One of the joys of introducing or reaquainting your child to your job and workplace is that you get to see it through their eyes. Often, they ask very simple questions that bust through our semi-conscious thinking and challenge those ideas that we just take for granted. And then, they add some much needed fun to what might normally be staid chores. Here are some of the things that Leah and I experienced together yesterday.

Some questions…

When is your lunch period over? I didn’t quite understand Leah’s initial questions about lunch and lunchtime until I probed a bit further. And then, the connection was made: kids in school have a very structured day. The lunch period is always at the same time and lasts for the same period of time…usually about 30 minutes. If you’re still eating or have a good chat with your friends and the teacher says “Lunch is over now,” then it’s time to go. It seemed pleasantly surprising for Leah when I answered, “Whenever we want it to be.” I did explain that I needed to be back in the office for a mid-afternoon meeting, but we had the freedom to decide how we spent our lunchtime period.

Do you have a substitute boss today? This question was really interesting and quite alarming. Our CEO is in Florida this week for a leadership training. When I told Leah that my boss was not in the office, she looked puzzled and wondered who would tell me what I needed to do. I replied that in our office, we all know our responsibilities and plan our work together. And no one needs to be here to supervise us to make sure we do our work and don’t create trouble. For Leah, I think she found it curious that I didn’t have someone telling me what to do, when to do it, and how to do it all the time.

Which raises for me several deeply troubling problems with our schools and mainstream pedagogical philosophy. I guess I always had problems with school when I was at that age and revisiting them as an adult and parent has reinforced my thinking that we can do better for our kids…but I wonder whether certain parts of our culture share this thinking. If we help our kids be more critical thinkers, what would happen to some of the current foundations of business and governance? Critical thinkers mean less compliant shoppers who want to know where their food comes from. Critical thinkers mean less “obedient” workers who do exactly what their organization demands. Critical thinkers mean less willing participants in a political system that encourages ever narrowing viewpoints. What if we helped our children see through the flimsy messages offered by pop media and experience a richer life?

Some cool things…

Watching mail go down the indoor mail chute. I’ve been told that many older office buildings have filled their old-timey mail chutes in due to them being fire hazards. Our building still has one and we’re on the 11th floor. Leah thought it would be cool to go halfway down and watch the mail fall through the glass enclosed chute. So we went down to the 6th floor and watched as our financial manager dropped some envelopes (containing all important bill payments). Man, those suckers moved fast as gravity took hold.

Leah also learned how to use a copier and a postage machine. And not just use, but learn how it all works. Our copier is very powerful and also very prone to misfeeds. So, we took it apart to get to the midfed paper.

She also got a peek at my daily commute which isn’t anything to cheer about. It’s long and she noted that if she had to do that every day, she would be unhappy. Which all begs for another blog post coming very soon.

If anyone else took a child to work with them yesterday, what was your experience? What did the child learn…and what did you learn?

I’ve been meditating on a particular prayer that prefaces a sermon written by Davidson Loehr, a Unitarian Universalist minister in Austin, Texas. Through this prayer, I’m facing off with that great demon known to us as Playing-It-Safe. Davidson writes:

If we must fail, let us fail at high endeavors. Let us not fail to be mediocre when we could instead fail to be absolutely brilliant. Let us not fall short of being moderately compassionate. Let us rather fall short of being fully compassionate.Of all our failures in life, perhaps the saddest are those in which we failed even to try and serve the highest and noblest ideals.

It is a sin to fail at low aims. Not because we failed, but because we aimed too low.

But it is not a sin to fail at very high aims, like aiming for truth, justice, compassion and character. Because even our failure puts us into the company of the saints, the company of those who also believe that rising to our full humanity and rising to our full divinity may be the same rising.

Striving after low and mean ends is a boring sin, not worthy of us. Let us have greater ambition for our failures. Let us vow never to fail at anything that wasn’t noble and proud, never to settle for lower aspirations for ourselves, our lives, our country or our world.

We will all fail at some things. But let it not be a failure of vision, a failure of aspiration. If we must fail, let us fail at high endeavors, and then let our failures bless us – for they will.

Amen.

You can read the full sermon here.

The passionate idea of working toward great and noble ambitions in our lives offers both comfort and strength. When put into this context, we are free to set our mind and body toward the light we want to create. Even failure cannot touch us or our soul.

I think this prayer ties into Curt Rosengren’s recent post on an interdependence of dreams and actions. When we gather the courage to dream big things and then take action to follow our heart’s calling, we move beyond the small ideas of success and failure. These are often inaccurately measured based on someone else’s notion of the world. Instead, we journey on a path which is uniquely our own…where the endpoint is uncertain, but clearly a paradoxical place of excitement and solace.

Extended Play (04/23/06): My friend Garth at exploreplay has a great quote from Jon Krakauer’s book Into The Wild which really accentuates the power of following your sense of adventure. It starts: “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism…” Visit exploreplay for the rest of the quote…you’ll be glad you did.

See, here’s the thing…most of us take great pride in creating an interesting, provocative, web experience through our blogs. But, if you only get your blog content from a newsreader, you miss the whole experience. It’s kinda like listening to your favorite band on AM radio…the sound is there, but it’s less than an optimal experience when you could listen to them live.

