Leadership By Numbers

I’m stepping out of the technical realm to clear my head and reassert some basic values about the why of living. I spend way too much time with the how-things-are-done, so I’m always grateful to get a helping hand.

Just breezing over the topical listing at Google news, I can see the latest reactions to the US Bishops reports on sexual abuse since 1950. I’m not even at the point of discussing this disgrace from the perspective of anyone’s faith tradition. There’s enough material in the two reports for years of dissertations from disaster control to family dynamics. And, yet, even in how the reports are presented a coded message is being advertised. Quoting Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message," a spectacularly fitting description of how the reports are being distributed. If you link to The United States Conference of Bishops you’ll find that both reports are available to be ordered, totaling $70.00 (plus shipping). If instead, you were fortunate to go directly to the Catholic Review Board you can download the reports as a PDF: Immediately Accessible and Free, versus Institutionally Distributed.

So, it has been with welcome relief to read “Men in Black Dresses" by a friend, Yvonne Seng (who also knows a little about Lotus Notes development). The book is something of a travelogue through the MidEast to seek responses from the ancient wisdom of mystics and spiritual leaders about contemporary dilemmas. She moves from poets to bishops, sheiks and the ordinary to find that she is just as often being questioned about herself as she is gaining an interview with a spiritual leader. Jane Goodall found the book irresistible, and I admit that it is frank, disarming and, well, heartfelt to read the sincerity and depth of these wise ones. If you find yourself a little squeezed between the revisionist “Da Vinci Code" and the widescreen close-ups of “The Passion," you’ll be relieved to catch some thoughtful moments with “Men in Black Dresses."

Thank you Yvonne