Will Unwound

In the comments following the post on vacation phobic employees, someone mentioned the Murphy’s Law of vacations being a reason why people didn’t want to hit the open road. 

I can understand that.  Here is a narrative of a family vacation from several years ago:

My wife and I were headed on a road trip from Phoenix to San Francisco to see our sons when what to our wandering eyes should appear but a bouncing air conditioner!  Somewhere between Buckeye and Quartzite a white pick-up truck whizzed by us at a speed in excess of 85mph.  The truck was carrying a very large air conditioning unit. 

Three minutes later my wife, who was driving at the time, asked me what that large rectangular box was that was bouncing toward us about 80 feet away.  “Looks like a big cardboard box,” I responded casually.  “No,” she said panic stricken, “I think it’s a large air conditioner. What should I do?”  Before I could process this information and formulate an answer (we managers like to analyze the data so as not to make any hasty decisions) she swerved behind a very large 18 wheel truck.  It was a smart move that shielded us from the bouncing air conditioner and saved our lives. 

Management lesson # 1 – quick thinking sometimes beats careful analysis.  Management lesson #2 – delegate the decision making process to the person in the direct line of fire. Management lesson #3 – sometimes those annoying big trucks come in handy.  The rest of the trip to San Francisco and back was uneventful if you consider finding a snake slithering up the shower drain of your motel room uneventful.

Then it was on to Santa Fe with the kids for the summer opera season, an annual Manley tradition.  Ten years ago one of my boys was bitten by the opera bug while taking a music appreciation course in college.  We have been going to the Santa Fe summer opera ever since.  Although I prefer golf I do appreciate the good things the opera has done for me.  Ordinarily, I’m a very fitful sleeper, but at the opera I sleep like a dead man. Therefore, I always look forward to the Santa Fe opera season as the time to catch up on my sleep. 

It’s very restful and refreshing….with one exception.  That’s right, my relaxing slumber was interrupted by two men in tuxedoes who were staging a fencing match with their walking canes.  It turned out that the one man didn’t appreciate the other man humming during a particularly dramatic aria.  Management lesson #4 – just when you think you’ve seen everything, something new pops up.  Management lesson #5 – keep an open mind about new cultural experiences. What I saw at the opera was the kind of fight that you usually have to go to an ice hockey match to witness.

The opera ended well after midnight, and so we didn’t get to sleep until 2AM that night.  The next morning at 6AM we all stumbled down to the hotel lobby, and there to greet us were the two balloon pilots and the crew member.  From the way they were dressed, you’d think we were headed for a dude ranch.  One of the pilots was a dead ringer for Willie Nelson (including the cigarettes) and the crew member looked like Willie’s 40 year old son.  I noticed the other pilot was limping.  I inquired about that.  “Oh,” he replied, “we had a tough little landing a while back,” he replied.  “How far back?”  I asked.  “Last week,” was his answer.

We then all piled into two pickup trucks with balloon baskets in the back.  “Where are we going?”  I asked.  “About 15 miles outside of Santa Fe,” Willie Nelson replied.  I checked my watch.  By 8:00 this whole ordeal would be over.  15 miles came and went.  Every few miles, they would stop, check the winds, and then resume driving.  An hour and a half later we were still driving.  Finally, they pulled up to a desolate stretch of cactus laden desert and pronounced that the winds were “perfect” here.

The head crew member then became a flurry of energy.  It was his responsibility to set up the equipment and inflate the two balloons.  In the course of his busyness, his cowboy hat fell off revealing a bare scalp with a rather significant surgical scar.  My wife assured me that it wasn’t brain surgery. “Be a team player!” she said.

