Floating With The Universe

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

“How’ya doin’?” “Just floating with the universe.” “Excellent.” It isn’t a verbatim conversation, but generally that’s how I live my life. That’s an odd lack of structure for someone like me who spent years in corporate cubicle world, was raised in intent Catholicism, and trained in a very old and traditional martial art. Even before I left my career I followed intuition when logic couldn’t provide a definitive answer. Within a normal life, logic rarely is able to make definitive guesses about the future. So, where’s it led me now? How about to teaching a class on self publishing – again?

Welcome to Whidbey, and especially the town I most frequent on the south end, Langley. You all should come by and visit. The cute B&Bs, restaurants, shops, and artists will appreciate your visit. Like me, some come and stay. Langley paints itself with the image of a sleepy sea-side town, which is mostly true, though the ocean waves are a hundred miles away. It is, however, regularly visited by grey whales as they feed on the tide flats, and orcas cruise by chasing salmon and seals. The town lacks the waves but it does have the life. The hidden truth though is that Langley is a networker’s happy place. The talents and resumes are world-class, quiet, and the networkers are very eager to encourage others. A two block walk, which covers half of “downtown” can take hours as conversations bounce from one set of friends and projects to another. That’s one thing I like about this small town that isn’t apparent to visitors.

A few years ago, soon after I moved here, a handful of friends invited me to a gathering. Their descriptions of it made no sense, but I trusted them and attended even though it was at a resort (Hollyhock) a couple of hundred miles north on yet another island across the border. The short story is that I went, met lots of interesting people and am somewhat addicted to the event. I’ve noticed that they all have fascinating stories, but usually want to hear yours first. It makes for animated conversations, especially as projects are spawned or find new resources and happy serendipities.

By going to that event I was invited to another event that I’ve mentioned before: the University of Washington’s Global Social Entrepreneurial Competition (GSEC) where I’ve met students committing themselves to changing the world by starting businesses that benefit impoverished people.

Tonight I’m attending a project kick-off (The Flow Project) that aims to tap artists’ insights for the benefit of civic governance, I think. I’m honored to be included and don’t need conclusive logic to convince me to attend. But I have committed to cooking a potluck item after I post this blog, so this isn’t simply showing up with a pad of paper and a pen. Maybe I’ll make meatballs. Hope the vegans don’t mind.

These layers continue to overlap, unfold and grow to the point that sources of inspiration are hard to trace and expectations of control are frequently challenged.

A friend has based his life on a maximized version of this philosophy. Steve Smolinsky, someone I met at the resort in Canada, runs a Conversation Blog about networking and the benefits of interconnectivity. His posts are entertaining because of his writing style, but also because of where his networking takes him. He’s back from Africa, again.

I had a small Smolinsky moment yesterday. Walking through Langley to deposit a check (book sales are a good thing) I’d bounced around through a half-dozen conversations over a ninety-minute, half-mile walk when I noticed a friend working in his co-work space, also known as the Langley Center for New Media. He and his laptop had a well-lit place beside the window where he could see the world go by and the world could see the space in use. A short visit later we’d agreed I’d hold a class on self publishing there. I’d come into town to deposit a check and walked away with another spot on my calendar, and probably a few more classes and clinics.

Following my intuition has resulted in five non-fiction books, series of series of nature photos, a chance to touch many projects, and a long list of other potentials. The most gratifying part has been meeting, knowing and helping people. I truly don’t know where this is leading and I am willing to let that happen.

I retired (check the Engineer part of my bio) in 1998. Since then people either assume I spend the days sleeping, or they want a one word answer to what I do. I’ve finally settled on “writer” because it is broad, ambiguous, and has very low expectations. Stereotypical middle-aged writers are expected to be eccentric, probably intoxicated, and highly unproductive. That’s a low hurdle that’s easy to clear.

This level of chaos isn’t a lifestyle that fits for all. Retiring early or otherwise usually involves a break in daily structure. That break can be traumatic and is a good reason for people to find hobbies and causes, at least at the start.

I’ve been retired for over a dozen years and there is very little structure to my life. Dance on Tuesday. Blog on Wednesday and Saturday, maybe. The rest fills in as it will, and it does fill. And I trust it. I float with the universe.

 

Curious about that one class that came from who knows where? The details are below. And as I say in the class’s intro: “Give your dreams the freedom they deserve.” There’s no way to know where they’ll take you.

Class: Modern Self-Publishing
Publishing is undergoing a revolution.
Independent movies challenged Hollywood tradition. Independent music challenged the major record labels. Now, print-on-demand publishers are enabling legions of writers to pursue their passions without having to appease agents and editors.
Most authors can get their books published worldwide within a few months for about the cost of a writer’s conference.
An industry in revolution is never an easy place though, so come see ways to steer your dream project through the shifting landscape, and become aware of the cautions that lie ahead.
Give your dreams the freedom they deserve.

Time: April 23rd
seminar 9AM-noon
lunch – You’re on your own but it’s Langley so that’s a good thing.
workshop 1PM-4PM

Cost: (cash or check)
seminar $60
seminar + workshop $100
workshop only (Nope, gotta take the seminar too, at least this time.)

Contact:
Tom Trimbath
tetrimbath@whidbey.com
360-221-2201

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Recycling Perspective

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Look at the bags of recycling gathering in my kitchen. Look at the photos of Sendai’s tsunami, Haiti’s earthquake, Hurricane Katrina‘s impact on New Orleans. I’ve got bags in my kitchen filled with waste paper, empty bottles and cans. Disaster zones are cleared by bulldozers and front end loaders scraping up and dumping kitchens, houses, neighborhoods, into landfills. I’m doing what I can on a personal level, but watching the tsunami wash across Sendai with dirty water sweeping up multi-story buildings made me reflect when I added another emptied and clean can to its appropriate bag. What difference was I really making when nature has such an impact?

