My daughter Elena celebrated her eleventh birthday today. Long ago we started a tradition in our family of breakfast in bed for the one who we’re celebrating. And though we have cake most birthdays, the breakfast event is a do not miss activity.
Elena turns eleven
While I had the cameras out, snapping photos in one hand and video in the other (it feels as awkward as it sounds), I thought about how many millions of pictures are taken each day of cakes and candles, presents and pajamas. The very special things that are happening in front of me seem very ordinary when I think about the event repeating itself over and over again across the globe. Yet it’s the connection we have with each other that makes it special, makes it more meaningful than the waitstaff singing at the table next to us in our favorite restaurant.
The more I learn about the world, the bigger and smaller it seems. Bigger in the sense that my influence on world events and on the totality of knowledge is very, very small. Smaller in the sense that the influence I can have on those around me, friend and foe, is very significant. Today was an opportunity to influence Elena, to bless her and put her in a place of honor because she is special to all of us. The pictures we take can be rather ordinary, but those images serve as a reminder, a snapshot in time , of the importance of others in our lives.
This is a very good, creative Star Wars clip.
Salute to John Williams
I typically maintain a list of books I’ve read each year. I’ve created a page to list books read in 2008.
Do you every stop to think about things that you’ve stopped doing? Here are a few things that came to mind for me:
- Buying and selling individual stocks and stock options - only occasionally now
- Touching up paint on my cars - they don’t rust anymore
- Computer programming - I think I’ve tossed all my books on C++, HTML, etc.
- Wearing ties, sweater vests
- Singing out of a hymnal - some things I do miss
- Reading fiction - too many other things to read though I may read an occasional fiction book
- Carrying a briefcase to work
- Sleeping in on the weekends - going strong for nearly eleven years now
- Less singing - same amount of music through kid’s lessons and a growing interest in classical music
- Slow dial-up at home for work - I remember spending an hour or two uploading a powerpoint presentation
What’s your list? Do you miss any of it?
I’ve been thinking about names following the recent political season. We had two candidates for president, John McCain and Barack Obama. Had McCain won, the United States would have carried on the tradition of very ordinary first names. Those in my lifetime have been Richard, Gerald, Jimmy, Ronald, George, Bill and George. I thought it was quite funny when Obama joked that his parents must not have expected him to run for president, otherwise they would have named him differently.
I have to say that Tracey and I thoroughly enjoyed naming our children. We talked about names even before we knew we were having children. I think we owned two or three books on names alone. My favorite website ever for exploring names is the NameVoyager, although it was not around for our first born.
We knew that we didn’t want a top ten name; we also didn’t want a name too obscure. In the end, here’s what we chose:
- Elena Christine - carried on the Christine name for the fifth generation
- Anders Loyal - Anders goes back to the Kolbrek farm in Norway. Loyal is his great grandfather’s name
- Keely Grace - Keely is Irish for beautiful and where we spent several months before she was born
- Brynn Rose - Simple and beautiful
And no, we’re not in search of another name. 
I took a quick inventory of my books on the nightstand. I’m never satisfied with one book at a time, but it doesn’t mean I finish them any faster.
With the slowing economy, every family is reviewing their spending habits, mine included. If you have a budget in place, you have a starting point. I used to itemized spending into a very detailed budget and tracked it with Quicken and later with Money. In practice, once you’ve done this for a few years, you have a pretty good sense of where your dollars are going.
Currently, my objective is to reduce expenses and increase savings, even though I feel we’re living within our means. I continuously hear those with financial know-how stating that the government needs to do something to kickstart the economy. How the government chooses to do that is open to endless debate, but the bottom line message I get as a consumer is to spend more money.
Last week we discontinued our milk delivery service because we can buy our weekly eight gallons of milk for half price at the store. I greatly appreciate the service we’ve received over the years from our milkman, but we justified the convenience when the price difference was less. My change in spending habits will have a negative effect on the milkman and if many other customers do the same, he may not be able to continue in his job. In the end, however, the additional cost of providing direct service to my home is more expensive and burns more energy. And I cannot justify the convenience.
JFK said, “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” Am I shirking my responsibility by spending less? Some will argue that by taxing me more, the country will benefit as I consume less. I don’t agree. To me the milkman decision is pretty easy. Other spending decisions can be much more difficult, especially when you start looking at more essential services and goods. I cannot help the economy at a microlevel or in the short-term, but by spending more efficiently, I can perhaps influence behavior, which in turn, may help our economy long term.
What prevents you from starting something? Writers call it writer’s block. A physicist might refer to it as static friction. Some may say procrastination, fear or lack of time or resources. Others might just say, “Does it really matter?” Now this is a good question. Does what I have to say or think matter to anyone but me? My daughter went to school where the front-and-center question posed to each student every year was, “Are you ready to change the world?” The school is trying to instill optimism in each child and we all share that hope at times. There’s something very good about that.
This blog does not set out to do anything grand. I expect it will be read by someone, somewhere, some time. And perhaps one or more will comment. I write with some trepidation, knowing that what goes on the web stays on the web. Sometimes I think we’ve forgotten that people aren’t perfect. We are not perfect, but we are all on a journey in this life and we are changing this world.
My advice: Start small, think big
