Sleeping Outside

The weather here is windy, balmy, sometimes wet. Desert springtime, with flowers popping up all over the place, trees leafing out, streams gushing down from the mountains. Great time of year for hiking, camping, exploring, sleeping under the new moon and the old stars. At dawn and at evening we hear the coyotes howling with excitement - mating season. And lots of fresh rabbit meat hopping about to feed the young ones with. ~Edward Abbey



This weekend my grandson is sleeping with me in my little tent. We sleep side by side. I'm on my Thermarest to cushion my bones from the hard ground and he directly on the ground wrapped securely in his blanket. I write this as he lays next to me his face in quiet repose, dreaming the dreams the of a little boy with his entire future at his fingertips and I, in my early 50s with most of my years behind me, years oozing with myriads of memories.

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed sleeping outside, enjoyed being in a tent or, if the conditions were right, sleeping with the blanket of stars as the canopy over my head. Tent technology took a huge step forward when the primary structure started utilizing mesh for the roof with a removable rainfly for those nights when rain was not in the forecast. This allowed me to lay on my back and contemplate the stars without the need to constantly swat mosquitoes.

My love for sleeping outdoors began when I was very young. We were a large family with very little disposable income so vacations involved a tent, a cabin tent holding 8 people sleeping in double stacked cots, a second tent to house our gear, a screen house for eating with all three connected by a canopy. Those family vacations contain some of the most vivid and joyful recollections of my young life. It is those memories that seeded my love for sleeping outdoors.

My preference is to sleep without a tent, without the thin shell, security blanket to protect me from all creatures great and small. It's my preference but one I rarely indulge in because mosquitoes in the north woods are relentless and the resultant welts quite itchy. Those pests are not common in the wilds of Southern Utah so, when there, I do sleep sans tent, sans security blanket, exposed to the elements and critters native to that region. One brisk night, I had such an encounter.

I was sleeping under an overhang during a backpacking adventure where, early in the evening, I had made my dinner and left the pots and pans sitting on a large, flat rock for ready for morning grub. During the night, I heard jostling by the pots and pans. It was a Deer Mouse rummaging for food. I rolled over and let him be for I was too tired to get up and put things away.

Later in the night, I opened my eyes from a light sleep, opened my eyes to find that Deer Mouse perched on my sleeping bag and unblinking, staring directly into my face, perhaps even into my soul. Startled, I hit the inside of my sleeping bag with my hands and sent that mouse flying. I never saw where he landed nor did I hear him the rest of the night. With my heart buzzing, I didn't sleep much the rest of that night. My mind kept me wondering if that mouse was going to return.

This weekend, I am in Wisconsin with my family at our cottage. Generally when here, I setup a tent for myself and sleep outside. I started this habit early on because the noise in the house, the result of the part atmosphere we created in our 20s, was unbearable when I was trying to sleep. I sustained the habit because I grew to love sleeping outdoors.

I grew to love hearing the birds, natural alarm clocks, singing and tweeting and chirping as the suns rays crept over the horizon giving gentle color the night sky. I grew to love the crispness in the air that helped me sleep deep, sleep soundly. I grew to love waking to the first rays of morning sun illuminating my tent.

At this point, a few hours after the sun has set for the day, the only sounds are the chirping of crickets in the cool night air and the slow rhythmic breathing of my grandson soundly, sleeping next to me. The breathing of one who is completely at peace with nary a care in the world. I pray this little boy dreaming next to me grows up loving the serenity, the adventure of sleeping outdoors as much as I have.

Who Do You Work For?

If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first. ~Mark Twain

I had an interesting conversation recently that centered around the topic, "Who do your work for?" For most people in the US, the answer to this is typically the company who signs your paycheck. In this context, the conversation was between people all at the same company so it had a different meaning. The person asking the question started naming off people in authority, I work for this boss and that boss and the other boss. My answer was that I work for the team I am leading.

This was not a trite answer to provoke conversation which is something I have been know to do occasionally. It was an answer to a question I had mulled over for quite a few years because the way in which people lead others is neatly summed up in the answer.

The reply I received to my response was, "That's simplistic", in a tone of voice that oozed derision and a complete dismissal that there was any grain of truth in my response.

I can't say I was surprised at the response because the person in the conversation has a style of leadership that is diametrically opposed to my style. Where my colleague works from an autocratic style mine is more aptly described as coaching/mentoring based.

The spectrum of leadership extends from the Henry Ford types who wouldn't let people make a decision without his approval to the leadership style I practice which is known as Servant Leadership. Servant leaders view themselves as servants of the team they are leading, a servant who seeks to empower people to achieve a goal, to achieve greatness. A servant who works to grow a team to act independently.

