A Lesson Learned?

 

In the fall of 2010, things looked great with respect to my career.  I was running a project that would lead to a major new product line for our company.  Although there was a momentary curtailment of external marketing efforts while a regulatory issue was being checked into, I was riding the wave of two technical breakthroughs that would make the new product a huge success.  I thought everything was ok and as a result, became complacent.  Somewhere along the way, I lost the drive.  I did not embrace some other tasks that were given to me that would have allowed me to broaden my experience.  When I look back at that fall, there were numerous warning signs that should have motivated me to action, but I was blind to them.  I allowed myself to be deluded into thinking everything was fine.

That winter, I had a project review meeting go terribly wrong.  I was under the impression that the meeting went well until I started receiving negative feedback from others that attended the meeting.  After the shock wore off, I snapped fully awake.  I realized I was “a deer in the headlights” - at minimum in trouble if not in danger of losing my job.  Based on an assessment of the career risks as well as the project risks, I made the decision to look aggressively for a new job, drew up a plan of action, and executed it.  Fortunately for me, I found several opportunities.  It was not a minute too soon, for I learned toward the end that two internal opportunities I thought I had a good chance at did not materialize.  Seven weeks later senior management deemphasized the project and, on the eve of the second interview for the job I now hold, I was laid off.

Although the story had a happy ending, I wonder what would have happened if I had maintained my drive and embraced what was given to me.  Instead, I easily could have joined the ranks of the chronically unemployed given my age and narrow skill-set.  Today, facing a change in business conditions and a challenging reassignment, I reflect on this lesson and use it to reenergize myself.

 

Photo courtesy morguefile.com

Scientific Knowledge and the Nature of God

This week I read an article on Livescience.com [1] that suggests that scientists would eventually understand everything and, by that fact, there would be no room for God.  To put this into a historical perspective, supernatural powers have been invoked as the cause for anything that could not be answered.  Two thousand years ago, God was responsible for just about everything: for the weather, the quality of the harvests, for plagues, good health, and for winning or losing battles.  Even into modern times, a common perception was that God was a grandfatherly figure living in Heaven who meted out rewards and punishment.  As human knowledge increased and science proceeded to explain many of the mysteries of existence, God’s role in everyday life diminished.

Today, scientists are making new discoveries that continue to diminish the mystery.  Astronomers with the power of the Hubbell Telescope and other modern tools probe to within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang and continue to add to the understanding of the workings of the universe.  Physicists recently discovered the Higgs Boson, the final missing particle in the Standard Model, the model which describes the building blocks for matter and the fabric of the universe.  Yet, as Natalie Wolchover reports in the referenced article, physicists can describe the universe going all the way back to an infinitesimal fraction of a second after the Big Bang, but can’t describe the state of the Universe at the zero point or, for that matter, what existed before the zero point.  Physicists are attempting to create models in the hopes of answering that very question, and current physical theories already allow for an infinite number of universes, together which comprise the multiverse.

The phenomenon of life continues to be a great mystery.  Despite their modern understanding, no one has been able to create life in a test tube from inanimate matter.  Likewise, there is no universally accepted theory for the emergence of the very first life forms from non-living matter.  That by no means suggests that biologists won’t unlock that mystery in the future.  Even if biologists determine how life emerged and, for that matter, learn how to create life in the laboratory, there will still be deeper mysteries to investigate.  Even if physicists come up with a universally accepted theory for how the Big Bang happened and what the state of affairs was before the birthing event of the Universe, there will still be unanswerable questions, two major ones being “where did the multiverse come from?” and “why are we here?”

I have no doubt that scientists will continue to unravel these mysteries.  And every time a major discovery is made in science, new mysteries are encountered.  I do not believe that their journey of discovery will rule out the existence of God.  To put this into perspective: before Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, the world was believed to be flat, the Sun, Moon, and Stars revolved around the earth, and God in Heaven was “up there” in the sky.  Learning that the world was round and was no longer the center of the Universe did not disprove the existence of a Higher Power.  As scientists continue to learn how amazing the Universe is and how amazing the phenomenon of life is, it speaks of how immense reality is.  It makes the answers to the existential questions grander.  Even one who doubts the existence of a Higher Power can look at the Universe, the order of natural law, our remarkable planet, and the spark of life on that planet, grasping the true miracle of our existence.

Reference: http://news.yahoo.com/science-someday-rule-possibility-god-115945479.html

 

Photo credit: Hershel Observatory via Wikimedia Commons

The Value of Mentoring

“Mentoring brings us together – across generation, class, and often race – in a manner that forces us to acknowledge our interdependence, to appreciate, in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words, that ‘we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny.’ In this way, mentoring enables us to participate in the essential but unfinished drama of reinventing community, while reaffirming that there is an important role for each of us in it. ~Marc Freedman

Microsoft clipart photo

The Right Place at the Right Time

Every once in a while, I receive a vivid reminder that I am exactly where I need to be.  To hear the messages I need to hear.  To experience what I need to experience.  To see what I need to see.  To face the challenges I am currently facing.  To be in a position to do what needs to be done.  The most important thing is the awareness to recognize these moments and to be open to the surrounding signs no matter how subtle.

Personal photo

Just Understanding

“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo credit: morguefile.com (lkdotcom)