View Article As

E H T SYSTEMS ® FEATURE THINKE R BUILDING SHARED UNDERSTANDING

VOL. 21 NO. 7 SEPTEMBER 2010 CHANGING OUR SYSTEMS BY CHANGING OUR BRAINS: THE LEVERAGE IN MINDFULNESS

BY ELAINE B. JOHNSON

A ccording to recent findings in This article explains why mindful - and connect. Brain cells connect as a neuroscience, not only do sensory ness —being fully aware of the present result of our experiences. Daily life experiences and actions change the moment and regarding it with open - builds the brain, continuously, moment brain’s physical structure, but so does ness and curiosity—is the compelling by moment. We make our Selves. thinking. Concentrating on reasons to responsibility of all human beings. It For example, humans are born be grateful can rewire the brain to explains why all of us are by definition with the capacity to distinguish every incorporate an appreciative attitude. obligated to examine and develop our one of the sounds contained in the Imagining that you are playing a five- inner context —the Self that thinks well, 6,000 languages spoken on earth. Par - finger exercise on the piano can enlarge sees clearly, and decides intelligently. ticular neurons are genetically assigned the space in your brain devoted to Our survival as individuals, organiza - to receive particular sounds. The more manipulating the fingers. In these ways, tions, and a species depends upon it. an infant hears a single sound, such as our thoughtful response to the context “gr,” the more that “gr” is wired into a we inhabit at any moment has the Our Inner and Physical tiny cluster of neurons in the brain’s power to shape our personalities and Contexts auditory cortex. The cluster of neurons values as well as influence our actions. For the purposes of this discussion, I holding “gr” comes alive with electrical This discovery that thought alone use “context” in two ways. Strictly activity when—and only when—that changes the brain’s physical structure speaking, the word “context” means distinctive “gr” sound enters the child’s validates strategies that practitioners of “the situation that surrounds us, with ear and passes to the brain. Clusters of systems thinking and organizational its conditions.” I use it to designate neurons—circuits—in your brain hold learning have long appreciated. These inner context, the mental state inside all the sounds of the language you strategies—effective with everyone our heads that envelops us—such as speak. In this way, experience decides if from primary school children in the our ideas, tastes, attitudes, moral princi - Italian will make sense to you or sound Netherlands to employees in global ples, social rules, and worries. Used this like gibberish. corporations—include listening with - way, “context” is synonymous with Experience also wires the brain for out judging, speaking honestly, looking “Self” or “Mind.” music. During the first few years of life, a for interrelatedness, nurturing relation - I also use physical context to refer child’s brain can wire for any kind of ships, and asking fresh questions. Brain to the world surrounding us now. The music. Because in the United States chil - research suggests that such mental Self is always moving from past to dren hear Western music, by the age of awareness, attentiveness, and creative future in a physical space with its own five, their brains have formed circuits questioning can actually transform our conditions. We live among family, that hold Western musical sounds. Five- brains from rigid, automated respon - friends, teams, clubs, and neighbors. We year-old children know the customary ders to thoughtful, alert, searching, and occupy a workplace consisting of office chord progressions in Western music. open creators of Self and the world. furniture, equipment, tasks, deadlines, These examples from music and speech and colleagues who interact, apply demonstrate that use sculpts the brain. knowledge, make choices, interpret Because personal experience gen - events, and sometimes bring us coffee. erates the Self, therefore, one might In the workplace—or in any phys - well ask, “What experiences, what ical context—people, objects, and influences, made me the Self that I call events are woven together. Indeed, the ‘I’?” and “Will I, my Self, choose to TEAM TIP word “context” comes from the Latin rewire my brain by paying attention to “contexere,” meaning “to weave new contexts that offer new experi - By exercising mindfulness in the workplace, you and your team may together.” Woven together in our inner ences, or will I refuse?” experience less stress and be more context, our Self, are all those attributes Perhaps the most obvious influ - alert to new opportunities. we refer to with the pronoun “I.” The ence that shapes the human mind is Self, the Mind, emerges as brain cells culture, the context that envelops us (specifically, neurons) weave together from birth. Culture is, of course, a

