Every day, thousands of airport employees, airline staff, contractors, vendors, police and emergency responders move through controlled doors that separate public, secure and sterile spaces in an airport. Every major improvement ( and plenty of minor ones ) – from a humble pedestrian or vehicle gate to a billion-dollar terminal – involve this deceptively simple system.

What is there to know? You tap a badge, a “card reader” senses the info, talks to a central computer somewhere, you get approved and the door unlocks.

But behind this sequence are some fascinating technologies that center on a critical concept that we find ONLY in this application: trust.

Most travelers. operators and practitioners never think about trust at all in an airport, and the role of the ACS is to keep it that way. But consider some interesting questions that might be asked of people trying to enter the secure parts of an airport:

· Are you who you say you are?

· Are you authorized to be in this specific place at this moment?

· Is the digital system itself secure and trustworthy?

Modern airport access control systems answer those seemingly simple questions and establish trust through a series of interconnected decisions that combine credentialing, cryptography, secure communications, auditing and human processes.

Trustworthiness begins before a badge is issued. Every person applying for a security badge undergoes identity verification, confirmation of need, fingerprinting ( used to conduct a CHRC, for law enforcement enthusiasts in the audience ) and training. The ensuing credential represents more than a badge; it becomes a trusted digital identity.

The criticality of credentialing leads to an essential integration with the control system itself, a digital iceberg on which more than one owner has found its hull punctured.

Armed with a valid digital credential, the badge swiper enters a phantasmagorical world of cryptography and public key infrastructure. Instead of simply reading a badge number, modern access control systems use digital challenge-and-response. When a badge is presented, the reader sends it a small, unpredictable test. The badge must respond using a secret digital key that only a real, properly issued credential would possess. If the response is correct, the badge has effectively proven it is authentic—without ever revealing the secret itself. This is one of the key strengths of cryptography: it allows systems to verify identity without exposing the underlying sensitive information.

In many cases, the reader also proves itself in return. It may present its own digital proof that it is an approved airport device, not an unauthorized or tampered reader. This two-way verification is important because security depends on trusting both ends of the interaction. And this transaction must occur over an encypted communication channel. Encryption itself – a mesmerizing topic – has advanced exponentially since the Vigenère cypher of 1553.

Remainders of centuries of espionage!

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the underlying framework that manages these digital identity cards and the cryptographic keys used to create and verify them. PKI helps ensure that every device in the system is who it claims to be. A badge reader can confirm it is talking to a real airport security network, and the network can confirm it is communicating with an approved reader. This prevents attackers from inserting fake devices or impersonating trusted systems.

Auditing may strike fear in the hearts of taxpayers and fraudsters, but in the airport security world, auditing is one of our great blessings.

Whether a door opens or remains locked, the event is logged with the identity presented, the location, the time, and the decision made. The system protects these logs using cryptographic techniques so they cannot be easily changed after the fact. This creates a reliable record that can be used for investigations, compliance, and operational review.

Thus we return to the premise of trust. Just like our personal and professional relationships, trust grows in layers.

It begins with verifying a person’s identity. It continues with issuing a secure credential. It extends to authenticating readers, controllers, and servers. It relies on encrypted communications to protect information in transit. It evaluates authorization policies before making decisions. Finally, it preserves an auditable record of every action.

The access control system makes dozens of security decisions in milliseconds. Cryptography and PKI have verified and protected identities. Secure communications have protected sensitive information. Access policies have been evaluated. Audit records have been created.

It is a layered system of trust that allows people to move safely through a complex, high-consequence environment. When you see an airport employee tap a badge before disappearing through a secure door, or are designing an airport space requiring access control, don’t take that tap for granted. You are witness to an invisible trust system at work—one that quietly protects passengers, employees, and critical airport operations around the clock.

I began the quest under the auspices of the Airport Consultants Council, an excellent organization led by Mr. T.J. Schulz that represents the airport development industry. The ACC does outstanding work in several areas, including education, and I advanced the idea that we might all benefit from a series of shorts explaining what certain problematic terms mean.

Never took off. The person most interested in the matter was me. More precisely, the person most interested in producing anything about the matter was me. But ultimately, my stubbornness will prevail and others will follow – mysterium fidei. I should mention that my colleagues Mr. Nick Wnuk and Mr. Stuart Garrett have already made admirable contributions to the knowledge.

As part of my journey, I was encouraged into making a 3 minute clip using canva and it ended up as a Youtube video:

Digital Vocab Umbrella Terms

This one addresses “umbrella terms” that get used to describe the 40-50 digital and electronic systems that go into the functioning of a modern airport. Using various terms and thinking they mean the same thing is…..incorrect. It’s still up on the ACC website. I am unimpressed with my presentation skills. Influencers use the entire screen for their talking head, but this format properly and modestly reduces me to a small square, speaking to a few power-point slides. Even with this improvement, it is not a memorable performance.

Before I was a content creator, I was strictly a sybarite at the helm of Poor David’s Almanack and not too long ago, I took on the term “LiDAR” that featured a photo of the unusual character Christian Doppler, well worth a review if you don’t know what LiDAR is or who Doppler was.

So there you have it. A Youtube nobody asked for and, for those of you who continue to criticize me for not entering the video world, a reminder why that should always be thus.

Almanack Staff

I awaken with the sun, as humans are programmed to do. Here in Greater Allenspark Colorado, more about which in due course, sunrise on 18 July is about 5:30 am. Morning temperatures here, even in the height of summer, are still crisp, so awakening and arising can be separated by a brief period of contemplation.

However, the rule at Ben Almond is that crisp temperature or not, one must not allow the morning sun to be in the pine trees without being on the job. On the job means brewing coffee. Poor David’s apostolic morning routine always begins with the timeless alchemy of an intense dark coffee.

The roast quality is important. Only the darkest beans will do. When ordering coffee, attendants often greet my request for “coffee, very black” with a smirk, failing to understand that this is the standing morning coffee order for Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Coffee Very Black, like 007, is my motto. A nice Italian brew is ready in a few minutes.

Most people read the interweb news or surf the social media with their morning coffee. And I do too, but mostly I daydream. A timewaste you say? Nonsense! The archives are abundantly supplied with accomplished daydreamers. James Thurber based his most famous literary invention on this habit. Albert Einstein refined the Theory of Relativity. Are you at this instant rolling your eyes that I would arrogate these comparisons to a lazy dilettante blogger?

But then you asked where the Almanack has been, didn’t you? That’s where it’s been – in my head. So cut me some slack. It comes when it’s ready to come out of the magpie nest.

The garage at this place is a mess. But it is also a sacred site, which makes undertaking its revival a peculiar challenge. The “place” in question is a 50-acre parcel of Colorado high country rocky mountain igneous granite, ponderosa pines, quaking aspens, krummholz and kinnikinnik, anchored by two rudimentary log cabins constructed by physics professor brothers immediately after WWI. In the family, this is known by the unusual name Ben Almond. Almost all versions of this name origin are, like so many family tales, untrue. The most fabulous translation we’ve heard is “mountain full of Almys.” And so it has been for more than 100 years.

In any case, for a good deal of his adult life, Prof. Harold Lyman Kipp, who had married the daughter of one of the founding brothers, spent his summers conducting a wide range of engineering experiments from this log garage that I intended to address today. H.L. Kipp concocted various schemes for bringing water from Cow Creek to the cabin, removing stormwater from the property, securing the cabins for harsh winters, pressurizing water for domestic distribution, and impeding the free flow of chipmunks into the facilities. He also disliked horses and painted his own motto “No Horses” in large letters on boulders around Ben Almond.

As an engineer, my grandad was first rate. He taught at Texas Tech and the University of Kansas and served in several teaching and research capacities in the USAF. He was one of my heroes. But as a general contractor, HLK was a Nebraska farmhand….he used whatever materials he had at hand or could muster from Estes Park Lumber and made things work, with aesthetics a tertiary concern. And this garage was his shop.

Coffee cans full of hardware, various gripping tools, saw blades, resins, machine parts, picks, shovels. And for many years after HL was forced to abandon his practice, a local party of wood rats found the garage a friendly domicile. You may know the rather cute rodent by its colloquial name: the pack rat. I’ve had several run-ins with these inveterate nesters and unwitting visitors have even had their automobiles damaged by the feisty little fellows.

