Things I'm thankful for this week:
1. More Soul Food
Remember a couple weeks ago I told you about this guy from work who didn't know I went to church? As one of my cube mates (Rickshaw) said today, it's hard to know where to start to try to describe him. You also have to wonder if this guy understands how offensive some of the comments he makes are. I don't know if he's such a different cat because he's originally from a different country, or if he's just that way. It could be a combination of both. I think I will nickname him Sundaes. I have a couple interesting stories to tell you about him.
The first happened earlier this week. He stopped by my cube and asked me how my vacation was, where I went, etc. When he found out I went back to where I grew up, he asked if I had seen my high school sweetheart. I told him that I hadn't. He asked why, and I told him I didn't have a high school sweetheart. He said that explained a lot of things about why I am the way I am because I'm emotionally damaged from not having a high school sweetheart. Yes, he called me emotionally damaged. Good thing I had just been to convention and could laugh at that. Needless to say, I begged to differ. At this point Rickshaw, who had been sitting at his desk, interjected himself into the conversation too. From there the conversation evolved into a discussion on relationships. Sundaes insisted that it's not possible for two people to be married for many years without kids because you would get sick of looking at each other. He says that kids help a marriage because that way you don't have to spend so much time with your spouse. Rickshaw and I disagreed. We also had the old argument we usually have about how not everybody's standard of fun is the same. I'm not sure what planet Sundaes is from, but it's a pretty crazy one from what I can tell.
Today as I was leaving for lunch, Sundaes wanted to go to lunch too, so I went to lunch with him. The lunch conversation wasn't all that crazy (for him), although it did involve an invitation to go with him to the Bahamas or Lisbon, Portugal on vacation. Don't worry Dad, I didn't commit to any of that. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm stuck in a rut and not willing to experience anything new. But the crazier part came later in the meal. Sundaes had accidentally ordered a fairly large meal (more of a dinner size than a lunch size). He was saying he wouldn't be able to eat all of it, so I told him he should consider getting a to-go box. He said he could, but he didn't know how he'd keep the food from spoiling. I told him he could put the box in the refrigerator. He liked that idea and thanked me for the idea. At that point I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for him. Did he really not know you can put leftovers in the fridge? I tried to decide whether I needed to give him re-heating instructions, but I figured I'd let him try to figure that out for himself.
When I got back from weekend, all the green tomatoes that had been on my plants were all gone. I don't know if it was Gary the Groundhog or a deer or raccoon that did that destruction, but I was not happy. By the way, there have been several Gary sightings in the last two weeks or so. Uncle John better get here soon to help with varmint control.
I went in today to have my blood drawn for my biometrics screening. Usually this has been a straightforward process. The nurse uses the rubbing alcohol, puts the needle in, gets a vial or two of blood, and then it's done. For some reason the nurse today struggled. First she tried a vein on my right arm. It seemed like it would be OK initially after the needle poke, but for some reason no blood would flow into the vial. Then she dug around with the needle trying to get a better position in the vein. She asked if I drank anything this morning (yes, a glass of water). No success. She tried a different vial. Still nothing. I informed her by this point that usually they don't have any trouble (hint hint). Even when I give blood and they use the giant needle, they just poke me and hit the vein right away. Still no luck in getting blood. I was like a turnip. She dug around a little more and definitely hit a nerve at least once. She said she saw "the flash" and everything, so she didn't know why she wasn't getting any blood. I was losing my patience and was about to do more than hint by bluntly suggesting she try a different vein when she finally came to the same conclusion. She tried my other arm with a smaller needle. Thankfully she got it on the first try this time. My right arm was sore for several hours after that. I was kind of expecting to have a giant bruise on the inside of that elbow, but it's just a smaller bruise. Actually, I have a small bruise on the insides of both elbows from her pokes, which usually doesn't happen. My nursing readers - is this normal? And what is "the flash"? To me it seemed like she wasn't a very good phlebotomist, but maybe there are other mitigating factors that could cause this. It was 7:50 AM, and she looked a little groggy and/or worse for wear already.
That's enough stories for today.
