Book publishers have personalities. It is no doubt obvious, but it surprises me that publishers and other businesses have personalities. Some publishers have the personality of cooperation for the betterment of everyone. Other publishers have the personality of maximizing for themselves short-term gains with little regard for others, including those retail stores that are selling their products.
It is, in my humble view, through the difference in a business' purpose that the different personalities appear. Is the main purpose of the business to maximize short-term profits or to meet the needs of their niche market and ensure their long-term health?
Here is my view of business history since World War II. At the end of the war many returning GIs started their own businesses. There became Lapenski Fuel, Magdanz Hardware, Tuell Funeral Home, and Shorey’s Books to name a few. From what I recall and can determine, the purpose of each business was “to find a need in the community and meet it.” The local community was vital to each business. You can see that by the support that they gave to community organizations from supporting bowling teams and children’s sporting teams to Scouts and school projects. Ah, more community involvement: when the local drug store saw a student shopping in the middle of the day, the store owner would often phone the school to see if the kid had permission to be not-in-school.
Sometime later business thinking changed. Perhaps it was in the 1960s when the emphasis on the individual bloomed. Perhaps it was the same time that the view of sports changed to that famous statement “winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing.” The big business model expanded to state and to act as “the bottom line is all that matters” and “it’s nothing personal, it’s just business.”
I think that the results from this thinking changed to optimization of short-term profits for the owners while short-changing the long-term reliability of the business. The other event that encouraged this movement was the retiring of the many small business owners who began their businesses at the end of the war. A small business owner has a few choices for leaving the business: passing it on to the offspring, selling it to the highest bidder, or the famous “going out of business sale.” The offspring typically grew up with the business in the family and they knew the amount of commitment and effort that the parents put into the business, likely at the expense of better parenting. The offspring chose to do something else. Selling to the highest bidder encouraged larger businesses to expand by purchasing others. Offering shares of stock in the larger businesses allowed the managers to raise enough money to purchase more smaller businesses, whether funeral homes, hardware stores, or fuel companies, or bookstores.
Today’s result is that we have a few corporations that are now so large that the people and the government cannot allow them to fail because too many individuals will lose their jobs and the economy will become even worse.
When there are fifty auto manufacturers in the U.S. and three of them fail due to poor business practices of maximizing short-term gains for the owners and neglecting the long-term health of the business you have “a market correction” or a result of “you reap what you sow.” A few manufactures fail. But when the nation has only three major auto manufacturers and the decisions that they have made will put large numbers of wage earners out of work, then we have a nation-wide economic crisis. It is likewise in the financial industry where a few very large corporations have swallowed hundreds of small financial institutions over the years.
Each business has its own personality. We choose our friends in some respects by their personalities. Perhaps we choose the businesses we associate with in some respects by their personalities too. Can you name five businesses that you really enjoy working with and five that you work with but don’t enjoy? Does the personality of each business affect your feelings about those businesses?
The obvious next question is, “Why do you continue to work with those businesses that you don’t enjoy?”
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
The Election of a lifetime.
I did not party in the street after the election. I did not write about my feelings about it. I am hugely relieved that we have a chance for a change in the country that better fits what I think we can become, but I'm not yelling-happy about it. Yet again, why do my eyes mist when I hear reports of all sorts of people who are so thrilled? And, it touches me deeply that so many people, in so many places, in so many ways, are ecstatic about the results of the presidential election. The "silent majority" has shown its relief and hope, in my humble opinion. Maybe we all actually can work together for the betterment of the common good.
Monday, October 13, 2008
The world says...The faithful say
One thought that I received during yesterday’s sermon:
The world says:
Be fearful
Worry
Blame
They are wrong and we are right!
Be angry
The faithful say:
Rejoice
Be happy
Celebrate
Be at peace
The angels say, “Fear not”
Philippians 4: 1-9 reminds us to focus on what is true, what is honorable, what is just, excellence
The faithful remind us that when one thinks that there is not enough, that there is always enough to share.
The world says:
Be fearful
Worry
Blame
They are wrong and we are right!