All of this had to go, especially the rodent habitat. Some implements and fishing gear have sentimental and practical value and could remain. It was an emotional morning.

That sort of psychological disturbance demanded a physical emollient. The ruggedness of the Rockies and high altitude offer no shortage of outlets, so I hiked down the Tahosa Valley and up Coyote Hill road, exhausting myself and completing a nice check on lower body, lung and heart function. 7000 steps, since you are counting, but those 7000 were hard work.

There is no cell service or television at Ben Almond. There was once a “party line” landline, of which my grandmother made comical use. And there was once satellite television which my parents enjoyed, but I removed it. It was not consistent with original intent, as some constitutional jurists say. I replaced it with a different constitutional offense: satellite internet. Careful ye shall be when it comes to judging.

The most fabulous use of internet is satellite radio, which brings every major league baseball game to this remote, but rodent free, hilltop. As you know because I remind you often, baseball is the thinking man’s game, and enjoyed most pleasantly on the radio, since my earliest age. The Saint Louis Cardinals played an unsuccessful hard nine against the Arizona Diamondbacks this afternoon. I appreciate competitive baseball and this summer, the Cardinals are far more competitive than the hapless Kansas City Royals, so more of my attention goes to the redbirds.

Listening to baseball on radio demands an active imagination, in addition to a knowledge of the game’s nuances. Baseball radio broadcasters are a beautiful species, as they understand the mind of the listener as well as the game.

Coffee, daydreaming, conserving a lifetime of mountain memories, liberating the lab from wood rats, appreciating the awesome beauty of my environment and listening to the Cardinals lose in nine.

That’s what I was doing instead of writing a desultory blog to entertain you on my birthday.

I’m going to restart my modest jihad with a topical, relatively simple but often-misapplied term: LiDAR.

Like it’s cousin, RaDAR, LiDAR is an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging { RaDAR is Radio Detection and Ranging } and both of these are photonic technologies based on electromagnetic wave production and analysis. LiDAR uses light waves produced by a laser and RaDAR uses radio waves produced by a radio transmitter.

In the airport business, LiDAR has been around for decades, beginning its laser life as a way to detect weather disturbances. Light waves transmitted and received in the atmosphere does a lovely job detecting things like turbulence, wind shear and precipitation, using the postulations of the troubled 19^th century Austrian physicist Christian Doppler.

Only recently has LiDAR made its way out of the clouds. Airports are now deploying, or thinking about deploying, LiDAR for applications like airfield object detection, intrusion detection, digital mapping, vehicle and people tracking.

The latter phrase – people tracking – excavates the rather American objection to privacy invasion. And here is where LiDAR shines most brightly; it does not produce an image, at least not in the traditional sense. Unlike a digital camera, the laser only detects distance and movement. The somewhat misleading marketing term “4D LiDAR” refers not to a psychedelic concept of a dimension beyond x, y and z, but rather a simple addition of velocity to an object’s location in space.

Misleading terms aside, LiDAR produces a series of data points called a “point cloud” that amounts to representations of objects. A specific person’s identity cannot be established, only that the object is a human ( not a ramp tug or a dinosaur ) and how that object is moving.

Airports interested in improving ramp or airfield operations, where passengers congregate, or how queueing works in practice thus have a nice way to do it that doesn’t inflame civil liberty concerns.

Artificial Intelligence has to be a top-tier candidate for future digital literacy posts. But for now, I’ll allow the intrusion of this noisy term only to the extent that most LiDAR system providers are introducing analytical engines that add potentially valuable reasoning and prediction to the images obtained.

A few days ago, a fellow from Topeka jumped a perimeter fence at the Kansas City airport and wandered around the AOA for some time until being apprehended peacefully at the terminal building. In this case, AI-enabled sensing ( whether camera or LiDAR ) would be able to evaluate whether this activity was normal or predictable, where this guy was headed, whether this had happened before and whether his trajectory was potentially harmful.

No substitute for a good guy with a gun, as this chap later claimed to be at MCI on a mission from God, with apologies to Jake and Elwood Blues. But there are significant benefits from this possible application of “predictive AI.”

Here endeth this edition of Poor David’s Airport Digital Literacy Almanack. We hope you’ve enjoy learning a little more about LiDAR and can now use it in a sentence competently.

Om shanti shanti!

“A man talks one way, acts another and thinks yet another.”

Despite weeks of labor, the Almanack research department has been unable to discover the source of this adage. Or is it a proverb? Clearly, they are over-reliant on the monstrous intelligence-gathering platforms. The best they can come up with is that this is a definition of hypocrisy and ‘speaking with forked tongue.’

I shall send them all away for the holidays for some egg-nog and mince pies.

No, this phrase reveals something much more than at first glance. It reflects the complexity of the human being and, more to the seasonal point, encourages a wide berth of tolerance for our fellows. How many of us have had the experience of being tongue-tied, unable to express what is in our brain? Have reacted verbally before thinking? Have thought too quickly before actions or words have revealed a fuller accounting?

I claim that these are not intentional serpent moves or acts of hypocrisy, but rather an intrinsic characteristic common to all of us. Very few of us escape the disordered triad of thought, act and voice. Today’s zeitgeist phrase – “no filter” – points to an immutable truth. We emit all sorts of intemperate things lacking reflection. It’s human.

My conclusion is that we owe everyone a holiday helping of grace, and perhaps even some celebration of our infirmities and limitations.

What to do about the purveyors of life’s little indignities? Liars, schemers, politicians, sociopaths, blasphemers, thieves and polymaniacs? Referral to local gendarmes aside, my recommendation is to heed to advice of the Emperor-Philosopher Marcus Aurelius:

“Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable… then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well. Just remember: you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so. In your interest, or in your nature.”

This takes some practice. We may act, say and think on hidden and divergent vectors, but in the end, we are infinitely interesting beings worthy of understanding.

Best wishes for a tolerant Mōdraniht!

Today, take just a two minute trip to Europe’s Middle Ages, and rediscover this gorgeous Marian antiphon known as the Alma Redemptorist Mater, translated as “Loving Mother of our Redeemer.”

What a way to announce a joyous season. If the Lyre of Orpheus opens the door to the underworld of feeling ( as claims the erratic lyricist ETA Hoffmann, in words given to him by the brilliant Robertson Davies ), then the human voice must guide us to the door.

The religious significance of this ancient hymn is less interesting to The Almanack than its Middle Ages context. The lyrics are said to come from a Benedictine polymath called Herman the Cripple in the early 11^th century, and the music some 500 years later by a 16^th century Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi la Palestrina.

Herman the Cripple lived in a way that most of us would find unbearable, living for most of his 41 years in a German abbey barely able to move, speak or see. What remains of life, one asks? For Herman, it seems, a great deal, as what was removed from his physical ability was vested in his mental faculties. Robbed of many of his capacities, he became a prodigious poet, historian, mathematician and composer. His mind continued to whirl in astonishing revolutions, as his body increasingly left him. Read here for an entertaining bit on the life of Blessed Hermann of Reichenau:

Herman the Cripple

The Roman church had, like many institutions with noble commencements, slowly disintegrated in Herman’s decades, under the influence of its own corruption. But its beliefs survived. Today, the Alma Redemptorist Mater antiphon is recited among the monkish faithful from the Advent through to Candlemas in February.

By the 1500s, Europe had begun to rethink man’s relation to the world and to God, and though not without its appalling excesses, the Italian rebirth did give us much to admire in the arts, including Sr. Palestrina’s beautiful setting of Herman’s hymn to Mary. All of this in a Hobbesian world where life was indeed nasty, brutish and short.

The haunting song of the Advent rests on belief. I am ever curious about the role belief plays in humanity’s survival and aspirations. Though religious belief is the fountainhead of today’s Christmas song, more generalized belief plays a huge role in how we experience life.

It plays a major role even in our secular understanding of the Christmas season. It underlies much of the creative work being done by artists, who “see” with their mind as well as their eyes. It plays a major role in our daily lives, whether knowingly or not, and it allows us to transcend, as in Herman’s case, the most crippling misfortunes.

So join us at Poor David’s Almanack in taking a recess this season from the degraded, clownish aspects of life in 2025. Consider the unseen elements of life and the essential mysteries of a world that even today we often look past too quickly.

