This evening I went to the movie "Trumbo" with a friend. The picture relates the experience of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who is credited with Oscar-winning films such as "Roman Holiday," "Spartacus," The Brave One," and "Exodus."
The only problem is that, because of the political affiliations of Trumbo and other Hollywood screenwriters at the time of Senator Joe McCarthy's "commie witch hunt" in the 1950s, Trumbo only received credit for his work long after it received the awards and, in the case of "Roman Holiday," not at all. Instead, he went to prison as did another of his Hollywood writer colleagues for association guaranteed in our U.S. Constitution. In newsreels from the time, angry and violent mobs berated this film genius, and he and his home were even attacked. As part of the "Hollywood 10," as the writers were known, they and others were blacklisted and unable to work, sometimes for 10-15 years. What an ugly chapter in our history.
The other problem, though, is that this episode wasn't the only period in our history when the activity or beliefs of U.S. citizens have been the object of demagoguery. Only a few days earlier I'd been speaking to someone about a friend of mine from Oregon, who was Japanese-American. During World War II, her family was robbed of the land they had farmed in the U.S. for four generations. Instead, this family of multi-generations of U.S. citizens were sent to a concentration camp.
American ugliness toward those who are different is not a 20th or 21st Century phenomena. When my Irish ancestors and many like them came to the U.S. in the early 19th Century they were jeered and were the object of degrading political cartoons and slurs. They were referred to as "white negroes" at a time when slavery still existed in this country and they were often depicted in the cartoons with apelike features. None of this is pretty in a country that is credited with bringing democracy to a large scale, national power.
I fear that we are on the verge of yet another such ugly chapter as demagogues threaten to throw Muslims from our country or confiscate or damage the property of many who have been in this country for generations and/or are loyal U.S. citizens. Because they choose to exercise their right to choose their faith, a right guaranteed in our Constitution, they are threatened. This even after the yet again, hard-won guarantee of rights in the Civil Rights Act. Have we learned nothing from the earlier chapters?
Showing posts with label doing the right thing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doing the right thing. Show all posts
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Friday, February 28, 2014
Doing My Part
An interesting week has just passed: following another eye surgery, I've holed up in a dark apartment, protecting my eye from painful light. I am someone who craves light, so this was a stretch. Furthermore, a woman of words, I could not read, and I could not write.
What was I to do? I recognized that my surgeon had done his part; now it was time for me to do mine.
I've slept a lot. I've prayed and meditated some. I've watched missed episodes of TV shows and movies. As often occurs, two themes emerged from them all. One was about timing: the Universe has it's own time schedule. The second was about knowing our part and doing it.
Knowing our part, however small, and doing that part is a concept I've addressed many times over the last 25 years. For that theme to come up this week shouldn't have been a surprise, and come up it did, over and again, perhaps most poignantly this afternoon.
Movie viewing this afternoon was the Oscar-nominated documentary, "20 Feet From Stardom," which profiles a handful of back-up singers who performed on many hit songs recorded by a wide range of groups and artists over 40 years. Although most of us couldn't name any of them, anyone who has listened to any popular music genre during those years knows their contributions.
Few have broken into their own stardom, notably Sheryl Crowe and Darlene Love. Their talent is a different one: support and blending is what the stars and producers for whom they performed described. That is a unique contribution to that of the lead singer.
Most of us can think of a number of people in our lives who support us in accomplishing our own roles. Similarly, we should probably be able to think of others for whom we have provided support. Each role is important, and knowing what role we are to play at any time, and performing it flawlessly, defines our success.
A play I saw last week featured half a dozen roles that most of the audience will recall. Yet, those actors comprised only a quarter of the cast. Without the whole cast, the performance would have been shallow and lacking the depth of the message the play was to deliver.
An orchestra which features only first-chair performers is no longer an orchestra: it is a quintet or ensemble. Without second and third-chair musicians and rhythm instruments, the richness of the symphony is erased. Those supporting parts add complexity and fullness.
