Is America Dead?

Not if we choose otherwise

beautiful-old-rural-bridges-fbWhat a couple days, huh?

A crazy election race followed by much anger, rioting, crass commentary, racist remarks…at least that’s what the press would have you believe.

Have those things occurred? Sure. But if you think that is the bulk of the reaction you’re allowing yourself to be fooled.

It’s funny how both sides in this election believe there is a conspiracy that involves collusion at the highest levels of industry, government, and the media, against their side. And sad how quickly each side want to call those on the other side idiots.

The question we need to ask is, “Why is the press, which seems to be the mouthpiece for the conspiracy at worst and at best solely interested in their own gain, so bent on dividing us?”

Yesterday I posted this on facebook:

Let’s be honest. We’re a nation divided.
We were a nation divided yesterday and we are a nation divided today.
NO political win was going to unite us.
NO political party was going to unite us.
NO legislation will unite us.
WE have to unite us.
Which bridge will you build today?

Within less than an hour I had positive interactions with friends from all across the spectrum:

  • Christian
  • Non-christian
  • Muslim
  • Atheist
  • White
  • Black
  • Hispanic
  • Asian
  • LGBT
  • Straight
  • Married
  • Single
  • Republican
  • Democrat
  • Voted for Hillary
  • Voted for Trump

THAT is America.

We’re not determined by who sits in the oval office.

One friend put his fears into gentler words:

Curt, we may have been a nation divided yesterday but for the first time I felt I was having honest conversations about race relations with many of the people I knew who are white.

Albeit painful for some that was a bridge being built but I fear many who bought into the idea of “make America great again” believe the theme means quieting such discussions because it does not fit that narrative. 

And my response to him was the same as my response to all who are angry about the outcome of the election or fearful for their future.

It isn’t about them, it is about us.

The conversations that have started must continue and WE are the ones who get to continue them.

To those who are angry, we feel your frustration.

To those who are excited about the new President, understand you would have been just as angry had the vote gone the other way.

To both sides, the other side aren’t idiots. But if you allow the common rhetoric to convince you they are then there is no hope for us as a country. We will split. We will come, eventually, to some sort of civil unrest on a national scale, and we will fail.

We don’t solve that be whom we elect. A government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people has one important cornerstone that is being overlooked: The People.

If WE the PEOPLE come together instead of allowing ourselves to be divided we CAN make America great again. We are the ones who have to fight for us because we ARE stronger together. Legislation won’t get us there, parties won’t get us there, one president won’t get us there.

We will, one bridge at a time.

What bridges will you build today?

Why Your Friendship is More Important than Your Vote

A political commentary

boyswalking

There is no doubt about the fact that this election cycle has been one of the most divisive in quite some time. In my half century plus I can’t recall a campaign that created as much relational angst as this one.

And no matter which side you’re on I think we can agree on at least ONE thing.

Our relationships are more important than who wins this election.

Now, if you want to dig into me to sort out if I voted for your person and, as a result of my answer, want to end our friendship, so be it. I won’t come chasing you down.

It is obvious that folks on both sides think the OTHER side is blind.

And, to me at least, it is obvious that this is what the political establishment likes.

Why?

Because in a democracy the people have the power and when the people are as hatefully divided as we’re starting to become we abdicate that power.

As a software guy I have many times had to find a way to solve a business problem with the tools just weren’t built to work that way. We do that be getting a clear understanding of the goal then working towards it in a collaborative fashion.

So let me be clear about MY goal in this election and following.

I want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…and I’d like to pursue it with my friends.

And I’d like all Americans to have that same opportunity.

Now, if you’re about to tell me that this cannot happen unless…

STOP.

It CAN happen if we sit down and discuss solutions instead of discussing people, problems or politics.

And to that end I’d like you to enjoy this musical interlude:

Chill, I’m out.

Curtis

 

Do You Want To Be a Better Speaker? Read This!

speakerpantsYou’re headed into one of the larger session rooms at the Denver Convention Center. You’ve worked through conversations with customers all morning and now you’re hoping to catch your breath while you listen to your boss regale them.

Suddenly two of your cohorts come flying out of the room.

“Fletch! Dude, where you been? It’s standing room only in there and you’re up to speak!”

Raising one eyebrow you reply, “Um, no, not my session, Gary’s session.”

Heads shaking in unison like some demented imitation of synchronized swimming.

“Nope, yours.”

