Teach an Eagle to Fly

This morning a report aired on Good Morning America about teaching an eagle to fly after it had been in captivity for 14 years.

As I watched the report, I was at first startled by the fact that an eagle would have to be taught to fly. The gracefulness and the might of an eagle causes be to just assume that all eagles have flying down. Of course, fourteen years of captivity could certainly put a strain on current flying techniques - even for an eagle.

But then it occurred to me - if an eagle has to be taught how to fly, what about all the things that the rest of us need to be taught. Far too often we believe we have all the understanding and knowledge we need. We believe that we are too advanced to learn from the young, the old, or our peers.

The reality of life is that we can never afford to stop the learning process in our own lives. Certainly there is a flood of new knowledge and information that is produced on a daily basis. There are new situations and circumstances that occur that cause us to realize that the old solutions don't always work and that we must find new ones. Even in the realm of medicine, germs mutate resulting in an immunity to previously used antibiotics and neccessitating the need for the development of stronger and different antibiotics.

No one person has all the answers. That is why those in government must surround themselves with the best of advisors from many different fields. Those advisors have advisors who consult with those working in research and those working in the marketplace. We all need to keep on learning.

Several years ago I read a little adage on a poster that stated "How can soar with eagles when I work with turkeys?" Maybe the answer to that question rests in my response to learning. A turkey stays close to the ground content to not soar the heavens. An eagle can soar high into the heavens but only after it learns to fly. If someone can teach an eagle to fly, I wonder what all I could still learn!

Opinions Abound

The Presidential Election for 2008 is only about a month away. Already we have heard the first presidential debate. Tonight, we will hear the two Vice Presidential candidates in their prime time debate. Will we have a clearer view or understanding of the issues or of the candidates themselves? Who knows? The candidates themselves will choose how much to reveal or how precise and detailed to be in their answers.

Many people are struggling about their personal choice in this year's election. The two Presidential candidates and the two Vice Presidential candidates are four distinct individuals and personalities. Each of the four hold some views in common with all four; some views are held in common with only their running mate; and some views are unique to the individual candidate. Does that help you decide? Maybe or maybe not!

Thrown on top of this election campaign are the specific issues that are happening concurrently with the campaign. The American economy, the world economy, the war in Iraq, the threat of terrorism, and healthcare costs are only a few that appear on our daily news outlets.

I guess my one big concern about this election is really not just about the 2008 candidates. It is about all the candidates and all the elected officials of all the campaigns over the past 20-30 years. My humble opinion is that the issues never seem to change. The promises to fix things go unfilled. The blame is always placed on the other side.

I just want the opportunity and privilege of voting in a local and a national election in which the winners will actually fix the issues that they said they would fix. If that happened, I would gladly vote for those same candidates again.

Of course, I have a long list of projects that I have been promising my wife I would work on or fix for some time now. Maybe I ought to get a thing or two fixed myself this week!

Let Me Introduce Myself

The title implies a self-revealing portrait of who I am and what I do. The title is misleading. This is just my first posting since July 31st. I almost feel like a stranger in my own blog and need to reacquaint myself with the process. With so many things going on in our world right now, I do have some thoughts and will try to express them more frequently.

Alpha and Omega

No, I not writing a deeply theological treatise. It is just a recognition that the last post I wrote was on July 1 and here it is already July 31. Those are the first and last days of July and Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Thought you might want to know that.

Actually, there is something significant about the first and the last as it relates to my personality and work habits. I enjoy and am energized by the beginning of a project - particularly the early development of ideas and concepts - the brainstorming and the dreaming of it. Likewise, I find great satisfaction in the completion of a project or a task. There is something very pleasing about standing back and admiring a fresh coat of paint, a newly mowed lawn, or even a new post on a blog.

But there is a great amount of time and effort that exists between the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I am grateful for people who find great satisfaction in taking the dreams or plans of someone else and bringing them to life. They are energized by figuring out what is required to make the project real and then go to work to make it happen. On the Star Trek: The Next Generation series, the crew and particularly Data figured out how to make it work. I found my role model in Captain Picard who would listen to various scenarios and then make a decision. He would follow the decision with a great phrase - "Make it so!"

I am blessed to be privileged to work with so many great people who know exactly what it takes and are more than willing to "Make it so!" The Greeks didn't just have the two letters Alpha and Omega in their alphabet. We do not have just an A and a Z. It takes all of them to write words, put together sentences, and communicate. It takes all types of people to complete the project. Together we get it done.

Can I Make It All Fit?

The issue of how much luggage to take on a flight used to be centered on only one point - do I want to check or just do carry-on? But all that has changed. The question now centers around how much luggage am I willing to pay for on the flight? Suddenly, we have all become interested in how much we can cram into one small carry-on bag.

But none of this is really new. We have all be paying extra for storage for a long time - even though it may not have been on an airplane. Consider our houses - after filling our closets and the space under the beds, most of us have floored the attic, moved cars out of the garage, added storage sheds in the backyard, and even rented extra space at self storage businesses.

My father-in-law has always taken most everything he owns in the trunk of his car for a road trip and still proclaimed - there's plenty more room in there. Well, that has not been my case. I always yield to my wife. She can make so much more fit in any space than I possibly can.

But then there is one other dimension that gets over looked. In terms of daily, weekly, monthly, and even annual activities - how much can I fit into my life? The truth is that most of us seem to want everything and therefore only rarely deny ourselves anything. But there are only so much time in a day; only so many dollars in a bank account; and only so much energy in a person. One of the hardest things is to maintain a schedule and involvement level that allows participation in the best and says no to the rest. Maybe this hot summer month of July is a good time for me, and maybe some others, to rebalance the schedule and do a better job of leaving some breathing room in this living luggage.