 Now it was launch time.  30 seconds into our ascent I wanted out.  Two minutes into the ascent  I asked about parachutes.  There were none.  Three minutes into the ascent I asked if anyone had ever asked to discontinue the ride this early. The pilot looked at me scornfully and said, “Yeah, I’ve had a few wimps who were cowards.”  I decided to try to tough it out.  I now knew the definition of insanity.  Insanity is getting up in the middle of the night, getting into a pickup truck with three strangers, getting into a wicker basket that is propelled by fire shooting up into a highly flammable nylon balloon, and paying 200 dollars for the experience.  I could not look down, I could not look up. I was able to look into the horizon until I realized we were drifting right into the support wires of a very tall radio antenna.  I closed my eyes and prayed for 57 minutes.  Then we began to descend.  Six feet from the ground I began smiling again.  Too  soon.  A sudden gust of wind blew in and we crashed.  I was thrown into a prickly pear cactus and my wife was thrown into the propane tanks.

Gasping in pain, she looked up at me for comfort.  “Be a team player,” I said picking cactus thorns out of my hand.  My son Stephen and his brood landed softly in their balloon.  He came running up to us with a big smile and exclaimed, “This is great we got your whole crash landing on videotape!”

The next day, having sufficiently recovered from our injuries, we decided to be team players and accompany Stephen on a mountain biking outing.  Problem was we couldn’t find the trail and ended up on the on ramp of a busy freeway.

For our next adventure, we all strapped on our back packs and headed for a hike up Sandia Peak outside of Albuquerque.  The internet  indicated a leisurely hike of two to three hours up a gradually ascending elevation. Who cared that the temperature that day was in the triple digits.  Six hours later, after scrambling through rocks, scaling cliffs, and trudging through an endless maze of switchbacks with a 45 degree grade, we staggered with our tongues hanging out to the top of the peak.  We were experiencing the 4 “d’s” of hiking – dehydrated, dizzy, disoriented, and discontented.  The trip back to home was dominated by a prickly discussion of whose idea it was to climb Mt. Sandia. My ears were scalded!  Management lesson #6 – always prepare for water shortages.  Management lesson #7 – involve others in the decision making process so that they can share the blame when things go wrong. Management lesson #8 – never trust the internet; always use the public library.

Unwinders: Tell us about your vacation sagas with Mr. Murphy.

Unwinders: this S.O.S. came in late Saturday night.  Please throw Ms. Distressed a life raft.  Thanks.

Dear Unwinders,

I hope that you can help me with my issue.  I am a new library director.  Although I have 10 years experience as a librarian, this is my first year as an administrator.  I did not realize how difficult administration is.  There are days when I am sorry I left my job as an adult services librarian.

I am in charge of a small public library with a staff of eight.  Two of the staff members are college students who work the circulation desk on the weekends and at night.  They are both very good employees who are pleasant and punctual. 

My problem is that one of these students (a young man) has dyed his hair purple and cropped it to look like a Mohawk Indian.  He also has three visible tattoos on his neck and arms…one of a demon, one of a skeleton, and one of a bow hunter.  He also has a pierced eyebrow.  The other student (a young woman) tends to wear very revealing clothing with micro skirts and plenty of cleavage baring blouses. None of this bothers me.  Live and let live is my philosophy of life.

At our last board meeting, 3 of our 5 board members made a motion directing me to add a “dress and personal appearance” policy to our personnel manual.  The board wants to review and adopt this new policy at its next meeting.   Although nothing was said openly at the meeting, the undercurrent of gossip is that this new  policy direction is targeting  our two young college students.

I have two questions.  First, how many of you have dress codes in your library and do these dress codes address tattoos, piercings, and hair styles or do they simply pertain to appropriate clothing?  Second, I am not comfortable philosophically in dealing with this issue of personal appearance.  Young people are always going to assert their personal independence.  Our library suffered a 15% budget cut this year and that is what I think the board should be targeting, not dress codes.  How do you feel about dress codes in general?  Do you think they are necessary or helpful?

In advance, thank you for your help.  I have two more weeks before my next board meeting. Wish me luck.

Sincerely,

Ms. Distressed

I have always thought that one of the most interesting aspects of Christianity is the very last responsibility that Christ put on the shoulders of his apostles: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19).

