I don't care who stole the little library, I'm just going to replace it.

A family in the west of Edmonton had their little library stolen:  a nice little box designed to hold books that people could exchange, borrow, read and pass along. I like books and I like libraries. I don't own a kindle, I don't listen to on line video streaming, I read, so when it was reported that the little library was stolen, and presumably not for it's cash value, it pissed me off, because as the news article stated, the Dad built it and the kids decorated and designed it.  

I will not bother to analyze the motives of the thief, I don't care, what I will do is replace the stolen library and if possible build a few more that we can spread around the town. Dar and I are going to put one on our lawn here on Ada and I imagine I'll find a home for one or two others, don't care if we build a hundred if people enjoy them for what they are, which is not firewood.

Years ago, my partners and I built two inner city rooming houses out of concrete block because we knew that durability was more important than expecting people to change their behaviours, our motives in 1991 were to build durable structures that would look good, be cheap to maintain and stand the test of time. If you drive by 9526-103 Avenue today, it's still the best-looking building on the street and has housed 16 residents for over 25 years. 

As my own career morphed from Consultant to Politician to HR VP, I admit that I never did feel the sense of pride or permanence as I did when Pam Barret, Jim Spinelli and I cut the ribbon on that first building.  Today, as the Handy Kinda Guy, my business model is based on permanence and what Stewart Brand would call the "Long Now". I fix things, and in this case, I am going to use my skill and fix the obvious problem of a stolen little library.

I spent a lot of my life chasing exactly the wrong things, many of them pretty blondes and now that I am out of that habit, I am at liberty to focus on what makes me feel good about life. 

We all have our struggles about which others know nothing, indeed, no matter what the demon we face, be it booze, dysfunctional relationships, fear, loathing, or in my case all the above, change happens if we admit a couple of things:

a)    We admit we are powerless over our problem

b)    We realize that no human intervention is really going to fix it

c)    We accept that God can and will if he is sought

This is about as religious as I am ever going to get in my blog, mostly because, while God has lost some public popularity, how people interpret, like, hate or ignore it is an entirely personal thing so if you don’t like my motivation or opinion, don’t hire me to work for you, if you do like it, then feel free to call me for a price or advice.

In either case, I am absolutely confident that I will make a good living, providing a needed service that is also work I love to do. 

In reality, it goes way beyond that, it’s fun. Oh, I get that we might define this differently, you might not think dealing with smelly old rotten things as fun, but it’s a real challenge sometimes to solve a problem, to be the big guy with the big truck and the long ladder, who says, “sure we can fix it”

I hope only that everyone is at sometime, as blessed as I am to realize that life will humble you, but in humility comes an almost unlimited amount of strength, I can’t fix the whole world, but I can certainly work on my own little corner of it.