Confessions of a Southerner. Like a Southern drawl, this may take a while.
I’ve been thinking recently about “where I’m from” and its impact on my life and work.
All posts filed under: Monday Musings
Thoughts to start off the work week
Be thankful every day
Why do we often wait until an individual or team completes a major project to offer thanks? Last week’s PastForward 2018 national preservation conference in San Francisco certainly falls in the successful major project category in my work, and I do want to thank our core team of Susan, Farin, Rhonda, Colleen, Alison, Nicky, Lizzy, Diana, Michelle, Reagan, Sandi and Priya. They helped lead us through an inspiring week. I’ve often thought we shouldn’t wait for a holiday such as the one we are celebrating this week in the U.S. or only at the end of a project like PastForward to recognize others. A few years ago I became intentional about saying “thank you” to someone every day. It is one of the smartest things I ever did as I get so much more out of life since I began that practice. If for no other reason, it reminds me how much I depend on the kindness of others. I believe there is a distinction between gratefulness and thankfulness. If we are fully aware, fully …
Measure What We Value
We measure a great deal in the modern office environment, and the nonprofit world is no different. Finding the right measurement to capture what is truly important, however, takes time and thought. Profit for a business is easy to track, but in the mission-driven world of nonprofits the right outcomes can be hard to quantify. I was thinking of this while wrapping up James Williams’ Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy. In looking for ways to set boundaries for attention-grabbing technology, Williams turns to measurement as one key. He begins by noting, that “Our goal in advancing measurement should be to measure what we value, rather than valuing what we already measure.” How do we, both as individuals and as staff members of a large organization, do this work? How do we measure what we value? Williams has a suggestion on the organizational or corporate scale: measure the mission. If we “operationalize in metrics the company’s mission statement or purpose for existing, which is something nearly every company has …
Boundaries
Technology companies see “sleep” as a competitor. They are not looking out for your best interest.
Extraordinary People Hidden in Plain Sight
Last week was difficult. The horrific shooting on Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh shook many of us to the core. Coming at the end of a week of attempts at mass political assassinations, it called into question assumptions about our nation’s values. As a historian I know that anti-Semitism and bigotry are as old as our country, in fact as old as recorded history. Thankfully, stories of courageous response to bigotry are just as old, yet often not as well known. The Overlooked Obituary project of the New York Times is designed to recognize extraordinary people overlooked by the editors of the paper in their day. People like Rose Zar, the remarkable mother of my National Trust colleague Howard Zar. Rose Zar’s overlooked obituary appeared in the Times on the anniversary of her death in the Jewish lunar calendar. That happened to fall during this past week, bringing a story of hope and determination amidst a flood of bad news. When she was 19 and living in the ghetto in Piotrkow, …
To avoid stress, stop screwing up
Thinking about ways to set up our lives so that we have a realistic chance to succeed.
Perseverance and passion
MacArthur genius grant recipient Angela Duckworth has the perfect response to those who once told her, “You know, you’re no genius.”
An education in the obvious
In the midst of one of the most turbulent weeks in our recent civic life, I attended the play Lincolnesque last Saturday at Washington’s Keegan Theatre. First released in 2009, this new production couldn’t have come at a better time. Here’s the synopsis: “Leo has more on his plate than he can handle. He is a speechwriter for an endangered mediocre Congressman, in the final month before a do-or-die mid-term election. His new boss Carla is a dominating message maven who has been brought in from the corporate world to try and save the campaign. And his brother Francis is a psychiatric outpatient recently released from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, despite having a powerful delusion that he is Abraham Lincoln. Desperate for inspiration, Leo turns to Francis for help writing “Lincolnesque” speeches, hoping that Lincoln’s transformative oratory will revive his boss’s career.” Playwright John Strand uses humor and plot twists to bring Leo and Carla to the point of stealing Francis’ “Lincolnesque” citations for the final campaign speech that puts the Congressman over the top. The …
Good Trouble
Congressman John Lewis is a hero to many. A hero whose skull was cracked more than fifty years ago while working for justice. So in June when he sent out the following on his twitter account, it was a message worth hearing that day and every day: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Lewis wasn’t calling for a “don’t worry, be happy” type of response to the issues of our times. Instead he knows—from more than five decades in the trenches—that despair creates apathy, and apathy destroys activism. One activist who was in Lewis’ training camps in Mississippi in 1964 notes that “Giving in to despair is lazy surrender.” A few years ago, when the National Trust conference was held in Nashville, John Lewis challenged us to believe in the …
Life is not a rehearsal
Guitar great Tommy Emmanuel reminds us that we need to get on with life!
MORE TO COME... 