“The breeze of God’s grace is blowing continually. You have to set your sail to catch that breeze.” (Swami Prabhavananda)

I’m probably going to jinx myself but I can’t resist the urge to write about the best week yet, in my new teaching career. I spent the last two days working in a high school special education classroom with kids who really needed my help. I got to work side by side with some of the best educators I have ever met and I can’t begin to thank them enough for everything they do each day with these kids. I came home each afternoon feeling blessed and now I get to share that feeling with all of you who read this blog.

It amazes me that the school district can find people to do this job. It takes a level of dedication that I have only seen a few times in my entire life and that was mostly in hospitals. All of my years in the foster care system pale in comparison to the work these people do every day. I only had a few kids in foster care that required what these kids need from their caregivers. I don’t remember ever having to change a diaper on a teenage boy but that’s a daily occurence for these people. I only hope they’re getting paid accordingly.

After almost six years of dealing with every conceivable problem that can happen in a grocery store during a pandemic, I was ready for a change of scenery but I had no idea that I would find it in a special education classroom. Now I’m starting to wonder why I waited so long to try something new. The unknown is always a challenge but more often than not it’s worth taking the risk. Now I get to be around young people who are eager for my help and happy to see me. That’s a huge improvement and my sense of hopefulness is beginning to be restored.

Frankly, I have been worried a lot about the next generation’s lack of social skills and their dependence on smartphones. I still see that head down, ear buds in, scrolling while walking around habit but then I walked into a classroom yesterday where the kids were just sitting around talking to each other. Apparently we have something called peer mentoring where the kids who are considered to be part of the general education population get to work with the special education kids. I had a roomful of great kids who spent the better part of an hour encouraging those less fortunate. At one point, one young girl wanted to sing along with Katy Perry. When she finished, they all cheered and clapped for her best effort and it felt entirely genuine. I can’t begin to tell you how happy that made me feel. Nobody was on their phone, everybody was talking and the vibe was overwhelmingly positive.

After that group left, one young lady stayed with me as a classroom assistant. She’s there every day for an hour and she just helps in the classroom with the special kids. As I was sitting at the desk reading the notes the teacher left for me, I noticed a sign on the desk that read, “Every little thing is gonna be alright.” I immediately recognized that as the signature verse from Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, which happens to be my favorite song. At the same moment I heard my young assistant talking to a paraprofessional about getting a tattoo with three little birds. I couldn’t help but wonder if we were on the same page, so I asked her if she was referring to the song. She said yes because her dad loves Bob Marley. I pointed at the sign on the desk and she just smiled and nodded in agreement with me. That was a moment I will never forget.

Now today, I worked with kids who just started learning English. I don’t speak any other languages so we kind of took turns teaching each other. My Spanish is slowly improving and their English is improving rather quickly. They get all the credit for that. I’m just the old man who listens patiently. The part I find the most enjoyable is watchng their faces light up when I compliment them on their effort. It’s been my experience that giving effusive praise for trying almost always leads to better achievement and at this stage of their development they need to keep trying. Again, I feel blessed to be in their young lives and I will do everything I can to help them become functional adults.

I guess the lesson I learned again this week is the importance of resilience. My nine years in foster care gave me the ability to work with kids of all ages and backgrounds. And this time, it’s much more positive and rewarding but I don’t think I would have taken this leap of faith if I hadn’t worked so hard with thousands of foster children. It probably also helps that I spent almost six years solving problems at customer service with hundreds of face-to-face encounters. It wasn’t much fun but at least it prepared me for my latest opportunity. My advice to all those who read this is simple – never give up. Every day is just another chance to improve yourself and make a difference for the world in general. I’m seventy years old and looking forward to smiling and laughing with more new kids tomorrow. I don’t think it can get much better than that. I think I finally caught God’s breeze.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“You’re never wrong to do the right thing.” (Mark Twain)

Last Sunday was Easter, so I took that as a sign that I needed to resurrect myself by quiting a job that had become completely dysfunctional. It took me almost six years to reach this point but staying was no longer an option. As I said my goodbyes to numerous employees I was met with an almost universal, “Congratulations on making a good decision.” I didn’t need any extra validation but it was nice to hear it anyway. Honestly, I still feel sorry for the ones I left behind. They’re all still stuck in a difficult position. Much higher expectations for less pay is not a good situation and they’re all feeling the pressure. I’m lucky that I saw this coming a year ago and made other arrangements as a backup plan.

