Which is it now?

A couple of months ago, as I waited for my promotion and raise to kick in after the first of the year, I was struck with two different streams in my consciousness...
The first one was "Wow, I am being given the opportunity to lead change and make a difference in this department, heck, in this company."
The second one was "Wow, that's a decent raise, and the whole management by objective thing sounds pretty cool, I can't wait to learn more about that."
As I sit here now, after the first of the year obviously, and ponder the weight of both of those thoughts it becomes clear to me. It’s all about the extra $50 in the paycheck. That’s all that really changed. Oh, and I get new business cards. Someday.

Face to Face

The art gallery on the first floor of my building is hosting this show:
"Face to Face, Encountering Homelessness..."

Not to be offensive, but in order to walk to this gallery from almost anywhere downtown (its on 2nd and 7th, the heart of downtown Minneapolis) you ARE going to come face to face with REAL homelessness. Just seems to me that looking at art depicting said condition would be a little anti-climatic.

More info.

Leader or Lemming?

I just finished up a solid week of training future leaders in the U.S. Navy. The newly select Chief Petty Officers completed the training and induction process and were pinned with their new anchors last Sunday. One of the benefits of being a Chief Petty Officer is the opportunity to continue my own learning during each season where we train our replacements...you always have to continue learning. Leadership is the main topic - Chief Petty Officers are expected to lead...so this quote from Mark Sanborn's You don't need a title blog was especially fitting.

We need leaders, not assertive lemmings.

Figuring out which way the group is going anyway and a jumping in front is not leadership. ;)

Baby Bunnies

A couple of baby rabbits were discovered by my two dogs this week. I found the nest area, with the help of the dogs after I took the babies away. They weren't hurt, just slobbered on. Baby rabbits are pretty darn good at playing dead though. I put them back in the little hollow at the base of a tree at the edge of our yard and tried to keep the dogs away. Yesterday while I was at work, I was told by the wife and kids that the younger, stupider dog went ahead and killed one. The kids were pretty upset. At dinner time that night, the other baby was found in the garage with the younger dog's mouth around it again. It was ok though, and I decided we should try to figure out a way to keep this one alive. We were going to keep it in a box and feed it until it was big enough to run away from the stupid dogs. I went to the internet and found out that the best thing to do was to put the baby back and put a fence around the nesting area. Anyone with a garden knows that most fences won't keep out rabbits, but the idea is just to keep out the dogs. I put the baby back and stacked three pallets around the tree to keep the mutts away. We'll go back this afternoon and see if the doe (mom rabbit) visited last night to nurse the remaining baby. The web page we found said that the doe only comes to the nest once every 24 hours, usually late at night, so as not to draw attention to the babies. It also say that the mom won't abandon a baby because of human scent...hopefully the same applies to dog slobber.

Thoughts on God and Bridges

Over the last couple of days there has been a lot of coverage of the I35W Bridge collapse here in Minneapolis. One of the things I have noticed, and I don't really know why, is the presence of God. The President, the Governor and the Mayor have all uttered the phrase "our thoughts and prayers..."
News reporters and witnesses alike have used the phrase "but for the grace of God..." several times.
On the way in this morning I heard the story of a bystander feeling hopeless about not being able to help more. She called out to the crowd around her, "Does anyone want to pray with me?" At first she was met with looks of skepticism, then one person answered. Then another, and soon a dozen or more people were standing in a circle, holding hands, praying for the rescuers, the to be rescued and those who didn't survive the bridge collapse.
In the press conferences after the initial reporting started to become repetitive, there was talk of rebuilding, money being allocated and resources dedicated to ensuring this sort of thing doesn't happen again...and I heard the phrase more than once, "God willing..."
The same people that stand by and let God be taken out of the classroom, off our money, out of our pledge and basically removed from the public view are the ones that publicly invoke His name in times of need and tragedy. Its kind of sad, but I guess its the way God wants it. He's always here, no matter what we do to try and remove Him. We only notice when we need Him. Good Friends are always like that.