Bringing Down the House led to 21 with Kevin Spacey.&nbsp; I have not seen the movie, but a number of friends have recommended the book.
It's a quick read -- one of three I&nbsp;enjoyed over Thanksgiving 2008 -- and I predict you'll crank through it in a few hours too.
The bottom line: it's a blast, but also a bleak series of recollections.&nbsp; Given the many dark and twisted characters, you may feel the need to bathe afterward.&nbsp; The underbelly of Vegas attracts all manner of humankind, and most of them are in rare display here.
For the mathematician in all of us, the feats accomplished by the merry band of blackjack raiders is quite impressive and always fascinating.
Enjoy the book... I'm sure it's much better than the movie.
<img src="../../blogging/image.axd?picture=2008%2f12%2fBringingDownTheHouse%2cbookthumbnail.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="240" />

Book Review: "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions" by Ben Mezrich

Wow -- this book was a figurative and literal&nbsp; B E A T I N G . 
I know he's a three-time Pulitzer Prizer winner... perhaps that's why I expected better.
Sure, he knows his stuff, but the book is circular, redundant, dry, and only momentarily compelling.&nbsp; Given his obvious zealotry about the important subject matter, it's&nbsp;unfortunate he becomes his own worst enemy.&nbsp;
Friedman makes his point SO WELL, AND SO MANY TIMES that I wonder how GREAT the book might have been were it only half the overwhelming 438 pages.
In time, it will prove to be a classic... ahead of its time... brilliant... and will be heralded as "the book that&nbsp;encapsulated it all."&nbsp; His sources, data, statistics, and stories are second-to-none... but then become second, third, and fourth-only-to-himself after&nbsp;perhaps 200 pages or so.&nbsp; His hypotheses and recommendations are dynamite, but hardly pithy.&nbsp; I feel guilty for perceiving the book to become tiresome about something that is so profoundly critical to us all.&nbsp;
But today, it is simply overkill, and too wonk-ish to attract the millions upon millions who need to read it if we are to truly democratize and integrate what has hitherto been known as 'the green movement.'
Thanks, Tom, for writing it.&nbsp; I only hope that enough of us are up to reading and implementing it.&nbsp; In time, perhaps an abridged version or summary will follow that can be distributed and implemented by the majority.&nbsp;
<img src="../../blogging/image.axd?picture=2008%2f12%2fHot%2cFlat%2cCrowded%2cbookthumbnail.jpg" alt="" width="91" height="137" />

Book Review: "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- And How It Can Renew America" by Thomas L. Friedman

For too many years, I entered Thanksgiving with a TON of work to be done on the backside of it.&nbsp; My first week of December has often been as busy as &ndash; or busier &ndash; than any other week in the year.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s generally the mad client rush to &lsquo;get in what we can get in&rsquo; before year-end.&nbsp; 


As a result, it&rsquo;s hard for me to remember enjoying Thanksgiving all that much, at least &ndash; in recent years.


Instead, what I recall is being consumed by work over the Thanksgiving week, preparing for and anticipating all that would be required of me the week following.&nbsp; And then, of course, the same onslaught often just grew and grew, snowballing into the Christmas and New Year week, leaving me zapped every January!


I remember one Thanksgiving where I spent five days &ndash; Wednesday thru Sunday &ndash; writing a course for a client that had to go to press the Monday after.&nbsp; Another year, I spent the ten days around Christmas day developing a three-course curriculum for a large banking client because they wanted to &lsquo;go live&rsquo; in Mid-January but didn&rsquo;t decide this until mid-December.&nbsp; (On both occasions, my family was NOT happy.)&nbsp; The list of &lsquo;Thanksgivings and Christmases barely had&rsquo; is too shameful and embarrassing and personally convicting to mention.


Being an entrepreneur in a service company &ndash; exacerbated by this year&rsquo;s tough market and thin dollars &ndash; can make &lsquo;the going&rsquo; quite rough.&nbsp; As is the case for most every for-profit organization the world over, saying &lsquo;No&rsquo; can be hazardous to one&rsquo;s health, and so I have generally found a way to say &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; but often at my family&rsquo;s expense.