Be angry
The faithful say:
Rejoice
Be happy
Celebrate
Be at peace
The angels say, “Fear not”
Philippians 4: 1-9 reminds us to focus on what is true, what is honorable, what is just, excellence
The faithful remind us that when one thinks that there is not enough, that there is always enough to share.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
My EV and politics
“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine…”
Courage came to me when a magazine publisher, Jack Love, in his trade magazine, Internet Retailer, October 4, 2008, wrote, “In 40 years of publishing, I have not supported a candidate in print.”
http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=27946
I have been driving electric vehicles (two) since the year 2000. After 25 years of talking about converting a car to run on electricity I finally did it in the millennial year. My ’81 VW rabbit pickup is my second conversion. It is my daily commuter vehicle that uses only battery power that I plug in to my home electrical power each evening much like you would plug in an outdoor barbeque or space heater.
A few weeks ago I made and attached to the rear bumper three bumper stickers. One states, “Driving better electrically.”
A major motivation for converting a gasoline-burning vehicle to electricity was my miniscule effort toward reducing our dependence on oil from other countries. It is somewhat like choosing to eat locally produced food. Seattle City Light, the source of my EV’s fuel states (2007) our electricity comes from: Hydro—90.6%, Nuclear—4.8%, Wind—3.3%, Coal—0.8%, and Other—0.5%.
We are on the brink of the release of several new electric vehicles. Within the next two or three years you will see several major automakers, and several relatively unknown startup car companies, offering reasonably priced electric vehicles (not hybrids) with the new lithium ion battery technologies.
Since my first EV conversion in 2000 I have learned the dire situation our planet is in due to global warming. Ninety percent of the world’s scientists who have studied global warming agree that human activities are the major cause, hence the reason for my first bumper sticker, “No more dependence on carbon-based fuels.” We must drastically reduce our use of carbon-based fuels in all its forms, for all of its uses in order to assure the continuation of life as we know it on this planet.
Politics: Senator McCain’s energy policy, from what I have learned, includes significant oil drilling, off shore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, major research into creating “clean coal” and building many more nuclear power plants. The first three will do nothing to slow or reverse global warming. And, as for nuclear power, the half-life of uranium is about 4.5 billion years. In order for it to be safe we must absolutely guarantee that wherever we store the spent nuclear material it will be kept away from human beings of at least that long, and best, twice that long. Until we can insure that guarantee, in my humble opinion, we have no right to be using nuclear power.
Senator Obama’s stated energy policy includes a massive effort to increase solar, biomass, and geothermal energy to create electricity and stopping our dependence on foreign oil within ten years. He also has recently given in to accepting some limited national oil drilling as well as increasing the construction of nuclear power plants.
I have deep concerns for the healthy future of our country. I have deeper concerns for the health of life on our planet due to the effects of global warming. From this position you may see that my third bumper sticker on my electric vehicle, my daily commuter car, reads, “Obama, of course!”
Yes, both McCain and Obama tell lies in order to get elected. Who can know for sure what either one of them will do once they are the President. We certainly did not expect what we got from the current President. During his first campaign he was the one who was going to finally bring high morals to the White House.
Certainly the country’s and the world’s economy is the elephant in the living room that we all must deal with. There are many other issues to consider. For the topic of global warming and several others, but not all other issues, I am convinced that Obama might be better for the country and the world in the long run.
Courage came to me when a magazine publisher, Jack Love, in his trade magazine, Internet Retailer, October 4, 2008, wrote, “In 40 years of publishing, I have not supported a candidate in print.”
http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=27946
I have been driving electric vehicles (two) since the year 2000. After 25 years of talking about converting a car to run on electricity I finally did it in the millennial year. My ’81 VW rabbit pickup is my second conversion. It is my daily commuter vehicle that uses only battery power that I plug in to my home electrical power each evening much like you would plug in an outdoor barbeque or space heater.
A few weeks ago I made and attached to the rear bumper three bumper stickers. One states, “Driving better electrically.”
A major motivation for converting a gasoline-burning vehicle to electricity was my miniscule effort toward reducing our dependence on oil from other countries. It is somewhat like choosing to eat locally produced food. Seattle City Light, the source of my EV’s fuel states (2007) our electricity comes from: Hydro—90.6%, Nuclear—4.8%, Wind—3.3%, Coal—0.8%, and Other—0.5%.
We are on the brink of the release of several new electric vehicles. Within the next two or three years you will see several major automakers, and several relatively unknown startup car companies, offering reasonably priced electric vehicles (not hybrids) with the new lithium ion battery technologies.
