Ok, a dated reference, sure but it is precisely how I feel being out of that last class. I’ve been out for 2 days and my goodness I feel good. I’ve been loading up my paperwork and plans for the coming dissertation class and reviewing my drafts. I’m not ready to get another draft going quite yet but I am getting closer. I feel that getting to the next draft needs a little more literature. To that end, I’ve been hanging out in the online library conducting reviews and gathering up the PDFs and citations in my EndNote.

All work and no play, right? Well, I am rewarding myself with a trip to Philadelphia with some friends this weekend. It will be a time to deprogram from work and school. I get to blow off some steam and recharge the batteries I need for what looks to be a long March ahead of me with both work and school.

So, for now…Calgon take me away. I’ll see you all on Monday for another post and update.

One of the things that I struggle with both professionally and in my doctoral studies is being in conversations with people who lack the skills needed or experience needed to see the vision and help craft the way. The red flag for me is someone who asks for your need, fails to respond to queues about possible enhancements, and delivers exactly what was originally outlined in the need.

Sometimes when I see the end goal or the vision, I cannot always see the intermediate steps or possible enhancements that could make the vision better. It is like seeing that tall building when you are in a city but not knowing exactly how to reach it. I like to work with people who have the skills and experience around a subject, product, service, or process so they can fill in the gaps and help map out the solution.

My last conversation with my mentor was one of the those golden conversation with someone that has vision. She was able to see the end and help me with the steps needed to get there. At the end of the conversation, I had a way and enhancements to make it better (along with some homework to do). Consequently, I am on my way to the proposal and ARB/IRB submission. Tremendous value!

Conversely, I’ve been working on some service offerings outside the classroom and find that the group I am working with do not have the “vision”. The service is being  hosted in some powerful and commonplace software for business knowledge management. However, most of the people that hold the keys are figuring out the software as they go and lack the experience or skills needed to really “get it”. They are well intentioned but just underdeveloped in regards to the software. Consequently, the products that come out look pieced together and rough. Tremendous opportunity cost!

Creative problem solving aside, sometimes we just don’t know what we don’t know and that has a cost associated with it.

There seems to be a value when we get people involved that actually possess the skills and experience necessary to bring a vision to life in a way that the original visionary might not have realized possible. At work this is a project that takes off and delivers outstanding results. In school this is getting over the hump or building an amazing project on something really cool.

I find it easier, more productive, and more valuable to vision with people who have vision and skills enough to help. It might have a direct cost associated with it but the indirect value far outweighs those costs.

Image source: rogiro

I couldn’t sleep last weekend. I’d had a rough Friday and rough week with people who exhibited little or no good leadership ability. It got me wondering if there were any real leaders left anymore of if we’d commoditized leadership for the sake of corporate-speak. I was up most of the weekend wondering about why I view leadership with a strong sense of integrity and committment. Too often, I think people who call themselves leaders do so to make a point, argue a point, get you to do something, or sidestep an important issue.

Saturday night I was up quite late and caught myself in a set of war movies. The first was We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson playing Hal Moore during Vietnam. In the movie Moore, played by Gibson, gives two great speeches that talk directly to leadership.

Moore: When Crazy Horse was a baby, he nursed at the breast of every woman in the tribe. The Sioux raised their children that way. Every warrior called every woman in the tribe “Mother”. Every older warrior, they called him “Grandfather”. Now, the point here is that they fought as a family. Take care of your men. Teach them to take care of each other. ‘Cause when this starts… each other is all we’re gonna have.

This quote reminds me that leaders call on lessons of the past to support the current and future mission. It shows the importance of the unit, the family, the team and everyone needs to be involved or it just won’t work. The second speech includes this excerpt:

Moore: I can’t promise that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear before you and before Almighty God: that when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together.

Some people mistake leadership for not asking people to do what you yourself would not do. I agree with this to some degree but the meaning has become bastardized to mean something I would be willing to do, not meaning do. This quote and the subsequent scene in the movie showing Moore’s boots hitting the field of battle first, demonstrate that a leader is there with the team. Not just in spirit but in actuality. What benefit does this have? Well firstly that the leader sees first hand what is happening, directs action, makes educated decisions, and ensures that support and resources are committed to the mission at hand.

The second movie I caught was Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks. The movie is filled with leadership moments but one toward end stands out. Tom Hanks character is dying on the bridge and pulls Private Ryan close to whisper:

Earn this

Earn this. Earn this! A simple two word phrase that for me sums up leadership in so many ways. Earn this. Too often we think leadership should be thrust upon us for no real effort and many times it is just that and we all suffer the consequences of people who ascend thanks to good PR. Earn this! Leaders must earn it everyday. Leaders must continually pay forward the gifts of strength, characterm judgement. They must build and support the followership at all times.

I’ve never been to war. I am in awe and appreciation of all those who have. Make no mistakes, I do not pretend to understand what it is like on a battlefield and by God’s grace will not ever need to find out firsthand.

I was talking to my Dad today. Himself a Vietname Veteran, successful businessman, and hell of  a Dad. He was apologizing to me for instilling a strong sense of character and integrity. He felt that life might be less frustrating if I could just fall into line with crappy managers who claim leadership and just go along with them. I don’t doubt it would be easier to just lie down and let the system support and fend for me. I don’t doubt it would be easier to lie down and let people without scruples use and abise me for the paycheck I take home each week. I don’t doubt that my life would be awful just lieing down and taking it.

Last weekend’s accidental movie marathon reminded me that leaders support the mission first hand and lead through the strength of followers. Leaders lead with integrity and not just intent.

Image source: j-fin

This is a little sideline of the normal post but I was selected for failblog.org’s voting page. The picture is one I took some time ago but held onto for the comedic value.

