Organic Design

I was at a BP station buying two large cappuccinos--french vanilla for Pam, a caramel for me. A young black gal wearing a dress, very pretty, came up beside me and stood there for a few second.

"Excuse me," she said finally. "I have a magazine you might be interested in reading. It has some good articles about stress and...." She mentioned some other articles.

As hot liquid poured into a cup, I looked at the magazine. It was a small-sized publication called "Awake." The page she held open showed the name "Watchtower."

As I suspected, she was a Jehovah's Witness.

"No thank you," I told her.

I then continued filling the cups, and she continued standing there, waiting her turn.

"I'll bet you're from Jamaica," I said. Pretty obvious accent.

"Trinidad and Tobago," she said. "We're not far away."

"So I was close," I said. "I'm sure you would recognize the difference in speech between a Jamaican and someone from Trinidad, but I can't."

We exchanged a few more words, the I headed to the cashier while she got her own cappuccino.

As I drove away, I felt the conversation had been incomplete in two ways: I hadn't given a reason for my lack of interest in "Awake," and I hadn't affirmed her. Here's what I wish I had told her.

"I'm an evangelical Christian. But though we share different beliefs, I want to commend you for having the courage to share your faith with other people. I don't want to wish you success, but I do admire what you're doing."

Maybe next time.

So--what do you think would have been a good response to that young woman?

Probably one the my favorite reasons to drive through Kentucky, Ale8one.

One of the best ginger ale's around!

Now if I can just find "Sky", haven't seen that for quite a few years now.

Now, if the ladies would get their fannies up and out of bed, we could be rollin' through to SC.

I waited a long time for Jon Krakauer's book about Pat Tillman, "Where Men Win Glory," to appear in paperback. My interest wasn't so much Tillman as it was Krakauer, a tremendous writer whose "Into Thin Air" is among the best nonfiction books I've read. I knew that Krakauer would cover the story of Pat Tillman--a story shrouded in confusion--in a compelling, thorough way. And he did.

Pat Tillman, an NFL safety for the Arizona Cardinals, put his career on hold to enlist, for three years, in the Army Rangers. This happened a few months after 9/11, and was highly trumpeted in the press. Tillman never spoke to the press about his decision, but he did keep journals of his experiences. Many excerpts appear in this book.

The first part of "Where Men Win Glory" traces Tillman's formative years. We see him as a youngster. We see his football heroics in high school. We follow him to Arizona State, and then on to the NFL. Throughout this, Krakauer jumps back and forth between Tillman's life in California and Arizona, and Afghanistan, showing what was happening concurrently in that country--the Soviet occupation, the growing influence of Osama bin Laden, the Soviet withdrawal, years of civil war, the rise of the Taliban. It gives fascinating perspective.

Pat Tillman, the book shows, was an absolutely unique guy who followed his own drumbeat. He constantly challenged himself physically; twice, while hiking in Arizona, he jumped off a cliff into the upper branches of a Ponderosa pine. Though a man's man, he showed a tenderness toward others. At ASU, he would cry over missing his family and his high school sweetheart, Marie (whom he married shortly before entering the military).

Pat's brother Kevin, then playing semi-pro baseball, enlisted with Pat. Throughout their military service, they were together--all the way to Pat's death. They were as close as any brothers can be, and very much alike. Being such nonconformists, it was interesting to observe how they coped with highly-regimented military life. A system based on seniority, not merit, grated on Tillman.

As the book shows, Tillman's military service was not a good experience. He enlisted in hopes of battling the terrorists who caused 9/11. Instead, he soon found himself in Iraq, a war he personally opposed. Even then, he and his fellow Rangers didn't see action, but largely sat on the sidelines.

After that initial tour, the Tillmans returned to the States, where they aced Ranger School. Then they were sent to Afghanistan, a war Pat Tillman did believe in, and where he had hoped to go all along.

However, even Afghanistan was a disappointment, devoid of action. Pat had, by then, decided that in another year, after his three-year enlistment ended, he would return to football. The military frustrated him.