I am a minimalist, not by deep thought or great philosophizing. I am a minimalist because I don’t want to be bothered with too much stuff.  There are some pleasant consequences. I don’t have to clean or maintain as many things.  I don’t spend as much as others. I can live in a smaller house. Living in a smaller house takes less maintenance and is easier to clean up which makes parties more likely. All of those things combined spiral down my cost of living, except for the parties which are a fun way to spend a bit extra.

Recycling and reuse have always made sense to me. Why throw away something that involved resources dug from the ground? It’s already dug up. I’m done with it. Let someone else clean it up, melt it down, and reform it for some other use. Reuse is even better because it skips that entire melt down and reform phase. Some think it sounds like a sign of impoverishment. I like the words more akin to antiquing; patina, history, proven.

With all of my recycling and reusing, my trash can is sometimes empty for days. I’ll even forget about it some trash days, one less chore to chase, because the only thing in there was a grocery bag of kitchen garbage and a couple of half gallon milk cartons. I use milk cartons for wet kitchen scraps and small bits that fit. Some weeks my compost pile gets almost as many additions as my trash can.

My trash can is rarely full, except after the aforementioned parties.

A frugal lifestyle positively reinforces itself. I’m well aware of the impact our plastics have had on our planet. Project Midway Journey (soon to be a movie) has proven how specific the impact can be. Midway Island is very far removed from any major city, but the albatross there are dying because they can’t separate the plastic from the seafood. A baggie looks like a jellyfish. A butane lighter looks like a fingerling. They mistakenly eat the plastic and fill their insides because they can’t pass it. The team has been able to photograph where the birds have died because they leave an outline of their insides traced out in plastic. Tupperware may be handy, but I’m now a bigger fan of canning jars. Midway was seen as being amidst the big plastic patch called the Great Plastic Pacific Gyre. That inspired my inventive side and I sketched out a harvester that I can get to work on as soon as I have a spare million or ten. Unfortunately, we’ve dumped so much plastic in the ocean that they’ve now discovered that the Pacific Gyre is bigger than original estimate of the size of Texas. The plastic patch has no boundaries, covers the Pacific and is even more concentrated in the Atlantic. I have pause as I type this because that saddens me.

Revolutions and Renaissances are spawned by society first passing through absurdity. At some point enough people say enough. Then change happens.

We exhibit hubris. That’s not news. Within our society, most large organizations, governments included, act as if no wrong can be done and that long term issues can be left to those in the future.

I’ve climbed volcanoes. Since then I’ve never doubted that Nature is much bigger than us and could goggle us up and continue on its way without much more than a small burp.

The scale of our impact on the planet is human-centric and larger than the decision to use glass instead of plastic. We build our cities and civilizations in ways that don’t work with and around the nature that spawned us. We pave over it. We try to defend against natural occurrences. Then, when Nature acts naturally, everything we’ve built for years, decades and centuries can be turned to rumble within minutes. How much recycling will it take to counteract the mega-tons of wrecked cities washed-out to sea? We build in flood plains, along tsunami coastlines, atop earthquake faults (including the one under my house) and in the paths of hurricanes. We’re better at it than ever. Building codes, education, and preparedness have all improved. But we continue to approach it as a battle with the elements, not living with our birthplace.

We are heading in the right direction and passing through some absurd times. I hope we will figure out how to smartly site homes and cities, sustainably water, power and feed ourselves. Maybe we’ll even quit arguing over the short term cost cuts in emergency preparedness and start long term sustainable savings. Rebuilding cities is expensive. Lost lives can’t be recovered.

But I’m an optimist, right? Yep. Old organizations may not get the new message but many people are saying “enough”. Chris Jordan, from Midway Journey and Running the Numbers, produced a picture, an art work called E Pluribus Unum, 2010 that, “Depicts the names of one million organizations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice, and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture.” Does it look too abstract? Look closer, very close. Look close enough and it becomes real names. There are only a few hundred governments. There are hundreds of thousands of organizations, which reflect millions of people who are working towards that better world that we’ve yet to completely define. Abstract debates miss the individuals that are doing real work. He draws a nice bridge between the two.

The natural events that have been disasters for millions of people have taught me again the size of the task before us. While advocating for environmental awakening and action can seem abstract and self-righteous, I’ll be honest and say that personally it is a self-centered motivation. The savings from eliminating dysfunctional government spending and by adding sustainable preventative measures would bring down my expenses, my taxes, and my anxiety level. Working with the planet, respecting its resources and patterns, is the most economical and most enjoyable way for me to enjoy a long, happy, healthy life. Imagine if we were able to pass that along to each other.

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Time Saving Tips

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

The first was inspired by the Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami. I realized that such an overlooked notion like being prepared was actually a time saver. Then I realized it was just one of a similar set of simple acts, and they have application within a life and for larger organizations too.

Be prepared. I’ve got an earthquake kit and disaster supplies ready. When a natural disaster hits the news I don’t spend time worrying about whether I’m prepared. I know I have reduced the risk, and know that I can never be prepared for everything. I wish our government did a better job of this. By now, Katrina’s damage should be confined to history. It ain’t. I suspect that Japan, one of the most prepared countries in the world, will recover and then take this as an opportunity to improve further. As for other dramatic events – What will I do when the aliens say hello? Deal with it then.

