Lasting Beauty Depends on...A Pre-Christmas Story...

It was the weekend after Thanksgiving and as was tradition in my household...I was out in the crisp fall air...

...climbing around the outside of the house and...
....swearing and...
...untangling hastily and poorly stored strings of light and...
...building a manger scene and...
...hanging wreaths and...
...falling off shaky ladders and...
...(Did I mention swearing?) and...
...sipping hot-buttered rum and...
...setting up other "should have been donated years ago" decorations...
...and smashing fingers and cutting my hands on rain gutters and...
...vowing to NEVER docorate the house again and...
...ruing my ungrateful children and life itself...

AND...

...listening to Christmas music and...the distant church bells...
...counting my blessings and...
...dreaming of creating the perfect season and...
...inhaling the aromas of the neighbors' cooking and their wood buring stoves and...
...feeling the light caresses of the infrequent snowflakes that fell from the perfectly blue sky and ...
...simply loving the solitude and the freshness of new season and the promises that it holds...
...it was one of the few chances that adults have to relive the excitement of childhood...

Then...

I heard his voice and a snicker...and looked down from my treacherous perch from on the top rung of the ladder, at ground below...to see him standing there...dressed for 40 degree colder weather and toting the biggest bottle of his rum that I had ever seen!

I laughed so hard at his appearance that I nearly fell from the ladder...I steadied myself and continued the swearing part of the tradition...

How the heck did you get that bottle here...did you dress it as a traveling companion and buy it a separate airline seat?  You are definitely a sight!  What are you going to wear when it gets really cold?

He kicked at the dusty layer of snow..."I saw your neighbor at the hardware store and he told me that you were putting up decorations...so I thought that I would drop by and lend a hand..."

It was then that I realized that the thickness of his clothing was not for cold...but cushioning...in the event that he fell from the ladder...(not really...but it made me laugh again!)

Why would you come and help me...when you hire a professional company to decorate your place?

"I do that so that I can spend time helping you...if I were alone...I would waste my time fixing up my place...AND these people are professionals...their work comes with a guarantee...it will last through New Year's Day...then they come and take it down...I have no issues with that!  Nothing to store...and my place is the best looking place in the neighborhood...Their work is a thing of beauty...a lasting thing of beauty.."

If I hadn't climbed down the ladder and took the bottle from his hand...his discourse on the benefits of hiring a professional company to decorate homes would have gone on for hours...I have gotten wise to the fine points of distracting him...

Would you like me to make some of this into hot buttered rum...or do you want it straight?

As we walked into the house, he contemplated both options to the point of my frustration...and opted for hot...

So I mixed "his favorite" with "my secret"...and we toasted an entirely successful year...with our favorite toast...

"We win some or we learn something...either way we are successful...!"

...and with that he went outside and began criticising every decoration...!

His primary attack was more on the methods behind the how the decoration was assembled and not the what it presented...

They went something like..."I love how you outlined your entire house in white lights and you have those cool icecicles hanging from the gutter...but you know...the first heavy snow or brisk wind and they'll be on the ground....Santa is going to tip over...Baby Jesus is going to blow into the next county if you do not tie him into the cradle...but do it so it doesn't look like you are some kind of pervert..."

I totally ignored every suggestion...because I put almost a whole day's swearing into it...that was a huge investment and now I could go back to my old self...which abhors "lower classed language!"

I was not about to tell him that last year...everything he mentioned was dead on!  But I had that covered this year...I put everything up exactly the same way...and this time it was not going to crash!

As I scurried along the edge of the icy roof...he took a positon leaning against my frozen bird bath...knocking the bath part off the pedestal and smashing it into a hundred pieces...

He looked up to see if I had noticed and vowed to buy me a fountain to replace it...(which he actually did in the Spring)

The bird bath incident put him into a mentoring mood...and even though we were a hundred feet or more apart...I could see it clearly...

Want another rum he asked?

"I guess so," I said..."by the time you get back, I'll be done..."

"No...I was expecting you to get it for us," he laughed and he scurried off like a starched little over-stuffed scarecrow!

While I waited for his return...I had sufficient time to pick-up, store, turn evey light on...and step out in the road to survey and admire my masterpiece...

I was actually in a zone...looking at it in a child-like awe...when his voice brought my back to reality!

"Here take a drink...I know that you must be freezing..."

We stood there for a few minutes and he broke the silence...

"This is absolutely beautiful!"

"As far as Christmas lighting is concerned...it is not too gaudy...just nice!"

"That is what I like...you send a message!  What do you think that message is?"

"I like bright lights?" I laughed...

"NOPE!...THANK YOU!"

"That is a great message to send and you should send it every day!"

"That should be an enduring meassage...and that is what is missing from this...the every day part!"

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"You know...that bird bath that I destroyed...was beautiful...but it was not enduring..."

"These lights and the little pocket scenes of the manger and Christmas town and the Santa..."

"They are not enduring and you send a message that you are thankful...but it is superficial..."

As we stood there...the breeze turned into a cutting knife and the snow began falling harder...

"I built a fire in your fireplace...it should be roaring by now..."

What? I said...that fireplace is not real!

He nearly had a heart attack...and began running toward the house...then I confessed that it was a real fireplace...and just wanted to see what he would do!

He joined my in the "swearing tradition" for a  moment and then we went in!

As punishment for my momentary trick...he continued with his oral dissertation...

"Lasting beauty depends upon a VERY strong foundation..."

"Beauty is constantly challenged and picked at, by its very nature...it is like a criticism magnet...so you need to ensure that it is twice as strong as anything you think will attack it..."

"That bird bath...built for birds...but not for a slightly overweight Greek..."

"That beauty disappeared the moment that I used it as a leaning post..."

"Your lights and scenes look beautiful...but will crash the minute they are challenged..."

But...I began in defense...

He was standing in the window of the study...and interrupted my objection, "Man...look at that snow...it is blowing...do you mind if I spend the night?"

"No problem...you can use the guest room"..."mein haus ist Ihr house...mein freund..."

We spent the rest of the evening in the warmth of the cracking fire...periodically throwing another log into it, to refresh the embers...and add to the traditional odors...

We talked of the need for sturdy organizational infrastructure...and that we do not focus on it enough...and that ANY change in an organization, demands a thorough review of the infrastructure...and more often than not a rebuild of that too!

Our missions, although unsaid, are about creating "things of beauty..."

In order for beauty to be more fleeting...it needs to be built to last...

Lasting beauty needs a strong foundation...

Being built to last has more to do with the foundation than that which the foundation supports...

Rock solid pilings...that extend into bedrock...

Deep stakes...that can not be easily pulled out...

Strong ties...that require more than a tug to sever...

A worthwhile effort is more than putting a layer of cosmetics, on a pig...

All beauty must go to the very core of the thing created...layer by layer...

So that as people who follow...as they "peel away the onion"...they find as much or more beauty within, as they saw on the surface...

This is a hard thing for "developers" to do...they often so not see the value related to depth...and emphasize the surface...

"Do not make that mistake as you build..."

Finally, the rum supply was exhausted, and the last log had gone from flames to a few orange embers...

Almost simultaneously we both stretched and yawned...then retired and awoke to an amazing "winter wonderland..."

After breakfast and tylenol...we dressed, intending to shovel the drive and the walk...and surprise the neighbors with as many clean drives as we could before they awoke...

He exited the house first...and I followed a few minutes later...

He had already shoveled his way to the street...and when I found him...he was holding the baby Jesus and looking back at yesterday's labor...

Do you want me to help you put your thing of beauty back up or should I call my company?