Or, When's That Phone Going To Ring, and How Many Books Can I Read At One Time?

I thought a 3-month severance/vacation would be fun.  And, for the most part, it has been.  Beach trip, hanging out with Budd and the cat, reading the paper from cover to cover every day.  But now, I'm getting antsy to get back to work.  Lots of resumes sent, several interviews, and now I find myself sitting by the phone every weekday, especially since our shared answering machine has a really bad version of "Hello, I Love You" on it sung by Budd's father.  He refuses to change it because Budd's maternal grandmother just loved it everytime she heard it, even though she is now in the Great Beyond and is highly unlikely to call.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this endeavor.  By the way, if you are reading this and need a top-notch administrative assistant/graphic designer/marketing assistant, I'm available for hire.  Email me and I'll send my resume right along.  I'm also available through Creative Scamper, my freelance endeavor. 

In the meantime, I'm trying to increase my reading.  I've read those great books that I reviewed earlier, White Noise and The Colorful Apocalypse.  Now I'm working on Cosmopolis, another DeLillo novel, and in my stack (I'm trying to keep up with Budd who reads at least 5 books at a time) are The Reader by Bernhard Schlink; Plainsong by Kent Haruf; Straight Man by Richard Russo; and What is the What by Dave Eggers.

I chose these because, 1) I like DeLillo; 2) Russo's book got great reviews and he won a Pulitzer; 3) Schlink's book was a NY Times Notable Book of the Year and LA Times Book of the Year; 4) Haruf's book was a National Book Award finalist; and 5) Eggers' book also got great reviews and the first couple of chapters are mesmerizing.

I seem to gravitate toward books that are award-winners.  I'm particularly interested in reading National Book Award winners and finalists, and I've found some good ones that were NY Times Notables, in particular, Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. 

If you've read any that are in my pile of five mentioned above, let me know what you think.  And if you have any employment leads, I'd love to hear from you as well. 

One of the most interesting and inspiring people I've ever met is Robert "Dusty" Staub, chairman of Staub Leadership here in Greensboro.  I met him around 1995, when I took a 5-day High Impact Leadership Seminar.  I doubt he has any recollection of me, but that's okay.

Dusty writes a column for Triad Business Journal that I'm quite fond of, and this week's entry is exceptionally good.  I can't provide a link to it because it's for paid subscribers only, but I will excerpt just a bit here. 

Dusty says, "If you want more love in your life, you will need to give more love away.  Granting greatness, seeing the very best that there is in another person, is a gift that also gives back.  When you are willing and able to help another human being, whether at home or at work, realize their own deeper capacities, they shower you with the same."

In our current world of "Gimme More" and me, me, me, Dusty continues to courageously shine a beacon of light.  He ends his article this way: "You, too, have the power to transform every moment of your life through acts of affirmation and positive expectation of the capacity of others -- granting them the possibility of stepping into their own greatness.  Doing so, you step into your own capacity to both bless and be a blessing in this world."  Then he issues his challenge:  "Are you truly ready, now, to grant greatness to those around you and thus to yourself?"

Thanks, Dusty.  I love your column and I think that you've got a lot of things figured out that most people (especially in business) cannot and will not ever realize.