The irony here is that many people have rejected Christianity simply because they do not enjoy being recruited into the faith per Christ’s instructions.  That is particularly true in this country where people savor their freedoms and don’t appreciate being told what to do, especially by clergymen waving the sword of hellfire and damnation.

Those who are on fire for Christ, however, feel that they have divine authority on their side to preach “the way, the truth, and the life” to non-believers.  Although they are often looked at as self righteous scolds who are trying to impose their belief system on others, these proselytizers of the faith for the most part feel that they are actually showing their love for others by trying to share with them the spiritual treasures of their religion. 

Librarians get pulled into the middle of this cultural tug of war when the proselytizers either ask that a book be added or removed from the collection in the name of Christ.  When you throw in the pressures of local politics (especially if your library is located in the Bible Belt) the resulting stress on the library staff can be very upsetting.  Librarians have lost their jobs fighting attempts to censor books that are “anti-Christian.”

As a result, there is a very uneasy relationship between religion and librarianship in this country.  In my four decades in the library profession I have picked up a very strong vibe that a good number of librarians are anti religion because they resent being dictated to or pressured in the name of God.  The temptation is great for librarians to paint all strong believers with the broad brush of intolerance.

 The other side of that coin is that I have also picked up a strong vibe that librarians who are devout Christians feel very uncomfortable about bringing up the tenets of their faith within the library profession.  They are afraid of being ridiculed or worse being lumped with the censors.  A number of librarians have told me that they feel ashamed that they are afraid to claim their Christian beliefs among their professional peers. Instead of following Christ’s directive to “make disciples of all nations” they go underground with their faith.

This is one of those taboo subjects that we never talk about in librarianship, and that’s precisely why I have recently introduced “Sunday Meditation” as a regular feature of this blog.   I am fascinated by the relationship between religion and librarianship and feel that this is as good a place as any to explore its many issues.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

• Never judge a book by its cover. 
• Never judge an author by her dust jacket photo.
• Never trust a book review.
• Never accept the words of a readers’ advisory librarian.

Everyone told me that I would absolutely hate the mysteries of Janet Evanovich.  She’s vacuous, she has no style, her characters lack depth, and her detective, Stephanie Plum, is an airhead.

Okay, unwinders, you got all of that right. Janet Evanovich is no Shakespeare.  But, and this is a big but…Shakespeare was not always Shakespeare.  Has it ever occurred to you that it seems strange that the man who wrote Hamlet, the most brilliant book of the western canon, also wrote a whole series of vacuous comedies with superficial characters.  All’s Well that Ends Well, Two Gentlemen From Verona, and Comedy of Errors are all lightweight fare.  It’s one of the reasons that scholars think that the real Shakespeare was someone else, someone steeped in a classical education, someone like Edmund de Vere, Christopher Marlowe, or even Sir Francis Bacon.

Me?  I think the Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet is the same Shakespeare who wrote Comedy of Errors.  Why?  Simple…Shakespeare was a genius.  He understood that people cannot live constantly in the angst filled shadows of despair, doubt, and tragedy.  Comedy, even light comedy filled with mindless banter is also an everyday part of life. A guy slips on a banana peel…that’s funny.  That guy (an octogenarian) breaks his hip and is dead 8 weeks later….that’s tragedy.   Tragedy and comedy are closely related.  They are different sides of the same coin of life.  Shakespeare got that.

It kills me when critics put down Shakespeare’s light comedies.  I challenge them to write something frothy that will make audiences laugh in 500 years.  It’s not easy to capture the superficiality of life in its lighter moments. 

That’s where Janet Evanovich excels.  She is the queen of superficiality.  Let’s face it…a lot of people don’t have a lot of depth.  They drink beer, eat cheetos, watch television, and fall asleep on the sofa.  They never went to college, they don’t care about the meaning of life, and what they’re really into is a really cool car that will impress their peers.  What percentage of the American population fills that bill?  I don’t know, but I bet it’s over 75%.  Most writers are well educated.  It’s hard for them to capture the beer and cheetos people without becoming condescending or downright snarky.