How do you handle this potentially disastrous moment? Argue? Panic? Flee?

None of the above.

You calmly ask to borrow one of the guys laptops with a single Powerpoint slide, that you know he has, you calmly walk into the room and wow 250 customers with one of the highest rated presentations of the conference.

How is it that you can handle a situation that close to 3/4 of the population list as one of their top two fears?

Simple.

You’ve been to the SCORRE Conference!

We’ll teach you a method for organizing your thoughts and information that allows you to present with crystal clarity and pin point focus. A method that gives you the tools to put together a memorable talk using the information you already carry around in your head. A method that comes in handy when faced with the surprise assignment of walking up in front of hundreds of people all expecting to hear something of value.

We’ll equip you with skills can give you the confidence you need to overcome your fear of public speaking and train you to craft stories that drive home your point in meaningful ways.

Does this sound like a commercial yet? You may think so but wait…there’s more.

In my ten years of youth ministry and more than twenty years preaching and speaking at youth camps I’ve never found a better tool.

In my corporate career I’ve used the tools we’ll teach you to train literally thousands of sales and marketing people, to develop go to market strategies, and to craft countless presentations…some in as little as 5 minutes.  🙂

You won’t find a more valuable tool for people who have to communicate to an audience.

So here’s the deal…

Early bird registration ends Saturday for the conference happening in Orlando May 5-8. Click on the pic below and, when you register, be sure to enter the coupon code: CURTIS

If you register by Saturday, AND use my code, I’ll give you another $50 back in your pocket as a rebate at the conference.

scorrecurtis

After more than 20 years teaching SCORRE I can say without hesitation this will be a valuable experience.

Go ahead, click on my face. It’ll take you to the registration page.

To Be ( a better speaker) or Not To Be. The choice is yours.

 

Three More Reasons to Run a Marathon

marathonheaderI said, “There’s no good reason for me to run anywhere unless someone is chasing me.”

I said, “There is no sane reason to even attempt running 26 miles!”

I said, “I feel pretty confident that I will NEVER try that, nor ever feel the need to try that.”

And then, in January of this year, in Orlando, I ran the marathon I said I would NEVER run.

Now listen, you’ve probably seen any number of posts where people try to convince you you can do this (which is why I call it three MORE reason…) so I’m not going to promise some new secret sauce. What I will tell you though is that:

  1. I’m 52 and the longest distance I had run before signing up for this race was 6 miles.
  2. When I started training for the race I was about 35-40 pounds overweight.
  3. I’ve had two knee surgeries and now have one pretty badly arthritic knee.
  4. My ortho told me I probably shouldn’t run much at all.

So compare YOUR excuses to those before you continue.

Ready to continue? Ok.

The process of HOW I conned myself into this is the subject of another post. For the moment though let me tell you why you should give a marathon a go.

Reason 1: Because you CAN do it.

No really, you can. It is as much a mental thing as it is a physical thing. There are any number of training programs out there that can get you from couch to marathon in less than a year. The two I used primarily were an app called GIPIS and a combination of app and training program from Jeff Galloway. His run/walk/run approach really does work and you can tune it to you.

So ok, doing something just because you can isn’t all that great a reason so…

Reason 2: You will become part of an ELITE club.

According to a couple of studies from 2011 less than 1/2 of 1% of people IN THE WORLD has ever run a marathon. In what other categories can you claim to be in the 99.5th percentile? Talk about bragging rights! People will call you crazy, they will shake their heads, and they will secretly wish they could accomplish something as unique as what you have done.

Of course it doesn’t seem like the percentage is that small when you’re running in a crowded race but you’ve surrounded yourself with a group of folks who are going after something incredibly unique and that alone feels incredible.

Reason 3: You will believe in yourself in a NEW way

When you finish the race you’ll have to deeply philosophical and life changing thoughts:

  1. Crap, I’m never going that again!
  2. Dude, I can do anything!

The first of those two changes within the first 30 minutes simply because the strength of the second is so all encompassing.

I ran my race two months ago today and I am still feeling the motivation, the encouragement, the sense of accomplishment, and the power of that experience.

Will it be hard? Yes.

Will it take some concerted effort in terms of training? Yes.

Can you find the time, the strength, and the will to do it? Yes.

I’m already planning to go back to Orlando next January with an ever crazier scheme in mind than JUST running a marathon. Why not start planning now to join me?

What is it about you that makes you think you couldn’t do this? Are you willing to try?

