Rest. Recover. Reset.

E49: Rest & Recap 7 - Rest in peace Peter. Meet a Member Digest.

Serendipity

It was only one conversation. But it pivoted the direction of my son’s life, in my opinion. Andrew was sprawled on the Caribbean blue loungers, taking a break from the intense summer sun in 2014. And chatting with Anna’s Dad, Peter.

The sun beats awfully hot in August in the DR, and we were spending most - if not all - our time in the pool. Anna is the same age as our daughter, and the four teens were often playing 2x2 pool volleyball games, trotting off to the snack bar, leaving us adults to our cool drinks, conversations and books.

We were a family of five, from Oakville, Canada. They were a family of three, from Washington, DC. We fell into casual conversation. My husband is in the automotive industry. As an engineer with a love of chemistry, Peter had earned a PhD in Physical Electrochemistry and was working in the DoE (Department of Energy) advising the Obama administration on proposed battery design and cutting-edge technology for electrical vehicles. You can see how the two families built a kinship. We discovered that Peter first fell in love with science through the influence of great teachers while growing up in Hamilton - a half-hour drive from where we live.

“I’ve always thought I had to do pure math,” Andrew started. Turning towards me, he got that intense look in his eyes. “Mum, do you think that I can do both - marketing AND science? After all, I am lucky that I find it easy to talk to people.” We were both enjoying a cooling lime soda at the swim-up bar. My 13-year-old and I. And he seemed all lit up. “What brought this on?” I asked him. This was the same child who insisted we visit Cambridge University to research degrees in mathematics, and whose favourite photo was under the Mathematical Bridge. “I think it is cool how Anna’s Dad is debating design with politicians. He is translating the math. He is speaking for the science. We need people who have the confidence to do that.” And with that Andrew drifted into that space in his head.

Peter passed away this week. I am so grateful for the serendipity that led our paths to cross for that one week. And that this gentle giant of a mind and a man took the time to talk to a 13-year-old while on vacation.

Peter planted a seed that other things are possible. He opened Andrew’s eyes to the complexities and challenges of deploying science in the real world. And all the time, Peter showed that he still loved what he did — with a passion.

Andrew spent his 2020 internship working on the economics of hydrogen-powered municipal buses.

Never underestimate your influence. A casual conversation might have a dramatic effect on the life of a young person. Sharing forward has been my way of thanking Peter and myriad others who have taken the time to have conversations with my kids over the years. We, Tilters, are a tribe - a network that takes time to help each other by expanding vision and sharing information.

With thanks, this is my tribute to Peter. It is evident from the many other comments left for his family that Peter always took the time to mentor and influence young minds. I sense that our world will feel his loss keenly. May he rest in peace, having inspired so many others to follow his example.

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Sea legs

Much like returning to shore after a long voyage at sea, it is taking me a few weeks to find my North American land legs again. Some days I wake up believing I am still on my mother’s pull-out couch. So I am choosing to Rest, Recover, and Reset. I have been catching up on sleep as I get back to working in one time zone, instead of straddling both GMT and ET. And then archiving my work and many photos of the past ten weeks into their appropriate spots.

Tilter Alexandra Allen mentioned the French tradition of La Rentree in her recent newsletter edition. It got me thinking - how are you attacking the remaining weeks of summer? Cramming work to get ready for the last quarter of the year? Or feasting on sunshine, stocking up on natural vitamin D for the dark winter days ahead?

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The Rest editions

This is also the 49th edition. And if it is divisible by seven, you know what that means! It is a REST edition in this newsletter sequence.

Why are rest and recovery such key skills for the 21st century? Why seven? These prior “rest” editions, each a compendium, offer you a variety of clues:

- 7 Learning to Pace Ourselves,
- 14 In the quiet week,
- 21 Slack Time
- 28 The Space to Breathe
- 35 Choose when to Recharge our Personal Energy

Edition 42 was a true rest issue as I was on vacation and set it on auto-publish. So this edition is a bumper issue, catching up on a few conversations.

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Digest of the past few issues:

In the FUTURE OF WORK (FoW) and 21st-century skills life strategies section:

• E46 Zooming - the art of effective transitions (mindset), learning styles and perspective (my most popular post)

• E44 Nursery to the stars - James Webb telescope photo of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina nebula. “Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light.” This seemed an apt metaphor for my work where I nurture young talent.

• E43 Celebrations and Swivels - how to swivel and make the best of an impossible situation

• E36 When life throws you wobblies - in the face of the unpredictable, you can retreat and review, or call it as it is and move forward. (One of the more popular posts)

• E39 Sharing feel-good moments - people want to feel good - Increasing the number of positive headlines out there

• E38 What could you do in seventy years? What do you wish you had known in high school? What life wisdom would you share with your younger self, or a teen today?

• E37 Niche: How to control our own career shelf-life - niche down. Create a body of knowledge on a topic/problem and be willing to do anything to solve it.

RAISING FUTURE-READY LEADERS

• E48 Design Your Future and Invite It In If you want something, you have to ask for it, and then be ready to walk into the opportunities presented

• E42 Superpowers - How do we discover the special combination of skills that make us unique?

• E47: Its Figureoutable - You can unravel. You can deconstruct and recreate and start where you left off. Life lessons learned from knitting.

CLIMATE:

• E45 Too hot to think - no air conditioning during a heatwave in the UK. Finding agency within the urgency

• E41 I am a dot - I am just one human in a world of 7.8 billion. While a dot is small, it is not without impact. If you pile enough of them together you suddenly have weight, shape and form .. and the ability to make change. I am a dot. And a dot is a beginning.

• E40 Bitings - FEO and The Carbon Almanac - focus on the urgency instead of the desperation. “It’s not too late for concerted, collective action for change.”

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Meet a Member:

Our Tilt tribe is expanding, attracting intriguing members aged 20 to 89. I love learning their stories. Each is a living example of taking chances, testing ideas, and always moving forward. An embodiment of

• David Dvorkin, How David went from managing interns at the Grammys to creating Hire Cause, a program that teaches real job skills to high schoolers E39

• Sam Knowlton, Sam started studying Ecology. Now he is one of a handful of people in the world focused on improving the soil that grows our coffee. Soil Symbiotics and Agronomy E37

• Terri Lonier, Solopreneur and authority on the changing workplace, Terri is helping industry leaders at the Oracle Industry Lab solve the challenges facing them E48

• Terri Lonier has a great framework program Authority by Design E40

• Kathy Karn, After retiring from a trauma therapist career, she turned her lens toward the animals. She is now an award-winning Wildlife photographer and Author of Wisdom of Elephants E36

• Karena de Souza, I’m a strategist, speaker and global citizen. Discover more about me. E35

As our tribe expands, I would like us to be able to reach out to each other for advice. We learn from those a few steps ahead in the journey. Teenagers discover ideas from the major pivots that many have had in their long careers. Parents catch guidance tips from those with older children. Older members gain new vitality from the technology and energy of young minds. That is what breathes life into a 2D newsletter, turning it into a community.

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If you have been looking for a “Best of” version of my newsletters to share with a friend, this collation edition shares almost a year of thoughts around the topics that matter most to me. Here is your link to share it forward:

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