So here we are, the week of Thanksgiving 2008, and how am I doing?&nbsp; With all my limbs crossed and knocking on wood as I write this, I am very optimistic that I&rsquo;ll have a more balanced Holiday Season this year than I can recall in a long time.


Yes, I have several curricula to write &ndash; a 12-module Leadership series, a new Strategic Thinking module, an entire semester&rsquo;s worth of content for an Executive Education series, and several smaller projects too minute to mention here &ndash; but alas, for all but one of these deliverables, I have &lsquo;more than three weeks&rsquo; to finish!


My writing time will be punctuated with two final trips for the year &ndash; but I am confident that I can pull it off and not lose my mind in the process.


My wife, daughter, and I will be spending Thanksgiving with family in and around Hilton Head Island, SC and Savannah, GA.&nbsp; Something about the Southeast always calms my soul.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s the billowy moss that swings and drapes like ghosts&rsquo; linens or the easy manner of those who live there, but I find myself drawn to the area year after year.


Two of my favorite movies are The Prince of Tides and Midnight in the Garden of Good &amp; Evil. &nbsp;Both possess such haunting soundtracks and engulfing moods and scenes that whenever I watch them it&rsquo;s all I can do to avoid packing and heading for the airport.


And so this year, it&rsquo;s away we go.&nbsp; A big trip, ripe with expectation and hope and recovery at the end of a hectic, tumultuous year that runs concurrent to most people&rsquo;s summary of 2008.


Ironically, as the world seemingly spins out of control, many of us are blessed with good family and health enough to find comfort in those we have known all our lives.&nbsp; Thanksgiving is a fine time, as good as any, to tell them how much we love them, how much they mean to us, and how fortunate we are &ndash; despite our many losses &ndash; to either have them still, or to recall their sweet memories and all they did to prop us up on the wobbly bike of life.


My mother sent me a sweet note the other day, commenting, &ldquo;You make a living by what you get.&nbsp; You make a life by what you give.&rdquo;


Amen.


Now get thee to thy family gathering, and rip yourself off a plump turkey leg and dig in.


Nothing says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m home&rdquo; like eating meat around a homemade fire.


And do your family a favor, would &lsquo;ya please?&nbsp; Try turning off the stinkin&rsquo; Blackberry for a few days.&nbsp; If you can&rsquo;t, try stuffing it in your sock drawer until Monday, or hand it over to someone who loves you. 


Amen2. 

&nbsp;