In April 2004, Pat Tillman died at the hands of fellow Rangers. Against all military wisdom, orders came to divide the Ranger patrol, all in an effort to salvage a broken Humvee. A few Taliban lobbed some mortar shells and fired their AKs, but from then on, it was basically one group of out-of-control Rangers firing at the other group. Krakauer describes everything in great detail. Tillman is shot three times in the head with a Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW).

Earlier in the book, during the Iraq section, Krakauer devotes a lot of time to the Jessica Lynch affair. Her supply convoy stumbles into an ambush, and she, badly injured in a vehicle crash, is taken prisoner. She did nothing heroic. In addition, in the aftermath of the ambush, another 17 American soldiers were accidentally killed by friendly fire from A-10 Warthogs, which made repeated bombing and strafing runs on American troops. It was a total mess.

The White House had created a special Office of Global Communications to manipulate public opinion about the lead-up to the Iraq War, and then to engage in "strategic deception" to shape public opinion in favor of the war once it started. A guy named James Wilkinson, a protege of Karl Rove, was put in charge.

When Jessica Lynch was captured, Wilkinson made up the story--which I clearly remember hearing--about how Lynch courageously held off attacking Iraqis with her M-16 until she was eventually shot and bayoneted. Nothing like this happened. This was followed by an extensive cover-up of the friendly fire deaths, which didn't become publicly known for many years.

Krakauer told this story as a prelude to the outrageous cover-up following Pat Tillman's death. The military released a story, told at Tillman's funeral, about how he died heroically while leading fellow Rangers in charging up a hill at ambushers. General William McChrystal was totally complicit in this. Military protocol says that deceased soldiers are to be shipped back to the States with their uniforms, body armor, and helmets, all of which are considered forensic evidence. But Tillman was sent back naked; orders came down to burn his uniform in Afghanistan. The soldier who carried this out said his orders also involved burning Tillman's final journal.

McChrystal drew up a Silver Star citation without talking to any eyewitnesses, falsifying information and never revealing to the review board the crucial information that Tillman was killed by friendly fire--a fact which everyone involved knew. Tillman died while hiding behind a hillside rock with another soldier (who survived), avoiding furious machine-gun fire from Rangers down below. But the military needed a combat hero, so they created one. The Iraq war was going badly; the first battle of Fallujah had just ended, and the Abu Graib mess had just broken. The Tillman story provided a distraction.

Numerous military protocols were broken, intentionally. A series of investigations were thwarted. The only persons penalized were low-level Rangers, not the officers complicit in the cover-up and deception (two of whom were soon promoted). The extent of the deception is breath-taking.

Krakauer describes everything in great detail, and it's maddening. Pat Tillman enlisted to serve his country, and then his country hijacked his virtue and his legacy. And as Kevin Tillman notes, only the fact that Pat Tillman was well-known, coupled with the tenacity of the close-knit Tillman family in pursuing the truth, enabled the facts to come to light. If it had been any other soldier, the cover-up would have succeeded, and the truth would have been buried forever.

This isn't the book I was expecting to read. But it was truly an amazing, hard-to-put-down book. And I'll carry with me, for a long time, the uniqueness that was Pat Tillman. I encourage you to read the book if only to learn about this guy who continually challenged himself, did his own thinking, followed his convictions, was wildly devoted to his wife and family, and truly cared about other people.

I just upgraded to iTunes 10.

Yuck.

• They changed all icons to a washed out gray.
• They replaced the application icon with the most Windows looking icon I’ve ever seen on a Mac.
• They violated their own User Interface Guidelines and changed the three buttons to Enlarge/Minimize/Close window from a horizontal to vertical position.

Here’s what’s most disturbing:  Apple has carved their niched on consistent, intuitive, and beautiful interfaces.  Yet here we find a washed out, inconsistent, ugly interface with a Windows 7 rip-off app icon.  And it made it past Steve Jobs and a group of people formerly known for some of the best industrial design in the world.