So now I’m going back to working with kids but this time they won’t be in state custody, just ordinary kids from all over the town I live in. In our local school district and many others statewide there is a huge need for substitute teachers. So much so that they lessened the requirements. At this time, a four-year degree is all that’s required to qualify for emergency substitute teacher. That and a background check gets me the opportunity to recapture some of what I lost when I left the foster care agency. I always missed the kids but I never regretted my decision to leave the state system.

Next Monday I will report to a high school at 7:30 AM to start my first shift as a para-educator. I will most likely be assigned to one kid with special needs and then spend my day studying the teachers. I need a lot more training to be able to do what they do so well. I admire anybody who chooses that career path. Teaching, especially with this generation of kids, has to be extremely difficult. Between smartphones and social media, it’s a miracle they can get these kids to focus on subjects that aren’t nearly as interesting as TikTok videos. I can’t wait to see what’s going on in the classrooms these days.

I’m actually considering writing a book about this experience. My working title is “Each One Teach One” because I think it best describes my own personal belief system. It’s probably a consequence of being older and having grandchildren to teach but I do think it’s a bigger cause than just my own family. The world in general needs one on one education. This generation, more than any other, has been taught to be dependent on electronic devices for everything. They all seem to be great with technology but their interpersonal skills are not nearly as well-developed. They struggle with actual conversations and expressing their feelings in a meaningful way. I want to help them overcome that failing.

I sincerely want to keep finding new challenges as long as I live and this one seems to fit my needs perfectly. I like kids of all ages. It will be challenging to find ways to connect with them on their level not mine. Hopefully, once I build that bond of trust with them, they will see me as someone to be looked up to and someone they can seek out for guidance. That would make me very happy. I know it won’t be all of them but those few who feel the light go on in the back of their brains when they talk to me will get a friend for life. And when they do come looking for me, then we will talk about the need for them to do the same for someone younger than them. ,

If you’re older and wiser like me and you’re reading this blog, please feel free to take this mission statement and make it your own. Each one of us needs to teach one younger than us and instill that same sense of urgency in the next generation. We can still change the world for the better if we just reach out and connect with these kids as often as possible. Let’s not give in to the irrational belief that it’s a lost cause. These are the most important causes of all – our kids, our grandkids and the whole world.

Just give me a couple of years to connect with the kids, hear their stories, compile it all into something worth publishing and then we will have the textbook for future generations to learn from. Let’s take Mark Twain’s advice and make the commitment that comes with doing the right thing no matter what it takes, “You’re never wrong to do the right thing.”

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.” (Stewart Udall)

Now that I’m officially a senior citizen by virtue of turning 70 in February, I’m begining to wonder how much more I can get away with when it comes to grumpy old Guy rants here on my blog. I’ve had a few posts that were close to going off the rails but for the most part I’ve held it together even when current events begged for me to let loose. This time feels a little more urgent because we’re about to have an election where two even grumpier old men are doddering down the campaign trail in hopes of being our next president. God help us, this isn’t going to end well.

I’m not a fan of politics, politicians or political parties. It seems to me that actually representing the people in the way we run the government should take precedence over party affiliation but that doesn’t happen anymore at all. The political parties get to decide who the candidates are, who gets the advertising money, who gets the delegates at the convention and then all of the media bias that comes with the nomination. It’s a rigged system that doesn’t lend itself to actual representation of the will of the majority of the people of this great country. And I still think it’s a great country, in spite of politics. Now I really sound old. I actually love my country and frankly the vast majority of people I encounter on a daily basis are pretty solid citizens who try to live better lives by sharing the burdens of life.

I wish I could say the same thing about any politician but I honestly can’t. Their allegiance isn’t to the flag or their constituents but to the big D or R after their name and title. That is not what the founders wanted. They expected people to serve out their terms and go back to where they came from, not to stay in the bubble that Washington DC has become. I don’t believe anybody who stays in DC has a clue about how the rest of this country works. And that is a deliberate choice on their part to ignore reality. It’s a lot easier to take your marching orders from the party than it is to listen to the concerns of your real constituents who believed in you enough to vote.

I wish someone would take the time to review all of the campaign promises that have ever been made and check that against the actual legislation that came to pass. I would be willing to bet it’s less than 10%. In any other job, being successful 10% of the time would get you fired immediately but we have a slew of politicians who have been in government for decades. Isn’t it odd that after years of making government wages, so many are now filthy rich? I don’t think that’s just a happy accident. I think it’s dealing in political favors and using their power to enrich themselves. And both parties do it all the time.

