Social media experts advise everyone, even civilians with no “social profile,” to set up Google Alerts on themselves.  I’ve had ‘em for years.

Yowza, there are a lot of Harnisches in the world.  Some I’ve eliminated with advanced search techniques. Larry Harnisch wrote a book about the Black Dahlia murder and he turns up too often. Had to whack him (-Larry).  Wilhelm Harnisch is in the news a lot, about matters of little interest to me, so I have a “-Wilhelm”. 

The legal name of the Foundation of which I’m president is “The Harnisch Family Foundation,” so I have a ”Harnisch Family” Google Alert.  That’s why I occasionally read the Harnisch Family blog, no relation of which I’m aware.

Today, there’s not only a message from the family, there’s a “guest post” of sorts from another blogger.

I could spend all day, every day, slaving over a hot keyboard, and I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything as…..well,  here.  See for yourself .

Almost makes me want to see what Wilhelm, Larry, Eric, Tom, and the others are up to.

The temptation to “work” today is stronger than at any time since the beginning of my sabbatical.

I resisted most compulsions to tweet and blog TED2010 . My output at TEDGlobal2009 was prodigious by comparison. 

As expected, I connected with some of our grantees, but also as expected, that was a joyful reward, not workwork.

Today I am powerfully pulled toward activity I would call “work,” and this is my declaration to resist.

Here’s what I feel drawn to do: I want to spend hours going over my TED notes and photos.  I want to make more notes, and organize things, and follow up with everyone.  That’s work.

But even more than all the details, I’m bursting with an urge to  spend hours writing, writing, writing about all things TED.

Why not go ahead and do that? Because I know that, for me, such expression is not really “expression.” It’s work. It’s reporting,  and that was my work.

 I am committed to reflecting. 

So if I choose to take out my notes today, it will be for reflection, not for reporting.

I’ll probably end up reporting on my reflections, right?

If I hadn’t already signed up, I might have decided to skip the TED Conference. 

This might shock those who know I love the annual gathering, that it is the one thing that is on my calendar in indelible ink, that I am paid up until 2017.

I’ve been attending in my role as president of The Harnisch Foundation , and we have a number of philanthropic investments including grantees  and projects  that are TED-related.  So, while it’s extremely stimulating and pleasurable, TED is also “work.”

I’ve decided to deviate only slightly from sabbatical – I will continue to make and deepen personal connections with grantees. Seeing the return on our philanthropic investment firsthand is meaningful.  This is hands-on work and I am pleased to do it.

However, I’m going to attend the rest of the TED Conference as a person who is on sabbatical.  That person has never been to TED.  I wonder how different it will be if I’m not constantly on the lookout for ways to apply what I’m learning, and the connections I’m making, to my philanthropic work and my circle of associates?

What if I just go as a person with an open mind and no agenda? 

 (I’m thinking this is probably the way to show up every day, sabbatical or not.)

I used to take money to talk – on the radio, on television, on stage. 

These days, I don’t talk much, and during my sabbatical, I’m talking even less.  I am conscious of opportunities for silence, and I embrace them. I turn off the television, the speaker on the computer, and switch the phone to DND (Do Not Disturb). 

It’s amazing what can be heard in “silence.”

This is why some religious orders keep silence, of course, and many people enjoy going on “silent retreat” weekends.  I’m glad many of you are communicating with me silently – I appreciate your comments!  Kerryn Griffiths* told me about the mini-sabbatical experiences that she and a partner offer in Australia .  At these retreats, the website says,  ”silence is held until lunchtime” each day and if you decide to refrain from talking even when silence is broken, that decision will be respected and supported.

 What a relief it is not to be expected to speak!  For a little while, at least.

People of a certain age will remember the summer of 1980 when Larry Hagman  was the hottest celebrity in the USA. At the height of frenzy surrounding this cultural obsession , I emceed one of his public appearances. Someone tore my dress trying to fight past me to get to him – that’s how crazy it was.

Even then, when he was at the top of his earning power, he kept silence one day every week, usually Sunday.  It was his discipline. What he learned about himself and others in the silence was priceless to him, and not for sale. He wasn’t fanatical and he could adjust – that’s why “usually” Sunday. But he didn’t like to sell his silent time. The bigger he got, the bigger his benefit from the silence.

I started writing this note on silence last week, and I didn’t finish it – but I’m glad, because in the meantime, I saw a tweet from Andrea J. Lee quoting someone else: “Never miss a good chance to shut up,” along with the acronym WAIT – “Why Am I Talking?”

So today I invite you to join me as I notice  silence, appreciate it, and create it. I will go longer periods of time without speaking. And when I do open my mouth, I’ll ask myself: WAIT – Why Am I Talking?  Does what I have to say improve upon the silence ?

Shhhhhh (Sabbatical In Progress)

*Kerryn Griffiths is a contractor of The Harnisch Foundation.

Our gift to create the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University under the direction of Leonard Witt has received no small amount of attention.  Journalists being  journalists, they smell more than a story here. They smell opportunity.

The CSJ is meant to create opportunities for journalists, but more importantly, to create opportunities for JOURNALISM. Len Witt and his associates earned my trust and my investment because they are bold about trying new ways of gathering high-quality content and delivering that information to the people who want it and need it.

Most importantly, Len is an entrepreneur masquerading as an academic. Sure, he’s interested in scholarly research on this topic. But his primary objective is to discover and replicate self-sustaining methods of reporting.  If it can’t pay for itself, it’s not sustainable.  This isn’t “subsidized” or “supported” journalism, like ProPublica (www.propublica.org).  We don’t have pockets that deep, or maybe we’d emulate that model.  Naaah, we wouldn’t.  Here’s why.

I’ve learned many things from my husband, the money manager who created the revenue that funds my philanthropy.  One of his commandments is, “The Market Is Always Right,” no matter how wrong you might think it is.  That holds for individual business models, including nonprofit businesses.  The only difference between a nonprofit and a for-profit enterprise is what happens to the revenue.  In nonprofits, the cash goes back into the mission. For-profits distribute profits to shareholders. On the Harnisch Foundation website (www.thehf.org), we tell grantseekers that our preference is to invest in nonprofits with a plan for sustainability that does not include asking us for more money!

Because so many current business models in journalism are failing, we don’t want our philanthropic dollars to prop up failing models. The market is always right. It’s up to Len Witt and the CSJ to find and fund those experiments in journalism that stand a better-than-average chance of becoming self-sustaining. 

Same goes for you, by the way. Becoming self-sustaining, where you don’t depend on one source of income, is a great goal. Diversify. Find or create multiple streams of revenue. People who remember me from my journalism career may recall that I had a lot of jobs at the same time: I was a television news anchor, reporter, and talk-show host. I was a radio talk-show host. I was a newspaper columnist. I taught at a local university. I got paid for recording voice-overs and narration, out-of-the-market television commercials, giving speeches, being in movies, and even doing calligraphy. 

What can YOU do to make an “S” (self-sustainer) out of yourself?