Friday Reflections

It was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much. Part 3

Point to Ponder: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. - Khalil Gibran

Story Line: As we entered the minibus in Auckland, a couple inside greeted us with a smile. They were part of a tour group to Hobbiton. While walking around in the park, noticing that they were taking selfies or picture of one of them at a time, I offered to take their photographs. The conversation that followed after a few camera clicks resulted in us discovering the common interests. After a long successful career, Santosh had sold his company and ventured into the next phase of life; 50 days excursion in New Zealand and Australia with his wife was the first part of this phase. They were from the east coast of USA and they had some friends from school days who lived in the Silicon Valley. At the end of the day tour, we exchanged contact information and sent periodic messages.

We met again when they visited San Francisco a year later and continued our friendship with more interaction through frequent messages and phone calls. Last year Santosh travelled to Rishikesh in India to learn various meditation techniques.

A few months ago, in one of our phone calls I mentioned to him that the current Covid crisis, political situation in our country and bombardment of negative news had taken its toll on my moods; feeling anxious, edgy and worried. Santosh mentioned that meditation might help in calming nerves and he graciously offered to do weekly Zoom sessions and teach me what he had learnt.

Since June1st, we have had seven sessions on every Monday; followed by me practicing the learnings every day. With change in diet, thought process and breathing techniques, my blood pressure has gone down on average 15 points and pulse rate by about 20 points. I don’t recollect being this calm since my college days. In last few weeks, with Santosh’s blessings, I have shared his teaching and advices to friends who too have benefited.

All these because of a chance encounter in a tour bus in New Zealand.

Reflection: I have been incredibly fortunate in my life journey to have met so many kind, caring and helpful individuals; most of whom I have met through chance encounters. They have all played a significant role in the wonderful life I've led.

They have enriched me with an enormous wealth of experiences and stories that have been shared in Friday Reflections through the years. I wouldn't have had such a beautiful career and life without the help and encouragement from so many people. I express my sincere thanks to all those individuals and the readers as we are ending the last week of the 35^th year from when Friday Reflections began (August 5, 1985) and 15^th year since they went on internet.

It was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much: Part 1 and 2 were published in 2017.

https://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2017/08/it-was-in-my-heart.html

https://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2017/11/it-was-in-my-heart-part2.html

Things to Follow in These Difficult Times

Special Thanks to the reader Yi Fang for sending above poster.

Things that matter most should not be put at the mercy of things that matter least.

Let the children’s laughter remind us of how we used to be.  Their happiness comes from being in the moment, only one that matters, they forget everything else. The Way We Were.

Family who plays and prays together stays together.

 

Note: Friday Reflection about Dumb Fred Episodes 2 and 3 that were planned for this month are postponed to Future dates.

"Dumb Fred" Episode 1: Original Fred Story as the starter.*

Point to Ponder: Never ridicule anyone because they are different and/or do not fit “The System”. There are many pathways to real success in life.

During past fifteen years of Reflections, occasionally some readers have asked: Don’t you have any negative experiences from personal life and learnings from which you can share? Seems almost all of the stories so far have positive spin on them.

Ok, as we are approaching 15^th anniversary on internet (August 5, 2005), for the two reflections starting next week, I will share a few such experiences that have been in backlog for several years. Though negative looking at times, fortunately the end results have turned out well. But before those stories, for this week, let me share one starter for the warmup.

Story Line: “Dumb Fred”

In 1988, my wife and I attended a seminar in San Jose. The speaker was entertaining and told us many stories to deliver key messages, one of those I have never forgotten.

In one school there was a kid named Fred who was not well versed with “current trends in social affairs” and not good in the regular school curriculum as well. He would say things that are not standard discussion subjects, bring stories from reading various magazines that others had not heard of and they would ridicule him for “making up stories”, and ask questions in classes that teachers didn’t expect and got annoyed. He had become laughing stock of the teachers and students. He was very poor in most subjects and getting passing marks seemed to be his biggest accomplishment. Bottom Line: Fred was not well versed in normal baseline expectations. They called him “Dumb Fred”.

One time in an open competition conducted by the state (not school curriculum), Fred came first in the entire state bringing glory to the school. However the principal and the teacher, who were expecting one of their favorite star student to come first couldn’t believe that, and instead of congratulating taunted, “Fred, Are you sure you didn’t cheat? Hard to believe.”