Go vote for the picture.

more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos

It is no secret that I am a full-time employee and full-time student. Combine that with being a family man and community servant and there is no end to the distractions that can take me away from my classes and dissertation. The last few weeks have been filled with re-orgs, re-positioning, shortened time lines with compromised quality standards, and removals of job responsibilities only to be told new ones would be coming. These are tough economic times and remaining flexible is mandatory to retain a job.

When the normal routine gets to be extraordinary it poses a threat to remaining focused on other areas of life, namely school (for me). Rick Warren, in The Purpose Driven Life, wrote that when you have a purpose in life you find yourself doing less and more meaningful work. FranklinCovey, in the Focus: Time Management workshop, called attention to using your values to plan your weeks and days in order to remain effective and schedule the big rocks first.

Admittedly, I’ve been pretty distracted these last 4 or 5 weeks and that seems to happen to me enough that I began to reflect on it a bit. My mentor in class gave me the inspiration to do so with a kind empathy. She simply stated that is all I needed when I am trying to get my dissertation going.

So how to get back on track.

1. Ask for help
2. Accept help
3. Re-evaluate the Big Rocks
4. Schedule Big Rocks first
5. Guard your time
6. Break out goals and large tasks into smaller more accomplishable tasks
7. Communicate progress

There is no end to life’s distractions. Some people feel that not going back to school or not staying in school will allow them to focus on the rest of life’s little things and stay afloat. To them I say, going to school is not a weight, it is a set of swim fins. They can be a bit awkward but will help you stay afloat. I’ve learned one thing about being a working student, there is no perfect time to go to school (either enroll or remain in school), there certainly are worse times but there is no perfect time. So just get your swim fins on and jump in.

I’ve got to rework some important elements of my dissertation this week. It will take considerable time and investment or resource. Important? Yes. Urgent? A little. I am following my 7 steps and it will come. It might mean some late nights but that is okay.

Image source: underminingme

All my life, I’ve been told to expand my vocabulary. The reasoning ranges from the fun of new words to the importance of being intelligent. As of late, I’ve been told that the words I use intimidate those that do not have expansive vocabularies. The feedback has come in combination with other feelings that the intelligence I portray in my speaking, writing, and everyday tasks make me appear aloof and intimidating.

I make no apologies for continually developing myself and moving into new realms of thought. My upbringing has encouraged me to be smart and let others know that I am capable of performing the tasks ahead.

What concerns me is that the feedback has been attached to possible negative repercussions associated with my job and performance. It strikes me as odd that people would label intelligence as a bad thing. Especially when working in learning and performance, as I do.

A friend told me last week that he has had to look up words used in some written and verbal communications with me. He said this as possible evidence of what others see but remained thankful for the improvements in his own vocabulary. Heck, I travel with my dictionary and access to web resources so that I can look up words used in communication so that I can both learn and keep up with the conversation without asking for it to be dumbed down. I don’t think that is a bad thing at all. I also don’t associate it with weakness. I see that as living a value of continual development.

I personally don’t think my vocabulary is that expansive. Evidence of this is how poorly I play scrabble and boggle. I truly don’t do well. Moreover, I know people with far more expansive vocabularies and never slighted them unless they were so far beyond normalcy that it warranted some regulation. Even still, I was more impressed than intimidated. I looked at it as a learning opportunity. I guess you could chalk that up to a Jesuit education.

I’m uncomfortable with being told to dumb down my language so others don’t think ill of me. I am uncomfortable with the idea that only simplistic words and phrasing are preferred vs. something more accurate and might potentially expand the vocabularies of others.

In a world that is changing, in an economy that is becoming more of a knowledge economy, intelligence needs to be rewarded. Vocabulary is one (albeit a small) aspect of the new economy. If you have to look words up, good. I do too.

Image Source: Drumaboy

Throughout my career I’ve been exposed to various sorts of management and leadership. The exposure isn’t limited to the working arena either, many of my classes and studies have included intense examination of leaderhsip and management practice. But experience is always the best teacher.

Over the last months, I’ve come across a few management styles that I do not like.

The first is a stlye of Gotcha! Management. This is the person who sets people up in jobs to “earn” the support, resources, and tools to do the job. This manager feels that a total investment in people until they prove themselves is a risk or a waste of money.

The second style is Trend Leadership. You know these people. They have a core style of leadership that is driven by trends and the most recent seminar or book they’ve read. A key indicator of this style is someone who uses far too much jargon, slogans, and mottos to show off their leadership style.

Finally, the Black Hole manager. These managers allow information in, make no decisions, and don’t run information up the chain of command but require it all to come through them. I’ve been managed under this style in the past. This is the severly risk adverse, nay saying, in over their heads manager who needs everything to run through them but does nothing with it.

I’m tired of sitting idly by waiting for these leaders or managers to straighten up. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. I am leading my life, my career, and my home to success. I ask for no quarter or protection. Unlike many managers and leaders, I accept the good with the bad. Decisions need to be made or I will be the victim of others’ bad management styles.

Friday I had occasion to sit through a FranklinCovey’s Focus Time Management Webinar. I’ve been through time management seminars and coaching before and found most of it behavioral modification in nature. In fact, I classified a previous session leader the Time Management Polizei. Her methods were bent on showing me what I did wrong, force me into duplicating my time management tasks on paper and in my computer, then policing it as if I were in desperate need of a time management parent. Behavioral modification to force someone into a system just doesn’t work with some learners. I am one of those.

This was evident to me long ago when a colleague sat me down after some obvious frustration with FranklinCovey’s rigidly enforced system rules. My friend gave me highlights of many systems and showed her method to me. It was from here that I was able to craft my own methods of managing time. Mind you, I’ve fallen away from that to the point where I needed to be refreshed. Moreover, I am looking at incorporating time management into several curricula and needed to consult the master planner, FranklinCovey.