Ok, enough of railing against the system. It’s a pretty futile gesture at best. What can we do about this derailment of our great country? Well, the last time we had an election and I was contacted by my local representative about helping her campaign I took the time to write a detailed letter with several suggestions for legislation and even some suggestions for the way to pay for them so we wouldn’t have to just print more money. I got no response of any kind except another request for my time and/or money. I voted against the incumbent just to make my point that I wasn’t happy with the status quo in DC. The incumbent still won and nothing I suggested has ever crossed her mind since. I’m going to do the same thing again this year and this time I will include this line…

“What would it take for you to put the will of the people you represent before the demands of the party you serve?”

Feel free to copy and send this post along to your own representative. Just don’t expect an honest answer. Grumpy old Guy out.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“Lead me, follow me or get out of my way.” (George S. Patton)

There appears to be some level of disagreement as to the origin of this quote but I like Patton’s version the best and given his personality it seems quite possible that he used the quote this way. As I sit here today pondering my own take on this classic declaration of intent, I think Patton expressed something that is even more important today than it was in WWII. Every one of us alive today must decide where we fit in this paradigm of responsibility and very few people ever give this process any thought at all. Therein lies the problem for society – we all seem to be in the way.

When I was a boy, I had great role models. My mom and dad were great parents and I was surrounded by an extended family of aunts, uncles and grandparents who expected great things from me. They taught me the basic steps of learning to lead by first teaching me how to follow. Leadership skills come from understanding the needs of those who are following. Clear direction, coaching, accountability and gratitude are the hallmarks of great leaders and those skills come from being a good follower first. General Patton was a great leader because he understood what his men wanted from him and how to get the most out of them in every battle. He led from the front of the line not the back.

That seems to be the key difference between managers and leaders, in my opinion. Managers are more often in the office making decisions than out on the line leading their team. People know the difference. That’s why there are so few great leaders alive today, because business schools teach management principles not leadership skills. I don’t believe you can teach leadership from a book, it has to be learned in the real world. I know that’s where I learned it. I watched my grandfather take the lead every time I was with him. He recognized the problem, came up with a solution and went to work fixing the problem. All I had to do was help by doing whatever he asked and sometimes he expected a lot from a skinny kid with few skills. And the single most important thing he always did was thank me when we finished. I can’t tell you how great I felt when he smiled at me and said “Good job Guy.”

I would love to hear from my readers about the last time they had that kind of interaction with their manager. I’m assuming that few, if any, of my readers actually work for great leaders because it has been years since I met one. The world we live in today is so homogenized and generic that it isn’t conducive to breeding leaders. Business school management has reduced problem solving skills to a set of balance sheet numbers that are so important that skills like critical thinking aren’t even part of the curriculum. I see this every day in the way Corporate America runs the show. If they can eliminate payroll with another process, they will do it every time because people are their biggest expense. Good leadership is very, very difficult and it’s much harder to quantify with a number. It’s much easier to hire business school graduates and just tell them to look at the balance sheet. They don’t get to ask questions, they don’t get to fail and try again, they don’t get to think critically and they never get to develop leadership skills that could actually pay off in the future.

I learned the most about leadership from my failures not my successes. I learned to review myself first before I ever chewed out an employee. If I hadn’t done everything in my power to make that person successful, then I was just as much to blame as they were and therefore I had to change myself first, then I could reasonably expect them to improve their performance. It took me years of critical thinking to make this realization but once I did, everything got better for all of us. That’s the most important part of leadership – honesty. Being truthful with yourself is the only way you can expect others to be truthful as well. Numbers may not lie but people do, frequently.

So, given that we live in a world where great leaders are few and far between, what can we do to change the world in a way that might benefit all of us? First, let’s be honest with each other. None of us is perfect. We all have prejudices. We all have blind spots caused by our own ignorance. We all need to change our behavior. We all need to expect more from ourselves first before we expect more from others. We all need to admit that we need each other. Most of all we need to be forgiven. I believe forgiveness is the single most important part of leadership. We’re going to fail. It happens every day and everywhere. Forgiveness is the only cure for failure. Carrying around the weight caused by failure is a guarantee that it will continue to happen. Forgiveness lifts that burden and enables us to look for solutions. Let’s start with honesty, accept our failings as inevitable, move past the grief, learn to forgive without exception and then find a better way for all of us to succeed as a whole society.

