Meeting Jesus

The morning I met Jesus he was carrying a book he intended to read if he had to wait for his car at the dealership. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He’d been to a training. I failed to follow that in the conversation. What did he learn? When was it? Has it stuck with him? Does he practice it?

I mentioned this in a post that day about the people I met that day. I had told some of this 'meeting Jesus' story to the very next gal Karen. She said that she had attended two Covey trainings courtesy of her employer. I failed to follow that line of conversation also.

The Covey book came to my attention again recently because it is celebrating its 25th year since publication. I told Jesus that I had been looking for my book in order to reread it. And here I meet two people that had had the training and I failed to pick up on that. Hmmm.

We were have pleasant conversations. Nothing hurried or forced about either of us trying to make a point.

Jesus and I talked a bit about the shortcomings of self-help material. Karen and I talked about quality of life issues. She sees end-of-life issues on a daily basis in her medical practice. And we all talked about importance of friends and family.

Karen and I talked about pharmacological drugs and intentional death and state executions. I brought it up and she offered her knowledge. I asked why veterinarians do not encounter the problems that the state execution team has been encountering with botched executions so recently in the news. 

She said that vets proceed with animals in an inhumane way. While we may love our pets and feel incredibly close to them, we proceed as though they do not have sufficient awareness to warrant a more humane method with which to dispatch them. 

That evening I spent some time writing the story of the day. Early the next morning it occurred to me how to proceed with the second Drive Time book and Do Happy Better. I could finally see the interweave between the stories. The cross-stitch that knits the stories together is the exchange of ideas with the intent to make things better. By those ‘things’ I mean some mix of product, process, and purpose.

This morning I came across and article giving pointers on animal communication. The article said we are born telepathic and can recover that if we slow down and become more intentional. Verbal language has limited uses. It reminded me of the celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan when he says he trains owners more than he trains dogs.

I do believe we will find collaboration getting an upgrade over competition as an important evolutionary step.

Meeting and greeting people is an important ingredient in collaboration. I hope to demonstrate the value of that and encourage the practice of it.

Drive Time was collected from stories in the shuttle. In order to flesh out the book I added the autobiographical stuff I talk about when customers ask about me and my life. I think it’s time to talk about ideas.

The Jesus in the title of this story refers to Jesus Lopez.