Whether the problem is metaphysical or closer to the surface, one need not turn to the drink or the hallucinogenics for relief. Our strategeries here at The Almanack are 100% organic, gluten-free and, while possibly addictive, will enlighten without medical treatment.

Philosophers, theologians and even poets have had all sorts of fun with existential ( word soon to be retired due to scurrilous overuse ) questions about the meaning of life and what constitutes a good one. Modern sorcerers, such as therapists and influencers, treat the more prosaic symptoms: what if my friend ghosts me or my boss belittles me?

Today, though, we step away from these prescriptions and into the natural world: the natural world of mathematics. Regular readers know that I like to look in mathematics for analogous hints to answers for difficult questions, large or small. Mathematics, because it explains the natural order of things, has a certain beauty to me, and of course, we are all familiar with math problems, from the first grade on.

There are three kinds of math problems:

1. Those with infinite solutions, for example……4x+12=2x+12+2x

Interesting perhaps, but of no help to the mind. All answers work.

2. Those with singular solutions, for example….y = 693.8597- 68.7672 cosh(0.0100333x)

This one is sometimes beautiful ( it is the equation describing the gorgeous Gateway Arch in Saint Louis ), but very….specific.

Answers that are highly specific lead us away from the diversity of human thought and temperament.

3. Those with no solution, for example…..5x+7=3x+4+2x

Now here we have something quite interesting to work with, when it comes to major problems in life! There is no value of x that satisfies this equation; the outcome in this case is 7=4. Nonsense, or contradictory if you prefer.

Problems that have no answers or contradictory conclusions hold great promise, for contradiction is one constant in life.

Carl Jung the psychiatrist was on to something in 1938 when he wrote that … “all the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble…. They can never be solved, but only outgrown…”

OUTGROWN?

As usual with Dr. Jung, an odd choice of words to the modern ear, as if we could simply ignore our troubles and outgrow them like baby teeth. But his claim was that when a perplexing problem appears, with no solution available to the rational mind, a retreat from the exigency allows a wider view to take hold, reducing the urgency of the initial challenge.

Strangely, the idea of shedding a problem that has no immediate solution occurs in nature. When the mind is stuck, perhaps it is a signal to grow, and back to Rabbi Abraham Twerski’s Lobster we return.

This stimulus for growth is discomfort. The solution is to outgrow the problem.

Which is quite often the solution we come to with those 3am troubles. In most of life’s most serious questions, better sometimes to accept the contradiction of not having an answer and to let ourselves grow.

Bob Kipp’s advice to his son was to “ride the waves” in times of turmoil. Dad used this formulation with some regularity, suggesting that allowing the choppy water to carry you, rather than fighting it, was a better success strategy. Dad would be 93 now and his voice is as strong as ever. He didn’t know it, but he had the wisdom of timeless mathematics, analytical psychology and the lobster on his side.

May your problems have no direct answer, may you embrace that contradiction and allow it to be a signal for growth.

The basic error when it comes to accountability is one of misordering. According to our non-AI powered research department, the incantation of accountability-holding is 99% directed at someone else. 1% to oneself. The usual idea is to hold someone else accountable, yes? However, the more effective leader reverses this ratio. The first and arguably most important person to be held accountable is you.

I once heard an air force man refer to something he called the Seven Basic Responses that were taught to officers: yes sir, no sir, no excuse sir, sir may I make a statement, sir may I ask a question, sir I do not understand and sir I do not know. Substitute “ma’am” for “sir” as you will.

My favorite two are “sir no excuse” and “sir I don’t know.” The former breeds responsibility for the performance of one’s team, and the latter implies integrity and humility. When we are 99% responsible ourselves for meeting the terms of our contract, it has a marvelous educating and motivating effect on others. Which is a lot better than wasting time telling someone else where they’re failing. Own the responsibility yourself.

There’s a great song from Dwight Yoakam called “Blame the Vain” which tells the tale of a fellow narrowing down the list of people responsible for his romantic travails:

I blame it all on someone else

Till there’s nobody else

Then I just blame me

{This cut also features an excellent example of the curious instrument known as the B-Bender guitar, an Almanack favorite }

The second aspect of accountability that misses the mark is that it masks the single most predictive factor in organization success: having the right people on the team. The concept is brilliant in its simplicity: if you are spending time “holding people accountable,” it is a good bet that you have the wrong people. Take a moment to reflect on your own experience as a leader; how many performance problems and energy sinks disappear when you have a team of great people?

Here a fellow called Jim Dethmer, who writes a nice post on this subject and turns the conversation from accountability to mutual covenants. It squares with experience:

https://conscious.is/blogs/holding-people-accountable-is-ineffective-leadership

My final point on this matter is that the peculiarity of professional service firms ( most of my career has been spent in them ) argues against the holding accountable doctrine. Traditional supervisory projects are anachronistic in a setting where talent rules and high-impact talent is almost entirely non-fungible. Lose talent, lose clients, lose business.

High-impact practitioners don’t need to be reminded when they aren’t delivering the promised results. They know that more acutely than the commanding officer. What this demands is not a boss or manager, but a coach who sets an example, takes responsibility and inspires the best use of their talent.

The next time you are tempted to use the awful phrase, or hear it spoken by others, take a quick cleansing breath and ask 1. if you are living the accountability yourself first; 2. Is accountability what’s missing or do we simply not have the best people?

The thread that links them together is purpose and fulfillment. In each case, I was pleasantly surprised to find strong elements of meaning in whatever these people were doing.

2025 at Poor David’s Almanack headquarters thus dawns with a cordial invitation. An invitation to consider your own moments of impact. Although the question of whether and how people find purpose in their lives has interested me for several decades, the subject has acquired even more curiosity befitting a gentleman with white whiskers and glabrous pate.

Perhaps the world of work is for most of us a transactional exchange of labor for money and the world of leisure is nothing more than mindless amusement. I’ve always thought that this is not the case, but maybe this is an elevated level of hopefulness.

In any event, I invite readers to reflect on the following story, about finding purpose in any task. Then write to me if you experience moments of divinity ( I use the word in the broadest ecumenical and non-religious sense ) in your life, moments that produce a feeling of impact beyond the prosaic.

Write to me at kipp.david.almy@gmail.com. I would be delighted to hear from you about your moments of divinity.

This tale is about Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin and a taxi driver finding a purpose in life:

One night he struck up a conversation with his taxi driver. Learning he was a rabbi, the driver asked:

"What do you say to someone like me, Rabbi, who has not set foot in a synagogue since I was Bar Mitzvah, who is not religious?"

Rabbi Salkin replied, "We could talk about how you serve God in your work."

"What are you talking about? What does my job have to do with religion?" the driver asked.

"Do you realize that you are one of the tissues that connects humanity?"

The taxi driver replied: "Huh? What are you talking about? I just drive a taxi."

"Is that so? Well, right now you're taking me to the airport. Thanks to your efforts and skill,
I'll make my flight and hopefully get to my destination on time.

"There I will be giving a couple of lectures which may touch or even change somebody who hears me.
If so, you will have helped to make the connection between me and that person happen.

"And after you drop me off, you may take home someone from the hospital...
You will be a small part of her healing process. You will be an agent that will help
smooth her re-entry into normal life again.

"And then, who knows? You may take someone to see a dying parent or to the house of the person he or she is about to propose to.

"So, you see, you're a connector, a bridge-builder ...

"You are one of the many unnoticed people who make the world work as well as it does.
That is holy work, my friend. You may not realize that it is, but your work is just as sacred as mine is any day."

Although not as widely available as it should be, pastrami is the king of sandwiches and on this day, it was an excellent antidote to a horrifying loss earlier in the morning by the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team, at the hands of the hated Missouri Tigers. Any loss to the substandard “Mizzou” is an insult, but this loss was particularly appalling and Factor’s Famous Deli pastrami was soothing my aches.

Perhaps not surprising that Los Angeles is home to some of the best Jewish delicatessens outside New York, it should be a goal of pastrami-on-rye enthusiasts everywhere to visit all of them. But what caught my attention on this visit was the menu’s brief tale of Factor’s.

