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newsletters/ezines  Carolina Vistas eXpress Yourself newZletter

Client:      Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Company
Business:  Real Estate Development along coastal North Carolina
Objective:  Create a semi-annual newsletter where each lead article will feature one informative subject unique to eastern North Carolina as well as updates on activities within each WRECO division; 4-6 pages 81/2 x 11
Audience:  WRECO community residents, potential home buyers, Weyerhaeuser corporate officials nationwide and selected representatives from local government
Highlights:  Established editorial policy and direction where none previously existed. Gave the newsletter purpose, stature and relevance beyond its original not so subtle sales intent.

North Carolina's Legendary Boatbuilding Tradition (excerpts)
(Carolina Vistas feature story)

Nowhere along America's eastern seaboard has the marriage of land to water left a more indelible imprint upon humans than in North Carolina's coastal communities. One reason is because there is no body of water quite like eastern North Carolina's Pamlico Sound. With more than 2,000 square miles of surface water, it is the largest body of water enclosed by barrier islands in the world. Framed on the east by a 160-mile-long ridge called the Outer Banks, Pamlico Sound also is the largest embayed estuary in the United States.

An estuary is where rivers meet the sea, where saltwater mixes with fresh river water.  North Carolina's Neuse, Pamlico and Bay rivers feed into the sound from the west. Over centuries, these major rivers and hundreds of tidal creeks have sculpted a unique estuarine environment that has shaped the way humans have inhabited the land. For early coastal communities, isolated from one another by swamps, pocosins and marshes, a vocation of necessity was born that became the state's most legendary maritime tradition -- boatbuilding.

An individual boat's purpose and water environment have always been primary considerations in boatbuilding design. Until the mid-19OOs, boats were handcrafted almost entirely from native woods such as Atlantic white cedar, bald cypress and yellow pine. But whatever the design or choice of material, North Carolina boats are distinguished by two characteristics: functional innovation and superior craftsmanship.

The l9th century produced some of the region's most enduring wooden boat designs. One of the earliest was the flatbottom shove skiff propelled by a poling oar. Its functional design was perfectly suited for tending nets or hauling pots along shallow tidal creeks.  When the need arose for greater mobility across waters too deep for a poling oar, sails were added to the shove skiff. The result was the sailing skiff, a favorite in Beaufort waters until a Connecticut businessman arrived in 1876 to open an oyster business.

George Ives discovered that local boats were not suitably designed for collecting oysters. When he introduced the New Haven sharpie to Beaufort, fact became legend. North Carolina fishermen refused to sail Ives's straightstemmed, flatbottomed, two-masted Yankee boat. To remove their skepticism, Ives arranged a race from Harkers Island to Beaufort, matching his sharpie against the fastest local schooner. It was no contest. Ives easily won the race and area boatbuilders embraced the sharpie model, modifying its size and rigging to suit local conditions and needs.

Further design innovations carried North Carolina's boatbuilding tradition into the 20th century. Brady Lewis introduced the flared bow, the most distinctive feature of the Harkers Island boat, known for its speed and seaworthiness. The round sterns of the Core Sounders addressed the specific needs of sink-net fishermen. But perhaps the most beloved design was the legendary roundbottom shad boat. Its curved lines and distinctive topsail with flying jib confirmed its reputation as one of the most handsome workboats of its time. In 1987, after more than 100 years of service to the economy and culture of the coast, the shad boat was designated as the official state boat by the North Carolina General Assembly...

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eXpress Yourself newZletter
(an ezine)

Client:  KohlQuest
Objective:  Create an ezine to share techniques for building stronger, more dynamic human relationships around a new critical consciousness grounded in genuine dialogue, rising above the prejudice of closed minds and honoring the integrity and dignity of each person's diversity and true voice of self expression.
Audience:   Subscribers comprise primary self improvement and inspirational markets for the Hole in the Garden Wall book
Highlights:  Opt-in mailing list of web site visitors who subscribe to the XYZ newsletter from the signup form on site. Independently marketed in more than 30 ezine directories and a regular feature on selected linked sites.

Excerpts from eXpress Yourself newZletter Vol. 2001 No. 2

CONTENTS  OF THIS ISSUE:

THESE NUMBERS DON'T LIE
An imperative for tolerance and compassion

THE TALKING STICK
Speak and I shall listen

IT'S A MATTER OF CHOICE
Is your glass half empty or half full?

NUMB AND DUMBER
Oh what a tangled web we weave
When laws dictate the labels we leave!

ONE FINAL THOUGHT
Just how smart are you?

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THE TALKING STICK

There's a wonderful word used to describe a breakthrough moment in our thinking ... a moment when we are really conscious ... when layers of cultural conditioning are peeled away and we see something in a bright new light.  The word is "ahha" and it describes a defining moment of liberation, or as Joseph Campbell said, a moment of epiphany.

The liberation we feel at such an "ahha" moment begins by listening to each other.  I mean REALLY listening.  As you already know from your last XYZ newsletter, most of us could significantly improve our listening skills. One technique that can help is the Talking Stick.

For thousands of years, talking sticks have been a valuable tool in assuring that a message communicated by one person is accurately understood by another.  A talking stick works because two people agree to abide by this simple yet binding pledge:

WHEN YOU SPEAK, I WILL LISTEN.
WHEN I SPEAK, YOU WILL LISTEN.

Only the person with the stick may talk.  The listener agrees not to interrupt or interfere in any way with what the speaker is expressing, even if he or she disagrees with what is being said.  The person holding the stick is granted the right to speak without interruption.  Only when the speaker is through and the stick is passed to the listener do the roles reverse, as the speaker becomes the listener who has agreed not to interrupt for any reason.

The purpose of the talking stick is to allow people the dignity and respect of being heard, and to assure that what is being said will be received with focused attention.  When held in the speaker's hand, the talking stick reminds us to restrain our all-too-human impulse to interrupt, inject our opinions and remarks, divert our attention from the speaker to something else, or attempt to control how the speaker's message is delivered or received...

The talking stick assures that everyone has an equal voice...

If you ever have experienced a communication breakdown that ended in icy silence or a bruising display of "verbal vomit," I suggest you try a more compassionate way to reconnect.  Find a quiet place, some spot where you won't be disturbed by the phone, television, children running through the room, or whatever.  Ask your partner to join you there.

Should the mood feel right, light a candle.  It helps identify the center of your shared private space and sets your chosen physical space apart, for the moment, from its normal daily use.  The two of you are meeting on equal ground.  There is no one-up, one-down hierarchy between you.  Place what you have chosen to use as a talking stick by the candle.  Before either of you picks up the stick, agree to abide by these few simple guidelines:

One.
Whatever is spoken between the two of you shall not be repeated outside of the circle you are now making together.

Two.
No judgments will be made.  Differences of opinion will be welcomed and received with mutual respect.  It is not necessary to be like-minded, only open-minded.  Make your shared intent one of learning and understanding, not blame...

With a little practice, a talking stick can change interpersonal dynamics from ego-centered power plays to circle-centered mutual respect.  That means the whole is more important than any one individual.  And the whole is what you both have resolved to achieve from the time spent with the talking stick.

If using the talking stick seems difficult at first, don't give up.  Do the best you can, hold your focus, and try again later.  It takes some time to change old communication habits.  But any relationship worth its salt is worth the effort it takes to season a new porridge!