Many years later, there was a high school reunion. The people wearing fancy suites, dresses and holding wine glasses were chatting with one another about what they had achieved in terms of career, financial status, fancy cars, where they lived etc thus catching up on the lost time.

Suddenly a big very fancy limousine pulled up which drew everyone’s attention. The chauffeur got out and opened the door. A man in very modest clothes came out. First they couldn’t recognize the guy but after a few minutes one of them exclaimed “Hey, That’s Dumb Fred.”

They were wondering how Fred could have been in a chauffeur driven limousine, so a few of them started very diplomatic gentle probing.To their surprise they found out that Fred not only owned the fancy hotel that they were in but he also owned many businesses around the country. He also had charitable organizations to help people in different walks of life.

From their score cards, it was hard to believe that Fred had attained that kind of status and results. Now that they perceived Fred’s status much higher than theirs, one of them mustered up enough courage to ask (of course very gently and politely): “Fred how did you do all these?”

“Well”, Fred started “I couldn’t make it to college because as you all know, I had bad grades and couldn’t write a good essay either. So I took a job selling food in the market. I liked talking to customers and treated them well. One day one customer asked me to join his new restaurant business." The way the rest of the story went was that Fred treated every level of employee, suppliers and customers very well and the business grew lips and bounds. It diversified into many other areas.

But what Fred said at the end was most revealing. When asked about the return on investments, Fred said,“The Businesses brought me good return of 20%/Year and thus the money tripled every three years, and with God’s grace: Here I am.”

When the classmates heard that final sentence they all looked at each other: “He is still the same ‘Dumb Fred’. How did he make it?”

Reflections: More investigation into Fred's life revealed that: He was still very poor at math and he didn’t have a clue about the compounding interest formula. But he seemed to understand the power of compounding his business by focusing on high quality products and helping people grow. Fred had a common sense to understand the real needs of society and used his gut instincts to make decisions rather than going through elaborate financial analysis. He showed keen interest in people from other cultures and beliefs, learned from diversity, and treated everyone with respect regardless of their social status. He still lived in his old neighborhood and had not learnt driving a car because he had none when he was poor and no time when his businesses took off. People who interacted with Fred loved and respected him and they went extra miles to compensate in the areas Fred was not well versed.

Most of us have had our own “Dumb Fred” moments. When they are used as learning and growing experiences, they result in positive outcomes.

Be Simple, Be humble, Be curious. No Malice, No Bitterness. Utilize every encounter in life as the learning and growing experience.

*with minor modifications/touch ups.

Prevention:You can only connect the dots looking backwards

Point to Ponder: What did Taiwanese, New Zealanders, Thais and others knew that some did not. “An ounce of Prevention is better than a pound of cure.”

Story Line: “Perfect Containment until Proven Prevention.”

Covid-19: Source: Worldometers.  Date: July 9, 2020

No	Country	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths
1	USA	3,215,549	56,617	135,683	821
2	BRAZIL	1,755,779	39,583	69,184	1129
3	UK	287,621	642	44,602	8
99	THAILAND	3202	5	58	0
131	NEW ZEALAND	1540	3	22	0
163	TAIWAN	449	0	7	0

Observations of containment and semi-prevention (of virus spreading) from three visits to Taiwan in January, February and March and One to Chiang Mai.

1. January 28: 75% of the passengers and 100% of crew members in the plane from SFO-TPE were wearing Facemasks. Restrooms were sanitized more often than normal. From TPE to ChingMai 100% of people in plane had facemasks.
2. Upon arrival at Taipei Airport almost all (found only 6 exceptions amongst several hundreds) people were wearing facemasks. So we surrendered and put on masks.
3. On the Second visit to Taiwan in February, there was a body temperature check and individual interview before proceeding to Immigration. Hotel pickup van and reception desks also did temperature checks. 100% of people including foreigners were wearing facemasks.
4. On the third visit in March, same as #3 plus temperature check before entering high speed railway platform. The train was completely full with passengers for 3 hours journey. Everyone was wearing facemask. In the crowded bus from train station to Hotel, on the town streets and in small Alishan forest railways, people were wearing facemasks. Public places were frequently cleaned and sanitized.
5. In January, in early stages of virus spread, Taiwan and Thailand had put ban on travelers from Coronavirus origins places, taking huge losses in tourist revenues. Estimates are over a million tourists were scheduled to visit those countries for the New Year vacation time.
6. One very notable thing was that people were mingling close to one another, walking shoulder to shoulder in crowded markets or in buses and sitting close to others in diffrent places. No social distancing of several feet, but they had facemasks on.

