81\u00a0 bar steady\u00a0 29.84\u00a0 0mph NE\u00a0 dew-point 66\u00a0\u00a0 Summer, hot and muggy<\/p>\n
Full Thunder Moon<\/p>\n
“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.” – Thomas Alva Edison<\/p>\n
I like Edison here.\u00a0 He illustrates a fundamental flaw in the planning paradigm.\u00a0 When we plan, we have a criteria for success.\u00a0 Most planners see that as the summum bonum of the plan.\u00a0 I know I did when I worked as an organizational consultant in churches and other organizations.\u00a0 Time-limited, quantifiable and concrete.\u00a0 That way you know one when you see one.<\/p>\n
The problem here?\u00a0 Just what Edison says.\u00a0 The serendipitous.\u00a0 Think of Roentgen who saw his hand on a photographic sensitive paper while working with radioactive material.\u00a0 Not the point.\u00a0 But.\u00a0 Roentgen saw X-rays.\u00a0 The North St. Paul 3-M’er who worked on glues and found one that didn’t work so well.\u00a0 He used it for a while to stick notes in his hmynbooks.\u00a0 Then.\u00a0 Oh, Post-It notes.<\/p>\n
The problem is deeper yet.\u00a0 Plans and goals put us into a pass\/fail world where our progress or lack of it runs up and down a scale, with our self-image and our sense of self-worth often traveling along for the ride.\u00a0 In fact, life offers so much to us, whether we write that bestseller or become an academic superstar or get straight A’s or climb the mountain or ski the double black diamond or not, that too often the important parts of life get overlooked in the scramble to meet the plan.<\/p>\n
A child’s smile.\u00a0 A flower opened, beautiful, transient.\u00a0 A partner’s caress.\u00a0 A dog’s eager greeting.\u00a0 The smell of fresh cut hay.\u00a0 A tomato fresh from the garden.\u00a0 A shooting star.\u00a0 A full moon.\u00a0 None of these come according to plan.\u00a0 They come only with attentiveness, when we live in the now and notice not the graph headed up the chart, but the beating of our own heart and the breath of our own soul.<\/p>\n
Plans.\u00a0 As Scrooge might say, Bah, Humbug.\u00a0 Buy that Christmas goose and pass out alms for the poor.\u00a0 All better than getting the account books done on a holiday.<\/p>\n
Here’s a shot I took this morning.\u00a0 When I take my camera outside on these muggy days, the lens fogs up.\u00a0 I often clean it, but this time I decided to shoot anyway.\u00a0 This is corn in the mist.<\/p>\n
81\u00a0 bar steady\u00a0 29.84\u00a0 0mph NE\u00a0 dew-point 66\u00a0\u00a0 Summer, hot and muggy Full Thunder Moon “Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.” – Thomas Alva Edison I like Edison here.\u00a0 He illustrates a fundamental flaw in the planning paradigm.\u00a0 When we plan, we have a criteria for … Continue reading Corn in the Mist<\/span> ![\"cornmist500.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/cornmist500.jpg\")
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