Since my first EV conversion in 2000 I have learned the dire situation our planet is in due to global warming. Ninety percent of the world’s scientists who have studied global warming agree that human activities are the major cause, hence the reason for my first bumper sticker, “No more dependence on carbon-based fuels.” We must drastically reduce our use of carbon-based fuels in all its forms, for all of its uses in order to assure the continuation of life as we know it on this planet.
Politics: Senator McCain’s energy policy, from what I have learned, includes significant oil drilling, off shore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, major research into creating “clean coal” and building many more nuclear power plants. The first three will do nothing to slow or reverse global warming. And, as for nuclear power, the half-life of uranium is about 4.5 billion years. In order for it to be safe we must absolutely guarantee that wherever we store the spent nuclear material it will be kept away from human beings of at least that long, and best, twice that long. Until we can insure that guarantee, in my humble opinion, we have no right to be using nuclear power.
Senator Obama’s stated energy policy includes a massive effort to increase solar, biomass, and geothermal energy to create electricity and stopping our dependence on foreign oil within ten years. He also has recently given in to accepting some limited national oil drilling as well as increasing the construction of nuclear power plants.
I have deep concerns for the healthy future of our country. I have deeper concerns for the health of life on our planet due to the effects of global warming. From this position you may see that my third bumper sticker on my electric vehicle, my daily commuter car, reads, “Obama, of course!”
Yes, both McCain and Obama tell lies in order to get elected. Who can know for sure what either one of them will do once they are the President. We certainly did not expect what we got from the current President. During his first campaign he was the one who was going to finally bring high morals to the White House.
Certainly the country’s and the world’s economy is the elephant in the living room that we all must deal with. There are many other issues to consider. For the topic of global warming and several others, but not all other issues, I am convinced that Obama might be better for the country and the world in the long run.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Website growing pains
Our store and our website are in a kind of growing pains situation that is good while also inconvenient. We have been developing our new, much improved website this summer. It is almost ready to launch to the World Wide Web. All of the products from the “old” current site have been transferred to the new site to help us with formatting and fine-tuning.
At the same time there are many new book titles that we have received in our store. Do we add them to our old site, put them on the new site, or both? The amount of work involved indicates that adding them to both sites is too much. As a result I have been adding them to the new site. And that has been very instructive itself! But woe to the poor website visitor. You are missing out on viewing the new titles immediately.
Like all growth and changes, this transition time will soon be over. When the new site goes “live” you will be able to view many new books, as well as all of the other attributes of the new site.
At the same time there are many new book titles that we have received in our store. Do we add them to our old site, put them on the new site, or both? The amount of work involved indicates that adding them to both sites is too much. As a result I have been adding them to the new site. And that has been very instructive itself! But woe to the poor website visitor. You are missing out on viewing the new titles immediately.
Like all growth and changes, this transition time will soon be over. When the new site goes “live” you will be able to view many new books, as well as all of the other attributes of the new site.
The Words of Jesus
I’ve enjoyed Phyllis Tickle’s books. One of her recent books is The Words of Jesus, published in February of this year.
In The Words of Jesus Tickle describes a third way of knowing Scripture. "That in addition to the approaches of the literal and the metaphorical camps there is a third way of knowing Scriptures. There is--for want of a better word--actualness." (Emphasis is the authors), page 38. It is taking Tickle pages to describe the meaning and fullness of her term “actualness.” I don't have a full grasp of it yet. It seems to be a "yes-and," yes to literalism, yes to metaphorical understandings, and yes to this third actualness.
I have more reading to do in the book, then a lot of chewing on it, letting it rattle around inside me while my introverted self tries to assimilate it.
This book is divided into two parts. The first fifty pages or so consists of the author’s reflection on how the recorded words that Jesus said fit within the descriptions of his actions in the Gospels. The remainder of the book consists of the words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels without the Story that contains them. Tickle combines Jesus’ words in groupings that compliment each other. Her reflections at the beginning make a good, thoughtful book by on its own. And the Words of Jesus can stand on their own as well.
Once again Phyllis Tickle puts together good, as well as important, information.
In The Words of Jesus Tickle describes a third way of knowing Scripture. "That in addition to the approaches of the literal and the metaphorical camps there is a third way of knowing Scriptures. There is--for want of a better word--actualness." (Emphasis is the authors), page 38. It is taking Tickle pages to describe the meaning and fullness of her term “actualness.” I don't have a full grasp of it yet. It seems to be a "yes-and," yes to literalism, yes to metaphorical understandings, and yes to this third actualness.