It was owned and operated by the Markowitz family since 1948, and my mind wandered to the post-war halcyon days of Beverly Hills, when the blossoming moving picture business lured so many New Yorkers to the swaying palm trees of Southern California. Yes, that was Irving Berlin in Beverly Hills in 1942, writing “White Christmas,” although not at Factor’s Famous Deli.

These delicatessens, with their pastrami and corned beef, knishes and matzo balls, brought ethnic east coast comfort to the immigrants!

Hearing the name Markowitz called to mind one of my favorite jokes. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks would talk about a rabbi who saw Markowitz and Goldberg regularly in his synagogue. Goldberg was a man of his faith, but the rabbi knew that Markowitz was an avowed atheist. Curious about this, he approached Markowitz one day and asked why he was in synagogue so often, since he was a non-believer.

“Oh, that’s easy,” says Markowitz. “Goldberg goes to talk to God. I go to talk to Goldberg.”

That’s a haha or LOL moment, but “I go to talk to Goldberg’ contains essential wisdom well beyond a Henny Youngman one-liner. I suspect this is why many people of all persuasions go to church. Or ballgames, restaurants, theaters, covfefe shops and book groups. We are social animals, designed or evolved for intertwining with others.

Rabbi Sacks used the Markowitz joke to make a larger and more secular point about what he called “cultural climate change” and the inversion of a traditional and ancient We culture to an I culture. In his fortune-telling, Sacks believed that recovery of this essential human tendency is the key to a morally healthy society. The holiday season can elicit very old and seemingly inchoate feelings about our relationships and responsibilities to one another, providing nourishing relief from the atomized focus on our own interests.

But the tendency to connect and relate is in us from the beginning. Modern life is piled as high as a Factor’s pastrami sandwich with invitations to self-interest. It is easy to slouch into unattractive habits – how many of us in the business world are thinking about how much we can get from a customer rather than how much we can offer them? – and, in more despondent cases, myriad manifestations of disordered thought. Depression, anxiety, suicide, psychotropic substances, criminality; these are the hallmarks of an I culture and a profoundly mistaken course.

The I world has covered up our intrinsic desire for community and need for social bond. Sages for millenia have taught that the remedy is in the We. The very simple act of changing the lens on our internal camera to what can be learned from and done for others can change the climate.

All of this from a pastrami-on-rye and a delicious crunchy pickle. So exercise your humanity and go to talk to Goldberg. Do what is right for others and without thought of what may be received.

And Happy Holidays from Poor David’s Almanack.

Professor Paese in his own words:

Investigate What Is Present

The present moment is the only “moment” we ever experience.

To say it “has always been this way” or “will always be this way” is misleading because these phrases imply notions – “past” and “future” – we do not experience. We experience thoughts about “past” and “future,” of course, but these thoughts only occur in the present moment.

Even the word “present” is misleading, as it implies that we experience moments that are not present. We do not. We experience only what is present. Likewise, the words “moment” and “moments” are misleading, as they imply that there is more than one moment. There is not. There is only one infinite moment, this moment. Or, simply, This.

This is plainly without beginning or end. Just look for yourself and see. This constitutes all that is. How could all have a beginning or end? If This were to have either, it would obviously not be all. If This were to have had a beginning, This would have to have arisen in something, and that something would have to be “bigger” than This. If This were to have an ending, it would likewise have to end in something bigger than itself. But looking and seeing what is, This is self-evidently all. Of course, we can imagine something “greater-than-This” having created This, but any such imagining is more thinking about things that are not present. Ironically enough, any imagining about This having been created by something “greater-than-This” is merely a thought arising in This! This cannot be escaped. This is all we can know.

All “things,” including thoughts, arise in This. All “things” begin and end. All “things” change. This, on the other hand, is both constant and infinite.

All thinking, no matter how intricate or sophisticated, arises presently in eternal This. No matter what we are thinking, the thinking itself is happening presently. Yet the what, despite happening presently, includes imagined entities that are not present in our experience. These imaginary entities are the ultimate parlor trick. One such entity, and the focus of this essay, is time. (The other two imagined entities, space and matter, are not discussed here because their roles in the parlor trick are more difficult to expose, at least for Pawl.)

We can only speculate as to how and why present-moment thinking imagines things like “past” and “future” that are not present. That thinking does so is beyond dispute, however. Look and see. All experience is present experience. All thinking happens presently. Thinking may include thoughts about “past” or “future,” but the thinking itself is, without exception, a present-moment happening. This is a directly observable, undeniable fact.

And this fact isn’t just an idle curiosity. This fact cuts to the very core of what we are. Whatever we are has to be present now. Given that what we think about includes imaginings (like “past” and “future”) that are not present, what we think about cannot be what we are. What we are can only be what is present.

Now investigate: What is present? Whatever you find is what you are. It bears repeating that what is present is not what you think about. What you are is what you find prior to thinking about it. Investigate this question, over and over if necessary, knowing that what you are has to be what is present.

Investigating what is present exposes what you are. Investigate ruthlessly. See if you can find anything other than present-moment unfolding.

Present-moment unfolding is what you are. It’s what we all are. One present-moment source spills forth unceasingly. We are that one source, constant and infinite.

“If I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.”

Some sources attribute the phrase to the film mogul Samuel Goldwyn, but our money is on Pete, who left a deep pool of memorable lines. Attributions notwithstanding though, spouting opinions is a saturated market. Especially here, and especially now, when opinions - wise, wacky and everything in between and beyond – are emitted unabated.

Who cares what Poor David has to say? More to the point, who asked for his opinion?

Today’s maxim is therefore. in the lexicon of the day, just left here. Casual and otherwise satisfied readers can easily scroll past it undisturbed, and future readers can come back to discover it as a source of ancient wisdom.

Almanack Autumn Wisdom:

One of the most fulfilling and fruitful things you can do in life is to be Really Good at something.

What the something is has a thousand answers. Leaving aside miscreancy, savantism and other forms of intrinsic genius, examples abound of people who are extraordinarily good at something.

In my professional work, we often work with designers, contractors, architects, construction managers, project managers and subject matter experts in all fields of engineering and technology. It is not difficult to spot the ones having genuine depth and artistry in their work.

There is a common shibboleth that excellence in a craft equates to arrogance and difficulty working with others. My experience is the opposite. Professionals who are Really Good at what they do are often the most attractive people to work with, and the least likely to call undue attention to themselves.

I had a recent conversation with a friend and colleague, in which he brought up the notion that some people become very good at synthesizing the ideas and perspectives of others. This is the trust and team-building expertise. When we think about expertise and being Really Good at something, our thoughts often go to individuals who are deeply skilled in a specialty: a cardiologist, a master electrician or an elite third baseman. There are also scholar-practitioners who excel in team leadership environments.

The conversation quickly led me back to one of the Almanack’s regular guests, Mr. Howard Gardner, and his theory of multiple intelligences. In this short clip from some years ago, Professor Gardner explains the basics of his multiple intelligence theory:

Anyone tasked with the leadership of a team will easily recognize most if not all of the 9 intelligence manifestations:

·      Linguistic Intelligence (word smart)

·      Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (number/reasoning smart)

·      Spatial Intelligence (picture smart)

·      Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (body smart)

·      Musical Intelligence (music smart)

·      Interpersonal Intelligence (people smart)

·      Intrapersonal Intelligence (self-smart)

·      Naturalist intelligence (nature smart)

·      Critical Evaluation

People who become Really Good at building teams from a collection of talented individuals, with many different intelligence vectors, may be just as fulfilled and passionate as those with narrower disciplines.

I am unsubscribed to the recent stratagem that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become el maestro at a craft. That made the business-speak rounds a few years ago, but I see curiosity, enthusiasm and appreciative inquiry as significant accelerants.

Learning to be Really Good at something is within reach of everyone, with just some reframing of objectives. Rather than look at financial outcomes as a sole measure of success, look at the expertise that leads to the outcome and ask yourself if, with apologies to the Stoic Ethicists and sardonic guitarist Leo Kottke, whether a virtuoso is his own reward.

“The honorable is the perfect Good and the happy life is fulfilled thereby; through its influence other things are also rendered good.” – Seneca the Younger

Words Words Words

Professor Hamilton refers us to the lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner, and may be forgiven for his truncation of Eliza Doolittle to “Liza”:

“Words! Words! Words! – I’m so sick of words,” an exasperated Liza Doolittle cries in the popular 1960s Broadway musical “My Fair Lady.” “I get words all day through; first from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?”

