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Gauntlet Buttons
There is a small button on the sleeve of a dress shirt just to the north of the cuff. For sartorial reference, that portion of the shirt is called the gauntlet. Hence, the button itself is aptly termed a gauntlet button. Spend any amount of time around men (or women) dressed for their business casual days and you’ll have the opportunity to acquaint yourself with this fashion detail. As with many functionally-limited components of today’s more structured attire, the gauntlet button was originally born out of utility and civility and has lingered. However it arrived on your well-dressed forearm, I encourage you to button it. No, it’s not because I have an obsessive…
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Following Instructions
I’m on a plane (again) and struck by a profound, simple truth hidden in the safety card instructions being recited dispassionately by the flight attendant a few yards in front of me. If you travel frequently, you could probably say it with her… “in the unlikely event of a change in cabin pressure, secure your own oxygen mask first before helping others.” Why is it that the airlines feel compelled to explicitly specify the order of events within the basic instructions on how to use the mask? Could it be because of our predisposition to prioritize taking care of others before caring for ourselves? How frequently do we allow the demands on our time by our family, our friends, even our co-workers come before our…
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Think Big. Aim Small.
Aiming small may seem counterintuitive in a world of Play-Off games, New York Times Best Seller lists, and Zagat’s reviews. Our society continually seeks to identify the best of the best. In fact the web is full of listicles gone viral — 10 Quick Ways to Simplify Your Life, 7 Most Annoying Habits of Air Travelers, 21 Funniest Cat Videos — which serve to underscore that what you do isn’t valuable unless it is acknowledged by a million likes. But there’s a cheat in that tenet; it’s impossible to connect meaningfully with millions. I can’t look into the eyes of a million people and see them deeply. I can’t have the divinity of my nature recognize the divinity of theirs. It’s not possible. I am…
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Encouragement
Courage – noun The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery This week I’ve been thinking about courage and what prompts people to act. The word courage comes from the Old French (cuer) and the Latin (cor) meaning heart. In fact, one of the obsolete definitions for courage is “the heart as the source of emotion”. It could be said that having courage, or being courageous, is acting with heart. The heart is where our passion and convictions come from. It’s the source of our deepest love. Continuing to extend the definition-being courageous is taking the risk to act…
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What You Do Next
It happened. You did it again—that thing you thought you were done doing, or worse yet, that thing you thought you’d never do. We hate the feeling of that place. Engulfed in shame. Exhausted by regret. Overwhelmed by the embarrassment of what people will think. Good people. Important people. Maybe people we have hurt. People who trusted us. So now what? We’ve all had those moments. Moments of epic failure. Of embarrassment and shame. At least for me, self-loathing is not too strong a word for how I feel the moment it happens. What I want to consider today is the question of what follows that moment. What do we do next? The reason…
