Those of us who are not currently employed are competing for jobs in a field lousy with other people just like us - desperate people with incredible skills, years of experience, and indefatigable hope tempered by moments of bleak despair.
As I start month #7 of unemployment, I decided it would be advantageous to conduct an inventory of new skills I've acquired over the course of the past 6 months. Certainly in a job market that's still pretty much on life-support (prognosis: unknown) it's critical to keep adding to my skill set in order to make myself more marketable. So I'm adding the following to my resume:
1. Taiko drumming
2. Tomato growing
3. Marinara sauce making
4. Cement pouring
5. Gopher basket making
6. Blog writing
7. Lizard observing
8. Fence painting
Hm. I think in the next few months I would be well advised to pick up a few less esoteric skills and focus instead on learning Excel and taking a beginning Spanish class. On the other hand there just may be an employer out there who is looking to hire a Taiko drumming, cement pouring, blue belly loving former hospital director who is trying - with minimal success - to live a life of il dolce far niente.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
When Life Hands You Tomatoes...
I met a longtime friend for lunch last week. As we were saying our goodbyes after our marathon meal and catch-up session she asked me to follow her to her car because (as she put it), "I have a job for you." No kidding. She opened her trunk and presented me with a large - very large - bag of the most beautiful, ripe red Roma tomatoes. My job? Make marinara sauce.
Confession: Although I'm Italian by blood and pretty much love all things Italian I have never, ever made tomato sauce from scratch. I can, however, doctor any jar of Classico like no one's business. (My Nonna Angelina is somewhere in heaven disavowing me right now.)
Another confession: Fresh produce makes me feel guilty - as in, "If you don't deal with me now I will rot and turn to mush and that's incredibly wasteful and there are people starving and it's all your fault." I come by the guilt naturally as the other 50% of me is Jewish. My husband claims that my Italian Catholic and Russian Jew mix explains my tendency toward hysterical guilt. Makes sense to me.
Anyway I returned home with a bag full of guilt - a bag that kept calling to me from the dark recesses of my refrigerator until this morning when I decided to peel the little darlings and make my first ever batch of marinara sauce. After a brief internet search, I created my own recipe and headed out to the store to purchase the rest of the ingredients.
This is where the story gets interesting, at least to me.
A couple of days ago I ambled down to our mailbox to pick up the mail. We share a rural curbside mailbox with our neighbor - two receptacles mounted on a 4x4 post embedded into a concrete base. On this particular day I opened our mailbox as usual, except this time the entire mailbox fell over and I was left holding onto the little door, just as another neighbor drove by. Slightly embarrassed I waved to the neighbor as if it was perfectly natural to be holding onto a mailbox door while the rest of it was crashing at my feet. The neighbor waved back and kept on going so I guess my casual and jaunty attitude fooled her. (By the way, dual mailboxes embedded in concrete are heavy - if one starts to topple on you best to step aside.)
Yesterday my husband, Greg, and I purchased a new prefab cement base with the intention of repairing the thing today so the mail carrier can resume delivery. Apparently the USPS does not leave mail a) in a tipsy receptacle b) on the dirt next to a tipsy receptacle or c) at your front door.
Anyway, this afternoon as I was getting in Ernest (my Prius) to get ingredients for the marinara sauce I remembered that the new, very heavy cement base was still in my trunk so I hoisted it out and set it off to the side of the garage, well out of the way of human and auto traffic.
I made the roundtrip to the store in record time and turned into our driveway happily engrossed in "This American Life." As I pulled into the garage I suddenly heard a deafening, tearing, crunching sound that was not coming from Ira Glass on our local NPR station. Simultaneously, Greg came running out of the house screaming, "Nooooooo!"
Apparently in the 10 minutes I was away from the house, my loving partner moved the cement block from the safety of the sidelines into my usual parking spot. When I came home, I figured the thing was right where I left it - in my defense, our driveway is steep so it's hard to see over the hood of the car when pulling in. Consequently I blithely headed for my designated space thereby encountering the cement block which eventually came to rest tightly wedged under the passenger side of the car.