I saw the hand doctor and OT yesterday. About the swelling they pretty much said, "Yeah, it will do that. Wow, it did swell up, huh? I could take up to a year for all the swelling to go down." They didn't seem very worried about it, so I guess it's kind of normal. Range of motion progress was pretty minimal from last week (partly due to the swelling I think). The range of motion is about 90 degrees on the MP joint, 85 degrees on the PIP joint, and 55 degrees on the DIP joint.
I have another new torture device to help improve range of motion. It's called a buddy strap because you can use it to "buddy tape" a finger to the one next to it. However, it's also used to help stretch things too as I demonstrate below. It's a pretty slick little invention. It's mostly a loop of Velcro with a tail. The inside of the velcro is really grippy so that it doesn't slide around on your finger. And the very end of the tail has the opposite kind of Velcro so it can stick to itself.
I'm still doing exercises six times a day with DIP Blocking, PIP Blocking, The Claw (bend, stretch and hold), and The Full Fist (bend, stretch, and hold). In addition, I do The Claw and The Fist with the buddy strap on. I still use the "naughty putty" three times a day to make fists and do finger rakes. 10 reps each on all those exercises.
I have two more weeks of playing sports with the splint on, and then they said I should buddy tape the finger to play sports for a couple months after that until the finger feels back to normal. One of the ligaments or tendons on the side of my finger still felt "spongy" the doctor said and needs a little more healing time before getting any big jars. And of course this finger is more susceptible to dislocation in the future.
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| Using the buddy strap |
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| The naughty putty behaving - it's really more of a bright pink color, but here it looks orange. |
Things I'm thankful for this week:
1. Afternoon Kayak
As I was looking back at September of last year to find a few links, it was kind of amusing to see how much of a routine my life has. September goes like this: 'vention, 'vention, department outing, 5K run, trying to resist turning the furnace on.....although this year there are a few different twists. The whole dislocated finger has been a change of pace, and there will also be 'vention three times instead of two. I'm still resisting turning the furnace on. I made the first fall cup of tea this evening.
You may have been wondering what I did for the last two weekends. One I spent at 'vention a little further upstate. It was very good, but not memorable in the same way that a trip to Oregon is memorable. I think a lot of the same things apply to this year as they did last year, so I won't bore you with repetition. Something that is different this year is that Tim&Kate now have four children. And I'll share a good thought from 'vention since I don't want to be using last year's bread: "Seeing someone giving their all shouldn't make us jealous; it should encourage us to give our all as well." The other thing I liked was the reminder to be dependable in our place. I saw the usual suspects there, although there is a new usual suspect that it was fun to see from the growing up years. I'll call her K for now until a better, more original handle comes along.
Last Friday was my department's outing. Like last year, it was a hard day of work. I golfed in the morning for the first time in about three years because I didn't feel like shooting, and golfing seemed like it might work better with the splint. Lunch was roasted pig again, and then the HW vs SW engineer "Smackdown!" was on in a rousing game of kickball. The HW team redeemed itself by winning 5 to 4. Then some others went to play dodgeball, which I passed on because of the splint. So I played volleyball one-handed instead. Then, I went and played ultimate frisbee one-handed. I'm sure the doctor would be horrified at me doing that because of all the risks, but I figured it was a calculated risk. It was only a couple days before the official splint removal, and I was careful....
Like last year, the department outing was the day before a 5K run. I wasn't sure I would run in it, but Paul (PJ) injured his knee a couple days beforehand and had an available registration, so I couldn't turn it down. This year the 5K was a fundraiser for a local progeria foundation. Jared did NOT make an appearance, but Cam did. Like last year, my knees were hurting right off the bat from frisbee the day before, and I just ran through the pain. I did stop to walk for a little bit a couple times. My final time was 32:17, which is a little less than a minute longer than last year (31:31). At least two software engineers beat me this year. The good news is I didn't completely embarrass PJ. Even as a 30-year-old male, I didn't have the longest time. When I compared my time to the other females my age, I was in the middle of the pack. Not bad for not training I guess. It is also slightly depressing that many 8-year-olds beat my time.
