This letter hereunder was sent to me by Steve Gardner my friend in Kansas City. He is asking for help. In my way i will help him, i hope you will too.
Here's a little story from the Talmud about asking and giving help. The great Rabbi Yehuda ha'Nasi was crossing the Galilean town of Tzipori one afternoon with his entourage of student scholars; they were heaving over him; collecting his words as if they were rare gems. Climbing the western hill towards the synagogue, oblivious to the bustle of daily street life they paid no attention to a peasant that was dragging a relentless calf when suddenly that calf broke free and charged straight at the Rabbi, grabbing him by the corner of his coat and pulling it as if to say: ‘Rabbi, don’t you see, they are leading me to the slaughter, help me’. The Rabbi looked down at the calf and without hesitance replied: ‘go, for this is the way of the world.’ Much suffering befell the entire city from that day on until the Rabbi understood his lesson and repented. The place of compassion is higher than that of wisdom. Indeed a calf led to the slaughter is the way of the world, but not so if that calf grabbed you personally by your coat and asked for help. Here's Steve's letter:
We need your help.
I am sending this email out to raise awareness of a tragic, chronic, and lifelong disease we are facing with our 3 year old son, Joshua. A little over one year ago, Josh was diagnosed with Eosinophilic GastroIntestinal Disease (EGID), a very rare immune system disease. The short explanation is that we all have eosinophils in our body whose job is to attack parasites. In Josh's body, they attack all food as if it's a parasite. As you might imagine, there are a number of complications that come from having your esophagus, stomach and intestines in a perpetual war zone, of sorts. Josh was placed on a naso-gastric feeding tube July 28th. We have removed all food from his diet since then and he has been sustained by a formula that essentially breaks food down to the amino acid level so the body doesn't recognize it as food.
Due to the complexities of this disease, we have transferred his care to a specialist in Denver who is one of only a handful of experts on EGID nationwide. We are returning there November 6th for the next surgery and to evaluate whether our 18 month old son, Timothy, who is exhibiting all the same symptoms, also has the disease. (Many of you have asked how we are doing and we do have a blog at www.caringbridge.org/visit/myjosh.)
The world we live in needs a new type of political and corporate leadership, working from a base of wisdom and timely core values. We need leaders that work towards the well being of all of us. Planetary leaders for a planetary ecosystem.
Here is one such inspired leader, Mr. Nochi Danker of IDB Israel’s biggest holding company. When he ceased control of it in 2002 he first sat to write its credo of ten corporate goals to guide, inspire and set in motion. Amongst these first was the sound drive to return the highest yield to the shareholders; last was the determination to responsibly give back to society. Only one year later Mr. Danker called for a dramatic shareholder meeting in the cultural hall of ‘Qiryat Shmona’ a northern frontier town under the volcano of hizbulla wrath. Mr. Danker summoned the meeting for the purpose of moving the ten’s commitment to the front, second only to profitability.
Danker (54), started his career as a lawyer but was inclined to move to the more allowing and creative entrepreneurial realms of business, starting with ‘Ganden’, his own holding company. In 2002 while the israeli market was going through major setbacks and the geopolitical environments as unstable as ever, the opportunity to take over IDB cropped up. Before making the decision Mr. Danker travelled north to meet is friend, a famous rabbi known as ‘the rentgen’, (the x-ray), for his ability to pierce through the veils of the unknown. Mr. Danker was very straitforward; should i stay with my small company? bid for IDB or go to the Himalayas to meditate upon life? The rabbi said; the Himalayas can wait, go for IDB. So he did.
Iconically handsome yet down to earth he is revered as a prodigy in his community. he turned IDB into a giant of diverse solid investments. Was it the rabbi again or his own astute senses to foresee the current financial crisis two years in advance and safely navigate IDB through the rough in a series of transaction not short of business genius.
In a rare interview to israel's largest daily ‘yediot hacharonot’ he was asked to give some advise and inspiration to young emerging entrepreneurs. Here it is:
-Dream for dreams are the driving force that move you forward.
-Believe in yourself, otherwise how would others believe in you.
-Don’t walk alone you need a great team with you.
-Integrity should never be compromised - always deliver on your word.
-Lean on your tenacity and endurance.
-Set your mind on the target and don’t allow anything to distract you.