Thanksgiving 2008

Last night, my wife and I watched "Jonestown: The Life &amp; Death of Peoples Temple" on PBS.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-preview/">https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-preview/</a>
It was&nbsp;a fantastic expos&eacute;, very well done.&nbsp; And of course, the content and story itself -- the tragedy that was The Peoples Temple -- was heartbreaking, infuriating, and devastating.&nbsp; There are literally hundreds of families still walking this earth that were scorched by the mania of Jim Jones.&nbsp; One survivor alone lost nineteen relatives at the 'kool-aid-cyanide-suicide' which, as another survivor describes it, "Wasn't a suicide at all.&nbsp; Those who did not imbibe were shot in the head."
The images of babies, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters... 909 in all, who died that fateful day, November 18th, 1978 -- are absolutely heartwrenching.
From sociological, psychological, anthropological perspectives -- the sleep deprivation, the communal property, the preying upon and taking advantage of the weakest and poorest, the intertwined subjugation and messianic messages, the 'turning' of husband against wife / wife against husband / parents against children / children against parents / neighbor against neighbor&nbsp;-- were... and are predictable recipies for baking the perfect cult.
In time, the idealism that began with peace and love was eclipsed by Mr. Jones' psychoses, and a dysfunctional, fear-based organization was created that began to turn on itself like ouroboros.&nbsp; And once the implosion began, it raged swiftly, reaching its predictable conclusion within hours.
As we watched the documentary from our Monday Morning Quarterback Chair... our Hindsight is 20/20 Chair... the groupthink, peer pressure, and manipulative tactics were so obvious, so heavy-handed.&nbsp; It's like watching a magician AFTER he's explained the trick.&nbsp; "Well of course, I saw that coming."&nbsp; But too few did.&nbsp; Even those who expressed an interest in the preceding weeks to 'get out' could not resist the undercurrent.&nbsp; Of those who survived, approximately 80 of them were 'elsewhere' that day, including Jim Jones adopted son.&nbsp; Of the 5 or so who literally 'escaped into the jungle,' they only survive today because the gunmen surrounding the compound were unable to shoot or capture them.
This all reminds me of something I read in the fantastic, albeit short book, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, which is -- the greater the perceived losses of our current path x increasing commitment to that current path = a very difficult magnetic force to avoid.&nbsp; Read the book for yourself, and you'll see how this applied to LBJ's "Great Society" and the War in Vietnam, to George W. Bush's "Iraq War" and "Surge" strategy, as well as to a decorated&nbsp;airline pilot who singlehandedly caused the worst airplane collision in aviation history.
It occurs to me that as organizational leaders, we are not immune from the kool-aid.&nbsp; For many of us, our workplaces become a meta-family of sorts, with their own rituals, chants, slogans, values, and requirements.&nbsp; We burn the midnight oil, devote ourselves wholly to the enterprise, feel guilt or remorse for giving our all yet perceiving it's never enough, and so on.
All I can say is, "Remain objective."&nbsp; Welcome&nbsp;disagreement, keep perspective, don't over-consolidate power through excessive centralization, maintain a balance of power through diversity of thought and creativity, and&nbsp;always be open to contrarian perspectives and the freedom to experiment.&nbsp; Sure, in the end, we must have alignment on a common course of action (or risk wasting resources, time, labor, and energy), but only after thoughtful, participative, engaged dialogue about those most important decisions that affect everyone and those who follow them.
In the end, I am haunted by the words of one Jonestown escapee who said, after describing the loss of his wife and newborn son, "I knew in my head 'this is wrong,' but I couldn't bring myself to speak the words."
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

The Jonestown Tragedy: A Cautionary Tale Reminding Us of the Importance of Dissension

Periodically, someone will ask for an example to illustrate the difference between how strategists&nbsp;and most leaders think about the world.&nbsp; Here&#39;s a great example, borrowed from a dear friend: 



Asked about Starbuck&#39;s organizational intent, a typical businessperson might say: 

&ldquo;Leverage a&nbsp;distinctive brand plus coffee buying, production, and marketing systems to achieve premium pricing and global dominance....&rdquo; 
 



When in reality, their strategic intent says: 


&ldquo;Sell back to a busy customer the 20 minutes each day she will look forward to the most....&rdquo; &nbsp; 


&nbsp;


Thanks for the great example, J.P.

Differentiating 'Strategy' from 'Business as Usual'

By way of encouragement, may this lift you up today.


And tomorrow.


And beyond.


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPLCaAu_H2U">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPLCaAu_H2U</a>

Perspective: What it REALLY Means to Struggle & Overcome & Love Like There's No Tomorrow

In the past month, with increasing frequency, a number of people have asked, &quot;What suggestions do you have for our people during these difficult times.&quot; 


Here are&nbsp;3 that I hope may prove helpful&nbsp;across the following weeks, months, and years:


1. Control What You Can Control.&nbsp; One of the greatest mistakes employees and leaders make during difficult times is to be distracted, worried, or altogether consumed by forces and issues outside their control.&nbsp; I always encourage people to think like archers and &#39;aim for the bullseye.&#39;&nbsp; Aim for what you can CONTROL, then INFLUENCE, then ANTICIPATE, and let the rest go.&nbsp; (Write it on balloons and set them free in a field, or Pray them away, or Tell a friend and then drop it.&nbsp; Do something, then nothing... rather than just &quot;gripe, worry, fret, vent.&quot;)


