The Chinese Bamboo Tree and Other Lessons on Patience

This post was written by A Guest Contributor on January 28, 2008

by Charlie Dexter

Do you remember back in the 60’s when Simon and Garfunkel sang the 59th Street Bridge song? ( if you remember the 60’s you probably weren’t there…) The duo advised us to “slow down, we move too fast…” What a laugh thinking about the speed of the 60’s compared with how fast we are actually moving today! We live today in an instant results – or else – world. If a politician doesn’t produce instant results to our liking we boot the bum out and vote in some other bum. If a corporate CEO doesn’t produce an instant turnaround, then that bum is on unemployment too. If the drive through on Airport Way doesn’t give us fast – fast food we get testy and swear to never go back there again, until next time. It’s a fast pace world we’ve created for ourselves.

Unfortunately, we are trying to live our fast paced lifestyle in what is naturally a slow paced world. Zig Ziglar, the famous motivational speaker, once told the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree. It seems that this tree when planted, watered, and nurtured for an entire growing season doesn’t outwardly grow as much as an inch. Then, after the second growing season, a season in which the farmer takes extra care to water, fertilize and care for the bamboo tree, the tree still hasn’t sprouted. So it goes as the sun rises and sets for four solid years. The farmer and his wife have nothing tangible to show for all of their labor trying to grow the tree.

Then, along comes year five.

In the fifth year that Chinese bamboo tree seed finally sprouts and the bamboo tree grows up to eighty feet in just one growing season! Or so it seems….

Did the little tree lie dormant for four years only to grow exponentially in the fifth? Or, was the little tree growing underground, developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond? The answer is, of course, obvious. Had the tree not developed a strong unseen foundation it could not have sustained its life as it grew. The same principle is true for people. People, who patiently toil towards worthwhile dreams and goals, building strong character while overcoming adversity and challenge, grow the strong internal foundation to handle success, while get-rich- quickers and lottery winners usually are unable to sustain unearned sudden wealth.

Had the Chinese bamboo farmer dug up his little seed every year to see if it was growing, he would have stunted the tree’s growth as surely as a caterpillar is doomed to a life on the ground if it is freed from its struggle inside a cocoon prematurely. The struggle in the cocoon is what gives the future butterfly the wing power to fly, just as tension against muscles as we exercise strengthen our muscles, while muscles left alone will soon atrophy. My problem with exercise is not getting instantly stronger after each work out! I pray for more patience every day and I pray to get it right now!

We live in a quick-fix society. We get frustrated if we have to wait more than 2 minutes for service or a stop light to change. We want instant solutions to every complex problem and every fractured relationship. In short – we want it all now! Maybe its time to reflect on an old, old poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that is as true today as it was when he wrote it over 100 years ago:

“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Toiled ever upward through the night.”

Charlie Dexter is a professor of applied business at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Tanana Valley Campus. He can be reached at 455-2837 or ffcnd@uaf.edu. This column is provided as a public service of the TVC Applied Business Department. Copies of this column can be found at www.CharlieDexter.com.

Tumwater Falls Park

This post was written by Colleen Easley on

I took this photo on November 4, 2007 at Tumwater Falls Park in Tumwater, WA. The park is next to the site of the old Olympia Brewery and has a very nice walking trail. It’s a great place to go walking any time of year, but if you go in October you can watch salmon coming up the fish ladder to head up the Deschutes River to their spawning grounds.

Catalog Choice – Good For You and the Environment!

This post was written by Colleen Easley on January 27, 2008

Were you as overwhelmed with catalogs this past holiday season as we were? If you’re like most Americans, you probably were. It just makes me sick to think of all the resources that go into printing and mailing all those catalogs. For awhile I was saving them all in one big box just to see how many we got. I finally threw them into the recycling bin when the stack got to be about a foot tall! I personally try very hard to stay out of stores during the holidays, but I don’t shop from catalogs; I do my shopping on-line. It just seems like the greener way to shop.