I’m a Mac fan. However, every success eventually declines, and has to rediscover greatness or fade away.  Will we look back one day and realize this was an early sign that Apple was entering the end of this creative streak?  That version 2.0 of the doldrums from the mid-80s and 90s were just around the corner?

Empires and great companies often peak before most people recognize the signs. Usually because the signs are so small, and so open interpretation, that they can’t be recognized without the benefit of hindsight. 

Yet for those with eyes to see, and sound intuition, the little things tell you a great deal.

Technically, Apple is progressing.  The unibody construction, the faster speeds, the environmentally manufacturing.

But . . .

There hasn’t been notable movement regarding industrial design since the original iphone, Mac Air, latest form factor iMac, and Mac Mini.

They have had antenna issues with the iphone 4G, iTunes being hacked, increasingly accurate R&D leaks, more diversified operations (less focus), and now this sorry tweaking of the iTunes interface.

It’s the little things that can be most telling.

A hiccup?  Hopefully.  Cracks in the empire beginning? Based on organizational life cycles, I think is a real possibility.

 

 

 

Everybody has an interesting story. It's the details that make your life fascinating. The details of the risks that you have taken, the pains you have inflicted, the hardships you have endured, the adventures you have attempted, the struggles you have embraced, the tensions you live with - this is what makes your story compelling.

When Paul meets Timothy, he invites this mama's boy to leave home and join them on their trek through the wastelands and craggy trails of central Turkey. Timothy tended towards timidity, but his mama let him go, and his story was never the same. When Paul meets Lydia, he invites her to trust Jesus - the risky next step for a pagan woman who had become a believer in the God of Israel. She's a prosperous merchant in the market for royal purple dye. She runs in circles of competitive wealth, she's without a family, and she is lonely. Her story is never the same after she joins the way of Jesus.

When Paul is confronted by a slavegirl who tells fortunes, he sets her free. Her story transitions swiftly from a life of cruelty to one of open possibilities. While she is still steeped in poverty, she is welcomed to walk into a new way of life - it's likely she was welcomed by Lydia. When Paul is approached by the pleading jailer for a way to be saved, the irony is not lost on him. The jailer stays a jailer, but he does so with a changed heart, a new perspective on what humans can become in the midst of adversity.

Paul becomes a catalyst for life-change - his entry into someone's story inevitably results in a new chapter. Whatever the story has been, it becomes obvious that the next set of paragraphs can head in another direction. The beginning of the story is the source of the tension and pain, and the transitioning sentences only serve to heighten the interest in the story: now that Jesus has come into the picture, what is possible?

Where ever you are at in your story, whether you think it's been a boring life, or an unfair one; whether you think your story is too full of shame for Jesus to enter into or if you're feeling pretty good about your story and have no real need for Him - God's still there on the margins. Timothy grew up in the synagogues, Lydia was a pagan long before she became a follower of Israel's God. The slavegirl was abused for too long before she discovered Paul, and the jailer had put in a lot of time before his moment of crisis. Even with all those long chapters where it seemed that God was nonexistent, or even against them, at some point Jesus intervened. Through Paul. Through someone who had their own pain-filled, tension-full story.

If Jesus is part of your story, let him use your story to help others open up to the way of Jesus. If your story has it's own chapters of hardships, but you're still a little skeptical about the whole Jesus-thing, don't discount the stories of those who have found hope and healing through Jesus. The stories are out there of how Jesus changes the direction of a story.

And when you need some changes in the plot of your life, God will be there to show you the way. Through someone you probably already know, someone how you care about, someone you respect, someone who's story can be helpful to you.

This book is different. It's about a choice and it's about your life. This choice doesn't require you to quit your job, though it challenges you to rethink how you do your job.

The system we grew up with is a mess. It's falling apart at the seams and a lot of people I care about are in pain because the things we thought would work don't. Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. They have become victims, pawns in a senseless system that uses them up and undervalues them.

It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map.

Stop settling for what is good enough and start creating art that matters. Stop asking what's in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have achieved your potential.

