The Easy Truth that Nothing is New Under the Sun

I can close my eyes and picture the gentle, rolling terrain around my parents' house in upstate New York. Not mountains or plains, but something in between. To the north, the Adirondacks erupt from the ground with a weathered sense of clash and violence that--in its periodic rock faces--hints at the power that formed them millions of years ago. To the west, the terrain starts to flatten as New England morphs into the Midwest.

All of it was like that a hundred years ago, when my great grandfather rode the logs down the Hudson River to keep food on the table. It was there a thousand generations before that, and it will be there eons from now. It's permanent and lasting and it was seen everything.

In Ecclesiastes, the writer, Qohelet, the Preacher, likes to say there is nothing new under the sun. Everything that comes has come before. People have lived before through whatever comes tomorrow.

When I think of the billions of people who've walked this earth, I am at once both overwhelmed and consoled. I'm overwhelmed because more than the stars in the heavens, the magnitude of human existence from the beginning of time, the idea that there have been that many individual souls, makes me feel small and relatively insignificant.

And I am consoled because of the words of the Preacher. Nothing is new on the face of the earth.

Twenty years ago, when the wall came down and people faced down tanks in harsh dictatorships, the world seemed new and fresh. People spoke of the triumph of democracy and the end of history. Less than a generation later, the world is once again a scary and foreboding place. Economic ruin or environmental Armageddon will surely be our doom, if Russia, China, or terrorism isn't.

Two decades everything seemed possible; now everything seems suspect. The church, the government, big business, even baseball players have shown themselves to be corrupt and both too strong and too brittle. Closer to home, the rules of business have changed such that even if you excel at your job, you could lose it to India or Uruguay or a computer, and who knows if or when you'll find another one.

The prospect of navigating the minefield of modern life seems like a slow-motion march to oblivion and confidence can seem like a fool's vision, a mirage.

But then I think of the hills and trees around my parents' house and the generations of people who've faced down those kinds of odds, and more difficult ones, and somehow managed not only to hang on, but to build the better future that's our present.

There's nothing new under the sun.

Should my job go away, that's happened before. It's happened to me before. Should I default on the mortgage, that's happened before. No matter what happens, it's happened before. And it will happen again. And no matter what, things will go on. Time will continue it's relentless march.

People in this world have lived in caves; survived ice ages, droughts, famines, and pandemics; they've seen economies collapse and emerge. They've wailed in agony at the death of a familiar loved one--and wept in wonder at the birth of a new loved one. All of it has happened before. And all of it will happen again.

I've no idea what the future holds. I could lose my job in a matter of weeks. If that happens, I might find a better, more exciting job. I might land someplace where I can help other colleagues. Or I might lose everything--at least for the moment.

And yet those who've come before me have triumphed, or I wouldn't be here. Those who've come before you have triumphed or you wouldn't be here.

How comforting that there's nothing new under the sun. And how comforting that our power and our wills are such that whatever happens, we'll figure it out and get to tomorrow somehow. It might not be an easy trek, or a pretty one, but it's guaranteed to happen because the only thing standing between here or there is time, and that's outside our control.

US: Religion? We don' need no steenkeeng religion!

The Jugglers for Jesus. That's what did it for me.

In the middle of the Terri Schiavo circus, two people showed up at the Hospice of the Pinellas Suncoast and said that God told them to come to Florida and juggle for Jesus and Terri Schiavo. The Schiavo case was a big deal here long before Glenn Beck's newly national voice helped make it bigtime. When it started, I was on the side of life. After all, if her eyes could track the balloon, then there had to be somethng there. And didn't we owe her the benefit of the doubt? I know and respect people who know her brother, and they respect him. So much for the communitive properties of respect.

I was wrong. Glenn Beck was wrong. And the Jugglers for Jesus were really, really wrong. The circus ignored the seventy-one other families in the Hospice, looking for dignity in their last days. And it ignored the pain of their families, who had to run a security gauntlet to get in. The circus caused a local elementary school to close because of security fears. If Glenn Beck would have said, "Guys move it up the road half a mile," that's all it would have taken. But winning was more important than anything else. Winning and power.

So perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at a survey released this week in which the percentage of people who answered "None" when asked to identify their religion nearly doubled, from 8.2 percent to 15 percent. (For the record, "None" does not equal atheist. Only .7 percent of the respondents claim to be atheist.)

Should anyone be surprised by this? Look at what's happened since 1990. Almost every televangelist in the business has had a problem of one sort or another. Their responses, while typically shrouded in tears, have appeared insincere and self-indulgent.

When two generations of priests, decided that celebacy didn't apply to teenaged boys, the Catholic church not only covered it up, but one of its Cardinals proposed excommunication for accusers, even if their accusations were true.

