1. A derecho blew through here Tuesday evening with sustained 52 mph winds, with gusts to 62 mph, shearing off about 9 utility poles nearby. About half of the county lost electrical power, including us. We were fortunate to be among the first to be restored after 32 hours. Some are still waiting.
2. Our cherry tree split off one of its larger branches.
3. Which gave me reason to pull out and use my grandfather’s 5-ft tree saw; probably unsharpened during the past 70 years, but still quite effective.
4. My restful view from flat on my back upon completing the task.
Grateful for the privilege to serve both organizations, I now step forward with new aspirations to connect people and places, and neighborhoods and nature, in difference-making impacts. Bring it on!
Rise up a genuine leader Who is driven by moral character and integrity Who commits to truth and responsibility Who models personal discipline and accountability Who earns respect by giving it Who is humble in self-imperfections and gracious in others’ Who nurtures trust and collaboration
Rise up a genuine leader Who is we-oriented, not me-oriented Who articulates vision with clarity and infuses pride in purpose Who disables barriers to people development Who confronts social ills with positive solutions Who seeks understanding and resolutions in contentions Who fosters creativity and inspires hope
Rise up a genuine leader Who can undo chaos and create order Who is composed instead of clamorous Who promotes diversity of viewpoints in unity of purpose Who invests in people and worthy dreams Who is transparent, trustworthy, and teachable Who upholds faith in a better future and spurs actions toward it
Rise up a genuine leader Who values people and ideas over profit Who knows virtue sustains character, but its absence destroys it Who is considerate instead of caustic Who brings competence with candor Who discerns realities with compassion and directs resolutions with care Who influences people to mutually elevate lives, institutions, and ideals.
Rise up a genuine leader Who is attentive to needs of the people and builds their spirit Who overcomes personal ego, arrogance, and unethical behavior Who rejects conflict mongering Who is consistent and persistent in value-added contributions Who equips and empowers other leaders Who builds an enduring legacy of transformational results
Perhaps in anticipation of my impending retirement and “wrapping up” my career at the end of this month, my staff beat me to my office this April Fool’s morning!
More than 40 individual items had been covered with wrapping paper – including my computer monitors, keyboard, mouse, telephone, water bottle, stapler, tissue box, an entire bookcase, the clock on the wall – even a single pen and a random flashdrive among them!
What I will probably miss most on retirement is the hearty camaraderie we enjoy in working hard together. Not only are my coworkers highly skilled, generously collaborative, and terribly efficient, they’ve got a great sense of humor, and I love ‘em!
In popular culture, the concept of faith is often derided as a superstition of ignorant people.
But I’d like to advance the notion that faith is required for living successfully every day. And we need not be bashful about it!
After all, what is a plan but the expression of faith in something that does not yet exist?
In order for things that are apparently impossible to transform into things that are solidly real, faith is the PRIME ingredient.
(On the other hand, under the guise of “being realistic,” and often embraced by the willfully ignorant, doubt is the full-stop barrier to realizing any preferred future at all.)
For success in any endeavor, be genuinely faith-full!
My grandmother Carrie was born on this date 125 years ago. She was the fourth child of Charles and Ida, proud carriers of the Von Steuben family name, and collateral descendants of the Revolutionary War hero, Baron Von Steuben, Inspector General of the Continental Army at Valley Forge.
Carrie Von Steuben on her wedding day June 30, 1923.
But her entire life was completely influenced by the death of her father four months before she was born. On September 6, 1899, The Easton Daily Express reported the tragic news:
STEUBEN’S INJURIES FATAL Charles Steuben, 28 years old, of Nazareth, the brakeman on the Easton & Northern railroad who had his skull fractured last week by being struck by an overhead bridge at Nazareth, died at that place at 4 o’clock this morning. He was standing on top of a freight car at the time the accident occurred. The deceased man leaves a widow and three children.
Charles Von Steuben’s photo added to an image of the memorial flowers from the Railroad’s Freight Crew.
That’s a three-sentence summation of a three-second accident that has eternal ramifications for those who survived, as well as many who were yet to be born.
One month later, the Northampton County Orphans Court appointed a guardian “for the purposes of executing a release in behalf of the aforesaid minors to the Bangor & Portland Railway Company, releasing and discharging any and all damages or actions for damages for an injury received by the said Charles A. Von Steuben, while in the Employ of the Bangor & Portland Railway Company and resulting in his death, in consideration of Twenty Five dollars a month for a period of ten years.”