Case in point…I read Patti Digh’s 37 Days blog and it’s just fabulous. But I usually read it from my Rojo newsreader. So, today I go and read her latest post and it hits me that her content is just one aspect of the total 37 Days experience. The content might be the most important, but there’s other neat things to find there as well. The whole site personifies her whimsical and deeply soulful view of the world. I liked her mystery carrot award so much I gave myself one.

Guess all of this builds into a somwhat frustrating and confounding observation I have with blogging and blogreading. I’m thankful to have folks like you who read the stuff that tumbles out of my brain. And I’m inviting you to take a deeper look at my blog and the rest of Bailey WorkPlay if all you’ve ever experienced is through your Bloglines or other RSS reader.

And don’t start and end with just me…make an effort to actually visit the blogsites of people who you find fascinating. And let them know what you like. As blogging is a personal pursuit for all of us who take it playfully serious, it’s always nice to know that you’re loved not only for the content of your mind, but for your body as well.

Here’s a thought…what if we treated our happiness and contentment with work and life as a RIGHT rather than a PRIVILEGE?

A friend of mine reached out to me through my request for help locating folks in Austin, TX and in the midst of the dialogue, we surfaced this question. Kelly noted that her childhood memories include strong recollections where she saw her parents working hard at jobs with little meaning. Into adulthood, she internalized this struggle as one where work is work and only a lucky few got to be happy with it. Kind of an evil side to the whole Protestant work ethic.

Now, as adults, we both recognize that work can not only be spiritually, emotionally, and physically uplighting, it is our right to demand it. Too often, we allow ourselves an easy out by giving in to the notion that work doesn’t have to be soulful, that we shouldn’t expect to find satisfaction and happiness in our labor. This is old thinking. It’s also a corrosive mindset that doesn’t really benefit anyone except those toxic workplaces where you’re expected to pay for your salary with your blood and soul.

Repeat along with me…it’s okay to demand better. Tom Jefferson and his pack of rebellious rabblerousers said it best, that each of us are endowed with certain “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Good ideas then…good ideas now.

Well, leave it to Kathy Sierra to inspire me to do something else. She asks a seemingly simple question about why many people (and I’m included here) don’t like to exercise when most animals crave it.

She muses…

Take a human out of his work cubicle or off the couch and turn him loose outside. What happens? Hmmm… for far too many of us, nothing happens. Or we turn around and walk right back in the door and head for the couch or the chair in front of our computer. The one thing that usually does not happen is the kind of physical exuberance–the sheer joy of being able to run and jump–that so many other animals do.

She offers some explanations but I know for myself that it’s a matter of just not enjoying the process of exercising. Or, at least, that was my old story. This old story continues that exercising is boring and pointless (forgetting all the pointed stats that it’s actually good for us to break a sweat). So, to make it less boring and pointless, I always tried to initiate a set of goals and keep a log to track my progress. This always worked great…for a while. And then something would happen like I’d get sick or my work got heated up. I’d miss a few workout sessions and before I knew it I’d be back to where I started. Only this time, frustrated and depressed to have to begin the long progress back toward my goals. I wager this might be a familiar pattern for most folks.

So, in keeping with my new living philosophy of rewriting my personal story, I’m taking a very different approach to exercise: I’m giving all these goals the boot. I’m rediscovering whatever exercise I’m doing and focusing on the fun of the activity. I’m running again and leaving the stopwatch at home. Rather I’m listening to my body tell me when to run, when to walk, when to just enjoy the time outside.

Now my recrafted personal story is that I love to exercise and that my body is a finely tuned system that will always tell me what it needs. I don’t have to impose any artificial goals to force me to workout. I’m more than able to find the fun in things without creating structures.

If you find yourself on a treadmill going nowhere (exercise, work, relationships, you name it), slow down and let the rhythm of a playful life take hold.

I’m planning something rather BIG and could use some help. If you’re living in or around Austin, TX, shoot me an email at baileyworkplay[AT]gmail[DOT]com. I’ll have more details soon…

For Leah, my oldest daughter, April 27 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting days of the year (next to her birthday and Christmas). Why? April 27 is Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day.

I think her excitement seems to be a mixture of spending time with me and doing something grownup. And I’m excited to be able to show her the working world again. The last time I was able to do this was when she was four years old and she spent a half-day with me coloring and playing with a magnadoodle. Now that she’s seven, we can create activities so she can explore what work can be. Do some dreaming…I think I’ll join her.

The organization behind this day is the Ms. Foundation for Women. Their resource site has plenty to offer, particularly if your workplace or your child’s school sponsors the day. And if not, no worries…just play around with it and create something on your own.

As I was touring around the site and discovered a quote from Bob Drago, a friend and former Board member of mine when I was at another association:

When my daughters were younger, I found Take Our Daughters To Work Day invaluable, partly for the positive exposure to the world of work that it provided to my daughters, but also because it strengthened the bonds between us. Today, I believe in Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work more broadly as a way to educate children regarding the world of work, a way to humanize our workplaces, and as a device to teach parents about how work looks from the family side (which is often an eye-opener!). Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work is a great way to open up the workplace to issues of family, to see a side of employees that is often (and unfortunately) hidden, and to educate children, employees and managers as to options around flexibility that we either already have or should have in the future.

So, if you have children of your own, take some time to introduce them more intimately to your work (and if you don’t have children, grab a niece, nephew, or a neighborhood kid). Don’t think your work’s interesting? Just try to see it through the eyes of a child…you might be surprised.