Well hopefully next Christmas I won’t be getting so many catalogs because just before Christmas I found a website called Catalog Choice. Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to opt-out of getting paper catalogs in the mail. To use Catalog Choice, you’ll need to create an on-line account. You’ll also need copies of the catalogs you want to opt-out from because you’ll need your customer number off the back.

Once I had my account set up it was easy to decline the catalogs I didn’t want to get any longer. It takes some time (up to ten weeks) for the merchants to take you off their mailing lists, but if after that time period, you still continue to receive declined catalogs, you can report the infraction to Catalog Choice and they will follow up with the merchant.

One great feature of the service is they allow you to list multiple addresses and names. This was good for us because some catalogs came to me and some to Dale. Some to the home address and some to the PO Box. Having the actual catalog in front of us when opting-out insured we had the right name, address and customer number to enter.

As I write this, I’m reading the blog over at Catalog Choice and see that they were actually featured on the Today Show 2 days ago. What a coincidence! I’ve had links to Catalog Choice on some of my other sites for several months and have been meaning to write this article for a couple days now, so I’m sorry I missed the show. I’m overjoyed that the site is gaining so much publicity. 57,000 new members signed up on January 25th as a direct result of the Today Show. It shows that people are really wanting to clean out their mailboxes and help reduce waste. There are now over 500,000 people enrolled who are opting out of almost 6 million catalogs! Cutting down on catalog waste is good for everyone, including the merchants by lowering their costs of distribution and helping them better target their marketing.

So What’s the Take Away?

“The mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. We aim to accomplish this by freely providing the Catalog Choice services to both consumers and businesses. Consumers can indicate which catalogs they no longer wish to receive, and businesses can receive a list of consumers no longer wanting to receive their catalogs.” – Catalog Choice mission statement

So what do you think? Are you going to enroll at Catalog Choice? Have you already enrolled? We’d like to hear your comments. I think it’s too early to tell if it’s working for me yet since it hasn’t yet been 10 weeks. Most of my declined catalogs are still showing as unconfirmed, but a few are confirmed. At least none are refused!

Save a Life – Learn CPR and AED

This post was written by Dale Easley on January 26, 2008

Because of our involvement with a tour company in Alaska, Colleen and I both have to re-certify for CPR and AED training annually. Last spring we enrolled in a full day American Red Cross class and went through all the steps to administer proper CPR and we also trained on the operation an AED unit. Surprisingly there were a few changes to CPR this time around; primarily concerning the number of chest compressions (30) between rescue breaths (2). And since this was our first time to take the AED training, we had a lot to learn.

Why AED training? AED stands for Automated External Defibrillator. CPR keeps oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs and tissues. Early defibrillation with an AED administers a shock that can allow the heart to restore an effective rhythm. Having an AED available and the training to use it could mean the difference between life and death for a sudden cardiac arrest patient. In 1991 The American Heart Association published a paper called “Improving Survival from Sudden Cardiac Arrest: The Chain of Survival Concept”. The links within this “Chain of Survial” include:

• Early Access to the emergency response system;
• Early CPR to support circulation to the heart and brain until normal heart activity is restored;
• Early Defibrillation to treat cardiac arrest caused by Ventricular Fibrillation; and
• Early Advance Care by EMS and hospital personal.

AED units are becoming more and more common as we travel. You’ll often see them in airports, hotels, malls and other places where large numbers of people congregate.

When our Alaska motorcoach tours are traveling the remote highways of Alaska and Yukon Territory, they are often hours away from professional medical care. That’s why we feel it’s imperative that our tour managers are trained in First Aid, CRP, and Automated External Defibrillation (AED).

John Hall, the owner of the company, decided that he wanted AED units installed on each of his four motorcoaches as well as in his offices in Minnesota by the summer of 2007. He tasked me with doing the research and making the buying decision for 5 AED units. I found that the AED Superstore was an excellent resource for learning about the different kinds of units available, and after much research we decided on the ZOLL Plus. We feel ZOLL best met our needs for a variety of reasons. The one piece pad unit makes it impossible to make a mistake when applying the electrical leads to the patient’s chest. It also has a longer shelf life than some other models. The ZOLL display unit is visual as well as voice prompted, so even in a stressful situation, the operator has clear step by step instructions. Another important feature is that the shelf life the the batteries is longer than most others, and the batteries are available over the counter instead of being proprietary to the manufacturer.

