Transcend: Compromise and getting stuck in the mud.

I'm sitting here at work today. Stuck. Nothing I can do about it.
The reason I'm stuck is because someone else got stuck. Outside these
doors, we've got half a lift on cement, and half on formerly
beautiful sod. Stuck. Someone tried to cut corners, literally, and
now we're waiting for a tow truck.

I can blame the driver of the lift for this costly delay at work. But
what about my life? Although I've never gotten a lift stuck, I've cut
corners my own way - and ended up half on solid ground and half on an
unsteady footing.

What we're taking about here is compromise, and when it doesn't work.
Normally, I'm a fan of compromise - when there's two viewpoints that
are close to each other, we compromise and end up with a stronger
vision that works for both. Compromise is a valuable tool when we're
trying to take two close viewpoints and go one direction.

But sometimes, a decision must be made. Putting two tonnes of steel
into the lawn is a bad idea. Even just putting PART of that on the
lawn is a bad idea. There's nothing wrong with a lawn, but it's not a
place for heavy equipment. Reality, in the end, has a way of letting
us know which compromises work, and which don't.

Do I live my life on character, or feelings? Do I work on the solid
ground or on the nicer, but easier damaged realm of feelings? Working
with feelings is fine when the issues have little weight. But when
I'm bringing in the heavy equipment, I need to base my life upon
principled character.

RMOJ: Beauty at Breakfast

Breakfast. I get a call from a wonderful woman. She convinces me
that it's beautiful outside, so I move out to the back porch. Sitting
down, sipping Earl Grey tea, eating freshly baked bread, enjoying the
sun, writing in my journal...

Suddenly it hits me - of all the plans I had today, this was on none
of the lists. Yet it's beautiful. I just had to stop and appreciate
it.

RMOJ #1: Flying Balls!

I'm staring up a new category: The Random Moments Of Joy. We walk through things every day that bring us joy, and we either ignore them, or we forget them. So here's a memorial, just a short little post, to remind me of joy. Keep on the lookout for your own RMOJ.

On the way to see my banker this afternoon. Ran into two guys in a park downtown, just randomly. They were packing up juggling clubs. So I introduced myself and went and juggled with them. Just a random ten minutes of joy. Amazing.

Transcend: The Dynamic Fulcrum

Note: Full credit for this idea goes to Wayne Cordito, who presented it at The Leadership Summit some years ago.

Balance. The one thing we all seek. If you look at any system of belief, that's one of the main things it promises - self help books to help you balance your work and your private life. Feng shui to help your room be balanced. A system of karma that balances out the good and the bad in life.

Belief systems give us something to hold onto, something to balance our lives on - a fulcrum. And so we live our lives, striving for balance. Between love and logic. Between work and play. And we analyze, and carefully move things around, until our life is just right. Perfect! Balanced!

And then there's a shift. Because something didn't stay where we put it. Work is taking longer, the spouse is asking for more time, the kids are doing different activities, the guys have found that epic fishing spot that just HAS to be had this weekend.

So what do we do? Our natural instinct is to try and pile on more stuff to keep this thing balanced. We go on the fishing trip, get some roses for our jilted spouse with a card promising more quality time, put the kids' activities on the VISA, smile to our boss at mutter under our breath at our co-workers, and above all, present the image that we're expending not a single extra drop of effort in the process.

But there's a better way. Move the fulcrum. Life is dynamic - ever changing - if we think we're going to be able to work with it with a system that's based on keeping things the same, we're fighting the wrong battle already.

How does the fulcrum work? It's easy - natural, even. You move the fulcrum, which is your focus, towards the side that has the heavier load. That big project means you're going to be thinking about work more. And then, when it's finally submitted, you can move the fulcrum back over and spend an abundance of time with the family.

The problem comes when we fail to move it. That project finishes, but we're so used to spending 80 hours a week at the office for the past three months we're hesitant to ask the boss for a week of time off. We're mortally afraid of missing something important, and in being afraid, we miss everything important. We're trying to fit life into our perceptions, instead of using our heads and working the way life works.

When did common sense become so uncommon?

Inspire: Digging down to the depths

After an all around tiring and not great day, I realized that there had been something incredible missing - a true fight of mind versus body. Walking into the gym at the time that I usually slide into bed, I prayed that this run would be enough to change the verdict of the day. The last thing you want when you take a stab against the flesh is for it to come back with a reluctance toward activity.

