The past four years have been a very long haul of seizures, C6 disk bulge, muscular spasms, sinus drain and coughing, neuropathy-like pain, fears about not being able to work, dental emergencies, sleep disorder/insomnia, disabling drug side-effects, a teenage daughter with severe depression, a relapsed-alcoholic husband, terribly deteriorated living conditions, and an intense job.
I am under the active care of a primary doctor, neurologist, psychiatrist, social worker/counselor, Stephen Minister, spiritual director, Reiki/BodyTalk practitioner, family counselor, and off-and-on care of a physical therapist. I've had several MRIs (with and without contrast), CT scans, ultrasounds (with and without contrast), EKGs, EEGs, video-monitored EEGs. I've lost track of the number of drug changes for seizure control, pain control, blood pressure control, and cough control. (My doctor has taken to prescribing without refills because we so seldom refill.) I have regular traction, soft tissue work, structural manipulation, exercises (with and without weights).
And that's just off the top of my head. Just the thought of it all exhausts me.
So it's no wonder that occasionally I give in to despair, sure it will never end. The wonder is I only give in occasionally.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Management as Sculpting
Back in May, I spent quite a bit of time pondering the nature of managing people. I decided on a model I thought I liked, and set it aside to see if the idea developed further. It didn't because I don't know enough about the art of sculpting. Since I'm not likely to go out and learn anything about sculpture any time soon, I've finally decided to just put the idea out here where I can find it again later.
The best manager I ever had didn't manage me the way she managed others in the team. In fact, we broke down into three basic groups - those who thrived being pushed as fast and hard as possible, those who were comfortable with concrete tasks and weren't interested in growing for various reasons, and those who needed a lot of hand-holding no matter what they were assigned. We all thrived because she managed us as we needed to be managed. It wasn't about her, it was about us.
Years later, I started preparing myself for eventual management. I read books, trade magazines, talked with people. Basically, the management profession recognized exceptional manager like the one I'd had, but had no guidance for how to become like them. The one place I finally found guidance for how to manage was the Rule of Saint Benedict, in the instructions for Abbot or Prioress where it goes on at great length how to delegate, how to identify potentials, etc. It discusses both how to rotate tasks, how to encourage growth as appropriate, and how to avoid setting up disaster.
So what does this have to do with sculpture? Well, it occurred to me that the management is the art of building people with a variety of temperaments and personalities. In other words, sculpting with a variety of materials.
Here is a rough outline for how I think the metaphor would go:
- Michelangelo talked about seeing an angel within the marble and removing what didn't belong. Some people have a very clear potential in their strengths and a manager helps them prune away the distractions.
- With clay, the sculptor has to add mass first and then shape it. This seems especially appropriate with most youths who need to build experiences first to have something to shape into a longer term career.
- Granite is very set in its ways and wears down the tools used to shape it. But once it has shape, it keeps it for a long time. These are the people where you take advantage of what shape they have and don't expect much flexibility.
- To contrast, I have known managers whose approach was to identify an employee's weaknesses and have them spend all their energy on shoring those up. A sculptor who randomly grinds away rough spots ends up with a shapeless mass rather than a work of art.
To become an effective manager then is getting a feel for the materials, choosing appropriate tools, and working a piece appropriate to the medium.
Come to think of it, if I aspire to management maybe I should take some actual sculpting classes to get a feel for how tools, medium, etc. work together.
The instructor would think me crazy if I say I'm there to learn how to manage people. : )
The best manager I ever had didn't manage me the way she managed others in the team. In fact, we broke down into three basic groups - those who thrived being pushed as fast and hard as possible, those who were comfortable with concrete tasks and weren't interested in growing for various reasons, and those who needed a lot of hand-holding no matter what they were assigned. We all thrived because she managed us as we needed to be managed. It wasn't about her, it was about us.
Years later, I started preparing myself for eventual management. I read books, trade magazines, talked with people. Basically, the management profession recognized exceptional manager like the one I'd had, but had no guidance for how to become like them. The one place I finally found guidance for how to manage was the Rule of Saint Benedict, in the instructions for Abbot or Prioress where it goes on at great length how to delegate, how to identify potentials, etc. It discusses both how to rotate tasks, how to encourage growth as appropriate, and how to avoid setting up disaster.
So what does this have to do with sculpture? Well, it occurred to me that the management is the art of building people with a variety of temperaments and personalities. In other words, sculpting with a variety of materials.
Here is a rough outline for how I think the metaphor would go:
- Michelangelo talked about seeing an angel within the marble and removing what didn't belong. Some people have a very clear potential in their strengths and a manager helps them prune away the distractions.
- With clay, the sculptor has to add mass first and then shape it. This seems especially appropriate with most youths who need to build experiences first to have something to shape into a longer term career.
- Granite is very set in its ways and wears down the tools used to shape it. But once it has shape, it keeps it for a long time. These are the people where you take advantage of what shape they have and don't expect much flexibility.
- To contrast, I have known managers whose approach was to identify an employee's weaknesses and have them spend all their energy on shoring those up. A sculptor who randomly grinds away rough spots ends up with a shapeless mass rather than a work of art.