 

 

Social Media, Your Business, and You

I’m old enough to remember when the internet was just making the transition from quirky computer geek fad to mainstream attention grabber. Truth is I was designing web sites at the time, helping businesses figure out how they could use this newfangled tool. In those pioneering days, before you could really do ANYTHING interactive on a web site we talked about web sites as electronic billboards.

As businesses today are trying to figure out how to best leverage social media many of them are trapped in that same thinking. The “information super highway” has definitely developed some significant traffic patterns around social media lanes leading many businesses to feel that they need to put up billboards along those roadways of commerce.

The trouble is that this kind of thinking misses the point.

Allow me to share three truths then about social media, your business, and you

Truth #1: Social Media IS Social
The interesting aspect of all social media channels is that they’re designed for conversation. This is distinctly different than broadcast. The implication is that it is not sufficient to simply have a Facebook presence or a Twitter feed, you need to be willing to monitor and engage in conversation or your social media efforts will just be so much noise.

This requires effort on your part, it may even require guidelines for using social media to help employees understand what they should or shouldn’t discuss. Don’t expect long term benefit from your social media channels if all you’re using them for is another way to broadcast your message into the ether.

Truth #2: Businesses Can’t “Own” Conversation
Obviously you own your message but once the conversation starts you have less control over what is said and where the conversation leads. The corresponding truth here is that while you may start the conversation with a broadcast message there is equal chance that the conversation will be started by someone else broadcasting THEIR message about you… AND because there are so many more of them than there are of you the odds are pretty high that you won’t be starting as many conversations as they will.

The implication is that your social media efforts have to start from the position of listener more often than that of speaker and that you then must be willing to enter the conversational fray with sincerity rather than with marketing spin.

Truth #3: People Are Using Social Media to Create Their Own Brands
WHAT?!?! People have brands??! Sure they do. My favorite example is the Apple sticker that people have on the back of their car:

This isn’t just one more cute way of showing how many people are in the family that rides around in this van. It is a way of identifying this as a “Apple family”. I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen this done with a Microsoft Windows sticker or an Intel sticker or a Lenovo sticker. In fact I’ll argue that more often than not Windows people don’t admit to being Windows people until they’re in an argument with Apple people!

The fact that people are engaging in creating their own brands, and more importantly leveraging social media to create brand awareness, means that the demographics and market segmentation we used to use to figure out how to talk to people are starting to become more and more minutely defined.

The game is shifting from trying to figure out how to simply communicate a brand promise to now trying to determine how to get customers to integrate your brand into their own. Granted this isn’t as easy with some types of products or services as it is with others but thinking through how you allow people to identify their brand with yours can lead to some interesting new approaches to marketing, advertising, and social conversation.

By understanding and applying these three truths to your social media efforts you can more effectively enter into the conversation and remember, the conversation is happening whether you’re joining in it or not.

How is your organization leveraging social media today?

 

 

Customer Communications: Where to Start

How many time have you looked at the front page of a company web site and read something almost exactly like this:

The market leader in providing innovative solutions that transform businesses. Serving more than 67% of the fortune 500.

Drives me nuts.

Too often the starting point for customer communications start with the question, “What do we want to say?”

When you start there you suddenly find yourself with all kinds of due diligence facts, historical anecdotes, feature, functions and benefits…and so do all of your competitors. As a result everyone starts sounding very much the same.

The game changes though when you start from the position of asking, “What do we want the customer to do?”

Yes, it seems quite simple, particularly if you think the answer is, we want the customer to buy. But do you really just want them to buy? Aren’t you really MORE interested in them “succeeding”?

Typically we don’t just want customers, we want satisfied customers. So the answer to the question” what do we want them to do” is, “we want them to use our product or service to solve their problem.”

Of course in order to be able to start communicating from the perspective of solving the customers problem we have to now what the problem is and how your product or service solves it. THEN you have to let the customer know that you understand the problem.

So instead of:

  • We have
  • We are
  • We provide

You start with

  • You want
  • You need
  • You can

Try this experiment:

Take any of the communications you currently use to describe what you do and set them aside. Start the piece over with a description of the problem you solve. Next throw in a few lines about how your solution is unique in terms of what it does for the customer. You only get to talk about the problem and the unique solution, NOT your organization.

Now go look at your competitors communications and see if you don’t recognize how this approach starts to make you stand out.