2 Copyright © 2010 Pegasus Communications, Inc. ( www.pegasuscom.com ). All rights reserved. For permission to distribute copies of this article in any form, please contact us at [email protected] . social invention. This invention is com - Life,” people who hear of a discovery sonal experience is that the brain is a municated to us by our grandparents, that challenges their way of thinking social organ. It loves the company of parents, friends, teachers, colleagues, typically say immediately, automatically, other brains. Indeed, it demands the and others. These people form a social “It is not true. It is impossible.” Eventu - company of other brains. To survive and network that hands down rules of ally they may admit, “Well, perhaps it is flourish, it must belong . Belonging is so behavior. They give us opinions about possible.” Faced with irrefutable evi - important to the brain that it spends its education, political parties, right and dence, they concede, “Ah, it is true.” In downtime—when it is thinking of wrong, the war in Afghanistan, and off- time, they incorporate that new infor - nothing in particular—rehashing rela - shore drilling. They tell us what mation into their own “User’s Guide to tionships, asking, “Did I belong? Was I knowledge is worth learning. Culture Life,” saying, “I thought so all along.” If accepted? Did they like me?” wires circuits in our brains, and, mirac - it is a popular discovery, invention, idea, “Social to the core,” as Michael S. ulously, a Self emerges. or procedure, some might even claim, Gazzaniga put it in Human: The Science Culture encompasses more, of “I thought of it first.” Behind What Makes Us Unique, the course, than the social inventions of When culture produces results no brain also delights in gossip because people inhabiting a broad geographical one wants, people automatically dis - gossip makes it feel included. Men and region. The term also alludes to narrow tance themselves from those outcomes. women alike spend hours gossiping. contexts, such as universities, reading We treat unwanted results as if they Cell-phone conversations are rarely groups, and NASCAR races. Econom - had an independent existence of their about Tolstoy or astrophysics. They’re ics, for example, is an academic disci - own. For example, human beings have about personal matters. Women spend pline with its own culture. This degraded 21 percent of the topsoil in one-third of their conversation talking academic discipline’s culture does not the world’s arable land and have about themselves. “My friend gave me train economists to be ethicists who reduced 80 percent of humankind to roses.” “I really do want that facelift.” ask, “How can the economy be made poverty, and yet we automatically dis - “We meet every winter to ski.” Keenly to serve society?” Nor does the culture avow responsibility for these condi - interested in others, women spend of economics departments train econo - tions. We claim to be prisoners of two-thirds of their conversation talking mists to be historians disposed to ask, systems and powerless to alter them. about other people. “The last time I for instance, “Should the Federal We say we can do nothing. saw her, she looked upset.” Men also Reserve System, created in 1913 as an Not just when our “User’s Guide love to gossip. They call it “exchanging entity privately owned by the nation’s to Life” faces a daunting or unwanted information” or “networking,” but it’s leading banks, continue to exist in its context, but in any context—familiar still just gossip. Furthermore, men present form and continue to issue all or novel—we humans tend to run on spend two-thirds of their time talking U.S. currency, so that the federal gov - automatic pilot. In a meeting with col - about themselves: “I beat my own per - ernment must borrow money from the leagues, the Self automatically down - sonal best in that marathon.” “I con - Federal Reserve Bank to meet its loads a reaction: “Seen it before, know vinced the boss to use my design.” “I financial obligations?” it well.” Relying on customary think she likes me.” Rather than consult history, eco - thoughts, we make customary judg - Belonging is so important that not nomics departments focus on designing ments. As Ellen Langer, a Harvard psy - belonging generates actual pain. When theories, abstract models divorced from chologist, points out, instantly we we do not belong—when we feel ethical and historical contexts. Their interpret events, hastily we decide what rejected, ignored, mocked, or repri - models deal with describing, analyzing, they mean, immediately we judge and manded—we experience the same hurt and preserving the current economy, reach conclusions about what is going that physical pain causes. Two brain which, for better or worse, depends on on around us. We defer to authority, regions respond to physical pain. The market activity leading to continuous continue the same old practices, and same two regions also respond to social growth. The product of a narrow cul - fiercely, sometimes violently, protect a pain. These two regions—the anterior ture, the economist sees through a spe - long-held idea. cingulate cortex and the right ventral cial lens. So do we all. prefrontal