I think we both handled it quite well. Greg stood outside the car and stared at the ground for about an hour without saying a word and I sat in the car with my head in my hands for about the same length of time. Then I collected my groceries, went inside and made marinara sauce. Greg jacked up the car, removed the cement block, and fixed the mailbox.
When life hands you tomatoes, make marinara sauce.
Confession: Although I'm Italian by blood and pretty much love all things Italian I have never, ever made tomato sauce from scratch. I can, however, doctor any jar of Classico like no one's business. (My Nonna Angelina is somewhere in heaven disavowing me right now.)
Another confession: Fresh produce makes me feel guilty - as in, "If you don't deal with me now I will rot and turn to mush and that's incredibly wasteful and there are people starving and it's all your fault." I come by the guilt naturally as the other 50% of me is Jewish. My husband claims that my Italian Catholic and Russian Jew mix explains my tendency toward hysterical guilt. Makes sense to me.
Anyway I returned home with a bag full of guilt - a bag that kept calling to me from the dark recesses of my refrigerator until this morning when I decided to peel the little darlings and make my first ever batch of marinara sauce. After a brief internet search, I created my own recipe and headed out to the store to purchase the rest of the ingredients.
This is where the story gets interesting, at least to me.
A couple of days ago I ambled down to our mailbox to pick up the mail. We share a rural curbside mailbox with our neighbor - two receptacles mounted on a 4x4 post embedded into a concrete base. On this particular day I opened our mailbox as usual, except this time the entire mailbox fell over and I was left holding onto the little door, just as another neighbor drove by. Slightly embarrassed I waved to the neighbor as if it was perfectly natural to be holding onto a mailbox door while the rest of it was crashing at my feet. The neighbor waved back and kept on going so I guess my casual and jaunty attitude fooled her. (By the way, dual mailboxes embedded in concrete are heavy - if one starts to topple on you best to step aside.)
Yesterday my husband, Greg, and I purchased a new prefab cement base with the intention of repairing the thing today so the mail carrier can resume delivery. Apparently the USPS does not leave mail a) in a tipsy receptacle b) on the dirt next to a tipsy receptacle or c) at your front door.
Anyway, this afternoon as I was getting in Ernest (my Prius) to get ingredients for the marinara sauce I remembered that the new, very heavy cement base was still in my trunk so I hoisted it out and set it off to the side of the garage, well out of the way of human and auto traffic.
I made the roundtrip to the store in record time and turned into our driveway happily engrossed in "This American Life." As I pulled into the garage I suddenly heard a deafening, tearing, crunching sound that was not coming from Ira Glass on our local NPR station. Simultaneously, Greg came running out of the house screaming, "Nooooooo!"
Apparently in the 10 minutes I was away from the house, my loving partner moved the cement block from the safety of the sidelines into my usual parking spot. When I came home, I figured the thing was right where I left it - in my defense, our driveway is steep so it's hard to see over the hood of the car when pulling in. Consequently I blithely headed for my designated space thereby encountering the cement block which eventually came to rest tightly wedged under the passenger side of the car.
I think we both handled it quite well. Greg stood outside the car and stared at the ground for about an hour without saying a word and I sat in the car with my head in my hands for about the same length of time. Then I collected my groceries, went inside and made marinara sauce. Greg jacked up the car, removed the cement block, and fixed the mailbox.
When life hands you tomatoes, make marinara sauce.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
One Thing
Today I was navigating Ernest the Prius along a fairly busy street when I spotted a woman walking down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. Pedestrians are fairly unusual around here so she definitely caught my attention. What held my attention however was how busy she was when really all she was doing was...taking a walk. In point of fact, she was pushing a double-wide stroller containing two little toddlers, walking a dog whose leash was tied to the stroller handlebar, and talking on her cell phone while pushing the double-wide with her one free hand.