-Be flexible and know to let go, discern changing market conditions, at times be wise enough to change the target.
it is not over until it is over, there is a never place for despair, there is never a place to cash your chips either; ecosystems are dynamic and all inclusive by design, all of us are part of whatever is going on. here is my conspiracy theory there is no conspiracy at all. aware, let the trust of your heart lead your way on our journey together.
i believe our story writes itself as it unfolds; big visions, dreams and ideas rise in time searching for truth-worthy vehicles to fully express them in our world. in this way ideas, dreams and visions have us; and we operate best when whatever we do enhances the well being of the ecosystem, it is about all of us, all the time.
The understanding of events is dynamic as well; different perspective can immediately change reality as it is now.
i have faith that evolution is inherent in nature and hence the results are always perfect; leading us towards an enlightened era of sharing abundance and freedom in peace. everything else is yet a pace in this direction.
Life can be only lived now. if we are going through what seems and feels as adversity personally and cooperatively, so be it, we can carry through.
there is a certain sense of intensity everywhere throughout the planet and no matter where we are and under what circumstances we feel it. ecosystem is about us all - this starts making sense to more and more of us.
Narayana Murphy started infosys with 6 friends and 215 dollars in their pockets
last week in Athens i had the great privilege to be an opening keynote for a infosys hosted conference. Infosys the legendary software giant of india started with 7 friends gathered in the leadership of N. R. Narayana Murphy. today Infosys is staggeringly employing over 100 thousand employees in 9 development centers in India and 30 offices worldwide. what does it take to make such journey possible? listen to what N. R. Narayana has to say on organizational dignity and vision for the workplace.
it was late night in Auckland, i was walking alone along the empty wharfs of the Viaduct harbor. the gloomy musts like me were yearning for some wind with its promise of action, anchored in their hankering for past glory of the America’s Cup. well, why pine for glory of days past? i pondered in my brooding mood, instead make it better now in your brilliant solitude. easier said than done. i walked my talk like a beaten dog. the restaurants on the other side of the docks were mostly empty and none were inviting, a rowdy bar was brimmed but that country music and beer drinking crowed were not the kind of action i was after, not tonight. behind a thick plastic shield waiters were folding their restaurant away, over one table though i noticed three figures that seemed leaning over a secret or was it a chocolate desert. i looked again; god, it was Chris Alcock and with him no others then Peter and Chris Chenoweth, what a great surprise, the night turned all right.
we were all part of the summit of corenet global, an association for corporate real-estate. i had the privilege of being the opening keynote for the event, after being the closing keynote to their previous summit in melbourne the year before and in both places i met Chris Al-cock who works for DEGW a consulting firm integrating research, strategy and design. many things impressed me in Peter’s address on workplace and the generations; i never new the current generation following the baby-boomers, X, Y and N generations is named neo-millenials or digital natives. another thing i learned from Chris is the effectiveness of passive learning and active learning in terms of retention level. here are the findings he demonstrated:
Reading - less then 7% retention. Hearing - between 7-20% retention. Combining two or more media - 20-30% retention. Demonstration - 30% retention. Demonstration and discussion - 50% retention. Practice by doing - 65-80% retention. Teaching others - 85% retention.
this year i am going to miss the Tulsi harvest celebration in Azamgarh, India. my gorgeous sister in-love Jo is getting married in Bali, so there i will be. i officially changed the term ‘in-law’ and replaced it with the much more appropriate ‘in-love’ as in brother in-love, mother in-love etc, for love is much more binding for me than law.
back to Azamgarh, it sounds like a place from Tolkien's Middle Earth but in fact it is a small city of 2.5 million in Utra Prudish, India. Every year in november we gather there to celebrate the Tulsi harvest. more than a decade ago my friends Bharat and Bhavani Mitra have started an amazing project of transforming family farms back to their organic origins; freeing the farmers from their dependency on fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides and the loans to buy these chemicals form the big corporations. the transformation is not short of a miracle; the birds returned to the villages and the smile to the farmers' face. want to see the smiles for yourself check this company out.
i recall last year on my way back from the harvest celebration i stopped for a few hours in the holy city of Benares aka Varanasi. i love seating on the ghats of the Ganga, sipping chai from a clay cup and watching the river flow and the human river flow to it. i had to catch a flight so i left midst a masterpiece sunset, nature’s art never stops amazing. i stopped a taxi and asked to be taken to the airport - madness sheer madness on the roads. i finally realized why in India they worship so many gods and deities - they are all needed! the taxi driver a rock of calm a midst a storm, as it turned out, he’s a Shiva devotee. he washes in the Ganga every morning, he tells me, early before sunrise and then he meditates in the temple by the river. only then he will eat chapati with some dhal. (the staple flat bread and lentils). beside driving a taxi he volunteers two hours a day in a hospital.
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