2. Accept that Difficult Change is about three things -- Perceptions (of loss or gain), Feelings (of worry/regret or hope), and Choices (to disengage or engage).&nbsp; During tumultuous times, attend to your thoughts and what you &#39;tell yourself&#39; about change (e.g., &quot;Do I sense loss or gain here?&quot;).&nbsp; Attend to your feelings (e.g., &quot;Do I feel afraid, worried, regretful, angry, hurt, betrayed, confused?&quot;).&nbsp; And own your choices... because during Change, WE are responsible for the choices we make.&nbsp; Some people choose to be &#39;reactive,&#39; others &#39;inactive,&#39; and still others &#39;proactive.&#39;&nbsp; The choice is yours....&nbsp; Generally, when people perceive LOSS they have&nbsp;NEGATIVE FEELINGS and they DISENGAGE.&nbsp; But when they perceive GAIN they have POSITIVE FEELINGS and they ENGAGE.&nbsp; As a leader, always attend FIRST to people&#39;s perceptions and the dramatic tapes they play in their heads.&nbsp;&nbsp;Modify the tapes or, as some have said, &#39;rewrite the code,&#39; and you can change a great deal for the better.&nbsp; (As, for example, in&nbsp;cases of addictions.)


3. Manage your Energy and Attitude.&nbsp; During difficult times, energy diffuses and attitudes degrade.&nbsp; To lead others, help them &#39;arrest&#39; their energy and focus it on something they can Control or Influence, and where they can experience some &#39;tiny victories.&#39;&nbsp; Do this, and their attitude will improve correspondingly as they realize they are not corks bobbing in the ocean.&nbsp; Employment comes and goes, but our Personhood is for all time.


In closing, remember: During times of tough change, a great leader&#39;s focus will shift appropriately to tending to &#39;people issues&#39; also&nbsp;and creating the healthiest possible environment because, without this, patients die on the gurney from sepsis and infection resulting from the toxicity of their environment while we unwittingly busy ourselves with the wrong things.


Better&nbsp;to do the right things &#39;satisfactorily&#39; than the wrong things &#39;exemplarily1.&#39;&nbsp; 


-------------------------------------------------


1And yes,&nbsp;it IS&nbsp;a word! <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=exemplarily">http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=exemplarily</a>

Leading Oneself in Tumultuous Times

Wow, these are tough times.&nbsp; What a rough week...


In the past few days, three people in our &#39;1&deg; of separation circle&#39; have died, and a fourth is in the hospital.&nbsp; All from natural, though unexpected, traumatic, and difficult-to-accept causes.&nbsp; It&#39;s just surreal....


And literally TODAY, two dear friends have uprooted their families and departed to far-flung destinations to &#39;try again.&#39;&nbsp; To rebuild anew -- new jobs, new locations, new circumstances... refreshed dreams.&nbsp; Good for you, dear friends, and may -- (as they say in Ireland) -- the road rise up to meet you.


I have yet another friend who is applying to HBS for a&nbsp;Fall &#39;09&nbsp;start.&nbsp; I think that&#39;s a great strategy -- there is less occurring in the way of&nbsp;business than usual; might as well use the fallow period to learn and plant deeper, knowledge-drenched roots.&nbsp; You go, girl!


But alas, for those on the homefront, experiencing loss or change or transition or burnout, remember the wisdom of so many who preceded us: The low-performers will generally perform even lower during stressful times; be vigilant and mindful that during this time when we must all &#39;do the most with the least,&#39; that we do not relent.


An enormous, 25-year-long&nbsp;meta-analysis published recently (that included interviews with over 1,000,000 employees and 80,000 managers across 400 U.S. based companies) revealed that 80% of U.S. managers spend approximately 2/3rds of their time on the &#39;lowest performers in the organization.&#39;


Do you know what this means?&nbsp; It means the rewards for High Performers are twofold: Overwork and Abandonment.&nbsp; 


So, during difficult times, when you may feel that your shoulder is being rubbed to the nub, stay alert.&nbsp; Invest in the High Performers also, because even the slightest improvements in THEIR performance can often yield geometric improvements when compared to the contributions of C players.&nbsp; After all, a 10% improvement in a $1,000,000 salesperson is equivalent to a 200% improvement in a $50,000 salesperson... and these could be the literal trade-offs and results when you invest the same number of hours with each.