I don't think we're ready for "il dolce far niente" in this country. The sweetness of doing nothing is just asking way too much. I propose, however, that we strive for "il dolce far una cosa" ... the sweetness of doing one thing. At a time.
I don't think we're ready for "il dolce far niente" in this country. The sweetness of doing nothing is just asking way too much. I propose, however, that we strive for "il dolce far una cosa" ... the sweetness of doing one thing. At a time.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Lessons Learned
Show of hands ... how many of you out there need some advice on how to survive, even thrive, after losing your job? I'm not talking about those of you who work in industries where it's commonplace to keep an empty box under your desk in anticipation of the day when once again Security escorts you and your box of personal treasures out the door due to downsizing. No. I'm talking about people who are new to the phenomenon of "job loss."
So to you newly downsized, I offer the following road-tested tips - guaranteed to get you off the couch and functioning in society within six months.
Things to Do and Not Do After You Lose Your Job:
1. Do not sleep in your clothes. I know it reduces some amount of pressure in the morning since you won't have to make the monumentally exhausting decision about what to wear, but resist the temptation. Your ego has already suffered a striking blow, and wearing the same clothes for days on end is counterproductive to the healing process. Besides, your loved ones will shun you and you need all the love you can get at this time.
2. Find a therapist immediately and commit to dragging your sorry behind to every appointment without fail. Friends are supportive and all, but now's when you really need a professional ... someone who will not only help you get back on your feet (emotionally speaking) but who won't exhibit codependent behavior by bringing you pint after pint of Ben and Jerry's while you both sob at the injustice of it all. The nice thing is you can have one of each: a great therapist, and a great friend who cries with you while you both work your way through a carton of Chunky Monkey.
3. Take a shower every morning, first thing. If you don't have the energy to dry off, that's okay - air dry. Brush your teeth. Comb your hair. All this effort may exhaust you initially, but in the long run you'll feel like a member of polite society, which is oh-so-good for morale.
4. In the first month or so of your unemployment journey, try to create at least one reason each week to get out of the house even if its something as simple as scheduling a walk with a friend - and do not back out at the last minute. My mantra: "Get up, get dressed, get out." These appointments will enable you to communicate with people on an adult level, and will give you a reason to shower (see # 3.)
5. Reach out to former coworkers and gossip. At first, you'll find this exercise to be immensely gratifying, especially if the former coworkers care about you and say things like, "It just isn't the same at work without you." Eventually, you will wean yourselves from this line of conversation and will chat simply because you really enjoy each other.
6. Reconnect with friends and acquaintances you were too busy to see when you were working. This serves two purposes - you get to spend time with some really neat people who aren't former co-workers and you get to spend time with people who may know someone who knows someone who's looking to hire someone like you (aka networking.) It's okay to be obvious about the networking part, but probably best to not grovel. Eager, good. Desperate, not so much.
7. If you have any say in the matter, try to lose your job during the Summer. The whole experience seems more palatable - even pleasurable - when the days are long and the sun is shining - and property taxes aren't due for months yet. And don't forget, in the Summer there's more time to exercise, and exercise breeds endorphins and endorphins are our friends. By the way, walking back and forth to your computer to see if you've received any responses from your online job applications does not constitute exercise ... unless you view an exercise in futility as a way to increase your heart rate.
8. If you lose your job in the Winter, get a light therapy box and sit under it. Do not travel to Scandinavia at this time. The endless night there will only depress you further.
9. Realize that there will be days when the effort it takes to shower and crawl to the couch is all you can manage because you are a) really sad and b) really depressed. After a few weeks of this pattern, I confessed to my therapist (see #2) that I was afraid I would spend the rest of my life on the couch, or approximately 21 years according to life expectancy tables. After reassuring me that things would look different in six months (she was right), she suggested that I not fight the urge to wallow on the sofa but instead give myself permission to spend one whole entire day there doing nothing. So I picked a day, arranged myself on the couch ... and fidgeted for about an hour before I finally had to get up and do something.
