely difference from inside the train. It was a fresh perspective.

We had a fun and exciting day with tons of new experiences. We really lived today.

A few months ago, I saw an inspiring documentary about a singing group called “Young at Heart” based in Northampton, Massachusetts. Members of “Young at Heart” have a minimum age of 73 and they sing contemporary and classic rock and pop songs…many songs you’d not expect people that age to sing. The film follows their lives as the they prepare for a new concert. It’s a film that will move you to really live and make the most of today.

Here’s the movie trailer.

The official movie web site and the chorus official site.

If you ever need proof of the second law of thermodynamics, then you should live with children under the age of five. This law states that all things tend toward disorder naturally increasing entropy.

This is most evident after cleaning our home. Kids affect the “entropy” immediately. Any order created by putting things in their proper place, vacuuming, washing, etc. can be turned into a complete mess within seconds. Clean clothes are just waiting for a spill or to get unfolded. Yogurt covered hands will most certainly end with hand prints on the windows and mirrors. Eating Nutella or spaghetti are recipes for disaster. Toys get strewn about all over the house.

To help combat this issue, I now choose the toys I purchase for our kids by certain important qualities. I ask myself the following questions before making my choices:

1. Does it make any sort of noise? Play drum sets, flutes, whistles, and electronics with annoying buzzer sounds are out. Anyone giving my children these kinds of toys is no longer a friend of the family.

2. How many microscopic pieces are present or are there more than two parts to the toy? Arianna has some small princess dolls. Each individual doll has little plastic shoes, jewelry, a crown, clothes and accessories. These parts are constantly found throughout the home. In fact, the favorite activity of my daughters with regard to dolls seems to be to undress them and leave the clothes all over the home. I’ll find a bin full of naked princesses and later find their outfits under the couch, in the play oven, used as a bookmark, etc. Decks of cards and puzzle pieces stay ordered for approximately 45 seconds before they are bent, lost, or strewn about the home. Puzzles can be built once. Any subsequent attempt to put it together again will yield a minimum of 1 piece missing…kind of like Humpty Dumpty.

3. Does it require an infinite number of batteries? I’m convinced that kids toys and accessories that eat batteries were developed as a scam by Eveready or Duracell to sell more batteries. For a while we had a baby swing that required 20 Triple D cells for operation… the equivalent of a small nuclear power plant. Can we get wind generators for the toys?

4. Does it require an advanced degree to remove it from the box? I’m really glad I went to school for electrical engineering. Removing toys from boxes at Christmas is like diffusing a bomb. “Get me the wire cutters honey!”

If the toy fails any of these tests, it’s less of an option. OK…in reality…we do allow the kids to play quite a lot.

The other day, finger painting sounded like a good idea to keep the kids busy in a creative activity. About 20 minutes later my wife checked on the girls to find that they had completely covered themselves (instead of the paper) with finger paint. What fun! It was now finger…hand, hair, arm, leg, and face paint.
So my wife finally realized her dream of being a CIA agent as she said “Hands up in the air. Nobody move!” As we were cleaning them up I thought to myself “I wish I had taken a photo of that. Now I’ll have to stage the photo later.”

I’ve found that I need to resist the need to be clean all the time. Sometimes letting things be messy for a while helps them to get cleaned up better in the end. This is really a struggle for me. I’m kind of an organization and neat freak with tendencies toward perfectionism. I have a Dymo Letra Tag label maker that I hold in a holster. (Only use the plastic tape.) I build custom databases where every piece of information requires a place.

Life is about getting all messy and then cleaning up. As much as we desire to protect our kids and keep things neat, sometimes we have to let them make mistakes and get into messes on their own to learn a lesson.

Being around kids will sure help to CURE you of perfectionism…or drive you batty. I say get used to it. Life is messy. Be OK with it. You’ll have more fun.

Then one day your dream will come true like it just did a few minutes ago. My oldest daughter Arianna started cleaning up the house on her own. She said: “I want things to look shiny. If anything looks dirty, I’m going to clean it all up.” Then she proceeded to spray Windex into the DVD player. OK…two steps forward and one step back.

Sometimes we just need a break from our normal routine. One day recently at Central Train Station in Antwerp, Belgium something original happened.

How would you react if suddenly the world around you started singing and dancing? Hopefully you’d smile and enjoy it. I’m sure that’s what a kid would do. In fact, they might try to join in.

The Tale of Despereaux is an exciting and funny modern fairy tale about a little mouse that is different from other mice. His qualities play well into those essential qualities that I’ve identified that help keep us youthful, joyful, and more successful. (Warning: Contains movie spoilers. If you want to see the movie first you can do so now and then read about it later.) Here’s how Despereaux hits on the “Child at Heart” qualities:

1. Despereaux has an ACTIVE IMAGINATION and finds many creative ways to get out of his predicaments.
2. Despereaux’s actions provide us with LAUGHTER. In one favorite scene, his parents are worrying about his future and discussing it with the community leaders. Meanwhile, Despereaux simply takes the time to play and enjoy his life without care.
3. Despereaux lives for adventure experiencing many things for the FIRST TIME in world’s outside his comfort zone. He sets himself on a quest to save the princess as a gentleman without any experience ever doing that before. Despereux expresses full curiousity and desire to learn by actually reading a book he is supposed to eat.
4. Despereaux lives in the PRESENT moment…fully taking advantage of everything available to him. He values the people around him and desires to make quality friends and relationships.
5. Despereaux is always LOOKING UP. As a mouse he’s super short. His outlook and perspective on life is positive. He sees himself as part of a larger story…the bigger picture. He is not afraid to act out the part that he has been given.
6. Despereaux BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE IS POSSIBLE. He doesn’t let anyone else crush his dreams of saving the princess…even though he is an unlikely hero. He is no where near what a typical knight in shining armor should actually look like.
7. Despereaux is DARING and brave. Despereaux’s parents and the entire mouse community try to get Despereaux to cower, be fearful, and to scurry away when danger is anywhere nearby. Despereaux refuses to fear. It just doesn’t bother him. This irony to this is funny to us but it is what often really happens in our lives. We learn to be afraid and to worry. We don’t start out that way as kids.

Despereaux is the consummate child at heart. In the end he is the hero and winner because he remains faithful to his childlike spirit in the face of all odds. See the movie. You won’t be disappointed.

Hazel McCallion has been the mayor of Mississauga, Ontario Canada for 31 years…11 consecutive terms! She is still the mayor at 88 years old with a 91% approval rating! The city is debt free and even has $700 million in reserves banked. She’s an inspiration and true Child at Heart. See her video story here via the Rick Mercer Report…

Almost makes me want to move there…and take up hockey.