While I resisted and was distrustful of FranklinCovey’s system thanks to a poor instructor some years ago, I do understand and embrace the theories FranklinCovey puts forth. It is the implementations, for me, that become the problem. I use technology so using a paper planner is not effective or efficient. Still, there are things I need to write down (meeting notes on particular days, out thoughts, potential appointments, new tasks, etc). I know, too, that if it doesn’t beep at me it won’t happen (thus, technology). I am an iPhone user and an Outlook user (for work). The blend of the two with FranklinCovey is not seamless. It requires some clunky additional software for both pc and iPhone that is limited to tasks alone.

I think my system will be to use the computer and iPhone for contacts, schedule, and task (for now) and use a daily wire-bound paper system for the aforementioned note taking. If the whole thing is portable and sleek I am likely to use it more often and thus keep my mind straight.

Time is what we make of it and with all there is to balance, I find that I revert to mind-wasting and time-wasting activities. That is something that needs to change.

Image Source: littledan77

I went to Toastmasters last night for the first time in months. I’ve been traveling, working late nights, and just suffering from crisis overload. Not to mention just having a lack of desire to come back to the club and meetings. Last year my friend Bob Brown passed away. Bob had been up and down health-wise for a long while but his death was still a shock to me. He’d always rebounded in a few days or weeks. Bob was an integral reason I came to Toastmasters, got involved, and improved myself. Losing him made the meetings and my experience feel incomplete.

This morning I read an article from Gitomer about who impacted my life and who imparted wisdom. The article was about Jeffrey’s long time mentor, Earl Pertnoy. It was a touching tribute from Jeffrey. As I read through the experiences shared in the article, I found my mind wandering back to Bob and Toastmasters. It is something that has been on my mind a lot lately.

Gitomer wrote about one exchange that touched my heart:

When he noticed me and smiled, I felt compelled to talk. “Thank you. I love you.” I spoke softly, and cried

I never got the chance to see Bob in his final hours. I never got to tell Bob thank you or that I loved him in those final moments. I’d always told Bob how much he meant to me, how much I valued his guidance, humor, and genuine caring he showed me. He often joked that I was his son and in many ways I became Bob’s Toastmaster son. If it takes a village to raise a person, Bob was in my village. He extended his care and love to my family. It meant so much to see his caring for the people in my life. He taught me that loving a person means that you love the people they love.

Last night’s meeting felt empty to me, like others since Bob’s passing. I wasn’t vested in being there and not seeing Bob made it worse for me. It was among the first steps of my return to Toastmasters and the journey to my goals there. I know Bob wants me to stay in Toastmasters. He loved it so much and loved to see his friends and share the learning and growth possible when people care and support one another. He brought a sense of community and continuance to my experience and that guides me as I re-enter the Toastmasters scene.

Gitomer closed his note about/to Earl with this line:

I will do my best to honor your friendship, your mentorship, and pass it on to those that I love. Safe journey.

Thank you Bob Brown. I will do my best to honor your friendship, your mentorship, and pass it on to those that I love. Safe journey. You mean a lot to me.

Image: Bob Brown congratulating me at a speech contest in May 2004.

What a crazy time its been. I’ve had so little time between taking a new job and wrestling with negative issue after negative issue in other aspects of my life. I’m not one to rant on my blog, so here is a bullet list of things people should know.

• When you tell someone the furnace is fine and it is not fine, you cost them money.
• Don’t flush non-flushables down a toilet at a house that is not your own.
• Driving for 13 hours (round trip) for a 20 hour stay and little interaction with the family is a waste of time
• Don’t force people to adjust to your schedule when you have other options available
• Let people know when your kid is sick and don’t invite them over knowing they’re contagious
• Throwing the contents of your basement out is a sad time, especially when it came as a result of someone else’s actions
• Kids fall out of cribs
• Last minute bills at Christmas time suck

It has been a harrowing six weeks or so and I am glad things seem to be turning the corner. Quite frankly, if things got much worse we were going to suspend Christmas so we could enjoy it. With things coming back to normal, I am trying to get my blogging, reading, writing, and other activities back online. My wife says I feel better when I do them and I believe her.

It comes as no surprise to UOP students that weekly papers make up much of the course content and assessment tools. It has gotten to the point where I can write about 1000-1500 words in only a few hours provided my thoughts are clear, resources handy, and tools working the right way.

When I switched to my MacBook for school and personal work, leaving behind my PC for just the paying job, I was hesitant about leaving my favorite writing tool, PERRLA, behind. The PERRLA team just did not have a Mac application ready yet and they’ve been great about coming by the Doc Blog and ommenting about the lack of Mac software and the intention of getting the Mac users into the fold with PERRLA.

Alas, progress waits for no one and I needed to find a new tool, StyleEase. I even wrote:

At first glance. StyleEase has PERRLA beat in terms of formatting options and a database option.

That was first glance and 2 full classes ago. Now that I have written a host papers with StyleEase and even updated my PERRLA program on my PC for comparison’s sake, I am ready to declare a winner. PERRLA is the clear winner. StyleEase is a loser.

PERRLA did all the things, save have a Mac version and Zotero interface, that I wanted to see:

• More reference/citation formatting options
• Stick with your interface

What prompted this post? Well, I was writing my paper using my MacBook and StyleEase and I simply was getting frustrated with the tool. I can’t copy and paste anything into the StyleEase tool. This means I need to retype article titles and this leads to spelling errors and delays in completing the projects. StyleEase has so many options it is confusing to decide which is needed. Within each citation/reference generator there are suboptions that are either mandatory, optional, really optional, or rare exceptions. So I go merry along typing, formatting, and generating the citations and references I need completely frustrated with the time and tasks required until finally an error sent me for a loop. It is an error that comes up often when I can’t go back through the generation process and it kicks me out of the program and I need to restart MS Word to get it back.

