Just a Little Drama

“Where is she?” Jason asked as he entered the hallway of the police precint. Detective Melbourne turned to see who was asking. Approaching Jason with hands up as if to stop him, he told him.

“We have her in custody, Mr. Matthews. That’s all you need to know. Now why don’t you let me have an officer drive you home, and you can be with the rest of your family.”

“Detective, that woman murdered my wife and now my son is missing. If he’s alive, I have to know where he is.” His brow was wet with sweat, and the muscles in his face were tired from crying uncontrollably for the loss of his wife. Trembling, he looked Melbourne in the eye. “Please, I know this woman, and I promise I won’t try anything. I just want to know where my son is, and I know she can tell me.”

Melbourne looked at the clock, and looked back at Jason. Jason was shifting his weight from side to side to satisfy his nerves, his hands clenched together at the center of his chest. The detective reached for his keys.

“Come here.” Melbourne turned down the hallway and opened up a cold room with walls of cinderblock. Inside was a small table and two very old swivel chairs. The padding on them was nearly worn out. “Sit here for just a moment. I’ll be right back.”

Jason collapsed in the chair. The impact of his body falling into it startled him. He has been up 21 hours and his motor skills were not as keen on account of his emotional and now tiring states. Each waking moment that passed was like an eternity to him, as he poured over his mind to figure out what she might have done with his son. He prayed repeatedly to God, “Please let him be okay, please let him be okay. God, let her tell me where he is, so I can get him immediately.” He laid his head down on the table for what seemed like just a moment, but it had really been 17 minutes. Suddenly he was startled at the sound of keys in the door. The door opened, and Melbourne appeared.

“I need you to stand up.” Jason did. “Face the wall, and lift your arms up.” Melbourne began to pat Jason down. He removed a fountain pen and a set of keys from his pockets. “I’m going to take these from you for the moment.” Jason nodded, as Melbourne handed the contents to an officer with a large Ziploc bag. “You’ll get them back in just a minute.” Melbourne looked him over. He was sizing him up to make sure he didn’t need more muscle in the room, but Jason looked so weakened by the days events. He had pity for him. “You can put your hands down and sit back in the chair.” He paused. “Jason, this really isn’t a good idea for a lot of reasons. Even if she does know where Parker is, I’m not sure she’s going to tell you.”

Jason looked up at Melbourne and forced out the only words he could, “I have to try.” Melbourne nodded. He turned and opened the door again.

She came in the room in chains, and her face was dead pan. She wouldn’t even look at Jason as she sat down across from him at the table. Melbourne was at the end of the table adjacent to the wall.

“Where is my son?” Jason asked.

"Slow is smooth..."

This weekend I had the pleasure of spending time with my friend, Nate, down in Waco, Texas as he helped me to clean up some old shotguns and rifles that belong to my family. In the end we got to go to the gun range and shoot for a while, and as we left he told me about his favorite part of the movie, “The Patriot”. It is in the beginning where Mel Gibson and his younger sons are helping to rescue his oldest boy. In talking to the boys about how they should fire their rifles, he reminded them that “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

Let that sink in for a second. I am a very forgetful person at times. As a traveling consultant this manifests itself in a myriad of ways, not the least of which is forgetting to pack socks, belts, computer cables, phone chargers, flash drives or leaving said items in dental offices and hotels all over the country. My personal favorite was the time I was leaving on a plane from DFW and I forgot my ID. While I have learned a handful of useful tricks to remind me of important things, I continue to be baffled at my tendency to forget both minor and major details.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I wondered today what it would look like if I slowed down just for a second before I went on my next business trip, made my next big purchase, or settled on my next decision. I can certainly relate to fast being sloppy and sloppy being slow. So here is to doing it right the first time even if it takes just a little bit longer.

My Underoos

I’m not going to lie…I want some. Yes these are adult sized Underoos, and I don’t see anything wrong with it. And why not? My only question is why didn’t someone think of this much sooner?

As I consider my purchase, I am reminded of a man my brother and I once worked for in the staffing world. He was a self-employed business owner with many years of prior experience in the industry. He taught me two very important lessons that I have taken with me over the years.

The first lesson was peculiar to me, but I have heard the same thing from multiple sources. It is about wearing ties in the business industry. Different colors and styles can convey different things, but a red tie always indicates a person is in a position of power, or they want to have a position of power over you. He told me that he will sometimes wear red if he knows that he has to lay down the law, or to show potential clients that he has the authority to make decisions.