Last Saturday I also went over to PJ's house for a camp fire and s'mores in the evening with some of my other friends from work. Instead of plain old chocolate, try peanut butter cups or the Nestle Crunch chocolate with the crispy rice in it. Very yummy.
That's all for now I think. Later gators.
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| Looking out my tent door at 'vention. |
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| "My" race bib for the 5K. |
I saw the OT today, and it was good news. I can take the splint off now except for playing sports. However, I need to be watching for any finger drooping that may occur to indicate something might be going wrong. The finger is kind of swollen tonight, which is a bit worrisome to me. I'll see how it looks in the morning and call the OT if necessary.
I'm still supposed to do finger exercises 6-8 times a day and putty exercises 3 times a day. A new putty exercise was added called the finger rake where you flatten the putty out and then rake your fingers through the pancake of putty. Because my range of motion improved, I get to drop the third fist exercise, but I still have to do the "claw" and "full fist" with more stretching and holding involved. She also dropped the individual DIP and PIP joint stretches, but I'm still supposed to do the DIP and PIP active exercises. Towel scrunches have been dropped unless I'm not using my pinky in concert with my other fingers and I need to train those muscles to do coordinated movement again.
To answer a question that was raised, it takes 5-10 minutes to do the exercises depending on whether I'm doing the putty exercises. Bex, check out the picture below. See how well your ink stood up? It has faded some, but it survived a daily assault from water, soap, and rubbing alcohol plus a weekly dousing in bleach water for seven weeks. That must have been a pretty permanent marker. I also purchased a small sewing scissors the day after the weekend at the house of KarmX. Thanks for the ideas.
Things I'm thankful for this week:
1. Sunrises
Exciting things have happened since the last finger update. If you like medical details, read on. If not, then just skip this post.
I went to the hand doctor and OT on the Tuesday after Labor Day. The verdict was that it was healed enough to start exercises. Woo-hoo! I'm still wearing the splint all the time except to take it off to do exercises 6-8 times a day. Mostly I'm doing 6 times a day because I haven't been able to figure out how to get into a routine of 8 times a day.
During the 6 weeks of continuous splinting non-bending, I did DIP Blocking and MP (Flat Rooftop) exercises 4-6 times a day with 10 reps for each exercise. This was to prevent the joints from getting stiff, to keep the ligaments moving so that they didn't attach to the bone in wrong places, and to prevent a boutonniere. To tell the truth, those exercises were pretty easy and quick. Sometimes I'd be an overachiever and do 15 reps instead of 10. I would also do DIP Blocking on the adjacent ring finger because it was having sympathy pain.
Once the "real" exercise phase began, the first week consisted of 8 exercises (6-8 times a day). I still did DIP Blocking and and MP exercises, but then I added two different PIP exercises (PIP Blocking and Individual PIP Flexion), Three Fists, and Towel Scrunches. Everything was 10 reps each except the towel scrunches, which was 20 reps. The towel scrunches were just a sneaky way to get me to do more of one of the fist exercises. And, the OT said something about towel scrunches being good for coordinated motion.
This week I went back to the OT, and the exercises changed. The ones that are the same are the DIP Blocking, PIP Blocking, Three Fists, and Towel Scrunches. Plus, three passive exercises were added (read here: stretching exercises) where I stretch the DIP and PIP joints individually plus do a combination stretch (10 reps each to a count of 3). In addition, I do five more of the combination stretches where I'm supposed to hold the bent position and the stretch for 3-5 counts. If that isn't enough, three times a day I'm supposed to do some exercises with a special putty. It's a non-Newtonian fluid, and the OT called it "naughty putty" because if you leave it sitting on or in anything other than its container, trouble is likely to occur. Anyway, it's this putty stuff that's like a combination of gak and silly putty. I do some hand rolls and more "making a fist" exercises. By the end of all that, I'm feeling the small aches and pains and am ready for the finger to go into the splint for a bit.
See below for some exercise illustrations. That's the update for now!
For the Labor Day weekend I went to the second Boring 'vention in Oregon. It was very nice. Here's the summary of stuff (not necessarily in order of importance - it's too bad multiple things can't be #1).
