EASY TO SAY, EASY TO DO.

"What I want to do with my life is to make a difference." Ever hear anyone say that? Ever heard yourself say that?

My philosophy of life is simple: You're born, you die and in between you do something. That "something" can be butcher, baker, candlestick maker, doctor, lawyer, Native American Head Administrator, prince, pauper, pawn or a king. You will occupy your time on earth doing something. There are only a few of us who will be remembered by the rest of us for that something we do, good or bad. Most of us must be content to be the "rest of us," and that's just fine.

You may not make a difference to the multitudes, but at your death, I believe, you will have made a difference to somebody, and so, many of us seek to make that difference through work. Mistake.

An employee can attempt to make a difference through work, but that's a tough road, because an employee is only one half of the equation. His or her organization is the other half. Do you really believe when the founders of companies had a business idea, garnered capital, adhered to all government rules and regulations, hired a bunch of strangers, negotiated for real-estate, and experienced many sleepless nights, they did it all for the purpose of providing you an opportunity to "make a difference?"

Did the founders bring their burning desires and passions to life to provide you and me an extended family, a home away from home, a place to go each day for fulfillment, challenge, an enhanced quality of life, The American Dream, and a home base from which to make a difference? Of course not, but somehow workers were willingly, happily, unconsciously, and voluntarily led down that yellow brick road to the loving, caring and all-benevolent organization.

Today's employees were influenced by previous generations to believe an organization should care about their hopes, dreams and aspirations and on the job they would be doing something worth doing, something that made a difference. So people tried to combine the "making a difference" at work concept with the "making a salary" concept and found themselves ordering Maalox by the case.

Those who are living their lives with the pressure relief valve open are those who have realized their passion to make a difference transcends the workplace. They don't have to be employed to make a difference. They vow to make a difference wherever they are and in whatever they are doing. This is an important lesson because the framework in which you live your life is continually changing, and if you tie your life's purpose to something transitory like your job, there is trouble in River City.

The young and naive tend to give their organization more responsibility for their whole person than it wanted or should have had. As workers mature they came to realize their organizations used them as much as they used their organizations -- both for selfish reasons. Employees are to their organizations, like it or not, interchangeable pieces.

Work is just one element of your life, one way to express yourself, and one of many way to make a difference. Your being on this earth does not have to be justified through your work, volunteerism, parenting or all the other "somethings " you do. Just being here you have made a difference.

Lesson: Different people have different ways to make a difference.

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO?

George Santana, a renown professor of philosophy at Harvard University (and to my knowledge no relation to Carlos), paced up and down lecturing to his captivated students. The professor walked deliberately to a window overlooking a garden of spring flowers, stood silently for a long time and finally said, "I very much fear that last sentence will never be completed. You see, I have an appointment with April." George Santana never lectured formally again.

The professor decided he didn't want to profess anymore. He was going to lead a different life. Good for him. How many different lives have you lead? How many different lives would you like to lead?

Answering these questions will require a life time-out to analyze what you have done and what you want to do. When in that taking-stock mood will you be mentally breaking out your best bottle of champagne in unbridled happiness over your life choices, or breaking your best bottle of champagne over your head in abject frustration?

If you were a lawyer, do you wish you had been a potter, a potter a lawyer? Maybe you lived in the city and wished you lived in the country or been a country bumpkin longing for the life of a city slicker. Do you wish you had been married, single, single living like married or married living like single? How would you have been in the religious life or as a Hell's Angel? Would you like to have lived the life of a senior vice president of a large corporation or a rescuer of Labrador Retrievers? Do you wish you had guided your life with the purpose of making more money, or do you wish you were more of a rose smeller? How about living as a musician on the road or a magician with a toad?

As they say, life is short, but it's wide. Different ways to live a life do not have to be mutually exclusive. If you choose the path that will lead you to being a vice president of a large corporation that doesn't mean you can't rescue Labs on the side (or for the more adventurous, be a vice president on the side). Consider retiring when you've had enough bossing people around, and then you can rescue dogs in your next life. How about being a lawyer until you're forty and then a potter until you're eighty, then on to the Hell's Angels.

You can lead one life with very little planning at all, just show up. To lead more than one life requires planning, and the sooner the better. What causes senior frustration moments is realizing you are just flat-out too old to hit the road as the circus human cannon ball that you now realize was your life's dream. While you may read about 95-year-old skydivers (Notice you only read about them once.), they are obviously the exception. The truth is there are ideal times in life to do certain things so you always must be thinking ahead of the game. You can give the road less traveled by those your age a try, but remember the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.



