Missing Those We Never Met

We have a memorial hymn that applies this week. It begins,

Each life that touches ours for good

Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;

Thou sendest blessings from above

Thru words and deeds of those who love.

On Saturday, the world lost basketball great Kobe Bryant, along with his daughter and a total of 9 in a helicopter crash. I don’t have a lot to say, except that it’s tragic when accidents like this happen. All of these people will have close loved ones that will feel the pain of loss, and we send our sympathies. I don’t know the beliefs of those in the accident, but the evidence is they touched many lives for good.

I was already planning to talk about missing a good person who passed away last week—another person I never met, but who touched many lives for good. Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor, died January 23, at age 67, following a fight with cancer. There’s a nice obituary piece in the Deseret News, in which I got some of this information.

Clay Christensen, at Governor's Utah Economic Summit in 2014
image from here

Christensen is best known for the term “disruptive innovation.” He introduced this term in 1995, in Harvard Business Review, and much of his work since has been related to refining and applying the concept. It has since become part of the vocabulary, although he was personally uncomfortable with how ubiquitous and misused the term became. He intended it to refer to a smaller niche in the market, not every disruption or every market success.

The way he described it, a smaller, insignificant looking startup would go up against an industry giant. The big guy might even look down with superiority, as though the little guy wasn’t worth his attention. But, then, the new little guy’s innovation catches on and takes over, and the giant company falls Goliath-style.

One of the most cited examples is Netflix, coming on the scene when Blockbuster was the market controller with no apparent sign of yielding. Now Blockbuster is gone and Netflix is a large part of the new streaming industry.

Another example was Intel, which moved toward producing chips for personal computers, rather than focusing on larger computers, or mainframes. (Do young people even know what those were?)

The professor had a way of looking at things—and explaining them—that hadn’t been thought of by others. He’s the author of several books, and an institute for studying and spreading the ideas—which we can be grateful for.

One non-management book he wrote was a self-help book called How Will You Measure Your Life? And he did an inspirational Tedx talk on that subject as well. At the end of that, he concluded that, when he meets with God at the end of his life, they’ll be looking together at how he used the characteristics God gave him to bless the lives of others—touching lives for good.

Clay Christensen giving Tedx talk "How Will You Measure Your Life?"
screenshot from here

Back in October, I heard him quoted on the radio show STA Money Hour. I quoted parts of that particular show, on capitalism, a few months ago. But within that broadcast, where they quoted Professor Christensen, they said this: 

If you look at Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. He said—and it’s Harvard Business—he talks about the prosperity paradox. He writes of poor, developing nations, “It may sound counterintuitive, but enduring prosperity from many nations will not come from fixing poverty. By investing and market creating innovations, investors and entrepreneurs inadvertently engage in nation building. Entrepreneurs and businesses don’t have to set out to improve the world.” He says, “Through their collective efforts of making useful goods and services, an improved world is the outcome.” Why is that so hard to grasp?

As I say here at the Spherical Model, following the principles of freedom, prosperity, and civilization will lead to the solutions to world problems better than focusing on solving those problems. So those things first, and then see if there are specific helps for specific people that can be undertaken.

Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School, says this:

Clayton’s brilliance and kindness were equally evident to everyone he met, and his legacy will be long-lasting. Through his research and teaching, he fundamentally shaped the practice of business and influenced generations of students and scholars.

In 2012 Professor Christensen was named the world’s most influential living management thinker. It has been noted that he wrote about giant companies that fail, while he was both an influential giant and physical giant at 6’8” tall.

His way of thinking came from his religious thought, which is how I came to know of him. He was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which I also am. This informed his thinking, but he was able to express it in ways that people of other beliefs could easily grasp.

Clark Gilbert, who considered him a mentor, said,

People who didn’t believe in God or who weren’t religious found themselves reflecting on spiritual ideas because of the conversations and writings of Clay Christensen. How Will You Measure Your Life influenced so many people. He had this ability to unapologetically and with deep conviction and courage talk about things of faith and of God with people who didn’t think they were religious. He found ways of not only engaging them personally but engaging them intellectually in a way that caused them to start to really, actually think about spiritual matters in a way that they never would have without someone like Clay.