Reflection: Taiwan and some other countries have done a superb job of preventing spread of the virus by Proactive early engagement actions. For some countries it was knowledge and learning from past episodes and having prevention systems in place, for others like New Zealand it was aggressive actions based on the knowledge of what countries like Taiwan had already done. (wise learn from others' experiences).

Full prevention of virus will be achieved only when the source of the virus is eliminated and vaccine is developed. But until then for some of the countries where virus is widely spreading fast: Without pointing fingers at anyone* let us work together to combat this terrible human tragedy. To wear the mask or not to and whether to follow other containment actions, that is not the question. To act for own safety and that of our families and our fellow human being is individual responsibility. United we stand, divided we will fall.

*A few months ago, even respected medical experts in USA were not advocating use of facemasks, not even simple cloth covering face, while medical grade masks were in short supply. But everyone is learning along the way; hard way in this case. A lot of new discoveries are coming up in the process of finding solutions so at times some of the previous information is not valid or may seem contradictory. Medical professionals are working long hours both for containment and finding Prevention solutions. Let us trust that they would do the right things.

Some people are starting to doubt prevention methodologies and also starting to wonder if all this is a Hoax. I would just point to the data and observations from the places presented above. (Following the best known practices vs drifting and not following them).

While thinking about investing in Prevention and/or New Discoveries I remember the words of Steve Jobs: Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing

 

 

POINT TO PONDER
It seems people are happiest in the moment, when they are able to shut that voice in their head off and get to the tasks at hand.

STORYLINE -- By Rajiv Shah
 
The other day I was driving down freeway on my way to my favorite park. In the backseat was my trusted best friend - my always enthusiastic dog. The window was cracked just enough so she could stick her head outside and enjoy the winds zipping by, lifting her compact, triangular black ears off her head and giving them the appearance of black bats swirling together in a synchronized dance. This little dog was happy. Happy as can be, not a place in the world that she'd rather be than right there in my window getting a natural blow dry from gales of a new day.

Suddenly I felt envious. And that envy continued when we arrived at the park. I let her out and shut the door, my mind still grappling with image of her face blissfully riding the breeze.

Questions raced through my mind. Why are dogs so happy? Why is my dog so content with a simple wind in her face? If I stuck my face out the window, would I receive the same satisfaction?

In the middle of this mental debate warring in my head, I was pulled hard. My dog, no longer concerned with the car ride over was off and immediately onto something else, a healthy rotund squirrel. Up the tree the squirrel went and my dog bounced under, hoping that a fateful misstep would have the chubby little rodent hurtling down towards her. Alas, to my pleasure, the squirrel made it high above, and I felt happy that she didn't get the squirrel. Not because I feared for the squirrel's safety or because I'm a PETA supporter or anything; I was happy because my dog didn't get what it wanted. And then it hit me, the pangs of guilt.

More questions raced to my mind. How could I, as a caring human being, want my dog to be unhappy? Why was I envious of a dog in the first place? Was I bad person for feeling the way I did? And how could I find ways to improve myself? Obviously, this was a sign that I had to get better.

I looked to my dog, prepared to shower her with love to compensate for my ill will - deciding to buy her a pet squirrel if I had to – but at that moment she couldn't have cared less. She was squatted over a nice tuft of grass peeing freely into the greenest parts, a contented and joyous look on her face.

 

REFLECTION
 
A friend once asked me if life is better for a dog. She wondered if dogs were stupid and maybe that's why they had the capacity to feel joy at such high levels. “Ignorance is bliss,” she would say. I have thought about that a lot, about whether our higher functions, our intellect can sometimes get in the way of doing, of living in the moment.It seems people are happiest in the moment, when they are able to shut that voice in their head off and get to the tasks at hand. I wanted to know if dogs had that critical, omnipresent voice that seems to be so well-meaning.

What I found was that noted animal cognition researcher William Roberts studied different species of animals and their ability to remember events in time. According to Mr. Roberts, animals lack the “sophistication” to remember events as humans do, to form memories, to self-edit, their minds committed wholly to the present.

