Some are discouraged by the state of the world. If you share any of these concerns, the nonprofit edition of Excellent Solutions provides silver linings for dark clouds, describing useful actions to turn well-justified hope into accomplishments.Excellent Solutions shows that there is more than sufficient time, effort, physical resources, and money available to greatly improve the spiritual, moral, health, emotional, and physical circumstances of almost everyone on Earth. Excellent Solutions describes ways of using these resources better to upgrade what we all do and how we conduct our lives to provide many more of such benefits.After reading this book, you will know how to devise and to apply such solutions to improve greatly your own life, as well as the lives of others.Foreword Clarion ReviewFive Stars (out of Five)Mitchell avoids narrow ideas, encourages positive thinking, and sets large goals to make the biggest possible spiritual and social impact.In Excellent Solutions: Nonprofit Edition, Donald Mitchell proposes to prove "that there is more than sufficient time, effort, physical resources, and money available to greatly improve the spiritual, moral, health, emotional, and physical circumstances of almost everyone on Earth." That is a significant challenge for an author to take on, but Mitchell's thorough and optimistic presentation provides a commendable and thoughtful plan for nonprofit organizations to follow as they strive to make important and lasting impacts on individuals and society.Mitchell breaks his process into four stages, each with its own section: "Set Goals for Excellent Solutions," "Eliminate 'Stalled' Thinking," "Create and Implement an Excellent Solution," and "Create and Implement an Excellent Solution By Using a Second Method.""Excellent solutions" are those that reach beyond simplistic answers and blossom exponentially into far-reaching, positive actions without significantly increasing the initial effort. He begins with theessential element of goal-setting, but as is the case with all thirty-one of his lessons, Mitchell stresses the need to think in terms of goals that are not limited by negativity or narrow focus.Mitchell excels at turning potentially complex ideas into easily understood steps that he reinforces with biblical passages, personal examples, and engaging explanations that communicate his points clearly without coming across as condescendingly simplistic. Rather, his style conveys the feeling of a favorite uncle teaching a child about important life lessons while giving constant encouragement. For example, near the end of one teaching segment, he writes, "When you have finished the five tasks, please accept my congratulations for having done so much valuable thinking."Biblical references and scripture passages abound, and Mitchell craftily uses them to support his concepts and to emphasize that his plan is biblically sound. His passion for his Christian principles and his belief in their ability to change the world, particularly through the effectiveness and excellent solutions of nonprofits, resonates throughout his writing. He does not simply want nonprofits to be successful in secular terms, but also in spiritual matters.Excellent Solutions is packed with useful and clearly explained information, but Mitchell adds a creative twist that gives the 450-plus page book some visually inspiring moments. Before each lesson, he inserts an incredibly beautiful full-color nature photo by Derrick Z. Jackson. Whether intentional or not, these brilliant pictures inspire reflection on creation's beauty around the world, subtly reinforcing Mitchell's global concepts.Mitchell practices what he teaches. He avoids narrow ideas, encourages positive thinking, and sets large goals to make the biggest possible spiritual and social impact-precisely what Excellent Solutions is all about.Jeff Friend
This book provides a critical evaluation of the transformation of cultural geography which has occurred over the past two decades. "Cultural Geography" explains cultural change in different geographical settings, from the politics of everyday life to the production and consumption of landscapes, to the politics of sexuality, gender, race, and nationality. Analyses recent transformations in cultural geographic theory, whilst salvaging the most valuable aspects of older traditions. Encourages debate over the ideology of culture, the production of value and the role of cultural struggle in reproducing social life. Illustrates cultural geographic theory using examples of contemporary "culture wars." Adopts an approach which is both accessible and meaningful to the advanced student, by relating difficult concepts to contemporary issues.
Donald Mitchell's second book on the life and work of Gustav Mahler examines the fruitful years of the First to the Fourth Symphonies, as well as the earlier song cycles from the Gesellen lieder to the magical Ruckert songs. A work of painstaking and imaginative scholarship presented in eminently readable language. MUSICAL QUARTERLY Mitchell has amassed and processed an imposing amount of material, most of it new... It includes a section on Mahler and Freud, discusses Bach's influence on Mahler, and reproduces contemporary criticism... Invaluable for Mahler scholars and lovers. ECONOMIST Donald Mitchell's second book on the life and work of Gustav Mahler focuses principally on Mahler's first settings of Wunderhorn texts, volumes I and II of the Lieder und Gesaenge; his first song-cycle, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; and the later orchestral settings of Wunderhorn poems. The central section of the book explores the extraordinary and often eccentric chronology of the First, Second and Third Symphonies' composition, an often minute exploration which reveals the interpenetration of song and symphony in this period of Mahler's art, emphasizes the significance for these works of imagery drawn from the Wunderhorn anthology, and calls attention to the ambiguous position occupied by much of Mahler's music atthis time, suspended as it was between the rival claims - and forms - of symphony and symphonic poem. The final section of the book not only looks at the Fourth Symphony as the final, perhaps most perfect, flowering of Mahler's Wunderhorn symphonies, but also investigates such fascinating topics as the relationship between Mahler and Berlioz, and the influence of Bach on Mahler's later masterpieces. This new edition of the book offers an entirelynew preface, in which Mitchell gives a unique account of the influence of politics, nationalism and fascism on the reception and rejection of Mahler's music, after the composer's death until the Mahler Renaissance of the 1950s and 1960s. It also includes extensive corrigenda and amplifying addenda, making it clear that the Wunderhorn influence persisted beyond the end of the period during which the Wunderhorn anthology was a constant sourceof inspiration. It is completed by an international bibliography which documents chronologically the reception and study of his music both in the past, and the prodigiously different circumstances of the present. DONALD MITCHELL was Founder Professor of Music at the University of Sussex. He is well known for his major studies of Mahler, among his many other books and studies. He was awarded the CBE in 2000.
Discovering Mahler is the fourth and final volume of Donald Mitchell's unique studies of Mahler and his music. It fills the remaining gaps in the scrutiny of Mahler's works in the series, principally the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, with the Ninth and Tenth. Discovering Mahler is the fourth and final volume of Donald Mitchell's unique studies of Mahler and his music. This new publication fills the remaining gaps in the scrutiny of Mahler's works in the series, principally the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, with the Ninth and Tenth. It begins with a substantial survey of Mahler's music, commissioned for the sixth edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980), but here printed in full for the first time. A striking feature throughout this collection is the examination of the revelatory role of the performer; this is epitomized in transcripts of significant conversations about the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies with, respectively, Riccardo Chailly and Bernard Haitink. The concluding section consists of major lectures and celebratory essays, some here published for the first time in English. These form a fascinating and frequently moving personal testament to a lifetime, and specifically fifty working years, of discovering Mahler. Donald Mitchell's three previous studies of Mahler are among the enduring monuments of postwar Mahler literature. He was awarded the Gustav Mahler Medal of Honour of the International Gustav Mahler Society in Vienna in 1987, and was appointed CBE in 2002.
