The Older I Get the More Thankful I Get

I’m taking the easy way out this year and ordering my whole Thanksgiving day feast from Dale Miller’s Restaurant.  Maybe it’s cheating, but it makes the holiday so much easier and enjoyable.  I’ll still have all the dishes and clean-up to do.  That’s enough!

Beyond the food and clean-up, I’m thinking about how much I have to be grateful this year.  And it just occurred to me that the older I get, the more I have to be grateful for.  After all, I’ve had more time on this earth now than ever before.  I’ve had more opportunity to try out new ideas, meet new people, and do more things.  True they haven’t all worked out the way I wanted them to, but many have.

With all the odds against me, 25 years ago I started my own one-woman training and speaking business.  At the time, I was a rarity in the Capital District.  Not too many woman owned their own business then.  At a typical Chamber meeting, I was often one of only three or four women who attended, with 40 or 50 men.  My challenge was especially great because my business consisted of giving advice to business people and most of those people were men.  I was young too.  So there I was a young, assertive woman offering training services to a dubious public.

Somehow, I made it work.  And for that I am very grateful.  The challenge still continues today as I try to keep my business afloat in a down economy.  I am grateful that I have the stamina to keep working at it even as the economy limps along and many of my same-age colleagues move into retirement.

More thankful everyday!

Happy Thanksgiving to all.  Be thankful for your dreams and the fortitude to make them work.

My Vote Is For Civility

I’m anxious for election day next week.  I want to see an end to the mailings, phone calls, advertisements, etc.  But most of all, I’d like to see an end to the bitter name calling.  Ironically I am currently working on a new training program entitled “Civility in the Workplace.”  Maybe I should switch it to “Civility in Politics.”  Of course, I probably wouldn’t be able to get anyone to attend.  Why are so many people so dead set against courtesy in politics?

Susan Scrimshaw, President of the Sage Colleges, had a wonderful editorial in the Times Union this week in which she wrote “A return to civility in government is essential.  Without it, I fear we are drifting into a form of anarchy.”

I couldn’t agree more.  The United States was founded on the principle of “freedom of speech”.  I don’t think that has to mean “freedom of offensive speech.”  In my classes on conflict management,

Keep conflict civil.

I urge my trainees to learn how to “fight fair.”  When we “fight fair” we keep our attacks on the issues, not the personality.

In the 21st century, we have adopted an informal style of dressing and speaking.  For the most part, that has been a welcome relief from the stuffiness of post WWII America.  But when informality morphs into incivility, I believe we have gone too far.

In politics and in life, let’s keep the discourse civil.  Let’s remember to respect each other’s right to think, dress, and act differently.  Let’s remember to examine ideas dispassionately with objective reasoning and the ultimate right to agree to disagree.