I rise today to praise a word that appeals to blighters and non-blighters alike: diversity. Does the mention of the word cause you to be on alert, ready for a triggering event? Not to worry, anxious readers. The Almanack is a safe space.

Over a typical week of commercial aviation flying in the US, I conducted an extensive survey of my fellow travelers. I observed a splendidly diverse community. A few examples:

Non-ambulatory people, people with whiskers, Anglican clergymen wearing cassocks, people on holiday, redheads, people wearing Crocs ( against my recommendation ), angry people, yo-yo performers, business-men, people who smell of marijuana, bedazzled ladies, dogs, small children in strollers, people who speak Spanish or Korean or Tagalog, people with a great deal of tattoos, nuns ( flying ), muscular gentlemen, abnormally tall people, military people, people with vulgar language skills.

Flying recalls a sturdy and memorable jingle for frankfurters from my childhood:

Kids with Chicken Pox are unlikely to be in our airports, but the rest of them are. And more.

For those seeking a fine example of organic diversity and inclusion, the aviation industry has much to offer. And for the true seekers, those searching for higher ground amidst the noisy clamor demanding mandatory diversity, I recommend airports for spiritual uplift.

All lawful travelers and spectators are welcome, with no discrimination along the usual lines. Come as you are!  You may have a pleasant, frustrating or horrible experience ( most are quite pleasant compared to, say, driving 14 hours to Saint Paul in February ), but it will not be because of your intrinsic characteristics or personal preferences. Unless your personal preference is to carry a loaded elk rifle, your freedom is quite broad and your outcomes impersonal.

Air travel is a democratizing project. About 3 million people fly somewhere in the United States each day. Like the people I saw in my diversity sample, travelers come from everywhere in the world, have near infinite differences in attitudes, appearances, backgrounds and beliefs, but manage to get along quite nicely. Better now without the masques.

And it is also relatively egalitarian: with the mild exception of those with elite status, everyone travels much the same. Nobody is denied a burger or a Starbucks, a seat on the jet, WiFi service or a concerning restroom visit. Nor do diversity consultants or protesters arise to categorize the population and to insist on so many of these and so many of those. In fact, I don’t think that impulse occurs to anyone at all.

So what’s the difference between this productive and natural diversity and the sour and dispiriting version we sometimes experience?

Perhaps it has to do with where we choose to place our attention. Certainly we have placed increasing attention on the word diversity in modern times, based on my review of the Etymology Dictionary N-gram for the word.

In the classical sense of diversus, it is a natural condition that simply refers to differences and thus attention is directed elsewhere – possibly to a shared purpose.

In the constricted sense of our zeitgeist, diversity is framed in deficiencies, and attention is directed to corrective purposes – and blame. Both focal points have their place, but emphasis on deficiency vs common enterprise will almost always have a less welcoming mien.

Considering the astonishing technologies involved in hurtling in the heavens at 600 miles per hour, our air travel system has stunning capabilities for safe, reliable and comfortable delivery of human cargo.

It is a model of technical superiority. Now it is a positive model of diversity and inclusion too. It is worth pondering what lessons can be drawn from airports and aviation.

Video and antisocial media is where the action is. Our attentiveness has atrophied to “reels” featuring happy shiny people delivering anodyne content and self-promotional pablum. Arcane 800-word outbursts are vestiges of a bygone past.

If you ask me what happened to PDA, my answer is, like many answers to questions demanding my introspection, “I’m not sure.”

Not being sure is a constant in my life. But uncertainty is a general condition of all lives, so it’s a convenient dodge. Mumbling ‘I don’t know’ is not really an adult answer, to those two or three readers whose paths produce a thirst that only a regular review of The Almanack can slake. More crucial, it isn’t a satisfying answer for the writer, who is perhaps the fundamental target audience for these missives.

The 6-month sabbatical may be explained by one or more exigent environmental factors. Check all that you think might apply:

o   Became a proud grandfather

o   Lost my mom

o   Moved to ancestral hometown

o   Accepted a new role at firm

o   Children escaped the nest

In the mathematics and kultursmog trades, these are known as inflection points, where the curve takes a different direction. But I think of them as reflection points, and reflection takes some time. The events of late 2023 leading to the leave of absence were joyful, expectant, grievous and melancholy in variable proportions.

The other possibility - a most unattractive and self-indulgent one - is that I was enjoying life as a late-stage boulevardier and became lazy. Conjuring up excuses to avoid work is the mark of the sybarite, a reflection one would rather not admit.

However, it is now July, and the time is upon us to get on with it. July, You’re a Woman, after all, and with apologies to the Wiener Shule, nobody can stir an awakening like her. I offer three different versions of this nice musical theme to begin the month.

The original song July You’re a Woman is more than 50 years old and remains a popular tune. It was written and first performed by the 1960s California folkie John Stewart, after he left The Kingston Trio. I believe this is Stewart’s second incarnation circa 1969:

The Minnesotan John Gorka, a longtime Almanack favorite, also appreciates the song and gives it a nice solo acoustic version here:

And finally, a Dave Alvin/Jimmie Dale Gilmore collaboration, from the excellent record of 2018 called Downey to Lubbock, reflecting their respective homelands:

July You’re a Woman can take on multiple meanings, depending on where your reflection points lie. The July wind here blows hot, because there’s not a lot to stop it coming from Oklahoma or Colorado. In reflective moments, it carries notes that can be both soothing and sad.

Mark Helprin, one of the most lyrical living writers, wrote a beautiful book called Memoir from Antproof Case, which included a testament to the power of memory and devotion:

I was graduated from the finest school, which is that of the love between parent and child. Though the world is constructed to serve glory, success, and strength, one loves one’s parents and one’s children despite their failings and weaknesses – sometimes even more on account of them. In this school you learn the measure not of power, but of love; not of victory, but of grace; not of triumph, but forgiveness. You learn as well, and sometimes, as I did, you learn early, that love can overcome death, and that what is required of you in this is memory and devotion. Memory and devotion. To keep your love alive you must be willing to be obstinate, and irrational, and true, to fashion your entire life as a construct, a metaphor, a fiction, a device for the exercise of faith. Without this, you will live like a beast and have nothing but an aching heart. With it, your heart, though broken, will be full, and you will stay in the fight unto the very last.

July, you’re a woman. Ad extremum verbum.

Neither the glad tidings and pacific calls of Christmas, nor the mystery of the winter solstice, can completely overcome the turbulence of our times. There are just too many ways things seem to have gone seriously wrong.

Thus, the Christmas Vespers edition of Poor David’s Almanack turns lightly to the imperatives of conscience.

My dad would sometimes issue his summa theologica on matters requiring action under conflict: “do the right thing.” A deceptively simple maxim. I suspect, with only soft evidence, that dad’s thinking was richly influenced by his acquaintance with the Jesuits at Saint Louis University. He spoke with admiration for his unlikely studies there during the Korean War. Dad took classes at SLU in the evenings while stationed at Scott AFB and learned the rudiments of Catholic thinking, which he kept his entire life. He was attracted to the thinking of the Jesuits because it was rigorous and definitive.

Doing the right thing is a bit weightier than at first glance. Popular emissions often take the form of acting in accordance with one’s inmost feelings or acting in the greater interest rather than in self-interest. The Almanack rejects these notions, with appreciation for the inclinations that spawn them.

The cornerstone of doing right is the conscience. Conscience guides us in the discrimination between right and wrong, and we are unable to navigate turbulence unless and until we can exercise judgment clearly. The healthy functioning of the mind doesn’t occur automatically or without effort and training. In fact, it is prone to malfunctioning. The education of conscience can go wrong badly. The current zeitgeist of imagined authoritarianism notwithstanding, recent history is replete with actual authoritarians who acted with incorrect consciences. Millions perished in their evil schemes. Such errors are known in the Catholic world as “disordered thinking.” A lovely phrase that speaks to the magnificent human ability to correct our thinking.

The development of good conscience requires education. And the proper founding of our conscience starts with an underused word: interiority. Interiority is the disposition toward seeing our inner state clearly, as we might see the bottom of a lake in still water. Some advocate meditation, others yoga or immersion in nature, and still others prayer. The path is less important than the destination. Only a mind freed from clutter and detritus can host an educated conscience.