Oscar season is upon us. A handful of stars will be recognized for spectacular performances, but without dozens of people who support them in getting to the screen, we may never have noticed.
Olympic season has just passed, and for each medal performance there are many others who supported getting the medalist to the platform.
Whether I am performing my role as either a coach or an organization development consultant, my role is a supporting one through which leaders and teams perform more perfectly because of what should be my almost-invisible role. There are times when the trainers get accolades (at performance and rewards season especially,) and my contribution is looked over, that I wish someone would notice what I had done. But that is not my role. My role is to help others succeed and look good.
Each and every role is important. Without each and every one of them working together to create a seamless whole, all others would be less effective.
I would like to think that the world could be a more loving place, and I wonder if each of us is playing our part, however small it may be. There is something magical in how things come together when we are pulling together to the same end. If all if us pull together, could something as daunting as world peace really be achievable? I'd like to think so, but I suspect that there are a lot more supporting roles to be performed to make it happen. If we can pull together to produce a symphony, a pop recording, a play, or an Olympic performance, why not work together for peace? We may not have center stage in global affairs but each of us can play a supporting role in our families, our communities, and in our nations.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
What was I to do? I recognized that my surgeon had done his part; now it was time for me to do mine.
I've slept a lot. I've prayed and meditated some. I've watched missed episodes of TV shows and movies. As often occurs, two themes emerged from them all. One was about timing: the Universe has it's own time schedule. The second was about knowing our part and doing it.
Knowing our part, however small, and doing that part is a concept I've addressed many times over the last 25 years. For that theme to come up this week shouldn't have been a surprise, and come up it did, over and again, perhaps most poignantly this afternoon.
Movie viewing this afternoon was the Oscar-nominated documentary, "20 Feet From Stardom," which profiles a handful of back-up singers who performed on many hit songs recorded by a wide range of groups and artists over 40 years. Although most of us couldn't name any of them, anyone who has listened to any popular music genre during those years knows their contributions.
Few have broken into their own stardom, notably Sheryl Crowe and Darlene Love. Their talent is a different one: support and blending is what the stars and producers for whom they performed described. That is a unique contribution to that of the lead singer.
Most of us can think of a number of people in our lives who support us in accomplishing our own roles. Similarly, we should probably be able to think of others for whom we have provided support. Each role is important, and knowing what role we are to play at any time, and performing it flawlessly, defines our success.
A play I saw last week featured half a dozen roles that most of the audience will recall. Yet, those actors comprised only a quarter of the cast. Without the whole cast, the performance would have been shallow and lacking the depth of the message the play was to deliver.
An orchestra which features only first-chair performers is no longer an orchestra: it is a quintet or ensemble. Without second and third-chair musicians and rhythm instruments, the richness of the symphony is erased. Those supporting parts add complexity and fullness.
Oscar season is upon us. A handful of stars will be recognized for spectacular performances, but without dozens of people who support them in getting to the screen, we may never have noticed.
Olympic season has just passed, and for each medal performance there are many others who supported getting the medalist to the platform.
Whether I am performing my role as either a coach or an organization development consultant, my role is a supporting one through which leaders and teams perform more perfectly because of what should be my almost-invisible role. There are times when the trainers get accolades (at performance and rewards season especially,) and my contribution is looked over, that I wish someone would notice what I had done. But that is not my role. My role is to help others succeed and look good.
Each and every role is important. Without each and every one of them working together to create a seamless whole, all others would be less effective.
I would like to think that the world could be a more loving place, and I wonder if each of us is playing our part, however small it may be. There is something magical in how things come together when we are pulling together to the same end. If all if us pull together, could something as daunting as world peace really be achievable? I'd like to think so, but I suspect that there are a lot more supporting roles to be performed to make it happen. If we can pull together to produce a symphony, a pop recording, a play, or an Olympic performance, why not work together for peace? We may not have center stage in global affairs but each of us can play a supporting role in our families, our communities, and in our nations.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, September 27, 2013
The Truth Will Set Me Free
This post is longer than usual, but spiritual wrestling matches are rarely short and sweet. I hope you will ride this one with me.