That’s the role great leaders play in the real world. They find a better way. Let’s start instilling that belief system in our children right now. All of us are good at something. Let’s figure out what it is that we love doing and do well and then take the lead in that area of life. If others have different skills, then let them lead and be a good follower. I’m certain General Patton was a great military commander but I’m equally certain he would have failed at customer service where I work now. I don’t want to go to war but I’m glad he did.

Life shouldn’t be a game that is only played to decide who wins and who loses. We all lose in the end. That outcome is absolutely certain. Knowing that is the final outcome should free us up to be better at living. We only get so many days to make a difference for the world in general. How we live out those days is totally up to us to decide and make it happen. I, for one, would rather die trying to make the world better for everybody than give up the fight. I have good leadership skills in certain areas of life and I feel obliged to make the most of them. I’m not good at other things and I will gladly follow someone who is more qualified than I, as long as they’re honest about the goal and the process for getting there.

I think it’s the last part of the quote that needs to be given equal importance. We have to be willing to get out of the way when necessary. All of this constant debate about every last word is a huge waste of time and does nothing to move us forward as a society. We must not confuse action with progress. It’s easy to look busy without ever making a difference. Great leaders know how to keep things moving in the direction of the goal and they don’t waste time on things that don’t contribute to achieving the goal. The best leaders know how to remove all the obstacles that stand in the way of progress and we should all strive to get out of their way whenever possible.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.” (Goethe)

I just saw a weather map of the United States that showed dangerous conditions for nearly the entire country. Here in Kansas it’s going to drop below zero some time tonight. That’s a rare occasion and a very dangerous one for anyone who has to go out into the elements. High winds and black ice will make driving extremely dangerous and I know this from personal experience having driven 75,000 miles a year during my time in the foster care system. I had to go out in those days because kids were at risk and getting them somewhere safe was an urgent need. I went because I had to and that’s the point of this blog.

If you don’t have to go out in these conditons, please don’t. You would be doing the world a huge favor and those people who do have to be out like policemen, firemen, EMTs, doctors, nurses, road workers, truck drivers and foster care drivers would be eternally grateful if you just stayed home till the worst is over. Those of us who chose jobs that serve society are always at an increased risk of not making it home because of some poor fool who doesn’t have good tires, didn’t bother to check the condtions before leaving, thinks it’s okay to still drive 70 on the highway and is just plain ignorant of the laws of physics that make stopping on ice nearly impossible. I don’t feel particularly sorry for people who are clearly ignorant and choose to ignore all the warning signs.

I do feel sorry for all the emergency personnel who have to risk their lives to clean up the mess caused by these fools. Whenever someone makes an incredibly bad decision to risk their life so they can go get a latte in the middle of a blizzard other people will be forced to risk their lives by helping them get out of that ditch. I had my share of calls to head out and find a child that some parent had just abused. I went because I had to and I willingly made that choice to take that job but I wasn’t happy about it and I had no sympathy for abusive parents, just the kids. I could write several pages about my close calls on the road with kids in the back seat sobbing. If I wrote them all down, you might be the one sobbing. Somewhere tonight someone is not going to make it home. I hope that latte was worth it.

Empathy is the ability to see the world from 50,000 feet and understand that all of us matter. We all make decisions every day that could lead to good or bad outcomes and bad ones usually require assistance from others and good ones are made possible by a willingness to help. I’m glad so many people want to be helpful and every policeman, fireman and EMT gets all of my utmost respect for risking their lives to help others. I just wish more of us would take a moment to consider those lives as being more important than that latte.

In all my years on the road, I was never that worried about my own driving ability but I was terrified of meeting some fool head on. Ignorance and physics are incompatible. Your risk goes up exponentially in bad weather and no safety features will eliminate the impact of sheer stupidity. Then when you’re slowly freezing to death in the ditch, you will be totally dependent on some other person’s willingness to come save you. Does that seem fair to the other person? I, for one, would never trade a cup of coffee for a life.

