Making a difference

I was representing our paddling group at a meeting a couple days ago. We were asked to go around the table and tell something about ourselves and the organizations we represented. When I finished my brief description, the meeting chair asked how many members we had. “2173.” He smiled. “You know to the minute?” My background is running businesses and other organizations, and any good manager diligently checks the “dashboard” to see where you’re succeeding or failing. In large part, the numbers tell the story. But, not the complete story. Cincypaddlers turns 10 next month. While the membership count speaks very highly of all those involved, the most important stat doesn’t show up on the dashboard: how many people we’ve made a difference for. To begin with, we’ve welcomed those with little or no skill in paddling and, through coaching and guidance, elevated those who cared to indulge to the upper echelon to the sport. More importantly, that transferred to their self-esteem and quality of life. Few things make life more enjoyable than a sense of achievement. It pays dividends in overall happiness and what’s more important than that? And, for those who didn’t care to amp their skills beyond the safe level, we’ve brought great life experiences into range. Through crafting trips suitable for casual paddlers, we’ve enabled them to paddle under and over waterfalls, see red rock canyons and icebergs calving, kayak beside manatees, dolphins, whales, eagles, alligators and other wonders of nature and otherwise experience life-changing events that 99% of their friends and family will never know. And, for some, we’ve simply helped them find a place. Last night, we paddled a river and one of the first-time participants was an awkward young man. He stood off to the side as we gathered and studied his feet. It would be a good bet to assume he hadn’t been president of his class or prom king. Yet, the group embraced him and, by the end of the trip, he was smiling broadly and meeting everyone’s eyes. He had found his place. This was one where social status, looks, or other such things didn’t matter. If you’re a decent person, there’s a place for you. Being accepted made a huge difference to him and others like him. And that’s the primary achievement that doesn’t show up on the dashboard. Cincypaddlers has made a positive difference in so many lives. Happy 10th birthday!

Happiness is....

As previously referred to, I belong to a small group who meet monthly for cocktails and dinner. The main event is that we take turns presenting papers for debate. Last might was Stu’s turn and he opened with the question, “What do Pat Raffel, Henry Dorfman and Dick Friedman (some of the long-term members) have in common with Aristotle, Socrates and Plato?” One wag yelled out, “They’re all dead.” Very funny. Stu’s topic was philosophies of happiness. I had never discussed this with him, but his observations of the aforementioned members led him to believe that we had unlocked the great mystery. It was an interesting paper, covering the range from the ancient philosophers to the modern day snake oil salesmen who have made it a lucrative industry. These dealt largely with safety, financial security, physical/mental health, socio-economic status and other factors you might expect. Listening to the various viewpoints made me realize that I did harbor certain philosophies on the subject. There were two that I found often escaped mention or emphasis. The first is being pro-active. I believe many people drift through life, passively encountering things that make them unhappy and hopefully awaiting those that will elate them. I think this is a recipe for failure. Happy people make things happen. The phrase, “Someday I will (get a degree, visit Europe, learn to speak Spanish or whatever the heart’s desire)” is a happiness killer. Happy people make it happen. Likewise, they take action on items that make them unhappy. Sometimes that’s difficult (relationships, jobs, etc.), but they confront the challenges and don’t allow the negatives to persist. Secondly, they are inner-directed. It isn’t anybody’s job to make you happy. It’s yours. If you rely or dwell upon what others do or think, you are bound for disappointment because you have no control over that. However, you do exert control over yourself. I doubt that I will ever be quoted in the same breath with Aristotle, Socrates and Plato. But, it works for me.

Laughter, the best medicine

I ran into a former client and we chatted a bit. Then, he invited me to a party at his house (estate would be more appropriate). The last time I attended one of these, it consisted largely of his neighbors trying to one-up each other with clothing, jewelry and amusing little wines they had just discovered. Since he was a client, I felt somewhat obligated to attend. Not now. I told him I had a kayaking trip coming up and the duration would overlap his party. “I’ve see some of your photos on the web. Exactly what do you do on those?” I told him we would be paddling a river. “I get that, but what do you do after the first day?” I filled him in on that. “So, you just paddle the same river over and over. That’s all there is to it?” “No, mostly we laugh.” Which is more than they’d be doing at the party.

Discovery

I think I’ve discovered a useful practice. I call it, “reading the directions.” Now that I think of it, I seem to recall my ex chittering about something to that effect. Or was that, “asking for directions?” No matter. Like many great discoveries, this one came almost by accident. As previously related, I bashed my way through a series of waterproof cameras. They were all the same brand with each successive one being an upgrade of the previous edition. So there was obviously nothing to be gained by wading through the voluminous manuals with each replacement. Most of the controls were familiar. And, if they weren’t…well, I lived without that function to-date so why would I need it now? One thing that did repeat throughout the series was a few design flaws. I wearied of them and switched brands with this change. At first glance, the layout and controls appeared similar. But, I quickly reached a point of departure and was faced with the choice of reading the manual or good old trial & error. As I was readying for a trip, time was of the essence. The shipment included a CD that contained the manual. Over 250 pages, which is to say, out of the question. The quick-start guide was less than 10% of that, or almost within the bounds of my attention span. With camera in one hand and pamphlet in the other, I gamely forged ahead I skimmed through the settings menu as it’s usually a source of frustration. Such guidance details how you can select from dozens of options but gives no clue as to why or at least the pros and cons of each. I know something of this but am quickly left in the dust. And, isn’t the whole point of the internal computer chip to think for me? As I flipped through these pages, one illustration caught my eye. I turned back to see a comparison of employing different formats. In a flash, it solved a problem for me. I had been going with the “standard” in this category, requiring considerable editing to make the stills fit into a video format. This showed how a simple setting would do that for me. Could there be something to this concept of actually knowing how the gadget works? As if to reinforce the point with me today, I had a similar revelation while testing some kayaks of the playboat genre. This consisted of throwing the boats about in acrobatic fashion, although my version of the maneuvers stretches the adjective. Let’s go with “somewhat acrobatic.” I had some problems with one trick in the first kayak. The second one was equally balky so I ratcheted up the effort until something let go. Unfortunately, that would be in my back, not the boat. I did wind up buying the one that was most forgiving of my technique, or lack thereof. Upon returning home with my spine approximating the form of a question mark, I strapped on some ice and plopped down in the lounger with a dusty book about playboating to research the error in my ways. Ah-hah. I was throwing my weight the wrong way at a critical point. If I had read this prior to my morning’s venture I wouldn’t be gritting my teeth now and popping ibuprofen like M&Ms. So, at last I have a resolution for the year 2012. Read the directions. Yeah, that’ll last.