But despite the Court’s assistance, grandma Carrie was born into hardship January 24, 1900, which unfortunately grew quickly worse. Just months later, her two brothers, Floyd, 7, and Barron, 5, died 31 days apart, likely from a common childhood disease, leaving just one sibling, sister Elnora. I can’t help wonder if such stresses contributed to widow Ida’s untimely death at the young age of 34, leaving Carrie orphaned at age 9.
Carrie’s older siblings: Floyd, Barron, and Elnora Von Steuben
The poor sisters were placed in foster homes, not so much to assimilate into families, as to work for them. Carrie went to work for the Fritz family in the Victorian-era farmhouse in rural Moore Township, near the bottom of the hill leading up to Chapman Quarries.
And there’s where Charles’ fateful day continues a legacy that affects me personally. For if Carrie hadn’t been orphaned, she likely wouldn’t have moved out of the family home, or enrolled in the Chapman Quarries schoolhouse, or met her husband Joe Herd, or raised her own herd of Herds. And the rest, as they say, wouldn’t have been history.
Books have brought me into worlds I wouldn’t otherwise know
This past year’s reading has brought me into worlds and cultures I wouldn’t otherwise know. I have visited Nazi Germany (three times), ancient Palestine, Soviet Russia, Revolutionary Russia, Cold War Europe, South Africa, Victorian Australia, Spanish colonization, Antarctica, even those spheres of oppression, depression, gene editing, scientific research, cosmology, and quantum physics.
These books have taught me more about myself and those around me. I have reveled in the wonders of my own body, and have gained insights into wellness, happiness, and better working and personal relationships.
These books have ignited my imagination through creative storytelling. I’ve entered several classic tales for the first time, and have revisited some inspiring old favorites.
These books have expanded my knowledge in a great many subjects: natural, geologic, and cultural history; economics, public policy, activism; exploitation, greed, commerce, philanthropy; psychology, volunteer organizing, and leadership in philosophical differences and changing cultures. And so much more!
My favorites and recommendations are noted with an asterisk. But here are my special mentions:
Most satisfying ending: Angel of Vengeance
Most surprising over what I thought I knew about it: Tarzan of the Apes
Most over my head: The Physics of Immortality
Most annoying: HHhH (author reports true things, then confesses he made them up)
Most wide-ranging scope: Saving the Redwoods
Most spiritually revealing: New Morning Mercies
Most enjoyable biography/memoir: Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story
* Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany, Hans J. Massaquoi
The Handbook for Health: 5 Essential Pillars for Optimized Wellness, Dr. Christopher Turnpaugh with Dr. Cynthia West
The 6 Types of Working Genius: a Better Way to Understand Your Frustrations and Your Team, Patrick Lencioni
* The Body: a Guide for Occupants, Bill Bryson
* Only One Year: How Joseph Stalin’s Daughter Broke Through the Iron Curtain, Svetlana Alliluyeva
The Millionaires, Brad Meltzner
Name All the Animals: a Memoir, Alison Smith
* The Blue Zones of Happiness: Lessons from the World’s Happiest People, Dan Buettner
* The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race, Walter Isaacson
* From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Vern
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Aldo Leopold
* Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
* Inkspell, Cornelia Funke
* Inkdeath, Cornelia Funke
* The Noticer, Andy Andrews
HHhH “Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich”, Laurent Binet
Bethlehem, Karen Kelly
Homecoming, Kate Morton
The Trail, Robert Whitlow
Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
* The Last Days of Night, Graham Moore
* Still Life With Crows, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
* Shackleton’s Stowaway, Victoria McKernan
The Magician’s Nephew, C.S. Lewis
White Fire, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Three Sisters, Heather Morris
* Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
Murder in the Lincoln Bedroom, Elliot Roosevelt
* The Scorpion’s Tail, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Leader’s Greatest Return: Attracting, Developing and Multiplying Leaders, John C. Maxwell
Mayday, Nelson DeMille and Thomas Block
* The Oath, Frank Peretti
Community Recreation and Parks Handbook, Sue Landes
Financing Municipal Recreation and Parks, Sue Landes
Absolute Friends, John le Carré
* The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, Jim DeFede
Humorous Stories and Sketches, Mark Twain
Murders on Alcatraz, George DeVincenzi
* Palisades Park, Alan Brennert
Skin: Revenge is Beautiful, Ted Dekker
* A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
* Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughes
Just Tell Them I Love Them: a Hospice Chaplain’s Invitation to Live Well, Helen Burke
* Take This Cup, Bodie and Brock Thoene
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, Michael D. Watkins
* Saving the Redwoods: The Movement to Rescue a Wonder of the Natural World, Joseph H. Engbeck, Jr.