Maintain what’s important. In this economy I’ve fixed many things but postponed many repairs. I saved money in the short run, and may even get by without ever having to fix quite a few things, but in the meantime there’s a chunk of every day that is spent wondering if I’ve put things off too long. If I had more money I’d spend less time worrying. I’m not the only one. Imagine the productivity increase in any organization if the people there didn’t have to spend time worrying about their health, their commute, their child care, their careers.

Treat luxuries as luxuries, not as necessities. If a luxury fails life continues. If a necessity fails, well, something made it a necessity, so something will be missed. Of course some luxuries embody certain necessities. Ask any pilot or skipper. But polishing the golf clubs may not be as important as cleaning out the gutters. This one is easy for me. I’m a minimalist, and one reason was the recognition of how much time was spent maintaining stuff. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I even have a de-clutter shelf during parties so people can take something that I want to get rid of. On a national level, there are plenty of necessities being ignored, but pork barrel politics seems to survive every reform. As an investor, well, I consider most management teams and directors to be more luxury and not nearly as necessary as the employees. Pity the compensation isn’t distributed that way. But that’s just my point of view.

Tell the truth. The world’s fascinating as it is. How does anyone ever manage to keep lies alive and untangled in any relationship that lasts over an hour? I will admit to occasional exaggeration, which is probably a request for attention. My friends would know better than I. I’m always surprised that organizations think they can keep secrets. Some secrets stay secret. Most leak out eventually.

Follow the laws. Drive below the speed limit. Because of stop signs, lights, and traffic, driving slowly usually doesn’t change my arrival time. I don’t have to buy radar detectors or spend time thinking about outwitting the cops, I can spend less on insurance, and don’t have to spend money and time on tickets or fighting them. Hmm, how much time and money does our government spend back-pedaling because of ethical ambiguities like torture (very unambiguous), corruption, and propping up unseemly governments?

Cook in instead of dine out. Cooking at home sounds like it could take more time. Actually, some recipes do. But even with slow-cooked recipes that take hours, I can get something done in the meantime. My favorite way to spend that time is talking with my dinner companion. There’s no time waiting to be seated and served. The dress code is much more relaxed. The costs are lower, and the wine cellar and bar are very likely to have my preferred beverages. It’s easier to get a meal that meets every dietary requirement, and the setting is much quieter than the fanciest restaurant. Cleaning up is a hassle though, at least until I get the dishwasher replaced.

Don’t spectate – participate. Don’t watch sports unless you know someone on the team. I’ll skip my usual expression of dismay with today’s millionaire athletes and the dearth of sportsmanship. I’m a fan of bicycling. I no longer watch football, baseball, or basketball, though curling is interesting. When the Tour de France was on TV, it inspired me to go for a bike ride. It took less time than watching someone else expend calories. I got exercise, maybe had some fun, and definitely got to eat more. But it is fun to watch local high school or even junior high games. The players aren’t paid as much. Their talents aren’t as developed, but they care about it a lot more than some professional who is more worried about the conditions of their contract.

These time saving tips actually take time, which is one reason they are easy to ignore. But just like that money adage, “You’ve got to spend money to make money”, sometimes you’ve got to spend time to save time.

Be careful out there. It will probably save you some time.

(Another time saving tip – get something done early occasionally. I thought about delaying this post until my normal Wednesday morning upload and realized that holding back and then remembering it later took more time than just hitting “Publish”.)

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What Me Worry

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Yep. I live over an earthquake fault, have to drive through a tsunami zone to get home, am within about a hundred miles of three large volcanoes, and live on an island that is only tied to the mainland by one bridge and two ferries. Do I worry much? No, at least not about that.

Someone asked me to teach a class on everyday risk management because I’ve done many things that were considered risky, but I did them safely. My approach to risk inspired my personal title of chicken adventurer. (No, that has nothing to do with taking chickens along on a bungie jump.) My adventurous friends might consider think I’m chicken, but more sedentary types think I am adventurous. I bicycled across the United States by getting off the road before rush hour. I climbed Mt. Rainier thanks to a guide service (RMI). I’ve run marathons, hiked the Wonderland Trail, and spent considerable time in the Cascades every month of the year (until I moved to Whidbey) some of which ended up in three books (Twelve Months at Barclay Lake, Lake Valhalla, and Merritt Lake.) I’ve done those things because I was willing to head out into something that might be uncomfortable, and was very willing to turn around when I encountered an avalanche slope, bad weather, heavy traffic, or the stares that told me I’d walked into the wrong bar.

My risk tolerance is high, or at least it seems that way to many people. I think my engineering background helps. It isn’t because I think everything is taken care of by backup systems and safety factors. My engineering experience proved to me that there is risk everywhere, and that living life is aided by realizing the likelihood and magnitude of various risks.

A friend and I had a conversation on Thursday, the day before the Sendai quake and tsunami. She lives within a few houses of the shore, and only about six feet above the high tide line. Should she worry about global warming? It’s easy to see one risk and concentrate on it. We walked through the scary possibilities. The sea is already rising, probably from global warming. It can also come up from tsunamis, especially local ones within Puget Sound. The Antarctic ice shelves can calve and kick off tsunamis and raise the sea, a double hit. Storm surges can flood for a day or so. But we live in an earthquake zone, which can spawn tsunamis too, but it can also raise or lower the land by many feet within seconds. The most likely scenario on any day is that nothing will happen. The risk of any of these things happening is smaller than the risks involved in driving to work. Drive careful. Drive defensive.

Every place has its hazards. Map lovers can get lost clicking through hazard maps from many agencies (your tax dollars at work – in a good way). Rather than being inundated by them, I realized that my life was rarely affected by quakes, waves, severe weather, and other worrisome hazards. They are worrisome, but I don’t worry about them every day because I’ve taken at least some precautions.