Regular Almanack readers have met several saints over the years and when it comes to interiority, none surpass the excellence of the Algerian Augustine of Hippo.

"Do not look outside; return to yourself. In our interior the truth resides. Go inside, where the light of reason is illumined."

Saint Augustine urges us not only to look inward for clarity. He proposes that the inner sanctum is where truth and reason originate. Christmastide, which of course begins today and extends to the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, is the perfect time to drop in on the conscience for a visit. Who knows what disordered little devils lurk there, awaiting our corrective tutelage? I know there are a few in mine.

In keeping with the Catholic theme, I recently uncovered an excellent document produced by the Vatican in 1965 called Gaudium et Spes, in which the church addressed itself to the troubled world of that time. Its words still ring true. Among the many pearls of wisdom is this passage concerning conscience:

“Deep within their conscience a person discovers a law which they have not laid upon themselves but which they must obey. Its voice ever calling them to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sound in the heart at the right moment…. For a person has in their heart a law inscribed by God…. Their conscience is a person’s most secret core and sanctuary. There they are alone with God whose voice echoes in their depths.”

Whether inscription by God is your fountainhead of moral clarity or not, the essence of a well-tempered conscience is the internal voice that knows right from wrong and that can guide actions.

Amidst the merriment of the season and the traditions both sacred and secular, the entire staff of PDA wishes you a feast for your conscience that results in worthy actions in 2024.

Fiat lux!

However, I think this problem deserves dissection. When an article in the celebrated Harvard Business Review declares that ego is the enemy of good leadership, it makes one wonder why something as fundamental as an ego might cause such difficulties. By the way, despite my obtuse disagreement with the title, the article is well worth reading.

Ego is the Enemy of Good Leadership

 Isn’t having an ego part of being a human?

Yes. In psychological terms, we are all born with a set of innate tendencies plus awareness of our external environment, all of which constitutes what ancient people called The Self. The awareness part of that - the ability to sense, adapt and act – gives rise to our ego. A person without it is vegetative, unable to survive except in the narrowest sense and unable to comprehend or aspire to any higher purpose.

My experience with teams is that ego is not the enemy, and in fact healthy teams have a lot of healthy egos. Groups like this have what is called in the DEI racket “viewpoint diversity.” Egos are infinite in their variability and in great teams, people feel free to express their unique viewpoints, and listen appreciatively to others too. They apprehend the perspectives and emotions of others in relation to their own, something no computer-originated “thinking” can do. Or ever do.

Several weeks ago, I took to the keyboard in a bit of merry-making with a post skewering ChatGPT, a harmless if superficial sendup of artificial intelligence. AI is a far more providential development than I acknowledged in the post, but it still has significant limitations and the one I find interesting has to do with group dynamics and the roles of personality, temperament, ego and…..hubris.

Interpersonal and organizational challenges originate not in ego, but in hubris. An old word, hubris, originally used to describe a transgression against the gods. Writing in the French journal Le Monde, Mme. Elizabeth Roudinesco sums up hubris nicely:

Hubris (or hybris, translated as "excess"), is a notion which, in ancient Greece, refers to excessive attitudes: passion, pride, outrage, crime, transgression. In short, the term is opposed to temperance and reason (logos). The man who indulges in excess is condemning himself for having defied the gods. Therefore, hubris is inseparable from Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, charged with punishing whoever has indulged in such intoxication in any form. But things are not so simple, since the Greek who is affected by excess is also the victim of fate – Moira – which commands that everyone hold their place in the universe and respect their share of good and evil, of fortune and misfortune. We know how rarely heroes are capable of such dull wisdom. In other words, hubris is tied to the idea that human history – that is, History – is tragic, the subject being condemned to restrain his hubris or risk destruction, while remaining unaware of what History is doing to him or her.

Oedipus, the king of Thebes who was affected by excess after defeating the Sphinx, is the prototype of the tragic hero, bound to discover that, unknowingly, he is a "abhorrent," having killed his father and married his mother. Once the truth is revealed, he will obey his destiny (Moira) by gouging out his eyes (nemesis). He will become the expiatory victim – or the remedy (pharmakos) – required for the purification of the city. So, excessiveness leads to the annihilation of self.

Classically, those infected with hubris eventually self-destruct. But the short term leadership problem persists. A hubristic colleague or -worse – a person with hubristic tendencies advanced into upper ranks is a pox upon any squad. What is our way of proceeding with such a person?

Always first is a look in the mirror. Mental illness or other serious psychological disorder notwithstanding, the person at the center of your control volume is you. We all know when we are exhibiting unpleasant impulses and failing to meet our social contract. We know. So job one is to discover whether we are modeling upright leadership traits. We are created perfectly imperfect; the review is not for perfection but for progress toward being better.

Our second assignment requires compassionate courage. Left unaddressed, hubris can be as transmittable as SARS-CoV-2 and no quarantine will help it. The problem can be aggravated when the perp is able to create an apprentice team of fellow hubrists. This would result in the cast of the popular TV show Suits, about a group of fabulously dressed New York attorneys with moderate to severe narcissistic disorders. Cats of this stripe must be counseled and encouraged to relocate to more suitable habitats.

As we approach the Advent and the heart of the holiday season, make sure the wonderful ego given to you at birth is strong and healthy, that you are lifting the precious egos of those around you and that you are careful with the eggnog of hubris.

If you asked my Mom where she grew up, she would say California. Southern California specifically: La Jolla and Long Beach. And this was a fact, although perhaps not the most formative one for her.

The southern plains of the United States in the 1930s suffered two devastations: The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. If, like Debbie Kipp, you were born on November 18, 1936 in Gracemont Oklahoma ( pop. 300 ), your family circumstances were difficult. When the wind and dust finally blew away the cotton and livelihoods from west central Oklahoma, Lura Womack toted her young daughter Deborah and son Stan out where the work was. Building WWII airplanes in California. And that’s how Mom got to the Golden State.

Debbie Kipp, as a result, carried dual citizenship. One was sunshine, avocados ( which she loved, along with California figs ), sea waves and palm trees. The other, less romantic but sturdier, was hard-scrabble and perhaps more than somewhat familiar with the vicissitudes of life

The last words I heard her speak were, “Thank You.” She was probably thanking her daughter-in-law Andrea for rubbing her hands with hand-cream ( always greeted with gentle appreciation ). It was honest gratitude from a remarkable woman who lived long and never forgot to say thanks for the basics. She knew what life was like without.

Most people who know Mom’s biographical sketch know her as a Kansas Citian, where she spent most of her adult life with my dad, and where my brother and I grew up. There were early years in Lawrence KS and a few years in small towns in southwestern Ohio, supporting her husband’s young career. The relentless winter gray in the Ohio Valley did not agree with her heliotropic nature.

She was no more than 25 then, in a place she didn’t love and with two little guys to take care of. It’s always interesting what registers in permanent memory as a child. Mom never expressed a huge interest in music, but in the early 1960s, she was doing what lots of young women were doing: spinning Sinatra and Nat Cole records on the phonograph. Probably at 78 rpm. You may wonder why I fuss around with all that old American Songbook music now……it’s the first music I heard as a child. From my Mom.

Debbie Kipp’s inmost well contained the sensitive, compassionate side few knew or saw. She sewed. She painted. She was mesmerized by Kansas and Colorado sunsets. She kept close track of birds. All birds, and Hummingbirds especially. Deer. Elk. Bears. All mammals, and dogs especially.

Did Mom love her dogs! Your dogs too. We were never quite certain where the dog-loving came from, but she adored the furry quadruped tail-waggers in her life. In early career, there was Muttley, Duchess and Holly, then my brother’s dogs Rikki, Chumley, Gertie and Katie who became mom’s loves. Dave and Andrea’s Texas dogs Hank and Billie. And not ever to be forgotten, our cousin Kristi’s dog Brady, who goes by the name Scruffy in our family. Scruffy was an ever-present source of joy for Mom, more acutely as her health declined.

Debbie’s mom Lura lived to be 96 and throughout her life, she had Pomeranians, all bearing the same name ( Skoshie ). The last Skoshie in the lineage was an unpleasant little fellow who growled and snapped at anyone within reach, but he had no teeth, so the ferocities acquired a comical caste. Mom inherited the little monster when Lura was unable to deal with him. This was perhaps the most impressive example of canine love without limitation. Mom doted on Skoshie like a beloved grandchild and that horrible dog followed mom around like a religious devotee.

