But most people’s careers are not really so linear and direct; aspirations are dented and reshaped by obstacles, momentary failures and new information. Life as an attorney might not be the crusade for justice one imagines as a young idealist; life as a doctor perhaps not the fast track to big money and Wednesday afternoon golf games that was life in the mid 20th century. Wall Street money may lose its allure when compared with the joy of making something with one’s own hands.

My career was shaped by innumerable forces: chance encounters, books, people, grudges, devastating failures, unexpected successes – and more than a few dares. My own picaresque journey, filled with personal and economic risks, exhilaration and anxiety, wasn’t something I could have planned and isn’t something anyone sane would have chosen. But these days, it’s beginning to make sense. I’m beginning to appreciate the value of breadth, of cross-pollination – of saying yes to the foolish and improbable.

I’m particularly delighted that I said yes to Debra Barsha, when she called in December to ask me to co-host a new radio show with her, First Saturday of the Month on WIOX Radio Roxbury – www.wioxradio.org. Our show is broadcast live on – duh – the first Saturday of the month. Debra and I have been friends for more than 35 years – so we’ve seen many iterations of each other’s public and private personas. And now we’re at it again, learning together through improvisation. The show is giving us a chance to integrate all those twists and turns, to stop and appreciate the music and people around us. In the months that follow we are going to be playing great musical finds and interviewing a range of people who have also chosen odd paths through life.

Second, a new level of cynicism about corporate social responsibility. It’s tempting to go off on a rant about the difference between corporate social responsibility programs and corporations that have fostered socially responsible cultures, cultures in which integrity and commitment to the broader community are not separate programs but are deeply embedded in the company’s social compact. Wouldn’t it be amazing if corporations (or more precisely, their leaders) had to sign a Hippocratic oath? In particular, if they had to swear, “I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings…? (from the 1964 version of the oath, written by Dr. Louis Lasagna of Tufts and quoted here on Wikipedia).”

In fact, that part of the Hippocratic Oath is far more resonant than a pledge of allegiance to a flag – or even the republic for which it stands – which have become mere abstractions. The Pledge of Allegiance, btw, was written by a socialist minister, Francis Bellamy, in 1892 and was intended, according to the website ushistory.org, to be a universal pledge, used by citizens around the world.

What do you think? Are there fundamental beliefs or values that Americans share? Take the poll.

But I always assume everything I’ve ever posted is recoverable somehow, still online and visible to some crazy archivist long after I’ve reconsidered and edited out that gratuitous insult about some small-minded colleague or the pompous lord she worked for.  But alas, my usual figure-it-out-as-you-go-along approach didn’t work so well this time.

For a while it looked like my old host would be able to recover the lost database file. But they rescued the wrong file and promptly deleted the rest of the site. So I’m now going through a manual restoration process. But it’s actually kind of fun because I get to rewrite history as I go along.

I had expected a much bigger space for the New American Uprising. Zuccoti is a mere area rug of park space in the midst of the financial district, now turned into a global town square and communal squat, way too small for the growing crowds of supporters, curiosity seekers and tourists. But underneath the seeming chaos is an emerging big idea, nurtured by a group of people who are passionate, inclusive, generous – and with real seeking spirit.

This is no fringe group: although few may be able to spend months in that park, the public demonstration gives a focal point for millions of others, like me, who are frustrated with the transformation of our country into a plutocracy and expect government to be an engine of social investment – in education, science & exploration, infrastructure, health and human services, etc. The young people who launched Occupy Wall Street embody real hope for a new American Democracy. People are brainstorming, discussing ideas, asking questions, learning together.

And despite the City’s refusal to allow amplification on the premises, when guests like Jeff Sachs or Robert Thurman come down to speak with them, the crowd forms a human megaphone. The antiphonal effect only enhances the live experience; the repetition reinforces the learning.

And listening to Jeff, I was reminded why tenure is so important for great academics: We make it exceedingly difficult to speak truth to power. Whether by killing the messengers, paying off the politicians or sticking our fingers (or earbuds) in our ears, too many of us isolate ourselves from challenging ideas. Tenured academics can speak freely; they don’t have to mince words – and Jeff didn’t!

But after the great speeches, trenchant analysis and finger pointing, we will have to find a way forward – a new, thoughtful national dialogue about who we are, what we really value and what – imagining this country 25 years from now – we choose to become in the world.

