Finding Source Documents

Image rights http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21845/lot/19/

I trudged up the back wooden stairway behind my client, who pushed up on the ceiling above us, revealing a door that creaked with disuse. We poked our heads up through the floor of his attic, taking a quick glance before our feet carried us the rest of the way into the oppressive heat and dust. I wasn't prepared for the sudden drops of perspiration climbing out of my skin, but I quickly forgot my discomfort as my eyes fell upon a huge book laying closed upon a Victorian-era book stand.

The sound of my client's voice, unnecessarily apologizing for the state of his attic, faded. I held my breath, hoping, and moved toward the dusty covers of the thick tome, noting the broken cobwebs trailing around it where my client's fingers must have been when he re-discovered it recently. My own fingers, made brave by my sturdy garden gloves, wiped gently at the title.

It was an old family bible, probably handed down through generations. I gently lifted the cover and searched carefully for the publication date. 1769, Office of the Queen's Printer. My client needed a book dealer, not a ghostwriter, and preferably one who could recommend a talented preservationist.

He reached around me and casually flipped open the bible to reveal several letters folded within its pages. Clearly, this is what I was here for. I opened the first piece of yellowed parchment. Within the first few lines, I knew this was going to be one of my favorite biographies ever.

Be the Page

Art credit to https://www.flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2625862463/

Social Media has brought businesses ample opportunity to engage their clientele in more depth than before, garnering loyalty that draws them from online to brick-and-mortar. How? 

Personality.

Business owners, nonprofit managers, and politicians know that personal engagement does more for sales, donations, and votes than any other type of communication. People trust where they can look in the eye, reach with a handshake, and personally measure character. And - people spend money where they trust.

A social media page is an extension of your business, your mission, your message. Just like networking at a chamber function, your page is the place where you share what you are excited about; say thank you to the people who have helped you; ask for suggestions; support your causes; and explain what you do and why. The best social media pages let the personality of the organization shine like a confident look and firm handshake. They showcase the organization's character. They build respect first, then trust, then customers.  

If an engaging, active social media page can do all that, what do you think a blank one does? You are your page, or so the social media audience thinks. 

Need help with your blank page? Hire an e-ghost.

Why Watch Disaster Movies

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men - as a whole - experience it." - Helen Keller

Recently, I've been filling my entertainment time with disaster movies. The Impossible. 2012. Titanic. Contagion. War of the Worlds. Twister. And, of course, World Trade Center.

Helen Keller was right. The world is not a secure place. It never has been. I have always been drawn to those stories that acknowledge that fact and put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances; stories that show how people respond in the face of frightening, impending danger and to tragic, multitudes of loss.

In times of disaster, a person must suddenly draw upon his innate pioneering spirit and break ground in unknown territory without the choice and preparation of our pioneer forebears. She must step up to the plate, with no practice swing, and pray for a hit or suffer a miss. Nothing prepares you for a tidal wave, a mugging, a twenty-car pile-up, an earthquake, a terrorist attack, or a broken limb as you miss your footing down a flight of stairs. Somehow, we get through it, and are indelibly changed when we get to the other side.

As Mark Twain once said, spirit has fifty times the strength and staying-power of brawn and muscle. Whether that spirit arises in response to disaster, or by choice as we pioneer into space and other new ventures, I draw comfort knowing that in an insecure world, we can count on the human spirit in times of emergency.

A Bed Only a Mother Could Love...

A bed left unmade for 16 years and surrounded by trash sold at Christie's yesterday for $4.3 million. The artist who slept in it for four days felt that it was a true representation of heartbreak, surrounded by ashtrays, empty liquor bottles, and dirty laundry. Take a look at it here.

There's no question, it certainly tells a story of sleepless nights filled with chain-smoking re-hashed conversations, numbing fiery booze, tear-stained pillows, and angrily-kicked sheets. Most humans who have loved and lost have had their beds look similar at some point in their lives. So, who would buy this object of commonly shared misery? The lost love, out of some sense of guilt (or even pleasure) at having caused such pain? The artist herself, to boost PR on her other work? A Spock-like soul who surrounds himself with emotional works to express what he cannot?

I'm inclined to think it was a mother, who can't bear to see a child's pain, and bought it to make the bed, tidy the mess, kiss the hurt with toiling hands, and make it all better.

Dear daughters, a word before you leave the nest...

Like the Phoenix, everyone has repeated "burning days," and repeated new birth from ashes. The best lesson learned is that life is messy, exhilarating, painful, sweet, frustrating, frightening, amazing - and just as it should be. Too often, people try to avoid the burning days that come with being human, and the more they try to avoid, the slower and more tortuous the burn when it finally comes. Like deferred maintenance in buildings and cars. Or not paying down debt when we have the chance. Avoiding pain is nothing more than a lost opportunity.

We are meant to grow and stretch and push boundaries. We are meant to make mistakes, learn, and try to do better next time. The Ostrich, on the other hand, (and we've all known head-in-the-sanders), tries to deny human nature, afraid of the burn, unable to comprehend the joy of the new life on the other side. A true Phoenix chooses the burn, walks into the fire with her head held high, ready to be cleansed of mistakes and impurities, and walks out a new woman, forged with balance and strength and wisdom, ready to begin her next cycle with a firm step and accomplishment in her eyes.

If you ever feel like an Ostrich, come home and I will take care of you for as long as you need to be safe and heal. There are times when it is important to let someone else be the Phoenix for awhile.

I know you will always try to do the right thing. I believe in you, and I love you forever,
Mom

DWx: Poets Speak Loud, October 24

Newest blog I am following - I just love hanging with other writers. They are very special people.

