How does high emotional intelligence make us successful and happy? I believe it comes down to one thing. Being able to connect with others. Making a connection with another person carries with it a myriad of hidden factors. The next time you feel a “connection”, think about everything that could contribute to this feeling. Usually words surface like “understanding” or phrases like “being on the same wave length”. Both of these are true. People who know how to empathize with another and communicate this empathy are in the pound seats when it comes to emotional intelligence.

Jumping and yet not jumping to another topic, I visited Pride this past weekend. Always analytical, I found myself thinking about connections. There were certainly many extreme displays of identity and I wondered if this were any different to how people are at peace rallies or anti-abortion stake-outs. In our western world, we talk the talk, but we really do not accept differences in others. When people are not accepted for who they are and are not given a voice, do they have any choice but to scream, “we’re here and you’d better take notice”. I felt that many of the more flamboyant dressers had an air of defiance to them. Behind defiance there is always pain. And we are to blame.

I believe that all people, without exception want love and acceptance. I think, for the most part, the ability to do this needs to be fostered in childhood. Let’s teach our children to have high emotional intelligence.

I was horrified with my first experience of the Wii-fit. Let me say at the outset that whoever designed this system does not have children or if they do, they don’t understand them at all. The rising incidence of eating disorders in our society should surely make a company as large as Nintendo stop and think, “Is this the best we can do?” Did anyone stop to think how the categories of ‘normal’, ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’ would impact the emotions of our children. My daughter who is perfectly beautiful, did not receive the ‘normal’ categorization and was reduced to tears. I shudder at the thought of the damage that this may have caused. It’s bad enough that we surround our children with public images of unrealistic, airbrushed ‘beauty.’ At least if we are designing something primarily targeted at children, do it responsibly.

I love the character (Gabi) that our illustrator has created for Boom… Boom… Boom… She has a face, that even in repose is full of emotion. Troy is a wonderful artist. The project is forging ahead. I’m waiting for the tedious part to start and so far it hasn’t! Is publishing a book supposed to be this much fun?

I have trouble with the idea of perfection. I’ve found that most of the time it is used to describe an ideal of something. The perfect body; the perfect child; the perfect parent. We all know that these definitions set us up for disappointment. The reason for this is that they don’t exist. I think if we focussed our attention on the process of being all these things we’d all be a lot happier. I like the word ”perfect” if it describes our process of becoming something; moving in a positive direction. Isn’t that the most perfect state to be in and the most that we can ask of ourselves? Opening our minds, focussing on our goals and working on personal development are perfect states to be in. Perfect things or ideas shouldn’t exist because it implies that we’re reached somewhere and shouldn’t we always be learning and growing? I’m committing to use the word “perfect” to say that I’m in a perfect place and that might be anywhere on the learning curve!