Monday, September 18, 2006

cover story

The cover story in yesterday’s Kansas City Star Magazine was about the company at which I am employed.

It is a very good and in-depth article and it give a good feel for what we do.

If you are local and have access to it, you might want to take a look.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

true lies and false truths

Is it a lie when someone tells you something you believe and you tell someone else, and then later you find out what you were told was wrong?

For example, where I work, we have contracted to complete a sports arena in Tulsa. I spoke to a man in Tulsa last week who wants to supply us some of the materials for this arena. He told me the arena had been designed by I. M. Pei. He dismissed Pei’s contribution offhand and acted as if Pei was just one of those liberal easterners (or perhaps far-easterners) and seemed to indicate to me that he was unimpressed.

I sort of expected the next thing he was going to say was that the arena “Was like a scar on the face of Tulsa,” much as Bezo Fache, the French police detective had dismissed Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre, in the book The Da Vinci Code.

Anyway, I went in and looked through the engineering drawings and thought the huge glass wall of the façade of the arena reminded me of the glass pyramid, so I told a couple of people that I had been told that Pei was the architect. No one seemed to know any different, so my lie took on a new verisimilitude.

I came home from work that night and started doing my research to see how many other projects we had in works that were designed by I. M. Pei. In doing my due diligence, I was somewhat surprised to find that what I had been told was dead wrong. The designer of the building was actually Cesar Pelli. Now, Pelli is no slouch. He designed the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malasia, which were briefly the tallest buildings in the world. It was necessary, however, for me to go back to work the next day and correct the error.

By the way, here is a picture of the events center. You can see why I believed it was designed by Pei if you look at the glass wall and entry. Click on the image once and the resulting picture is larger and clearer.





I guess the whole point of this rambling is that if we are told something and we believe it is true, then it stays true in our minds until someone comes along and corrects our error. Reality, as I say frequently, is only what it appears to be. If we believe something enough, then it is true—at least in our own minds. If no one ever comes along with the truth, we may go to our graves with “true lies” and believe them as solidly as we believe in the earth and the sky.

Reality is dynamic and we have to keep working on it until we get it right.

At least that is the goal, here in Jimbo’s world.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

ode on intimations of immortality

On Thursday night I had a chance to play some one-on-one half court basketball with my son, as is our custom practice and, as is customary, he beat me two out of three games. I had a lead in the first game, but he came back and won. I had my three-ball in the second game, so he had to come outside the arc to guard me and I was able to take him inside a couple of times when I caught him moving out to cover the long ball. The threat of my going inside got me a couple of looks from beyond the arc and I hit them, solidifying the victory. I’m embarrassed to say that in the third and final game—the one for the money—I failed to hit a single shot. I don’t expect to win, because he is much better than I am, but I ought to have been able to hit a shot.

The thing I came away with though, is the fact that my son is obviously my son. He is like me in so many ways that I realized that some of me has rubbed off on him. When we shot around before starting to play we had a long talk about life and jobs and houses and money and relationships—in general the little things that life is made of. I realized that my son had taken on many of my own values and some of my personality.

It is our purpose in life to pass on our genetics to our offspring. That is a biological function and we do it instinctively. What makes civilization, however, is that we pass along our behavioral characteristics as well. Long after I am gone that part of me will continue to live on. And, maybe, if he chooses, that part will be passed along to someone not yet thought of—both genetically and characteristically—and the lineage will continue.

For the present, however, if you ever find yourself on the court guarding my son, make sure you stay between him and the basket. If he gets inside—within seven feet of the hole—you can’t stop him. If he picks up the dribble, plan on getting a hand in his face as quick as you can. If he gets off an open shot, you are probably wasting your time looking for a rebound.

At least that is our advice here in Jimbo’s world.