I’m planning something rather BIG and could use some help. If you’re living in or around Austin, TX, shoot me an email at baileyworkplay[AT]gmail[DOT]com. I’ll have more details soon…
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Reading Anything Good Lately?
I came across this article from the UK-based Guardian Newspaper online. Turns out I might not be as well-read as I thought.
Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) in Britain asked librarians around the country, “Which book should every adult read before they die?” At the top of the list was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, followed by the Bible and then The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Here’s others – both classics and contemporary fiction – that made the list:
- 1984 by George Orwell
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- All Quite on the Western Front by E. M. Remarque
- His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
- Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
- Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
- Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn
A New (New) Beginning With Some More Changes
Okay, okay…if you’re wondering what in the hell is going on, you’re probably not alone. I kind of wonder the same thing at times.
I’ve made an about face and ended the experiment which was Drupal. Too much trouble and too much work. I never felt comfortable with the interface and many of the plugins needed tweaking that was out of my league. And, perhaps more importantly, I was getting a little skittish that it was too arduous on you folks who visit and read.
So, here I am pleasantly enjoying my experience with WordPress (hey, Kevin H. you can stop smiling now). In one week, I was able to put together a far better site that mixed a blog with the kind of content management that I need.
There have been some downsides to the move so please bear with me. Probably the worst of it is that I lost a couple of recent posts and their trackbacks and comments.
I figure more will come later. It’s late now and I need some sleep to prepare for a busy week. Enjoy the new site.
Review Of “To Be Of Use” by Dave Smith
Rosa Say has given me just the nudge that I need to do something that’s been floating on my to-do list for a while. This is Talking Story’s 2nd Annual Love Affair with Books where folks in her Ho’ohana Community have been encouraged to submit a book review. Well, I’ve been meaning to write a little about a powerful book that was actually sent to me by a publisher’s rep who actually has a pretty neat blog herself (visit Kim and her blog, Skip On!).
In the fall of last year, I received To Be of Use: The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work, by Dave Smith. The title certainly was compelling and intimately related to my own philosophy toward work. The book is not only an autobiography of a man dedicated to making this world a better place, but a field guide for all of us to use to connect our work to something greater than ourselves. Dave Smith was the original founder of Smith & Hawken, a company dedicated to organic gardening (sadly, Smith & Hawken was bought up by Scott Seed and changed into the kind of empty Pottery Barn-like store that Dave fought against).
It has seven chapters with each one focused on a particular value or seed. And the chapters flow easily from one to the next: faith, hope, justice, temperance, prudence, courage, and love. In each, he offers his own personal experiences as a testament to what an individual can do with their life. He writes of how he left his high-paying job as a computer programmer to work for Cesar Chavez and five dollars a week. He speaks candidly about his spiritual wandering from a fundamentalist Christian upbringing toward Quakerism.
What I found most refreshing is his take on business and entrepreneurism. His story is an inspiring account of how business can be a force for good in the world and that a successful business can be measured by such ideals as responsibility, compassion, and service to the common good. At a time in our history when many companies are better known for their greed and maliciously competitive actions, we need more men and women to follow the path of Dave Smith.
A final quote, which I believe sums up the main theme of To Be of Use:
Meaning comes most naturally when we find and fulfill our purpose. This implies that there is an overall higher purpose, one beyond simply surviving and satisfying our own selves on what someone once called our separate little islands of commodities. We find our purpose in responsibility and service to others, living our values – making things better, fairer, happier for others.
Where Ya Been Hiding?
The blogging has been sparse lately and for that I apologize. It’s the result of having a few extra irons in the fire.
The day work for my association has required a new intensity in the past couple of weeks. As we enter a new year, my CEO and Board are placing greater emphasis on my team’s work in membership development. With so much of my association’s financial well being resting on its ability to generate membership income, it’s the kind of experience that will test all of our talents and skills.
And I’m also working on getting back to completing my Masters degree in Organizational Management (that is, if they haven’t already kicked me out of the program for taking an unauthorized absence).
At home, my oldest just celebrated her 7th birthday, which is always an occasion that lovingly requires a lot of time and effort. The party didn’t go so well this year, but it’s probably the first "just okay" one we’ve had out of six efforts. Not bad and we learned a few things to always do differently for Leah and her younger sister.
I also realized that I was placing a bit too much emphasis on my career and professional ambitions and ignoring the needs of my wife. Unfortunately, she was getting the remainder of me so I’ve been spending more time with her and being more attentive. My challenge is working back toward the integration of both family and my ever-evolving professional work.
Speaking of ever-evolving professional work…I am excited to say that on February 1, 2006, I will be launching a side project that has been in the works ever since my last attempt at a solo gig. Armed with new knowledge and entrepreneurial experience, I think this will be a great (and longer-lived) initiative. I’ll have more details shortly.
So, please excuse the relative infrequence of posts over the next couple of weeks. I promise…I’ll make it up to you.