So What’s the Take Away?

AED units are expensive to buy – especially when your underlying hope is that you NEVER have to use them. But if someone suffers a cardiac arrest and you have an AED available as well as the training to use it, they can save lives. And in my mind, that makes them worth every penny invested.

Knowing CPR/AED and first aid can and does save lives. We recommend everyone enroll in a CPR/AED training class on an annual basis. Classes are offered by the American Red Cross, The American Heart Association, and many local Fire Departments.

Stop it – We’re Killing Our Kids!

This post was written by Colleen Easley on January 24, 2008

Here in the state of Washington a new law is being proposed that would ban smoking in a car if there are children present. Obviously this has stirred up a lot of debate. One parent has been quoted as saying, “I really do not believe that a government should be insisting on laws like that. It’s just a little intrusive now, definitely.” Another parent, when asked if she would smoke in a car with children present said, “No, not in a million years; that’s one of my biggest pet peeves. Who else is going to protect the children if the parents aren’t going to do that themselves? It’s no different than saying we can’t smoke in a restaurant or a bar.” (Washington already has legislation that prevents smoking in any public buildings, including all restaurants and bars.)

Washington State Representative Shay Schual-Berke compares it to drunk driving, saying you’re injuring your children for life if you smoke with them in your car. Several other states, including California and Alabama, already have banned smoking in cars with children, and 27 others are considering a similar ban.

Dale and I agree wholeheartedly with this proposed legislation. Children have no voice of their own so we feel it’s up to us to protect them. The unfortunate part of the law as it’s being proposed is that you could only be sited as a secondary offense, meaning that you could not be pulled over for this offense alone. Offenders would have to be pulled over for something else, and then if it was determined that they were smoking with children present, they would face a fine of about $100. We’d like it taken a step further to make it possible to pull people over for this offense alone and we’d like to see fines set at a higher level.

Why do I feel so strongly about this issue? Well for one thing Dale’s mother, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer after being subjected to secondhand smoke for most of her married life. Dale and I have long been opposed to smoking and tried many times to get his dad to quit, to no avail. As I was preparing this article I was dismayed to have my own grown daughter tell me that when she was young, her grandfather often smoked in the car with her present. Today we have seven grandchildren of our own and thankfully they are not being subjected to second hand smoke by any of their relatives, but there’s currently no law to stop a friend from polluting their lungs if they’re riding in someone else’s car and we think that is wrong.

Did you know that when kids are confined in a vehicle with a smoker it’s like they are smoking one cigarette for every four that the smoker smokes? Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or cancer causing, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide. (1)

Secondhand smoke causes irritation of the lungs, leading to coughing, excessive phlegm and chest discomfort. It also causes irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from pneumonia, bronchitis, and other lung diseases. They are also more likely to have ear infections and develop asthma. Children who have asthma and breath secondhand smoke have more asthma attacks. (2)

There are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 cases every year of infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and children under 18 months of age who breathe secondhand smoke. These result in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations! (3)

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re a smoker, here is what you can do to protect yourself and your family from secondhand smoke.

• Do not smoke in your car or allow others to smoke if there are children present
• Don’t smoke in your home
• Ask other people not to smoke in your home, especially baby-sitters or others who may take care of your children.
• Choose children’s day car centers, schools, restaurants and other places you spend time in that are smoke free.
• If you must smoke, try to smoke only in an open area away from your family.
• Quit for yourself and your loved ones…. Call your local American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872) to find out more about how to stop smoking for good.

If you’re a non-smoker, write your state legislators and tell them why you believe there should be laws against smoking in public places and in cars when there are children present.

For more info on the effects of secondhand smoke on both adults and children, please read: Secondhand smoke: Avoid dangers in the air you breathe

Footnotes

1. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available at: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet2.html

2. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available at: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet2.html

3. California Environmental Protection Agency. Health Effects of Exposure to ETS. September 1997.