Several religious traditions have some concept of God as mystery. I have written and spoken at length about "Not-Knowing" as a place where we know we don't know but we are consciously seeking the Truth. Ambiguity reigns. I've called "Not-Knowing" the most quintessentially spiritual state that we can hold. These ponderings--and they truly are ponderings--come from that place of "Not-Knowing," where I know two things that appear to contradict each other. AND, I have not yet reached a higher level of Truth where I can see how both are true.
Two or three times a year I adopt a few spiritual statements to guide my growth over the next few months. I recently adopted seven new ones. Four I can get my head around, but I am still learning to live them. Three are really stretching me:
I believe it was the I Ching that first said, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Apparently, this student must be ready, because before the ink was dry on my affirmations, my Socratic teacher began presenting questions. Three big questions have presented me with the opportunity (translate that as hard spiritual work) to discover the Truth that will set me free. Lest you think I've gotten there, spirituality is a journey, and right now I have no idea where this one is going.
I've often had people ask me after an address or presentation, "How can you say that someone like Adolf Hitler is Love? How can you say that we should want to connect with him?" Twenty years ago I hadn't really "gotten" exactly how complex and ambiguous the Mystery could be. I would often reply that what Hitler did was horrible. However, because things were so horrible, we now had the United Nations where we could work things out and hold dictators accountable over a conference table instead of a battleground. (OK. I admit that was naïve even in the mid-90s when we thought that global transformation was right around the corner.)
Now, I ponder. There are people who do evil things. Genocide does still exist. Dictators continue to kill their own people. One ethnic group kills another on a massive scale over and again. On a smaller scale, individuals walk in with guns and regularly shoot a dozen others (or more) before they are stopped. Individuals steal pensions or homes from hard-working individuals. Other individuals lie, cheat, and steal to intentionally harm others. Can they and I both be Love?
In my as-yet unpublished book Choice Point--Seven Keys to Living with Intention I quote columnist Tom Ehrich from his "On the Journey" newsletter:
I am a pacifist by nature, and I have opposed most military actions of this government in my life time. I think there can almost always be a better way to resolve a problem than war. Solving violence with more violence has never made sense to me on either a micro or macro level. Violence is self-destructive. From my ribbon of love perspective, violence injures what connects us. When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves. Yet I have been horrified as I have watched several genocides where the world saw fit to do nothing. What are we to do?
The more immediate questions that my teacher has presented are much more personal. The second troubling question was presented almost as quickly when one more mentally ill man who had acquired a gun shot a large number people and did so not very far from where I work and live. It is much easier for me to have compassion for someone with mental illness than it is for all the people that crossed his life (or those of several before him over the last few years) and chose not to show him the compassion to insist he get help. I have to go back to what Arent said. Have all of our consciences stopped working that it is easier to turn the other way than to insist than to get help for someone? And perhaps the bigger question is why it is so difficult to get help for someone before they commit massive acts of violence. If the Truth will set me free, what am I to do with this?
On a much more micro level, the third question my teacher has presented to me is how to relate to a person with whom I must interact almost daily who engages in behaviors which are destructive to others. I am keenly aware of the consequences in saying something: the history and career trajectory of whistleblowers is ugly. Yet the consequences of not saying something is even uglier: think of all the people who lost everything in scandals like Enron and the 2008 financial melt-down.
I am grateful that I have been blessed with extremely high integrity bosses and those business owners that patronized my business were almost always scrupulous about doing the right thing. I don't know if I had just been lucky in the past or if things have changed, but clearly some of the people around me in recent years have been aiming lower.
A few years ago I sat in a meeting and listened to my boss lie to a client. When we walked out of that meeting, she literally looked at my colleague and me and said, "It isn't ever going to happen." When I probed more, "Everyone does it," was the answer. I wrestled with what the right thing to do was, but about that time the client retired and I was offered a different assignment. I started to write that it was easy to just forget. That is not the Truth. I never forgot. That I did nothing and didn't know what to do still eats at my soul.
