Off the Map - 2009

I will be posting a couple of things over the next few days. Off the Map 2009 is in full swing. Last night was the first night, and I took some good notes, reconnected with some good friends. I even took some videos that I expect I will edit and post soon.

My current mood

I woke up with Mac Powell's gravelly voice screaming this inside my head.

Diana Butler Bass on TheOoze.tv

The _____ Children's Fund

Okay, been a while since I posted. Here's my latest thought.

Several months ago, upon the death of Gary Gygax, I posted about the Christian Children's Fund not accepting a donation from Gygax's fans. The CCF eventually changed their mind, and accepted the offering.

Now, however, they're back...again...this time, THEY'RE CHANGING THEIR NAME, and dropping "Christian" from their moniker.

If they had just done that earlier, I wouldn't have posted my thoughts after they didn't accept the money. **BRAD ROLLS HIS EYES**

Hyper-Relationality

As I stood in a dark bar in Kirkland, Washington...extremely glad for the law that keeps people from smoking in such establishments...listening to a handful of local bands, waiting for my friend Len and his band, The Crying Spell, to take the stage, I found myself discussing hyper-relationality. What is hyper-relationality? Simply put, it is the relational aspect of everything that we do. Everything has four relational aspects - to God, to self, to others, and to nature. Everything is connected.

How connected? Well, let's take a walk through the connections here. The producer for The Crying Spell's album is Kelly Gray. Kelly is most commonly associated with the Seattle rock band "Queensryche". However, an older lady in our church knows the "boys" in Queensryche because they went to high school with her son, and she used to feed them baloney sandwiches in her kitchen in Bellevue. Connected.

Scot McKnight in his book "A Community Called Atonement" uses the term "Perichoresis" in reference to the Trinity....Father, Son, Holy Spirit...where Perichoresis is this hyper-relationality amongst the elements of a triune God. He goes on to explain how our hyper-relationality with God, self, others and nature is as equally perichoretical as the Trinity. God calls us into hyper-relationality.

Think about that.

What you do affects your relationship with others. When you buy your groceries, you give money (or perhaps a debit/credit card) in exchange for the goods. That money goes to pay the salary of the checker....you are now relationally connected. That money goes to pay the operational aspects of the store....you are now hyper-relationally connected. You now have food that will, hopefully, sustain you and increase/improve your health...you are now hyper-relationality connected. The money going into the pockets of the checker, or the store, or the other salaried employees may make it into the coffers of a church somewhere....you are hyper-relationally connected.

When you throw away a plastic bottle...no, I'm not getting all environmental on you..but I am....and it doesn't decompose, ever, you are hyper-relationally connected to nature. When the chemicals leech into the water supply, and "poisons" the aquifer, even a trace amount, you are hyper-relationaly connected to all who drink that water, including yourself.

We may say, "What I do only affects myself, or those I am in immediate contact with." We're wrong. We are all connected.

Hyper-relationality.

What do you think?

Microsoft Layoffs and What it Means

Okay, I'm not going to go into anything that isn't already public knowledge here. But, there have been enough requests for information that I had to address the topic.

I work for Microsoft.

Microsoft did a round of formal layoffs for the first time in the company's history on Thursday.

I was not laid off.

1400 jobs were eliminated. 840 of those jobs were in the greater Puget Sound area. Let's put this in context. 96,000 employees worldwide.....40,000 in Seattle/Redmond....1400 is about 1.5% of the workforce.

All of the employees let go are eligible for rehire, and may be able to find something else inside Microsoft. In fact, I know that our team is picking up a handful of people.

I commend the upper management for an incredible job of cutting expenses BEFORE cutting people....closing down building projects....cutting travel.....and so on.

So, there you go. I'm safe. My job is safe. Please pray for those who did lose their jobs.

Waneta Shawhan (1910-2009)

Waneta Shawhan was the epitome of a prayer warrior. From the first time I met her at our church in 1993, until her entrance into a hospice in 2008, she was everything you would expect from one who puts ALL of her trust in God.

She used to tell me, "I can't do much anymore. I can't work with my hands. I can't travel very far. But, I can pray." And, she would. Oh how she would. Her knowledge of the Bible, and her insights into God were unimaginable in their depth. She knew how to examine her own experience and say, "This is what God has done."

One of the last things she "did with her hands" was a quilt for my daughter Arwen's birth. The "Waneta Quilt" is and always has been very special. If it is possible for an inanimate object to exude love...pure.....it's that quilt. Hand stitched, hand cut, hand sewn. And done for one specific person who isn't even a relative.

My good friend, Len, the lead singer of a local rock-band, used to come in to the church and he'd sit on one side of Waneta, while his wife Gina would sit on the other side. Len is tall, but he would just tower over the slight, frail lady next to him. Waneta loved everyone, but always glowed when Len and Gina would sit there.

Part of me grieves. That's always the case. I'm selfish that way.

But a major part of me rejoices!!!! Her pain is gone. Her mind is clear. In this continnuum that is eternal life, she has passed a milestone that is NOT THE END, and has rejoined those who have gone before. LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!!!!!

I'm crying while I write this. I don't know if it's grief, or joy, or both.

Oh, who am I kidding.....It's both.

Visibility, Influence and Execution

I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine about my personal goals for 2009. I want everyone who reads my blog to understand a few things about me. I'm involved in a bunch of things...work...family....more work.....hobbies.....religion.....more family....and so on. As I looked at what I want to do that will drive the next stage in my "public" life, I came up with three areas that are top in my mind.

• Visibility
• Influence
• Execution

My business partners are already familiar with these things. The Microsoft in me is a firm believer in SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-oriented, Time-bound).

Visibility:

I have four blog posts that I've written but not posted yet. They are sitting on my cell-phone, ready to be moved to my blog. Anyway, as a part of my visibility goals, I intend to publish more on my blog; Short posts, questions, writings, thoughts, as well as comment on more blogs from friends. I started commenting more and not lurking last year, but this year I intend to become a regular voice. I will also be doing more cross-posting, getting people from my blog to read other blogs as well. (I did that in December with the notice about Home-PDX from Pam's blog.)

I'm also upping my visibility on Facebook....connecting to friends.

I'm also upping my visibility at work. I'm a strategist, and it is important that my strategies be engulfed by the executives or my work will go nowhere.

Influence:

I often worry that I don't have any original thoughts. I read too much. I read things that people have written and often find myself saying, "That's exactly what I've thought for years, but I'm just not eloquent enough to pull that off." Well, apparently, I've been told that I DO have original thoughts. So, I intend to take my thoughts to the next level. I've had 4 people, close friends, say that they've been praying that I'll write more. Maybe I can help others drive original thoughts.

At work, if my strategies are accepted and honed, my influence will grow.

Execution:

Hard work pays off in the long run, but procrastination pays off IMMEDIATELY!!!

I have been a part of this "conversation" online for nearly 2 years, now. However, I have not let people in on the things I am doing to move the conversation out of the online world and into my daily activities. Talking about life and living life are two different things.

These are not resolutions. These are just my standard thinking. It's important to realize that I ALWAYS think things like this. This just happens to be coming at the beginning of the year.