I live on an island, which can be worrisome, but the area is semi-rural. Except for a few weeks per year, there’s plenty of water coming from the sky, which I don’t always celebrate, but I do use for filling my rain barrel. The local land and shore have plenty of resources, wood and food. My hiking gear is good emergency equipment. My bicycle is backup transportation in case the road to the neighborhood is blocked. I even fantasize that I’d use the kayak to paddle the three or four miles to the mainland if all else failed. I suspect it would be much easier to hitch a ride on someone’s sail boat. I don’t do everything the Feds recommend, but each thing I do lessens the impact of hazards that are real but rare.

When I see videos and hear the news about cities in crisis, I am glad to be farther out. It will take longer for official help to get here, but resourceful people with a lot of resources can be more comforting than, say, sitting in a powerless waterless condo waiting for FEMA to ride into town. Rural life has its risks too. The nearest hospital on the island is about 45 minutes away on a normal drive. That’s a statistic I don’t like.

I have a few provisions set aside. There’s an earthquake kit in the backyard that I should refresh. I built a woodshed, and made sure it was stout and large enough to double as a shelter. My house is 100 feet above sea level. Fishing gear is ready, though I’m out of practice. And some provisions are actually disguised as luxuries. My wine collection is really backup supplies, sort of. Power’s out? Pop a cork. I wish I had a root cellar. That’s handy food storage for the right foods. A day of wine, cheese, apples, and maybe some smoked meats is a nice picnic.

All of this talk about risk and preparedness over-emphasizes the worry. The impact on my life is the opposite. Because I understand the relative risks and because I’ve taken some precautions I can spend more time enjoying every day. This is the same writer’s phenomena I’ve noticed when I wrote about various adventures. A five second mishap can fill pages of detailed description, consequence and insight. Five hours of free time spent quietly sitting by a lake is only source material for a short paragraph unless a stunning revelation is included. This post may be about risks, but it is really about freeing up lots of time.

There are things I worry about. Health care, house maintenance, why my car’s fuel mileage is dropping, and when my portfolio is going to radically improve. There’s been enough evidence of the consequences of those worries over the last two years. (I’m feeling better now, thank you.) I’m continuing to remove the excessive negative feedback wiring within my grey matter. Natural disasters are natural. They will happen. I can’t control them, but I can control my response to them. Control is de-stressing. I’d be less stressed if I had enough money to pay for any health care bill, to pay for every house improvement, to fix the car and have a motorcycle as backup, and to have enough for play, extensive philanthropy – for a long and prosperous and happy life. The Washington State Lottery is up to over $8 million. That would do it.

In the meantime, I watch the news, hope for the best, and then get ready for the rest of my day. A big worry for today? What am I going to wear to the dance?

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Lines In The Water

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Commiseration happens. As is usual for the last few years, a friendly conversation turned to personal economics. Home improvement projects, preventative health care, and even small luxuries like a new bicycle seat have been postponed awaiting better finances. We’re both writers. He’s more of a wordsmith. We wandered from specifics and played with the analogy of fishing. Fly fishing has an elegance and lots of movement, but sometimes you just have to put a lot of lines in the water. Spread them out. Use different baits and hooks. Take a seat. Be patient. You can be pleasantly surprised at what you catch.

Our conversation went that way because both of us are, ironically, very active people. We both have investments, create art, and exercise our inventive minds. He has a business. I do public speaking and teach classes. We both have very good circles of friends. Neither of us has “enough”. Both of us are frugal and have very good ideas of what that number might be. It can be frustrating to work hard and have a lot of effort seemingly go to waste. He’s the one that pointed out that he and I have lots of lines in the water. Drill into the menu headings above this blog or head out to my web site (www.trimbathcreative.com) and see my lists there. I won’t bore you with them here. His list is different, similarly extensive, but not as public.

We aren’t the only ones. People impress me because everyone has multiple skills. Unfortunately, too frequently, their skills are dismissed by others, or they never find a fertile venue. Others find that their talents are perfectly matched to their time and society. Listen to one of the richest men in the world.
“Take me as an example. I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into. If I’d been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless. I can’t run very fast. I’m not particularly strong. I’d probably end up as some wild animal’s dinner. ” – Warren Buffett
How many people do you know that probably have exceptional and useful talents that are merely undeveloped, mismatched to today’s society, or wrong for their current occupation?

People who have enough, and people who are living within their means, have already caught something and can fish leisurely. Even then it’s good to have something else ready to go, unless it means you spend too much time watching too many lines.

For folks that need to fish, I think the best way to get lines into the water is to do it yourself. Government and other support networks may be too busy to help. Following your passion might lead you to dinner.

This same thing applies to investing. (At this point some readers groan. Other readers say “Finally!”) Lots of lines in the water is another way to describe a diversified portfolio. Traders targeting one stock are more like fly fishing. One line cast many times, rarely let to set. My style is more like what I did as a kid. Still fishing, setting out a few lines, baited and spread along the shore, then watched from a comfortable spot, waiting for something to bite and get hooked.

Portfolio performance is tossed around as if a 10% increase means each stock went up 10%. A portfolio’s performance is the result of the ups and downs of all of the stocks. Put ten fishing lines in the water and they don’t each catch exactly 1/10 of the total. They each might catch something, but each catch is different and happens at its own time. One line may catch a sturgeon. One a guppy. Hopefully most of them catch enough to keep the angler fed.