Of course, we shall not abandon those who struggle -- every organization has a bell-curve, and we all find ourselves at the wrong tail every now and again.&nbsp; But nor should we accept or perpetuate Overwork and Abandonment as the spoils of high performance.

Investing in the High Performers, Too

199 Great Quotes

The summer I turned twelve, my parents dragged me and my big sister to our great uncle&rsquo;s homestead in Midland, TX for a family reunion. After graduating with a degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&amp;M in 1938, Rufe Bynum served in WWII from 1941 to 1945. In 1946, he joined an organization named Core Laboratories where he would serve as a tremendous leader for many years. Resulting from his business acumen and myriad investments, Rufe and his wife were millionaires many times over. As a young, impressionable boy, his lifestyle dazzled me. His garage was full of Cadillacs and Mercedes cars, his property was a huge expanse of landscaped green, and he had an elevator in his home because his knees had failed him in the war.&nbsp;
The family reunion was a roaring success. Dozens of relatives congregated together for the first time in many years, and I was finally able to put faces to the names that had been spoken in our home for so many years. As the evening quieted, people settled into meaningful conversations in every nook and cranny of Rufe&rsquo;s backyard, and I found myself alone with him by the barbeque grill where he stood tall in his overalls, shiny tongs engulfed in his large hand. He leaned in, placed his free hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently as his twinkly eyes and white hair radiated with the crackling flames in the background. &ldquo;Talk to me, son. Tell me something: what will you do with your life?&rdquo;&nbsp;
I stammered, &ldquo;My life? Um, I don&rsquo;t know. You know I&rsquo;m only twelve, right?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Yes, Blake. I know you&rsquo;re a young man, but it&rsquo;s never too early to start thinking about these things. After all, you never know when you might be called up.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Well, Sir. To be honest, I&rsquo;ve never really thought about it.&rdquo;
And then it happened; he eased slowly down, forcing his bum knees to work with him, and when he was finally just slightly shorter than me, he stared deep into my eyes and said the words that ring as clear today&ndash;a quarter of a century later&ndash;as they did on that warm summer night by the grill. &ldquo;Blake, my boy. Listen to me now. Life&rsquo;s short. Real short. You can&rsquo;t appreciate that in your position, because you&rsquo;re on the front end of it. But I&rsquo;m telling you, as you get further into it, the roads rush up to meet you, and before you know it, you&rsquo;re looking in the rearview mirror at life. And all the things you love, the people you love, they&rsquo;ll all fade away. You&rsquo;ll say goodbye to friends, girlfriends, even your parents. Why, I hope you&rsquo;ll be kind enough to attend my funeral to pay your respects. But here&rsquo;s the deal: life&rsquo;s too short to live off-purpose, and no amount of money is worthwhile if you hate what you do. Like my daddy told me, &lsquo;If you love what you do, you&rsquo;ll never work another day in your life.&rsquo; You think about what I&rsquo;m telling you, and find something you love to do, because you&rsquo;ll be doing it for a lifetime. Do that, rather than chasing money, and you&rsquo;ll be rich in every way that really matters.&rdquo;
Surprisingly, while I was only twelve at the time, what Uncle Rufe said made complete sense. In my lifetime, albeit short compared to Rufe&rsquo;s eighty years of wisdom-building, I have observed in others, and experienced in myself, the importance of doing what fulfills, rather than simply chasing dollars. I have coached and counseled hundreds of financially successful leaders, many of whom are emotionally, spiritually, physically, intellectually, or socially bankrupt. Likewise, I have met what is described in Zen Buddhism as stomachless ghosts&ndash;those individuals whose appetite for material goods can never be satiated. The more they get, the more they want. I&rsquo;ll always remember a man named Mark Scharenbroich, who spoke to my high school graduating class and warned us against, &ldquo;Promising yourself happiness when you achieve the next milestone. You&rsquo;ll always be reaching for the house, the car, the degree, the person, the money&hellip; and never be satisfied with YOU. Contentment is not getting what you want, it&rsquo;s wanting what you have.&rdquo; And finally, I remember the wisdom of Joe Coey, a dear family friend who describes &ldquo;wealth is freedom and choices. Those who have no freedom and have no choices are impoverished. When you must work to live, rather than live to work, you&rsquo;re broke.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;
All this wisdom&ndash;handed down from Uncle Rufe, Mark Scharenbroich, Joe Coey&ndash;has greatly affected my own choices in life, yet it pales in comparison to the words of Jesus Christ, who spoke of money in sixteen out of forty parables. In fact, Jesus spoke of money far more than any other topic. Does this surprise you? It surprised me initially, just as my uncle&rsquo;s words surprised me, but as we age, I believe we all come to terms with the utility of money, and we see that it is a common denominator in so many facets of life. Like it or not, Jesus knew that money was potentially as influential in our lives as health, love, faith, hope, integrity, etc. The extent to which we can tame our own desires and master them greatly affects the scope of our entire lives.
The word vocation (one&rsquo;s occupation or profession) derives from the Latin vocare which means, to be called. We are each called to be someone specific&ndash;to be someone on-purpose. Our two most finite resources, Time and Money, are great indicators of what someone values. If you ever wish to know what matters to a person, see where they spend their time and money. Go through their calendar and their checkbook. Know this, and you&rsquo;ll know where their heart is. May we all have someone who will teach us how to be a person of substance, depth, contribution, and&ndash;in the end&ndash;how to build wealth in the truest sense of the word... the origin of the word wealth actually derives from the word health, and refers to three particular attributes: happiness, prosperity, and well-being. Money alone won&rsquo;t bring you any of these things, but true wealth (it its broadest sense) facilitates giving, investments in others, contributions to those in need&ndash;and such philanthropy goes a long way toward bringing a sense of personal purpose.&nbsp;
Remember, life&rsquo;s short. Be selective about what truly matters to you. Build a life of wealth that affords you freedoms, choices, and purpose&ndash;and that allows you to help others and sponsor their dreams. Accept in your bones that money, although the currency of our day, is not the end-all.