I’ll be upfront here. I don’t have the time to continue monkeying with this software when I need to concentrate and get my papers out weekly or otherwise. Further, I am trying to write my dissertation using the software and getting to the point where I am behind thanks to the constant repeating steps, lack of clean user options, and complex system involved with StyleEase. Summing up…StyleEase is a loser.

What happened next? I fired up my work laptop and PERRLA and wrote my paper in only a few hours. PERRLA made it a snap and I didn’t need to worry about the program’s ineffective techniques, tools, or errors. It reminded me of why I chose the program in the beginning.

I don’t like using my work laptop for school or personal work, especially writing. Everything I have is stored on my MacBook. Alas, I can’t even think to use StyleEase unless they make some improvements. Of course if PERRLA sends me an advance copy of the Mac version to play with, I will be happy to give it an honest review her at the Doc Blog.

So, to StyleEase, I say this: fix your program and make it work for serious writers who don’t have time to fuss with your numerous trinkets and processes.

To PERRLA, I say this: please hurry, I’m still a huge fan, I just want to use my two favorite things, my Mac and my PERRLA.

To anyone considering an APA formatting tool: choose PERRLA over StyleEase.

Image Source: PERRLA (I hope you don’t mind)

Mid way through day 2 we are complete with the first round of case study presentations and being asked to reflection our participation and expectations in the case study assignment.

What worked well for me in our assignment was the equal caliber of quality and excellence amongst the team members. This was exhibited in diligence and aptitude for compiling the overall assignment, creating and contributing individual work to the overall assignment, and high caliber presenting of a well thought through and conceived idea.

One area that requires some addressing is the preparation of my component. With limited time to prepare an in depth case study, I needed a little more time to prepare the presentation components I chose. I think working later on rehearsals and contingency planning, like in Toastmasters, would have helped. One team member said it right, if we knew the material cold and had more time we would have been stellar.

Moving into the next assignment we are regrouping into new teams. I do not like this activity and dread being grouped with one other student in the class that personally attacked me in a public setting, during the presentation. I find the idea of potentially being grouped with her distasteful and need to consider my options moving ahead.

For the next assignment, barring an unpleasant team assignment, I will work more completely to prepare for the academic presentation of case studies.

Picking up with the journey…

Today’s devotional reading discusses the pathway to becoming godly. Before getting to the Point and Question for the reading, I wanted to talk about one element of the reading regarding the God’s interest in what we are not what we do.

In the world of corporate training and business betterment strategies we hear little slogans that either inspire or nausiate. One of the nausiating ones for me has been, “I am a human doing”. This jarred me to the core. I loathe people who feel that doing one thing somehow trumps what they are. It smacks of corporate marketing and pr tactics….”but, look at what we said, that is what is important.”

Warren discusses this too, in a much more eternal sense. Warren claimed that God is interested in what we are not in our career or what we do. In fact, Warren suggested that what we do will be an extension of what we are if we live authentically. Change the character…change the action.

Too many people feel that they can overcome shortfalls in character makeup by doing things that others find good work or worthy work. In the working world, these people are all around us. In the non-working world these people are all around us. For example, the criminal as the good neighbor or the two-faced colleague.

I’ve always told people that I am as you see me. I hold nothing back from folks. In essence, I live authentically. I have flaws and good points, but you won’t find double-speak or spin in my words to cover for my actions. It is not always an easy position to stand or a popular one but, as Popeye said, “I am what I am and that’s all that I am”. Too many people spin, just stop it.

Point to Ponder: I was created to become like Christ.

Well sure, we all have been told to strive for something. Warren’s message is slanted toward the religous. Being like Christ, according to Warren, means living to the ideals, purpose, guidance, and lessons set forth by Christ in the Bible.

When I was at Canisius College I took a 101 class on religion. The Jesuit priest instructing the class told us of the real Jesus, the historical Jesus, the man, not the myth. I enjoyed the class because it showed someone who was like the rest of us. He lived a life like anyone else (with the exception of being divinely created and inspired). In the context of Warren’s message, Christ is someone to emulate.

Question to Consider: In what area of my life do I need to ask for the Spirit’s power to be like Christ today?

I was driving home yesterday from the store and found myself cursing out drivers on the road. After the first one, I said this is a test Mike, you need to pass it. Another incident and I found myself cursing at the driver of the car. I failed the test, even knowing it was an open book exam.

I need to ask for help in not getting hijacked by people sent to test my resolve.

Image Source: fjalarinn

I just got my book back and will keep up with the journey with purpose shortly. I, like many of you, are concerned about the financial health of my family, my region, and my country. My concern has prompted a new flurry of eMails and calls to representatives to fix our problems the right way vs. finding the right bandaid for the short-term. Today Ron Paul sent out an eMail and I think this is the appropriate response to the questionable tactics of the administration and Congress. Read the letter below and choose to take action.

Dear Friends:

The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived.

We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy – all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment – and prevent the market’s attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.

Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, since I’d only be repeating what I’ve been saying over and over – not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.

Still, at least a few observations are necessary.

The president assures us that his administration “is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets.” Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation spree were even mentioned?

We are told that “low interest rates” led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low interest rates distort the market. Entrepreneurs engage in malinvestments – investments that do not make sense in light of current resource availability, that occur in more temporally remote stages of the capital structure than the pattern of consumer demand can support, and that would not have been made at all if the interest rate had been permitted to tell the truth instead of being toyed with by the Fed.

Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or “wildcat capitalism” (as if we actually have a pure free market!).

Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: “Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to borrow enormous sums of money, fuel the market for questionable investments, and put our financial system at risk.”

Doesn’t that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie in the first place? Doesn’t that suggest that maybe, just maybe, government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn’t the federal government shown that the “many” who “believed they were guaranteed by the federal government” were in fact correct?

Then come the scare tactics. If we don’t give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary “the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet.” Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on propping them up.

It’s the same destructive strategy that government tried during the Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the economy recovered within less than a year.

