Late December and early January must be excellent baby making weather. How do I know? Let me count the birthdays this month.
It kicks off on September 2 with my friend Marie's birthday. This is followed quickly by Charla's birthday on the 3rd. Shelley comes along next on the 7th (Happy 40th!). I stumble into the picture on the 11th still somewhat dazed from the birthday changing events of 2001. My mom's birthday is today, the 14th (to which I've heard a million times how I should have been born on her birthday, but my OCD about arriving early to events apparently is in my DNA). My mom's BFF, and my godmother, Helen's birthday is tomorrow, the 15th. Rhonda and Stella give us a two-for-one combo on the 19th (also known as International Talk Like a Pirate Day). Rounding out my collection of friends is Susan's birthday on the 22nd.
Maybe this is one reason I like September so much: many opportunities to celebrate, enjoy lunches out, and lots of laughter.
Happy birthday beautiful women of September. Let's do it again next year.
Americans have short memories. We are often easily distracted by the next shiny bauble that bounces along. But there are some things we won't forget.
Tomorrow marks the 10 year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and Flight 93.
I had the opportunity to take some time off from work last Wednesday (another reason I like my job) to help with the set up of the Field of Flags at Riverfront Park in Salem. After helping place some potted flowers besides the flags marking the fallen Oregon soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I headed back to the main gathering area. I was given a page of about 75 names - the A's of the people who died in the World Trade Center. As I began reading the names, other volunteers began placing the flags representing each person lost that day in the field.
Almost immediately in reading my list I ran into Andrew Abate and Vincent Abate. I wondered "were they related." As it turns out they are brothers who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, a stock trading company that lost over 600 employees that day. This was going to be harder than I thought.
I focused on trying to say the names as best I could and silently prayed they would forgive me for any mangling of the pronunciation.
My favorite name in the list to pronounce was Ignatius Udo Adanga. Later, I looked him up in a book I have that lists all the victims of that day. It told me that Mr. Adanga was born in Nigeria and had immigrated to New York 20 years earlier. He worked for the Metro Transportation Council in the World Trade Center. He was a husband, a father, and a friend.
I continued on reading the names, but my emotions finally got the better of me when I read first, Joesph J. Angelini, Jr. and then immediately afterward I read, Joseph J. Angelini, Sr. Father and son. They were firefighters who did not survive the collapse of the World Trade Center. The elder Mr. Angelini was a 40 year veteran with no thoughts of retiring. His son, a relatively newbie, with seven years of service.
The list of names continued as I handed off the next pages to the other readers.
Each generation has a defining moment.
December 7, 1941
November 23, 1963
September 11, 2001.
May we always remember.
At church yesterday, Pastor Larry talked about loving our jobs. Kind of a weird sermon topic, but fitting for the Labor Day weekend and it was in keeping with his summer long series called "Summer Lovin'".
His sermon got me thinking about my job. I like my job. I really like my job. I've been with my employer for 22 years. I've had five distinct jobs (and a few variations of the same job) while there. I've enjoyed them all. Sure I moan and groan along with the rest of my co-workers and joke in the elevator about how many days until the weekend. But when all is said in done, I do like my job.
Here's a few things that came to mind about why I like my job:
- I'm needed. The talents and abilities I bring to the table are needed. They are not special talents and abilities, but they are uniquely mine. When I can step into a room and facilitate a workshop filled with vice presidents, directors, supervisors and claims adjusters and the group ends the day with a clear vision and next steps, I'm thrilled. Sounds like hubris? It's not - it's just the satisfaction of knowing I'm in the right place for right now.
- I have some measure of autonomy. That is, I get to work on things that I believe are important and will help the division and the company. I am allowed room to initiate ideas, to try things and fail, and to try things and succeed. In his book Drive, Daniel Pink writes that autonomy is one of the key elements in motivating workers today. When employees have some control over what the work is and how it is done, everyone succeeds. For too long management has assumed employees need to be cajoled, coerced, and badgered into performing well. The old carrot and stick (sometimes more stick than carrot) routine. But new research is showing this is not true. I believe the vast majority of employees want to produce good work. It's just that sometimes management gets in the way and puts up too many obstacles.
- I'm a true believer. I believe in the mission and vision of my company. I believe that every day the employees of my company make a difference in people's lives. Yes, it is an insurance company, but as our leadership principles state - and as my co-workers demonstrate every day - we are not just another insurance company.
- My boss and co-workers make it easy. Sure there are days when we are all on each other's last nerve. That's bound to happen when you spend 8 or 9 hours a day, five days a week with people. But I don't doubt the sincerity and earnestness of my co-workers to do well. There's enough success for all of us. There's no back-stabbing or manipulating to climb the corporate ladder.
These are just a few reasons why I like my job. How about you? Do you like your job? Why? If you don't, want do you plan to do about it?
I don't usually jump on the bandwagon when a popular book or movie is released. In this case, I'm feeling rather smug that I read the book before it became a mainstay at the local book clubs. But I really owe this to my friend SJ who kept after me to read the book.
The Help - novel
There's so much to like about this book it's hard to pin it down for a blog posting. So here are my highlights:
- This is author Kathyrn Stockett's first novel. Imagine that! Isn't that all aspiring writers' dream?
- The dialogue is compelling and deep. The book is told from the points of view of three women: Aibileen, Minnie and Miss Skeeter. They each have their own voice - in the story and in the novel. Their perspectives are honest. The dialect used for Aibileen and Minnie is believable.
- The characters where three dimensional. They had good and bad qualities. They were real people.
- The themes told against the backdrop of the budding civil rights movement are, nevertheless, timeliness and relevant today. Friendship. Forgiveness. Forebearance. Freedom. Family.
I was sad when the book ended. I missed all the characters and was left wanting to know more. This, to me, is the hallmark of a well-written novel.
The Help - movie
It is always dicey to take a popular novel and turn it into a movie. Readers conjure the characters to their own specifications and interpretations. I've been left wondering, at times, if the director and producer even read the book. (Case in point, the casting of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, the protagonist in Lee Child's series about a retired Army major turned heroic vigalante.) In The Help, however, the casting director did a very good job. Miss Skeeter was a little shorter than expected and her hair was a bit more fashionable than the book led us to believe. Aibileen and Minnie met my expectations, as did the supporting cast of characters.
But alas, while the movie is very good, I confess I was disappointed by how they handled the firing of Constantine. The act that led up to the firing seemed so unconsquential (even in the 1960s) that it seems hard to believe that it would have resulted in the firing of a 29-year servant. *Spoiler alert! In the book, the offense was much greater. We learn that Constantine's daughter was fathered by a white man. Her daughter was born with much lighter skin. Light skin African Americans in the 1960s fell into a "no man's land" - neither black nor white. Constantine's daugher arrives at the Phelan plantation passing as a white woman during Skeeter's mother's DAR grand party. The dispute ensues from there.
I wondered if the director (who I believe also wrote the screenplay) felt the subject of "passing" was too foreign a concept in the 21st century. Perhaps he would have had to provide too much back story to set up this storyline. I'm not sure - I am sure that the storyline was pretty weak and made Mrs. Phelan appear much worse than even Miss Hilly Holbrook.
That being said, you can't go wrong by seeing the movie. I've actually seen it twice and it held my attention just as firmly the second time as it did the first.
Have you read the book? Seen the movie? Both? What are your thoughts?