DWx: Poets Speak Loud, October 24: Another raucous evening at McGeary's with Mary Panza as host. The featured poet was Anthony Bernini , debuting his new book, Immediate Worl...

To Congresswoman Gifford's Staffers, From a Staffer

It is the randomness that shocks me. Congresswoman Gifford was not the type of elected official who inspired anger and hatred. Quite the opposite. The unstable person who committed mass murder yesterday just happened to be someone physically in her locality. He could have been here in New York, or Missouri, or even Rhode Island and would likely have committed the same crime. But he was in Arizona and shot a good woman who was doing her job, unlike other elected officials I know. And he took the life of a child, a judge who had just showed up on a whim, and several other innocent people.

We can ask all day why that particular day, in front of that particular grocery store, at that particular elected official’s event. But there’s no point. These unstable people do exist. And what sets one killer into action and keeps another killer at home is completely random. A series of coincidences that lead to opportunity for one, and the prevention or inaction of another. This killer gained access to a gun. Some other was shown the door by a gun seller. This killer sent out signals that were ignored. Another may have gotten mental help.

I worked for a senator who did inspire anger and hatred in some of his constituents. Former Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr. One day last spring, I was sitting with the senator and other lead staff in a meeting in his personal office.  Out of the blue, there was a cacophony of loud voices from the outer office. We are used to crowds, so we simply shut the door so we could continue the meeting. Then (and the linked video doesn't show this) there was an insistent banging on the door, like several pounding fists, and we could hear obscenities being shouted along with the senator’s name. We were all startled for a moment, and then the pounding stopped. There was a pause, then a loud heavy thump, over and over again, like a linebacker was putting all his weight into breaking the door down. 

Our chief of staff leaped for the phone to call the outer office and make sure the staff out there was okay. The office manager told him that over a hundred people were trying to squeeze into the office, that they were standing on her desk and spilling out into the hallway. No one had threatened or hurt her or the other staffer, they were mostly calm and orderly, but there were a few of them that were all riled up, clearly targeting the senator. She had already called security. 

Two hours and six uniformed troopers later, the outer office was clear and the door to the hallway shut. It was lunchtime. We were hungry, shaken, some needing the bathroom, but those protesters were still outside that main door. We couldn't know if they were dangerous or not. We doubted for no other reason than that one or two people who were trying to break down that inner office door. If someone would do that, what else would they do? So we waited. The law allows protesters to be present in the halls of the State Capitol. They camped out there with the press, shouting, chanting, daring the senator to step outside that door. At least we could access our desks again and get some work done. When in doubt, work. One of the staffers who was from the district office in New York City said knowingly, “Their bus back to the City will likely leave around 3 or 4pm, so they’ll be gone by then.” He was right.

Constituents have a right to let their views be known. If they are angry with an elected official, they should say so. But I'm not physically afraid of a hundred people who are chanting peaceably, which is what you mostly see in the video. I am worried about just that one person, an unbalanced person, who would not know how to control himself in such a scene. One of those angry protesters, possibly the guy trying to break the door down, could be someone unbalanced enough to want to shoot the senator and all the staff around him who are just trying to earn their daily bread, feed their families, and be good public servants. Why didn’t he? Maybe he wasn't unbalanced - maybe he (or they) just got too wrapped up in the spirit of the protest. Or, maybe he was unbalanced but knew enough that you can’t get a weapon past security in the Capitol. Sitting in the back office with the senator and hearing that door having a heavy weight thrown against it, I assure you, not one of us didn't wonder whether there was a gun out there. As impossible as our logical brains said that would be, that question did arise.

But what happened in Tucson could easily have happened in the senator’s district. (God forbid!) He also moves about in public, including crime-known areas, to meet and greet constituents.  Violent crime happens in New York City every day. And he did inspire deep-rooted anger among a certain section of his constituents. But yesterday's mass murder didn’t happen in the Bronx, with a gunman rising from a crowd of angry people. It happened in the district of a personable and well-liked congresswoman by a single unstable person rising from a crowd of generally happy, everyday people. 

I repeat. What happened in Tucson happened because a series of coincidental events, over years probably, led to the opportunity for it to happen. No stronger gun laws or increased mental health support can change that. Maybe those things would have stopped this killer, this time. But no way can we predict everything, foresee every circumstance. 

Make the stronger gun laws. Expand mental health programs. Dial down the violent rhetoric. Those are all smart, common sense things to do. But know this. Someone, somewhere, will always slip through the cracks. So as someone who has served as staff to public officials, and as a parent, I have to ask myself. Would it be better to avoid this kind of work or to continue in public service, knowing it could happen to me or any of us at any time? Well, this level of tragedy hasn’t happened to me, and I can’t live my life always looking over my shoulder. I want my children to understand and witness courage. Not foolhardiness – some level of protection is always appropriate. But as Ben Franklin once said, people who will give up their freedom in exchange for safety don’t deserve to be free.

To the staff of Congresswoman Gifford: thank you. Thank you for your public service, for the sacrifices you have made to devote time to a bigger cause, and thank you for springing into action when the worst fear of any staffer happened – an assassination attempt made on your elected official. Right now, in the aftermath and surrounded by your loved ones, you may be deciding whether to continue in service or to stand down. Well, you have already given up your safety in the cause of a free democracy.  You have served your country in the face of severe danger, and no one has any right to ask any more of you.  Whatever your decision, I and this country fully support you. It’s our turn to step up and protect your freedom. My heartfelt sorrow and prayers for all of you, especially those of you who died in the line of duty. You are all heroes. You make me proud to be a public servant. 

And please God, let that assassination attempt remain just that, an unsuccessful attempt. We are all pulling for Congresswoman Gifford’s full recovery. God bless you all.