Initially, I wondered how dogs and other animals can remember commands and who we are if they aren't capable of forming memories. Apparently, an animal operates the way a human child would – a child learns to walk, talk, and obey basic commands but cannot necessarily remember when and how they learned how to perform that specific command.

For example, if you've ever done anything where you were so completely entrenched in the doing that you lost track of time and space, that would seem to be the experience of a dog and a child. You didn't think about or remember how you learned that activity, were not mentally editing your relation to it, but just doing it.

Perhaps there is a higher joy in simplicity, in the doing of things in the present moment? Maybe that voice that is so critical of others and yourself is not your best self. The best part exists in the doing, in the moment in front of you, the one in which you do not think but let go and let yourself do.

If You Can Think Of It If You Can Dream Of It You Can Achieve It

A Family Project: From Swimming Pool to Koi Pond. And a wonderful ten years journey since. 

June 24, 2010 - 2020.

Happy Father's Day Wishes and Love to You from Your Friday Reflections Family.

Point to Ponder: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Story Line: The video above covers the journey of a family project we started in the spring of 2010. The first part was to remove the high maintenance, low use swimming pool that was occupying majority of our backyard. The second part was to create a Koi Pond with the help of an expert. And the third part was where we enriched the surroundings with varieties of fish, trees, flower plants and other items. What you see in the video is the evolution of surroundings through the years; majestic colors of the landscape through four seasons, reflections of sunlight during different parts of the day, many varieties of plants, flowers, fruit trees and diversity of wildlife (Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Animals and of course Lizards and Garden Snakes. Not to forget manyfriends from various countries have blessed this pond with their presence. People may find hard to believe that this 'not so secret garden' is very low maintenance compared to what it was before the change.

Reflection: Next Wednesday, June 24th is the tenth anniversary of this creation. It has been a wonderful journey full of fun and a lot of learnings about gardening and wildlife. Every member of family was involved; our son and his mother very intensely, me providing the management guidance (lol) and vision for the size of the pond, our son in law and daughter providing vegetable plants and share their deep experience. Some friends also provided flowers and vegetable plants. Many new lessons learnt; here are the top three.

1. Hire the best man for the job, the second best is too expensive. The person who built our pond was professional, knowledgable, responsive, with high degree of integrity and good people working for him. Till today we haven't had any major issues with the pond. 
2. Let things evolve and don't give up too soon. After getting only 5,7 and 6 cherries from 4th to 6th years, I was thinking of removing the tree. My wife suggested to give some more time. I guess the tree heard us and since then we have had years with continuously increasing crops; this year yielded  2000 cherries. Similarly after the drought years, three old evergreen trees looked pale and terrible. Called tree doctor who recommended doing expensive lab analysis and also removal of two out of three. Our gardner suggested to water them a lot and give some tender loving care. Since then those three are blooming with beautiful white flowers every February and early moring sunshine turns them into majestic gold colors. (in video)
3. Maintaining a balanced eco-system is very important. In nature there is a good reason for the way things are. Removing garden snakes created an imbalace that opened up opportunities for frogs and rats to invade the garden. Only when the park ranger saw us dropping a snake in the woods, he educated us about the benefits of garden snakes and their harmlessness. Since then the rats and frogs have moved away.  Garden Snake

Enjoy the video. Happy Weekend. 

Children are Wiser than Adults

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDQezECAxtQ

First time I heard the story "Wisdom of Children" (also translated as Little Girls Wiser than Men) by Russian author Leo Tolstoy was during my childhood. Last year It resurfaced in mind when I read news about parents getting into big fights during The Little League games. Since I had never forgotten the title and the names of two girls in the story, I could easily find it on internet and saved it foran appropriate time to publish. Seeing the above photos and video last week made it the right time.

Story Line (Synopsis-Wikipedia): The story opens at the beginning of Holy Week, when there was still melting snow on the ground. An older girl, Akulya, and a younger girl, Malasha, go outside to play. They both have just been given new frocks, but they insist on wading through one of the puddles from the melting snow. They both take off their shoes to keep them dry, and Akulya warns Malasha against splashing the water on her new frock. Malasha splashes Akulya despite her warning, and Akulya runs home in tears. Her mother is furious at the ruined frock, and she spanks Malasha in the middle of the street. Soon Malasha's mother emerges from her home, and the mothers begin arguing. The shouts brought the peasants into the street, who also begin arguing with each other. The peasants start pushing each other, and Akulya's grandmother urges everyone to stop, but to no avail.

