Publications by Joe DiMaggio, MD
The Power of Context and the Courage to Create The instant the ball rolled between Bill Buckner's legs New England broke into a collective moan. Mets fans uncontrollably squealed with glee. Sports fans have a tendency to get attached to the games, the players, the seasons. But in Boston, the context was that "the Sox" weren't winners. Seeing past our old assumptions about "the way things have been" or the way we thought "they had to be" and creating a context of our own choosing alters the very nature of what's possible-and the truth of "our" world can be transformed. Read full article >
Insights & Distinctions: Landmark Essays, Volume 1 In this book of essays, Joe DiMaggio and co-author Nancy Zapolski push boundaries and bring forth what's possible in being human. Juxtaposing Landmark distinctions, literary nuggets, and contemporary science with the stuff of our everyday lives, they suggest that our lives and the way we know ourselves are open to being invented.
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The book includes essays on topics such as these:
Something about Nothing We can imagine infinite ways our lives could play out—we could start over in a new country, switch careers after 20 years, leave everything we know and sail around the world, or just muse comfortably within the safety of our imagination. Each of those forays, real or imaginary, is an exploration between something and something else. What I want to explore, however, is not something—but nothing.
Big Shoes to Fill—There’s No Going Back Choosing to live a transformed life takes courage. My teenage step-daughter, Alex, is a graduate of The Landmark Forum for Teens and knows what it takes to play powerfully in the game of life. But like many of us, sometimes she likes to pretend the big shoes she's created for herself aren't hers.
Distinctions: Access to the Prime Terrain of Being Distinctions reveal something about the nature of things—including our own nature. They don't have to do with describing or defining, and can't be memorized, appropriated, or willed into being. They become powerfully present only through a series of hints or pointing-tos, yet it's in the act of distinguishing that we have the access, the malleability, the freedom to live a life of which we are the architect.
Stepping Outside the Swirl: The Courage to be Authentic "The first time I heard the song, I was hooked. I bought it and played it over and over again. The song satisfied me on every level, but if nobody else liked it, I guessed that I didn't, either. Having spent my life trying to fit the will of others, I was unable to distinguish between what I enjoyed and what I thought I should enjoy."
We are all familiar with the old imperative "To thine own self be true," and clear that much would be resolved if only we operated consistently with it, but the pull for getting approval from others and the need to fit in is a strong one. Stepping outside of that swirl requires courage. Humorist Josh Billings said, "This undertaking is not only the most difficult thing to do, but the most inconvenient as well."