My portfolio performance has recently been dismal. The big money has been drawn to the big companies, or has been scared out of the market because of political unrest. Those big stocks have generated the bull market. My stocks are from small or young companies. The stock prices are below my estimated values, which can be depressing, but as my friend pointed out, I have lots of lines in the water. I have a somewhat diversified portfolio. Most of the companies are doing well. Those that aren’t might simply be delayed success stories (MVIS?). Eventually the market recognizes success because any mismatch between price and value becomes more obvious as time and financial reports flow by. I merely have to be patient. If only my bills could be patient too.

Fortunately, one or two of my stocks are hooked to very successful and promising companies (AMSC & DNDN). Those lines have done well and have reasons to do even better. I’ve harvested those catches to pay bills, but also to add to some of the other lines. Harvesting or rebalancing a portfolio becomes like taking some of a catch for dinner, and using some for more bait. It’s been years since I’ve had to buy bait.

The lines I’ve cast are from many aspects of my life: investing, engineering, business, martial arts, teaching, speaking, writing, photography, entrepreneurship, mini-philanthropy, volunteering, and networking. I probably missed a few. Someone told me that I’m living six lives. I believe it. None of it is onerous. I enjoy each of those ventures. I look forward to some of them supplying me with “enough” money, but in the meantime all of them already supply me with a full life.

Like I said in the last post, sometimes I write for myself. This is an internal conversation and review that I have frequently. In many ways I’m busier now than when I was a lead engineer on a major airplane program. Those paychecks were nicer, and I enjoyed the work and the people; but, the culture was personally toxic. That was a pity. That career was also only one line cast in the water. It was a single thread. Now I have lines in the water and when I remember that I feel better. The fishing looks good. I just have to sit back and wait a while.

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Spring Is Coming

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

The northern hemisphere is in the tail end of winter and amidst the anticipation of spring. Friends around the US are done shoveling snow and are watching bulbs poke through. Around my house the rain will be warmer, but up in the mountains, months of snow will continue. It is cold, and there is hope, but warmth will come in patches, not all at once.

The Dismal Decade is receding, but it isn’t gone yet. Unemployment is decreasing but high. Housing prices are bottoming in some places, and still falling in others, maybe in my neighborhood. Maybe not. Credit card delinquencies are down, but personal and federal debt is high.

In the midst of a blizzard it can be hard to imagine an end to the chill, but logically spring must arrive. The turnings of the numbers are slight, but they are happening in rough unison.

The Decisive Decade is revealing itself. To me, the most obvious example is the awakening across northern Africa and into the Middle East. Definitely a rough spring. Other changes are more subtle and peaceful. Cars (hybrids and electrics) and lights (LEDs) are radically more efficient. People are downsizing houses. Buying and dining local is evident in the growth of farmers markets.

Economic winter shoved a glacier across parts of the landscape, but other parts are recovering as cold places thaw. Some of my friends’ businesses are still slumped. (Oy, I don’t want to look at my book and photo sales. Shudder.) Others though are busier than before. Some are even getting business from avenues and regions they never expected.

I list these examples for my own benefit as much as for encouraging others. Being an optimist occasionally requires internal supports. This is one way that I talk to myself. Hope you don’t mind.

Today’s post almost was going to be “Give Them More Rope”. There are ludicrous events transpiring. Sometimes the quickest resolution to societal insanity is to make it temporary by letting it run to an irrational extreme. Unfortunately, today’s bizarre juxtapositions are affecting lives. Jon Stewart simultaneously defended teachers by using the same logic that others used to support tax cuts for the rich and extraordinary Wall Street bonuses. (And how bizarre is it when Wisconsin’s senators are being chased by their government?) Education, health care, and safety nets are so far removed from normal debate that satire and farce may be the only way to address the issues. Pardon me as I shudder.

History encourages me. I enjoy reading autobiographies. Darwin, Franklin, and Gandhi lived amongst dysfunction and turmoil, much of which they initiated. In the midst of their winters they saw springs. I hope we find similar heroes. Charlie, Ben, and Mohandas (had to look that one up) were ridiculed, threatened, and in one case assassinated for the changes they championed. It doesn’t surprise me when Obama is verbally denigrated. I can’t remember who said it, but one sign that you’re fighting the right fight is that you’ve made enemies.

People encourage me. Recently I’ve attended two events, one that was public (GSEC) and one that was more private. At each, people were actively improving the world. They were doing so by taking the solutions available and applying them now, usually without expectation of reward. I know impressive people. There are about seven billion of us. The few that make things bizarre and dangerous could probably all fit on one cruise ship. They’d probably complain about the accommodations though. The rest of us can fix, heal, and cure a lot.

Spring is coming. In my garden and around my lawn I’ve transplanted and distributed plants from encumbered root balls. I’ve planted seeds, donated, bought, or saved from last year. I don’t know what will grown. I hope all of it. I expect some will fail. But the best defense during winter is to be patient, then look to and prepare for spring. Come on sunshine.

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Rainbow Morning

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

With astronomical precision and meteorological permission, sunshine came over the ridge behind my house. Across the Sound a storm is kicking up whitecaps and obscuring the Olympics with a mist. The two made a rainbow to start my day.  How much is that worth?

The storm’s center has not arrived. Within a few hours it will come and go. My friends in southwest Canada will feel the strongest energies from what a local, prominent, and entertaining meteorology professor calls a Pacific Hurricane. They’ll see winds much higher than those that are scattering the loose contents of my carport into the neighboring vacant lot. I’ll chase them down later. It will be windy here, it is windy here, but I won’t complain because I know that I am protected by place. Mountains and a turn in the storm’s path diminish the impact on my life.