I can ascribe the mindset of a servant leader as having a simple focus but never as being simplistic. It is not very difficult leading with this style because the servant leader must suppress his own ego in order to effectively mentor other people. A servant leader must act out of heart of humility.

Autocratic leadership leads to teams that are disengaged from their work because they sense the lack of trust from the leader. This is manifest in that their opinion is rarely asked and, if it is asked, it is rarely acted upon because 'leader knows best' is how the teams are managed. The goal of a servant leader is to help people become fully engaged in their work, to grow people into independence from the leader such that they can make their own decisions. A servant leader starts from a mindset of trust.

I was tempted to try and explain to my colleague why it is important to view leadership as working for the team, why it is important to grow fully engaged individuals, why it is important to empower individuals to make decisions, why it is important to view oneself as a leader serving the team. However, I did not for there really is no benefit to beating my head against the wall for the umpteenth time.

What Makes You Unique?

Why fit in when you were born to stand out? ~Theodore Geisel aka Dr Seuss


To often, we seek to see how we can be normal, how we can blend in with the crowd. Some people spend a life time buying what everyone else buys and trying to look like everyone else. I think this is because they don't value their uniqueness. I find this to be a very sad expression of our humanity.

Each of us is a unique creation. Each of us is blessed with gifts and talents that are shared by no one else in the world. Each person is as unique as the fingerprints they carry around on their hands.

Uniqueness should be celebrated.

The preciousness assigned to an item is directly  proportional to it's rarity. The less there is of something the more valuable it is viewed. Gold has value because it is relatively rare. Flawless diamonds are even more rare so they have higher value. A Rembrandt painting is a one off and it's value is off the charts.

By trying to be like everyone else we diminish our own intrinsic value.

I believe we should do our best to identify that which makes us unique, identify that which makes us special and celebrate that we are not like everyone else, celebrate that God chose to bless each of us with unique characteristics, unique gifts, unique talents.

I believe we should develop those special aspects that make us unique and share them with our fellow man, bless the world.

Most everyone I know want's to be outstanding. To be outstanding one must be willing to be stand out, must be willing to separate themselves from the safety of anonymity, must be willing to expose their uniqueness to the world.

What is holding you back from standing out and and daring to be outstanding?

The Primary Leadership Characteristic

Great leaders genuinely care for and love the people they lead more than they love leading itself. Leadership without love degenerates into self-serving manipulation. ~Rick Warren

I have had a leadership role since 1988 when I was promoted to Supervisor at my second company out of college. While I was in a leadership role, I don't believe I was a leader of a people. I was a figure head who had responsibilities required to run my small department but my ability to lead people as defined by influencing them was nil. Why? I was interested in my career not in the people under my supervision.

My ability to truly lead people began 5 years later. It started with young kids, 2 and 3 year olds, when I led in a Children's ministry at church. I stayed in the Children's ministry for a few years and frequently had people tell me their kids looked forward to coming and seeing me.

The next phase of my growing leadership came through coaching soccer primarily with kids in the 7 to 12 year old range. I did whatever I could to ensure the kids both learned how to play and have fun in the process. Here, again, parents frequently came to me and told me their kids loved playing for me.

All during this time, I was a leader of adults in the work world. Gradually, I became influential to those I lead in the adult world and it is not uncommon for them to tell me the appreciate me as their manager, that they can tell I cared about them.

Surrealistic Reality

If love had feathers and tasted like dog food, then I suggest you wear shoes with your banana pudding. ~Jarod Kintz


I have dabbled in poetry but don't consider myself a poet. I have dabbled in photography, sold a few of my photos, but don't consider myself a photographer. I have dabbled with acrylic paints but don't consider myself a painter. I have dabbled in arts but don't consider myself a classic artist because my current art is my work. I do, however, enjoy the conventional arts.

I have been through phases when I was most attracted to pictures depicting reality such as the stunning black and white photography of Ansel Adams or the gorgeous scenics of Galen Rowell, a mountain climbing photographer who is known to take pictures while hanging precariously on a rope over the edge of a cliff to catch that last ray of sunshine creating fire on the landscape.

My current favorite genre of art is Surrealism.

Surrealism fascinates me because the images jolt the brain from the real of normal into a world where anything is possible, into a world where clocks melt, where brains are a maze, where eyeballs peer out from between ruby red lips.

Too often, we are caught up in what is right or wrong instead of setting aside those notions and allowing ourselves to just enjoy beauty, allowing our minds to grab hold of the fantastical. When my kids were small, we colored together. They used to ask me what were the right colors for a particular picture.  I always told them the right color is the color they choose. To show them there was no right color, I would use every color in  the box when coloring natural scenery.

For me, the most haunting of the surreal images are those depicting the eyes. The English proverb says, the eyes are the window of the soul. When I look at surreal pictures who's centerpiece is eyes, I feel I am looking into the souls of the artists who created those pictures.

