Wisdom

Okay, so I went to the cleaners this past Monday, the first day of my 'working' spring vacation. I had a huge bag of clothes, as it's not often that I even get to go to the cleaners (doing laundry every week is enough of a challenge). When I do go, though, I always have a boat-load of clothes to be cleaned.

This is my regular cleaners, and putting 2 and 2 together, it became obvious to me that the white folks who own the cleaners are giving ownership over to an Asian family (an Asian woman was standing next to the white women who normally wait on me, learning what they do).

So, in addition to the clothes that need cleaning, there are 3 pairs of brand-new jeans that need to be hemmed. Usually I take them elsewhere to be hemmed, but to cut down on time, I did it all here. However, when the white women waiting on me told me they don't hem pants unless they clean them, too, I told them 'Never mind; I'll take the pants to be hemmed somewhere else and just pay my bill for the cleaning of my dress clothes." At my statement, the Asian woman held onto the 3 pairs of jeans and told me they'd hem them without cleaning them. What transpired was really interesting...

The white women insisted that the rule was to only hem pants if the customer paid to have them cleaned there, too. Politely, while trying to hurry with the rest of my order, the Asian woman told them, "It's okay; I take care of it," meaning she'd handle the exception. The white women's voices got louder, even saying there was no way to put in the computer hemming of pants without cleaning as well. Finally, the Asian woman, struggling over language, won the battle, getting the white women to use the old-fashioned way of receipting customers -- the duplicate copy receipt book -- so that I could receive the service desired.

Witnessing this long interchange, I admired the Asian woman's wisdom, though I felt sorry for her. Though her language and newness to that particular store's policy seemed lacking, she was really the smartest of the bunch. She saw what the two white women missed: the big picture. She saw the importance of making a small exception for a regular paying customer (who had a huge order) over dogmatically following the rules. Instantly I knew I'd return to the store, more often now than ever, because of this Asian woman's wisdom.

A Smile

So I was on this flight home from New Orleans (work conference), sitting between this grouchy teenage-looking, bi-racial-looking young man on my right and this over-middle-age white woman on my left. So I started reading the many magazines I'd bought before boarding. The white woman had to use the bathroom at one point and, afraid of disturbing the obviously irritated young man (whose eyes were closed and whose earphones were on), she intimated that at some point in the flight she might have to get up. Annoyed at the young man's attitude, I volunteered to be the 'bad cop' and awaken him. In return, when she got back from the lav, the white woman struck up a conversation with me. She mostly talked; I mostly listened. And what she shared put a big smile on my face...

Turns out this woman was a Methodist from Reno, who'd spent the past week with around 30 or so of her church members, helping renovate three homes in N.O. This woman shared her experiences and seemed genuinely interested in helping out ordinary folks whose lives were devastated due to Katrina over 3 years ago. As if this wasn't enough good news to me, the woman then shared how amazed she was to find a total of about 600 Methodists from all over who'd volunteered their time as well. There were others, too -- the 20 college kids using their spring break to lend a hand, and the two Christian women from another denomination who relocated to N.O. to coordinate the volunteer efforts of the Reno woman and many others.

Well, I was simply amazed and ecstatic at how these people of God have 'stepped up' (sorry about the cliche) and heeded God's command, or better yet, reflected the heart of God, in aiding those in need. And without any fanfare or publicity or anything like that. Truly awesome! Though I am still saddened that it's three years after The Storm and folks are still not made whole in terms of living conditions, I am grateful for God's folks doing His work. And before we landed, this woman and I were talking about how wonderful it would be to bring a group of my school students to N.O. for a week in the summer..... Hmmm.....

Female Leadership

Okay, so I've been thinking a lot lately about leadership, about how lonely and how hard it is, yet how absolutely critical it is to the success of any organization or group or enterprise. Both for myself and for work, I've renewed my focus on God and on my personal mission statement (the latter of which has a heavy leadership component). But I have been thinking about something (sorry for the rambling)...

Is there a gender bias with respect to what's acceptable in leadership? Do people accept a male leader who is firm and more autocratic than they do a female leader with the same qualities? Do people expect women leaders to be more nurturing and collaborative and such? Just some thoughts...