Just a few months later, the same boss was misrepresenting what we could and would do to my new client. I knew I couldn't continue to work in that environment. I was just beginning to recover from the havoc the dot.com bust had wreaked in my life: I needed the job. I began praying for a door to open, and at warp-speed one did. Within an hour, I had a job offer, and they wanted me as soon as possible. I was able to get out of the situation, but once again the fact that I didn't do anything has eaten at my soul--pinpricks in my integrity is what I called this in The Game Called Life. In both situations people and organizations were hurt. I am certain that I couldn't have stopped the behavior in either case. If I am Love, and my clients are Love, how could I do nothing? A few months later I contacted the second client, met him for lunch, and apologized. He said that he knew it wasn't me. That felt a little better. But I am back to Arent's proposition that multiple consciences have stopped working for us to get to the point that doing bad things is OK if everyone else is doing it.
Once again I am in a situation in which I am witness to bad behavior, don't know in advance to stop it, and observe deaf ears from those who could and should stop it. Ugly personal consequences to me resulted when I attempted to stop it. I could live with those consequences if something changed, but they didn't. Things got worse instead of better.
Thank you, teacher. I am really grateful for this lesson. ;-) How do I act from love and compassion, how do I avoid injury to others including the perpetrator, and how do I feed the ribbon of love in this situation? I am certain the Truth will set me free. Sooner would be nice.
What I know in my heart today is that knowing the right thing to do isn't always apparent or easy, but staying in the Mystery to allow a Higher Level of Truth to become clear will set me free.
Several religious traditions have some concept of God as mystery. I have written and spoken at length about "Not-Knowing" as a place where we know we don't know but we are consciously seeking the Truth. Ambiguity reigns. I've called "Not-Knowing" the most quintessentially spiritual state that we can hold. These ponderings--and they truly are ponderings--come from that place of "Not-Knowing," where I know two things that appear to contradict each other. AND, I have not yet reached a higher level of Truth where I can see how both are true.
Two or three times a year I adopt a few spiritual statements to guide my growth over the next few months. I recently adopted seven new ones. Four I can get my head around, but I am still learning to live them. Three are really stretching me:
- I am Love.
- The Truth is: We are all Love.
- The Truth will set me free.
I believe it was the I Ching that first said, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Apparently, this student must be ready, because before the ink was dry on my affirmations, my Socratic teacher began presenting questions. Three big questions have presented me with the opportunity (translate that as hard spiritual work) to discover the Truth that will set me free. Lest you think I've gotten there, spirituality is a journey, and right now I have no idea where this one is going.
I've often had people ask me after an address or presentation, "How can you say that someone like Adolf Hitler is Love? How can you say that we should want to connect with him?" Twenty years ago I hadn't really "gotten" exactly how complex and ambiguous the Mystery could be. I would often reply that what Hitler did was horrible. However, because things were so horrible, we now had the United Nations where we could work things out and hold dictators accountable over a conference table instead of a battleground. (OK. I admit that was naïve even in the mid-90s when we thought that global transformation was right around the corner.)
Now, I ponder. There are people who do evil things. Genocide does still exist. Dictators continue to kill their own people. One ethnic group kills another on a massive scale over and again. On a smaller scale, individuals walk in with guns and regularly shoot a dozen others (or more) before they are stopped. Individuals steal pensions or homes from hard-working individuals. Other individuals lie, cheat, and steal to intentionally harm others. Can they and I both be Love?
