‘Don’t truth me,’ said Boaz …, ‘and I won’t truth you.’
— The Sirens of Titan
Author: Dell Deaton
Many parents try so hard to boost ‘self-esteem’ that they forget where it comes from. We feel good about ourselves when we’re effective in the world. Help your son acquire the skills and knowledge he needs to succeed ….
An inflated sense of self-worth without underlying abilities is useless, if not dangerous.
via Internet Archive —
This was quite an event in 1985 when I captured the image below on film at the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport.
- Linked image: “Goodyear and Fuji Tape Blimps” [2834 x 2244 (8×10 aspect ratio) at 2.27mb, black and white (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1985)
It’s not likely you’ve ever seen a Goodyear Blimp moored at any airport with a competitor’s airship.
According to what I was told on site at the time of this photograph, it’s not their policy. They spend a great deal of money to keep this fleet in the air for promotions, and they feel that setting down with other lighter-than-air vessels dilutes that investment.
In this case, however, Airship Industries, which licensed graphics on the blimp in this photograph to Fuji Tape, experienced one or more mechanical problems that necessitated an unscheduled landing here at the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport.
Pre-9/11, residents were freely permitted onto the field with the ground crews, 24/7. So I’d head out there late at night and ask questions among the few people similarly braving the dark in candor. The Airship Industries crew was a bit more vocal than the Goodyear technicians, talking expansively about their “superior technology.”
Internal engines driving external propellers via drive shafts; that’s how they did it. As opposed to the Goodyear use of two completely external drive engines.
So I took that information over to one of the Goodyear crew and challenged him with the “superior technology” claims. He shrugged his shoulders and responded with only two words.
“We’re flying.”
Emphasis on the “we.” And fly they did. While I can’t speak to motives, you’ll note from my photograph that the Goodyear Blimp seems to be buzzing the Fuji Tape airship, tauntingly.
On the day I made this image, I was on the field with a Speed Graphic press camera, loaded with 120 Tri-X (black and white) film. My intent was to capture some higher-resolution shots of the Goodyear Blimp in-flight, at a distance, with good options for making enlargements. I was just setting up when this opportunity came upon me, so to speak.
Yeah, I heard some yelling. But as you can see from the ground crew headed for the mooring lines, there were a lot of folks running around.
So it was a complete surprise when some of Ann Arbor’s finest knocked me to the ground — for reasons that still escape me.
PS: I didn’t drop the camera.
Excellent quality is not enough. Also required is suitability. In pursuit of wrong purposes, excellence is wrong.
Employing gas spectroscopy is overkill when a simple microscope will accomplish the task. Using a simulation model to determine the optimal warehouse network may be excellent management science, but you’ll realize it’s ridiculous if you just stop to think. Common sense will suggest that you’ll need a warehouse in the New York metropolitan area, probably one between Washington and Philadelphia, …. How much scientific accuracy do you need?
Your imagination can tell you in a moment a great deal more than scientific excellence would have told you at great expense and pretension in a year ….
… the explanations of the superior performance that we commonly get from the most successful practitioners of capitalist enterprise, though perhaps quite accurate in themselves, are seldom more than confessions of particular experiences, offering no comparison with the experiences of others and devoid of serious analytical content.
What they lack, moreover, in generality, they often compensate with pomposity.
— Theodore Levitt
For a second year now, I was invited to present before attendees at the North American Conference of Separated and Divorced Catholics on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
Once again, The Saline Reporter provided a preview. This article ran last month under the headline, “Divorce mediator to appear at conference,” on Page 3-C. Here’s a more extensive pull from that coverage.
Last year, Deaton offered a presentation titled, ‘How Can You Trust After Divorce‘ ….
This year …, Deaton will tackle the other side of the divorce equation: providing closure.
‘One of the first things I try to help folks get their arms around is the concept of ‘timing,’ said Deaton. ‘Sometimes we have trouble ‘letting go’ because we’re trying to let go too early.
‘Outside of that period, however, there are all sorts of natural forces that will come into play, naturally leading you to let go. That’s what I mean when I talk about ‘God and gravity.’ That’s a nice way of saying that we can be our own worst enemies when it comes to not letting go — which translated, can mean “holding on.”
‘With a death grip.
‘We play a role. We have a lot of control. My job is to show you what that is, and how to use it ….’
JR Ewing (Larry Hagman):
I’m sorry, Daddy. I let you down. I just flat gave up.
Back there at that swamp — you were gone. It was all over. Didn’t seem like there was anything worth going on for for me.
And I almost forgot—.
You left us something; you left us the company. You built Ewing Oil from the ground up. And whatever it took — you did it for Ewing Oil. And I’m gonna do the same. I’m gonna pass it on bigger and stronger to my son.
I’m back, Daddy.
And nobody’s gonna take Ewing Oil away from me, or my son, or his son.
“I swear to you: By God, I’m gonna make you proud’a me.
— Leonard Katzman, Dallas
Earlier this year, I gave two talks a couple-hundred attendees at the North American Conference of Separated and Divorced Catholics in an auditorium at the University of Notre Dame.
The title was “How Can You Trust After Divorce?”
This offering was previewed in the May 20, 2004 issue of The Saline Reporter in an expansive feature titled, “Facing ‘Reality’ — Divorce mediator places value on elements of trust,” page 9-A. Following is a key excerpt.
The ‘Trust’ seminars … are based on a presentation first given by Divorce Reality Group audiences in Saline last April. The subject is covered through a combination of the latest academic research and heartfelt anecdotes connecting to the struggles of audience members.
Basic definitions are explored, as well as core challenges such, ‘Are you sure you want the whole truth, all the time?’ Game playing, fallout from extramarital affairs, and ‘truth serum’ are also discussed.’
Although this coverage ran sans byline, I believe it was written by Renee Collins, based on her attendance locally the April prior and a discussion that I had with her immediately after.
Love of bustle is not industry.