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| Square glasses club meeting at the Claim Jumper. |
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| A reminder of what to do with your pet and some "product placement". |
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| Downtown Portland |
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| St. Johns Bridge with a full moon early in the morning. |
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| Mt. Hood. |
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| Crunchiness. It was at one of the more uppity grocery stores in town, but still.....I did not have to try at all to get these pictures in the parking lot. Multiple Subarus, multiple roof racks with carriers, a little Honda with a bicycling license plate, and a Prius....need I present more evidence to support my claim? |
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| Picking blackberries. |
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| Plants that need identification |
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| Last but not least.....the wildlife seen on the trip. |
Things I'm thankful for this week:
1. Older sister (Ananias)
Things I'm thankful for this week:
1. Hospitable relatives
As I mentioned last week, I did a little bit of cleaning of the cubicle. I decided it was time for a few things to go, so I threw out this biscuit and cookie. Just because I'm doing a muffin experiment doesn't mean I collect all bread-like things that have gone stale, but some people think I do and donate items. I think they sat there for about 6 months or so with no signs of mold. Don't worry, the muffins are still there.
I was talking to a guy at work today, and he asked where I was going on my upcoming vacation. When I told him (hint: it involves 'vention), he said something like, "I didn't know you were into going to church. So you're a conservative. I'm a liberal. That must be why we aren't BFFs." The BFF thing was an inside joke because we had discussed previously about BFFs one time. I've known that guy for a year and a half.
It makes me wonder how he didn't know I went to church. Did he miss the fact that I politely reject his offers to show me some "real fun" as he knows it and argue/debate with him about how the standard of "fun" is not the same for everybody? Is he not very observant in general? Was he pretending to be obtuse? Or do I need to examine my example?
Speaking of being observant, I am surprised at the number of people who don't notice my finger splint and the type of people that do. Or maybe it's the type of people likely to remark on it. Anyway, lots of people at work didn't/don't notice it. I talked to my boss and two of my project leaders at least one time to each of them with a splint on before they ever noticed and asked what happened. I didn't wave it in their face, but I wasn't trying to hide it either. I've talked to many component reps who didn't remark on it. In fact, I went to lunch with one of them for an hour and he didn't notice. I know he didn't notice then because he said so later. The massage therapist didn't notice either until I told her, although she probably would have noticed eventually when she went to massage my arm. The massage therapist did notice my change in hairdo though, so she gets half credit for that. She probably thought the braid was an unshakable fixture until today.
The people who notice almost immediately are service people like the cashier at Qdoba and the checkout clerk at the grocery store. Maybe they're looking at my hands because of expecting to take money or my credit card from me. Still, it's very interesting the pattern I'm observing.
All for now folks.
Things I'm thankful for this week:
1. Beautiful weather
I nearly forgot to tell you guys that there was good news on the finger front from Monday. Four weeks down, two to go until I get to try to bend my finger. I'm pretty sure the joint will be so stiff it won't bend much. The doctor decided to be in the office the day after Labor Day, so I don't have to do an extra week in the splint like I thought I would. Unless of course the doctor doesn't think it has healed enough when I see him that day.
At my appointment with the OT this week she had a student shadowing her, so I think my appointment lasted longer than normal. It seemed like she took some extra time to explain some stuff and measure the diameter of my finger. The swelling is pretty much all gone. Or maybe she had a little more time because I saw her right after lunch instead of right before lunch.
Finger rehabilitation will involve at-home finger exercises and going twice a week into the OT for her to do/help me do other stuff. That could last for 4-8 weeks she said. She hasn't been very detailed about what the exercises will involve yet. So......I wait with baited breath for the next 1.5 weeks to pass. Labor day is coming up, so I think that will help the time pass quickly.
Since I've been such a good girl in doing my finger exercises, the boutonniere in my finger has not gotten worse (and maybe got a little better). As one of the CAD guys says at work, "Onward and Upward!"
I was browsing past someone else's blog and saw they had posted a "day in the life of" kind of post. It's been a long time since I've done that, so here's what I did today. This is actually not a completely typical day. Usually I do a little bit more work than I did today.
6:35 AM Alarm goes off. Hit snooze.
