In 1984 I traveled around the world in about three months with a group of college students.  A leaky pipe recently required me to open the one cardboard box of memorabilia to revue and care for the contents.  I found nearly 500 35mm slides, 12 audio cassette tapes and 4 Beta-Max tapes.

To preserve the media, digitizing seemed like a natural next step.  I handed over a large box to Brian with no instructions and in a week he brought back this slide show that includes a few hundred of the best slides put to very appropriate music.

I expect that the videos will mean a lot to those I traveled with and it is for them that I am sharing these slide shows.

People

People, Buildings and Scenes

The chronological trip included the following major cities; Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xian, Beijing, Moscow, Zurich and Vienna.  The most time was spent in Beijing.

The slides are not set in chronological order so you will see European scenes mixed in with the more prevalent Chinese ones. It was quite an experience travelling across half the globe by train, including the Trans-Siberian railroad.  I have great memories of the trip and many of the people we traveled with.  I hope that many of my fellow travelers will see these video slide shows and smile.  Xie Xie.

Please feel free to leave a comment below or through the Contact form.  It will be fun to reconnect.

It’s been 10 hours since I learned that a professional colleague is not who I thought he was.

This colleague authored a post explaining that James Chartrand is really a woman. Yes, my jaw hit the floor.

Graphic and text from the article on CopyBlogger

I read through a lot of the comments  and took the afternoon and evening to reflect and consider how I feel and why.

The Author Wrote

The gist of the story is that James chose a male pen name so that she could earn more money to support herself and her kids.  She found that her day rate doubled and that there were no more, “is that the cheapest price?” comments.  She achieved her purpose.  To accommodate this new nom de plume, photographs of James and client phone calls were largely out of the question.  She trusted a handful of colleagues with the truth however.  In time, one of these confidants got mad with her and decided to “out” her nearly three years after James was invented. This forced the writing of the article that I read this morning.

In The Comments

The comments seemed to be overwhelmingly sympathetic and supportive.  Many focused on how unfair it is that to this day women earn less than men for the same work.  Many applauded her efforts to provide for herself and her kids in what initially sounded like poverty level conditions.  One person even seemed to out themselves for being gay in response to this post.  Clearly the post pulled some heartstrings.

How I Feel At the Moment

The word Underpants in the headline gets as close to gender as any article of clothing can.  Initially I thought the headline was pandering to the lowest common denominator. Not sure I have changed my mind quite yet.  I will admit to a clever and effective choice of words.

Trust is something that I seek in business and personal relationships. Without trust my interest wanes very quickly and quietly.  Is the breaking of trust a binary proposition?  Or is trust extremely flexible allowing itself to be twisted and contorted without breaking? Does it depend on the motive, the circumstances or the situation?

Man or Woman

I agree that it is unfair that women earn less than men for the same work.

It is also unfair that one person may earn $20 an hour while another may perform the same task for eight cents a day.

Do you think integrity has a price?

If others will be following the example of James, will this be good for society?  I am not thinking of millions of women representing themselves as men, but a more generic thought of misrepresentation for financial gain.

Could there be some good to come out of this “outing”?  Maybe there will be, indirectly.  People get thinking and reassess positions all the time.  This could be one of those times.

I do not hope that others repeat this approach.  Pretending something to gain advantage over others is not to be encouraged.

Summary

There has been a breach of trust the severity of which I am still considering.  I seem to want to run towards James and away from James at the same time.  I don’t want to be feeling tricked and also don’t want to feel that nothing has changed.  Situations have a unique meaning for each of us based on our own experience and point of view.  What do you think, has a trust been impaired in this case?

Conclusion

Maybe my conclusion for today is that equality is an over-riding principle that is more important to me than feeling a breach of trust with one person.  It would have been more comfortable to see equality brought up without a breach of trust.  How do you feel about it?  Any of it?

December 16

Thinking about the handful of people at Men with Pens that James worked with day to day, I am assuming that they had to make a choice to maintain the confidentiality of who James is.  A bit of a burden it seems to me.

What about James?

I have to think that James is immensely relieved to be out from under the burden of maintaining the James Chartrand identity.  What a relief.  I imagine relief must exist for anyone else that was “helping” James maintain this 3 year old secret.

We all have our gifts.  We work with what we have been given.  Some work harder than others.  Why would I want  and take what is not mine?  That would go against the grain of the fundamental principles of  Truth and the tenants that maintain order in our lives.