Then there's the little matter of Islamic fundamentalists flying airplanes into buildings. It's not as big a scale, but when television stations refuse to air Saving Private Ryan because of the cursing, things have gone too far.

For the record, until recently, I have been Catholic. I was Catholic by choice, having studied the theology and found it to support the vast majority of my core beliefs. Donna Payant aside, my support for the death penalty is almost gone because of prayerful reflection. But against this backdrop, and given some events in my church recently, I am technically not aligned with any specific religion right now. So I understand why people would say "None."

Religion has been important. Commercials speaking of and featuring Beyonce's dancing ass don't belong on commercials in childrens' programming. The civil rights movement was largely sparked by religion. And you'd be hard pressed to say organizations like the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities are detrimental.

But religion has also become heavy-handed, proud, and arrogant. It's more concerned with what happens in the bedroom than what happens in the boardroom, or what happens when people lose their hope. In many cases, it's more interested in condemning abortion than it is in helping a woman who chose abortion to bind her wounds and live her life in the best possible way going forward.

A man--a minister--named Steve Brown has said that Christianity works best when it's not in power. Maybe this is a blessing, rather than a curse.

Real Men of Genius: Mr. Paper Reader in a Public Men's Room Guy

Bud Light presents Real Men of Genius
(Singer: Real Men of Genius)
Today we salute you, Mr. Paper Reader in a Public Men's Room Guy
(Mr. Paper Reader in the Public Men's Room Guy)
So what if there's only two sit down toilets,
your name's on one of them and so's your butt.
(Make yourself at home)
There's headlines to read, and the Bucs recap
So everyone else can just wait their turn.
(Hope you can hold it)
Sure there's other people jumping up and down waiting,
but you've got Dear Abby to read
(Just take a number)
'Cause when you do what a man's gotta do at home
Your mom gets all in your face about how she pays the mortgage.
(It's your bathroom, so what?)
Because after six helpings of cheese enchiladas with refried beans
There's nothing like a long relax with the Times to make everything better.
(I feel ten pounds lighter)
So here's to you Mr. Sultan of the Stalls
Because thanks to you, we all get our cardio looking frantically for another place
to do our business
(Mr. Paper Reader in the Public Men's Room Guy)
Anheuser Busch, Brouwerijplein, 1, Belgium

Real Men of Genius: Mr. Speaker Phone in the Cubicle Farm Guy

Bud Light presents Real Men of Genius
(Singer: Real Men of Genius)
Today we salute you, Mr. Speaker Phone in a Cubicle Farm Guy
(Mr. Speaker Phone in a Cubicle Farm Guy)
You know that the best way to build a team at work is to share,
so you share every detail of every phone call you've ever made.
(Even to your proctologist)
Why be burdened with a head set or holding the receiver
when you can have your hands free to play solitaire on your computer?
(Red four on the black five)
So when you talk dirty to your wife or girlfriend, we can all share the embarrassment
Specially when you misdialed and called the wrong one.
(Who knows a good divorce lawyer?)
Life is hard, and picking up the receiver is harder.
So why bother?
Just crank it up, like that rap music you play in the car with the windows down.
(Yo dog, I've got a deliverable)
So here's to you Mr. Speaker Phone in the Cubicle Farm Guy
for making the living hell of your life
our living hell as well.
(Mr. Speaker Phone in a Cubicle Farm Guy)
Anheuser Busch, Someplace in Scandinavia.

Three Keys to Surviving the Economic Downturn

On Monday, different companies announced a total of 75,000 layoffs. That’s about the number of people who will be present to watch the Super Bowl this weekend. In November, 533,000 people lost their jobs. A month later, 692,000 people joined them. In the last two months of last year, 1.5 million people were laid off. That’s a lot. It’s almost as many people as went to all regular season Tampa Bay Rays games last year for 81 home games.

President Obama estimates that more than 10% of workers will be unemployed before the economic slump passes. And many estimates place the recovery at late 2010. In short, layoffs are a part of the foreseeable future.

Three keys exist in making it through to the other side when you’re laid off:
1. Build your network now.
2. Be passionate and creative, starting now.
3. Have faith, starting now.

Branch Rickey said that luck is the residue of good design. Prepare now in case the worst happens. Find people in your field of work and get to know them. Bring them value. Show them how you can help them. Care about them and engage them personally.

The tools are there: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging. More important than the tools, though, are the ways you use them. Be helpful. Do what you can as you create your network to assist others. Show them you care. Also, show them you know something about your job. Your network should be a byproduct of your social presence, not its objective. Social media is about being social. Demonstrate your ability to help. It’s worth money, if it comes to that, and the people can be pretty cool, too.