6:44 AM Alarm goes off. Hit snooze.
6:49 AM Get out of bed before alarm goes off again and turn off alarm.
6:50 AM Start Phase 1 of morning routine - going to the bathroom (which this morning included adjusting the flush chain length because it came unhooked yesterday), hair-doing, getting dressed, changing dressing of my finger splint, finger exercises.
7:20 AM Pray. (Unfortunately, most of the time is spent getting the door shut.)
7:35 AM Start Phase 2 of morning routine - drinking a glass of juice while reading my bible, washing blueberries to take to work, checking my phone for interesting messages (one from Ananias), see who took their turn in Words With Friends (using my phone), brushing my teeth.
7:50 AM Leave for work.
7:57 AM Arrive at work parking lot.
7:58 AM Walk into work and power up computer. Assess level of tar smelliness (they're still working on the roof, and pretty much most of the week our cube area has been almost uninhabitable for at least part of the day every day because of the strong smells).
8:07 AM Log into computer.
8:08 AM While computer finishes booting, take oatmeal and blueberries in a mug to break area for breakfast preparation. Also fill water mug at this time.
8:11 AM Open e-mail and start work.
8:45 AM Finish checking and answering most new e-mails with a few non-urgent ones unread.
8:46 AM Discuss a few things with one of my co-workers (Ganesh) about a board I designed where he will be making some LED changes. Discuss design change options and what needs to be considered in the design analysis. Also discuss status of conductive foam issue that he and another co-worker (Rickshaw) are investigating.
9:00 AM Look at my calendar and to-do list to try to prioritize tasks for the day.
9:05 AM Print off something about FIRST robotics to take to a co-worker at training at lunch today.
9:06 AM Work on updating the microprocessor selection pugh matrix we've been working on this week with data gathered over the last 3 days.
9:15 AM Get interrupted with various questions and other stuff I can't remember. Wash oatmeal mug. Answer a few other e-mails while still trying to do a little work on the pugh matrix.
9:25 AM Help a co-worker determine (over instant message) if he has a part of the ECAD software installed. He doesn't - do this final determination as I.......
9:32 AM Call into my project's weekly meeting. Three other people have joined, and one other person will not be joining today.
9:37 AM Hunt down my project leader so he will call into the weekly meeting.
9:38 AM Continue with weekly meeting now that project leader called in.
9:50 AM Finish weekly meeting. Not a lot to talk about since we've been talking frequently for this micro selection thing. But, we did discuss a little bit the change in project scope and funding, which is why I hunted down the project leader in the first place.
9:51 AM Start packing up to go over to a different building for some LabView training.
9:52 AM Boss stops in and says we need to clean up our cube area because someone with crutches will be in the area later this week. OK......we'll do that. Even though we know he's just using this as an excuse to tell us to clean up because really, that person on crutches doesn't normally come into our cubicle. Discuss with cube-mates if we can just put a "No Crutches" sign outside the cube just like the lab has a "No Pacemakers" sign outside its door.
9:55 AM During walk to parking lot, have a discussion with my project leader about my weekly highlights and how I should tone down some of my wording to create less of a stir with some of our process partners. OK, not a problem. If my highlights from the last couple weeks are causing a stir, then that pretty much means I accomplished what I wanted to with that already.
10:00 AM Drive to other building for training.
10:07 AM Arrive to other building just a few minutes late for training - they haven't gotten far yet, so I didn't miss much.
10:10 AM LabView training as part of being a FIRST Robotics mentor. Not completely work related, but somewhat related. And, my company supports its employees being mentors, so that's nice.
12:10 PM Free pizza from Domino's for lunch as part of the training. Training continued through lunch.
12:45 PM Do finger exercises during training.
1:40 PM Discuss some robotics administrative stuff with a fellow team mentor.
1:50 PM Leave training slightly early to drive back to my building.
1:58 PM Arrive back at home base cubicle. It's pretty smelly today, but not as bad as Monday and Tuesday. n Just barely tolerable. If I die from lung cacer in the next year, you'll know what it's from.
1:59 PM Run to bathroom quick before next meeting.