Let me just close with some fatherly advice or in my case, grandfatherly advice – stay home where it’s warm and comfortable and safe for you and for others. Those good people who are willing to help should be given every opportunity to make it home too and by choosing to stay off the roads, the rest of us can actually make a difference in their lives for a change. That warm feeling of empathy tastes just as good as any latte you will ever have.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“A beauty is a woman you notice; a charmer is one who notices you.” (Adlai Stevenson)

“Where do the children play?” (Cat Stevens)

I started my day by baking Christmas cookies and listening to Cat Stevens. When this song played, it gave me a vivid reminder of something that has been troubling me for some time and given that I recently spent a week substitute teaching in my local elementary schools, it was probably still fresh in my mind. For those of you who are too young to remember this song, here are the lyrics…

Well I think it’s fine
Building jumbo planes
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train
Switch on summer from a slot machine
Yes, get what you want to if you want
‘Cause you can get anything

I know we’ve come a long way
We’re changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well, you roll on roads
Over fresh green grass
For your lorry loads
Pumping petrol gas
And you make them long
And you make them tough
But they just go on and on
And it seems that you can’t get off

Oh, I know we’ve come a long way
We’re changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you’ve cracked the sky
Scrapers fill the air
But will you keep on building higher
’til there’s no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh
Will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live
Will you tell us when to die?

I know we’ve come a long way
We’re changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?

I think this song is as close to a prophesy as anything I have heard in the last fifty years. And now more than ever we need to ask ourselves this question, “Tell me, where do the children play?”That week I was put in charge of kids from kindergarten to fifth grade and they were anything but playful. I feel a sense of deepest sympathy for their teachers and the staff who support them. I can’t think of a tougher job than being a teacher right now because kids don’t play enough anymore and their behavior in the classroom is the obvious result of what Cat Stevens was asking in 1970.

The only time the kids were remotely well-mannered was when they all got on their tablets and did the lesson online. Now granted, they were doing something educational but I worry about what happens when they don’t have a tablet available to nurture their curiosity and pacify their behavior. This is when playing is so important. Play time is critical to social skills, problem solving, communication, teamwork, and most of all fun.

Childhood should be about having fun as often as possible and not worrying about things they have no control over but once they get their first smartphone, that fun-loving nature is going to be overtaken by a very harsh reality of technological trauma brought on by a lot of people who operate under the motto of “Anything for a buck.” Every time a kid plugs into the ether world they are being taught to be good customers first and foremost. The providers of content and their terms of service are a one-way street to nowhere for the individual consumer. They either agree to their terms or they don’t get to play at all.

Listen to what Cat Stevens says.. “Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry, will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?” This verse sums up the world we live in today better than anything I’ve ever heard. We are teaching our children to be addicted to technology and the negativity bias it creates, which I just wrote about in my last blog. No child should ever be exposed to so much disinformation and misinformation that is only intended to push them towards a predisposed response that is in the best interests of the content purveyors, not the children.

Unfortunately, I’m probably the only person left who thinks this is a real problem. The allure of smartphones, social media and now artificial intelligence is going so well for the corporations and the shareholders who cash their quarterly checks that I doubt we will ever be able to put that genie back in the bottle. Money and power are the most addictive substances of all time and those few people who have the most money and power hardly ever give it back once they acquire it. This is the one time they need to rethink that imperative.

Children are the future of the world. They are more precious than any bank statement we will ever get. If we, as adults, can’t understand the necessity of raising children with an ability to see the world as a wonderful place to live and one where they can aspire to do great things for the benefit of that world then we should all be ashamed to call ourselves adults. We have to forego our insatiable desire for more stuff so that our children can have a future worth living. If we get to the point where we all have to live in gated communities with armed guards and 24 hour surveillance because the rest of the world is in chaos, then Cat Stevens’ prophesy will have come true.

I know we’ve come a long way. We’re changing day to day. But tell me, where do the children play?

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“I have always been more afraid of failing than hopeful of success.” (Samuel Johnson)

I watched a lecture recently on YouTube that prompted a revelation about the world of today. Fear of failing has become an epidemic, in my humble opinion. As I pondered this thesis, I ran across an article online that explained something called the negativity bias…”Negativity bias is a well-studied and long-understood concept. Negativity bias causes amplified emotional responses to negative events compared to positive events of equal magnitude. Negativity bias is linked to loss aversion, a cognitive bias that describes why the pain of losing is psychologically twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.”