Evanovich portrays the average American guy and gal perfectly.  She’s right on target in depicting the nagging mother, the clueless father, the wiseguy neighborhood womanizer, the small time street con artist, the gossipy nail tech, the do it all secretary with the big hair, the down on his luck laid off worker,  the shady auto body guy, and the hard hearted boss.  Evanovich writes about blue collar America as well as anyone.  She loves these people…their quirks, their heartaches, and their minor triumphs. 

In One for the Money, Stephanie Plum, a spunky 30 year old, in a moment of desperation (she has been unemployed for six months and has hocked her last piece of furniture) becomes a bounty hunter for her cousin, a bail bondsman.  It’s a clever device to put her in a situation where she can solve murder mysteries in her beloved but down on its luck hometown of  Trenton New Jersey. 

It’s also a role in which Plum bounces from one dangerous predicament to the next.  Her spunk is exceeded only by her sense of the absurd.  As the narrator of the book, Plum consistently gets me to laugh out loud at least three times per chapter. 

Am I motivated to read the rest of the thirtysomething books in the Janet Evanovich mystery canon?  Heck no.  No matter how well superficiality is portrayed, it is still superficial.  But she has now become my official mindless reading author for all my future west coast to east coast flights.

For the three laughs per chapter, I give One For the Money three twinkly stars (out of five).

I thought the replies to Tuesday’s blog post on why some librarians are vacation phobic was very, very interesting.  There were all kinds of creative reasons why some librarians don’t take vacations:

• They are covering up fraud.
• Prefer the company of their co-workers to spousal unit.
• Don’t want to have a heart attack in a remote location.
• Hate air travel.
• Murphy’s Law: everything that can go wrong will go wrong on a vacation.
• Everyplace looks like every other place.
• Don’t want to be downsized, re-organized, or otherwise stabbed in the back while away.
• Don’t want to return to a mountain of undone work.
• Don’t want to upset their body metabolism by establishing a new daily pattern.
• Don’t trust road food.
• They are going to be called and e-mailed so why bother to take a vacation.
• The library can’t run without them (or so they think).
• Need to squirrel the time away in case of a heart attack.
• There are no 12 step programs for workaholics.
• Don’t have the money to take a decent vacation.

Okay, let’s focus on that last reason.  Times are tough.  Money is scarce.  Vacations are expensive.  This has become so widespread in our society that a new word has arisen on the internet for people who can’t get away during their allotted vacation time.  This new phenomenon is called the “staycation.”

So today…the genie has decided to work within the framework of the limitations of our economy.  He asks you:  What is your idea of the perfect staycation?  That’s right… the genie is here to give you the staycation of your dreams.  What do you need to make a week at home a perfectly wonderful, relaxing, and regenerating time?

My family hates it when I revert to “back in my day” ramblings, and I know that some of you don’t like it either, especially the younger ones among you, but darn it, this is my blog, I am now 60 and soon to be 61, and somehow what I did 50 years ago is more immediate to me that what I did last week.  That’s one of the really, really, really weird things about getting old…long term memory sharpens as short term memory dulls.  Go figure.

Anyway….back in my day 50 years ago…Tuesday, Wednesday,  and Thursday were big days for me.  Tuesday, was the day Time magazine arrived; on Wednesday it was Life; and the best thing about Thursday was the arrival of my absolute favorite magazine, Sports Illustrated.

These three magazines were my windows to the world.  They were more global than the local newspaper and more diverse than the three reigning television stations.  I still love getting magazines.  Now, however, Golf Digest and Martha Stewart’s Living are the magazines that put a smile on my face when they appear in the mail box.

What has happened to Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated?  Well, Life is dead (how’s that for irony?) and Time and Sports Illustrated are obsolete.  CNN, ESPN, and the internet have rendered Time and SI irrelevant.