When was the last time you saw a company talk more about you as a customer than they do about themselves?

 

Real Tolerance: Understanding vs. Conversion

A couple weeks ago I, while on a flight to Washington DC, found myself in conversation with a guy who makes documentaries for a living.

It started out as a chat about camera lenses and moved quickly into a discussion on his favorite topic, global warming. Something about the early bits of our talk must have put him at ease because he started to REALLY go off on the COMPLETE stupidity of conservatives. I told him I thought the trouble was that as a society we were becoming so polarized that it was becoming less and less possible to have rational dialogue.

He nodded in agreement then shared with stunned amazement the example of a friend of his from college, someone he had sheared life with, been in a band with, gotten drunk with who had become a university professor, adopted a conservative perspective and, in his words, become an idiot. When he finally cycled back to global warming I took a risk.

“You know”, I said, “I actually come from more of a conservative perspective myself. I don’t disagree with your evidence of ice caps melting or temperatures rising but what is missing for me is proof of causality. If it really the humans fault then we should see some correlation between temperature change and population growth coupled with industrialization. I just haven’t seen that piece.”

He launched…

Him: “Well, do you believe in science?”
Me: “Yeah, I was a science major in college. I believe in the scientific method and the repeatability of results, sure.”
Him: “No, I mean to you believe in evolution?”
Me: “No, I’m more of a creation guy.”
Him: “Pfft, so you think the earth was created in just seven days?!?”
Me: “Not necessarily, Genesis says, ‘there was morning and there was evening, the first day’, in Kansas that is 24 hours. In northern Alaska that is a year. I’m open to the idea that the Genesis days could be time periods and any length.”

I must have passed some sort of entrance exam at that point because he began to share his views on global warming in an animated but not antagonistic manner. When we got to the key point on human causality, after careful previous argument, decently justified statistics, and seemingly rational assessment of potential results, he said, “It has to be humans, there is no other answer.”

Really? That’s all you got? It HAS to be?

Of course I didn’t say that out loud. We finished the conversation amicably, even swapped contact information and went our separate ways as long flight seatmates seemingly always do.

So what just happened there, in my opinion, was a small example of a contrast of goals.

My goal in the conversation was understanding. I wanted to both clarify my position, (not all conservatives are stupid and we need to be able to dialogue), and understand his, (conservatives are stupid particularly when it comes to global warming). His goal in the conversation was conversion. He wanted to prove to an idiot conservative that they were wrong and he was right. In doing so he stereotyped me, made assumptions, and he ascribed motive. All included in the no-no list I posted last week.

As a result of that conversation a couple of truths about tolerance became newly clear to me:

1. True tolerance is about wide goals, not narrow goals.
As I said last week tolerance begins from a point of disagreement. Thus the widest goal under the heading of tolerance is understanding. But too often the conversation narrows to conversion, then narrows still further to debate when conversion seems to be failing. This is where the hate speech starts to come in to play.

2. True tolerance is about compromise, not all or nothing.
Too often cries for “tolerance” are really just masks for pushing forward a particular agenda. You can tell this by the narrowness of goals and the speed with which the conversation turns to claims of hatred. There will ALWAYS be points of disagreement. You can choose to focus the conversation there, narrow goal, or work to find points of compromised agreement, wide goal.

The recent hoopla between the LGBT community and chicken eating conservative Christians has highlighted the fact that these two camps hold COMPLETELY different view of life, the world, and everything. There are obviously, without doubt, narrowly focused sub groups on either side of the debate, but even in THIS instance there are points of tolerant compromise that can be found. We just need to be willing to find points of agreed upon compromise through tolerant dialogue.

What is it like when you find yourself in a truly tolerant dialogue?

 

 

 

Five Guidelines for Having Tolerant Conversations

A number of years ago I had a set of Mormon missionaries show up at my door. As an evangelical Christian pastor I probably wasn’t going to be the easiest conversation that they had in the neighborhood.

I told the guys that we could have a conversation but that we needed to agree to a couple of caveats first.

1. We needed to agree we were both seeking to serve God as best we could.
2. We needed to agree that we were not both right.
3. We needed to agree that we were going to focus on the first agreement rather than the second.

You see if we focused on the second agreement then the conversation would center on trying to prove each other wrong, a debate. But if we focused on the first agreement then we’d be focusing on trying to reach a mutual understanding of what it meant to serve God.