The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention these days.

F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks’ manipulation of interest rates creates the boom-bust cycle with which we are sadly familiar. In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, he described the foolish policies being pursued in his day – and which are being proposed, just as destructively, in our own:

Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion.

To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection – a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end… It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.

The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.

The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will restore prosperity! Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is called into question?

Oh, and did you notice that the bailout is now being called a “rescue plan”? I guess “bailout” wasn’t sitting too well with the American people.

The very people who with somber faces tell us of their deep concern for the spread of democracy around the world are the ones most insistent on forcing a bill through Congress that the American people overwhelmingly oppose. The very fact that some of you seem to think you’re supposed to have a voice in all this actually seems to annoy them.

I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote the correct point of view on the crisis. Be sure also to educate yourselves on these subjects – the Campaign for Liberty blog is an excellent place to start. Read the posts, ask questions in the comment section, and learn.

H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

I don’t often post political news here, that is Joel’s arena. I am concerned enough to start saying something to you all. We need a fix, not a rescue package, bailout, or parachute. I am flying my Gadsen flag again today, it is time to show our patriotism and stop this bailout.

I am sitting here in a major airport waiting for my flight. I cam early so I could ensure my safe passage through the questionable searches and siezures of TSA and now I sit at my gate. I travel frequently for my work and have the opportunity to people watch a lot. I’ve noticed an interesting behavior in people with cell phones. They call people they don’t often speak with in regular life. It is a behavior that fascinates me.

I’ve just finished listening to 3 10-minute conversations from the same person to 3 different folks and each one seemed to contain the same information and a tone that indicated that the call was both unexpected and irregular. Oddly, the person is traveling with someone to talk to but chose to ignore the other person. Why do people insist on calling everyone they know when they are at airports? I come up with a list of reasons:

• They’re legitimately arranging important business or personal matters.
• They’re showing off to their friends that they are traveling.
• You never knows what will happen so reach out to people before it does happen.
• They’re bored senseless and did not bring enough to keep them busy
• They want me to know they have friends
• They’re choose to pollute the air space with personal conversations (think of this like when people could smoke in airports but now it is noise pollution).

I admit that I’m guilty of the same behavior, calling people I don’t often to talk with, catching up on gaps n time, working out business things with my clients or bosses, arranging travel, or simply polluting. I work hard not to do this (and I have 2 mobile phones). I like to sit quietly, listen to music, and talk to you via my blog. Well, I’ve got to get going here, phone is aching to be dialed.

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I had a hard time identifying with this chapter in terms of protecting a church but the lessons apply to just about anything important. Warren focuses in in the reading on reasons I have left the church and feel that it is a hindrance to my own brand of worship. However, Warren also calls on us to lead vs. divide or resign. This is a lesson I can understand. I often feel that too many people seek to destroy what is bigger than they are vs. lead. I feel people duck and run vs. take responsibility to see tough things through to the end.

Warren gives 5 points that make sense in protecting and building a stronger community.

1. Be realistic in your expectations. Don’t focus on the ideal but work to understand and know the real.
2. Choose to encourage rather than criticize. Find ways to encourage folks vs. taking the easy road of firing potshots at them
3. Refuse to listen to gossip. Gossip, telling tales out of class, and passing around information that does not belong to you undermines the purpose of being together and fellowship.
4. Practice God’s method for conflict resolution. Stepping to the side and walking away from conflict does not serve anyone. Rather working with the person in a loving and private way protects a relationship that is important.
5. Support your pastor or leader. Someone who takes a leadership role also takes all the responsibility for the good, bad, easy, and difficult. Being supportive of that leader helps make things more enjoyable for all involved.

Point to Ponder: It is my responsibility to protect the unity of my church.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Standing on the sidelines is easy to do, but it does nothing to serve the cause. Rather taking a role in the cause aids in protecting it and strengthening it.

Question to Consider: What am I personally doing to protect unity in my church family right now?

Taking that my community is the long term friendship that I’ve developed with a caring and supportive group of folks, I think by participating in the group completely protects it. Working to employ the steps Warren outlines above is already part of our interactions. Continuing that is important to protecting the community.

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Warren talks about the flipside of creating fellowship to work with the idea of repairing broken ones. This was an interesting chapter because it relates directly to what I feel is one of my drivers. Warren illustrates that resotring broken fellowships is a command and not a nice thing to do. It demonstrates forgiveness and works to rebuild the trust needed in fellowship.

I think we all have people we wish we could patch things up with. I sure do. While the original impetus for this journey, a conflict with a distant co-worker, could be one of those, it is not something I call a relationship. So, I am writing that off as forgiven and not forgotten. If the person ever comes up on my radar again, I will follow Warren’s advice on forgiveness.

Point to Ponder: Relationships are always worth restoring.

Yes, they are. I have relationships with folks that are strained or broken completely. Sometimes it is easier to distant oneself from the poison of a bad relationship. It permeates our lives to the point of disability, so cutting it off helps us. Warren argues that repairing relationships is a hard task to do but fills us more completely because we do not hold the grudge.

Question to Consider: Who do I need to restore a broken relationship with today?

One of the most important relationships in life is with one’s parents. Like all children I’ve had conflicts with my parents. One relationship that is strained now is with my Mom. I have a long history of strain with my Mom, stemming from events in my life I felt abandoned when in need. Now that my Mom is considering a move to back to where I live, we both acknowledge the potential for a rift to be re-opened. Warren suggests we approach the restoration process when we are at our best. I think this is a relationship that needs some restoration.

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Today’s devotional expands yesterday’s discussion life as a small group. Warren addresses the common criticisms of churches as places devoid of real community. This is a primary reason I hesitate about joining a congregation that merely goes through the motions and then reverts to ugly human behavior once the doors open again.

