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Making
things happen - with integrity. A weekly CyberMemo designed to keep you on task. Monday May 20, 2002 Volume IV Number 20 |
FOCUS - Redwood Arbor
There will always be tension between those who focus on language and those who focus on action. Language, in speech and in writing, is a process. It is time consuming. It is also satisfying. Action, in work and in deeds, is also a process. It, too, consumes time. And action, like language, brings its own kind of satisfaction.
One may be preferred over the other. The two rarely co-exist.
Except in the garden. Or in the kitchen. Or on a walk. Carolyn seems to be the most talkative in one of those venues. We’ll be out there, a gentle breeze blowing, pulling weeds, patching up the irrigation system, pruning the roses, and the conversation flows like the wind, topics come and go like the clouds floating by. Or if I jump into the food prep in the evening, cutting up vegetables or fruit, filling up the water glasses or setting the table, the conversation flows again. In these contexts, there is a bridge that connects the verbal and the productive making for a dual result; satisfaction on both levels.
But for the most part, the world can be divided up between talkers and doers. Talkers occasionally do. Doers are sometimes communicators. There is overlap in the real world. But most of us tend toward one side or the other of the talk/do spectrum.
Talkers long for the companionship of other talkers. They don’t get much done, but the dialogue alone is energizing – an end unto itself. Doers go glassy-eyed around talkers. They yawn in the presence of idle chat. Doers want to get busy. And when they are done, there is something tangible to show for it. Talkers prefer the intangible to the tangible. Doers shrug off the intangible, and look for a project.
The two have difficulty understanding and appreciating one another.
We wandered through a used bookstore this week. The sheer volume of words that have been committed to the published page is staggering. Writers sometimes get discouraged over the competition for the reader’s attention, but it certainly doesn’t slow them down. The words just keep coming. Those of us who love language can’t help ourselves. I could easily spend a month in that little storefront space, surrounded by the classics, the history, the philosophy, the psychology, the story-telling; a never-ending supply of words and ideas that all day long sit neglected on those shelves waiting for someone to open the volume and absorb the text, breathing life into the characters and attaching meaning to events and reliving the experience of those who have gone before – both real and imagined.
But that’s me. A word junky.
Others may well believe that the musty smell of the place needs attention. The books need straightening. The database needs updating. The riff-raff volumes should be tossed into the incinerator. An action junky.
I like to think I’m a doer, too. I can produce fairly impressive quantities of work when I set my mind to it. But in the bookstore, with authors calling to me from the shelves, I’m more likely to search out an overstuffed chair in the corner to explore between the hard-covers of a select volume than spend time arranging the texts in alphabetical order.
It must be in the DNA.
* * * * * * * *
When Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, he knew that six States had already seceded from the Union and formed a separate government, electing their own President, Jefferson Davis. In a matter of months, Lincoln, who had little experience in or with the military, became pre-occupied with his role as Commander in Chief. War was brewing. From the start, his army was undermanned, poorly trained and inadequately supported.
Lincoln, a reader, developed a library of tactical military volumes, consulted with his top military aids, and became a quick study on the conduct of war. At the time of the Inauguration, there were barely sixteen thousand enlisted men in the Union armed forces. After the attack on Fort Sumter, a call for troops and Congressional support for an expanded army went out. An eager Nation responded. The army would rapidly grow seventy-five thousand. The President selected a West Point graduate, George B. McClellan as Major General of the Union’s regular army.
McClellan carried an air of confidence and excellence to the field - his uniform, meticulous as his manner. He pushed his new recruits, training them vigorously as a superior fighting force. He gave them rousing speeches, and spoke of valor and bravery and victory. He was respected by his men.
But he was a continual disappointment to Lincoln. He would not advance. He would not engage the Confederate opposition.
He delayed. He complained about a lack of support from Washington. He believed (erroneously) that he was outnumbered. That he needed more troops. More weaponry. Better roads and bridges. Better weather. He kept his mighty forces in camp. He told Lincoln several times that he could not disclose his tactics or his timing or his battle plans even to the President because he believed it would eliminate the element of surprise on the battlefield. He kept his plans to himself. Lincoln, early on, accepted this explanation; but soon Lincoln concluded that McClellan was stalling.