We engaged in an ongoing conversation over about three months. In the end we parted as friends each with a deeper understanding of the others position but neither of us having “budged”.

That experience helped me learn a couple things about what it means to have a “tolerance” conversation. I’d like to share five guidelines for having conversations between folks of disparate points of view.

1. You have to understand that tolerance means disagreement.

You don’t “tolerate” things, people, or positions with which you agree. That means if you’re going to enter into conversations that are categorized as being “tolerant” they will be with people that hold a position that is opposed to yours. That being said you have to determine if your goal in the conversation is to “convert” someone to your point of view, or to help each other reach a deeper level of understanding.

2. You have to hold stereotypes at bay.

It’s easy to label someone based on stereotypes. Imagine a conversation between someone who has been labeled as a “conservative christian” and someone described as a “liberal democrat”. Each of those descriptions carry with them enough baggage to incur more charges than a transatlantic airline ticket.

If you try to have a conversation through the lenses of stereotypes you wind up ascribing meaning to words that may not be intended. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to completely ignore or erase stereotypes. Recognizing that they’re there and may be at play is important in creating an atmosphere of understanding. Holding off stereotypes is critical.

3. You have to avoid “always” and “never”

Absolutes are not only grandiose but they very rarely accurately apply. It’s easy to say to someone  “You people always…” or “You just never…” That type of statement not only creates a blanket label but it also invokes stereotypes. The truth is that you never know if someone “always” or “never” because you aren’t always around them, so let the absolutes go.

4. You cannot ascribe motive

This one is huge and is, perhaps, the biggest challenge. It is easy to accuse someone of “hating”, which is an internal motive, because you interpret their external actions through your own set of experiences.

By way of example: if I make the statement that I am not sure where I stand on the issue of same sex marriage, I know conservative Christians who would react by saying that I am backsliding and abandoning biblical truth. At the same time there would be those in the LGBT community who would quickly label me as one of those Christian haters. In either case they’d be wrong specifically because they’d be ascribing motive to my words.

Unfortunately the issue is far more complex than whether or not to allow two people to be defined as a married couple but if you jump straight to ascribing motive to my words then there is no opportunity to engage in the kind of deeper dialogue that fosters understanding.

5. You have to decide what will be and acceptable outcome to the conversation

This is where we come full circle. Remember that the starting point was disagreement, hence the need for tolerance. If the only acceptable outcome for the conversation is converting someone to your point of view then the risk is high for the conversation to break down at some point. If instead the goal is to reach deeper mutual understanding then the chances for good conversation are greatly increased.

We hold the right to freedom of speech as a core right for people everywhere. Given that people will express their opinions, and given that those opinions are becoming increasingly polarized these days, you can either choose to have good conversations with fewer people accompanied by more arguments, or learn to converse with the folks that require you to be “tolerant”. Which will you choose?

What are some examples of good “tolerant” conversation you’ve had?

Chick-fil-A and the Silliness of “Tolerance”

If you have your finger on the pulse on social news lately you’re no doubt aware the those mean and nasty homophobic people at Chick-fil-A have been at it again.

It seems that President Dan Cathy was being interviewed on a radio show, probably sitting in his backyard in shirt sleeves just shooting the breeze. While discussing fatherhood Cathy commented that he supported the Biblical view of marriage being between a man and a woman and further stated, “I think we are inviting God’s judgement on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes marriage’.”

No surprises there. The Cathy’s are well known and outspoken about having founded and continuing to run their company on Christian principles. You’d think it would be more of a surprise if Dan had said anything different.

Apparently though the “tolerance minded” mayors of both Boston and Chicago have taken it upon themselves to be quite intolerant of Dan’s position.

It seems now that in Chicago at least the claim by the city government is that Chick-fil-A’s values are “not reflective of their (our) city” and both cities are telling Chick-fil-A that at a minimum they don’t want them doing business there and at a maximum they will actively try to block them from expanding there.

And here’s the silly part…they’ll block them because they claim Chick-fil-A is intolerant!!! I should note that “silly” was not my first choice for word or phrase there but I wanted the post to stay away from profanity so I chose to go with it.

I wonder if the mayors of Chicago and Boston are also ready to condemn and kick out the Catholic church from within their city limits. Will they stop the Salvation Army from ringing bells at Christmas too? Will the Chicago city government go after Moody Bible Institute as well and give them the boot? All of these organizations share a similar perspective on marriage.

