I was visiting my friends, David Oldfield and Merilee Janssen, in Washington DC. My talks with David always give me new insights. David is the only person ever to be awarded a Master of Celebrancy, Honoris Causa, from the international College of Celebrancy. ( http://www.collegeofclebrancy.edu.au )
David Oldfield is a person who learned his celebrancy at the coalface. He “cut his teeth” working with homeless young people and drug addicts. He discovered that the only successful way to assist people into long term behavioural change was through a Rite of Passage and Ceremony, that helped a person face the issues and make a positive commitment.
These days he is doing similar work with big corporations who wish to make business progress, but in an ethical and world-supporting way. His work, for example with Toyota, involves the communicating of two important principles -
Kaizen, and
Respect for Persons.
Kaizen is a revealing way of presenting a way of life philosophy which commits to incremental and continuous change for the better. Sometimes the Japanese really get it right. This is what I would like to persuade civil celebrants to take on board - Kaizen - the principle of incremental change for the better. Every ceremony, which the celebrant creates and performs, is a little better than the last one.
(Celebrants and celebrancy)
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