That’s true of America in general. We have a privilege of place. Despite any border issues or trade disputes we have with Canada or Mexico, we are fortunate to have good neighbors. Our other major borders are massive coasts with oceans for moats. Maybe that’s why we beat ourselves up so much. Old countries on more fractured continents have histories of feuds and conflicts based on squiggly lines drawn across varied terrains. Cultures and societies are arbitrarily splintered. They can point fingers across a line and complain about those “others”. We tend to point at ourselves.

(Oops. There goes the power. Switch to batteries as various devices beep on and off around the house. A minor interruption in service.)

We can be a conflicted people, especially if we’re left to ourselves. Maybe that’s why we over-react to any threat.

I’m tired of it. One way to get me to tune out is for someone to start a conversation, or a presentation, or a sales pitch by drawing lines, borders and distinctions between “us” and “them”. This isn’t just a reaction to Americans or within America. It’s a human tendency. Everyone get to play. I probably do it too, but I don’t like it.

If you haven’t noticed it before, I am an extreme, independent moderate. I am convinced that the answer is in the middle and that no political party or general philosophy has the monopoly on truth or a panacea for ills medical and social. Maybe standing in the middle, or at least the middle as I perceive it, makes it easier for me to see that “us” is really “US”. There is no them.

My task of balancing life and money is persistent. It isn’t continual. I have to sleep sometime. It means though that I treasure time. I’ve had much more money than I do now. I suspect that I’ll have a lot more eventually, maybe soon. Time is different. I don’t want to waste it. But I am amazed at how much time people spend finding labels and camps to mentally organize those around them. Undoubtedly I do so too, but the biggest impact I see is when others start a conversation about “them” in which I don’t see a distinction. Paragraphs are spent negotiating populist boundaries rather than dealing with an issue of celebrating an event.

Liberal & conservative. Gay & straight. Young & old. Black & white. Ignore the media and it becomes easy to step back and see that they are not absolutes. Political values are not endpoints. There is an axis for every issue and positions can change with time. I think some unions are vital and some are anachronisms. I think some corporations are immoral and some are surprisingly sensitive. Gay and straight? Listen long enough and find that that continuum is infinitely diverse. Young and old aren’t only broken up into generations, or years, or days alive. Know any teens acting like they’re thirty? Know any seventy year olds that are childish or childlike? Black and white confuse me because I get analytical about it. We all have a common genetic heritage so how can anyone claim to be 100% white, or 100% black, or 100% anything except human?

Ah, but the battle of the sexes! Men & women. Nope. Rewrite men and women as their chromosomes: XY and XX. You missed a few letters. XXX, XXY, XYY all exist too. How many sexes do we really have? How much of all of our debates are cultural or habitual instead of biological?

Balancing time and money isn’t always about the numbers. Efficient use of time isn’t always about schedules and plans. I’ve found free time by accidentally forgetting names and associations. Maybe I’m alone in this (I am single, hmm – pause – keep typing Tom and think about this later), but I try to see people are people, a person as a person. I can honestly ask, “So, what’s happening with you today?” Of course I have preconceived notions. Someone coming at me with a raised fist and snarling is going to get a label of whacko, or whackee. But usually, most people, even ones that slap labels on themselves, are individuals, even if they’ve temporarily made themself subordinate to an arbitrary group identity.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to finish this and post it because the power has, at least temporarily, come back on. There’s no time to waste.

Where’d that rainbow go? Gotta go chase it.

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Short Comfort Zones

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Ha! You investment types probably think I’m thinking about stocks. Nope. Believe it or not, I’m typing about fashion. My clueless approach to clothes has somehow become my definable style. I wear shorts. And I’ve even learned a lesson by doing so.

My island friends may not believe that I wore suits and ties back in my days of corporate battlegrounds, proper posturing before suppliers and partners, and general attention to cultural norms. But the contrarian in me didn’t simply fall into step with everyone else. Like a good engineer, I tested the effects of improving each element of my attire, except of course for socks and underwear. I’d heard that dressing well made a difference, but I didn’t want to jump from that assertion to complete acceptance of a provincial business wardrobe. I wanted proof.

Without any great fashion plan, I started at work in 1980 at Boeing by wearing business casual before the term was invented. I didn’t have the money for anything more than chinos, some button down shirts, and a few ties. My one suit dated back to my high school prom. Shudder. Soon enough I realized that my primary business contact was a computer terminal. It never provided an opinion about how I was dressed. I relaxed.

Several years later I was spending less time programming in dark computer rooms and more time out where the people sat. I’d saved up some money, got my Masters, and started getting more attention. Piece by piece I varied my outfit. Sneakers were replaced by boat shoes, which were at least leather, and then by dress shoes. People noticed. I did the same with belts, slacks, ties, sports jackets, and suits. Ties, shoes, and jackets made the biggest difference.

Keep in mind that I was working with engineers. Getting any response about clothing was a surprise, and the responses usually weren’t verbal critiques. I was treated differently. It was easier to get noticed in a meeting. It seemed that I got more smiles, nods and hellos. I don’t think they were aware of any change on their part.

I didn’t maximize the effect. It was a curiosity to me: one observed personally and in how others were treated. Eventually I settled on a set of informal rules. Ties were good for big internal meetings. Suits were very good on business trips, especially if I was alone in representing the company, even more so if money was involved. The rest of the time I was clean and tidy, but not pricey or fancy.

After I retired, and especially after I became single again, my wardrobe narrowed down to shorts, sweats, and Carhartts unless I was hiking or skiing. I gained just enough weight to not fit back into the long pants and suits. I wonder if that was subconsciously arranged.

Now I am known as the guy who wears shorts all year long. Actually, especially on Whidbey and around Seattle I’m usually not the only one.

