How do two people experience the same thing and get totally different impressions? I just finished watching a piece on WNED about the life and movement of Roycroft founder Elbert Hubbard. They had a slew of historians serving as commentators. One particular lady was commenting on Hubbard's unexpected breakthrough publication, A Message to Garcia. Hubbard published it in his paper, The Philistine, on a whim after a out-and-out conversation over dinner with his son over what was at the time considered The Cuban War. People started requesting reprints and he eventually printed more than 40 million copies in 36 different languages. It's third for its time only overshadowed by The Bible and the dictionary.
General Garcia was a officer in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. The story goes that the president of the United States asked a soldier to deliver a message to General Garcia who was somewhere in the mountains of Cuba at an unknown location. Hubbard's insight was about the fact the soldier just got it done. He didn't ask questions. He didn't make excuses for why he'll "try but it might not happen because it's tough to find someone in a wild country when you don't know where they are." He just did and it meant a great deal. Just do the work, you know?
Back to this lady's commentary. She was going on about how while Hubbard was a champion for breaking rules and making your way he contradicted himself by insisting that what our country needed was more people willing to just follow the rules and do the work. Did she read the same essay that I did? I've read A Message to Garcia and that is not the point. It's actually making the opposite point. It's not about following the rules. It's about initiative. It's about seeing your assignment, this can be self-imposed, and not flinching, not faltering even when you have no idea how or if you will get it done. It's about being willing to do whatever it takes to do the thing that has been asked of you no matter how heavy a load.
To use A Message to Garcia, which an entire generation of Americans would do well to read and read again, as a platform to showcase some hypocrisy in Elbert Hubbard is weak. Perhaps that hypocrisy was present in Hubbard. It's possible. He was a controversial figure. He also made a serious dent in our world which people are still falling into today.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Monday, January 11, 2010
Frustrated Greatness
I just finished watching a documentary on the life of Marvin Gaye. It was on WNED tonight. It aired right after a documentary on the life of another great musical artist from the same generation, Sam Cooke. I don't know if they were adjacent for a reason but they were both, in life and in death, similar. Both were incredibly talented. They both changed music and its trajectory. Their music was positively charged. Their songs have a way of just making you feel good if that's all they end up doing. Of course, their music stood for more than just that.
What's strangely coincidental is how they both met the same fate. Both were shot to death "before their time". Isn't that a great turn of phrase? "Before their time?" There really is no such thing but that's not the point I'm interested in making tonight. What struck me as tragic and profound was their level of greatness from a talent perspective. Both Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye were seriously talented. Just listen to their music. Yet both left this world laying on the ground as their life slowly slipped away.
Sam Cooke met his fate at the hands of a landlord. He was in her building, it may have been a hotel, with a prostitute that he had met that night at a bar. Whether he knew she was a prostitute or not I'm not sure. It doesn't matter. She ended up with him at this place. The story goes that she attempted to steal his pants which had a lot of cash in the pockets. He ran out of the room and hunted down the landlord because he felt she was involved in the shakedown. One thing led to another and Sam Cooke was shot.
Marvin Gaye was a troubled man. He grew up with a father who was both a Pentecostal preacher and a cross dresser. I guess he struggled with the spiritual and secular duality of life and never did quite figure out how to reconcile it all. He had serious drug addiction. His story goes that one night at his parents house he was defending his mother against his father in an argument. His father grabbed a gun that Marvin had purchased for him some time before. What happened next has already been revealed. Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his own father with his own gun.
I guess the idealist in me wants to try to take something away from all of this. I want to find the moral of the story, the lesson to be learned. I suppose there are a few things to appreciate here. What stands out to me is the tragedy of unrealized greatness. Even despite all of their achievements and the trappings of success they couldn't escape sad and tragic deaths. Now I'm no Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke but it's hard not to think of myself in their place. It's easy to think that we're exempt from those kinds of events and troubles but neither of them planned to leave this world the way they did. Neither wrote that in a five year plan. Certainly they made choices that led them to those places but we're making choices everyday that could just as easily go sour. What's preventing us from making one bad choice that turns into a slightly worse choice that turns into our last choice?
