Reflections

This is a book about choices.
The path to the left or to the right when you can no longer go straight ahead. I’m sure that if I understood the full implications of the few big choices and the countless small choices I have made, I would have chosen differently on more than a few occasions. How is it that we so often ignore the negative implications of our selected path until habits, perspectives, and relationships are set in place?

​

This is a book about values.
It’s my way of making sense of the question, “What do we really believe?” How do we know whether our declared values are simply social conventions or deep convictions? For me, a social convention is like a furry coat that protects us from the cold, and we take it off when it’s not needed. A deep conviction is more like the inseparable fur of an animal that sustains its life. To give it up or be disloyal to it feels like we are being skinned.

​

This is a book about integrity.
I hope to redefine “integrity” for myself and perhaps for you, moving us away from the idea that a “good person” has integrity and moving toward the idea that an “honest person” has integrity when his or her invisible inside is integrated and congruent with the outer self. Disturbingly, an ax murderer who confesses all his crimes might have more integrity in that moment than an avoidant friend asked to speak of difficult things. How do we reconcile with our dark side? We ignore it at our peril and embrace it at our peril. We need to do business with it somehow.

​

This is a book about differences.
How can our relationships thrive? How can we thrive in our relationships? How can the planet survive when there are fundamental differences in how the world is perceived and experienced? When some people are optimistic and kind, others are rough around the edges, and still others are crude and insensitive, what shall we do with one another? Shall we form into our safe little groups, cut off from those who are different, or can we find a braver path forward?

​

This is a book about love.
What drives us to love well, sacrificing without resentment? And why is our complete extension of love, beautiful as it is, always marred with imperfections and limits?

This is a book about making a difference in our world.
We cannot stop ourselves. Human beings always try to make a difference in the world. Good or bad. Beautiful or ugly. We are relentlessly attempting to influence outcomes, and often this tendency is the best part and the worst part of each of us.

​

This is a book about multigenerational family life and about family enterprise.
There may be no other place in the world where our choices, values, integrity, differences, love, and our quest for leaving a footprint are more relevant than in our family experience. Perhaps our quest for successful enterprise is inevitably a venture that shows our true selves. What if the two combine, bringing family and enterprise together into a family enterprise? What toxic waste or spectacular smorgasbord awaits those who venture there?

​

And finally, this is a science-fiction book because the story wanted to be told that way.