I can’t take any credit for discovering this problem first so I think I will focus on how to make this less of a problem. First, let me give some examples of this effect in daily life and working in retail provides plenty of firsthand experiences. Today is the day before Thanksgiving. Having worked every Wednesday before the holiday for the last five years, I know what to expect when I get there today. If you would prefer a funnier take on the experience you could always go back to my previous post…https://grhgraph.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/all-is-well-kevin-bacon/. Today will be very similar and every bit as negative. The phone will ring off the wall with last minute requests for banana leaves, whole turkey dinners, spices I have never even heard of and fifty calls asking if we will be open tomorrow. Just for the record, no we won’t be open tomorrow and for that one simple gesture I will be eternally thankful.

Eight straight hours of negativity will only be offset by the forty cookies I made yesterday to take to work. That’s right, my antidote for pain is good cookies and I know I will get forty smiles today. Probably more like twenty because nobody can eat just one and if negativity is twice as powerful as positivity then I probably should have made a lot more. Almost seventy-year-old arthritic hands make that task kind of painful but I endured it just so I could see a few smiles today. Physical pain is much more tolerable than the mental anguish of customer service. To say it’s the most negative job I have ever had would be the greatest understatement of all time and that includes nine years in foster care.

So here’s my plan for the whole world to stop the epidemic of negativity. First, put down your smartphone and talk to somebody face to face. Look at their reactions to the things you say and apologize if you say something inappropriate by mistake. Your phone will never be able to do that and it works both ways. Maybe someone will be nicer to you if you’re nicer to them. Positivity can be just as contagious if we want it to be but it’s a skillset that must be acquired through experience. Your phone is programmed to deliver negative experiences to you so that you get the most emotional reaction possible and increase your desire to stay on your phone looking for something positive to counteract your negative emotions. Good people don’t do that to each other. Be a good person. It matters.

Secondly, if you’re in any position of authority, it should be your main focus to give positive reinforcement to the people you manage. Just saying, Thank You, can make a huge difference in the daily experience of your employees who are dealing with the stress of a negative work environment. And when one of them does something very special or above and beyond the call of duty, you have to acknowledge it in the most direct way possible. Buy them lunch or coffee or give them free cookies that your oldest employee over in customer service has brought for that specific purpose. I’m sure it will make him happy to share in that moment of recognition. People need as much positive reinforcement as we can all give each other.

Lastly, let’s be thankful all the time. One day a year of giving thanks will not overcome 364 days of negativity. We all live on an amazing planet that is full of natural beauty and millions of wonderful people, in spite of negative technology. The vast majority of people alive today have a better quality of life than all the previous generations in the entire history of the planet. Let’s try to act like we appreciate that fact. Every day that we get another opportunity to make a difference is a day to be remembered and valued. By sharing that joy with as many people as possible each day, we can give hope to those who need it most but we have to try twice as hard to overcome pervasive negativity.

As for me, as I am writing this post, I am also baking more cookies for a friend who needs seven dozen today before I go to work. He’s paying for my labor but it’s really my version of a labor of love. As I sit here typing away, I get to enjoy the great smell of fresh baked cookies and my cookies smell really good. Between writing and baking, I have come to the conclusion that in reality, “All Is Well.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“Furthering the common good does not require that we forego self-interest, but rather that we are able to see our own interests linked to those of others.” (Frances Moore Lappe)

I read an article online today that was highlighting the problems America is having with pharmacies all over the country. Corporate conglomerates have replaced thousands of small, independently owned pharmacies over the last twenty years and as with all things corporately controlled, the need for increased profitability year over year has led to an untenable situation for the pharmacists who have to do the real work. I see this every day in my work. Our pharmacy department has a line of customers waiting virtually all day every day for vaccines and prescriptions. The turnover of staff has been drastic the last three years and we continue to struggle with the workload brought on by the pandemic and the shrinking availability of pharmacies in general.

This whole article struck a nerve with me because it reminds me so much of a theory I have about the lack of small businesses in the 21st century. The pandemic crushed small business to an extent never seen before in America and we may never recover from it. Traditionally, small business has been an American strength like none other. Thousands of people came here just to try their luck chasing the American dream and that was often a small family enterprise. Bakers, tailors, skilled tradesmen and many more worked extremely hard to build their businesses and support their families. They had an overwhelming desire to make their customers happy by providing good service and knowing their customers needs. This was much easier to do in a small business because the owner was in front of his customers almost every minute of the day and he heard their feedback in real time.