I have more reading to do in the book, then a lot of chewing on it, letting it rattle around inside me while my introverted self tries to assimilate it.
This book is divided into two parts. The first fifty pages or so consists of the author’s reflection on how the recorded words that Jesus said fit within the descriptions of his actions in the Gospels. The remainder of the book consists of the words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels without the Story that contains them. Tickle combines Jesus’ words in groupings that compliment each other. Her reflections at the beginning make a good, thoughtful book by on its own. And the Words of Jesus can stand on their own as well.
Once again Phyllis Tickle puts together good, as well as important, information.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Pilgrim's Progress and the prodigal son
As a biology major in college I missed out on reading many of the classics. I’ve been behind since then. This week I finally read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress in a revised edition in contemporary English (not yet available in our store) retold by Gary Schmidt (Wm Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008). I see why it is a classic and it describes part of my life today.
The main character in Pilgrim’s Progress is “Christian.” He ventures forth from his home in City of Destruction toward Celestial City. Along the way Christian encounters many temptations and takes numerous diversions. I feel like Christian in my travels to Home Church this summer.
My faith home for several years is too far from home. It takes two gallons of gas to attend church. I am not able to attend evening weekday activities due to the time and distance. “There must be a congregation nearer home that I can attend” I told myself and my friends at church. For the months of summer I have tried other congregations to no avail.
Author Phyllis Tickle visited our store a few weeks ago. In conversation she described three kinds of liturgies in Episcopal congregations. There are those that are reverting back to a better time. They use an older liturgy where God is “He” and we speak in old English thee and thou. There are other congregations whose liturgy continues the tradition and remains the same as it has been for decades. They include the reciting of the Nicene Creed that our church fathers developed in the fourth century and the older form of the Lord’s Prayer, for example. And, there are those congregations that keep pushing at the liturgy to make it more meaningful to today’s world, today’s view of Reality that includes quantum mechanics, an expanding universe, string theory, and contemporary interpersonal relationship modes. Phyllis Tickle named this last category as the emerging church or emergent church model some of which name themselves emergent and others are just working at making their liturgies meaningful today.
Yesterday I felt like the Prodigal son as I returned to my home congregation of many years. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress I tried other paths, other congregations and for me they all came up lacking the worship that feeds my soul at this time. It is in the emerging church expression but does not refer to itself by that term. Thankfully my home congregation welcomed me home (yes, with open arms, but not by killing that fatted calf). For me there was more meaningful worship of God in yesterday’s liturgy of music, words, and actions than I had encountered this summer. It was Wonderful to be home! And like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress and Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz I don’t intend to stray again, but being human I suppose at some point I will.
The main character in Pilgrim’s Progress is “Christian.” He ventures forth from his home in City of Destruction toward Celestial City. Along the way Christian encounters many temptations and takes numerous diversions. I feel like Christian in my travels to Home Church this summer.
My faith home for several years is too far from home. It takes two gallons of gas to attend church. I am not able to attend evening weekday activities due to the time and distance. “There must be a congregation nearer home that I can attend” I told myself and my friends at church. For the months of summer I have tried other congregations to no avail.
Author Phyllis Tickle visited our store a few weeks ago. In conversation she described three kinds of liturgies in Episcopal congregations. There are those that are reverting back to a better time. They use an older liturgy where God is “He” and we speak in old English thee and thou. There are other congregations whose liturgy continues the tradition and remains the same as it has been for decades. They include the reciting of the Nicene Creed that our church fathers developed in the fourth century and the older form of the Lord’s Prayer, for example. And, there are those congregations that keep pushing at the liturgy to make it more meaningful to today’s world, today’s view of Reality that includes quantum mechanics, an expanding universe, string theory, and contemporary interpersonal relationship modes. Phyllis Tickle named this last category as the emerging church or emergent church model some of which name themselves emergent and others are just working at making their liturgies meaningful today.
Yesterday I felt like the Prodigal son as I returned to my home congregation of many years. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress I tried other paths, other congregations and for me they all came up lacking the worship that feeds my soul at this time. It is in the emerging church expression but does not refer to itself by that term. Thankfully my home congregation welcomed me home (yes, with open arms, but not by killing that fatted calf). For me there was more meaningful worship of God in yesterday’s liturgy of music, words, and actions than I had encountered this summer. It was Wonderful to be home! And like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress and Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz I don’t intend to stray again, but being human I suppose at some point I will.
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