In a piece on religious freedom, in 2014, I quoted and included a short video, provided by People of Faith, which I’d like to repeat here today. He often used stories to explain things, as he does here:

Some time ago I had a conversation with a Marxist economist from China. He was coming to the end of a Fulbright fellowship here in Boston. And I asked him if he had learned anything that was surprising or unexpected. And without any hesitation, he said, “Yea. I had no idea how critical religion is to the functioning of democracy."

“The reason why democracy works,” he said, “is not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does, but, rather, democracy works because most people, most of the time, voluntarily choose to obey the law. And in your past, most Americans attended a church or synagogue every week, and they were taught there by people who they respected.”

My friend went on to say that Americans follow these rules because they had come to believe that they weren’t just accountable to society; they were accountable to God.

My Chinese friend heightened a vague but nagging concern I’ve harbored inside that, as religion loses its influence over the lives of Americans, what will happen to our democracy? Where are the institutions that are going to teach the next generation of Americans that they too need to voluntarily choose to obey the laws? Because, if you take away religion, you can’t hire enough police.

Remembering the Armistice and the Veterans

I put out the flag earlier today, in honor of Veterans Day. But a storm blew in—with heavy wind, and heavy rains to come. I moved the flag to the window near the front door. It’s a balance of finding a way to honor those who would not be deterred by a storm, but still not allowing the symbol of our nation to be dishonored by neglect. So—indoors for the rest of the day.

Veterans Day, called Armistice Day until the 1950s, originally celebrated the end of WWI, but has since grown to include all those who have served the cause of freedom in the military.

The armistice—or ceasefire—was signed at 11:00 AM on the 11^th day of the 11^th month. So we always celebrate the date, rather than make the nearest Monday the holiday. Today just happens to be a Monday. I wrote in more detail on this last year, when it was the 100^th anniversary.

I love this, the Anthem Veterans Memorial, in Arizona
image from Wikipedia
more information here

I’ve written before about some of the veterans in my family—including my dad,  my son, and my grandfather. This weekend I got a note from FamilySearch.org[i] letting me know I had some WWII veterans in my family tree. So I followed the link. The first was my uncle, my dad’s older brother, whom I recognized. But there were many others also, mostly cousins of either my parents or grandparents. It’s a heritage worth noting on a celebration day.

Others have been honoring veterans in their families as well. One friend shared a story from a grandfather, sharing his memories of the day of the WWI Armistice. Since this is the story of the day’s origin, I thought it was worth sharing. The story is told by Darvil Burns McBride.

Only six years old when the war started, I do not remember much of its early years. I do have memories of the much talk of it, little of which I understood, and of the starving people in Europe where the war had devastated countries. I remember food drives and the women sewing clothes for the needy of those countries, especially for the little Country of Belgium. Dad, being sheriff, knew when the troops would be coming through the county. He would take us to the Safford Depot to see them arrive in the freight trains, which often made a short stop of slowly crept through the town on their way for departure to war. I still see their young—and it seemed to Mother—hungry faces, as they crowded near and peered from the open doors of boxcars. Others, in good weather, would ride on open flatcars, as many as could, sitting along the edge with legs draped over the side. The rest sat and lounged among the stacks of equipment and gear scattered helter-skelter over the cars’ rough beds.