That’s my new comfort zone. Wearing long pants is a concession to rare occasions, hypothermic conditions, or laundry day. The Sweetheart’s Dance was semi-formal; so, jacket and tie above the waist, shorts below. Wind, rain, and cold are only enough if at least two of them show up together.

Yesterday I was attended a conference. The world wants our help so we got together. The world, however, was passing through winter, mid-twenties in the morning, maybe above freezing in the afternoon, back down to twenty after dinner. I was in shorts. And I was comfortable.

Folks had fun with my fashion choice. I did too. But I learned something today (a good thing to have happen often). Our comfort zones are broader than we realize. Many people thought I that I must be cold. I wasn’t. I’ve worn shorts  enough that my body recognizes this as my new norm. My comfort zone covers a wider temperature range now. The people that told me that I was probably cold were wrapped in layers of down and fleece. They looked cold. They looked somewhat afraid of their environment. Their comfort zones were pulled tight around them. I honestly don’t know, but do wonder, if their bodies would adapt to a broader norm if they let themselves realize that the first chill is maybe only a shiver, that isn’t a threat to health, and that may lead to a wider world.

Our comfort zones are killing us. Maybe that’s an overstatement, but the planet might appreciate our efforts if we didn’t fight it so much. We don’t know if our impact has too great. Maybe the earth can heal itself. Maybe the damage is irreversible. Maybe we’ll find a way through this that works for both of us. Our biggest hurdle seems to be our fear of losing our comforts, or convincing others to shift theirs, or whether life will even be worth living. I think our comfort zones may give us more to work with than we realize.

Change can be coupled with fear. Even in a “normal” life change is inevitable. In addition to that, our ecological, financial, and political worlds are changing. Reacting with fear can result in us wrapping ourselves up tighter within our comfort zones just when we need to open ourselves to other possibilities. Hiding from the cold can work, because eventually spring returns. Unfortunately, most changes aren’t that cyclic and predictable. Many of the changes before us are once in a lifetime, and maybe once in a civilization. Reacting to every challenge will be exhausting, but as long as we test each change to see if it only affects an old familiar comfort zone and doesn’t threaten health or life, then accepting that small nudge may free us up to concentrate  on more vital issues.

Our lifestyles will change, and I now realize how much further we have to go. Wearing shorts when it isn’t even snowing? Shouldn’t even be noticed. Living a year without getting into a car? Kurt Hoetling did it, wrote about it, and learned a lot about himself and his world. Very doable. Scared of balancing your checkbook or figuring out your taxes? It’s only numbers, well mostly. Want to topple a regime? Now you’re talking real guts and heroism. With that kind of courageous excursion from comfort we can change the world.

I wonder how many of those men were wearing shorts.

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Ignore The News

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Lindsay Lohan. That’s already too many syllables devoted to that topic. Recently I got rid of my satellite service. No dish. No cable contract. No rabbit ears. All the news I get is from friends and from the stream. I wondered if I was missing out during the recent uprisings, but a friend told me that on the networks celebrity news continues to trump reality. Uprisings or upstarts, sometimes I tune them all out.

Lets start with investing and get that over with.

Ten years ago, the Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily were favored places to find collected information and data. After being retired for a while, I started watching CNBC, mostly for the ticker, but partly to see what they were emphasizing. Internet speeds improved. Relative to my computer, the newspapers’ data continued to cost money and were out of date by a day. As deregulation and the financial crisis began, CNBC’s coverage seemed to become politicized and parochial. Some of their commentary struck me as derogatory towards anyone that wasn’t rich and living within the sphere of the financial elite. Watching it was only tenable if I left it on mute. Then I realized that the little useful info remaining could be attained with less time, effort and stress by cruising Google and Yahoo, with occasional side trips to the discussion boards on The Motley Fool and Investor Village. I traded inefficiency and stress for focused and free information.

World, national, and regional events are fascinating and vital. We are in the midst of societal changes that are far from academic. The health care debate is treated as an abstraction while people are dying from lack of care. If those were war statistics the military-industrial complex would be charging The Hill (Capitol) with proposals to save those at risk. The debates are heating up, and that’s good. People are becoming engaged. Maybe we’re just taking a circuitous route to real solutions.

Sadly, I’ve been told that despite such vital circumstances, the news remains fixated on the frivolous. Again, I retreat to the web where I can watch the news in healthily chunks without wasting time pondering the products of the paparazzi.

It snowed here on the island yesterday. One day’s snow is not a world-changing event, but it swamped the local news and the Facebook feeds. Events were cancelled. People dropped into their cocoons. There was much worry afoot. I’m from Pittsburgh and I love to ski. Driving in snow is not that big a deal, unless the snow is happening at sea level and there aren’t enough plows for the streets.

Stress comes from within, but it can be fertilized by external sources.

Yesterday, amidst my litany of worries and concerns, I noticed my neck tightening, my posture curving, and my face reddening. Then I laughed at myself. Look around and see what’s really happening, right here, right now.

My neighborhood was green. The snow hadn’t stuck. I looked across Puget Sound at the whitened wilderness of Olympic National Park. A friend called to point out an exotic and experimental Navy ship zipping by. A mating pair of bald eagles were making their parallel flights around the bay. The power was on. I felt much healthier than this time last year. There was even a weather window when the wind died and the sun came out. I went for a run.

The biggest real disappointments were a postponed dinner with a friend, a cancelled dance practice (but it will be back next week), and a delayed shipment of a book that I wanted to read.

The troubles of the world continue. Progress is made or maybe lost. But it doesn’t need my continual attention.

