Television Transitions

COURTESY:  Sony Vegas Movie Studio

COURTESY:
Windows Movie Maker

                In television, a transition is the way you change from one picture to another.  The most common, and least obtrusive, transition is the cut; an instant switch between pictures.  Other transitions are reserved for specific situations; a dissolve, or gradual fade from one picture to another, is used to indicate the passage of time or a change in location.  Other flashy transitions are used, and often overused, to get attention regardless of the pictures at both ends of the transition.

                The wipe replaces an old picture with a new one “wiping out” the old one.  A squeeze wipe shoves the old picture out as the new one squeezes in to replace it.  In the digital age, an infinite number of transitions are available to the video producer, and you can make your own if the choices aren’t enough.

                How do you adjust to change?  Do you make a cut – instantly replacing the old with the new and moving on?  Do you need to take your time and gradually make the change?  Do you wipe out old feelings and thoughts and overwhelm them with the new reality?  Do you shove your feelings out of the way and replace them with a new attitude?  Perhaps this analogy is only meaningful to video producers but I think it would benefit us all to think about our methods of adjusting to change?  The best approach, I suppose, is to use the transition that serves us and the situation the best.  How do we expand our repertoire for dealing with change?

                I’ve asked more questions than given answers, haven’t I?  What do you think?

The Importance of Relationships

            When you are on your deathbed, I don't think anything will be as important to you as the relationships in your life.  I finally realized this late in life but fortunately I have learned not only the importance of relationships, but also how to build relationships.  As a result, I look back on my sixty-plus years with joy and fascination at the relationships I have formed. 

Those relationships are such a blessing to me especially at those times when I questioned myself. I want to use this forum to review and clarify the principles for myself.  I hope in doing that, you will benefit from what I have learned as well.

While I have always enjoyed meeting people, and I believe building relationships is our most important activity, I began studying relationship-building as part of leadership development.  The two go together.  Leadership is influence and influence depends on relationships.

In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions. ~ Margaret Wheatly

I will be drawing from some of the best books on relationships that I have found:

•             Florence Littauer and Robert Rohm on the four basic personalities

•             The leadership guru John Maxwell

•             People-expert Dale Carnegie

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don't over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.  ~Leo F. Buscaglia

Have you ever wondered what is wrong with your spouse, or you child, or your good friend when they do something that seems absolutely foreign to you?  Have you ever scratched your head at the way someone behaves?  Tell me about it and examine the four basic personalities with me coming up soon.

Transitions Awareness

              Dad developed concerning symptoms in the spring of 2008.  A tumor in his heel made it difficult for him to walk and earned him an ambulance ride to the hospital one night.  When you live five hours away you don’t want to hear your mother telling you that on the phone.  One sister settled in their apartment for a long term stay.  By the time I was able to get there for a visit he was in a nursing home.  As I made my way to his room, I noticed the sign on the wing said “Transitions”.  I didn't think more about that until I found out he would be going home in a few days.  I thought “oh, transitions.  As in a transition to home.”  Nice!

                My father always joked that he would never live long enough to retire.  I thought I was prepared for his eventual passing but the jolt I got when I became aware of the directional properties of transitions proved I was not.

                Two months later he had returned to the hospital with more tumors.  An aggressive radiation treatment began and soon he was back in the nursing home.  Both sisters were there by then and I got a call saying my father was asking where I was.  I never like it when someone is gathering his family but I hoped for the best.  When I arrived I was directed into the same wing – Transitions.  That’s a good sign I thought.  He must be doing better than predicted.  I entered his room with my older sister.  Dad sat right up on the edge of the bed and shared a few philosophies with us.  We had a nice conversation.  Then, he laid down and needed to rest.

                I went out to the patio with my sister and she told me they were planning to stop radiation treatments after two weeks.  My puzzled look forced her to admit there was nothing more they could do for the tumors metastasizing all over his body.

Edwin Skogstoe
1918-2008

                The realization hit me like a lightning bolt and I decided I didn't like transitions.  Transitions can go either way:  up or down.  The transitions wing is for those either going to their earthly home or to their heavenly home.  I cherished the rest of the week before I had to go home but it was a sad time.  Two weeks later I got the tearful call from my sister that my father had made his final transition one month short of his 90th birthday.

  

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.”   ― Isaac Asimov

            What about you?  Have you had to adjust to a close family member’s final transition?  How did you adjust?  Has it permanently changed you in any way?  Follow the blog and join the conversation.

Introduction and Invitation

               Transitions.  I love to challenge myself to find one word to describe my current state.  I have come to believe that “transitions” is the best word to describe the entire human condition.  If it’s true that everything changes except change, then transitions are our primary purpose in life.  Does that seem oversimplified, or pessimistic?  I suppose that depends on how you think of transitions.

                In this blog, I will examine many types of transitions.  While the dictionary definition of transition is “movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, or concept to another” I will define it differently.  I think of transitions as adjusting to change.  Transitions as change happen to us.  Transitions as adjustment are in our control.  I like control, especially when I’m having to change.

                I plan to make liberal use of quotes in this blog because when I see that someone has captured an important thought in a concise manner I don’t see any reason to try to improve on it.

 

Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Only one, but the light bulb must want to change.

                I also believe that relationships and communication are two critical parts of transitions.  As change occurs, relationships will demand extra attention.  Communication is important in all aspects of our lives but it is essential during transitions.  I spent my entire career in broadcasting and teaching, both of which demand good communication skills and yet in both areas my colleagues and I struggled to communicate.  My bachelor’s degree is in speech-communication but I feel I still have much to learn about good communication.

                Some of the experiences I will draw from include starting a family, starting school, graduating, teaching, owning a business, death, leaving home, starting a career, retiring, caring for parents, and more.

                I expect to reveal some things that you didn’t know in this blog.  I also expect I will uncover a lot of new things from reading, from living, and from you.  This blog should be a dialogue for sharing experiences, exchanging ideas, and learning how to become better at being human.   We will communicate, build relationships, and transition together.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. – Winston Churchill

            Let’s do this together.  Follow this blog and contribute.  What transitions are you dealing with, good or bad?  How are you adjusting to the change?