Work Anniversaries: Staying, Growing, and Becoming

I just celebrated the 15^th anniversary at my current place of employment.  Staying and growing in one place has many benefits.  I would like to share a few:

Staying gives opportunity to build trusting relationships and to prove oneself to be helpful and supportive to others and the larger mission.  Yesterday’s successes don’t guarantee today’s success but it does make it more likely when strength is built upon strength.

Someone once said that the 30 year pastor has 30 years' experience.  Year one was the same as year 30.  Nothing changed much and the person and the organization benefited little.  Growth and adaptation are needed to ensure one is a contributing and helpful member of the larger work system.

There is always a new challenge and something new to achieve.  One has to seek out new opportunities and even ask for them.  I try to be open and flexible and ask for new ways to serve and grow.

Deep and lasting relationships are built and make the workplace enjoyable and rewarding.  Lifelong friendships are built.  Feedback is easier to give and receive when we have longevity and trust with work associates and colleagues. 

Finally, I try never to take my work for granted.  Milestones and work anniversaries help one to track progress and to plan new goals and help one to chart increased effectiveness and efficiency.    

Teamwork: How Losing 66 to -1 Won't Go Away

Winning is a team sport.  Losing is a team sport.  I prefer winning.

When we moved to Summerville from Fort Worth, Texas in 1993 I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to learn that our home was about 32 miles to Folly Beach and Summerville High School had a powerhouse football team and even had a wrestling team.  The wrestling team part was the biggest surprise since I had assumed that it was more of a northern sport with so many of the great wrestling states located up north and in the north central part of the USA.  Those states would include (very partial list) Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Iowa, and just for fun Oklahoma from the southwest part of the country.

Somewhere in the mid to late 1970’s I was a part of the Upper Merion recreational wrestling league.  It was more serious than recreational since many of us wrestled in the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) junior Olympics.  It was serious fun and serious work.  Just ask some of my buddies who wrestled with our very serious “win at all costs coach” Dale Irwin!  Anyway, one weekend our group traveled to Phillipsburg, NJ where our team lost 66 to -1!  I kid you not.  That score means that most of our team got pinned (not good) and then our coach was given a technical for acting up and henceforth the -1.  It was rather humiliating and Phillipsburg was just that good, extremely good.  I guess I should have added New Jersey to the list above. 

Team scoring in wrestling is a cumulative matter.  There are about 12 matches and every match produces a winner and a score.  I think a “pin” gets one team 6 points and then lesser for points for win or winning by a great amount.  For example winning 12-1 can get a team an extra point.  It’s cumulative and one’s own match and outcome ultimately affects the team.  Isn’t that true in life too?  It’s true for work, family, neighborhoods, cities and countries.  Small wins do matter.  Small wins lead to big wins and team wins.  Losing 66 to -1 was epic.  I can’t remember a personal sports event where my team lost so badly.   Losing like winning can be cumulative as well.  Our individual performances matter.  Winning and losing are team outcomes and determined by our individual performance.  I prefer winning and I imagine you do too.  Let us always remember that our individual performance does matter.  Winning is truly a team sport.  

Still Learning from a Missed Opportunity from 1989

I had the privilege of working with Dr. Paul Broyles who was a Baptist minister who was trained and schooled at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky during its days of academic height and stature in the middle to late 1960’s.  In 1988 he was the pastor of a new Baptist church plant, Southern Baptist, in the suburbs of Philadelphia (West Chester).  The church met at The New Century Club which was the Women’s Club that started the first free kindergarten in 1899 in West Chester.  The church, Emmanuel Baptist, would eventually be the place of my ordination to ministry and so it holds a special place in my heart.  

Dr. Broyles invited this young, 25 year old, new missionary and minister in training to learn the art and craft of interpreting scripture and writing and delivering a good sermon.  Paul was a thoughtful, moderate, very well educated Baptist minister but not even those credentials would push me over the edge to accept his invitation to learn from a proven preacher, a gifted minister, and a fine gentleman.  I was too interested in learning the crafts on my own--the hard way, trial and error.  I wish I would have taken him up on his offer to help me learn the craft.  I really missed a golden opportunity to learn from him but maybe I learned an even greater lesson than I first imagined.  I learned the lesson that learning from others is a give and take process.  It’s a matter of opening oneself and being willing to learn and grow.  That’s a hard lesson for 25 year old who is sold on the idea of “pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.”  

Looking back some 28 years, now, I can see that I was doing the best I could.  I was more interested in my own learning than learning from others.  Even today I have not forgotten that missed opportunity.  I still have fond thoughts of Dr. Broyles and his patient, kind, and gracious approach to Christian ministry.  Missed opportunities are sometimes life’s greatest lessons.  

A Shared Poem on Hope

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

Related Poem Content Details

BY EMILY DICKINSON

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - 

That perches in the soul - 

And sings the tune without the words - 

And never stops - at all - 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - 

And sore must be the storm - 

That could abash the little Bird 

That kept so many warm - 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land - 

And on the strangest Sea - 

Yet - never - in Extremity, 

It asked a crumb - of me.

A Father's Love

A Father's Love -
In honor of Father's Day 2016

by George M Rossi
June 17, 2016

He puts God first.

He cares enough to want and expect the best of his kids.

He is soft-hearted and open to the tender moments of life.

He sets an example of working hard, earning his hire and wages.

He is well versed in the classics of economics, politics, religion, and civic duties and wants his kids to be and do the same.

