A Journal of My Mid-Life Crisis

14 February 1999 - Seven Habits

The Air Force is trying to get people to go through the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People class. They opened some slots up to Aerospace folks and our managers got more or less coerced into going. My logic in signing up for one of the other slots was that it's generally best to know what the people you work for are being taught. As I told Milo, that way I can subvert any changes he tries to make.

The class was moderately annoying as it was rather slow paced and somewhat too abstract. I got to subvert things right in class as one segment was a film on Mauritius and, having been there, I got to point out what they weren't saying. So, yes, there really don't seem to be ethnic (racial or religious) tensions there, despite a very mixed population, but there is certainly institutionalized sexism, with women in agricultural jobs earning only 60% of what men earn. And the vast majority of the nation's wealth is in the hands of 5 families who are descendents of the French sugar plantation owners. Yes, there is nearly 100% employment, but that is largely because there is no social safety net. If you lose your job, you pretty much have to take the first other job that comes along, unless you're one of the few people who is rich enough to have substantial savings. Yes, there is a remarkably high literacy rate for a Third World country, but there is also pervasive legal child labor. And so on. (If I were going to point to Third World literacy rates, by the way, I'd probably do a clip on the state of Kerala in India, which has over 90% literacy in a country where most states have literacy rates under 50%. But that's another matter.)

At any rate, I walked away from the class having concluded that I am already highly effective. I'm quite good at figuring out what I really want and making it a priority. I've had a lot of people ask me how I had the courage to do the sort of extended travel I've done and all I could really tell them is that you just have to find ways to do what you think is important.

The trickier issues are those that involve other people. All of the win/win thinking and attempts to find third alternatives work only as long as you are dealing with people who are willing to be reasonable. I'm fully prepared to admit that there are subjects I am not willing to be reasonable over, either. (Just stop by my office during baseball season if you don't believe that.) When you're dealing with somebody who flies to a meeting 500 miles away in the morning and within an hour storms out of the meeting and back to the airport because he was asked to wait to show a particular briefing chart after another discussion was finished instead of right that instant, about all you can hope for is damage control. (By the way, this is something that really happened at a meeting I was at. The person in question has since retired. Of course, the real dispute wasn't about the briefing chart, but was a power struggle over who was running the meeting. Which doesn't mean there was anything for me to do but sit there in shock.)

As for other things that happened this week:

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough did indeed manage to overcome my antipathy towards American Indian folklore and make it work reasonably well for me in The Godmother's Web. This has me thinking about fantasy in general. Most of the fantasy I read is of the humorous sort, Terry Pratchett and the like. I used to enjoy fairly brainless sword and sorcery, but pretty much outgrew that. What I'm wondering about is whether there are some questions about human relationships that fantasy is particularly well suited for exploring. I think that is the case with other genres, detective fiction being the morality play of our time, for example. Maybe the fundamental nature of fantasy hinges on assessing what is and isn't real? (And, by the way, I didn't read any other books this week.)
I was not quite as brilliant at work last week as I'd thought I was. More precisely, another one of the people involved decided to change the definition of one of the words at the last minute. We may have another approach, but it's one that I think confuses the issue more. I'm not about to fall on my sword over it, unless I can be sure the sword will just nick my arm, say, instead of my heart. It's still frustrating.
I'm making some progress regarding the 3 day walk. I've started on both training and fundraising. In the arena of training, I did a 5.5 mile walk today. I also bought new shoes and I have some blisters as a result. I was perfectly comfortable for the first 3 or so miles, so I think the shoes will be okay. But we shall see. At any rate, my leg muscles are fine; the feet are the concern. I've been trying to walk every day, but some days it's just a mile or so. Still, I have lots of time to train as the walk is late October. As for fundraising, I distributed some pledge forms at Community Storytellers and got my first couple of contributions. If there is any chance at all you might consider sponsoring me, please email me and give me your snail mail address so I can send you a form. I am working on getting the form scanned in and downloadable. But, in the meantime, I need to rely on lower tech methods. I may also set up a separate page for the walk and my progress, by the way.
I told "The Neglected Princess" again and it went over very well. What surprised me is that not that many people remembered having heard it before. I always worry that people will feel cheated if they hear an older piece. Which is a silly thing to worry about because I never mind hearing a story again if it was one I liked the first time around. I'm certainly not going to have anything new next month since I need to work on making sure my Sophie Germaine piece is sharp for the women's history month show. (If I have any readers in Los Angeles who are interested, that's Sunday, March 7th, 6:30 p.m. at the El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach.)
I brought a huge box of stuff to the thrift shop. But I still have a ton of things to go through and get rid of.
I have now spent a total of 97 minutes on hold with MCI trying to cancel a calling card. I am writing them a very carefully worded letter.
Robert sent a quick Valentine's Day email from the airport and said he'd call when he was back in London. Unfortunately, he didn't say which airport and whether he was coming or going. Still, I suppose I can take some comfort from him remembering. I also got an anonymous electronic greeting card, but what I read into that is a whole other matter.