Second, be passionate and creative, starting now. Surviving—and dare I say even thriving—in a layoff starts with attitude. And it’s nearly impossible to create a passionate, creative attitude when you’re worried about paying the mortgage. So start now.

I get to work early in the morning, just as the downtown skyline is backlit by the dawn. It’s breathtakingly beautiful some mornings. For years, I would have walked by that. Now I get out the Blackberry and take a picture. Having the ability to see those types of blessings where they exist, even on a crappy day, helps keep me leveled and sane. I can’t control whether the day is going to be difficult, but I can control how I respond to the difficulties. I have been working to create a habit of responding creatively and with passion. It’s hard. But it helps me see that the difficult is finite—it’s not forever—and it also provides me a chance to expand my abilities and my confidence.

And that leads me to the last point: have faith, starting now. Faith builds your networking ability and your ability to response to difficulty with creativity and passion. It’s also built by those things. When I got laid off in 2001, I had no network. I didn’t really know how to network. I started from scratch. Instead of preparing, I fretted, sitting in the hot water with my fellow frogs, complaining about how the water was getting hot.

By building a network now, I don’t have to worry. If I happen to get laid off, I’ll have done what I can do. I’ll be as ready as possible. That frees me at work, where I can now do a better job because I’m not dwelling on the possibilities. It also helps me to see the future without a job as something I’ve gone through before, and something I am certain I will do better in.

So in closing, I’m going to give you a challenge: if you’re concerned about being laid off, build your network now, think creatively and passionately—show yourself and others how you can help, build your faith now by building your network and making a habit of seeing opportunity, rather than gloom.

Then, make a vow that if you’re laid off, within a year, you’ll have figured out a way to do better than you were at your job. If that’s uncomfortable, make a vow that you’ll pay your bills throughout. It’s possible—I’ve done it. As for what’s possible for you, only you can know that. Losing your job is awful, but you can survive and even cut down the worry now. You just have to believe it, then do it.

Out of the Closet

I admit it. I'm the only person who doesn't feel a groundswell of pride and anticipation in the days leading up to the inauguration.

Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it doesn't feel like one. I don't vote for Barack Obama. I don't care for a lot of his policies. I dread our inevitable switchover to socialized medicine. But hey, we've nationalized the auto and banking industies; why not socialize medicine?

But Obama is my President for the next four years. If he does well, hopefully, we all do well. Hopefully, he'll be able to navigate our country through a very difficult time passage and see us through to relative stability on the other side. You have to be the worst kind of partisan not to have those hopes.

People have compared Obama to Lincoln, FDR, or JFK to try to capture his essence. I have another comparison: Ronald Reagan. The 70s were a disaster for this country, from Vietnam to Watergate to leisure suits to stagflation and our great national malaise. We exited the 70s unsure about ourselves and our country. We'd seen our best days and the great national lessening would have to continue.

And Reagan came on the scene preaching hope, talking about a great shining city and how it was morning in America. Obama's rhetoric was different, but his message was the same. The long dark night is over and we're going to move forward into the day. That's not a message John McCain can convey.

So, as another morning dawns in America, I'll hope along with the rest of you that this guy has the answer. After all, until 2012, he's the man.

Let's just hope he's the next Ronald Reagan and not the next Jimmy Carter.

Laid Off Can Equal Victimhood or Victory: Your Choice

Sometimes, other people say it better. In this case, it's Forbes magazine, with an article called Advice for Laid-Off Engineers. Of course, the advise applies to anyone who's laid off. But such advice is worthless without the right mindset.

When I was twenty, or even thirty, I could spend days in a blue funk because time was endless. Someplace in the last three or four years, I figured out that time is precious--probably because I have a lot less left than I used to. What I do from this point forward matters. Wasting weeks, days, or even hours, fretting over things I can't control seems like burning money.

A better use of the time is figuring out what I want and pursuing it. That way, when I'm propped up in my death bed, I won't be filled with regret. Life is magic, but magic loses meaning when it's not valuable. What value is a good thing when everything's going well? After a couple months of sunny days, another sunny day is no big deal. After a Chicago winter full of gloom and claustrophobia, the sun is a blessing. So it is to build something when things are bad.

It's hard, motivating yourself when things look helpless. When I was laid off, I spent far too much of the time I was blessed with drinking beer and feeling sorry for myself. Instead, I should have taken the time to figure out and pursue my dream.

A lay off is neutral. Even with what I wasted in my layoff, I can't call it bad, because I learned so much.

You get the cards you're dealt. However bad your hand is, there's someone who figured out how to do more with less.

And you are worth trying to turn your loss into the biggest gain of your life.