2:05 PM Call into conference call to discuss microprocessor selection - a continuation of three other meetings we've had on this with another meeting scheduled for tomorrow. Microprocessor selection is a big deal and sometimes very controversial, so it must be approached carefully and thoughtfully.
2:08 PM Decide one of the key engineers won't be able to join the call (we aren't able to contact him and he's in Brazil in a separate building from the other Brazilian on the phone, so we can't stop by his desk to see what is going on).
2:10 PM Continue with a little bit of microprocessor selection discussion doing what we can, but we know we won't make much progress today.
2:30 PM End microprocessor selection meeting early.
2:31 PM Check e-mail (first time since about 9:30 this morning). There's an entire page of new e-mails!
2:32 PM Read and respond to e-mails as appropriate. Also schedule a meeting for next week related to finalizing the power supply specification on my project.
3:20 PM Go and talk to a co-worker about some power supply investigation he's doing since we are losing some of our power supply design support until January 2013 when additional funding and resources are available.
3:25 PM Talk to a couple co-workers in the hall about miscellaneous stuff.
3:30 PM Another conference call starts.... this one with one of our suppliers to discuss functional testers, data they sent for the tester, next steps, process controls on one of the assembly processes, what they need from us, some pictures they're going to send us about a design concern, etc.
4:00 PM End call with supplier and start clean-up of cubicle.
4:10 PM As part of clean-up, discuss with project leader whether we need to analyze some circuit boards or scrap them. They were in a couple boxes in my cube that needed to be cleaned up.
4:15 PM Continue with clean-up, which includes a lot of disassembling circuit boards from plastics so that both the circuit board and the plastics can be put into the appropriate recycling bins.
5:30 PM Krix stops by just as I'm finishing the disassembling and asks if I can look at a PSPICE simulation she's doing that's not behaving correctly.
5:31 PM Go to Krix's desk to try to troubleshoot her simulation. We're stumped - can't figure out why it's not doing what it should when it's a fairly basic full bridge rectifier circuit. Try a few different things with no luck.
6:00 PM Krix calls it a day - still can't figure out what the deal is with the simulation.
6:05 PM Go back to cube and do a couple small clean-up things. Didn't quite get everything cleaned up, so I'll probably do a little bit more at the end of the day tomorrow on that.
6:10 PM Go back to working on computer. Check and respond to e-mail, reschedule a meeting that is interfering with one of my vacation days, update the pugh matrix a little bit more.
6:30 PM Look at the time! Start closing files, applications, etc. to prepare for shutting down.
6:35 PM Check e-mail and facebook quick. Feel guilty about not getting a chance to talk to co-workers so I can answer Windy's e-mailed question on appliances. Quite a bit of activity today on facebook it looks like with lots of kids going back to school. I'll have to check that in more detail after B.S.
6:40 PM Leave work (do finger exercises while walking to parking lot).
6:45 PM Arrive home.
6:50 PM Set up chairs for B.S., change clothes, put away clean dishes in dishrack, put dirty dishes in dishwasher, pick up dirty clothes from bathroom floor, eat some peanuts for a snack, and generally just relax for a couple minutes while checking who else played in Words with Friends today.
7:15 PM Sit down for B.S.
7:30 PM B.S.
8:30 PM All B.S. people leave and chairs are put away - pull out leftovers from the fridge for supper. Bratwurst, yellow squash, potatoes, orange juice, and a granola bar. Do finger exercises while waiting for food to heat in microwave.
8:40 PM In the process of pouring orange juice, spill it all over my hand (including the finger with the splint).
8:45 PM Change dressing on splint (I was going to have to anyway to take my shower later in the evening).
8:55 PM Sit down to eat supper while surfing the web (facebook, e-mail, checking blogs, writing this post).
10:05 PM Look at the time! Begin evening prepare-for-bed routine.
10:10 PM Nightly bathroom routine - using the toilet, showering, flossing, brushing, taking vitamins.
10:40 PM Sit down at computer to type a few more things.
11:15 PM Play Words with Friends.
~11:30 PM Do evening splint cleaning and dressing change routine. Do finger exercises.
