Musings
1,453 is the Loneliest Number
I was under the weather this weekend and ended up watching a Sunday morning news program from bed. BTW, the term “under the weather” may have originated back in the days when travel by ship was much more common. During storms the sea would get rough and the ship would rock, sometimes violently, causing many…
Read MoreLimits of Power
I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “David & Goliath.” I know, it came out several years ago. So, I’m a little behind on my reading pile. Nevertheless, I found the book fascinating. Gladwell knits together several stories about very different people and circumstances to define a thesis: there is an inverted curve function when it…
Read MoreI Choose “C”
I rediscovered an album I hadn’t listened to for a very long time. “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” is a collaboration between David Byrne (Talking Heads) and Brian Eno (Roxy Music). I was listening to collaborations because that was the theme of much of our work on the trip to Steelcase. In the song…
Read MoreIntermittent Connectivity
This may be the story of my life. Technology is fantastic until it isn’t. I am currently on a trip to Grand Rapids, MI, as we continue the process of programming the space within Cornerstone. I came up early with our architect and project manager in order to visit someone we met shortly the last…
Read MoreThe Script
In his book, Stein On Writing, Sol Stein (an author, playwright, editor and publisher) tells about an experience he had with the Playwrights Group of the Actors Studio in New York. In an improvisation exercise, Sol was given the part of the headmaster of a private school in New York for the privileged young. Another…
Read MoreNot My Problem
The story of the Good Samaritan is fairly well known, but in case you don’t know it let me recap. Dude makes decision to cut through bad part of town, alone, with valuable things on his person. Predictably, he is rolled by the bad guys and left for dead. Several people pass by him without…
Read MoreResolute
“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” Epictetus Half of the adults in the US will make one or more New Year’s resolutions. A quarter of those people will not stick with them past the first week. Less than half of them will still be maintaining their new…
Read MoreDestination (Un)Known
Life is so strange Destination unknown When you don’t know Your destination Something could change It’s unknown And then you won’t know Destination unknown Dale Bozzio, of Missing Persons, sings these lyrics on their album “Spring Session M” (which by the way is an anagram of the band’s name.) I always loved Dale’s vocals, but what made…
Read MoreMissing Beauty
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius I saw something posted on social media the other day. At first, I questioned the veracity of the story. So, I looked it up on Snopes.com and, lo and behold, it was true. “Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten in 2007 enlisted renowned violinist Joshua Bell, a…
Read MoreFinding Our Way
“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” – Jean de La Fontaine In wooded areas masked by snow, wolves often take long, complex, winding, unplanned paths when hunting − but they can still return directly to the distant location of their pups. Elephants have been recorded navigating distances…
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