As thousands volunteered, and prepared to defend the Union against the onslaught of secessionists on Federal facilities, many of them sat bored at the opening of a canvas tent, wondering when the action would begin.
McClellan performed reasonably well at the first Battle at Bull Run. But Lincoln soon concluded that McClellan, for all his education, for all his tactical knowledge, for all his confident speeches, for all his telegrams and classified messages, simply was not a fighting man. He was all talk. And incapable of all-out combat.
When McClellan approached Richmond against Robert E. Lee’s forces, he waited on the outskirts of the city. McClellan’s Union forces out-manned and out-armed Lee’s – by a considerable margin. But Lee skillfully spread out his forces, giving the impression of greater numbers. While McClellan engaged the Confederacy at Richmond, he retreated early, leaving the victory unfinished, incomplete.
Many believe to this day (along with Abraham Lincoln) that if McClellan had fought with the reckless abandon of lower ranking Union generals and troops, the Civil War would have ended as many as two years sooner, and the heavy cost of casualties on both sides would have been diminished by tens of thousands.
McClellan was finally dismissed by a frustrated President, who went on to win the war without the General. In 1864, when Lincoln ran as a Republican for a second term, George McClellan won the Democrat nomination and became the opposing candidate for the Office of President.
Once again, as history attests, Mr. Lincoln prevailed.
* * * * * *
I’ve always enjoyed language; used an abundance of words. You wouldn’t have known from my SAT scores. It took awhile for me to get the hang of reading books and getting my ideas on paper.
But I’ve found through the years that my dependence on verbal skill sometimes gets me into trouble. I tend to create expectations I can’t live up to. I may sometimes win the argument, but all too often I fail to fully comprehend the underlying issues. I can say pretty well what I think people want to hear… but I don’t always do what’s needed.
Words are easy spoken. Intentions can be stated, with enthusiasm. But performance, well that’s an entirely different thing.
* * * * * *
Saturday, our son-in-law Ben delivered and installed his hand made solid redwood arbor. We’ve been building a garden in Isaac’s memory. Ben’s worked hard… but his crowning achievement is the arbor.
It
stands on four-by-four redwood posts, eight feet tall. Its two custom arches
span the gravel walkway. The crossbeams are laminated two-by-six, three solid
pieces form a six-by-six on each end across the top, and one-by-one lattice
panes fill in the two sides. Covering the frame at the apex are eight redwood
cross-members, with decorative lines, each the same. With the skill of a
craftsman, he routed and sanded the corners, fit each piece with precision
cuts, tongue-and-groove joints, and bolted it all together and then set it on
concrete footings. Just to be sure, to test the installation, he performed a
series of pull-ups, hanging from the crossbeams, as a demonstration of strength
– both the arbor’s and his.
Ben doesn’t need to say anything. His work speaks for itself. It stands as a testament to his love for family, for his wife, for us… and for Isaac.
Every day, when I look with admiration to the garden’s entrance, the arches of the arbor welcoming us all, I think of the loving care our son-in-law brought to the project.
It speaks volumes.
* * * * * * *
It’s Monday morning. You are a leader. You’ll be using your verbal skills today. You’ll speak, give direction, answer questions, explain how you want it done. You may even slip into a little motivational talk with one or more who need encouragement. Words will be your tools. You’ve developed a skill. It will be tested today.
But words will only take you so far.
What you do and who you are will mean far more than the words you speak.
General McClellan is remembered by history as a man with exceptional verbal capacity; but his performance fell far short. His lack of resolve, his procrastination, his constraint, his reticence, all nearly cost the nation its Union.
I love words. I appreciate performance even more.
Ben made his statement. It’s a redwood monument to his feelings.
What are you working on? Something that will say what you mean.
Pour yourself into it.
Let it speak.
Posted in Phoenix, Arizona
© Copyright Kenneth E. Kemp 2002
Special Thanks to my good friend David Belcher, owner of Rhino Media Group and creator of WisdomGram
LeaderFOCUS is a service of Good Stewardship Associates
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