~11:45 PM Read bible and pray (for not as long as I should).
~11:59 PM? Turn off the light to go to sleep.
Do radishes make your breath smell, similar to what garlic and raw onions do? Does the smell emit from your pores later?
Last week we had a few rainy days that were slightly chilly - it really felt like soup weather.
What to do with tons of cherry tomatoes? I don't think I can eat enough salad to use them all before they go bad. And it's not really tons either.....one largish container full is all.
I'm coming to appreciate fresh basil. I need to try to grow some next year. Did you know that pesto is fresh basil, olive oil, and pine nuts ground up? I just learned that this evening. I should try to make some when I grow my fresh basil next year.
I would never really think to plant radishes because we didn't plant them in our garden when I was a kid. The things we learn and do as a kid have lasting effects, don't they?
Oh yeah, I meant to say on my post from last week: many thanks to my parents who taught me about the freedom of choice and natural laws and principles.
Things I'm thankful for this week (there were so many it was difficult to choose):
1. Sunday afternoon ride
A short summary of this past weekend:
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| Tra-Kac NOT breast feeding when I took this picture. |
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| There was a photo booth at the wedding. |
Lately I've kind of been on a non-fiction reading kick, which is different because I'm usually more of a fiction reader. The current book I'm reading is called "The 8th Habit" by Stephen Covey. Oddly enough, I found this book in a thrift store just a week or two before he died. Before reading this, you may also want to read "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by the same author. Part of the assignment when reading this book is to teach what you learned to someone else. You readers of my blog get to be my students. Now some of the stuff is new, but quite a bit of it is stuff I sort of knew but didn't necessarily know how to put it into words. This book does that to some extent. It's no substitute for the Bible by any means, but so far I have found it very interesting.
It also seems very relevant to the current political atmosphere and sheds some very interesting light on the whole "You didn't build that" quote by the President that was in the news recently. It is evident why people object to what he said. Because by saying that, he is desecrating one of our greatest gifts: the freedom of choice.
So......here's what I've learned so far. These are some of the gems I've found. The regular text is from the book. The italics are my own additional spin on this.
"Most ailing organizations have developed a functional blindness to
their own defects. They are not suffering because they cannot resolve
their problems, but because they cannot see their problems." - John
Gardner
-Parallel to this, it also explains why we need God to help us show us our spiritual problems. Because we can't see them by ourselves. We need God to shift our paradigm.
"The problem is,
managers today are still applying the Industrial Age control model to
knowledge workers. Because many in positions of authority do not see
the true worth and potential of their people and do not possess a
complete, accurate understanding of human nature, they manage people as
they do things. This lack of understanding also prevents them from
tapping into the highest motivations, talents and genius of people.
What happens when you treat people like things today? It insults and
alienates them, depersonalizes work, and creates low-trust, unionized,
litigious cultures." - Stephen Covey
The
four intelligences of our nature: Physical Intelligence, Mental
Intelligence, Social/Emotional Intelligence, and Spiritual Intelligence.
"The point is,
if you neglect any of the four parts of human nature, you turn a person
into a thing, and what do you do with things? You have to control,
manage, and carrot-and-stick them in order to motivate them." - Stephen
Covey
"If
you were to ask what one ideal was most practical, most relevant, most
timely, regardless of circumstances, I would answer quickly, without any
reservation, and with the deepest conviction of my heart and soul, that
we are free to choose. Next to life itself, the power to choose is
your greatest gift." "The essence of being human is being able to
direct your own life." "The power of choice means that we are not merely
a product of our past or of our genes; we are not a product of how
other people treat us. They unquestionably influence is, but they do
not determine us. We are self-determining through our choices." -
Stephen Covey
This totally aligns with the Bible. God calls us, and it is up to us to choose whether we respond. This also gets at the root of why people didn't like the President's comment.
An
awarenes of our freedom and power to choose is afirming because it can
excite our sense of possibility and potential. It can also threaten,
even terrify, because suddenly we're responsible, that is,
re-sponse-able." - Stephen Covey
In the last six months, I've watched a friend go through some of this fear that comes with the freedom to choose, so this was particularly clear and interesting to me.