Yesterday, I read a news story on the internet that Newsweek was recently sold by the Washington Post Company for $1 to a 92 year old stereo equipment magnate.  There’s something richly symbolic about that sale price and something equally symbolic about the age of the buyer.  Many magazines have gone from being a driving force in the zeitgeist to becoming nothing more than the nostalgic old memories of  a 60 year old’s mind.

Today, unwinders,  my issue is this: What are your libraries doing about magazines?  With dwindling budgets do you still buy them, and how do you determine which ones to still buy?  What do you do about the back issues?  Are they getting weeded and discarded faster than before?  Finally are your patrons still reading them?  In my local library the average age of the “regulars” in the periodical room (count me as one of them) is about 72.  Finally, do you miss magazines?  I am starting not to read most of my old favorites because they are so skimpy and dated.  Clearly Time and Newsweek are on their last legs, and Sports Illustrated has lost its focus.

President Obama is fair game to be questioned and criticized on the basic issues of the day: the war in Afghanistan, the economy, and the budget deficit, but this guy is getting hammered for all sorts of things that just aren’t fair. 

I’m particularly upset that he is being called lazy and extravagant for taking too many vacations.  There are actually people out there on the airwaves and the internet who are charting the time and money he has spent on vacations. 

Who needs a vacation more than a U.S. President?  If there is one thing that President O should not be attacked for it is spending time with his family and taking a break from the stress of his office.  In fact he should be praised for setting a good example for all the workaholics out there.

In my long career as an administrator, I noticed that we always had many “workaholics” throughout our library work force.  I bring this up because I fear that this phenomenon is now  increasing with the personnel reductions that are happening in libraries all over the country.

Workaholism, in the long run, is not good for the individual or the organization. Spending too much time on work issues eventually wears a person down physically and emotionally and limits his or her value to the organization over the long term.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a big believer in the old fashioned American work ethic. I always expected everyone to work hard, but I also expected everyone to engage in recreation on a regular basis. Within the word recreation is the word “re-create.” That’s what we do when we take time off for ourselves ….we re-create our wellspring of energy and enthusiasm.

It’s a little known fact that organizations give vacation benefits for a selfish, ulterior motive. A deep, dark secret is that vacation time is good for productivity! It’s good for you and it’s good for your co-workers. I was always positive that when I took a vacation, the people around me at work were as happy about it as I was!

It is often the case that we spend more time with our co-workers during our weekday waking hours than we do with our own family members. Let’s be honest…sometimes our working relationships can wear thin.  Time off gives us the opportunity to gain a greater appreciation for each other’s skills, abilities, and talents.  What’s the expression …”distance makes the heart grow fonder.”

So…if vacations are good for the employee, good for the employee’s co-workers, and good for the library as a whole, why do some workaholic employees absolutely hate to take vacations?  The worst example of a vacation phobic employee was the cataloger I worked with who actually wanted to work off her excess vacation time in extended coffee breaks and lunches.  She could not bear to actually take a full day off from the library.

What’s up with vacation phobic employees? Are they afraid to experience a week or two of freedom?  Are they afraid that they won’t be missed and that they will be re-organized or downsized when they get back?  Would they rather be with their co-workers full time than their spousal units?  Are they simply addicted to work?  Do they fear getting out of their familiar and comfortable routine?

Unwinders: help me solve today’s mystery.  Why do some employees simply resist vacations?

Note to Unwinders:  Speaking of vacations, I will be taking a week off in mid September.  I really need someone who will carry this blog for 7 days.  Think about it.  It’s a great opportunity to have some fun.  If you are interested please let me know in the comment section below. 

Unwinders: I received this SOS message on Saturday morning.  Please help this citizen with all your words of experience and wisdom. Thanks.

Dear Unwinders, 

All cities are struggling with difficult choices. My City of 700,000+ is currently suggesting to close 3 of its 12 branch locations. These have been characterized as obsolete in budget hearings. One of the three is one of the highest circulating branches in the City and has been consistently for the last 40 years! The community is rallying round to do what they can do to support at least two of the three branches.

