Drafting A Mind Map Of Love

Posted March 24, 2011

A great piece of writing wisdom is before you sit down to write, you should create an outline of what you want to cover in the piece. I have been doing mental outlines for as long as I can remember. My mind creates powerful visual mind maps that guide my writing. I turn topics upside down and inside out as I explore them in my mind’s eye.

If I had been asked earlier this month to write a piece on Japan, some of the images that would have slid into the bubbles of my mental mind map would have been things like:

Kimonos. Mt. Fuji. Pagodas. Sushi. Zen.

One Day Changed Everything

If I would have embarked on the same exercise on March 11th, very different words and images would have flowed out of my consciousness.

Destruction. Disbelief. Grief. Loss. Pain. Tears. Tragedy.

As an incredulous world watched helplessly, Japan was engulfed in a nightmare. The extent of the loss to an entire country seemed too big to be real.

But what happened next reminded me of watching a movie lag in slow motion and then all of the sudden start running at full speed. The world reacted, and there was a massive outpouring of compassion and support for the people of Japan.

As I read the new,s and watched the videos in the days that followed, I added new images to my mind map.

Heroes. Hope. Strength. Unwavering devotion.

Love.

Extending The Arms of Friendship

“I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being – to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame.” – Elizabeth Taylor

The cherry blossom is an emblem of love and affection. How fitting that it has once again come into the spotlight to highlight our emotional ties with Japan.

How many people knew the story of the Washington D.C. cherry trees before this tragedy? I know that I didn’t. But as I read the history, I can feel the connectedness of two countries that made a pact of friendship. The symbol of that friendship still stands today, despite time and trial.

Even if you don’t know a single soul in Japan, it doesn’t matter because the spirit of what makes us human, what makes us weep for people we don’t know, remains. Friends don’t let friends suffer alone. We don’t let our friends disappear into a quagmire that they were helpless to prevent. We help shoulder their burden. We give of ourselves as much as we can because we know that if situations were reversed, our friends would be there for us too.

When my grandchildren look back on this tragedy in their history books, I want them to feel pride in knowing that when times were dark, we did what was right. We didn’t falter.

The world is coming together in one of the most basic displays of human compassion: to help our friends. The strongest defense against any kind of overwhelming despair is simply love of our fellow man.

Planting the Seed of Remembrance

For the rest of my life, my mental mind map for Japan will contain a cherry blossom at its center, and I will always remember this time when we came together in love for our friends.

Poetry isn’t usually something I enjoy writing. So it was a surprise to me that as I processed my mind map to outline the post you are reading now, this short poem emerged:

For those who were lost

We mourn you

For those who survived and must go on

We support you

For those who risked their lives to save others

We honor you.

Dear Japan

Our hearts are with you.

Next week, the CustomerLove community is coming together to support our friends in Japan with our own 72-hour sale (proceeds to be donated to Direct Relief International). Even if you aren’t able to buy the package, please consider donating what you can, and lending your voice to share the message with others.

Here’s what you can do:

Tweet about it, using this link.
Post the link on Facebook.
Get a red heart symbol overlay for your profile pics on Twitter and Facebook.
Tell your mailing list.
Blog about it.
Leave a comment below and tell us how you’re spreading the word.
And join the Customerlove for Japan mailing list to get in on the early bird bonus. Because trust me, you want this bundle of business-building goodness!