Some of those souls are scary places replete with skulls and visions of tormented minds while others create views of reality which intrigue me. I love to see images of humans hatching from eggs and hands that draw themselves and fish with human legs laying on the beach and many other images which propel me over the edge and into the abyss of imagination.

I think I am attracted to these works because the imagery is so far out of bounds with the norm, the imagery is dreamer and I tend to be a dreamer. As a leader of people, I believe if the team can dream a goal they have taken a big step to achieving their goal. It is my job to help them believe the seemingly impossible as the artists show us their surrealistic realities.

Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." ~Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland.

Disaster: Olympics 2012 on NBC

There can be distractions, but if you're isolated from the heart of the Games, the Olympics become just another competition. ~Mary Lou Retton


I have been a fan of sport for as long as I can remember. As a youth, my favorite activities followed the sporting calendar; baseball/basketball in summer, football in the fall, hockey in the winter and tennis to coincide with the Borg McEnroe epic matches. I discovered soccer when I entered High School and have been fanatical about the sport ever since. To this day, I am actively involved with soccer as a referee, have been pretty much continuously been a referee since I was 20 except for a brief spell when my kids were very young.

Naturally, as a fan of sport, I would get very excited every four years when the Summer Olympics came to television spending hour upon hour taking in as many events as possible, marveling at the athletic prowess of amateur athletes on display for the world to marvel. I would cheer for the red, white, and blue who seemed to have a competitor in every event. It didn't dawn on me until years later that there was an American in every event because the US TV coverage only broadcast events in which Americans were participating. I guess the assumed fans of athletics were too self centered to care about other events.

My taste for the Olympics soured around the time of the big boycotts, the boycott of the US against Russia and the counter boycott of Russia against the US. It soured because of the influx of political ideals into what was supposed to be a celebration of sport and, more influential, I soured on watching the Olympics because the coverage was awful. It was commercial laden, focused more on 'people of interest' than sport and the jingoistic nature of the US broadcasts stuck me with hour after hour of boxing while other events, events without US participants, barely earned a mention.

It was following the olympics that tried to drown me with boxing that I became fed up with the broadcasts and quit watching the games. It wasn't that I didn't like boxing it was that the broadcast whores would shove it down our throats to the exclusion of many other events that turned me against watching the corporate greed that the Olympics had become. As near as I can recall, that was the last time I wasted my time watching an Olympic broadcast. That was the last time until the 2012 Summer Olympics when I turned on the Saturday evening broadcast.

I turned on the the first Saturday broadcast because my curiosity got the best of me. Had the networks learned anything in the past 30 years, had they listened to the people and eliminated the commercialism that, like a cancer, infects the broadcast of the event? Would the networks portray sport for the beauty it is or would they still suck the life out of the event?

To my utter dismay, it is the same feeble minded broadcast style from all those years ago, the same feeble mind excrement fed to me in my youth. Sadly, the network didn't even show the big swim meet between American greats, the 400m individual medley, on live TV in the US. The rest of the world saw it live but not us in the US. The bastards showed the event on tape delay many hours after the fact, after the results were posted all over the news. The greedy bastards showed the event on tape delay because they believe more gold coin will cross their Judas palms by showing the event in prime time.

I have no problem with a rebroadcast in the evening but for sporting sake, show the event live. The World Cup broadcasts live. The Euro 2012 championships were broadcast live. Why not show this premier event live? I will tell you. They don't really care about the Olympics as sport. They only care about the Olympics as a cash cow.

To say I am disappointed in the networks is an understatement. I am as disillusioned by the corporate greed now as I was in my youth. It will be another 30 years before I can look forward to watching the Olympics again. Maybe then the greedy bastards will get it right. Somehow, I don't think NBC and the networks will ever change, will ever do what's right for the Olympics.

Transformational

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.~ Sid Gautama

To date, I have given five of the six Leadership Trainings I am creating for my company. The final training is scheduled for 16 August. I have been enjoying the program immensely, both the creation of content and presenting the material to my class of seven students. Overall, the reviews have been very positive, more positive than I expected considering I have never previously done something of this sort.

As I was leaving work the other day, one of my students was walking out with me and told me that, for him, the class has been transformational. I knew he was enjoying the class but to say it was transformational shocked me as I don't think I have ever had a hand in something that was transformational for another human being.

I simply can't view this as I transformed another human being because I don't believe that is possible just as it is impossible to turn a moth into a butterfly or a fish into frog. I view my role in the transformation as helping him to see the skills and abilities already inside of him. I view my role as helping the butterfly emerge from the chrysalis. Now, going forward, I see my role as encouraging him to spread his leadership wings.