Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…
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October 14, 2019 – Hunter’s Whole Moon | Monday Morning Musings
Good morning! Happy (Canada) Thanksgiving!Fascinating weather the last 72 hours; alternating between bright sunshine and moments of near-blizzard conditions — while the autumn leaves flutter about. Still no frost in this neighborhood; temperature hovering at 33-degrees, but hasn’t yet gotten to 32. Lots of tongues are wagging in anticipation of the grand re-opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; will you go? How many pumpkins does it take to properly decorate your front porch or steps for October?
Thanks to extensive research we can now report Central Minnesota’s favourite October candy bar is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup(s).
- Which would get your vote as best soup?
- Chicken Wild Rice?
- Beer Cheese?
- Your Mom’s (or Dad’s, to be fair) Chili?
- Chicken dumpling (or, if you prefer, homemade noodle)?
- Have you watched that viral video of the wild and wayward drink cart at O’Hare airport?
- Write your own metaphor.
- “Every day you can be the drink cart, you can watch the drink cart, or you can ram the drink cart and save the multimillion dollar plane. This happened today at ORD and in my opinion it’s awesome.” (Brent Ricci)
- Write your own metaphor.
- Her wit, charm, clarity, intelligence, and focus were routinely expressed in unforgettable quips.
- If you watch Downtown Abbey, the matriarch woman in that movie delivers her Colman-esque lines flawlessly.
- Colman O’Connell, of very happy memory, was President Emeritus at The College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN.
- Among her many, many pearls of wisdom was the exhortation, “When in doubt, don’t.”
- She was referring to a Board’s awesome duty and responsibility in recruiting and hiring a Chief Executive.
- No one is dying, take your time and do it right; self-imposed, artificial time lines often prove unwise, sometimes catastrophic.
- She was referring to a Board’s awesome duty and responsibility in recruiting and hiring a Chief Executive.
- Among her many, many pearls of wisdom was the exhortation, “When in doubt, don’t.”
- Colman O’Connell, of very happy memory, was President Emeritus at The College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN.
- If you watch Downtown Abbey, the matriarch woman in that movie delivers her Colman-esque lines flawlessly.
- Recent research suggests 36% of adults living in the United States regularly read a traditional daily newspaper.
- Don’t know if that’s ink-on-paper only, or if it also includes electronic… wouldn’t that be something if it were both combined?!
- The Ten Most Important Leadership Competencies, According to Leaders Around the World (Giles, 2016)
- As priority-ranked by the author:
- Has high ethical and moral standards;
- Provides goals and objectives with loose guidelines/ direction;
- Clearly communicates expectations;
- Has the flexibility (and courage) to change opinions;
- Is committed to (and provides resources) for ongoing employee training;
- Communicates often and openly (a bit different from #3 up above);
- Is open to new ideas;
- Creates a (team) feeling of succeeding and failing together;
- Helps the employee develop into a next-generation leader;
- Provides safety for trial and error.
- As priority-ranked by the author:
- The prolific, gritty, poetic author and reporter, Pete Hamill, now 84, says he grew up poor but not impoverished.
- What’s the difference? “The library,” he said. “Read!”
- “What libraries give you is all three tenses – the past tense – the present tense in which we live and the future that we can only imagine. These places have teachers who are living and dead and we are lucky to have them. If I sit here and read Aristotle, he is speaking to me across a thousand years – more than a thousand years. That sense that I am in the company of the great greatest people who ever lived is a humbling experience but a liberating experience.”
- What’s the difference? “The library,” he said. “Read!”
- What are you reading?
- Dopesick (Macy, 2018) reads like an edge-of-your-seat novel, but it’s nonfiction!
- Should be required reading for all of us. “Dopesick is a deep — and deeply needed — look into the troubled soul of America.” (Tom Hanks)
- (Thank you very much to two faithful readers who acquainted me with this troubling and continuing chapter of our history.)
- Should be required reading for all of us. “Dopesick is a deep — and deeply needed — look into the troubled soul of America.” (Tom Hanks)
- Dopesick (Macy, 2018) reads like an edge-of-your-seat novel, but it’s nonfiction!
Colors
By Michael A. Mullin
Harmonic hues vibrant against an azure autumn sky.
Sweet smells waft on crisp, dry rivulets of summer’s waning breeze.
Each leaf a unique masterpiece,
each tree trillions of pixels.
Explosions of brilliance magnified by the soft and supple October sun.
Such beauty, wonder, comfort, peace, serenity.
Senses on high alert.
Melancholy abounds; gratitude rushes to the rescue.
The rustling swish and crunch of drying maples mixed with oaks and birch and ash
rekindle memories of life’s less troubling times.
Barren branches herald shorter days, cooler nights, grayness.
Fading, falling, carpeting, changing.
Make it last!
Hold on!
©2019 Michael A. Mullin 10/08/2019When will you give yourself the greatest gift of all, the gift of time?Schedule a no-obligation, no-cost initial exploratory visit with Without a Vision Consultancy today.
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