A Perspective on Money & Wealth During These Troubled Times

Some of you &#39;may&#39; remember my comments from 10/24/2008 regarding my plea to a dear mentor to provide some &#39;audio wisdom&#39; for a forthcoming leadership seminar for the USDA Forest Service to be conducted the week of 11/03/2008 in Colorado Springs.


Well, that week has come and gone, and Lou Romero delivered!&nbsp; <img src="/blogging/editors/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" width="18" height="18" />


I know some of his wisdom might be a bit nichey -- after all, his comments are addressed to fellow USDA Forest Service leaders.&nbsp; BUT, do not be lost in the specifics.&nbsp; Just grab your pan and start searching for gold.&nbsp; There are many nuggets here for any leader.


LOTS OF WISDOM...


Attached is a zip file with four sub-files:


1. Photos (so you don&#39;t have to &#39;visualize&#39;)


2. Text (so you&#39;ll have the notes from the man himself)


3. His opening comments, addressed to 130+ leaders from Region 2 of the USDA FS as they embarked on a weeklong journey.


4. His closing comments, as they wound down.


Enjoy.


<a href="/blogging/file.axd?file=2008%2f11%2fLouRomero%2cWisdomFromASage.zip">LouRomero,WisdomFromASage.zip (11.31 mb)</a>

Wisdom from Lou Romero -- for ANY Leader...

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind.&nbsp; In the words of a dear friend of mine, &quot;It&#39;s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and I&#39;m wearing milkbone undershorts!&quot; 


No doubt! 