10. Eat dark chocolate. It's good for you, body and soul. This does not mean scarfing down an entire two pound box of See's dark chocolate butter chews in one sitting while watching Oprah. Restraint is called for, otherwise you will hate yourself and that's not what we're aiming for here. If you have enough energy, make yourself a batch of brownies from scratch...they're easy and damn good.
At the conclusion of the last post, I promised the Ultimate Brownie Recipe. Truth be told, I consider the ultimate brownie to be any brownie that's put in front of me. But this recipe (fairly standard with a couple of modifications) is the one I use pretty much all the time. The key: use the best ingredients you can afford.
Heck of a Job Brownies
4 squares (4 oz) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
1 cup flour
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 13x9 baking pan with foil; grease foil. Place chocolate, butter and instant coffee in medium saucepan and stir over low heat until ingredients are melted. Remove from heat; stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add flour and walnuts. Pour into prepared pan; spread evenly, then sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out with some fudgy crumbs. Let cool on rack completely before cutting into 24 squares. Enjoy - and be healed!
So to you newly downsized, I offer the following road-tested tips - guaranteed to get you off the couch and functioning in society within six months.
Things to Do and Not Do After You Lose Your Job:
1. Do not sleep in your clothes. I know it reduces some amount of pressure in the morning since you won't have to make the monumentally exhausting decision about what to wear, but resist the temptation. Your ego has already suffered a striking blow, and wearing the same clothes for days on end is counterproductive to the healing process. Besides, your loved ones will shun you and you need all the love you can get at this time.
2. Find a therapist immediately and commit to dragging your sorry behind to every appointment without fail. Friends are supportive and all, but now's when you really need a professional ... someone who will not only help you get back on your feet (emotionally speaking) but who won't exhibit codependent behavior by bringing you pint after pint of Ben and Jerry's while you both sob at the injustice of it all. The nice thing is you can have one of each: a great therapist, and a great friend who cries with you while you both work your way through a carton of Chunky Monkey.
3. Take a shower every morning, first thing. If you don't have the energy to dry off, that's okay - air dry. Brush your teeth. Comb your hair. All this effort may exhaust you initially, but in the long run you'll feel like a member of polite society, which is oh-so-good for morale.
4. In the first month or so of your unemployment journey, try to create at least one reason each week to get out of the house even if its something as simple as scheduling a walk with a friend - and do not back out at the last minute. My mantra: "Get up, get dressed, get out." These appointments will enable you to communicate with people on an adult level, and will give you a reason to shower (see # 3.)
5. Reach out to former coworkers and gossip. At first, you'll find this exercise to be immensely gratifying, especially if the former coworkers care about you and say things like, "It just isn't the same at work without you." Eventually, you will wean yourselves from this line of conversation and will chat simply because you really enjoy each other.
6. Reconnect with friends and acquaintances you were too busy to see when you were working. This serves two purposes - you get to spend time with some really neat people who aren't former co-workers and you get to spend time with people who may know someone who knows someone who's looking to hire someone like you (aka networking.) It's okay to be obvious about the networking part, but probably best to not grovel. Eager, good. Desperate, not so much.
7. If you have any say in the matter, try to lose your job during the Summer. The whole experience seems more palatable - even pleasurable - when the days are long and the sun is shining - and property taxes aren't due for months yet. And don't forget, in the Summer there's more time to exercise, and exercise breeds endorphins and endorphins are our friends. By the way, walking back and forth to your computer to see if you've received any responses from your online job applications does not constitute exercise ... unless you view an exercise in futility as a way to increase your heart rate.
8. If you lose your job in the Winter, get a light therapy box and sit under it. Do not travel to Scandinavia at this time. The endless night there will only depress you further.
