And Then You Turn and the Hallway Behind You is Quite Long

Reflection comes when you least seem inclined to do it. For me it comes when a space opens between one moment of rushing necessity and another moment of long ritualized routine. Something usually acts as a catalyst. The inward gaze is a fire that can be fanned by a comment about what you were back when made over coffee by a friend not seen for many years. The inward voice says “What I was back then, aren’t I still that day? What happened?”
Deliberate retrospective reflection can be tricky. I for one do not want to find a mass of negatives that outweigh all the positives I have done, I believe do and I hope I embody. Really does anyone want to go to that place? Nobody wants to realize their Hitler or Pol Pot. Still, we don’t want to find out either that we are simply a nobody, a person without a center, or a person without values who will not be missed because we stood for nothing.
It isn’t the not being missed part that worries me. In 80 years unless you have conquered kingdoms or destroyed (or touched) millions of lives you will be forgotten. What worries me is the shoulder shrug at the funeral of those weighing what you meant to them, to your family, to the world.
Over several days or maybe weeks I think I will take some time to look at who I am in the moment. As Aldous Huxley said in Island, “Be here, be now!” I will try and balance one good attribute with one that needs attention or that troubles me. Right now I have to do some work and as the day goes on I will try and put together some thoughts on a bit of the issues I am working through right now. Stay tuned.

Nature Abhors Artifice

As I walked in this morning I passed a vacant lot where a large college bar used to be. The building is gone but the entrance ways, small pieces macadam surface remain. It is funny to me my office is that not more than 100 yards from where I sat and watched T Rex performed bang a gong in 1974.

T-Rex is gone. The brewery is gone. The little entrance ways into what used to be the parking lot remain. Human experience and human history are fleeting things. As these flowers demonstrate nature will win out in the end.

Water and Growth

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Michigan summer day is coming on with all its heat and humidity. Rain passed by yesterday with just pounding torrents. The soil around my tomatoes had gotten hard packed from the recent and continuing lack of rain. My youngest is charged with watering the plants regularly. He forgets.
When I headed out to the hybrid this morning to come to the office I did a walk around our plants. Following that hard rain they seemed to have perked up. I guess the trade off between heat and humidity and home grown tomatoes is a very good one.
Today’s Buddhist quote from Tricycle’s Daily Dharma is one that caught my mind as I was thinking about tomatoes and work and how old my car is and why I didn’t sleep well last night.
Feathers in the Wind
Instead of focusing on some thoughts and feelings and pushing away others, just look at them as feathers flying in the wind. The wind is your awareness, your inborn openness and clarity.
- Tsoknyi Rinpoche, "Feathers are Harmless"

Judge Not

Thomas Merton in his daily musings for today found in my little book of his journal entries talks about Ecclesiastes.  Paraphrasing the scripture he says, “Don’t argue about matters that don’t concern you, and when sinners judge, do not sit in counsel with them.” Carefully perhaps mindfully engaging the matters of my daily life as opposed to the quarrels of others seems to be a very good thought to start off the week.  Keep focused on those issues of ours like putting bread on the table, offering love to those who need it and doing the just and right thing this is what we need to do. When the world makes decisions that are guided by ill purpose don’t sign on. I know I won’t live up to this in the coming week, but if I come back to it from time to time maybe I will do better than I would have otherwise.  

Memorial Day

Monday, May 28, 2012

Since Saturday at about 8 a.m. I have been mulching, mowing, weeding, planting and doing the basics of summer gardening.  When I was a kid I hated gardening.  Hated may not be as strong a word as the feeling I had really was. Now it is part of the rhythms of my life.  

For years now I have planted tomatoes and basil.  I have some other herbs out there like rosemary and tarragon.  I think I may have planted a bell pepper.  I have given up on melons, at least the ones that grow in the ground.  Of all the vegetables I think tomatoes are the best.  I have a variety of heirlooms that I plant.  I cannot tell you the joy I feel eating real tomatoes and not the rubber balls colored red that fill the supermarket shelves.  