I'm not trying to be over-dramatic. I just think it's healthy to realize that our actions aren't exempt from consequences. Those tragedies that we see and pity people for could easily be us one day. To be safe, I put my faith in Christ. If there truly is any remedy or precaution then surely he is it.
What's strangely coincidental is how they both met the same fate. Both were shot to death "before their time". Isn't that a great turn of phrase? "Before their time?" There really is no such thing but that's not the point I'm interested in making tonight. What struck me as tragic and profound was their level of greatness from a talent perspective. Both Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye were seriously talented. Just listen to their music. Yet both left this world laying on the ground as their life slowly slipped away.
Sam Cooke met his fate at the hands of a landlord. He was in her building, it may have been a hotel, with a prostitute that he had met that night at a bar. Whether he knew she was a prostitute or not I'm not sure. It doesn't matter. She ended up with him at this place. The story goes that she attempted to steal his pants which had a lot of cash in the pockets. He ran out of the room and hunted down the landlord because he felt she was involved in the shakedown. One thing led to another and Sam Cooke was shot.
Marvin Gaye was a troubled man. He grew up with a father who was both a Pentecostal preacher and a cross dresser. I guess he struggled with the spiritual and secular duality of life and never did quite figure out how to reconcile it all. He had serious drug addiction. His story goes that one night at his parents house he was defending his mother against his father in an argument. His father grabbed a gun that Marvin had purchased for him some time before. What happened next has already been revealed. Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his own father with his own gun.
I guess the idealist in me wants to try to take something away from all of this. I want to find the moral of the story, the lesson to be learned. I suppose there are a few things to appreciate here. What stands out to me is the tragedy of unrealized greatness. Even despite all of their achievements and the trappings of success they couldn't escape sad and tragic deaths. Now I'm no Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke but it's hard not to think of myself in their place. It's easy to think that we're exempt from those kinds of events and troubles but neither of them planned to leave this world the way they did. Neither wrote that in a five year plan. Certainly they made choices that led them to those places but we're making choices everyday that could just as easily go sour. What's preventing us from making one bad choice that turns into a slightly worse choice that turns into our last choice?
I'm not trying to be over-dramatic. I just think it's healthy to realize that our actions aren't exempt from consequences. Those tragedies that we see and pity people for could easily be us one day. To be safe, I put my faith in Christ. If there truly is any remedy or precaution then surely he is it.
Friday, January 1, 2010
It's a new year
Today is the first day of the New Year. 2010. A new decade too. We'll see what the future holds for us. It's one thing to sit and dream about where you'll be in 5 or 10 years. What will your life be like? Family? Job? Home? It's another thing entirely to look back and see where you've come in the same amount of time.
I was sitting around the house today and asked Meredith (my wife) what she thought we'd be up to in 5 years. She didn't really know. Not that I expected her to. It made me think about what we were doing 5 years ago. 5 years ago we had just gotten married the previous summer. We were living in our first apartment. I was still working for a cellular communications company at a retail outlet. We were attending a well known and successful (in some ways) mega church. Fast forward 5 years to today and it's a bit different. We now own a house and have for almost three years. We have two children. I work as a marketing consultant for a media company. Meredith stays home with the children and works part-time. We are involved in planting a community of Christians (also successful in some ways) that uses a bar in downtown Buffalo as it's public homebase. A lot can change in 5 years.
We've been blessed in many ways in the past 5 years. I can see God's working in our lives and those around us. I've certainly had my share of failures. I've done some stupid things and said some stupid things too. Some things change and some things stay the same. Good thing God's grace is more tolerant than my will is obedient. While I strive to follow Christ in action I've seen myself take a back seat in order to fit in. Sometimes just out of selfishness. This is the thing that I'd like to see change in the next 5 years. Perhaps sooner? That certainly would be welcome.