To become an effective manager then is getting a feel for the materials, choosing appropriate tools, and working a piece appropriate to the medium.
Come to think of it, if I aspire to management maybe I should take some actual sculpting classes to get a feel for how tools, medium, etc. work together.
The instructor would think me crazy if I say I'm there to learn how to manage people. : )
Friday, April 10, 2009
The nature of suffering
Any model that says "there shouldn't be suffering" must be flawed. That's like saying "there shouldn't be rocks." Obviously, there SHOULD be rocks because there ARE rocks. The probability is 100%.
Let me rephrase that to "any model of reality" or "any world view".
So a world view has to account for suffering. Some world views have dealt with suffering as a punishment for sins, [malicious] acts of Satan, or tests of patience. These have gone in and out of fashion over generations because it we would rather be miserable for a reason than just be miserable. but these don't last because they don't really match up with people's experience. WHAT could we possibly have done to deserve this pain? (Since we can't think of anything, maybe a past life?) WHY would Satan bother afflicting people so? (Well, he is Evil personified so what else would he do?) WHY do we have to be constantly tested? Basically, we don't see anyone benefiting which takes some wind out of the sails of purpose.
My favorite of these purpose models is a meditation that was given in a vision to an Episcopal nun. I have gotten years of spiritual growth from pondering and wrestling with this. If there is a purpose to suffering, I think this is it:
I suspect the rock metaphor is more appropriate. Pondering the purpose of rocks may be a useful spiritual exercise, but more usually we consider rocks simply a state of minerals after being formed in the earth, broken up by volcanic or tectonic action or glaciers, and not yet worn down to sand or dirt and combined with plant matter to be cycled back into the earth and recompressed.
Applying this metaphor, suffering could be a transitory state between formation of our existence or condition and resolution by acceptance or conclusion of the condition or existence. We can apply it to the individual experience, to humanity or community. We can explore several levels of conditions or existence. Rather than looking for purpose, we can look for the nature and implications. We can see it as a dimension over time.
Yes, there's food for thought here. I'm hungry and off to snack.
Let me rephrase that to "any model of reality" or "any world view".
So a world view has to account for suffering. Some world views have dealt with suffering as a punishment for sins, [malicious] acts of Satan, or tests of patience. These have gone in and out of fashion over generations because it we would rather be miserable for a reason than just be miserable. but these don't last because they don't really match up with people's experience. WHAT could we possibly have done to deserve this pain? (Since we can't think of anything, maybe a past life?) WHY would Satan bother afflicting people so? (Well, he is Evil personified so what else would he do?) WHY do we have to be constantly tested? Basically, we don't see anyone benefiting which takes some wind out of the sails of purpose.
My favorite of these purpose models is a meditation that was given in a vision to an Episcopal nun. I have gotten years of spiritual growth from pondering and wrestling with this. If there is a purpose to suffering, I think this is it:
From Suffering to Glory (in five hard lessons.)
1. The purpose of suffering is wisdom.
2. The purpose of wisdom is freedom.
3. The purpose of freedom is compassion.
4. The purpose for compassion is love.
5. The purpose of love is glory.
- Ellen Stephen, OSH
I suspect the rock metaphor is more appropriate. Pondering the purpose of rocks may be a useful spiritual exercise, but more usually we consider rocks simply a state of minerals after being formed in the earth, broken up by volcanic or tectonic action or glaciers, and not yet worn down to sand or dirt and combined with plant matter to be cycled back into the earth and recompressed.
Applying this metaphor, suffering could be a transitory state between formation of our existence or condition and resolution by acceptance or conclusion of the condition or existence. We can apply it to the individual experience, to humanity or community. We can explore several levels of conditions or existence. Rather than looking for purpose, we can look for the nature and implications. We can see it as a dimension over time.
Yes, there's food for thought here. I'm hungry and off to snack.
Appropriate use of models and metaphors
In 1931, Kurt Gödel proved that theories of elementary arithmetic cannot be both consistent and complete. My husband periodically reminds me that Gödel's incompleteness theorems have a rather narrow scope and formal applicability, but I have found it both useful and practical to apply the general principle to any and all models. I don't work in a formal enough environment to require an actual proof of the wider application, so I am open to the possibility that it will be DISprooved. Until someone presents such to me, though, I will freely use the principle.
Jeanne-Anne's extension: Any model or metaphor will hold "true" only up to a point. It will not explain everything or, if it tries to, it will have inherent contradictions and inconsistencies.
This is not to say models and metaphors are not useful. They are extremely useful communication tools for describing and analyzing reality. We just need to remember they are merely tools and not confuse the tool with the reality being described. Frankly, the boundaries where a model breaks down can be interesting highlights toward understanding the actual nature of reality.
Jeanne-Anne's extension: Any model or metaphor will hold "true" only up to a point. It will not explain everything or, if it tries to, it will have inherent contradictions and inconsistencies.
This is not to say models and metaphors are not useful. They are extremely useful communication tools for describing and analyzing reality. We just need to remember they are merely tools and not confuse the tool with the reality being described. Frankly, the boundaries where a model breaks down can be interesting highlights toward understanding the actual nature of reality.
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