Warren talks about turning the real fellowship into a real community. I’m not going to rush right out an open a church once I’ve established some fellowship, but the nature of the thought is intriguing.

Point to Ponder: Community requires commitment.

The difference between people who say they are a community and people who really are is the commitment to one another. That commitment is demonstrated through action, not slogans and mottos. We’ve become so pacified by PR and marketing departments running amock that we think if we say a thing it becomes true and real. Warren gives these simple guidance measure for building commited community:

• Authenticity
• Mutuality
• Sympathy
• Mercy
• Honesty
• Humility
• Courtesy
• Confidentiality
• Frequency

When I read this chapter and in particular the 2nd to last paragraph where Warren sums up the 9 points above I thought about two things in my experience. First is during classes I deliver. I work hard to outline and enforce rules of safe conduct, in essence building a learing community that is both real and commited. Second is the nature of my core group of friends. We gather weekly for a night together. We’ve been doing this for the last few years, after being friends for roughly 20 years. Our commitment to each other is demonstrated by the candid conversations we have, the brand of love and fellowship we demonstrate, the frequency and regularity in which we gather. I’ve long described my friends as the main reason I remain where I am, they have supplemented my family.

Question to Consider: How can I help cultivate today the characteristics of real community in my small group and my church?

Well, I have not followed Warren’s advice on joining a church. Is that wrong? I think church is more than a building, it is a community (as Warren points out). My friends have become my community. Does this make them my church? If so, representing the 9 points above to my friends at each opportunity to do so satisfies my cultivation of community. If not, I need to really dig further into a church or group that relates to my sense of Christian spiritualism.

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On Day 17, Warren advised to find a church to join and become a part of a larger community of believers. Today’s devotional talks about joining a fellowship of faith, a smaller group of people joined together by a tighter knitting than a church congregation.

The concept here is that we are intended to be joined together as people, not alone. However, worship in a large congregation lacks the personal attention to faith and belief that is required by so many; including me.

Like many people I did not fully understand the concept of fellowship. I use the term a lot in terms of coming together and getting to know one another. This is pretty close but Warren suggests that true fellowship is a bonding experience where people become intimately aware of each other in terms of mind, soul, intellect, and spirit. It becomes a surrogate family so to speak.

Before I get to the Point to Ponder and Question to Consider, I want to address some other aspects of the devotional that might get missed by my responses.

Warren states that fellowship requires authenticity. Authenticity requires courage and humility. Such courage and humility opens me up to many things I am uncomfortable with experiencing. As a speaker and trainer I am used to being reviewed and look forward to it. However, I control the outward appearance and can control the filters on what gets through. Some things I am not proud of and, frankly, fear the reprisals of being honest in expressing them. Warren suggests that real fellowship enjoys a mutally benefiting and sympathetic environment, where personal safety is respected and individuals are helped to overcome what the face.

Warren also talks about fellowship in terms of giving and accepting mercy. He shows us that faith requires immediate forgiveness and not the begrudging of others’ agressions on us. I struggle with this a lot. As I blogged about earlier, I find anger as a driver in my life. This means that I hold onto the grudge and incur damage because of it. Today’s reading discussed that we are commanded to forgive immediately but trust is something completely independent and does not need to be restored. I was reminded of the book, The Sunflower. Wiesenthal, in The Sunflower, describes the horrors of Nazi concentration camps and his horrific experiences with being asked, by a Nazi soldier, for forgiveness. The story is amazing and in the book he solicits the wisdom of many on what they would do. In the end, Wiesenthal concludes that forgiveness can be given but one does not need to forget. Same message and I need to think more about this.

Point to Ponder: I need other in my life.

Yes, yes I do. I have no thoughts other than ‘yes’. I have had the opportunity to relocate and start life again in a new place but found that my friends and limited family in the area kept me here. Not by force or guilt or any volition on their part, simply by being here. I need them and I chose to make my life with them vs. leaving to someplace new and alone.

To Warren’s point, my friends and I enjoy fellowship in the truest sense of the word. While religion is not always a topic of discussion, we are open, honest, authentic, and merciful with each other.

Question to Consider: What one step can I take today to connect with another believer at a more genuine heart-to-heart level?

This is a good question. I suspect I’ve been given the opportunity to do this already. In fact, just last week, I was asked how my journey is progressing. It was a chance for a good friend and I to bond over a common belief and show mutual concern. Finding other moments like this is a step I can take. Being honest/authentic about my journey and sharing it with others can connect me to believers.

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I will readily admit to you all that I set the book aside for the last few days. A lot of things from the first 17 days came to pass for me. I opted out of some service obligations that were distracting to my purpose and out of alignment with what needs to be done. Sometimes it is hard to say no to a group that needs you and you are able to help out. I’ve taken comfort in advice I gave a friend this week, there will be others to take your place.

I had an opportunity today to go back and read some parts of the journey and it prompted me to recall the importance of why I began and why I continue.

In others news…

I’ve also been wrestling with another test. Our dog, Smudge, contracted blastomycosis while we vacationed in Northern Ontario. Sadly my folks’ 3 dogs also contracted it and just lost one dog today to the infection. It is a pretty ubiquitous soil-based fungus in certain parts of the North American continent, with no none prevention or remediation. The treatment involved a pretty lethal anti-fungal and 25% of dogs that contract the infection do not survive. Most scary is that this fungus can be contracted by people and it is usually misdiagnosed right until the autopsy. We had a group of 21 people with us on vacation and the scare prompted a slew of Vet and Pediatrician appointments. Fortunately we caught Smudge pretty earlier, in large part due to the delayed diagnosis of our folks’ dogs. He is on the mend but the treatment is very expense.

I am also preparing for a 3rd interview with my company for a training manager position. Currently I fill a sales-type role that works with HR and training departments. I wanted to know how to sell and now it is time to return to my passion. Truthfully, this is a return to my purpose as well. Wish me luck.