I did a couple of other odd jobs.  I got the back yard fountain working.  I had to disassemble the little pump motor but I did get it clean.  Now it is just gurgling away. I can’t fix much.  Still, being able to take care of a little job feels quite good.

We Need Them As Much As They Need Us

The sun is hanging long in the western sky these days. Longer daylight hours are a good thing. With the school year coming to an end our family is rushing from one child’s teenage event to another. Sometimes you wonder when it will ever end. But I know that day will come too soon.

As I dash from one meeting to another I sometimes learn something. During the prior evening sandwiched somewhere between a Vito sub at Jimmy John’s and picking up the Moose from Elevation Hockey, Taking Your Game to the Next Level training I learned some facts about the Autism Spectrum that surprised me.

In the space between other events last night I went to a meeting with a local autism awareness group. The speaker was talking about a program designed to deal with and develop social skill strategies needed to maintain normal ritualized contact. The nuances of the handshake, the greetings, the negotiations of where to go to lunch that invariably come in the workplace are things this group tries to provide guidance and experience with.
According to the speaker only about 12 % of the people on the spectrum maintain full time employment. He cited his statistic source but I didn’t write it down. Other statistics about abuse physical and financial were even more disheartening. In the conversation about employment the speaker indicated the issue for a person like my son who has Aspergers was not the ability to perform the work. ASD people apparently work very well at job tasks.
The problems come up for people on the spectrum in transportation to/from work (and movement around the facility) and with dealing with the required social contacts in the workplace. Neurotypical people don’t deal very well with the manifestations of ASD such as the lack of initiation of eye and other social contact. Conversations can die on the vine with persons on the spectrum. Having an interaction just peter out frustrates “normal” people and they become dissuaded from attempting further contact even on important and meaningful issues. This inability of the general population to be adaptive may become a major problem as time goes on because the spectrum population is growing.

According to the speaker 1 in every 54 boys in America is now falling somewhere on the spectrum. I have seen a statistic that in South Korea the rate is approaching 2.6 % of the juvenile population. To quote from the New York Times, “Among the children with autism spectrum disorder in regular schools, only 16 percent were intellectually disabled, more than two-thirds had a milder form of autism, and the ratio of boys to girls was unusually low: 2.5 to 1. In addition, 12 percent of these children had a superior I.Q. — a higher proportion than found in the general population.” Wallis, Study in Korea Puts Autism’s Prevalence at 2.6%, Surprising Experts May 9, 2011.
What we need are not just programs for persons on the spectrum teaching them how to pass themselves off as “ok” in a neurotypical world. We also need programs for employers and managers in all size level of companies on how to adapt to and accommodate ASD workers. We need training for staff in the workplace about respecting the differences that ASD persons have in how they approach social contact and work performance. Just looking at a business perspective I don’t think we can ignore 2% of our potential workforce if we want to stay competitive. Especially given that the level of higher IQ in this group is greater than in the general population. We will be throwing away/wasting a great deal of talent for innovation if we don’t come to terms with this growing group.
[I have used the term neurotypical a number of times here. I also know I have used it in prior posts. Just to be clear this is what the words current usage seems to mean and I am quoting Wikipedia, “Neurotypical (or NT) is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to their ability to process linguistic information and social cues.]

Monday morning

This is springtime as I remember it in Michigan. According to my trusty iPhone for temperature is 34 degrees on April 23. Clear crisp air fills my lungs and the road at my left as I walk west is busy.

Today will be a franticday. I took my files home over the weekend for review. My plan was to prepare for today's work. Somehow I took the wrong files.  On the bright side I am so prepared for Thursday and Friday's work. I will need to rush at the start of this morning to prepare for today's work.

There'll be phone calls throughout the day. I have a school board meeting tonight and a number of large financial issues are on the table. The meeting when it convenience will be contentious. It would have been better to get some more sleep last night.  C'est la vie.