9. Realize that there will be days when the effort it takes to shower and crawl to the couch is all you can manage because you are a) really sad and b) really depressed. After a few weeks of this pattern, I confessed to my therapist (see #2) that I was afraid I would spend the rest of my life on the couch, or approximately 21 years according to life expectancy tables. After reassuring me that things would look different in six months (she was right), she suggested that I not fight the urge to wallow on the sofa but instead give myself permission to spend one whole entire day there doing nothing. So I picked a day, arranged myself on the couch ... and fidgeted for about an hour before I finally had to get up and do something.
10. Eat dark chocolate. It's good for you, body and soul. This does not mean scarfing down an entire two pound box of See's dark chocolate butter chews in one sitting while watching Oprah. Restraint is called for, otherwise you will hate yourself and that's not what we're aiming for here. If you have enough energy, make yourself a batch of brownies from scratch...they're easy and damn good.
At the conclusion of the last post, I promised the Ultimate Brownie Recipe. Truth be told, I consider the ultimate brownie to be any brownie that's put in front of me. But this recipe (fairly standard with a couple of modifications) is the one I use pretty much all the time. The key: use the best ingredients you can afford.
Heck of a Job Brownies
4 squares (4 oz) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
1 cup flour
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 13x9 baking pan with foil; grease foil. Place chocolate, butter and instant coffee in medium saucepan and stir over low heat until ingredients are melted. Remove from heat; stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add flour and walnuts. Pour into prepared pan; spread evenly, then sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out with some fudgy crumbs. Let cool on rack completely before cutting into 24 squares. Enjoy - and be healed!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Soft Skills for Hard Times
I'm coming up on an anniversary of sorts - July 14 marks the sixth month anniversary of the first day of my artificial retirement. I have many mixed emotions around this "event" - what anniversary doesn't conjure up memories, both good and bad?
I've decided to write about some niggling thoughts that have troubled me over the past six months, believing perhaps that writing them down is a way to excise the demons. But how to do that without sounding whiny or victimy, even though that may be exactly how I feel? All I can do is attempt to write my truth and float some questions and ideas out there in the hope that my comments will make people think and question.
You'd have to live in a cave to not realize these are horrible economic times, full of fear, rumor and awful reality. Many hard-working (those who still have jobs, anyway), dedicated people report to work every day with a big question mark hanging over their heads ... will today be the day my job is cut? Talk about fear of the unknown...it's like driving a car down a twisting mountain road at night without an emergency brake. In short, it's terrifying.
Given the current scenario, I believe with all my heart that now, more than ever, we must insist on inspired leadership - not just in the reaches of higher government, but in our work lives as well. It is precisely during this unsettled time that those in charge must connect with the better angels of their nature.
Certainly it is no picnic being the leader of a company today - large or small. I certainly empathize with business leaders who face demands I can't even fathom, stress with no end, questions with no answers. (Like, why am I putting myself and my family through this hell, sacrificing my life, sapping my energy and, at times, compromising my integrity??)
So here's my first question: Why are there so few examples of empathic, inspired leaders in corporate America who are kind and supportive, particularly when delivering painfully difficult news?
It's never easy to tell someone they no longer have a job. I know. I had to deliver that news to more than a few people and still believe it was the most difficult aspect of my career. I also knew that if those encounters ever became easy, if I no longer felt gut-wrenching empathy for the human being across from me then I needed to find another line of work and fast. My goal was to ensure that the person on the receiving end of the conversation left our encounter with dignity and the knowledge that their contributions were valued. Sometimes I had to reach pretty deep to find a way to convey that message, and often the person was too emotional to really hear the information, but I have to believe that at some level they understood.
Unfortunately my own experience on the receiving end of such a conversation was very different, which leads me to my next question: Why is it so difficult for some leaders to show empathy for others?
According to Martha Stout (The Sociopath Next Door), 4 percent of the population has an undiagnosed personality disorder that combines a narcissistic obsession for self entitlement with a lack of capacity for empathy. What happens when a member of that minority attains a position of social, corporate, political or religious power?