School-wise I just got my rEsource for the Year 3 residency and have a big schedule of work to complete. Including a drafted proposal. I am logging extra hours in front of the laptop trying to get some progress made there. I am behind and I know it. I got distracted but the focus is returning.

So I am picking up the journey from this point. I could fib a little and just catch up on posts but that wouldn’t be honest or authentic.

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Today’s reading takes me from a membership in God’s family to being a member in the house of God. I’ve blogged about my personal feelings on faith and the notions against joining a church to follow some prescribed tenets of an organized religion. Warren cautions, here, that being a family member is one act of faith but obeying the edict for fellowship and membership in a church is another step towards purpose.

Point to Ponder: I am called to belong, not just believe.

I feel like I belong to a larger fellowship that is more loosely following God. I’ve never been comfortable in churches and feeling like my faith is somehow dependent on a minister’s words or position. Even Rick Warren talks about the beginnings of his church as a gathering of a few couples to talk about religion. Repeatedly in the last 16 days Warren brings up the concept of personal faith in God and the emptiness of many public displays of faith.

Here he changes direction and calls me to join a fellowship of believers and learn about my faith more closely. He states that one cannot be completely intimate with God if one is alone and not practicing growing in relationships. Perhaps to head things off, Warren points out that like people, there is no perfect congregation of followers. He continues to say that these imperfections and mistakes helps us to grow our knowledge of purpose and faith. In support of this he offers that isolation in faith is not faith and makes us vulnerable to fall back into our non-purposed ways.

Perhaps most convincingly is Warren’s call that joining a church provides a community of folks that aid one another in being more purpose-driven and faithful. In my language this is called a community of practice.

Still, my faith is personal, my brand of belief is personal, and my journey is personal. Finding a church that respects and fosters that seems unlikely. I’ve thought of heading to church to see if it fits me at this point, but I don’t know where to start looking. Any ideas readers?

Question to Consider: Does my level of involvement in my local church demonstrate that I love and am committed to God’s family?

I don’t think so. It does certainly show that I am committed to a group of people that follow God. But I don’t think it applies to all of God’s family. I think being a member of the larger fellowship of believers and a good steward of faith and purpose does more than the ritualized perscription of faith. Am I missing the point?

Admittedly, I am confused on this issue. I could get into a church if the message was on the higher purpose and the people were equally focused. Sadly, I’ve had terrible experiences with so-called believers that going to the place where they learn that trait seems offputting.

Don’t I already belong to a group of people that follow the teachings and spirit of faith? Is that what is meant? Is a church more than the building and people inside?

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At the end of life what or who will you ask for to come to your side? Your accomplishments, riches, business clients, or your family and friends? That is the point of today’s devotional reading. What matters most to you?

So often in life we get caught up in the rat race, the day-to-day, the mundane, and routine. Why? Because it is so prevelant in our lives and so present that we lose sight of what is important. This reading really had me thinking, remembering, and realigning. Warren talks about how we demonstrate the priorities in our life by dedicating time to them. We say things like, “if there was only time” or “when I get done with this thing I will spend time with my family or friends”. By placing other things above the relationships in our lives we reduce the importance of relationships and strengthen the grips of things that just don’t matter as much.

Point to Ponder: Life is all about love.

Warren tells us that God is love. That all we need is love. That our love comes from relationships with God, family, and friends. Warren also tells us that time is how we show love, spending time on things that matter most to us. Certainly we cannot forsake all things to be with family but we must place a higher priority on the relationships we have in life.

Eight years ago now I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Thyroid Cancer. I am fortunate that it can be overcome with the right therapies and careful attention of experts. My battle with Cancer taught me that I must spend my time validating the people in my life, validating why I love them, and using that time to more meaningful. It is a lesson I learned from someone else, Marshall Boyler, and it is something that was most recently refreshed in my mind.

Warren talks about being specific with God in how we communicate. Not just, ‘hey big guy thanks‘ but ‘Thank you God for all the gifts of watching my little girl grow up’. The message is we must validate our relationships through saying why we love or why we appreciate. Moreover, we must prioriize the time we spend so our relationships take the top slot (God, family, friends).

Question to Consider: Honestly, are my relationships my first priority? How can I ensure that they are?

This was a tough question for me to answer. Not because I don’t know the answer but because I do know the answer. The answer is that my relationships have not been my first priority as of late. I allowed other temptations to sideline my relationships with my relationships. I know the lessons of being on the brink of eternity (to some degree) and had forgotten them, forsaken them, and abandoned them.

In the past family and relationships were first priority. I value my network of loved ones and had shown that through spending time there first and most. I lost my way and now think that the tough times this month, timed with the anniversary of my Cancer diagnosis, was a test to see if I could reclaim my purpose and direction.

The daily reflections and devotionals help me to see things through the lens of purpose. Keeping on task will help develop the habit and give me the inspiration to stay focused.

Additionally, I need to do what I say I should do, set a balance and communicate that balance to people. I cannot let my bosses or company takeover my top priority simply because it is easier for them to do so, or they don’t share the balance concept, or a completely out of whack. I can no longer hear and follow the order of, ‘I know, but…’ . I am turning my work phone off at 5 and spending the rest of my time with my loved ones. I am not traveling when important family or friend events are on the horizon, I am not forsaking my relationships for earthly riches when more in life and afterlife awaits.

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I’ve have long held the belief that we are all connected by some invisible bond. Heidegger talked about it in his essay What is Philosophy?. I likened it, when I was a Senior in college, to the philosophical version of the Force in Star Wars.

Warren, in today’s reading, discusses the notion of family. He suggests that we are born into God’s family by design, we are given membership in the family by accepting God, and we show our family pride through baptism.

Point to Ponder: I was formed for God’s family.