cortex—react to the pain of Protecting What We “Know” a broken arm, and they react to the User’s Guide to Life It is understandable, profoundly regret - pain of social distress. When you break Each of us perceives reality through the table, but by no means inevitable that your arm, or when you are ignored, unique lens of our personal values and human beings regularly function on your anterior cingulate cortex immedi - ideas. These values and beliefs are part automatic pilot and fight to preserve ately sends out an alarm: “Pain . . . of us, just as surely as an arm is part of familiar ideas. Brain research suggests something is terribly wrong.” This us. And just as we are unwilling to part three reasons for this determination to alarm serves to alert the right ventral with an arm and will fight to protect it, protect what we know, freeze thought, prefrontal cortex to dampen the pain so we are unwilling to part with the and close the Self. as much as possible. ideas, customs, and practices that consti - The pain of not belonging is so tute the Self, our “User’s Guide to Life.” Need to Belong. One reason we seek to intense that we try hard to avoid it. To Protective of their “User’s Guide to retain the lessons of culture and per - avoid the pain of not belonging, we

© 2010 PEGASUS COMMUNICATIONS 781.398.9700 THE SYSTEMS THINKER ® SEPTEMBER 2010 3 conform. We repeat the same ideas our ging, the habit is stored in the basal save five? Most people answer, “Yes.” friends and colleagues voice. We accept ganglia. Habits of thought seem also to It’s a question of logic. The part of culture’s dictates. Willingly, we become be held in parts of the basal ganglia. If your brain that reasons does the math. prisoners of context, physical and throughout childhood you were It tells you to sacrifice one to save five. mental. treated kindly, and if you were always Version 2. You are standing on a encouraged to practice kindness, then bridge watching the train aim at five Search for Meaning. A second major neurons in your basal ganglia became people. There is no way to divert the reason that humans automatically wired to form circuits holding the train. However, standing next to you struggle to protect their values and habit of kindness. Embedded in your on the bridge is a massively overweight convictions is that in order to survive, brain and emerging in your personal stranger. If you push him off the bridge the brain requires meaning . In its per - Self is the habit of always doing the and onto the track, he will stop the petual quest for meaning, the brain kind act. train. You will kill him and save five. looks for patterns and order in every - Habits—good and bad alike—are Will you push the stranger off the thing. Troubled by randomness, for hard to break. One reason habits are bridge? example, it tries to make sense of life, hard to break is that they occupy phys - Most people will not push the asking, “Is my job worth doing?” “Why ical space in the brain. The more a stranger. Simple logic says, “Kill one; did those teenagers have to die in a car habit is practiced, the more real estate save five.” But now emotion is crash?” In its quest for meaning—for it usurps. involved. It feels bad to push a stranger order, significance, and purpose—the Habits are also hard to break to his death. Emotion defeats reason. brain protects, apparently, the beliefs because when we try to get rid of a Emotion also trumps reason in a and practices it has long known and habit, one part of the brain, the orbital well-known experiment called the resists anything that does not fit its pat - frontal cortex, sends out an error mes - “Ultimate Bargaining Game,” involving terns. Ironically, protecting meanings sage. The orbital frontal cortex, located sharing. Two players are given a chance causes us to miss the new meaning that just above and behind the eyes, is the to split money. One player receives an immediate physical context offers us brain’s error detector, constantly $100.00 and is invited to propose a now, as we inhabit the moment. appraising situations to see how things split. The other player is allowed to are going. When expectations are accept or reject the offer. If he rejects Habit. A third major reason that thwarted, the orbital frontal cortex it, neither player gets anything. Pure human beings struggle to protect cus - sends out an error alert—like a flashing logic says, “Having money is desirable.” tomary thoughts and practices is that orange hand at a crosswalk that warns Therefore one expects the first player habit grips the human brain. Gipsie pedestrians to rush to the safety of the to offer the worst possible split. Logic Ranney provided a fine instance of the curb. This error message says, “Some - also says, “A little money is better than power of habit when she said that thing is not right.” none.” Therefore one expects the sec - many CEOs insist that “increases in When a healthy person tries to ond player to take whatever is offered. external incentives will enhance per - break a habit, the orbital frontal cortex However, typically