Leadership (Upon Reflection)

What makes a "good" leader?

• Honed skills
• Real world experiences
• Credible and dependable
• Trusts, but verifies
• Many tendrils
• Few confidants
• Sensitive in the soul
• Tough love as necessary
• Knows when to listen and knows when to bark
• Smiles as a matter of course, but will bare teeth as a matter of recourse
• When a decision must be made, or a final vote cast, the following is clear to all:
  • One voice
  • One vision
  • One line in the sand

Re-titled on 2020.08.03

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Looking for the clues of continuity,      Even though their footprints and breadcrumbs,           Vanish with the perception of the fleeting moment.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

We become our misery when our rainbows are painted in shades of gray.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

When there's nothing left to hold on to, hold on to your principles.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

To be courageous or to be incorrigible — the choice is up to you.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Heaven and Hell (A Beginning)

I am less alone than you think.

But more alone than I feel.

To be caught between Heaven and Hell,
    Is a struggle
       All too real.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Four Tendrils on Fairness

Fairness is a lie, an illusion, a yoke.

It's the prospect of fairness that blinds everyone to the reality of its emptiness.

 

Fairness is tantalizing and alluring because we believe that it "levels the playing field."

The reality, however, is that there are those among us that choose to play the game by their own rules.

 

Fairness is like sun bathing on a cool summer's day — you feel comfortable, maybe even a bit chilly, but you don't realize that you're still getting burned.

 

Competition. Subjectiveness. Wants and desires. Striving to be head-and-shoulders among—and above—the rest. Survival of the fittest.

All of these (and more) are at odds with fairness.

 

About

At the earliest stages of our lives we're told to "play fair."

But then as we get older, we're constantly reminded that "life isn't fair."

The mind is caught between the obedience of childhood lessons and the sting of cold reality.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

ISP I

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

To the casual observer, delirium looks a lot like optimism.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Facts are cold. Faith is warm. People need both.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril... Bureaucracy

What is bureaucracy?

• A glacier (most of the time)
• An avalanche (once in a while)
• A dam (waiting to break)
• A damn (as in, another damn thing to get in the way)

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

May the penguin of complacency never waddle into your life.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

You can be honest without being harsh.

You can make a point without poking.

You can reveal without having to rip.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

An Inevitable Path

Failure is inevitable,
    Because we are flawed,
       Because our logic is in conflict with our emotions,
          Because we can only walk one path at a time,
          And that path
          Is marred and marked
          By our footprints
          Forward,
          Backward,
          And sideward.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

The heaviest hammer of them all is the hammer of reality.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Fall Kite

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

In knowledge we swim. In ignorance we drown.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Hate is a quicksand of the heart.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

A Prayer, of Sorts

Dear God,

The S.S. My Life hit an iceberg of uncertainty and now I'm drowning in doubt. (Cold, dark doubt.)

I think to myself, I'm a fish out of water, but that doesn't make any sense, because I'm drowning. Or maybe I'm not. It's hard to tell which end is up when you believe that you're sinking like a rock.

So would I recognize the life preserver if it hit me in the head?

Or would I be too consumed with flailing and gasping to have the presence of mind to reach for it?

Uh-oh, I think I see the sharks starting to circle.

God, please send me a life preserver.

And be certain that it hits me in the head.

Amen.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

The butterfly has no agenda.

The crow only comes when skies are gray.

The seed cannot help but germinate (and penetrate).

The cow is a jacket waiting to happen.

© Copyright 2013 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.