If the Olympics could be on every week of the year, I wonder if we would perhaps have a nation of fitter, more focused average Joes? The ability of incredible athletes to inspire and remind us of a spark that is deep routed in all of us is nothing less than delicious. Hopping onto the treadmill, I happened upon the Men's Olympic Triathlon just as the top contenders were transitioning from their bikes onto the track. The commentators then proceeded for the next 25 minutes to make predictions about how our own triathlete superhero, Simon Whitfield would fare in this field of intense competition. Whitfield was sitting in and around 13-14th place for much of the run until the better runners shook off the pack and Whitfield ran with them into 4th position for most of the remainder of the race. It was a gruesome race to watch as Whitfield's shoulders looked tense and like any typical Canadian, I started to come to grips that our superhero Whitfield, (gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics) maybe just didn't have it in him. It was also gruesome because as these super runners started to make their way into the last 2.5 km, I had to support Simon by increasing my treadmill speeds all the more as well.

For a while, it seemed as if he was going to accept a 4th place finish. By any standards, this would have been excellent....4th in the world! I suppose that the reason that we all started to hope however is that he wasn't letting the three leaders take off. His face also didn't look like he was giving it all. Did we dare to hope that there could be more? The threesome from Spain, New Zealand and Germany started to pull away from Whitfield and despite my cheering on the treadmill, I started to concede that maybe it was just too big for him, and for us, too much of a dream. The commentators certainly didn't have much hope.

Then, just when the three would-be medal winners started to make their plunge toward the finish, Whitfield pulled out his heart and showed it to the world. He threw down his hat, dug down as deep as humanly possible and not only made up time but surpassed each of the front runners. It was a leap of faith that we yearn, hunger and desperately need to see in this life. We need to know that it's ok to dream big, even at the risk of failing big. Ultimately, Whitfield was passed at the end by Germany's Jan Frodeno. Whitfield had truly physically exerted everything of himself and had come up short. Post-race, commenting on his seemingly impossible move from 4th to the lead, Whitfield said "I thought there's no time like the present. I tried to make it a battle of pure willpower. I gave it everything I had."

What more can we ever ask for in a champion, or in ourselves? All we can do is all we can do. But what if like Whitfield, there is more in that mental/physical/emotional reserve than what the world or we ourselves think? What if like Whitfield, we can do better than a 4th place finish? Will our faith carry us through if we take a courageous step forward? (rom 8:28)

Will we risk it all at the chance of finding out?

Transcend: Wise Mechanics

God speaks through all sorts of people - including bike mechanics.

Sometimes it just takes me a few weeks to get the message.

Earlier this summer, I went to the bike shop to get a new rear tire. While I was there, I talked to the mechanic about getting a new rear cassette (yep, the thing in the picture), complaining that I wanted a steeper ratio to help increase my top speed. I was expecting a "oh, we'd have to custom order that" or "yeah, but that's the racing model" or something like that. I was dumfounded by his answer.

"Um, they don't make anything faster then that."

"So what do I do? Get a bigger front chainring?"

"Well, you could try slowing down. Easier on the bike, and your knees, too, probably."

It was the last thing I expected. His job was to sell me bike parts - things that could make me go faster. And he was telling me to slow down? I mean, I haven't been passed on the bike paths in three years except for couriers and Olympic trainees, but...

And it took me until now to get it. This isn't about my terminal velocity as I scream down a hill. It's about a lifestyle. I keep pushing when I need to be able to coast. To store up my energy for when I need it. To appreciate the wind in my hair, the sweat on my face, and the scenery I'm hurtling by. I need to stop pushing.

"It never comes from pushing."

That's Alfred Hitchcock, apparently shutting down production at the end of the day when his actors were trying too hard to get the scene right. And the next day, after sleeping, they nailed it, first take. It never comes from pushing.

Special thanks to Mark Bucannan for letting me butcher his beautiful Hitchcock story.

Inspire: I'm In My Happy Place

Dark blue, dark blue /
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room
Jack's Mannequin, Dark Blue

We're a network of people. Pretty much everyone alive today in North America understands that. We're on the internet, on Facebook, on MySpace, reading blogs, text messaging our boss, attaching vacation photos to our email, and generally connecting very well with friends, family, and even anonymous people in a richer media environment every month.