players in the formance.” They make this claim resists doing so, in effect declaring, experiment defy logic. The person pro - despite compelling evidence showing “Breaking this habit is wrong.” The posing the split frequently offers almost that external incentives actually squelch error message at the same time triggers a fifty-fifty sharing, which is illogical. creativity, discourage risk taking, and overwhelming emotions strong enough Such a split is normally accepted. increase conformity. These CEOs cling to vanquish rational thought. Over - However, when the first player offers to their belief in external incentives powered by these emotions, the brain significantly less than a fifty-fifty split, because, often reinforced, it has does not want to listen to reason. The the second player rejects the offer. The become habitual. Once a thought brain wants victory, not truth. It wants second player’s feelings of insult, anger, becomes habitual, it occupies physical to defend its interests, even if what it and unfairness trump logical self-inter - space in the brain. defends is illogical and unsubstantiated. est. Emotions sometimes help us make The following two versions of the good decisions, sometimes not. The Brain’s Habit Center “Trolley Game” illustrate the tendency The habit center of the brain consists of emotion to vanquish reason. While Mirror Neurons for a Change of interconnected clusters of neurons the first version favors reason, the Fortunately, we are not trapped in an located near the core of the brain and second defers to emotion. overwhelmingly emotional, habit- called the basal ganglia. Scientists have Version 1. You are on a bridge ridden, culture-molded Self. We are long known that parts of the basal gan - watching as an out-of-control train capable of opening our minds, hearts, glia affect movement. They now realize hurtles toward five unsuspecting work - and wills, as systems thinkers and man - that the basal ganglia is also implicated ers on a track. There is a switch near agement theorists Otto Scharmer and in storing habits. For example, when an you that you can use to divert the train Peter Senge so emphatically encourage activity is practiced so long that it onto a different track, where only one us to do. We are capable of learning becomes habitual, like leaving the worker is standing. Would you divert from one another, paying attention, house at six every morning to go jog - the train to hit one person in order to thinking well, and seeing clearly.

4 THE SYSTEMS THINKER ® VOL. 21, NO. 7 www.pegasuscom.com © 2010 PEGASUS COMMUNICATIONS Mirror neurons are the cells in the Mirror neurons are sometimes 1. Do no harm. Be compassionate, brain that make it possible for us to called “empathy neurons” because they empathize, oppose cruelty, alleviate know what it is like to be another per - let us empathize. They let us unite with suffering. son. Giacomo Rizzolatti and his col - another, understanding another’s expe - 2. Be fair. Give everyone an equal leagues at the University of Parma rience completely and compassionately. chance. Punish cheaters; repay kind - discovered mirror neurons in 1996. The fact that human beings are nesses. Do unto others as you would They were studying how the brains of equipped with these powerful mirror have them do unto you. monkeys buzzed with activity when neurons changes our view of human 3. Support the community. Share, the animals picked up different objects. nature. By nature, human beings seek be generous, collaborate, volunteer. Astonishingly, when a trainer picked up intimacy and form close ties with oth - 4. Respect authority. Show respect some nuts and the monkeys just sat ers. By nature, humans are highly social, for those in authority. Fulfill duties and watching, the monkeys’ neurons began cooperative, and collaborative. By obligations. to buzz—as if they were picking up nature, humans are an “empathic 5. Be pure. Reject things that con - the nuts. Watching the scientists grasp species,” born equipped with neurons taminate, such as incest and polygamy. food had activated in the monkeys’ that unite us. It is possible that, given brains the identical neurons that had this capacity for empathy, human beings The trouble is that interpretations buzzed earlier when the monkeys have survived not primarily by being of these universal principles are local. picked up food. Just watching caused aggressive, self-sufficient, independent In some countries and in some reli - neurons to fire and create circuits. competitors fighting tooth and claw to gions, do no harm permits stoning a Human brains behave the same gain every advantage. On the contrary, woman to death for having sex out of way. We, too, have mirror neurons. Mir - it seems that we have survived by see - wedlock. Surely we must be wary of ror neurons look like any other neu - ing with another’s eyes and feeling with judging right and wrong based upon ron, but they have a surprising and another’s heart. Neuroscientist Richard universal moral codes that yield widely unique double function. These