What Can You See?

For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity. ~Gotthold Ephraim Lessing




Have you ever had your vision blurred and were completely unaware it was blurred until you were able to view through a lens that brought clarifying focus? Have you ever faced a problem which had you completely befuddled until someone pointed out a simple answer and you were shocked by the clarity of the solution? Have you ever had a preconceived notion, a notion you held onto with deep conviction and had that notion obliterated when receiving new information? I find these moments of clarity hitting me upside-the-head on a fairly regular basis these days.

I may be getting these on a regular basis because for many years I was pig headed and refused to see anything that was not illuminated by my own 'brilliance''. I may be getting these because I have chosen to blog every day and my mind has become more attuned to seeing that which has been sitting on the tip of my nose, more attuned to 'aha' moments. I may be getting these because, after 50 years of life, I have finally matured enough to put infantile ways behind me and filter life through the lens of painfully earned wisdom. I may be getting these because life experience is gradually washing away the film that has obscured my vision since I lost the intense wonder of early childhood in the grind of schools requiring conformity to achieve good grades. I may be getting these because I allow books from all walks of life to wash over me cleansing me of culturally biased thought.

I love these swirls on the surface of the lake that is my consciousness spreading in concentric, overlapping circles as far as I can currently see. I love these moments of clarity, these moments of understanding, these moments of inspiration because they let me know that my mind is functioning, that my mind is actively absorbing life, that I am still growing.  I love this clarity because I am gradually being able to appreciate the beauty that walks by our side every day of our life. I love these flashes of clarity because they give credence to my belief that I am living, that I am fully alive.



This growing clarity allows me to appreciate the beauty inherent in the uniqueness of everyone that walks the earth, the beauty that emanates from all people when we take the time to look past the surface that may be jaded by life and peer into the flower of their soul.


If your eyes were clear what wonderful sights would you see?

World Authors

The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. ~Dr. Seuss

I am currently reading "Please Look after Mom" by Kyung-sook Shin, the debut English language book by an acclaimed South Korean novelist. A habit I have cultivated over the past half of my life is to seek out books by authors writing about other cultures with which they have intimate knowledge or books written by an author raised in in another culture. I found reading these books exposed me to thought patterns other than those foundational to my upbringing, to thought patterns that challenged my view of how people around the world function, to thought patterns that challenged the foundation on which I viewed life.

This habit started when I discovered the Tony Hillerman mysteries while listening to National Public Radio. Tony wrote thrillers based on the Navajo people with the intent of his readers understanding the Navajo, a people he loved. I enjoyed reading fiction to learn about the Navajo and made it a point to devour every one of the Navajo based mysteries Tony created. In many of his books he used the same characters so the reader watches as they grow, as they develop over a long period of time, develop until they feel as if they are real people with real lives.

When my company decided to send me to India on a business trip, I employed this same technique to get a feel for the culture of India, to get an approximation of the mindset of people raised in India. I had a cultural training on working with the people of India which I found fascinating but found I wanted more, wanted more knowledge, wanted more understanding so I read a few different books by various authors. I am unable to determine how much these help me understand the people but I do know they were enjoyable to read.

The beauty of reading books by these world authors is that one's understanding of the world, of the people inhabiting this planet, is stretched, is forever altered and that is a change for the better. The view I have of life is no longer looking at an image through a keyhole of my own culture. The view I have now is of life that is much larger, a view that is looking at an image through a partially open door. I can see more but still the view I have is partially obscured. While this partial view is better than the keyhole view, I am hungry to knock the door off it's hinges so there is nothing obstructing my view.

The more I choose books authored from around the globe, the more the door opens, the more of the incredible beauty of this world is available to my eye. I will continue to make it a point to read world authors, read until the door is wide open, read until I have the entire world at my fingertips, read until I have a global view gained by looking through the eyes of world authors.

Book: The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason

To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company. ~Andre Gide

I guess I should consider it time I quit reading murder mysteries. While the tales can be intriguing, the predictability at the end typically leaves me frustrated. I spend multiple hours reading a book and the end does not surprise me, the end is something I could have predicted some hours before having the murderer 'revealed' to me. When reading I like to be surprised, like to not be able to figure out the answer before it is supposed to be revealed. With this book, I figured out one of the two characters that was most likely the murderer about two thirds of my way through the book.

The book was not a total bust. The story partially takes place in East Germany during the Cold War. I found the descriptions of the time interesting, enjoyed how the characters from that time were awakened to the realization that the life they had chosen was not what they expected. The flashbacks to the 1960s were, for me, far more interesting than the lives of the characters trying to solve the crime.

My favorite part of the mystery was gaining an understanding of the Icelandic culture. The book takes place in Iceland so we get a picture of the people, the mindset that develops when living in a small country with very long, dark winters and summer days when the sun almost never sets. I also got a feel for some of the political climate both in the 1960s and in modern day.

I can only recommend the book as a tool for learning a little bit of Icelandic culture and of life behind the iron curtain during the Cold War. As a mystery, I found it to be lacking.

Hooking A Heart

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. ~Oscar Wilde

I would never want to hook someone's heart, to capture someone's heart.  Hooking carries as baggage the images of fish being pulled to the boat while thrashing vainly in an attempt to free a pierced, bloody mouth and escape it's captor, it's tormentor. Capture implies bondage something held prisoner, something conquered. The conquered longs to be free, dreams of being freed, desires a return of freedom stolen. Love cannot be forced, does not exist in bondage. Love only exists in freedom

 For true love to exist, for a heart to flourish there must be no compulsion, no external force requiring compulsion. For true love to exist, a heart needs to have the freedom of the open sky, the freedom to perch, the freedom to chose flight or perch.