Truth is they probably won’t because, after all, their stance is not consistent, like Chick-fil-A’s is, it is political.

I love the fact that the ACLU has come out in defense of Chick-fil-A on this one. While they don’t in any way agree with Cathy’s position they do defend his right to have an opinion, and to openly speak it, without fear of being prejudiced against. Interesting twist there eh? Good on ’em though for being consistent!

According to Webster’s:
TOLERANCE: Willingness to recognize and respect the beliefs or practices of others.

So let’s be clear. Dan Cathy did NOT disrespect the beliefs or practices of the LGBT community. He simply commented that he didn’t think it was wise to disagree with God regarding marriage.

On the other hand Dan’s beliefs and practices have ABSOLUTELY been disrespected. and there are really only two responses that anyone who wants to defend that kind of attitude can make:

“Yeah, well I don’t care he’s bad.”
or
“Those beliefs aren’t worth respecting.

Both quite intolerant statements.

So what can we learn from Dan’s faux pas?

1. The “Tolerance” movement has ceased being about tolerance and its adherents have started more openly arguing that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is a bigot. Which is quite bigoted really.

2. The person with the biggest microphone usually wins so be careful what you say in public. For those keeping score at home conservatives in general have smaller microphones these days.

3. The Christian perspective, while once mainstream in this country, is no longer even remotely fashionable and is leaning towards becoming quite unfashionable. That means Cristian folks don’t enjoy the same freedom of receptivity they once did. Get used to it and adjust.

Kudos to Dan for staying consistent. Kudos the the ACLU…never thought I’d say that…for doing likewise. Silly laughter in the direction of the mayors of Chicago and Boston while they publicly display their cranial rectal impaction.

Just to be clear I am not now, nor have I ever been a Chick-fil-A employee. (Although several attempts have been made.) I have, however, worked pretty extensively with CfA people and have found them to be excellent folks across the board. Believe me when I say they are not prejudiced, they’ll sell chicken to anyone!

All of this leads me to this question:
In today’s increasingly polarized political climate is true tolerance even possible?

If You’ve Got Nothing, Just Admit It.

I just spent and entirely fruitless half hour searching the internet for a picture.

We’ve been in Las Vegas with my daughter this past weekend at a national dance convention. She’s had a great season and had some nice kudos along the way.

I was trying to find a picture of her on the internet since all of MY stuff is on my home computer. A search on her name brought back a couple, and by this I mean maybe three, decent results but it also brought back, among other extraneous things, a link to a web site on the Chinese Tarot written almost entirely IN Chinese except for where it translates Chinese into Latin.

Now, I get it when it brings backs a picture with some random “Fletcher” in it but the Chinese Tarot? Really?

In an attempt to bring back multiple results the search algorithm must have chosen something that I’m sure makes technical sense but in the real world provides no practical value. And THAT made me wonder…

How often do we do that? How often do we try to provide SOMETHING when it would be best to admit we’ve got nothing?

Businesses do it all the time if they believe they have a solution that comes somewhere close to answering a potential customer problem.

Politicians do it all the time by restating a question to move it from something they don’t want to answer into something for which they have prepared answer.

Maybe I’m just worn out by several days in a town that seems to be built on the empty promise that your life can be perfect if you just have the right amount of money. And if you don’t have the right amount of money then by investing the right amount in gambling you’ll increase your odds of getting the right amount of money to make your life perfect…at least while you’re here.

Maybe I’m just feeling that the world needs a little more Simon Cowell like honesty in it…perhaps without the sarcastic edge…but he essentially tells people they can’t sing, they should save their time and effort and choose something else.

Maybe I’m worn out by the angst coming from all these parents at this dance convention some of whom are seeing their kid as the next star on “So You Think You Can Dance” when really they should just be encouraging the kid that it is good they’re trying hard and getting exercise.

Somewhere along the way being directly honest, “I’ve got nothing for you” or “This isn’t your thing”, seems to have gotten a bad rap and has been replaced by “No really, if that’s what you want let me see what I can find that is at least two steps removed and holds out a modicum of hope without being dishonest.”

And that’s how you wind up with Chinese Tarot.

Perhaps you’re feeling this post is a reflection of that. That I should have admitted I had nothing for a Monday morning and saved you the time and trouble of having read it. Fair enough…I’ll take that.  🙂 But I’ll still finish with a question:

Where do you wish you could get a little more of the direct kind of honesty that, in the end, saves time?