neurons Restak says, “If we try to think in a divergent interpretations. fire both when you do something— compassionate manner about the other But if we can’t trust local interpreta - that is, when you perform an action or person—no matter how difficult that tions of universal moral codes, what feel an emotion—and when you watch may be—we then become capable of foundation does allow us to make moral someone else do something—when empathizing—of thinking and feeling judgments? Science might help. For you watch someone else perform an as that person does .” We become one example, as Professor Will Keepin action or feel an emotion. Mirror neu - with the person, united. explains, “In field after field, in biology, rons cause you to imitate that action or physics, nonlinear dynamics, artificial life, feeling in your brain. A New Responsibility complexity theory . . . [is] a new idea . . . For example, when someone else Understanding the power of mirror that beyond the physical realm, there kicks a ball, your brain kicks the ball. neurons as well as the fact that daily exist invisible patterns and principles that When you see someone else feel an life shapes the brain brings with it somehow organize what we observe and emotion, then your mirror neurons great responsibility. We now realize that experience.” Apparently there exists “a cause you to feel that same emotion. those watching our actions and displays realm beyond the observed, material, Your brain makes circuits that hold of emotion will “catch” our behavior, empirical world . . . Something transpires that feeling. When you observe a performing it in their own brains. behind that which appears.” Might an woman smile in happiness, then your Surely we must take care, then, that ethic be drawn from that observation? mirror neurons cause you to feel that our behavior is worthy of emulation. What might a new moral code be? Per - same happiness. Because of mirror We must also be careful of what we are haps a new moral code will emerge neurons, you do not have to reason to willing to observe. When we observe from our capacity to empathize. yourself, “That woman looks happy; the actions and feelings of others, espe - The point is that definitive con - therefore she must be happy.” Mirror cially for a sustained period, our brains cepts of right and wrong are elusive. neurons let you just know the person is perform those same actions and feel - Achieving the fullest understanding pos - happy. ings. What behavior do we want our sible about ethical and other matters is Furthermore, suppose that you are brains to replicate? exceedingly difficult. Because it is so with a friend who is anxious. As you And what truth does knowledge difficult, each of us has a responsibility watch your friend feeling anxious, your of mirror neurons and the brain’s plas - to open our minds and hearts to every mirror neurons wire to imitate your ticity permit us to confidently promul - single context we inhabit, always search - friend’s emotion.You “catch” his anxi - gate? How do we know that our own ing for truth. To open our minds intelli - ety. Now you feel anxious, too. Fur - peculiar daily life and interactions have gently demands, among other things, thermore, your anxiety causes your own led us to truths? thinking well and paying attention. body to react. In effect, secondhand Culture gives us, of course, its ver - emotion affects us physically. When we sion of truth. For example, virtually all Thinking Well. Thought alone—just see an emotion on another’s face, that cultures teach a few universal moral thinking—can actually connect neu - sight affects both brain and body. principles. rons in emotional regions of the brain

© 2010 PEGASUS COMMUNICATIONS 781.398.9700 THE SYSTEMS THINKER ® SEPTEMBER 2010 5 so that they hold a positive outlook. If Hood realized that she had been talk - businesses and schools. She is currently writing a we begin each morning writing down book about the brain tentatively called Love Your ing to a wolf. Brain, Improve Your Life. three reasons to be grateful, we will in Poor Red Riding Hood. No one time weave brain circuits that hold a taught her to concentrate, so she wasn’t AUTHOR’S NOTE: The material in this grateful attitude. Buddhists meditate on vigilant. Clearly William James was article is based on numerous studies that, in compassion and as a result generate right when he said, “An education that an academic journal, would be scrupulously brain circuits in which compassion is would improve attention would be the documented. For this publication, space per - embedded. education par excellence.” mits mentioning only a few major sources: Sharon Begley, TrainYour Mind, ChangeYour Paying Attention. Thinking well A Work in Progress Brain (NewYork: Ballantine Books, 2007), pp. requires paying attention. Paying atten - We human beings are capable of exer - 156-160; John B. Cobb, Jr., “Capital,” a paper tion in a disciplined way intensifies the cising mindfulness—of paying attention written for a conference in Suzhou, China, brain’s response to any thought