Mt. Hood Morning Coffee
INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
INVENTOR OR INNOVATOR?
The light bulb was invented. So was the phonograph . . . and the transistor . . . and the microwave oven. Inventions are typically the creation of a "thing." Innovations are more likely to be a change in thinking or acting - born of an idea, fathered by a vision.
D.A. Henderson innovated in 1966 when he devised a strategy to surround and contain Smallpox outbreaks. Killing 2 million people in 1967, Smallpox was wiped out by 1977. Cartoonist and caricaturist Edward Sorel spent a year in bed at age 9 with pneumonia. "All I could do to entertain myself was draw," he once said. "By the time I got well, I was an artist."
One little boy cum visionary "was afraid of everything," according to his mother. He would run to his mother's bed when tree branches scratched against his house. Filming crashes of his Lionel trains and exploding cherries jubilee for special effects, he began a career of storytelling that has influenced each of us. With Jaws, Schindler's List, E.T., and many other films to his credit, Steven Spielberg relates, "I don't have enough time to tell all the stories I want to tell."
What stories do you want to tell? What are your visions for humankind? What difference can you make today . . . next week . . . in your lifetime? We are all innovators. Some of us tell limited stories, affecting only our immediate circle of friends and family. Others tell the larger stories - having the vision to overcome disease, achieve world peace, or save the environment. Whatever your story - tell it today