Mom’s beloved human grandchildren are Steve, Woody, Jasper and Archie. The boys all have fond recollections of Grandma Debbie and her warm embrace of their boyish antics. Nothing brought her blue eyes to life more than those boys. And she even added a GREAT grandson to her family before saying goodbye. Jackson Kipp will have never known Debbie Kipp, but perhaps he will hear the family stories or stumble across this one day and get a sense of his dad’s grandma.

Mom was never really a long-suffering mother, but she could play that role with great opera buffa effect. One of her sons – a lifelong nuisance and mirth-maker – was forever involving her in his tall tales. She would gamely play along, only later to retell the stories with mock horror and amusement. A perfectly delightful foil and to her last days, she would announce to her fellow residents that this son was not to be trusted and nothing he said could be believed. Love came with a twinkle in her eye.

Her other son Steve was better behaved in every way. And she also loved him with every fiber she had. In fact, if you were lucky enough to be in Debbie Kipp’s orbit, love was your steady companion, even when and maybe especially when you needed it.

My Mom, Deborah Yvonne Kipp, passed away peacefully in Kansas City on October19. She was a month shy of her 87^th birthday.

Requiescat in pace Mom. You chased away the darkness and made the world just a little more perfect.

Curious consumers eager to know how these two worlds collided should identify themselves and look forward to a tale only slightly less interesting than her post itself.

Someone once wisely stated that three things should never have control over you: money, other people, and your past. This perfectly illustrates the concept that simplicity does not necessarily equate to ease of execution. There was a time in my life when I thought the three aforementioned things were the end all and be all of everyone’s lives, including my own. However, my journey through leadership development, working with diverse groups such as high school students, early career professionals, college students, and senior-level executives, has given me a profound appreciation for Marcus Aurelius' wisdom: “Confine yourself to the present.” We are the architects of our lives and set the tone for all our relationships, most significantly, our relationship with ourselves.

Self-mastery is the ability to control and manage one's thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and impulses with a high degree of discipline and self-control. It involves gaining mastery over one's own desires, fears, and weaknesses in order to achieve personal growth, inner peace, and the realization of one's potential. As the founder of Sacred Sovereign Consulting LLC, self-mastery lies at the core of my mission and motivation. I empower women and girls aged 12 and older to confidently occupy their rightful space and embrace their fullest potential. Our guiding principles are encapsulated in our motto: sacred, sovereign, and selfish. This combination serves as the formula for women to not only endure but flourish in a patriarchal and misogynistic society that often pressures them to prove their value through selfless care for others.

Below, I will discuss the pivotal roles that self-mastery and impermanence play in empowering women to live the lives they both deserve and desire. We'll explore the intricate connection between self-mastery and recognizing life's impermanent nature. This exploration will provide practical insights into how embracing impermanence can fuel personal growth, mindfulness, and adaptability. The framework presented here will serve as a source of inspiration, encouraging women to pursue not only the lives they deserve but also the lives they genuinely desire. All readers will find valuable tools to navigate change, deepen self-awareness, and embark on a transformative journey toward self-mastery, personal development and impermanence.

Self-mastery often requires self-awareness, mindfulness, and a commitment to personal development. It empowers individuals to make conscious and intentional choices, rather than reacting impulsively to external circumstances, ultimately leading to a greater sense of control and fulfillment in life. With this framework we are liberated by having the choice to respond rather than react to life’s events. This way of being creates spaces for feminine sovereignty to manifest. Feminine sovereignty refers to the concept of women and individuals who identify as feminine having autonomy, authority, and control over their own lives, choices, and destinies.

Eckhart Tolle remarked, “If I accept the fact that my relationships are here to make me conscious, instead of happy, then my relationships become a wonderful self mastery tool that keeps realigning me with my higher purpose for living.” Self discovery is at the heart of self ascension. Similarly, at the core of self-ascension lies the path of self-discovery. When a woman can live authentically, free from the need to conform to societal expectations, she gains the ability to take full responsibility for every aspect of her life. As a result, this newfound empowerment allows her to alter anything in her life. When we have a deep understanding of ourselves, we become adept at identifying our needs and desires, allowing us to advocate for them effectively in our interactions with others. This, in turn, bolsters a woman's self-trust and heightens her intuition, as Gavin de Becker rightly highlights, 'Intuition is always right in at least two important ways: It is always in response to something. It always has your best interest at heart.'”

Women frequently encounter societal messages that suggest they need to obtain external factors to validate their worth. These messages can create pressure for women to conform by focusing on aspects like weight loss, always being accommodating, using euphemisms to avoid appearing assertive, maintaining traditional romantic partnerships with men, and conforming to societal expectations of motherhood as a marker of 'real' womanhood. Additionally, there's often an undue emphasis on trying to delay the natural aging process, falsely associating growing older with an utter erasure of desirability. These ideologies are not mere accidents; nothing happens by coincidence. When someone is made to feel unworthy simply for existing, they begin an enduring quest to prove themselves to others. It's like a never-ending test with constantly shifting goalposts. When we attain self-mastery, it becomes evident whether our drive for self-improvement arises from our inner motivations or is shaped by external pressures. This journey allows us the time and opportunity to reflect, guided by a perspective of unconditional self-love.

Impermanence is a foundational concept in various philosophical, religious, and spiritual traditions, particularly in Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Hinduism. It emphasizes the notion that everything in the physical and mental realms is in a constant state of change and transience, with nothing enduring indefinitely. Change is the one constant in life. When we first meet friends, co-workers, mentors, partners, and others in our communities, it's with the understanding that both parties will witness each other at that moment in time. However, it's an unspoken truth that the nature of the relationship and the individuals involved will evolve from that point onward. Like the changing seasons, relationships, friendships, and all forms of human connection undergo transformation. Accepting this reality allows us to embrace the present moment and its fleeting nature. Recognizing impermanence is not only liberating for oneself but also for those who bear witness to it.

Recognizing impermanence holds the potential for meaningful personal growth and heightened awareness. By guiding women to embrace impermanence, they are empowered to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of life with greater resilience and self-assuredness. Encouraging others to acknowledge that change is an intrinsic part of existence helps them shed the burden of societal expectations and the need for constant validation. In this context, recognizing impermanence can be a catalyst for embracing the present moment, cultivating self-love, and finding liberation in the knowledge that they need not conform to rigid, fleeting standards. It inspires them to boldly occupy their space, unburdened by fear or hesitation. The understanding that everything is transient encourages authenticity, self-acceptance, and the pursuit of personal growth as an ongoing journey rather than a destination. Infusing the in-depth wisdom of impermanence into my services empowers my clients to boldly and unapologetically claim their space. They come to understand that their presence and personal growth are not only valid but also harmoniously aligned with the ever-evolving cadence of life.

Someone wisely stated, "Feminine sovereignty isn't about being superior to others; it's about surpassing your former self." To evolve and understand our purposes, gifts, and authenticity, we must reflect on who we were, who we are, and who we aspire to be. In my work with women and girls at Sacred Sovereign Consulting LLC, I utilize feminine sovereignty as a guiding framework, aiming to empower them to embrace self-reflection and inner peace, irrespective of external disruptions. It emphasizes having ultimate authority and control over one's life and destiny. This approach underscores the importance of prioritizing self-care before extending oneself to others and taking responsibility for crafting the desired life. It reminds us that our lives and bodies are sacred, deserving of the utmost respect and care.

Mental health experts often recommend practices like meditation, exercise, breathwork, and journaling for their numerous benefits to both the body and mind. These practices encourage us to inhabit our physical space while granting us the invaluable permission to pause solely for our own well-being. Through moments of silence, we can unearth aspects of ourselves that remain hidden in the hustle and bustle of life. Exploring the transitional space between our past, present, and future selves frees us to discern what and who we aspire to be, solely for our benefit. It allows us to create a precise inventory of our needs and desires, forming the foundation for a life that fully utilizes our gifts and purposes. Impermanence is essential in letting go of attachments and expectations. Self mastery teaches us that all of these things are subject to, and should alter with time. The constant then, is the self. Having the right to choose how much or how little we grow and change is the essence of sovereignty, ascension, and self mastery.