A Bigger Context

Feeling Deceived

Think about the premise of the dot com bubble and the mortgage debacle.  The foundation of both was misrepresentation.  What  a terrible choice. What a terrible price to pay.  The foundation of dishonesty is never stable and always crumbles. History demonstrates this.

When a story is crafted to excuse dishonesty we have to be sharp.  Situational ethics is a slippery slope.

There must be a reason that the old adage says “Honesty is the best policy.” 

The hardest choices, the times when it is most tempting to not be honest, are the times that build character and strengthen us just enough to overcome the next temptation and continue being honest.

Getting out from under a lie places one in an excellent position to move forward with integrity.

More Ideas

The primary issues here are not feminism, gender bias, women’s rights and so on. James had no interest in addressing these social concerns.  Her motive was to increase her earning power.  She would have served gender issues issues far more if she had persevered and reached the level of success she desired as a woman.

Let’s not forget the many women that saw these same gender biases and barriers for what they are and overcame them.

Whether he or she, green or white, tall or short James’ quality of work remains as it has been, good work. That has not changed.  I certainly continue to work with all types, based on performance. I don’t even get to meet most of the people I work with, both clients and colleagues.

It seems many commenters on CopyBlogger  feel that the ends (stirring conversations on gender bias) justify the means ( living under a lie). What do you say?

This is well said, “if the only way that a copywriter can figure out how to sell services is by being dishonest, well, then, that’s probably not the kind of person I want to work with.” by attorney Carolyn Elefant

December 17, 2009 – Pricing Theory or Gender Bias

Yeah I am still thinking about this.

Money

Pricing Theory is another angle on this story that I have not seen discussed.  The perception of value in some markets increases as the price goes up.  There is also a corresponding assumption of authority, quality and experience as the price increases.

Think about attorney fees.  The fee may be an hourly cost of $150, $300, $400, $650 or any other number a lawyer cares to charge. You can test this out yourself. One day tell prospects that you charge $50 an hour. The next day tell them that you charge $150 an hour. Let us know what happens.

Also when someone is paying what they consider a higher rate I think that they generally trust that person more.  They are hiring an expert and will meddle less frequently if the project moves forward as expected.

If you charge more you will earn more. Makes sense to me.  Maybe pricing has more to do with increasing income than gender does.

If you see yourself as a lowly work-at-home part-timer you are not likely to charge as much as if you see yourself as a hot shot writer whose star is rising.

December 18, 2009 – Harry is Deb

I think it is fair to say that Harry was the design genius behind Men With Pens.  Turns out that Harry is a gal too.   I found her story here and it is worth reading.  Her name is Deb Dorchak and she started a new company in November or December named Sirius Grahpix along with three other women.

I wonder how much the decision to leave Men with Pens (note: Deb left prior to the CopyBlogger article) was due to the super-charged “personas” that the two of them had maintained over the years.

Thank You

A heartfelt thank you to each person that has come by and read and especially those that managed to leave a comment on this subject. I recognize it is not easy for some people.  There are many issues and angles involved.

Oh, and don’t miss the comments below. Some of the best stuff here is in the comments.

December 21, 2009 – Seeking More Wisdom

We each face our own challenges in life.  For some people they have challenges in common with others, like gender, race or religion, while others are individual, one of a kind even.  Either way the challenges have to be met and overcome. How we each choose to do this defines us.

I prefer to see more unity and equality among all humanity.  I am not convinced that taking sides on the subject of bias brings us closer to that harmony and equality. Opposite teams generally means an outcome with a winner and a loser.  Discussing harmony or equality, examining it, explaining it and most of all understanding it and living it will do far more good than discussing the problem and its roots ad infinitum.

It was Einstein that wrote, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Revolution

I am thoughtful of the fact that this country was founded through revolution.  The United States has experienced a number of revolutionary changes in its short history. Women and slaves used to be property.  In some cases a head of cattle had more rights.   The woman’s suffrage movement required 70 years before women could vote. Similar advances for all people have been happening and continue to happen in countries all around the globe.

Be inspired for a moment by the many historical agents of change and grab a hold of a positive way to support harmony and equality in your day to day life.  I will be with you shoulder to shoulder moving forward.

Harvard Business Review

HBR has an article on Women CEO’s today.  Reports of modest progress and common frustrations.

Gift Cards are awesome for business cash flow. You give them cash and they give you a plastic card.

The consumer problem develops when the gift card provider goes out of business and the card becomes, well, just a plastic card with no value. I still have a useless CompUSA gift card.