In my as-yet unpublished book Choice Point--Seven Keys to Living with Intention I quote columnist Tom Ehrich from his "On the Journey" newsletter:
"...As Hannah Arent wrote in her disturbing study of Nazi German, that evil empire could not proceed unless evil became banal, or common. For something obviously wrong to proceed, multiple consciences must stop working. Entire communities must grow numb and choose not to see any connection between abusive behavior and oneself."After the recent gassing of 1300 people in Syria, I was incredulous that polls showed that most Americans could see no reason for our involvement. We could only have grown numb and chosen not to see any connection between the chemical attacks and ourselves. (I am delighted that a diplomatic alternative to military action emerged. My issue is that a large percentage of people--70 to 80 percent-- were unable to connect the dots between what was happening in Syria and the harm we were allowing to ourselves as part of the larger human community.)
I am a pacifist by nature, and I have opposed most military actions of this government in my life time. I think there can almost always be a better way to resolve a problem than war. Solving violence with more violence has never made sense to me on either a micro or macro level. Violence is self-destructive. From my ribbon of love perspective, violence injures what connects us. When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves. Yet I have been horrified as I have watched several genocides where the world saw fit to do nothing. What are we to do?
The more immediate questions that my teacher has presented are much more personal. The second troubling question was presented almost as quickly when one more mentally ill man who had acquired a gun shot a large number people and did so not very far from where I work and live. It is much easier for me to have compassion for someone with mental illness than it is for all the people that crossed his life (or those of several before him over the last few years) and chose not to show him the compassion to insist he get help. I have to go back to what Arent said. Have all of our consciences stopped working that it is easier to turn the other way than to insist than to get help for someone? And perhaps the bigger question is why it is so difficult to get help for someone before they commit massive acts of violence. If the Truth will set me free, what am I to do with this?
On a much more micro level, the third question my teacher has presented to me is how to relate to a person with whom I must interact almost daily who engages in behaviors which are destructive to others. I am keenly aware of the consequences in saying something: the history and career trajectory of whistleblowers is ugly. Yet the consequences of not saying something is even uglier: think of all the people who lost everything in scandals like Enron and the 2008 financial melt-down.
I am grateful that I have been blessed with extremely high integrity bosses and those business owners that patronized my business were almost always scrupulous about doing the right thing. I don't know if I had just been lucky in the past or if things have changed, but clearly some of the people around me in recent years have been aiming lower.
A few years ago I sat in a meeting and listened to my boss lie to a client. When we walked out of that meeting, she literally looked at my colleague and me and said, "It isn't ever going to happen." When I probed more, "Everyone does it," was the answer. I wrestled with what the right thing to do was, but about that time the client retired and I was offered a different assignment. I started to write that it was easy to just forget. That is not the Truth. I never forgot. That I did nothing and didn't know what to do still eats at my soul.
Just a few months later, the same boss was misrepresenting what we could and would do to my new client. I knew I couldn't continue to work in that environment. I was just beginning to recover from the havoc the dot.com bust had wreaked in my life: I needed the job. I began praying for a door to open, and at warp-speed one did. Within an hour, I had a job offer, and they wanted me as soon as possible. I was able to get out of the situation, but once again the fact that I didn't do anything has eaten at my soul--pinpricks in my integrity is what I called this in The Game Called Life. In both situations people and organizations were hurt. I am certain that I couldn't have stopped the behavior in either case. If I am Love, and my clients are Love, how could I do nothing? A few months later I contacted the second client, met him for lunch, and apologized. He said that he knew it wasn't me. That felt a little better. But I am back to Arent's proposition that multiple consciences have stopped working for us to get to the point that doing bad things is OK if everyone else is doing it.
Once again I am in a situation in which I am witness to bad behavior, don't know in advance to stop it, and observe deaf ears from those who could and should stop it. Ugly personal consequences to me resulted when I attempted to stop it. I could live with those consequences if something changed, but they didn't. Things got worse instead of better.
Thank you, teacher. I am really grateful for this lesson. ;-) How do I act from love and compassion, how do I avoid injury to others including the perpetrator, and how do I feed the ribbon of love in this situation? I am certain the Truth will set me free. Sooner would be nice.
What I know in my heart today is that knowing the right thing to do isn't always apparent or easy, but staying in the Mystery to allow a Higher Level of Truth to become clear will set me free.
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