Presented by Cindy Wright, January 12, 2020

• What is power
  • Let’s talk about physics and math for a moment. Does that sound fun? [ask for volunteer]
    • Force = mass x acceleration. So you can imagine this in the acceleration or deceleration of a car. Or, if I push ___, you can see ____ has a certain amount of mass and acceleration. [push volunteer]
    • Energy (work) is the Force multiplied by the distance the object is displaced. Energy is also stored in batteries.[point out distance volunteer traveled]
    • The first law of thermodynamics says Energy is neither created nor destroyed. Rather it can be changed, stored, and transported. Change in energy = heat + work.
    • Power = Energy/time. It measures the rate of the energy’s movement and/or transformation of energy. It measures the flow of energy.
  • We use the concept of power in our daily lives, in our interactions with people, and the conceptualization of our economy.
    • Why should we study it?

• • • • Ability to make change in the world
      • Social causes
      • Better physical creations
      • To understand and see clearly what other people do purposefully and subconsciously
      • To design systems intended to get work done more efficiently
      • To understand how to transmute energy from one form to another
      • Optimization
      • To understand the sources and limitations of our own power
    • Many ways to store personal energy
      • Money
      • Other capital such as property
      • Reputation and relationships
      • Literature or other art forms
      • Creations
      • Physical and spiritual health
    • Power is measured in the movement or transformation of that energy. With the same quantity of energy we could put out a little power over a long time. Other times we produce a lot of power over a short amount of time.
    • There are many forms of power that aren’t obviously useful. Like the stonecutter, how could he become as powerful as the wealthy merchant unless he himself was transformed? The stonecutter story has a similar dynamic to the game rock, paper, scissors. Because there are so many types of power, and we don’t always have access to all kinds, we are simultaneously powerful and weak.

Transducers, catalysts, and transformation

• • Definitions
    • Transducer: a device that converts variations in a physical quantity, such as pressure or brightness, into an electrical signal, or vice versa. However, I take some liberty in my own thinking and use the term transducer to include any change of energy or power into another type.