Lesson:There are many ways to live a life, pick out a half dozen or so and get going.

A DAY AT THE MOVIES!

Sammy Davis Jr., a physically handicapped, racial and religious minority, and a basically unattractive (relatively), little guy, was a multi talented movie star. I, on the other hand, a healthy, attractive (relatively), racial and religious majority-- am not. I'm sure there is a lesson here, but that has nothing to do with the point of this story.

In 1989 Sammy played the role of a dying tap dancer in the film, Tap. Sammy's movie daughter was, admonishing him for continuing, in a weaken condition, to sneak out with his old cronies and dance. Sammy told her, "If I stop dancing I'll still be dying, I'll just be bored doing it." Then he said the most powerful line in the movie, "I am a tap dancer". As simple as that line was it set the priorities for the life of Sammy's character. A dancer was who he was. It was his priority. It defined him. His life's purpose was to serve the dance.

While Mr. Davis Jr.'s character was fictitious, there is also the true story of Karl Wallenda. Karl founded the high wire act, The Flying Wallendas. Ten years prior to Karl's "work related" death he was asked about his feeling for the tightrope. He said, "Being on the wire is living, everything else is waiting." A wire walker was who Karl Wallenda was. It defined him. It was his priority. His life's purpose was to serve wire walking.

Two characters in one of Warren Beatty's earlier movies Shampoo were discussing Beatty's character, and one said something like, "He's a hairdresser, right?" The other character said, "He's not a hairdresser, it's just what he does." Doesn't sound like WBs purpose was to serve hair.

When the lid of the old pine box closes, and they fiddle you on home, wouldn't it be nice to know that you spent your alive time serving that which to you is you?

Lesson: Some do what they do, others do what they are.

GOOD OLD GOLDEN RULE DAYS

"When they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, neither fit for hunters, warriors nor counselors, they were totally good for nothing!"

Indians of the Six Nations declining an offer to send some of their young men to William and Mary College because of previous experiences.

Totally good for nothing seems a bit strong. I'll bet when those Native American young men returned from absorbing the white man's teachings they were good at differentiating between their equals and those less equal. They had perfected deviating from their roots in the permanent earth and could enthusiastically lust after material, temporary goods like the best of the white students. The little learners could skillfully prefabricate stories to make life easier for themselves, distrust others with the best of them and fully understand that religion was in a building on a certain day of the week rather than in all of creation at all times.

I'm sure they could also speak English, spell, diagram a sentence, recognize Roman Numerals, add, subtract, multiply and divide--they just couldn't run, live in the woods, hunt, make war or counsel--Indian stuff.

What is the role of formal education? While the role changes over time, schools, hopefully, have basic marching orders to teach what the students need to know to prosper (however defined by the community). This may sound easier than it is. Readin', Ritin. and Rithmatic' or Runnin', Huntin' and Counselin'?

Let's look at the traits that differentiate us from the animals; some examples are: imagination, ability to change, capacity to experience emotions thereby generating tears and laughter, potential to make choices, lack of fear of the vacuum cleaner, and directed by a purpose higher than instinct and/or tradition. On the downside, we humans have the potential to lie, cheat, steal and kill things for no particular reason.

These traits, good or bad, are traditionally not covered in formal education. Should they be or should formal education limit itself to the hard, quantifiable skills, and leave the running, hunting and counseling to life? I think so.

Some core life skill learning (i.e. coping with disappointment, learning from failure, exuding confidence, taking responsibility, being trustworthy--the modern day equivalents to running and hunting), will occur as a byproduct of sitting in a schoolroom all day with a bunch of people. Life skill learning in a classroom is not to be underestimated, but teaching a student to cope with life's disappointments shouldn't be formal education's primary objective. Teachers have a full enough day teaching the three R's

None of the input I have needed to cope with life's sucker punches was covered in formal education, but I had the life skills when I needed them. Keep your radar up and for gosh sakes STAY AWAKE. Some days I have learned as much from my dogs as I have from the "experts" on the TV. Selectively place your learning eggs in the education basket, (render unto education what is education's), or you'll find yourself stumbling through life with a wall full of diplomas but be "totally good for nothing."



Lesson: Learning is not always where we expect to find it, but it can always be found.