He learns from the mistakes of his own father and works to do better; he expects his son to do better than he did if God allows him to be a father.

He lets his daughters know that they are highly loved, highly favored and worthy of the best care from others.

He knows how to enjoy life and recreate and he does that with his kids and family.

He knows that sacrifice is the calling of all fathers and much is required of those who have been given much.

He loves animals.

He is a warrior who can defend his family on a moment's notice and he can look evil in the eye and not flinch.

He believes in grace and mercy and tries to share those always.

He is not afraid to stop and help the stranded driver on the Interstate highway knowing that it could be him one day on that road.

He values tried and true traditions but he also moves with times.

He is a patriotic and knows that Freedom is never free and someone paid the price for his freedom which is cherished with reverence.

He shares his heart and wisdom with younger fathers who need guidance and help as they grow into fatherhood.

He knows the true Father:  The God of light and love who does not change and the One who is full of justice, love, grace and mercy.

Happy Father's Day Dad.
 

Religion, Politics, and Money: Maybe We Should Talk About Them

June 1, 2016

Taboo topics are learned.  Each of us learned from our families, parents, and communities which topics were off limits.  Growing up in suburban Philadelphia I was taught that the topics of religion, politics, and money were three topics to leave alone.  They were to be avoided so that one did not put his neighbor, co-worker, family member or friend in the bind of having to choose between “being right about one’s beliefs” and keeping a friendship intact.  It was a live a let live world in the 1970’s.

Today it is not as easy to avoid those subjects with Twitter, Facebook, and the cable 24/7 world giving so many of us the ability to share our values, opinions, and beliefs.  Yet, like most topics, good and civil conversation can always be enlightening and helpful.  It is the dose and amount that sometimes becomes unbearable.  Some people just have to “be right” or have the last word.  I have tried to move away from that approach to life and now work on defining my own beliefs and values so that I can grow and even change when needed.

So, as we continue forward into the 2016 election season that is steeped in an average economy and surrounded by many religions and spiritual beliefs let us move forward with the goal of having genuine heartfelt conversation.  If we do then the topics won’t be as “taboo” and maybe more people will engage the political, religious, and economic conversations of the day.

Finally, I want to say that I have decided to not let my friends and families political votes get in the way of me conversing with them and learning from them.    So, if you vote for Bernie, Hillary, Trump, or another yet unnamed person then more power to you.    I can only hope you will not judge me or let religion, politics, or money conversations be the only way we connect or not connect.  Surely, we are one great country and we all need each other more than we know or even admit.   We are one nation, indivisible and committed to the goal of liberty and justice to all, and “all” means “all people” regardless of their religious, political, and economic opinions.  May the conversations begin and continue!  

Music: Food for the Soul

Growing up in the 1970s was a great time for music.  Rock was king.  My musical ears were spoon-fed Genesis, Kansas, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Styx, Earth Wind and Fire, and Steely Dan to name just a few.  Music greatly influenced me then and continues to do so this day.  Since then I have become a Country Music fan, mostly the newer stuff that sounds like a blend of country, rock and pop.  Musicians like Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Rascal Flats are really good.  Their music touches the soul and lifts me up where I can be encouraged and even process the myriad of feelings that a hospital chaplain encounters on a daily basis.  Songs like “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry and “You Should Be Here” by Cole Swindell really give voice to feelings of sadness when death strikes or people go through hard times. 

June 12, 1981 was a great day.  I walked from the Upper Merion High School building in line right next to my twin brother Mark to the football field where the chairs were assembled for our high school graduation.  This year is our 35^th high school reunion which historically meets in the fall around Thanksgiving.  I don’t know if I am going to attend the reunion but I have not made one yet so time will tell.  I was reminiscing with some of my fellow 1981 graduates on Face Book about which songs would be our “1981 Theme Song.”  I proposed the following:  “All Good People” by Yes, “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas, “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin, “Starship Trooper” by Yes, and “Solesbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel.  The post was well received and many enjoyed offering their song that would be their suggestion for “the Class song” for our 1981 class.  Talking about music from the past continues to be a very strong connection for the present and hopefully the future.  Feelings associated with past songs can find their way again into my life as I listen, with new and more aged ears, on You Tube. 

In 1977 I had a ticket in hand ready to see Led Zeppelin at 100 thousand seat JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.  That concert never happened when Robert Plant’s 5 year old daughter died unexpectedly from an illness.  I remember being very disappointed that the concert was cancelled but of course that was totally understandable given the tragic family event.  As it turned I never did see Zeppelin in concert.   Music has always been an important part of my life.  In my baccalaureate studies at Our Lady of the Lake I took a class with Dr. Sister Jule Adele who was a Ph.D. in music history from Indiana University.  The class was titled, “From Rock to Bach.”  I enjoyed it.  Yes, a music class with a Ph.D. nun as professor.    

Each Sunday I have the choice of attending the traditional worship service with hymns, anthems sung by the choir, and solos that are slower than the very contemporary 10 piece band that leads worship at 11:30am.  Both music programs in the service touch my heart.  Neither is better than the other.  Sometimes I just plain enjoy seeing the drummer in the 11:30am service. He can really play.  I find it inspirational for my soul and my emotions.  Both styles of music lead me to worship God.  That’s what music does for me.  It takes me back to God.  It allows me to feel and know emotions I may not know if the world was all spoken words without notes, guitar licks, drums beating, and electric keyboards harmonizing.  Music is truly food for my soul.