Friday Blog
Flourishing
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- By: Jon Turk
- In: Friday Blog
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"For someone your age you really should stop doing ..." Not the words you want to hear from anyone but those were precisely the words the Emergency Room doctor used to begin the conversation with me last Sunday evening. To set the full context for the conversation I had been working on replacing some rotted out fascia boards on my house that included the "bird box" on the gable end. Since this house is built on a pier and beam foundation with a 3 foot crawl space the roof line is about 10 feet off the ground. I had set up an adjustable step ladder and was standing on the second from the top wrung piecing the bird box together. The ground was a little bit uneven and the piece I was replacing was about 5 feet long so it required stretching a little bit to reach the ends if I didn't want to reposition the ladder. As I was stretching to the uphill side the ladder decided it no longer wanted to stand upright and deposited me on my back on the ground below. In my mind my ego was far more damaged than my body but my wife and daughter insisted I get medically checked out.
Last week on Thursday and Friday two candidates for President of Southwestern Adventist University were on campus and met with faculty and staff. Both candidates were asked to describe their plan for engaging faculty and staff with the vision and mission of the university. One of them, Nelu Nedelea, presented a very interesting concept - "I like to ask three questions, Who am I?, What is the context?, and What is my role." He went on to explain that generally the core of who we are doesn't change, we may grow and expand our sphere but our core beliefs and values do not change. The context and our role influence how we apply who we are to any given situation, but in the end who we are ultimately determines how we act.
This morning I had several people stop by the Innovation Studio to inquire about completing various projects. Most had become aware that with the school year wrapping up I would be working on tying up loose ends in preparation for our move to Tennessee. A couple of them commented to me "what is the University going to do when you are not here to run this place and do these projects?" Since I have been very intimately involved in the development and implementation of the Innovation Studio over the past three years that question, in one form or another, has been lingering in the back of my mind. I have a passion for this place and the possibility of it closing weighed heavily on my mind when I made the decision to move back to the Collegedale, Tennessee area a few weeks ago.
A few months ago I was watching an episode of the Canadian TV series Highway Thru Hell where Jamie Davis, owner of Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue, comments about a tow truck that is sitting in a parking lot lit up like a Christmas tree. His observation is how unnecessary it is to have all the lights flashing and that it actually increases danger rather than reducing it. His contention is that the flashing lights draw your attention away from the road toward the source of the lights increasing the probability of an accident because you miss what is right in front of you. I have heard for years that broken down cars parked on the side of the road with their hazard lights flashing at night will draw you to them causing you to wander off the road and onto the shoulder.
A few months ago the key fob that I carry to unlock the doors to our Buick Enclave started acting up. The buttons would stick down causing the lift gate to open or the alarm to go off spontaneously. After several attempts to clean the fob it became evident that I was going to need to replace it. After researching my options I discovered the key fobs for my model and year were NOT end user programmable. While I could buy the fob on Amazon I would need to take it to a locksmith (or worse, a dealer) to have it programmed. I consider myself a resourceful individual so I figured since the control board inside was fine it was just the button covers that were sticking, and it is the same shape and size as the original, I could purchase a new fob and just swap out the board. Little did I know that inside the battery contact setup was different - the new fob had a clip on the board to hold the battery but in the old fob the battery was secured in the case - making it difficult to swap out the boards. I did it anyway and tried to tape the battery in place with very limited success - the fob would open the doors one or two times before the battery would slip, losing contact so the fob stopped working. For the past two months I have been opening the doors with the key which triggers the alarm until the car is started. This has been very frustrating and I was coming to the conclusion I would have to give in and pay a locksmith to reprogram the fob.