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Cinderella Rules

First, the bad news: You are not Cinderella.

Further bad news: Neither am I.

The good news is that Cinderella lives in a perfect ever-after world, since the shoe did actually fit, and all that nonsense. This is the ever-after that no one included in the story. This is the ever-after that includes being totally qualified, but age-challenged. This is the ever-after that includes absolute political correctness, so that we're not "too old", we're just too darned focused on past experience.

Now, if we had documentation of that past experience, it might pull some weight with today's awesomely fair, iPhone-enabled, management generation. Our downfall is that we didn't document any of our experience with raw data. So now we have nothing but reputation, which counts for nothing in a world dominated by Excel spreadsheets. After all, reputation is now a matter of context.

Anyone can fake an Excel spreadsheet. Oh no...so documentation is also meaningless? Where do we go from there?

The Super Bowl

First, a disclaimer: I know nothing about football, other than it involves someone's foot and a ball that is not shaped anything like a ball. It is a game played on a field (which isn't really a "field" at all, but part of a multi-acre tract of prime real estate, encompassing mostly on-ramps, off-ramps, parking, and other non-game related uses).

Football is entertainment, but boy they sure make it look like war. The "players" present themselves like mean, intimidating, "in-your-face", "take-no-prisoners", fighting machine, heroes. Chasing a ball, that is not shaped like a ball at all, on a field, which is not a field at all, on television. Grrr....(oooh!) Grrrr....

The players wear cute tight pants. We called them panty-girdles when I was in high school, but add a stripe down the side of the leg, and presto! Football pants. Topped with way big t-shirts stuffed with shoulder pads. (We wore our big brothers' shirts and stuffed our bras with kleenex...it's the same concept, just different body parts.)

Now for the helmets. It reminds me of us girls in the '60s when we curled our hair using jumbo rollers, and then covered the whole mess up with a brightly colored, glorified hair net. It was made of nylon, with elastic to hug your head. So the effect was this big bouffant headdress that made it look like nothing was going on inside your head. Very much like a football helmet.

Why do people love football? Just listen to the passion, the enthusiasm, the sheer joy of the attendees. You don't hear that kind of enthusiasm at church, even though eternity is at stake. You don't hear that kind of passion at a county commission meeting, even though personal freedom is at stake.

You do hear joy like that at rock concerts. You hear that enthusiasm at rock concerts too. Hmmm...rock concerts, football games.

Just for fun, ask 10 people at random tomorrow...who played in the Super Bowl? Ask them who won? Ask them to describe the best play. I bet you will have a 20 minute conversation with each person.

Then ask that same person to name one of their Senators or Congressmen. Ask them to name the Governor of your state. Ask them to name one signer of the Declaration of Independence (other than John Hancock). Ask them to name the authors of the four Gospels.

Interesting, isn't it? That we have been programmed to pay attention to the Super Bowl. To memorize the stats, and glamorize the players. To look forward to the ads, to celebrate the competition...and hate the opposition. We are encouraged to worship one team or another, to idolize the players. Like the Greeks, idolizing their gods; or the Romans, idolizing their gladiators.

I wonder what it would have been like if the Greeks or the Romans would have had instant replay technology. Slow-motion HD instant replay might have changed history.

That Pesky Context Issue

I read a blog post recently from someone who happened to catch a radio broadcast where Rush Limbaugh was comparing President Obama to Hitler. This radio broadcast was not the actual Rush Limbaugh show...it was a discussion on NPR, which included a report ABOUT the Rush Limbaugh program. The blogger who heard this went on to speculate that Rush Limbaugh could just as likely "flip-flop", ranting on behalf of Liberals, if the price were right.

Now, I happen to know this blogger to be an intellectually honest person, a real truth-seeker. That's why I am surprised that he would not have considered the context of the soundbites he may have heard. I am puzzled that he would not have questioned the possible agenda of NPR in broadcasting this discussion. Specifically, it concerns me that "context" has become so meaningless.

For instance, today's controversy about Harry Reid's comments prior to the presidential campaign. As I understand it, he referred to President Obama as "light-skinned", with "no Negro accent." I am not an Obama fan, much less a fan of Harry Reid. But, I don't think Reid's statements were racist. In context, he was defining his early support of Barack Obama as a candidate for President. We may not want to acknowledge it, but the fact that Barack Obama is African-American was a consideration. I don't get it...we were all proud of the fact that the U.S. finally elected an African-American President (therefore proving that we are NOT a racist nation), but on the other hand, we can't talk about it, because that would be racist.

What is the bottom line? Would we be really-really-non-racist if we elected a really black-looking black guy, with a really heavy street accent...so long as we didn't use the word "Negro"? This is insane! He's our President. I don't like his agenda, and I have a right to disagree with that.

I refuse to take Harry Reid's comments out of context, just to make him look like a racist. I would appreciate it if others would not take Rush Limbaugh's comments out of context, just to make him look like a Hitler fanatic.

Business and Spirituality

"Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach." - Woodrow Wilson.

I think the first petition in the Lord's Prayer is "Give us this day...", which connotes a gratitude and desire for life, followed by a desire for daily sustenance. No one can worship God or love his neighbor without the gift of life. Considering the many famines mankind has suffered, and the time-honored tradition of fasting, I would venture to guess that it is quite possible to worship God and love one's neighbor on an empty stomach.

What an odd statement for Wilson to make. He skips right over "Give us this day" and pounces on "our daily bread."

Born in the 50's

I had the distinct pleasure/curse of being among the first generation of human beings to experience Christmas enhanced by television. The pleasure part included the Andy Williams Christmas specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolf the Red-Nosed-Reindeer, hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Pope spreading Christmas joy in every language on earth. Other generations only heard about such things. They didn't have television.

The curse part was the increasing intrusion of product advertising. Until that time, there were baby dolls (not grown-up Barbies, with their own condos, sports cars, boyfriends, wardrobes, and careers); there were building blocks or lincoln logs to construct homes, not Legos to build super-structures and other-worldly mega-complexes.

We adopted a "Jetson" mentality, where only the new, the modern, the progressive, the anything-but-traditional, was worthy of admiration.

Is it any wonder that merchants are setting up Valentines Day displays on Christmas Eve? It's easy to blame the demise of our culture on greedy capitalists. The generation of the '50s unwittingly caved to the message that "new" is unquestionably better.

We're older now (some of us are ancient), and we realize that we were wrong. New is not automatically better (unless it's the Edison-type of new). We treasure the past we've been part of, and would like to pass the best of it on to fresher souls.

Thank God we have a vigorous new generation to carry the torch!

Tell It to the Wind

TELL IT TO THE WIND

When clouds turn gray and blend to black,
don't make a noise, nor turn your back;
just breathe it to the wind.

When bread dries out, leaving brittle hard crust,
don't cry out, nor dare mistrust;
just scream it to the wind.

When evil wins the devil's hand,
don't wince or moan, nor take a stand;
just proclaim it to the wind.

When black is white, and lies are true,
do not despair; it's nothing new.
Just bare it to the wind.

The wind sweeps strong and clears the air;
When the wind is through, there is nothing there.
Just tell it to the wind.