In the throes of consistent travel, long days, and barely-there weekends, the U.S. has elected a new President and my wife, daughter,&nbsp;and I were blessed to have three beautiful children from the Ugandan Orphans Choir stay at our home.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.childcareworldwide.org/index.php?page=what_we_do&amp;subpage=ugandan_orphans_choir">http://www.childcareworldwide.org/index.php?page=what_we_do&amp;subpage=ugandan_orphans_choir</a> 


&quot;Um, not seeing the connection, Blake&quot; you&nbsp;say? 


I&#39;m getting there; bear with me... 


In the wee morning hours following President-elect Obama&#39;s victory speech, at 1:00 AM, Steve Kroft sat and interviewed the four primary architects and strategists behind Obama&#39;s&nbsp;campaign victory.&nbsp; In short, &quot;We won,&quot; David Axelrod commented, &quot;because we believed in our candidate.&quot;&nbsp; In today&#39;s politics, that&#39;s saying a great deal, regardless of your partisan preferences. 


The&nbsp;subsequent weekend, back at the Leath home, as we sat, ate, and talked with Eric, Savannah (tour directors), and three of the&nbsp;ten children comprising the&nbsp;2008 UCO, Eric commented on what amounted to the communal nature of property in the Ugandan culture.&nbsp; In summary, the &quot;absence of mine.&quot;&nbsp; As he spoke, I reflected on the recent campaign season and our need, worldwide, to find the balance between autonomy/independence and interference.&nbsp; Between helping and distorting.&nbsp; Between building bridges and tearing down walls.&nbsp; Between occupying and liberating.&nbsp; These balances are as rife with ethical&nbsp;dilemmas as the disagreements over stem cells research.&nbsp; What is right to one is wrong to another, but regardless, we commit ourselves to asking and working through the answers to many difficult questions.&nbsp; This is a responsibility that accompanies adulthood. 


And to guide us, perhaps what we must learn to do is embrace the nature of the &quot;absence of mine.&quot; 


I am well aware, and recall in great detail from college and my continuing contemplation of ethics the importance of &#39;absolutes&#39; and the difficulties that arise in their absence.&nbsp; I do not dispute that reality, but in this particular instance equate it to the ancient question, &quot;Why, when I point to the moon, do you stare at my finger?&quot;&nbsp; We must see the moon itself, and not lose ourselves prematurely in the means to get there.&nbsp; We must see the possibility of approaching the world wide-eyed, rather than through my way, if we are to remain open and nimble and receptive to potentially better ways. 


Together, we can forge a way forward.&nbsp; We must.&nbsp; And as my stack of newspapers from 11/5/2008 testifies, I believe we will.&nbsp; I believe in hindsight, we will see 2008 as a watershed year.&nbsp; And for those who, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, &quot;Voted for McCain in their head, and Obama in their heart,&quot; have faith -- I believe everyone will be the better if, for no other reason, because of the QUESTIONS that are being asked and the&nbsp;wave of potential that lies in asking.&nbsp;&nbsp; 


In the words of a dear European friend who emailed me early on&nbsp;November 5th, &nbsp; 

Today is an important&nbsp;day&nbsp;for all of us.&nbsp; The American elections, in the middle of the current ecomomic turmoil,&nbsp;are crucial to all countries in the world.&nbsp; As&nbsp;you might&nbsp;imagine, in Europe, in the last week, the major subject on the news is the new American President.&nbsp; Today is a great day,&nbsp;but maybe Tomorrow&nbsp;can be an even&nbsp;greater day. 

If it can be imagined, it can be accomplished.&nbsp; But not in the particulate; only in the aggregate.&nbsp; Together, there&#39;s no telling what can be accomplished.&nbsp; Here&#39;s to the future; to the brick that each of us must place in the wall of restoration, reconciliation, hope, accomplishment, and potential. 


40,000 children die every day around this globe as a result of famine and sickness.&nbsp;&nbsp;But&nbsp;with their trusting eyes and&nbsp;shaking hands they fix upon&nbsp;us and extend&nbsp;the&nbsp;seed of an answer... the absence of mine. 


May we take it, plant it, and cultivate it to the point where it cannot be contained.&nbsp;&nbsp;And in the doing so, may it&nbsp;teach us all.&nbsp; 


&nbsp;