My question is, what experience or opinions do the Unwinders have in working for cities that cut service hours to the bone rather than give up facilities. That is the route I would like to see our City go, but talking about opening facilities 3 days a week and doing it might be two different things.

• When is it better to let facilities close?
• Can facilities be saved by cutting service hours?
• If service hours are cut do you have one staff working two locations?
• What happens to collection development efforts at a location when it is open only 3 days a week? 2 days a week?
• What is a large metropolitan library system if it is not branches?

Any suggestions from Unwinders would appreciated as there is a public hearing next Tuesday night. 

Thanks, Concerned Citizen

NOTE FROM WILL: anyone with an issue that you would like to present to the unwinders for advice should email me at wmanley7@att.net.

The prophet Isaiah has said, “Come let us reason together.”

It’s an interesting quote, one that you hear over and over again at times when people are screaming ugly names at each other.  It has never been more appropriate than in the controversy over the so called “Ground Zero Mosque.”

Modern philosophy has driven a wedge between reason and faith, and the Mosque controversy tends to confirm that dichotomy.  Can we please just lower our voices and think this thing through reasonably, people?

In a nutshell,  for those of you who have been living in a nutshell, an imam named Feisal Abdul Rauf has obtained the necessary planning and zoning entitlements, approvals, and permits from New York City to begin construction on an Islamic community center and mosque within two blocks of Ground Zero.  The reaction to this project has been loud and angry and has gotten louder and angrier with talk radio stirring the pot.

Support for the project by people like New York Mayor Bloomberg, New York Gubernatorial  candidate Andrew Cuomo, and President Obama goes something like this:

• The project has met all of New York City’s planning, zoning, and design review stipulations.  There is no technical reason to disqualify it.  To disallow it on the grounds that it is an Islamic religious center  would be a blatant violation of the imam’s First Amendment Rights.
• Protecting the imam’s First Amendment rights would send a strong message to the rest of the world that America practices what it preaches when it comes to human rights.
• New York City’s history has been one of respecting diversity and promoting that respect as a unique strength of the city.
• To disallow the Islamic center would be bending to mob rule and thus undermining the very foundation of democracy.
• Imam Rauf is an Islamic moderate whose project can be the site of a better understanding of the Islamic religion and thus can have a healing effect.

Opposition to the project  from people like Newt Gingrich, New York Gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, and Sarah Palin goes something like this:

• Imam Rauf is being insensitive to the pain of the families of 911 victims as indicated by the fact that he did not meet with them early on to discuss the appropriateness of his project.
• Imam Rauf is no friend of America.  He has suggested that the foreign policy of the United States is partially responsible for the 911 attack and he allegedly refuses to denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization.
• There is a growing perception among the American public that Islamic powers traditionally build a mosque on a battle site to declare victory.
• The Islamic center far from being a source of healing and understanding will always be a source of controversy that will stir up unresolved feelings of pain and hatred stemming from the 911 attacks.
• It should not be difficult for the imam to find a more appropriate site. 

Why do I bring this up? 

It seems to me that this is the type of issue that librarians are often called upon to resolve in our defense of the an individual’s First Amendment rights when it comes to including books in the library that we really disapprove of.  The old maxim that we often use:  “I disagree with what you have to say, but I defend your right to say it” is very apropos here.

What is your view, Unwinders?

As lead lab rat, I will go first.  To me the “Ground Zero Mosque” needlessly stirs up a hornet’s nest of hatred.  This controversy could be easily defused if the center were moved to a much less supercharged site.  I truly believe that the present site is offensive to much of the general American public and to the survivors of the 911 dead.  There is a real possibility that more violence will ultimately be the result if construction moves forward.  Having said that, if the imam does decide to move ahead, his Constitutional rights should be defended and protected.  America cannot afford to hypocritically deny this man his First Amendment rights in the eyes of the world.