or sen - and thinking well. We are able to sus - January 2009, pp. 4-13; David Dobbs, “A sation. To understand the force of pay - pend disbelief, listen, learn, and deepen Revealing Reflection,” Scientific American ing attention, consider that all objects understanding. Mind , April/May 2006, pp. 22-27; Michael Gazzaniga, Human (New York: HarperCollins, possess shape and color. Take a chair, for • Shall we, then, in any context strive 2008); Marco Iacoboni, Mirroring People: The example. The shape of the chair is intentionally to cultivate compassion, New Science of How We Connect with Others processed by distinctive circuits of neu - patience, and love? (NewYork: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), rons. The color of the chair is processed • Shall we perhaps apply the term pp. 1-46; Will Keepin, “Science and the Spirit: by an entirely different circuit of neu - “social” not only to relationships Integrating the Sacred and the Secular,” Time - rons. Neurons that process the shape of among human beings, but to relation - line , September/October 1998, p. 15; Ellen J. the chair have nothing to do with those ships among every living thing? Langer, The Power of Mindful Learning (Cam - that process the chair’s color. Therefore, • Shall our values serve not only our bridge: Perseus Books, 1997), pp. 1, 4, 16- if you choose to pay attention only to own ends, but those of all life? 18,100, 103-105; Daniel J. Levitin, This IsYour an object’s shape, then you strengthen Brain on Music (New York: Plume/Penguin, only the neurons that specialize in The Self, a work in progress until 2007), pp. 26-27, 40-43; Gipsie B. Ranney, “The Trouble with Incentives: They Work,” shape. If you then focus on the object’s the day we die, has the power to grow Ongoing Discussion Thought Piece for Pratt color, you will bolster the neurons that and learn in all the contexts it inhabits. and Whitney Rocketdyne’s Enterprise Think - specialize in color. What’s more, it has the power to trans - ing Network, pp. 5-7; Richard Restak, The Targeting an object, taking aim, is form these contexts and, in so doing, Secret Life of the Brain (New York: Dana Press the first step in paying attention. Hav - perhaps even save the world. Let’s use & The Joseph Henry Press), 2001, pp. 44-45; ing chosen the target, concentrate on our knowledge of the brain to cultivate C. Otto Scharmer, Theory U (San Francisco: it. Ignore distractions and irrelevancies. reason, curiosity, mindfulness, and Berrett-Koehler, 2009), 119-121; Theory U’ s Return wandering attention to the tar - empathy now, in today’s context, so Foreword by management theorist Peter get, re-aim. This process wires the tar - that our wise decisions enable human Senge, p.xiii; Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., and get into the brain’s circuitry, thus beings and Earth to flourish always. • Sharon Begley, The Mind and the Brain (New changing the brain’s physical structure. York: Harper Collins, 2002), pp. 59-73; Daniel Paying attention is of huge impor - Siegel, The Mindful Brain (New York: W.W. Elaine B. Johnson , Ph.D., a Woodrow Wilson Fel - Norton & Company, 2007), pp. 110-118. For tance to anyone interested in context low and Honorary Fellow of Huron University Col - the relationship of emotion to reason, see because it makes the brain alert and lege, Canada, is an internationally recognized Antonio Damasio, Descartes’ Error (NewYork: authority on contextual teaching and learning and a vigilant. Otherwise, we might end up Avon Books, 1994), pp. 70-71, 159-160. in this situation: popular interpreter of brain research. Author of the definitive study on teaching in context, Contextual Matthew Lieberman and Naomi Eisenberger, • “What big eyes you have Grandma,” Teaching and Learning: What it Is and Why It’s Here to working at UCLA, discovered that emotional Red Riding Hood said, oblivious of the Stay (2002), Johnson is in demand as a consultant to pain is comparable to physical pain. countless past visits when her Grandma’s eyes did not seem big. • “What big ears you have, Grandma,” she said matter-of-factly. Had she con - NEXT STEPS centrated, Red Riding Hood would At every moment, context gives us a chance grow. To do so—to make the mind wide have recalled that her grandma’s ears open—we must ask questions. For example: had never looked big, furry, and pointed. • Rather than ask an old question, such as, “How can we solve the problem of hunger?” frame a different question: “How can we and our neighbors fund and operate a food • “What a deep voice you have, cart to provide warm food for the homeless?” Grandma,” she said blandly, as if her • Ask about meaning: “What meaning does this moment hold for me? What understand - Grandmother’s voice had always ing can I take away?” sounded deep and low. • Ask about people: “What does he like to do? What does she worry about?” Wonder • “What big teeth . . .” At last paying what it is like to be that person. attention—too late—Red Riding

6 THE SYSTEMS THINKER ® VOL. 21, NO. 7 www.pegasuscom.com © 2010 PEGASUS COMMUNICATIONS