It is good to be aware of the rest of the world, its people, its issues, and what each of us can do. I think it is equally important to be aware of the immediate world. There’s a limit to how much worry each of us can carry. My doctors have proved to me that it is too easy to surpass that limit and create another worry: personal health. But worry is only one way to define a life.

Is there a limit to how much joy each of us can carry? I’ve never had a doctor tell me that I’ve been having too much fun. Joy is not common in the news, unless it’s the first name of a celebrity. My best source of joy has always been in my personal experience: a dance, a dinner with friends, laughing at myself, hearing good news. Yesterday I heard that a friend had driven dozens of snowy miles and braved a ferry crossing all to help another friend. I smiled and applauded, though no one else heard it. Joy is easily found within community, but it is even better when it is within eyesight, earshot and arm’s reach. (Though I am impressed how many smiles YouTube has produced.)

I watch the news to be aware of the world. But if I want to enjoy the world, sometimes the best way is to ignore the news. Turn it off, shut down the computer, and go for a walk.

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Poor To Rich

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Tom Trimbath

Unless we’re born wealthy, most people see themselves moving from poor to rich. That’s part of the American Dream. Anybody can make it with hard work and luck. Poor to rich also describes the way money flows, or doesn’t. I think there’s a lot of potential to move things the other way, from rich to poor. No reason for it all to only go one way.

If you read my previous post you already know that I spent time helping at the Global Social Entrepreneurial Competition, a student business competition hosted by the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Why do these things require so many syllables? Despite the long title the idea is simple. Can students sold the world’s problems? Well, of course they can, but most wait until they dive into their careers before taking on global issues like health care and poverty. GSEC makes it easier for them to start working now. I’m particularly pleased because this year two of my favorites won awards: Sanergy which tackles sanitation and energy, and Wello which makes it easier for people to get water.

One of the joys of retirement, or at least not being tied to a regular work week, is donating my time to such events. In proper fashion, the hosts conducted a feedback survey. Amongst a dozen or two questions they asked what I got out of the event. One of my responses was hope. It is impressive to see passion pointed at a problem coupled with pragmatic solutions.

The question made me realize that something was missing this time.

Recalling previous competitions, I realized that the businesses fell into three camps:

  • Selling things to poor people so they could live healthier or spend less,
  • Beginning businesses that allowed them to sell to each other, and
  • Establishing businesses for them that let them sell to the rest of the world.

More concisely the businesses were rich-to-poor, poor-to-poor, and poor-to-rich.

The greatest reduction of the gap between rich and poor, even without a business plan, is for money to flow from the rich to the poor. That’s been the basis of many charities, and is usually called donations. Unfortunately it is not readily sustainable. Large portions of fundraising budgets are devoted to raising funds precisely because the money flow is not self-sustaining. A few years ago, one of the GSEC companies, Kaite, was formed around the idea of Zimbabwe locals producing and selling soaps and oils made from native plants. The poor were selling to the rich. Some friends help run a business in Uganda called Bead for Life that produces jewelry from colorful recycled paper. The business is successful enough that the hundreds of bead makers are now able to build and own their houses. The business supports thousands of people. Money flows to people that can benefit from it greatly without using up local resources or diverting funds through innumerable intermediaries.

Which money transfer method is more efficient: traditional charity or local business? The business option, especially when the locals own it, is better for self-esteem. And I suspect that managing retail sales is more money efficient than fundraising.

Charities need other things than just money. A common mantra from some charities is, “Don’t give just us your money. Give us your time. It’s valuable too.” I spent three hours this morning clearing invasive holly trees from a land trust property. Whidbey Camano Land Trust definitely wanted volunteers for such grunt work. Grunting occurred. Scratches happen. Money wouldn’t make the problem go away. They need money too, but sometimes volunteer labor is handier though harder to find, especially on a frosty morning in February.

For me, balancing life and money hasn’t meant making a pile of dough and then lounging for decades. While I’d like to have more money, and have plenty of charities and initiatives that I’d like to fund, I am as likely to give my time as I am my money.

I do spend money. The way I invest and spend my money can be done in ways that help others, helps myself, and helps the planet.

I don’t buy much jewelry. I bought two of the necklaces basically for the fun of it. Jewelry isn’t my style. But I do buy local for wine, soap, tea, veggies, meat, liquor, and enough other stuff that  there’s no reason to lengthen this list. Whidbey Island has a diverse set of talented artists so even regular household items like rugs, glassware, cups, and cutting boards are local functional art pieces instead of mass-produced chunks of plastic.

So, here’s the fun part. Maybe a good way to contribute is to go shopping.

Shopping and consumerism are sometimes advocated as ways to spur the economy, but blindly buying brand name products isn’t nearly as efficient as spending a little more time to find something handmade, unique, and possibly a bit more expensive that puts money into the hands of an individual instead of the coffers of a corporation.

As money flows from rich-to-poor, people can flow from poor to, well, at least less poor. Look again at Bead for Life. Their motto is, “Eradicating Poverty One Bead at a Time.” People buying jewelry have resulted in thousands of improved lives and hundreds of homeowners. A business succeeded where charities hadn’t. Are the beadmakers poor? Poverty is relative. They are less poor than they were before. Are they rich? Maybe they aren’t buying condos in downtown Seattle, but you know that parts of their lives are richer than our culture.

The divide between rich and poor is most extreme when comparing “western civilization” with rural Africa and rural India, but there is poverty in America, and throughout the world. If nothing else, starving artists exist in every society. There is a lot of opportunity to go good and have fun doing it.

Poverty exists and charities are fighting it, but it can be somewhat alleviated by letting Americans do what so many Americans do well, go shopping. The American Dream, to rise from poor to rich, and while we’re at it, reach out and bring others along. That’s a very rich idea.

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