So we'll see what the future holds for us. I hope that your future brings you greater hope and greater closeness to our creator. Greater purpose and vision. Greater clarity and wisdom. Most of all, greater relationships that have a greater impact on our communities.
Happy New Year.
I was sitting around the house today and asked Meredith (my wife) what she thought we'd be up to in 5 years. She didn't really know. Not that I expected her to. It made me think about what we were doing 5 years ago. 5 years ago we had just gotten married the previous summer. We were living in our first apartment. I was still working for a cellular communications company at a retail outlet. We were attending a well known and successful (in some ways) mega church. Fast forward 5 years to today and it's a bit different. We now own a house and have for almost three years. We have two children. I work as a marketing consultant for a media company. Meredith stays home with the children and works part-time. We are involved in planting a community of Christians (also successful in some ways) that uses a bar in downtown Buffalo as it's public homebase. A lot can change in 5 years.
We've been blessed in many ways in the past 5 years. I can see God's working in our lives and those around us. I've certainly had my share of failures. I've done some stupid things and said some stupid things too. Some things change and some things stay the same. Good thing God's grace is more tolerant than my will is obedient. While I strive to follow Christ in action I've seen myself take a back seat in order to fit in. Sometimes just out of selfishness. This is the thing that I'd like to see change in the next 5 years. Perhaps sooner? That certainly would be welcome.
So we'll see what the future holds for us. I hope that your future brings you greater hope and greater closeness to our creator. Greater purpose and vision. Greater clarity and wisdom. Most of all, greater relationships that have a greater impact on our communities.
Happy New Year.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Feeling guilty for being blessed
Have you ever felt guilty for something that you shouldn't feel guilty for? Something that is a really good thing and everyone else sees it as a good thing? Even the person who, without knowing it and not intending to, is the source of the guilt?
Earlier tonight I was at a funeral home. It was a wake for my cousin who died suddenly over the weekend. I haven't really talked much about it. I haven't even told my friends. None of them know. I don't know why. I guess I'm just not ready to tell them. Perhaps it's the effect of the ensuing shock. Who knows?
While I was at the funeral home I did the customary receiving line. I spoke with my cousins parents (my mother's first cousin is my cousin's father, we're all first and second cousins) and his sisters. Their putting on as good of a front as they can but I know they're devastated. When I spoke with my cousin's father, Frank, he congratulated me on my newborn daughter who is just one week old today.
You try to have a normal conversation in moments like these. Just to keep some sense of normalcy. Frank commented on how I have a son and a daughter and that now I have "a million dollar family". Could there be a greater sense of irony in this situation? I'm at his son's wake and he's congratulating me on my "million dollar family". How insanely screwed up is that? His 27 year old son is gone. What do you think he'd give to be back where I am now? More than a million dollars I'm sure.
So that's why I feel guilty. I feel guilty for having two beautiful, healthy, innocent babies at home while he is dying inside. I feel guilty for having the thing that has been taken from him.
Now I know that Frank is happy for me and that he doesn't hold it against me. It's not like that at all. It's just hard not to feel like my blessing is an accent and punctuation mark on his grief.
Earlier tonight I was at a funeral home. It was a wake for my cousin who died suddenly over the weekend. I haven't really talked much about it. I haven't even told my friends. None of them know. I don't know why. I guess I'm just not ready to tell them. Perhaps it's the effect of the ensuing shock. Who knows?
While I was at the funeral home I did the customary receiving line. I spoke with my cousins parents (my mother's first cousin is my cousin's father, we're all first and second cousins) and his sisters. Their putting on as good of a front as they can but I know they're devastated. When I spoke with my cousin's father, Frank, he congratulated me on my newborn daughter who is just one week old today.