For true love to exist, a heart cannot be captured, a heart must not be hooked. For true love to exist, a heart must, by choice be given away, given away without fear.  For true love to exist, conscious choice must be made each and every day to give their heart to the beloved. The beloved cannot hold tightly to the heart for that would be to restrict the heart, to capture the heart, to hook the heart. The beloved must allow the heart to perch on the soul, to nest within the beloved's heart, to perch with a view of the open sky, to nest with the knowledge that it is free to love, free to not love for one cannot find true love by hooking a heart.

Recertification

The trouble with referees is they know the rules but they don't know the game. ~Bill Shankly


Today was my annual USSF referee recertification. Being forced to attend a full day class and take an exam on the Laws of the Game that have barely changed in a recent years, is not something I typically enjoy doing on a Saturday especially when my work world has required very long hours. I can make a case for having a short class or, even better, an on line class to explain significant changes in the laws so the federation of Referees receives a common understanding, but this is not the case with the USSF who require an 8 hour retraining session every year. I started refereeing soccer in 1980 with just a few years off between then and today so I have attended on the order of 30 classes. I must attend the full day class and pay $80 just so I can have the privilege of officiating soccer. I think the big reason US Soccer has these classes is so they can collect the fees from the referees and, their claim that we are the best trained officials in the country, is secondary, a selling point.

Today's class was better than most because it was taught by seasoned referee veteran, Paul Tamborino, a man that reached the pinnacle of the game before retiring and who was also an assessor of referees and is currently an assignor for the College conference know as ACC. His teaching emphasized the practical side of applying the laws as opposed to following the letter of the law. This was a nice change for I have heard the legalistic side so many times that hearing the letter of the law application lecture again and again nauseates me, especially when no decent referee ever works in such a way. Those that do follow the letter of the law come across as police officers rather than aficionados of the beautiful game and their stick up the butt style tends to destroy the joy that is of paramount importance to the game. Paul was entertaining and knowledgeable so the time passed relatively quickly.

After the talk, we are required to take a 100 question exam. The exam, to me, is an insult because it is to simplistic and at such a base level. The problem with the exam is that even if you score 100% there is no guarantee you will be able to referee soccer. A good referee knows when to apply the laws while a great referee knows when to set aside the laws for the good of the game, for the enjoyment of the players, for the entertainment of the spectators. This practical side can never be assessed by a written exam. I think the exam should be waived for veterans that have been on the field for many years.

Oh well, my USSF recertification is done for the 2012 leaving me free to enjoy another season on the pitch, the best seat possible from which to observe the beautiful game. All I need do now is the HS recertification in the early summer but that will be a rant for another day.

One Down Five To Go

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. ~Seneca quotes

My first Leadership Training Class is over. The many hours of preparation paid off as the class, for the most part, flowed very well. There were a couple of sections that need minor realignment to remove some bumps but, overall, the sequence in which I presented the concepts seemed to address the needs of the students.

 I have enjoyed the preparing my training class so much that hours seemed to pass in seconds, long hours became the norm for my workday. During these extended hours, I neglected taking appropriate care of my body. Exercise has fallen by the wayside as has getting ample rest. The result is that I let myself get run down and a virus hit, a virus that has now been plaguing me for five days. My throat has been raw and eating has felt like I am swallowing tiny little sea urchins, felt like thousands of little razor blades slicing my throat with every swallow of food. After class, when I got home, I crawled into bed, crawled beneath the covers for a short rest.

As the class was parting for the day, a couple of the students were very complementary. I was told by one that he normally falls asleep half an hour into the meeting. This class was so interesting that he was captivated the entire three hours. Another told me this class is filling a much needed void in the company and that he is looking forward to future classes.

So, the class has started off with a bang but the bang is just a start. I have a laurel but not enough to complete a laurel wreath as worn by the ancient victors of the Olympic games. I don't believe in resting on my laurels so, after this weekend, the long hours will resume as I work on the remaining five classes. Luckily, this is not a job, it's a labor of love.

Kick Off

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. ~Steve Prefontaine




Tomorrow is a big day for me, a day for which I have been in preparation since I first dreamed up the idea of creating a leadership training program one early morning last November when I found myself wide awake in the early hours of the morning having just crossed 7 time zones on a return trip from Switzerland. The past months have found me immersed in the development of my Leadership Training Program. It would be accurate to say I have been consumed with preparations as, it seems, I have spent most of my waking hours thinking about the program. When I wake in the middle of the night, my mind inevitably is drawn to the program where it generates ideas for the presentation of the information which, in OCD fashion, I must log into my iPad before I am able to even considering a return to slumber. My reading habits, my listening habits, my thinking habits are all filtered through the lens of this one activity.

There are some that expect me to fail, don't believe I have what it takes to train leaders for my company. As much as I would love to succeed to prove to them wrong, I can't let that be my focus. This program is not for me. It's success is not for me. This program is, first and foremost, for the benefit of 7 people that will be attending. It's important that I keep my focus on the students, measure success by the benefit to the students, and not if I can slam dunk my success in the face of manager that expects me to fail. This program is not about me. It is about the students.

I view leadership as a sacred trust between the leader and the lead. I believe a leader owes it to the lead to be the very best leader possible. I take my leadership responsibility very seriously so have become a student of leadership spending a significant portion of my time learning what I can to improve my ability to lead people, to help them get from where they are to where they want/need to be. The responsibility of training beginning leaders is, for me, an even greater responsibility. When you lead one person, you affect that person. When you develop a leader, you affect that person and all the people that person leads so, training leaders has a multiplicative effect. This effect will multiply both the good and the bad. I am doing everything possible to ensure the effect that is multiplied is through my training is very positive. I owe it to my students and the students of my students....