I have no doubts that I was born into the community of humankind and that we were divinely inspired by a higher power. This membership is highlighted in Warren’s message that we are all brothers and sisters in God’s family and we follow our Father figure into eternal life.

One point of contention in today’s reading is the demand, from the Bible through Warren, to become baptized immediately or born again into god’s family of believers. This indoctrination ritual seems contrived to me and contrary to Warren’s earlier statements of empty rituals. Joel, talks about his baptism into Mormonism through a reflection on the anniversary of the event. He talks about the glory of being born into the faith. Joel eventually found a personal relationship with a higher power that steered him to find a truth beyond the church. Does that baptism transcend one covenant of religious belief?

This is something I need to think about more in depth. Warren would point out that God commands and we must obey before understanding. I’ve been baptized and my Christian upbringing figures into my relationship with God. My wife is baptized too. My daughter is not and has no evidenced concept of God or His divine plan. Or does she? Is she missing something?

Question to Consider: How can I start treating other believers like members of my own family?

This is a simple answer. Part of my three tenets for life is service to others. I serve humanity through a variety of efforts (admittedly, I am cutting back on this to allow for my purpose to come through). But I think the point here is that I share in fellowship and service with my family. We are all connected and so what happens to one, has ripple effects to us all.

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Today’s reading intrigued me at the title. This month, I felt alone and tested, many times in my life I’ve felt alone and tested. So how do I find God when there seems to be such a distance between us? How do I continue my journey with purpose when the loneliness overtakes me and I feel beaten by every test given to me?

I’ve been there, my friends, in times so dark it is hard to think about. Forsaken, alone, desperate, damaged, and destroyed. Each time, I take the test and remember, to myself, that I am given nothing that I cannot overcome.

Today’s devotional talks about those times. Warren suggests that the feeling of being forsaken is not faith, it is feeling. Faith is overarching and deeper than feeling. Faith is knowing.

Point to Ponder: God is real, no matter how I feel.

Naturally Job comes to mind here. A man who’s faith was tested beyond comprehension and in the end, Job still praised God and had faith in the divines purpose for his life. A show of obedience.

I know the feeling of being alone, but at no time did I think God wasn’t with me. I see them as tests. Of course, this is hindsight. At the time, I cursed the heavens wishing for something to show me the divine strength of any God. Without response. Many times it wasn’t until I found meaning in my suffering was the test lifted.

I remember my Mom having the Footprints poem hung in our house.  It is pretty common and talks about a woman’s reflection of her life as footprints in the sand. She notices that at the darkest times in her life there were only one single set of footprints and she wanted to know why God wasn’t there. The poem’s answer is that at those times God was carrying her. Warren doesn’t suggest this, rather, it is suggested at those times that God is walking behind us in our footprints testing our resolve, our faith, and our purpose. It is the times of trial that are th times of growth into the eternal realm of existence.

Question to Consider: How can I stay focused on God’s presence, especially when He feels distant?

I guess the answer is knowing that God is there, always. While we feel alone and foresaken we are not. It is those times we need to continue our faith and find reasons to pay respect to God. Warren gives us the only idea needed, I suppose, the sacrifice of His son. If the Christian God is not yours, then I think there must be some example of one act necessary to evoke worship and praise.

For me, I’ve often found worship during the dark times to be easier in the glory of nature. I see the world and I find my place in it. Aside from the Christian sacrifice belief, nature is one way I can stay focused on God’s presence.

Of course, most obvious to me is my daughter. Her unconditional love and adoration, along with the continual tests she provides, give me confidence in a higher power at work.

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I guess I always thought of worship like most people, heading off to church for a Sunday morning of singing, listening to a sermon, and ritual displays of holiness. Warren takes exception with the emptiness of most Christian worship and suggests other avenues for pleasing God through worship.

Point to Ponder: God wants all of me.

The emptiness of routine and ritualized worship voids the relationship with God, Warren claims. He suggests that we take a spiritual vacation and simply follow rites of perscribed worship that might not fit the personalities given to us by the Creator.

Warren talks a lot about our individual relationship with God and the individual nature of our purpose. He talks about it in relationship to the way we were made. Warren also cites that we are pleasing to God when we fulfill our purpose in ways that are befitting our makeup. So why shouldn’t worship be different.

If I walked into a church tomorrow and began worshipping in the routines of the church I would be lying to myself and to God. That is not who I am and thus not pleasing to my Creator. Rather Warren suggests we find a way to worship that fits us, so we can be all in so to speak, and pays respect to God. He describes a few different ways and leads us to find something that is tailor made.

I liked his example of the intellectual worshiper. This is someone who worships by studying with the mind. This is not to say studying Scripture or religous texts but someone who uses the gifts of intellectual thought in daily practice that in turn worships God. I’ve been told I am academic and intellectual, sometimes to a fault, but I like to think of myself as a smart person who thirsts for knowledge and truth. I want to know more and be more. Is this my purpose-driven worship style? Maybe. By comitting to worshiping in a way I can be whole heartedly behind, I feel like I am giving all of me to God, thus pleasing my friend.

Question to Consider: Which is more pleasing to God right now-my public worship or my private worship? What will I do about this?

Well, as I stated earlier, public worship is not who I am meant to be. I like some church, the revelry, the excitment of an inspirational sermon, the fire of a passionate congregation. But, too often organized religion is fake, to me. It is also not important to me that others see me as a worshiper. I watch my neighbors trudge off to church each week, heads down and dawdling along to the building around the corner. They are seen by each other and by God. God sees me in my own worship and I think the private displays and actions of sacrifice are more important. Warren says that to put my vanity of being seen first flies in the face of God’s purpose for me. I have to agree that it is less important to be seen than it is to be doing the thing, worship.

I will begin by being thoughtful, honest, accurate, and practical. Being an intellectual worshiper, I give each day to growing in my studies. I find that this gives me real energy and real drive.

I hope that my brand of worship pleases.

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