Sherwood Sunrise

PHOTO: Tom Field

There's likely to be no better setting for an Easter morning sunrise service than the amphitheater at Sherwood Memorial Park in Salem, VA. This morning was brought to you by none other than the Creator of the Universe, backed by a humble and quiet worship service from Salem ministers Steve Parker (Living Well Church); Adrian Dowell (Shiloh Baptist Church); Brian Gordon (First Evangelical Methodist Church); Leonard Southern (Fort Lewis Baptist Church); Cameron Smith (New Hope Presbyterian Church); Janet Denton (Salem Presbyterian Church); and the First Baptist Church Choir.

Sherwood Memorial Park also presented an Easter Melodrama on Friday and Saturday evenings in addition to the Salem Ministers Association Annual Community Easter Sunrise Service.

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Misguided Meals Tax

CREDIT: photo from restaurant public domain website

In the April 2010 edition of Valley Business FRONT magazine, my editorial concerns the proposed two percent meals tax increase (this is a tax in addition to the existing meals tax on top of the state sales tax). In last night's public forum with Roanoke City council, one restauranter offered alternatives to the levy. The "fundraising" ideas are all superior to the notion of penalizing one industry. Other ideas are more valid, too (such as my old-fashioned notion of reallocating moneys from other areas).

I'm on the side of the local business here, just as I would be on the side of school teachers and educators if someone got the notion of exclusively taxing them. What's so hard to understand about this? Eating out is voluntary and therefore less important than our schools? Well okay then, let's lower the levy to .02 percent instead, and tax everything that's not as "essential." Art museums, recreation centers, luxury car owners, greenway walkers, pool hall operators and music halls could garner as much income as silly ol' restaurants.

As my column pointed out, the intent of the meals tax is understandable. But not only is it misguided, I believe the most disturbing call to action I've witnessed is the boycotting of restaurants that don't support it.

A parent hollering that idea out at a rally... well, you can expect that. But a teacher? I hope our children aren't sitting in that classroom. What kind of lesson is that?

"Listen children, if you don't get what you want or feel you aren't being treated fairly, you look elsewhere and find a way to hurt someone else. That's how we resolve our problems."

Oh, be careful little man what you say, what profession you choose, and what possessions you own... you just never know what a city revenuer will think about it.

I Scream For Ice Cream

It was on a Tuesday in November when I went to the ice cream parlor.

"Hmmm... how 'bout butter brickle?," I asked.

We don't have that.

"Raspberry sorbet?"

All out.

"Peach?"

No.

That's when I noticed all those buckets in the cooler--they were empty. All those fantastical names of exotic flavors and rich blends--they were simply labels on empty buckets. Taunting. Teasing. Almost snearing at me from their gaping open holes.

"Well then," I asked the paper cap-wearing robot-of-a-clerk standing behind the glass. Fingerprint-less from years of lack of interest. "What do you have?"

"We have vanilla," he droned. "And we have chocolate."

"But I wanted something different," I cried, like a seven-year-old.

"I'm tired of vanilla and chocolate. I can get that anywhere."

"Are you seriously telling me I get two choices? With all that's out there--all the potential--all the possibilities. I get to choose from two?"

"It doesn't matter," said the paper cap.

"We can have all the flavors in the world. Way more than thirty-one. But Americans--studies show--prefer vanilla and chocolate. Of all the flavors, vanilla and chocolate still come in the top. They outrank all the others by astonomical proportions. We decided to go with what's popular, and ignore the rest. People love vanilla and chocolate. People will buy it."

"Well not me," I protested.

"You will if you want ice cream today," snapped the paper cap.

"If it makes you feel any better, you can push a button for your choice."

I pushed a button. But it wasn't for vanilla or chocolate.
Unlike all the customers at the counter before me--I didn't get any ice cream that day.

And frankly, the little "I voted" sticker they gave me didn't taste as good as what you'd expect from an All-American ice cream parlor.


* * *

[ None of the leading third party candidates received even one percent of the approximately 123 million votes that were cast on Tuesday. -- indypendent.org ]

Letting Go

Small business owners and entrepreneurs love those success stories. You see them at the magazine racks migrating to INC magazine, Fast Company, and locally, the new Valley Business FRONT.

They're reading about the successful mother who made a cookie so incredible, everyone wanted more--so she started selling them, only to become a multi-millionaire and worldwide brand.

There's the software applications developer who was just gaming around when he stumbled on a product idea that is now a leading program on zillions of computers.

Another story features an architect who secured a patent on an energy-saving building design, and now has his name on some of the most prominent facilities in the world.

Then there's the family owned masonry company that began just one generation ago that has now expanded to nearly a hundred employees, constructing schools, libraries, hospitals and other municipal and commercial buildings all across the region.

And business people love reading about those legendary coaches of winning college and pro football teams.

What do these five success stories have in common?

• The mom hasn't touched an oven in two years.
  
• The only "computer" the developer uses these days is his personal Blackberry.
  
• The architect hasn't drawn a plan since he was a Designer I over two decades ago.
  
• And the mason? No one's going to catch him laying a brick.
  
• The football coach couldn't throw that pigskin any better than his nose guard.

Funny how the proof that one has reached a pinnacle in his industry is that he's no longer doing the very thing that put him on the road to success. Leaders aren't the ones who practice the craft they lead in... they get other people to do it.

Show me a man or woman who is extremely creative and skillful at a task, but just never seemed to make it very far, and I'll show you a person who refuses to let go.

"This is my recipe. Stay out of my kitchen."

"Boy, that helped my computer. I'll just keep it to myself."

"No, you can't change the design that way. Here, let me do it."

"I'm the hardest worker, so if I lay the bricks too, I won't have to pay someone else, and I'll get ahead."

"Back in the day, I made the play. I'm putting myself in the huddle."

I have a feeling there are an awful lot of skillful people who are afraid they are giving up control or losing their own sense of contribution if they expand their product or service beyond their own two hands.

But you have to reach out those hands.

Look at it as "the circle of life" if you must. Passing on your skill or talent or even your own sense of how something should be done--is all part of moving on. Moving ahead.

Besides, do you really want to be stuck behind an oven your entire life?