• • • • trade could be a metaphorical transducer
      • I think we are all familiar with turning money into electricity. One obvious way is to burn the money to boil water, and use that steam to turn a turbine. I bet most of you would advise we just pay the power company for the power.
      • A minister or a counselor could be a metaphorical transducer. Spiritual distress or trauma could be transformed, and a quickening of spirit achieved.
    • Catalyst: a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change. Or, a person or thing that precipitates an event.
      • Sometimes there are people who do not start an effort or some kind of social change, but rather they increase how quickly goals are achieved.
    • Transformation: a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance. Or, in electrical engineering, it changes the characteristics of the power without changed the type. It remains electricity but so that it can be transported farther on smaller wire and then transformed back in order to have the wires closer together. This is the difference between high voltage transmission lines and lower-medium voltage distribution lines in a city. The power from rotating a gear equals the angular velocity times the radius. Changing gears uses the same type of power and the same amount of power, but changes its characteristics. [consider a demo]
    •  Ralph Waldo Emerson says in his essay on Power, “In chemistry, the galvanic stream, slow, but continuous, is equal in power to the electric spark, and is, in our arts, a better agent. So in human action, against the spasm of energy, we offset the continuity of drill. We spread the same amount of force over much time, instead of condensing it into a moment. ‘Tis the same ounce of gold here in a ball, and there in a leaf. At West Point, Col. Buford, the chief engineer, pounded with a hammer on the trunnions of a cannon, until he broke them off. He fired a piece of ordnance some hundred times in swift succession, until it burst. Now which stroke broke the trunnion? Every stroke. Which blast burst the piece? Every blast. “Diligence passe sens,” Henry VIII. was wont to say, or, great is drill. John Kemble said, that the worst provincial company of actors would go through a play better than the best amateur company. Basil Hall likes to show that the worst regular troops will beat the best volunteers. Practice is nine tenths.” Here, Emerson is recommending persistent, manageable efforts as opposed to large efforts in a short time frame.
  • We have the capability to transform and catalyze.
    • As we saw with the story of the stonecutter, often we do not have access to the same types of power that other people do. Comparisons of these differences can be unending and arbitrary. Sometimes it is important to let go of the comparisons. Sometimes, it helps to, instead, have friends with varied abilities. We can use our good relationships or saved money to get a person with a different sort of energy to help us.
• Efficiency, power factor, optimization, and capacity
  • Efficiency: the state of achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.
  • In electrical engineering, we use the term Power factor to describe one specific type of efficiency. It is at its maximum when the cyclical current (actual movement of electrons) and the voltage (the push) are aligned with each other. I think of it like pushing a child on a swing set. I think we all have learned the ideal time to push the child. If we push when the child is coming back toward us, then we would have a poor “power factor.” This should be considered when we are dealing with cyclical things. Would it be wise to swim against the current or go along with the current of life? Should we try to build snowmen in the summer and have picnics in winter? Life has beautiful rhythms that we can align with to achieve more.
  • Power factor is alluded by Emerson, from the essay, Power, “All power is of one kind, a sharing of the nature of the world. The mind that is parallel with the laws of nature will be in the current of events, and strong with their strength. One man is made of the same stuff of which events are made; is in sympathy with the course of things; can predict it. Whatever befalls, befalls him first; so that he is equal to whatever shall happen. A man who knows men, can talk well on politics, trade, law, war, religion. For, everywhere, men are led in the same manners.”
  • I learned about another kind of efficiency in my martial arts practise. May I have a volunteer? [have volunteer stand in front of the speaker] How many of you have pushed a car before? [audience raises hands] So, tell me – which is wiser? Push the car like this [stand to side and push person at awkward angle], or this? [push person directly, with good alignment] See, it is important to understand the alignment with our center. Where is our energy going? Are we wasting it? When it comes to our goals, we may want to consider whether we are wasting any energy by being totally awkward. I know I have done that a lot in my life.
  • Emerson says in Power, “Success goes thus invariably with a certain plus or positive power: an ounce of power must balance an ounce of weight. And, though a man cannot return into his mother’s womb, and be born with new amounts of vivacity, yet there are two economies, which are the best succedanea which the case admits. The first is, the stopping off decisively our miscellaneous activity, and concentrating our force on one or a few points; as the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs, instead of suffering it to spindle into a sheaf of twigs.”Enlarge not thy destiny,” said the oracle: “endeavor not to do more than is given thee in charge.” The one prudence in life is concentration; the one evil is dissipation: and it makes no difference whether our dissipations are coarse or fine; property and its cares, friends, and a social habit, or politics, or music, or feasting. Everything is good which takes away one plaything and delusion more, and drives us home to add one stroke of faithful work. Friends, books, pictures, lower duties, talents, flatteries, hopes, — all are distractions which cause oscillations in our giddy balloon, and make a good poise and a straight course impossible. You must elect your work; you shall take what your brain can, and drop all the rest. Only so, can that amount of vital force accumulate, which can make the step from knowing to doing.”
  • For me, efficiency also brings up faith. For me, faith is a trust in the universe that everything will be ok. For me, faith doesn’t only hold its own power. On the contrary, the presence of faith, this trust, keeps me from wasting energy on worry. If I am not wasting energy, I can use my energy in other ways.
  • Meditation also serves to help us with our efficiency. By growing the ability to control our little monkey minds, and direct those minds towards our goals, a time investment in meditation helps us save far more time and energy in the long run. It’s like changing the oil in our car. We will go a lot farther without burning up, if we are well-lubricated.
  • Optimization is the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource. It gets most interesting when there are several variables to balance. Sometimes there is more than one way to optimize a problem. What is the ideal amount of time to work to achieve success but avoid burnout? If you’re on a beach and someone is drowning in the water, what is the ideal angle to run toward the water, and resulting angle to swim in order to save time?
  • Capacity is the maximum amount that something can contain or produce. When a wire burns up from too much current, the wire has reached its capacity. When a person burns up they start experiencing burnout. Burnout has symptom like chronic fatigue, forgetfulness, loss of appetite, anxiety, and depression. Like I mentioned before, faith and meditation can increase our capacities and prevent burnout. Also, of course, we need to recognize our limits.
• Power is additive
  • Community – when we work together, our power is added together. Inefficiencies that come with working alone are eliminated. Community comes with collective wisdom, motivation, support – people believe in you, new ideas, and accountability.
  • A common additive use of power among is in Specialization and assembly lines – a lot of efficiency is gained, but there is a negative side. There can be disconnection from the big picture and from stakeholders, empathy gets lost, and a loss of identification with work life can occur.

 

Conclusion

• • So, as we move forth in our lives, we can consider that we each have a great wealth of power, merely in being alive. When we have goals, like social justice, we can work together. Each of us has a unique relationship with the energies around us. It could in who we know or the skills we have. It could be in our capability to tolerate disgust or violence. It could be in our ability to tolerate repetitive tasks or topics that bore other people to sleep. We have many different types of power like the woodcutter, the merchant, the stone, or the sun.
  • We are already powerful. Once we see that, we can stop wasting our energy.
  • We learned from the stonecutter that contentment can only come from acceptance of what we already are.
    • Each of us contains sufficient worth.
    • Contentment can arrive once we cease petty comparisons.
    • “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu