Pine Ridge -- A Sterling Swirl

http://www.pineridgewinery.com/

THINK -- A GREAT IDEA

Thomas Watson started IBM in 1914 using the simple motto of THINK. His point being that the starting point to any great enterprise is to just think.  THINK became IBM's first trademark and to this day dominates its corporate culture.  It has been said that IBM employees were required to keep note pads with them at all times to record their thoughts -- to help them think. Thomas Watson, Jr. [pictured above] took over the company in 1952 and he was the driving force behind the IBM powerhouse that we know today. 

Watson, Jr. is a story in and of himself.  Having spent his life on less responsible pursuits prior to taking over the company, he sank his teeth into the company and pushed it into greatness.  Clearly at some point he was transformed by his thoughts
In the 80's IBM was the epitome of corporate culture. The perfect suit and long hard hours were its reputation. A friend of mine's Father worked for IBM as an executive and I can attest that he worked very hard to push that company forward.

Today the value of thoughts and the confidence to transform those thoughts into action are a part of all of our lives.  But the diligence to record those thoughts, review those thoughts and produce results from those thoughts is another matter entirely.

A company named Rhodia makes small notepads and also makes mouse pads that double as notepads.  I have been trying to capture my thoughts and keep my Rhodia pad at all times for this purpose.  I find the real challenge for me isn't thinking and recording thoughts but rather its transforming the thoughts into action.  Stated another way its easy to dream, its not so easy to perform the dream.

But dreams take a while to develop.  Keep thinking, recording thoughts and trying. There is a payoff for your efforts somewhere down the road.

A link to the life of the founder Thomas Watson: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/biography/10152.wss

Jenkins Garrett a True Gentleman

Jenkins Garrett was a true Texas gentleman who served his community well, was a fantastic lawyer, scholar and extremely interesting person.  I only knew him a short time in the summer of 1990 when I had the pleasure to work with him. He inspired me in my profession and even though he has passed his memory is an inspiration to this day. 

His obituary lists his impressive resume but nothing captures his persona quite like being in his presence. 

He lived a truly "sterling" life. 

Jenkins Garrett Obituary

Weddings: To M&C on their nuptials this weekend

Understated Elegance

Over the Christmas holidays I bought a new 2010 Lincoln MKS.  This is by far the nicest car I have ever owned. I really like the car and I like what Ford is doing with Lincoln.  In 2006, Mark  Fields, Executive V.P. and President of the Americas for Ford Motor Company identified Lincoln customers as “self-made people, with enough confidence to be elegant and understated.”   [emphasis added]

 When I think of understated elegance Mad Men fits the bill.  But I also think of old movies with Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Carey Grant and Frank Sinatra.   More recently movies like Oceans 11 and the remake of the “Thomas Crown Affair” strike an elegant but understated chord. But each of these movies and the people who give them their elegant but understated quality are not flashy people – Grace Kelly won people over with her style, not with revealing poses. And Carey Grant, while fit, wasn’t a perfect six pack gut kind of guy either.  Likewise, Julia Roberts and George Clooney haven’t sought to appeal to America with risqué or flashy scenes, although they are frequently listed among the sexiest people in the world.   Instead of flash these people have used polished style. 

Likewise a car does not make the person -- my level of understated elegance did not change simply because I switched from a Nissan Altima (a fine car) to a more luxurious Lincoln. I agree with Mark Fields of Ford Motor Company, understated elegance is produced by confidence.  That doesn’t mean that insecurities aren’t lurking, but it does mean that we face daily challenges with confidence – sometimes we succeed and sometime we fail.  It is a person's enduring confidence that produces a series of intangible character traits which manifest themselves ultimately in understated elegance.   

Grace Kelly with a hometown hero, Louis Armstrong, in the film High Society. 

Understad Elegance at its best.

Opera: The Pearl Fishers

I had a nice time at the Opera last night.  The Pearl Fishers was performed.  Despite its title, the story has nothing to do with actually fishing.  Rather it is an age old love story involving two friends who have a falling out over a girl.  One of the friends leaves the village for a year. The friend who remains becomes the King of the village. When the long lost friend returns he makes up with his friend the King, and of course they promise to never let a girl come between them again.  But that promise doesn't last long. In their fictional culture there is a "goddess" who is brought in to pray over the village and the fishermen.  This "goddess" it is discovered is the very girl who came between the friends. She swears an oath to forsake the pursuit of a husband or lover.  The penalty for violating the oath is death.  No sooner does she make the oath then she realizes her long lost love has returned.  Quickly the oath is broken as the two lovers reunite.  They are caught and are prepared to die when suddenly the King sets them free.  Unfortunately for the King since he let the two lovers go he is put to death instead.

Of course the story line fails miserably at expressing the beauty of the event.  The song between the two Friends captivates those feelings of friendship that we all know so well and cherish in life.  The song that the returned friend sings about the lovely goddess creates a sensuous, passionate almost erotic sense of love, that leaves you speechless.  The performance that I attended was complimented with ballet dancers performing a silhouetted semi-erotic ballet to accompany the love song.

The night reminded me of the very high value that should be placed on friendship, love and loyalty.  And is a shining example of how to passionately love others.



  

Unbroken: A World War II Story

I am presently obsessed with a non-fiction book titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

It is the story of a World War II airplane crash survivor, Louie Zamperini, who is lost at sea then captured and horrifically interred as a POW by the Japanese.  The author makes the point that while being  lost at sea, starving and dying of thirst is bad -- being deprived of dignity is worse.  As she puts it "Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food and oxygen." The loss of dignity she finds can be as "lethal as a bullet."  The book places starvation and loss of dignity in stark contrast because our hero Louie gets to experience both with his very survival hanging by a thread.   Louie is a marvelous example of a person who chooses to keep his dignity in the face of oppression -- thereby being defined by himself, on his own terms rather than by his oppressors, whether his oppressor be Mother Nature or a Japanese Guard.

It is a wonderful example of what Steven Covey in the Seven Habits calls the "last of the human freedoms" -- between what happens to us and our response lies our freedom to choose the response.  "Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose."  Louie's choices and Hillenbrand's telling of the story make for a captivating and motivating read.  

Enjoy the Season

Life brings us into many seasons.  These seasons are often where the paths of our lives have led us as we dilligently strive toward the ultimate destination.  This blog represents the Sterling Season.  It is a season for all people in any age - a season of quality, but not flash, a season of weathered softeness, but not rotting age.  Not so much a season to shine as a season to be polished. Like many blogs it is simply one person's outlet -- a commentary on style, beauty, wonder, life and love.