Humans are inherently social beings, and the path to self-liberation and mastery involves principles like accountability, honesty, and community support. When I commenced accepting clients earlier this year, my intention was to create a bridge between women (and girls) and their higher selves. Through workshops and bootcamps, I aim to empower them to recognize their true selves amidst the external noise. My workshops cover a range of topics, including healthy grieving, the art of pivoting, navigating stagnancy in friendships, and honoring the body as sacred after experiencing various forms of trauma. While personal growth is certainly attainable for my clients, my role is to kickstart their journey of self-discovery and ease their way forward. Ultimately, my work with individuals and organizations marks the beginning of their paths to self acceptance and ultimate mastery. Armed with knowledge and tools, they can lead lives that solidify their worthiness not only in their own eyes but in the eyes of the world around them.

This journey through self-mastery and impermanence has shown how these concepts empower women to lead lives they both deserve and desire. Self-mastery allows us to navigate life with intention and authenticity, while embracing impermanence liberates us from external pressures and encourages self-acceptance. This fusion of self-mastery and impermanence fosters feminine sovereignty, granting autonomy and control over our destinies. Through introspection, we've explored how these principles can kickstart personal growth and authenticity. As we move forward, let us remember that some heal in public to help those suffering in silence. Embracing self-mastery and impermanence empowers us to shape our destinies and boldly claim our space in the ever-changing rhythms of life.

Author Bio:

D. Christine Ray is a leadership development consultant, facilitator, and a 2023 Human Rights Campaign GenHERate fellow. She is equally dedicated to her work with Sacred Sovereign Consulting LLC, alongside her role as a Product Manager in the wealth tech industry. Since 2014, she has actively engaged in crafting curricula, leading workshops, and working in various corporate and non-profit environments. Her work has taken her to academic and postgraduate settings in locations including Mexico, New Jersey, Ecuador, New York, and numerous others. Notably, her endeavors have received support from organizations such as the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, National Geographic Society, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Urban League of Philadelphia among others. She graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Spanish from Bryn Mawr College. You can contact her at d.christine@sacredsovereignconsulting.com or find more information at https://linktr.ee/sacredsovereignconsulting.

Nothing in the Almanack begins life as a social media post, but the precis’ often end up there. After careful and catholic research of the prominent social media platforms, as well as analysis of our internal data, we have developed a series of helpful templates for brand-building.

Do consumers dislike brands and transparent, coarse brand-building? Of course they do. But keep in mind the axiom of Mr. Oscar Wilde:

“The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about.”

Like and dislike are far less important than views and clicks. Freed from the bondage of customer satisfaction, savvy brand-builders can now focus on creating memorable messages accompanied by media carpet-bombing.

PDA has developed a couple of sure-fire templates that require little work other than the choice of adjectives. They will produce a steady stream of social media posts, stories and reels that focus attention on you, your brand, and your success.

Post Template 1 – Individual Brand Development

The following guidance makes placing yourself at the center of the action a snap!

I am { thrilled } { honored } { humbled } { excited } to be chosen to speak at the 2023 Innovation {forum} {conference} {symposium}. Join my { amazing } { incredible } { phenomenal } panel of experts like @{ 2-3 prominent names } as we chart the transformative future of everything.

{insert picture here of me dressed smartly in business casual, either speaking authoritatively at a lectern or sitting in a panel discussion composed of three comfortable chairs in a row, on a stage, looking serious or grinning like a donkey}

Post Template 2 – Company Brand Development

This template offers a bit more humility, widening the social aperture from I to We.

We are so (thrilled} {honored} {humbled} {excited} to be a part of the new {project} {building} {product} {award}. {your company name} provided the {slightly exaggerate role} for this {amazing} {incredible} {phenomenal} project that is transforming the future of everything.

{post check – do not mention others who may have contributed – this is about YOU}

{insert picture of me ribbon cutting, grand opening or dirt shoveling}

These amazing templates, brought to you free of charge, hidden fees and expectations of future renumeration by Poor David’s Almanack, will instantly transform your business profile. Used regularly and combined with imaginative hashtags like the one we use - #almanacklife - can help your phenomenal brand achieve “escape velocity” from the crowded forest of media influencers.

Readers, lurkers and scrollers alike suffer from media fatigue, and it is imperative in today’s world to create a memorable image that will draw customers to you. Not to mention avoiding falling behind your rivals, who, let’s face it, aren’t very amazing.

Pay no attention to those who say you shouldn’t be posting self-referential content too often. Those people are “old ladies.” They’re not amazing either. People like personal stories and what subject can you think of that is more personal than yourself? #amirite? Besides, your customers and followers want to get to know you before they can trust you, and these Almanack templates allow you to achieve this intimacy much quicker than traditional methods.

Search engines feast on “keywords,” which are different than “buzzwords.” Just like a key is different than a buzz. Our research is showing that hard-hitting words like “amazing” “phenomenal” and “transformative” can really juice your SEO game.

Of course, you don’t have to embrace rigid fealty to these pre-fab posts to get maximum benefit. A slight amount of customization for the occasion can give your brand color and personality. However, too much flair, no matter how phenomenal, could be a distraction. Better to use our carefully researched formulations to the greatest extent possible.

It’s time to reimagine your brand, so let’s get to it! #amazingalmanack #free

In any case, when it comes to superpowers, one popular choice is invisibility. The Almanack Research Department reports that a desire to become invisible ranks high on the most favored superpower fantasy pantheon, ahead of shapeshifting but a few full cuts below flight. The notion of being invisible contains something intrinsic to our human makeup.

Invisibility has a long history of intrigue in the human mind. It appeared more than 2000 years ago as the Ring of Gyges, a mythical ring that gave its wearer invisibility, causing Plato and his brother to contemplate whether such a wearer would behave properly if their actions could not be verified. The English writer and futurist Herbert George Wells concocted an odd character called Griffin in his novel The Invisible Man in 1898. Griffin conducts his initial invisibility experiments on a cat, eliminating any possibility that Mr. H.G. Wells had a cat. Anyone who is owned by a cat will tell you that the animal has a remarkable capacity for not being seen when it so chooses. The feline needs no external inducement to invisibility.

However, tracking nicely alongside the invisibility thirst is its opposite: the desire to “be seen.” This phrase has become so ubiquitous on the pop therapy scene that one wonders whether the power of invisibility has already been achieved, possibly in a Wuhan lab sponsored by Dr. Stephen F. Ouchey. There may be millions of undetectable souls among us now clamoring, like some vasectomy patients, for reversal.

Being seen is not the precise opposite of being invisible, though. It scoops up a number of characteristics that might be summarized as recognition and appreciation for one’s uniqueness. And possibly for dissent from orthodoxy. In such circumstances, being seen is to apprehend beyond the visible and to make the invisible features known.

That’s a neat trick. Psychiatrists and magicians have some familiarity with it, as do sorcerers and a not insignificant number of charlatans.

As Harry Potter had his Cloak of Invisibility, perhaps what is required for the task is a Cloak of Visibility. Such a garment would magically demonstrate our qualities that are otherwise unseen. That would seem to solve the modern problem. {As a gentle Almanack Reminder, there remain parts of the modern world whose daily problem is not being seen, but being fed.}

 Curious that the human body is constructed with rather small eyes that are tuned to only respond to a tiny range of wavelengths. What a strange limitation. If we had enormous bulging eyeballs, as aliens are often drawn, this could also be a solution.

The marvelous and frightening truth is that when our invisible masks and costumes are fully removed, we are a shocking mixture of majesty and frailties. And each of us has them in a completely unique combination. Going about with the Visibility Cloak or creating giant eyes may invoke The Law of Unintended Consequences, to spectacular effect.

Is this the fountainhead of the dream of being invisible? Perhaps the desire is not to become invisible but to remain invisible, and to hide what we would rather not have everyone observe.

Plato and his brother never quite settled this issue of invisibility, but Socrates concluded that being seen or unseen does not matter to the just and decent person. They are the same uniquely imperfect person either way.

At your next ice-breaker, when asked for your favorite superpower, choose time travel. Much safer. And if you find yourself with a thirst to be seen, slake it with a good look at your inmost secrets. Better off we are with just the right amount of visibility.