Just enjoyed watching Charlie Rose's appreciation of people who left us in 2009. There's lots to wonder at and admire here, but I think the pieces that impressed me most are the interviews with John Hope Franklin, Edward Kennedy, and Thomas Hoving. Especially in the Hoving I felt energy, passion, and engagement.
The Morgan Library has posted a short video on Jane Austen's talent, skill, and impact, The Divine Jane, in connection with their exhibit A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy. Actors, writers, even a philosopher tell what they appreciate about Austen. Interesting to speculate on what Austen could have achieved in a medium like television, but we probably wouldn't have wound up with the same problems we experience today.
From Tom Peters
The great American psychologist, William James, tells us, "The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated."
I have long thought that those are among the most profound words I've ever stumbled upon. For I do fervently believe that appreciation is indeed the most powerful force of nature and hence, practically speaking, the premier "motivational" "tool" available to bosses-managers-leaders (not to mention parents and teachers and spouses)...
And that pair in turn leads me to the last of this set, and back to the James brothers, this time the prominentnovelist Henry: "Three things in life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind."
Tough times, which are still the context for many of us, provide the greatest tests of character. Tough times are the period when basic human decency matters most. From a commercial standpoint, tough times are the best of times to deepen relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and the communities in which we work and live. Yes, difficult decisions must be made ... again and again. But the way in which these decisions are approached and executed is the bedrock for the relationships that will re-ignite first and most fiercely and move us forward with alacrity when the worm does turn.
Relationships based on thoughtfulness and benevolence and kindness and appreciation are the sort that you "can take to the bank." Or, to use the strategy mavens' metaphor du jour, deep relationships make for the deepest of "blue oceans"—a/k/a, sustainable competitive advantage.
Believe it!
The whole post contains more examples and is worth reading.
Metropolitan Diary
DEAR DIARY:
This happened to me the other day, and I was so moved, I thought New Yorkers should know about this.
I was crossing Lexington Avenue to catch a bus downtown when I noticed a bus waiting at the stop. As a visually impaired person with a cane, I tried to walk as quickly as I could.
When I arrived at the bus stop, the bus had already pulled away.
I was waiting for the next bus when a man approached me.
“May I help you onto the bus?” he asked.
“But it’s already moved on,” I told him. “It’s gone to the corner, so it’s not likely the driver will let you take me aboard.”
“I am the driver,” he said, and I realized he’d left a bus full of people waiting while he helped one astonished and grateful passenger walk half a block to climb aboard.
Would Ralph Kramden be proud of the softies of his profession driving our city buses? I am. Eleanor Roth
From the New York Times. This seems extraordinary, but it is much closer to typical. I have been amazed by the kindnesses people perform for me, embarrassed that I was probably not so helpful before.
Baptism
Singing With the Dead) -->Cold wind.
Inside he sits like Buddha
I help my father
into the shower
with his good hand
he grips my arm for support.
on a plastic stool
and waits for me
to begin. I drench him
with warm water,
soap his head, his back,
the flabby stomach,
the private parts
private no more. I had not before seen my father's
nakedness, nor the changing
contour of his being,
his growing helplessness. His brown skin glistens
and I think of him
as a young man on the night
of my conception: Panting, capable, shining
with sweat and definition,
the soft hands of my mother
grasping his shoulders. I pat him dry,
he lets me dress him
in the white
hospital clothes,
oil his hair,
put him to bed
and forgive him.
All too familiar. Rings true to someone who's suffered a stroke.