You try to have a normal conversation in moments like these. Just to keep some sense of normalcy. Frank commented on how I have a son and a daughter and that now I have "a million dollar family". Could there be a greater sense of irony in this situation? I'm at his son's wake and he's congratulating me on my "million dollar family". How insanely screwed up is that? His 27 year old son is gone. What do you think he'd give to be back where I am now? More than a million dollars I'm sure.
So that's why I feel guilty. I feel guilty for having two beautiful, healthy, innocent babies at home while he is dying inside. I feel guilty for having the thing that has been taken from him.
Now I know that Frank is happy for me and that he doesn't hold it against me. It's not like that at all. It's just hard not to feel like my blessing is an accent and punctuation mark on his grief.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Cereal Conspiracy
After a long hiatus from blogging I am making my triumphant return. Okay, well, my return. We'll wait and see how triumphant it is. As someone who makes their living as a marketer, I can't help but scrutinize the various marketing messages that I encounter throughout my travels and the other day I had an epiphany. Let me explain.
It's common in marketing to look for simple approaches to convey your message. Sometimes templates or formulas are created and marketers blindly follow them. You find something that works and then you simply trade out the details to make it fit your product or service. It doesn't always work and in many cases leads to "bad advertising" but on the plus side keeping it simple has its merits.
So the other day I was talking to someone at work, standing at their desk, and I noticed they had a cereal box on their desk. It was Fruity Pebbles. Upon inspection of the box design I saw that the main graphic on the front was Fred Flintstone with a giant bowl of Fruity Pebbles behind him. There was a large scooping device made out of two spoons tied together with an extending arm attached to it. The scooping device was attempting to scoop the pebbles out of the bowl. Who was holding the scooping device? Good question. It was none other than Barney Rubble. If you're familiar with this cereal and its commercials you'd know that the concept is that Barney is always trying to get some of Fred's Fruity Pebbles. So I'm thinking all this and that's when it hit me. Many popular kid's cereals are marketed with this same core concept: The cereal is really good tasting. Someone has the cereal. Someone else wants the really good tasting cereal and tries to steal it.
Let's think about this. Pebbles: Barney stealing from Fred. Lucky Charms: The kids trying to steal the Leprechaun's cereal. Trix: The rabbit trying to steal from the kids. Cookie Crisp: The crook stealing from the children. What kind of message are we sending to our children?
"Look, this cereal tastes so damn good that you'll be willing to steal to get it. So good in fact that you would risk being arrested just to get your lips on this stuff."
I'm sure there are other examples that I'm just not thinking of. Of course, not all kid's cereals take this approach but I think enough of them do to make us at least take note. So the moral of this story is that not only are sugary kids cereals bad for your health but they could inadvertently land your child in prison.
It's common in marketing to look for simple approaches to convey your message. Sometimes templates or formulas are created and marketers blindly follow them. You find something that works and then you simply trade out the details to make it fit your product or service. It doesn't always work and in many cases leads to "bad advertising" but on the plus side keeping it simple has its merits.
So the other day I was talking to someone at work, standing at their desk, and I noticed they had a cereal box on their desk. It was Fruity Pebbles. Upon inspection of the box design I saw that the main graphic on the front was Fred Flintstone with a giant bowl of Fruity Pebbles behind him. There was a large scooping device made out of two spoons tied together with an extending arm attached to it. The scooping device was attempting to scoop the pebbles out of the bowl. Who was holding the scooping device? Good question. It was none other than Barney Rubble. If you're familiar with this cereal and its commercials you'd know that the concept is that Barney is always trying to get some of Fred's Fruity Pebbles. So I'm thinking all this and that's when it hit me. Many popular kid's cereals are marketed with this same core concept: The cereal is really good tasting. Someone has the cereal. Someone else wants the really good tasting cereal and tries to steal it.
Let's think about this. Pebbles: Barney stealing from Fred. Lucky Charms: The kids trying to steal the Leprechaun's cereal. Trix: The rabbit trying to steal from the kids. Cookie Crisp: The crook stealing from the children. What kind of message are we sending to our children?