Question number 3: Are people born without a capacity for empathy, or are some moved to develop that behavior because such behavior is rewarded by the culture? Or both?
At some point coldness has replaced kindness in much of corporate America. Why? Research shows that during difficult economic times, soft skills (right-brain stuff such as empathy and trust-building) are required to meet the challenges of change and can, in fact, bolster a company's bottom line by creating a healthier workplace environment. Take a look at these two sites if you need convincing:
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/NatureLeadership.pdf
(If you can't open the above link, manually enter into your search field.)
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/cclCreative.pdf
Ultimately, I believe that people in the trenches are the heart and soul of any business and when people - all people - feel valued, trusted and empowered by the leaders of an organization, the organization will flourish. Without such leadership, the organization is doomed to fail or stagnate in the face of crushingly low morale and diminishing returns.
Thankfully, there are successes out there. You can search the internet for stories about creative ways in which leaders have faced the economic downturn head-on, by taking sizable salary cuts in order to save jobs for low salaried employees, for example. Imagine that! This indeed gives me hope for the future of inspired leadership.
The lesson I'm taking away from my own painful experience is that there is integrity in empathy, and dialog builds trust; that there will always be leaders with sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies; and that I am ultimately responsible for how I operate in the world.
Being human is a good and messy business.
Good reads:
"The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle - How to Become a Servant Leader" by James C. Hunter
"The Pursuit of WOW!" by Tom Peters
Next post: Ultimate Brownie Recipe
I've decided to write about some niggling thoughts that have troubled me over the past six months, believing perhaps that writing them down is a way to excise the demons. But how to do that without sounding whiny or victimy, even though that may be exactly how I feel? All I can do is attempt to write my truth and float some questions and ideas out there in the hope that my comments will make people think and question.
You'd have to live in a cave to not realize these are horrible economic times, full of fear, rumor and awful reality. Many hard-working (those who still have jobs, anyway), dedicated people report to work every day with a big question mark hanging over their heads ... will today be the day my job is cut? Talk about fear of the unknown...it's like driving a car down a twisting mountain road at night without an emergency brake. In short, it's terrifying.
Given the current scenario, I believe with all my heart that now, more than ever, we must insist on inspired leadership - not just in the reaches of higher government, but in our work lives as well. It is precisely during this unsettled time that those in charge must connect with the better angels of their nature.
Certainly it is no picnic being the leader of a company today - large or small. I certainly empathize with business leaders who face demands I can't even fathom, stress with no end, questions with no answers. (Like, why am I putting myself and my family through this hell, sacrificing my life, sapping my energy and, at times, compromising my integrity??)
So here's my first question: Why are there so few examples of empathic, inspired leaders in corporate America who are kind and supportive, particularly when delivering painfully difficult news?
It's never easy to tell someone they no longer have a job. I know. I had to deliver that news to more than a few people and still believe it was the most difficult aspect of my career. I also knew that if those encounters ever became easy, if I no longer felt gut-wrenching empathy for the human being across from me then I needed to find another line of work and fast. My goal was to ensure that the person on the receiving end of the conversation left our encounter with dignity and the knowledge that their contributions were valued. Sometimes I had to reach pretty deep to find a way to convey that message, and often the person was too emotional to really hear the information, but I have to believe that at some level they understood.
Unfortunately my own experience on the receiving end of such a conversation was very different, which leads me to my next question: Why is it so difficult for some leaders to show empathy for others?
According to Martha Stout (The Sociopath Next Door), 4 percent of the population has an undiagnosed personality disorder that combines a narcissistic obsession for self entitlement with a lack of capacity for empathy. What happens when a member of that minority attains a position of social, corporate, political or religious power?
Question number 3: Are people born without a capacity for empathy, or are some moved to develop that behavior because such behavior is rewarded by the culture? Or both?