There is no law preventing stores that are planning on going out of business from selling gift cards.

Below is a partial list of potential closings.  Gift Card givers beware.

Update:This information may be dated, business plans may have changed or it could be just wrong. But, the buyer beware notion remains relevant.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)

Ann Taylor 117 stores nationwide closing

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150  stores nationwide

Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after  January

Cache will close all stores

Talbots closing down specialty stores

J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots) Pacific  Sunwear (also owned
by Talbots)

GAP closing 85 stores

Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January

Wickes Furniture closing down

Levitz closing down remaining stores

Bombay closing remaining stores

Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January

Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )

Macys to close 9 stores after January

Linens and Things closing all stores

Movie Galley Closing all stores

Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores

JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

Wilson Leather closing down all stores

Sharper Image closing down all stores

K B Toys closing 356 stores

Loews to close down some stores

Dillard’s to close some stores

Big Dog stores is closing all stores Dec. 31

Anna Deavere Smith performed an engaging one woman show exploring grace in the light of human tragedy and death.

The theater and stage were ideally suited to present an intimate topic on a very humane scale.

Smith moved from chair to chair sometimes benefiting from a table as she shifted from character to character. Donning a different jacket and slipping into a different pair of shoes provided the visual cueues to match the new character’s unique voice and mannerisms.

Bare Feet

She moved easily from character to character slipping out of one garment and into the next. Many roles were completed bare foot. She noted after the show that we enter and leave this world bare foot. Being bare foot allowed her to “walk in other people’s shoes” throughout the performance as well as to “feel the floor”.

After the show she further explained that the crew provided her with a sprung floor. She stated that the feedback, the bounce in the floor, was important to her.

Back Story

The roles that Smith portrayed are based entirely on in person interviews completed by Smith over a period of years. These interviews led her to genocide, holocaust, medical care, stoning, beheading and war. The show represents a small percentage of the material that she collected.

Sprinklings

Voices from the show offered the following

• Stoning takes time. You have to think about it. A machette or a gun, you don’t have to think.
• Watching someone murder family members you see that he is just a man, not a monster.
• Forgiveness must be requested
• Can you give a man grace?
• “Never Again”.

The interview with a Buddhist Monk suggests that grace is a strictly Christian concept. This character laughed repeatedly, providing the most comic relief.

Smith explained after the show that human language cannot capture the scale or meaning of grace. She learned that grace is “hard work”.

What I saw

I was dumbfounded. After the show, I wrote down a little word association just to try and collect my thoughts. In the middle is grace. On the top I wrote the words that were most represented in the play and on the bottom what I associate with the word grace.

death, genocide, sickness, fear

Grace

hope, inspiration, Love, gratitude

I learned that I have a very different view than what was presented.

Mortality became the lead character. Grace was something that only showed up at the extremity, the most challenging times of life and it was often followed by death.

Having read not a word about this play and literally knowing nothing about it in advance, other than the word grace, I expected the opposite of what I saw.

Think on these phrases;

• the gift of grace
• grace and beauty
• power and grace
• the miracle of grace
• Godlike grace

Onelook.com offers the following definitions of grace

â–¸ noun: a disposition to kindness and compassion; benign good will (“The victor’s grace in treating the vanquished”)
â–¸ noun: (Christian theology) the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God (“God’s grace is manifested in the salvation of sinners”)
â–¸ noun: elegance and beauty of movement or expression
â–¸ noun: a short prayer of thanks before a meal
â–¸ noun: (Greek mythology) one of three sisters who were the givers of beauty and charm; a favorite subject for sculptors
â–¸ noun: (Christian theology) a state of sanctification by God; the state of one who under such divine influence (“The conception of grace developed alongside the conception of sin”)
â–¸ noun: a sense of propriety and consideration for others
â–¸ verb: make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.
â–¸ verb: be beautiful to look at

Those definitions fit my walking around understanding of grace. I was surprised by how much I missed seeing these qualities in Let Me Down Easy. They were not entirely absent. In fact after some consideration I am certain that they were there. After all, that was meant to be the point of the show.

Let Me Down Easy.

By no means did this play let me down easy. Often times audiences appreciate art and theater just because of that, just because it makes you think or pushes you out of your comfort zone, provokes a reaction. In that regard, this performance succeeded. In fact, I would like to see the show again to further assess how I may have so misunderstood grace or missed the shows presentation of grace.

I would have liked to leave the show inspired.

How have you come to understand grace?