For hundreds of years, the population has been seduced, scammed, and brainwashed into fitting in, following instructions, and exchanging a day's work for a day's pay. That era has come to an end and just in time.

You have brilliance in you, and your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must. I'm hoping you'll stand up and choose to make a difference.

I like my work. I have a great job. And yet there is still the need to be reminded: create art that matters! There are those times where I get focused on the numbers, on the pay, on the benefits - on what I get out of my work. But I know that what makes my job most meaningful to me flows out of the meaningful work I do for others. And Seth Godin is imploring us to make our work a gift of art that makes a difference.

Whatever your job is, you can do it with a smile and a touch of humanity, you can go the extra mile - not because you want job security or to brown-nose the customer or impress your fellow employees. You perceive your tasks as opportunities to present a gift to the recipient because you don't want to feel like a cog in a wheel, you want to be fully human. You do your job with an attitude of art: there is craftsmanship involved in the details of your work, in how you interact with other humans.


Either you settle and punch the clock and gripe about your boss, OR you view your job as a platform to impact the lives of other humans, speaking words of kindness and helpfulness, serving customers and fellow employees with dignity and respect. The workplace doesn't have to beat you down, you don't have to let others suck your humanity out of you. You can make a choice - that is what makes you full alive!


This is what makes you a Linchpin, that indispensable person at work - your attitude, your humanity, your gifts. For some of you, it won't take much effort to stand out and become indispensable. For others, your efforts at becoming a Linchpin will raise the bar for everyone - and that's the kind of difference that makes you indispensable. Because of you, stuff happens, good stuff - stuff that comes from the choices you make with your attitude, your artwork.

Last night, while Pam and I were eating at MacAlister's Deli, I heard the song, "Billy Don't be a Hero." It took me back to 1974 when this anti-war song hit Number 1. It was originally recorded by Paper Lace, where it topped the charts in England. But before Paper Lace could release it in the States, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods covered it, and their version is what I remember. (The Paper Lace version stalled at 96 in the US.)

The song appeared during the latter years of the Vietnam War, when we were getting out. The mood in America was, "Let's cut our losses. It's not worth losing our sons in that no-account country." Kind of like people are now thinking about Afghanistan.

The song ends on a note of despair. Billy's fiance had been telling him, "Don't be a hero. Keep your head down. Come back to me." But in the midst of combat, he volunteers for a risky mission, and dies. The song ends:

I heard his fiancee got a letter
That told how Billy died that day.
The letter said that he was a hero.
She should be proud he died that way.
I heard she threw the letter away.

I was a junior in high school at the time. I loved that song; it told a good story and I could understand all the lyrics. (The same guy wrote "The Night Chicago Died," another great story-song, and one which did become a US hit for Paper Lace). I can still remember all the lyrics. When I heard the song playing last night, it all came back to me. I was mentally singing along with it.

The song was probably written with the Civil War in mind. That's how Paper Lace portrayed it on their album cover. Twice it refers to the men as "soldier blues," and one line says, "I need a volunteer to ride up and bring us back some extra men." Like, ride up in a Jeep? More likely ride up on a horse.

Yet, the song is anonymous enough to apply to any war. Especially unpopular wars. In "Star Trek: the Next Generation," Tasha Y'ar's death is described as an "empty" death, a death without real purpose, no heroics, no lasting meaning. That is how people had begun viewing Vietnam--an empty war, undeserving of American blood. Billy's fiance seemingly viewed his death as empty (though I'm sure Billy, and his fellow soldiers, didn't).

Are people beginning to view Afghanistan that way? Just another hopeless cause, like Vietnam? 

I've been musing about that song's reappearance. Pop music often reflects what's happening in society. Is "Billy, Don't be a Hero" being revived, because that's how people feel about our two wars? We've been lauding our fallen as heroes, and they are. But will people begin telling their children and spouses and siblings, "Don't be a hero. It's not worth dying over there."

Give it a couple more years, with weekly American deaths in Afghanistan and no progress worth mentioning. Then some opportunistic group could re-record "Billy Don't be a Hero," and they may just have a huge hit.