* Eternal, Lisa Scottoline
* Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story by Jack Benny and his daughter Joan
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Roobinson
* Healing Stones, Nancy Rue and Stephen Arterburn
* Angel of Vengeance, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead, Frank J. Tippler
* New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional, Paul David Tripp
Helping train our emerging leaders is always rewarding – both now and in the future! Day 2 of the intensive Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society’s Leadership Academy included sessions on successful communications and creating collaborative relationships with key stakeholders, a working lunch, but also a few moments for a Class of 2024 selfie!
The strength of my character determines the vitality of my leadership.
It’s frequently denied, but more commonly ignored. We swear we don’t want to know what public leaders do privately—it’s their own business. (Yet the media claims it’s merely scooping up the private dirt the insatiable public appetite demands!)
Perhaps. But we need look no further than the morning’s headlines to document the direct correlation between countless individuals’ private and public behaviors. While it may be covered up for a time by bluster, talent, charisma or other gifts, we can all recall more than a few public failures, or “mistakes” admitted to in which private actions became public scandals.
When a leader’s intentions and behaviors clash, look to character to discover why.
Lance Armstrong, Gary Hart, Anthony Weiner, Jim Baker, Richard Nixon, Brian Williams, Rob Ford, Bernie Madoff, Martha Stewart, Mel Gibson: they’re just a fraction of the more infamous fallouts. Such a list of Exhibit A’s demonstrate the problem is not confined to particular professions, industries, ages or genders.
Here are five characteristics that make character the pivotal point of everyone’s persona:
Character is a foundational morality product. Morality is universally and primarily a social issue, not a religious one. Conforming to the rules of virtuous conduct is good for everyone: virtues are universal and absolute standards that do not change with circumstances, time or point of view.
When virtues are practiced, they always support personal and collective well-being. When rejected by a person, team or community, their foundations corrode and crumble.
Virtue sustains character, but its absence destroys it.
Character is more than talk. In my career, I’ve personally hired more than 300 individuals. As a usual part of my interview process, I ask the candidate to briefly tell me how each character trait I mention applies to them, and I take notes. Regrettably, there’ve been too many times I’ve had to go back to those very quotes to remind employees that their actions have contradicted their testimony.
Nobody ever admits that integrity isn’t important, but our outward actions are the real indicator of internal character, no matter what we say.
We cannot separate character from actions.
Character is a choice. We can’t control the circumstances of our birth, nor little else of the world around us, but we can determine our character. We do it with each choice we make. How we respond and react to life builds it or destroys it a decision at a time. Challenges don’t create character, but they do reveal it as we choose capitulation, compromise or conquest.
What others see of us is mere veneer. No matter how attractive or polished it may be with expertise, charisma or talent, it’s still just thin skin that occasionally gets torn open. The quality of the character inside then spills out for all to see.
Ability may be a gift, but character is a choice.
Character builds up. True leadership is built only as relationships are. As character is proven and relationships grow, so does trust. In that secure haven, a team thrives, a family flourishes, a society succeeds.
Sensible people do not follow those they know are flawed and untrustworthy: relationships dissolve, trust disintegrates and community breaks down. Society is upheld only by popular adherence to a code of principles distinguishing right and wrong.
Moral character brings strength to relationships and society.
Character is limiting—or liberating. Sooner or later, but inevitably, character outs. This is a universal truth, as evident in the ancient proverb—“out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”—as in the modern maxim: “garbage in, garbage out.”
The strength of a leader is tied to the strength of his or her character. Everything rises or falls on leadership; and leadership rises or falls on character.
Leaders cannot rise above the limitations of their character.
There’s really no doubt: your personal character directly impacts your public leadership.
I had the distinct, enjoyable, and recent honor of speaking to my high school classmates at our 50th anniversary reunion.
I pretended that it was the commencement speech that no one had asked me to deliver so long ago. Just kidding! I hadn’t yet acquired any kind of real smarts back then: that came later as I enrolled in the Herd School of Hard Knocks.
(You either pay for your education—or you pay for your learning!)
But it sure was a delight to reconnect with all those old people, who sorta reminded me of kids I used to know!
Turns out we have even more in common than we knew back then, as we are now seasoned with the spice of robust life experiences. I cherish all these, my old friends!