To see my iPhone video of Jeff’s speech, click here .

This morning I flew to Zanzibar. Eventful morning it was too: At the airport I went to get coffee (very good capuccino, btw). There weren’t any seats but a white woman about my age looked up from her newspaper and asked if I wanted a seat at her table. Turns out she is the UK High Commissioner for Tanzania and has been here for four months. Exquisitely interesting woman. She and her family – four kids, architect husband – have lived all over the world, most recently Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. Her purview is political issues, although she is ultimately responsible to all UK government programs here – DFID and whatever else. We talked about capacity building and why corruption is still so rampant here. She thinks the main issue is that people who have had nothing all their lives find themselves with incredible access to money. Of course that makes sense – and I don’t think, in fact, corruption is limited to Africa by any means; it’s just more out in the open here – because everyone is looking to make money. And to some extent, corruption is in the eye of the often judgemental beholder. It just isn’t that simple. Most people don’t like paying bribes because the cost is unpredictable. But in a largely informal economy, people trade on whatever small bit of power or marketable talent they have.

But 235 years ago, the 4th of July was just another day at the office for delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. That evening, a mere 27 days after Virginian delegate Richard Henry Lee, had submitted a resolution urging the assembled delegates to declare independence from that wacky, tax-obsessed King George III, a document had been drafted, debated, revised and – on what was, according to a chronology posted on the Library of Congress site, “a bright, sunny, but cool Philadelphia day” – adopted.

While debates about the true meaning of “the pursuit of happiness” may continue for years to come, on Monday, hotdog eaters will seek their own peculiar version of the pursuit as they engage in that all-American pasttime: overeating. They will attempt to beat Joey “Jaws” Chestnut’s record established In 2009, when, at the 94th annual contest, the 218-pound engineering student and competitive eater consumed 68 hotdogs and buns in 12 minutes.

The challenge, especially for traditional hierarchical organizations, is that those with institutional power don’t really know who the true opinion leaders are or how they are connected to others. Hence, they don’t really know how information flows through their organizations.

This week, Gary Hamel offers some suggestions on how organizations can identify the real thought leaders and existing social systems. I’m a fan of Hamel’s, but some of these ideas are risky if not downright crazy. Hamel suggests that companies “create a system for ranking the frequency and value of each employee’s contribution to internal wikis or communities of practice.”

Now, imagine how well people will react to being publicly rated by their peers? It’s rather like being stuck in an endless episode of Survivor or Dancing With the Stars. Aren’t corporate politics bad enough already? And don’t most employees have better things to do than to rate each others’ posts?

In fact, there are some fairly easy ways to identify the connectors within an organization. Ask your front-line people. They know where to go for information; they usually know who to trust. Engage people in dialogue. Ask questions. This is why you have communications people on your staff. If they’re good, they are constantly finding new ways to foster the flow of information up, down and sideways within the organization.

“On the other hand,” my friend continues, “is very sad that Kivaga passed away last week. He was ill malaria, abdominal pain and other many complicatioons which could not be diagnosed.” Kivaga was one of the de facto village leaders. Although he did not hold any official post, I heard early on during my tenure in Pemba that he was the go-to guy if you wanted to get anything done in Kiuyu Mbuyuni. And indeed he was gracious, funny, smart…and much too young and energetic to have died like that. Kupumzika kwa amani.

Gravitas is difficult to fake – especially when reading from a teleprompter. Politicians, executives and their media coaches would do well to take a few lessons from Stanislavski who taught that “character…emerges of its own accord once the inner values have been established.” Compelling actors don’t fake it; they don’t practice line readings. The process of building a character starts with finding the emotional truth.

Great acting is about…well, actions. Verbs. Even when an actor seems to be doing nothing more than giving a speech – what resonates has to do with the verb – what the actor is doing, the intention. And when they are successful, truly grounded, every word they utter seems true.

For executives, politicians and anyone else who speaks publicly – and their coaches – the place to start is by understanding your true intention and the action you are taking: are you lauding, celebrating, disputing, defending, cajoling, proving, exhorting, apologizing? And what do you truly believe? What’s the emotional truth? That’s where you start. Word-smithing,  learning how to breath, how to make eye contact, how to move – all those things come together in the rehearsal process. But when it’s time to perform – whether it’s the first or tenth time you’ve given the same speech – get focused on your true intention. Then speak.