As one of those small business owners, I was totally focused on everything I was seeing and hearing from my clients and I knew exactly what they wanted. I developed a very keen sense of empathy for people’s needs over time and in turn that created profitability because the customers were driving my thought process about every aspect of the business not some corporate board who never had any contact with the clients. That was the one thing I avoided at all costs, wasting time sitting around a table having meaningless conversations with the smartest guys in the room, according to them. Decision making in a vacuum is a recipe for disaster in every business I can think of and it happens all the time now.

When you listen to customers in real time you get all of the feedback and during the pandemic it was raw, honest and emotional. I actually started hiding toilet paper during the pandemic so that the customers who couldn’t get there at 6 AM would still have some at 9 AM when they could get there. I had a nurse start crying when I told her I saved her some. Her shift didn’t end till 7 so she was extremely upset that we sold out every day. I will never forget the look she gave me when I stuffed those 12 rolls in a paper bag and sent her on her way. That’s empathy in case you don’t recognize it. Oh and she came back in and filled her cart after she hid the toilet paper in the trunk of her car. I think we made money on her that day. What a coincidence.

The overall point I’m trying to make is that profitability doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. We can all get what we want if we listen to each other, have empathy for the needs of others, and work together to make it happen. I don’t believe anyone has to lose just so someone else can be declared the winner. That approach is why we still have wars and poverty and hatred and the lust for power driving our decision-makers to think in the most unempathetic ways possible. We’re all in this together, trust me.

What I would like to see is Corporate America rediscover it’s roots. All companies started out small once upon a time. They built their empires by serving customer’s needs and giving customers a reason to come back for more and most of those interactions were face to face and over the counter. It’s really hard to listen to a nurse pleading for toilet paper at 9 AM and not want to do something about it. I did what I could in that moment and it was pretty simple really. I didn’t need to have a meeting with upper management to decide what was the right thing to do. I just used common sense and solved the problem. I seriously doubt any MBA could have done it better.

Life isn’t that complicated, we just choose to make it that way by overthinking and underdelivering everything. Profits come from happy customers who feel valued and I think every board of directors would be wise to put the customer first and then watch the quarterly earnings take off. That’s the common interest we should put above all else to make America better than ever.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“Came to do good, stayed to do well.” 2023

I posted this particular blog more than 10 years ago. I can’t believe how much worse it has gotten.

Did you know there is an Office of Government Ethics in Washington, DC?

They even have a worthy mission statement…
“The mission of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is to foster high ethical standards for executive branch employees and strengthen the public’s confidence that the Government’s business is conducted with impartiality and integrity.”

I wonder what they’ve been up to lately? The IRS is having some huge problems with impartiality, the Justice Department must have forgotten what integrity means and the State Department has failed miserably at protecting us from our enemies. Maybe it’s time for the OGE to get in touch with these departments for some remedial training. They might want to start by reviewing the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch that President Bush instituted way back in 1989 and were later codified in 1993 under President Clinton. That’s right, two different Presidents from two different parties believed that ethical conduct was critical to the function of government.

What the heck happened? Could it be that politics got in the way of good governance or was there secretly a statute of limitations that ran out after 20 years? I can certainly see where the Sunset Law might come in handy where ethics are concerned. They are pesky things to work around and they almost always interfere with the real business of government, reelection. But if there was a time limit on this Code of Conduct then how come the OGE still exists? It has always amazed me that once a federal department or agency has been funded, it never goes away, no matter how little impact it makes. I personally think the OGE is an agency we desperately need in Washington but maybe it’s time to review its own Code of Conduct. Oh wait, they have the same one as all the other executive branch departments. The same one they are responsible for overseeing among all the other departments. If this keeps up, the USPS is going to start looking like a veritable gold mine of government efficiency.

Now I need to be fair here so let me be clear, I have no confidence in our Government’s ability to function with impartiality and integrity and that includes Democrats and Republicans alike. Does anybody else but me find it incredibly ironic that these two groups are defined as PARTIES? The first definition of party is this: a social gathering, as of invited guests at a private home, for conversation, refreshments, entertainment, etc. The literal meaning of the word party has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the function of government and yet we have allowed these two groups to hijack our nation’s capital for their own selfish interests and the pursuit of wealth and power.

Now here’s the hard part. We the people have no one to blame but us. That’s just how a democracy works. When we finally get inspired to make the changes that are really necessary to clean up Washington and do the dirty work that comes with it, then we can reasonably expect a better outcome. Until that day comes, “Came to do good, stayed to do well” is our new mission statement for the OGE. At least this one is truthful. That’s a start.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.