Mother didn’t like to go to the depot; she said it made her sad. In those days these newly conscripted soldiers were referred to as Doughboys, instead of GIs. (A doughboy is a boiled dumpling, perhaps a common part of their diet.) By the time the war ended, I was ten years old. It had been nine months since my father had been taken from us, and we were then living in Thatcher [Arizona]. How vividly I remember that momentous day of November 11, 1918. School had let out for lunch hour. Eight of ten of us kids were walking west from the school, which would put me at my house in another three minutes. We had just overtaken one of the lady schoolteachers, Daisy Curtis, my fourth grade teacher. At that moment, I spied W. W. Pace, a stalwart of the town, and at that time possibly the chairman of the school board. As we approached him he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, held up both arms for us to stop and excitedly said something to the effect, “I have an important message for you. I was in hopes I could get to the school before you were let out for lunch. School is canceled for the rest of the day—the war had ended! We received the news just a few minutes ago. Germany has surrendered.” The town went crazy.

A shout went up from our little group. I saw Miss Curtis dabbed a handkerchief to her eyes and bowed her head in silence. Since we were on Main Street, the town center less than a couple of blocks away, I became conscious of noise and a babble of voices as others received the news. They came out of their houses and hugged neighbors. Grabbing hold of the excitement, I forgot my friends and raced for home, where I blurted out the news to my mother, who held little Frankie in her arms. Wondering about the racket outside, she’d just stepped out onto the porch. In another ten minutes, the street had filled with shouting, dancing, laughing and crying people. Vehicles of all description appeared. Cars, buggies, bicycles tricycles, men on horseback: the din unbelievable. Anything men and women could find with which to make noise came out of storage that day. Dishpans and washtubs all took a beating, and in the middle of the banging, tooting and hollering, the school and church bells began to ring, and lie a famous America poet has said, “While high overhead with wild increase, the great bell swung as never before, seemed as if ‘twould never cease. And every word it ardor flung, from off its jubilant iron tongue, was War! War! War!” But our bells were saying, “It’s over! Peace! Peace! Peace!”

I ran down to the corner where the largest crowd had gathered. There, Don Pace had just arrived with two large cowbells, and with one in each hand he succeeded in doubling the bedlam. For the rest of the day, and for many, far into the night—happy, exuberant, unrestrained people went crazy.

The Armistice had been signed that day during the 11^th minute past 11 o’clock, the 11^th day of the 11^th month of the year.

Some moments, and some people, are worth remembering on into a second century. Those who defend our sacred liberty deserve this annual moment of remembrance—and more.

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[i] FamilySearch.org is a genealogy website open to the public at no cost. It is provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have always been interested in family history for religious reasons. Collaborating with the public helps with the Church’s interests while also serving anyone interested in their family history. Living people will not appear, unless you are the person to input that information into your own family tree for your viewing only. Also, only Church members may use the information for religious purposes for their own relatives; and for anyone deceased under 100 years, permission must be granted by the closest living relative.

Remembering 41

There were many memorials this past week, honoring George H. W. Bush following his passing at the age of 96. I don’t have much to add to all those. Just a few personal notes.

I hadn’t thought that much about it, but the elder Bush was a Houstonian, so people here have kind of a claim on him. The Houston Chronicle included multiple sections related to honoring him—I imagine more than any other newspaper in the country.

George H. W. Bush started his political career as the county Republican Party Chair. I wasn’t here then, but I’ve frequently met the current HCRP Chair, so it makes President Bush seem historically very accessible to us grassroots types.

some of the inserts in the Houston Chronicle, December 9, 2018

The train that carried him from the Houston funeral to the final resting place in College Station, a couple of hours to the northwest, where the Bush Library is located, passed through town. The schedule was published, and people came and stood along the tracks to get a glimpse along the way. I didn’t make it, but I had friends who did. Facebook was full of posts with people waiting, then catching photos and videos of the train going by.

4141, the George H. W. Bush memorial train
carrying him to his final resting place,
photo from Mark Ramsey's Facebook page

I didn’t ever meet George H. W. Bush, but I did get to hear him speak in public. It was a dozen or so years ago. I was helping a banker write his life and work story, and he invited us to an event with dinner and speeches, related to a literacy charity. The crowd was not one I am typically part of, and I remember feeling a little bit uncomfortable (maybe frumpy), but also honored to be generously included.