"Look, this cereal tastes so damn good that you'll be willing to steal to get it. So good in fact that you would risk being arrested just to get your lips on this stuff."
I'm sure there are other examples that I'm just not thinking of. Of course, not all kid's cereals take this approach but I think enough of them do to make us at least take note. So the moral of this story is that not only are sugary kids cereals bad for your health but they could inadvertently land your child in prison.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
We're all terminal.
I just finished watching a video on You Tube. First, let me say that everyone should watch it. It's a lecture by former Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch titled "Last Lecture". It was given in September of 2007 one month after he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.
I'm not going to discuss the details of the lecture because you really need to experience it for yourself. What I wanted to do was take the opportunity to comment on the effect it had on me. I really just want get what I'm thinking out of my head. I believe that writing out your thoughts and especially your goals and dreams allows you to better achieve them. I'm not sure why I believe this other than I've seen it happen in my life. It's not that things happen because you focus on them but that they absolutely won't if you don't. Don't start quoting me on this just yet though. I'm still figuring this out.
What I took away from the lecture was a strong reminder of things that are said often but given little significant respect. We are, at the same time, living and dying. What struck me is, while also being a platitude, that if we had a healthy respect for dying than we would probably possess a much greater passion and zeal for living. I've always said that I don't really care for fiction novels because their is so much non-fiction happening around us that there just isn't time for something that has no purchase on reality (Unless its allegorical but that's a horse of a different color). Some would say that this kind of attitude invites undue burden on one's life. I can appreciate that point but must wholeheartedly disagree. I can appreciate it because just living day-to-day life is tough enough without the added pressure of living significantly.
I look at my son (who is 6 months old today) and, with tears welling up as I write, cannot help myself from imagining how our world could shake as a result of his determination combined with whatever talent God has given him. I say "could" because I don't know what the future holds for William. I don't know what path of life William will find himself on. I am thoroughly convinced though that, no matter where he finds himself, if he chooses he can make that piece of the world change for the good, permanently. This is the same belief that I have for myself. I also have it for you.
People can call me an idealist. They can say I'm unrealistic. They can pass the buck and make excuses for why it can't, shouldn't, or simply won't happen. That's okay. I choose to believe that I was given life because someone knew what they were doing. I believe that I'm part of system, albeit on life support, that needs what I have though at times I'm not sure what it is that I have. Most reading this know that I follow Christ. My path meanders a lot but I'm still following. I say this because it has to be made clear that I don't find anything particularly extraordinary about myself beyond the capacity for greatness all mankind shares when we are so rightly aligned with God and his purposes.
I'm reminded of the lyrics to a song that I feel are quite in sync with this theme:
Go Down Believing by Chamberlain....
I say it's more than just, you know, playing it safe
Cuz you only got so much time here then you're on to another place
Either you go down in the ground and sleep still in your grave
Or you find yourself back home, back from where you came
But I'd rather go down, go down believing
You got two ways to think about your time to die
I'd rather tip glasses with kings even if it's only in my mind
You've got nothing to lose but you've got worlds to gain
There's a reason you tremble inside when you see the sky minutes after it rains
The very thing we're quick to deny is always what's keeping us alive
I guess you'd like to sit back on your boot heels like you're so satisfied
But I'd rather go down, go down believing
Death might hit you hard when you're feeling most alive
When it hits you it's hard
The the first time's the last time.
But I'll go down believing...
Randy Pausch passed away yesterday. Watch his lecture. If for no other reason than out of respect for someone who lived like he was dying even before he knew he actually was.
Watch the lecture and tell me you can't hear God whispering in your ear "Don't give up. You can do it. Trust me."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
I'm not going to discuss the details of the lecture because you really need to experience it for yourself. What I wanted to do was take the opportunity to comment on the effect it had on me. I really just want get what I'm thinking out of my head. I believe that writing out your thoughts and especially your goals and dreams allows you to better achieve them. I'm not sure why I believe this other than I've seen it happen in my life. It's not that things happen because you focus on them but that they absolutely won't if you don't. Don't start quoting me on this just yet though. I'm still figuring this out.