At some point coldness has replaced kindness in much of corporate America. Why? Research shows that during difficult economic times, soft skills (right-brain stuff such as empathy and trust-building) are required to meet the challenges of change and can, in fact, bolster a company's bottom line by creating a healthier workplace environment. Take a look at these two sites if you need convincing:
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/NatureLeadership.pdf
(If you can't open the above link, manually enter into your search field.)
http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/cclCreative.pdf
Ultimately, I believe that people in the trenches are the heart and soul of any business and when people - all people - feel valued, trusted and empowered by the leaders of an organization, the organization will flourish. Without such leadership, the organization is doomed to fail or stagnate in the face of crushingly low morale and diminishing returns.
Thankfully, there are successes out there. You can search the internet for stories about creative ways in which leaders have faced the economic downturn head-on, by taking sizable salary cuts in order to save jobs for low salaried employees, for example. Imagine that! This indeed gives me hope for the future of inspired leadership.
The lesson I'm taking away from my own painful experience is that there is integrity in empathy, and dialog builds trust; that there will always be leaders with sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies; and that I am ultimately responsible for how I operate in the world.
Being human is a good and messy business.
Good reads:
"The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle - How to Become a Servant Leader" by James C. Hunter
"The Pursuit of WOW!" by Tom Peters
Next post: Ultimate Brownie Recipe
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Gifts
If I was still employed, I would have no idea what amazing beauty unfolded in my backyard this morning. If I was still employed, this is what I would have missed ... five birds - towhees, mourning doves, sparrows - splashing together in the pond at the base of our waterfall, a young squirrel scampering and scruffling through fallen oak leaves looking for a morsel, brightly animated hummingbirds sipping nectar from the blossoms of the grevillia plant, brash Stellar's jays monopolizing the bird feeder, sun breaking through the fog warming my back as I sweep our patio, the blended perfume of pine, oak, grass and flower.
Have you seen "Joe Versus the Volcano"? It's a little film released in 1990 starring Tom Hanks as Joe, and Meg Ryan as Patricia. One scene in particular resonates with me. In it Joe and Patricia are adrift in an endless ocean, delirious, seemingly without hope of rescue. In his delirium, Joe witnesses a giant luminous moon rising over the horizon and in the face of hopelessness whispers to the universe, "Dear God - whose name I do not know - thank you for my life."
Yes.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties - Please Stand By
I used to have a whole lot of patience for short periods of time, but as I age that ratio seems to diminish and if anything technical is involved, forget it. In that case I start out with a patience deficit that no amount of time can remedy.
The following is a true story. I am not particularly proud of a few revelations contained in the blow-by-blow, but really - I was, and continue to be, sorely tested. You be the judge.
Wednesday
1. Tried to open email at 7am. Failed.
2. Tried a couple more times. Unsuccessful.
3. Rebooted.
4. Tried again. Failed.
5. Called Help Desk. Told to reset modem but that I would lose my personal "Helper" along with the land line so gave "Helper" my cell phone number. "Helper" promised to call me on cell phone with further instructions.
6. Reset modem. Lost land line. Realized cell phone completely dead. Could not find charger. Helper-less.
7. Unsure of next step and out of patience, I ripped off front of desk drawer. This did not help.
8. Called Help Desk back on husband's cell phone. New technician provided complete instructions.
9. Reset modem.
10. Email opened.
11. Inbox contained 10 email attachments - 10 large file photos which needed to be saved to disc or something for meeting next day.