George H. W. Bush was a speaker. It was a casual speech. He spoke to several hundred people as though he were talking with a few friends on someone’s back patio. He was pleasant, good-humored, and effortlessly comfortable—making us in the audience feel that way too. I think that is genuinely how he was.

One thing he was known for was his Thousand Points of Light, encouraging people to work to improve the world wherever they are. He used the phrase in a couple of speeches, and then it became a foundation to honor significant community service. My father-in-law received a Thousand Points of Light award the year he retired as a special education administrator in an elementary school district—where three people were required to replace him. I remembered being surprised that the awards the former president had made happen actually came to real people working in their communities.

He had an exemplary marriage and family. Many people mentioned his going to heaven where his wife, Barbara, who passed away just months ago, was waiting for him along with their daughter Robyn. In this age of #metoo, one note I saw mentioned that Barbara was the only woman he had ever kissed. With their children running state and federal governments, it could have been about power. But when you look at their personalities, you realize it’s more about public service. His son, George W. Bush (Bush 43) gave a touching eulogy, clearly heartfelt, honoring a father whose love he felt and love in return.

Even those who didn’t always agree with the elder Bush’s policies agree that he was caring, considerate, gentle, and decent. We would be much better off if that were the legacy more of us were living to earn.

Monuments and Memorials, Part I

I just spent the week in Washington, DC—my first trip there. We played tourist and took hundreds photos (800, to be exact). The Constitution was signed September 17^th, and we saw the actual document in the National Archives on the 16^th. I geeked out a little.

So, if you’ve ever wondered why some things are called monuments, and others are memorials, here’s the difference: A memorial is for someone after they have died—to remember them. A monument is to honor a person still living. So…the Washington Monument was begun to honor our first US President, George Washington, while he was still alive.

If there was a theme for this trip, it was reverence. As the children in our church sing, “Reverence is more than just quietly sitting.” In our case it involved walking, briskly, about eight miles a day. That is normal for a vacation with Mr. Spherical Model, as the kids can attest. I am stiff and sore, and will take some days to recover. But, there were so many places where it was natural to be reverent.

A sign at Arlington Cemetery says it directly: “Silence and Respect.” During the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the sergeant directed that it is expected we will be silent—and stand—throughout the entirety of the ceremony. There was no listing of “or else” and consequences. There was simply the statement and the expectation. For those who love liberty and civilization, that is sufficient.

There is much I want to share, and I’m not sure how to organize it all yet. For now I’m thinking of going with a main founder per post, more or less in the order we encountered them. Several things they had in common: personal character and decency, honor toward God, skill and learning, and appreciation for all things beautiful and civilized.

 

First we’ll go to the Jefferson Memorial. This great renaissance man of the 18^th Century stands in the center of a circular open building (with museum on the lower floors), an imposing 19 feet tall. He looks toward the Capitol and White House, to keep an eye on things.

 

My personal quote collection already holds a share of Thomas Jefferson’s words, but they were even more striking carved in stone on marble walls. I attempted to photograph them to bring that sense of awe back for myself.

To summarize, Jefferson knew God as his guide, he knew God as the source of our rights and liberties, and he knew learning becomes wisdom under God's guidance.  I’ll share a few of the quotes in photos. These first four are from the walls of the memorial, surrounding him. You'll recognize this first one from the Declaration of Independence, which he had the skill to put into words and to pen.

in the Jefferson Memorial,
from the Declaration of Independence

 

Freedom of religion is essential.

 

Keep the Constitution sacred, and unchanged as much as possible.

 

Liberties are a gift from God.

 

Overhead, around the bottom of the dome, it reads, “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” It took four photos to capture it, so I’ll spare you.

Inside the museum, this is above the door; he knew, even then, what we clearly see today.

 

And this is a replica (with some actual artifacts) from his study.

 

God knew when we needed Thomas Jefferson, and prepared him for that particular time. I pray God is preparing another Thomas Jefferson-quality person for our day.

In Part II we'll consider Lincoln, among other notable memorials.