In the meantime, Akulya had washed off her frock, and she and Malasha returned to the pool. The two girls make a small boat out of bark, and they make a stream from the puddle. They go chasing after the boat together, as happy as ever. Akulya's grandmother urges everyone to follow the example of the children, and take their spirit of forgiveness into their own hearts.

Reflection: Most of the things in life are simple but only wise understand them. What is it that we understood and practiced well in childhood that gets forgotten through the growing years? Love, Forgiveness, Compassion, Kindness are so much easier than EGO, Anger, and Hatred. What a pity that a man must die before he wakes up?

 

 

To him, we say, "Well done"

Louis Liang (1944-2020)

Point to Ponder: To know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Story Line: It was October 1983, I was a new employee at Fairchild Semiconductor and my friend, Steve Kan, was taking me around to introduce to various people. The last stop was a corner office, the person who sat there was head of Assembly/Test operations. As Steve and I entered the office, the gentleman got up and welcomed me to the company. As we sat and talked, he sat straight up in his chair, made good eye contact and patiently asked me questions about my background. After few minutes it became apparent that he was very detailed, knowledgeable, data driven and pragmatic. I left his office thinking that I would need a lot of patience and efforts to deal with him.

Little did I know at that time, despite our mostly contrasting ways of operating (Me, a Dreamer and him, a pragmatic, well-grounded person), it would be the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Louis Liang was born in Shanghai China. In his early teen years, a small window of opportunity opened to leave and he took the train to join his father in British Hong Kong. Then, his family moved to United States of America, he studied science and started a career in Silicon Valley.

After I left Fairchild, we kept in contact. I enjoyed his perspective on different issues, appreciated his depth of knowledge and advice on many subjects beyond technology and work. He became my defecto mentor and helped throughout life in personal, career, legal and financial matters.

Though very firm and seemingly tough at work, he was very kind, compassionate, helpful person and an extremely loyal friend. He encouraged and supported every business and creative ventures of myself and my children. Like a true friend, he stood by me in difficult times. There are so many stories and memories; he once owned a Chinese restaurant and was a very good cook; treated executives, US senators (in his last job), line workers and Starbucks employees with the same courtesy and respect.

After my retirement we started meeting more often; Tuesday morning coffees at Starbucks. He was very close to his mother and often talked about how much he missed her. Whenever he found out that my mother was at our home, he would stop by to chat with her for hours.

Reflection: In the last week of December 2015, during our coffee chat, Louis informed me that he was going to have surgery for cancer. After that day, he courageously forged his own path with not one, but two stage four cancers. Louis continued his own positive style, kept firm determination, continued our weekly coffee meetings on various subjects and visited my mother. After last November we did Facetime or visited him. He appreciated his life, loved his family and was never afraid of Death.

Last time we could talk was about three weeks ago. My wife and I visited him and he woke up and chatted with us for 20 minutes.  The very last thing that happened before he fell asleep was he pointed at many patents and awards plaques that were hanging in the room and said “all that Useless. Useless.”

Then pointed at the photograph that was underneath; a photo of his daughter, wife and him, and said “That’s all that matters.”  

My friend and Mentor Louis left this world last Thursday.

“And now somewhere, there stands the man
His duty o'er and won
The world will never forget him
To him, we say, ‘Well done’”  - From Old soldiers never die, They just fade away by Gene Autry

Amaryllises - Gifts from our friends and mentor Louis Liang and Jessie Liang

Determination, Beauty, Love

And how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see....

Point to Ponder: How many ears must one person have before he can hear people cry? And how many deaths will it take 'til he knows that too many people have died?

Reflection: The image at the top of reflection is Choeung Ek memorial, the reminder of the tragic consequences of the power of hate. It is filled with 5000 human skulls, out of 1.5 to 2 million who were tortured and killed in various killing fields of Cambodia; their fault- having different belief system, education level and status. It is the result of one man and his group of followers’ obsession with hate.