But there's something lost here. We're all consuming private media, and there's so much of it, and it's all targeted for us, and we need time to get it all. So we put our headphones on while waiting for the bus, like the guy pictured above. What you don't see in that shot, however, is the crowd of people just behind him. There's literally twenty people within a step and a half of where he is... and he isn't interacting with a single one.

As a society, we've praised the individual to death. And that's just not a cute turn of phrase. Every day, I meet people who are dying for some real human contact - a handshake, a "good job," a "hey, buddy, how's it going?" If you live in an urban setting, I guarantee you that every day you pass within ten feet of literally HUNDREDS of people that are aching for some kind of connection, community.

But our modern society discourages establishing community in the face to face world. When was the last time you made a friend out of someone that you met in your community? Can you tell me the names of the people that live next door to you? Would you feel comfortable asking your neighbors for a cup of sugar (I did once, actually - it was an egg, but the principle was the same - and it led to a good relationship).

And this isn't something that's a nice little "in the abstract" discussion, either. This is how my life goes. I met my girlfriend, who in real life is so amazing it boggles the mind... online. If we had walked past each other on our way to work, we would have ignored each other. Other then friends I've met through friends, I have friends I've met through online forums who live in different continents, online video games, who live in different countries. I can't remember the last time I "met someone" just by... *shock* meeting someone!

I'm missing something local. Maybe I'm an idealist, but I think you should be able to walk down your block, wave to someone who's cutting the lawn, and say "hi" without feeling like you've just walked over someone's grave. I want to know who the people who live across the street from me are. I think I've had more interaction with the crew that built their new fence then with them.

So let me know in the comments - because we're all in this together - how can we break this cycle of loneliness and isolated?

Imagine: Sweatproof

Posts from this blog will get divided into three categories: Imagine, which is all about ideas, good bad or ugly (especially ugly!); Inspire, which is all about people - groups, individuals and communities of all shapes, sizes and forms; And finally Transcend, which is about faith, God, spirituality, and what happens when more then we put in somehow comes out.

So, enough description, onto our first imagine: Sweatproof products.


Imagination rating: 7/10

I was looking to replenish my supply of hair gel today (something every urban 20-something needs to do, but not something to be enjoyed). I saw upon the shelf something that made my heart leap. Sweatproof hair gel. This goes under the "Why didn't someone think of this before?" category.

As a guy, prior to this product, I had two options. Put no gel in my hair and go for the Einstein look (which I sported quite frequently during school), or put gel in, and have it melt and run down my face if I did anything more physically demanding then walk over to my next door neighbor's place. Even attending weddings and events in the summer in a suit and standing still would cause the dreaded "psst... can you tell if my hair is melting?" to the guy standing next to me.

Unfortunately, I didn't become better at snowboarding or surfing or diving out of planes or any of the other "unstoppable" activities pictured on the packaging. I was kind of hoping that merely by putting the product in my hair I would be instantly invited on some sort of extreme sports tour. "Hey, you've got sweatproof hair gel! Cool, man! We SO need to test it out! Come bike across the Sahara with me!" Yes, people still use the word "cool" in my unrealistic fantasies.

However, in the real world, much to the relief of females everywhere (and one in particular), I can continue to look suave while diving for frisbees, chopping wood, running for the bus, and other manly activities. Well, I'll probably never reach suave, but at least I know it won't be my hair holding me back.

Imagine. Inspire. Transcend.

Three words. Three powerful words. What do they mean? Well, if you're legalistic, you can use Websters. If you're instinctive, you've already decided what they mean (and if they're important). If you're average, you'll run out of attention span after the second one (they are, after all, surrounded by other words, and reading entire entires is so last year). If you're rare, and patient, you'll stick around and find out.

This is a beginning. And like most beginnings, it doesn't spring out of nothing. Just like the best stories have been told since the dawn of time, the best ideas have always existed in the minds of just about everyone. It's just now that some of those stories get written down.

Should you stick around? That depends. Do you value community? Do you work on a balance of art and commerce, freedom and justice, a pursuit of life, true life? Do you end up with better questions instead of answers when you ask?

If so, welcome.