The second was a lesson in war. He likened the way that we should prepare for a sale to the way a general decides to attack an enemy. A general has an entire arsenal at his disposal. He has knives, handguns, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, helicopters, tanks, fighter jets, missile launchers, H-bombs and more, and though he takes all of these weapons to the theatre, he only uses the weapons he will need to defeat his opponent in battle. For example, if his foes have an assortment of automatic rifles, and hand grenades, he will likely come at them with automatic rifles and hand grenades. If that doesn't do the trick he may employ the next step. In contrast, if his enemies bare a collection of bows and arrows, and knives, he is not going to utilize a hydrogen bomb to take them out. The point is, be prepared, but don't use any more than you have to to convince a potential client to buy into your product. In some cases, like Jerry McGuire, you have them at "hello".

I wonder what the protocol is on wearing Underoos beneath your business clothes. No doubt, it will give hidden inspiration to those who choose to. Then again, how much more powerful may they be when worn on the outside of your clothes? Hmmm…

Luke, I Am Your...Mentor?

In a pivotal moment in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” Luke is battling Darth Vader who is trying to convince him to come over to the Dark side of the Force, and at a point where Luke is questioning everything he has been taught, Darth Vader reveals the truth; that he is Luke’s father.

Sorry if I ruined that for anybody, but you’ve had 30 years to watch it. It’s not my fault. I feel like I have been fairly well prepared for my life. My brother and I grew up with a roof over our heads, loving parents who are still together, and opportunities to grow in our education as well as to learn how to be functioning adults in society. But without direction, I feel like an unguided missile. There are many things that I could do, but what things should I do? I currently travel for my job and I teach dentists how to run their office properly and how to make good business decisions. One of the first things we tell every office is that, in order to succeed, they must make goals, they must have mentors, and they must be students for life.

At a moment where Darth Vader revealed this truth to Luke, he was hoping this would be the tipping point to lead Luke to the Dark side. He wanted to become Luke’s new mentor, but the position was already filled. He was being trained by Yoda and by the spirit of Obi-Wan.

As I have progressed through this year, I have struggled to make meaningful goals because I lack a clear direction. Being a Christian, I pray for such a directions daily, but we all need to be learning from someone else. Joshua had Moses, David had Nathaniel, Timothy had Paul, and I am certain God wants to use godly men and women to speak the Truth to me, but it will take some effort on my part to have what Jesus calls “ears to hear”.

Who is your Yoda? Do you have a mentor? If not, you could be denying yourself an opportunity to grow. Be well, and “may the force be with you.”

Two More Buns In The Oven

In 2005 my brother and his wife brought twins into this world (a boy and a girl), and just last week they had their third child, a boy. In talking with my bro I asked him how this experience compared to the last and he gave me some exciting news. “It’s so much easier for a lot of reasons. Number one we don’t have twins which means we have a lot more time. Number two, he’s an easy baby and he only cries if he is hungry. He doesn’t care if he’s hot or cold, or if he’s sitting in a full diaper.”

Of course I was happy for him, and I congratulated him on such a easy baby, but now I look ahead with a fair amount of terror in my gut. While I am happy we are pregnant again, and while I once thought it would be fun to have twins, our first so far has been a rather large handful until just recently. He is 8 months now and he is getting to a fun phase where he is scooting on the floor, talking all sorts of new sounds that he hears, and claps his hands and smiles for your constant approval. In the beginning, however, he had terrible reflux, which meant lots of spitting up, lots of crying for all three of us, and lots of screaming in pain. As life changing as one child has been, I am scared to think of what two more will do in our extremely busy lives.

I’m thankful that right now we have insurance, and although I am not looking forward to having to meet our full deductibles so soon after we had the first one, Molly and I thought it was important to go ahead and have a SECOND one so that the two were close in age and could share life together. So as I sit here, half excited and half numb, my mind turns to baby names. So far I think we have some cool ones, and some funny ones too: David and Nathan – we like these because they are faithful men in the Bible who new each other (and my name is Jonathan). Bert and Ernie – this is kind of a joke, but would be kinda fun. And for girls, April and Fools – because this is all fiction. Have a great day!