When They Gonna Turn Into Something, Daddy?

Adam took his four year old son, Lane, to the movies. Lane, like boys of all ages, wants action. He isn’t interested in character introduction or plot development or foreshadowing of the conflict between protagonist and antagonist. Lane judges whether a movie is good or bad on how long it takes for the heroes to emerge in all their glory. This movie,“The Fantastic Four,” actually gets to the action fairly quickly, according to Adam

It wasn’t quick enough for Lane, however. After about five minutes, Lane exclaimed to Adam, “When are they gonna turn into something, Daddy?” That is a wonderful question about movies, and about life. When I am going to turn into something heroic, or at least purposeful?

I went to the movies Saturday and got there early. First I watched “The Twenty,” which is twenty minutes of advertisements disguised as supposed entertainment. Then there were several previews of coming attractions. I was wondering when all these preliminaries were going to turn into a feature. But I am conditioned to arrive early and wait through what the theater wants me to see and hear.

Lane, and other preschoolers, may be onto something important. While we are planning and waiting and procrastinating, we may be missing an opportunity to turn into something, perhaps even something better. I don’t know if we can be one of the Fantastic Four, or an Incredible, or your favorite superhero. We can be something better than we are, if we’ll use our imagination and innate creativity that adults tend to forget is present within us. We can act instead of watch. So let’s turn into something that makes a difference in this world.

Posted September 30th, 2005 in Learning from Children

Mystery in Community

I got this quote from www.thinkexist.com, where you can sign up to receive daily quotes. Some of them are not very meaningful to me, but this one was.

Jean Vanier is the person who started L’arche Communities, homes for severely mentally retarded adults. I’ve read one or two of his books, after learning about his work through Henri Nouwen.

The quote has application for leaders, and humans.
“Community begins in mystery and ends in administration. Leaders move away from people and into paper.”

Since I’m surrounded by paper this morning, this quote spoke to me. Do I use more of my gifts with people or paper? The mystery of people in community is certainly more enchanting that the administration of paper and electronic data.

The simple question is where do I spend my time. Henri Nouwen, who spent the last years of his life working at a L’arche community, said he was constantly being interrupted by people while he was writing, reading, thinking, and meditating. He said the finally realized that the interruptions were his work. Nouwen recognized he needed to respond to the people, not the paper.

Posted September 28th, 2005 in Observations

Plan for Worst, Pray for Best

Ahuma Adodoadji, director of emergency operations for CARE USA, says a rule of thumb in planning for emergencies is “plan for the worst-case scenario and pray for the best-case scenario.” I don’t think most people are good at either one of those options. My observation is that we plan for the best, thinking that the worst case won’t actually happen. When the worst-case happens, that is when we get to praying. I sure heard lots of leaders and other people asking for prayer the past few weeks.

Having been involved in emergency responses over the years, an organization needs people who practice the positive power of negative thinking. This concept is from an interesting book by Julie Norem. I recommend it for those who need to plan for the worst-case scenario, but have trouble doing so. It’s available on Amazon: The Positive Power of Negative Thinking: Using Defensive Pessimism to Harness Anxiety and Perform at Your Peak.

Adodoadgi was interviewed by Mark Bixler in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on September 14, 2005. The most important thing he said, in my opinion, is that all the people on the ground need support and gratitude from all of us.

Posted September 26th, 2005 in In the News