12. Didn't work.
13. Called meeting contact who agreed to deal with attachments.
14. Opened another 8-page attachment; needed to make 50 copies for next day.
15. Document sent in Word format. I do not have Word. (Shameful.) Opened in WordPad.
16. Format screwed up.
17. Tried to open as another type; failed.
18. Opened document in husband's laptop which has Word.
19. For reasons unknown, husband's computer no longer connected to printer; cannot print.
20. Tried saving document to disc.
21. Failed. Cried.
22. Laboriously reformatted WordPad version in my PC.
23. Attempted to print.
24. Printer out of black ink.
25. Called Walgreen's - they had correct cartridge in stock.
26. Drove to Walgreen's - they had wrong cartridge in stock.
27. While at Walgreen's decided to purchase A/C phone charger since I couldn't locate mine.
28. Inexperienced salesperson tried a couple of chargers; none worked.
29. Got in car to drive to Staples (20 minutes away) to purchase ink cartridge.
30. Attempted to charge cell phone with car charger; port damaged.
31. Realized salesperson at Walgreen's "forced" thus damaging port. Returned to Walgreen's to complain.
32. Drove to Staples; purchased correct ink cartridge.
33. Drove to Verizon. Cannot repair old cell phone. Spent $80 on new cell phone.
34. Postponed purchase of new car charger that will fit new phone.
35. Drove home; changed ink cartridge.
36. Wrestled with formatting issues for another 30 minutes.
37. Printed 8 page document.
38. Drove to copy shop.
39. Jammed 3 copy machines during course of print job.
40. Finished print job.
41. Returned home, poured tall Bourbon and 7-Up.
42. Asked husband to repair desk drawer.
43. Five days later my hard drive failed.
44. Replaced hard drive: $300
45. PC can no longer "find" printer.
46. I am all out of patience.
The following is a true story. I am not particularly proud of a few revelations contained in the blow-by-blow, but really - I was, and continue to be, sorely tested. You be the judge.
Wednesday
1. Tried to open email at 7am. Failed.
2. Tried a couple more times. Unsuccessful.
3. Rebooted.
4. Tried again. Failed.
5. Called Help Desk. Told to reset modem but that I would lose my personal "Helper" along with the land line so gave "Helper" my cell phone number. "Helper" promised to call me on cell phone with further instructions.
6. Reset modem. Lost land line. Realized cell phone completely dead. Could not find charger. Helper-less.
7. Unsure of next step and out of patience, I ripped off front of desk drawer. This did not help.
8. Called Help Desk back on husband's cell phone. New technician provided complete instructions.
9. Reset modem.
10. Email opened.
11. Inbox contained 10 email attachments - 10 large file photos which needed to be saved to disc or something for meeting next day.
12. Didn't work.
13. Called meeting contact who agreed to deal with attachments.
14. Opened another 8-page attachment; needed to make 50 copies for next day.
15. Document sent in Word format. I do not have Word. (Shameful.) Opened in WordPad.
16. Format screwed up.
17. Tried to open as another type; failed.
18. Opened document in husband's laptop which has Word.
19. For reasons unknown, husband's computer no longer connected to printer; cannot print.
20. Tried saving document to disc.
21. Failed. Cried.
22. Laboriously reformatted WordPad version in my PC.
23. Attempted to print.
24. Printer out of black ink.
25. Called Walgreen's - they had correct cartridge in stock.
26. Drove to Walgreen's - they had wrong cartridge in stock.
27. While at Walgreen's decided to purchase A/C phone charger since I couldn't locate mine.
28. Inexperienced salesperson tried a couple of chargers; none worked.
29. Got in car to drive to Staples (20 minutes away) to purchase ink cartridge.
30. Attempted to charge cell phone with car charger; port damaged.
31. Realized salesperson at Walgreen's "forced" thus damaging port. Returned to Walgreen's to complain.
32. Drove to Staples; purchased correct ink cartridge.
33. Drove to Verizon. Cannot repair old cell phone. Spent $80 on new cell phone.
34. Postponed purchase of new car charger that will fit new phone.
35. Drove home; changed ink cartridge.
36. Wrestled with formatting issues for another 30 minutes.
37. Printed 8 page document.
38. Drove to copy shop.
39. Jammed 3 copy machines during course of print job.
40. Finished print job.
41. Returned home, poured tall Bourbon and 7-Up.
42. Asked husband to repair desk drawer.
43. Five days later my hard drive failed.
44. Replaced hard drive: $300
45. PC can no longer "find" printer.
46. I am all out of patience.
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