History has many such tragic events in every culture and country; some on a genocidal scale like this and many others, though not as massive, resulting in innocent lives lost because of religious beliefs, race, status or color of the skin. Methods and means for torture were different but the end result was the same; the root cause - Hatred.

These hate initiatives start out small (one person killed, may be a few here and there as the numbers start addingup) but when the ordinary good citizens (other 98% or so) who knew they were wrong didn’t stand up, the other side picked up momentum and forced or coerced good people in joining them with intimidation and false propaganda about the other side. Many people remained silent out of fear.

If such issues are not contained and eliminated at the onset, even if it is just one life, gradually it starts adding up. Right now, this is happening to our children’s future.

But my story line is about a deeper issue.

Story Line: Some may say that there laws and systems to address such issues. But as Dale Carnegie once said “A person convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” And we currently see this live in action, in many countries around the world. Hatred and violence against people of different faiths and skin color. Laws, a compliance mechanism, are only as effective as people choose. None of us are born prejudice, but pick them up along the way in school, social gatherings, from-friends, adults, books and media.  The real change will have to come from us making a conscious choice; acceptance of differences amongst us, appreciating them and learning from one another. And whenever we see injustice, prejudice and hatred, we must not stand on the sideline but speak up for what is right. The requires an inner transformation that takes commitment and courage. We must do this for the sake of the future generations.

My own story: For most of my life, I thought I was an open minded, non-judgemental person until my children pointed out my hidden biases and prejudices expressed in casual conversations, “light jokes” and "well intended" actions. After intense dialogues I came to realize that opinions I had developed about different races, gay rights and an individual’s right to choose were not based on any concrete facts but due to my ignorance about their history, personal feelings and information from media or casual conversations. I still have a lot to learn and realize that inner transformation is the first step in how to view and act in the world. For my children and grandsons sake, I have made that choice.

Learn to do good, seek justice, correct opresion, bring justice to the helpless, stand up for the right cause.

In light of current situation, This is a special reflection on Monday.

DAY OF ABSENCE- ESSENTIAL WORKERS

Point to Ponder: We all affect one another, regardless of paycheck or role, and we depend on one another to function as a whole. -- Rajiv Shah

In light of current situation and awakening of the importance of every job function I (Anand)  felt this article is very timely reinforcement of the message. ❤️🙏🏼

STORYLINE by Rajiv Shah originally published on November 24, 2011.

I have been absent from writing Friday Reflections and am welcoming this opportunity to return by writing about a play I was recently in, DAY OF ABSENCE. The play was a unique, fictional account of what would happen if a group of workers (primarily nannies, farmers, and laborers) disappeared from a fictional town in the United States. 

I believed this was a fictional account, and indeed when the play was performed (in 1965) it was, until I came across an article in USA Today detailing the mass exodus of immigrants from Alabama towns after courts passed harsh anti-immigrations laws allowing law enforcement to detain any immigrants suspected of being illegal in this country. Further, it requires schools to verify immigration status of their students. What has transpired is that a large portion of Alabama's labor force has simply vanished from the town all together. Farms have been left unharvested, grocery stores have found their business drop 60%, and schools found 2,300 students missing from their classrooms. Whole neighbourhoods have become ghost towns virtually overnight with furniture and belongings left in the now abandoned houses.  

The effects have been substantial and Alabama is trying to find solutions to their now suddenly vacant labor force. 

REFLECTION

We all affect one another, regardless of paycheck or role, and we depend on one another to function as a whole. Sometimes within our own companies it is difficult to fully grasp the impact an employee makes to the whole, positively or adversely. Alabama respresents a extraordinary circumstance but exemplifies that we often need each other more than we care to acknowledge. We see the position one fills more than we see the person and the actions we take always affect one another, even if they are not immediately visible, especially when we only see that person's position and not their humanity. 

and profound wisdom of a reader:  

Interesting discussion about how the US people or state governments feel about or respond to immigrants (legal or otherwise). The Alabama story reminds me of the book Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) though the twist is that this time it's the average workers who stopped working, no the leaders.

On another point in line with the reflection above, I once heard a tale of a school teacher (university professor?) who included a problem on his test, at the end of the semester, to write down the name of the janitor who cleans the classroom... 
Good reminder to respect and get to know the people around us, regardless of apparent status or position.

Posted by: microCEO | November 27, 2011 at 11:41 PM