What I took away from the lecture was a strong reminder of things that are said often but given little significant respect. We are, at the same time, living and dying. What struck me is, while also being a platitude, that if we had a healthy respect for dying than we would probably possess a much greater passion and zeal for living. I've always said that I don't really care for fiction novels because their is so much non-fiction happening around us that there just isn't time for something that has no purchase on reality (Unless its allegorical but that's a horse of a different color). Some would say that this kind of attitude invites undue burden on one's life. I can appreciate that point but must wholeheartedly disagree. I can appreciate it because just living day-to-day life is tough enough without the added pressure of living significantly.
I look at my son (who is 6 months old today) and, with tears welling up as I write, cannot help myself from imagining how our world could shake as a result of his determination combined with whatever talent God has given him. I say "could" because I don't know what the future holds for William. I don't know what path of life William will find himself on. I am thoroughly convinced though that, no matter where he finds himself, if he chooses he can make that piece of the world change for the good, permanently. This is the same belief that I have for myself. I also have it for you.
People can call me an idealist. They can say I'm unrealistic. They can pass the buck and make excuses for why it can't, shouldn't, or simply won't happen. That's okay. I choose to believe that I was given life because someone knew what they were doing. I believe that I'm part of system, albeit on life support, that needs what I have though at times I'm not sure what it is that I have. Most reading this know that I follow Christ. My path meanders a lot but I'm still following. I say this because it has to be made clear that I don't find anything particularly extraordinary about myself beyond the capacity for greatness all mankind shares when we are so rightly aligned with God and his purposes.
I'm reminded of the lyrics to a song that I feel are quite in sync with this theme:
Go Down Believing by Chamberlain....
I say it's more than just, you know, playing it safe
Cuz you only got so much time here then you're on to another place
Either you go down in the ground and sleep still in your grave
Or you find yourself back home, back from where you came
But I'd rather go down, go down believing
You got two ways to think about your time to die
I'd rather tip glasses with kings even if it's only in my mind
You've got nothing to lose but you've got worlds to gain
There's a reason you tremble inside when you see the sky minutes after it rains
The very thing we're quick to deny is always what's keeping us alive
I guess you'd like to sit back on your boot heels like you're so satisfied
But I'd rather go down, go down believing
Death might hit you hard when you're feeling most alive
When it hits you it's hard
The the first time's the last time.
But I'll go down believing...
Randy Pausch passed away yesterday. Watch his lecture. If for no other reason than out of respect for someone who lived like he was dying even before he knew he actually was.
Watch the lecture and tell me you can't hear God whispering in your ear "Don't give up. You can do it. Trust me."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Legacy
Have you ever wondered what people will say about you after you die? What will your legacy be? If you could stand at your own funeral and recount your life, what would you say? Would you talk about the job you had? Or the car you drove? Perhaps the vacations you took or the clothes you wore? What will people remember about you when you're gone?
I'd like to think that when I'm dead and buried that people will remember me as being generous, kind, concerned, loving, helpfull. The problem is, if that's what I want people to remember than I better make sure that I'm living that way. It's one thing to say something and a completely different thing to actually do it.
We are building our legacies every single day with every word we speak and every action we take, or don't take. What are you doing today to insure that, long after you are gone, your impact is still being felt?
I'd like to think that when I'm dead and buried that people will remember me as being generous, kind, concerned, loving, helpfull. The problem is, if that's what I want people to remember than I better make sure that I'm living that way. It's one thing to say something and a completely different thing to actually do it.
We are building our legacies every single day with every word we speak and every action we take, or don't take. What are you doing today to insure that, long after you are gone, your impact is still being felt?
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