Taking e-mail to the cloud

I have taken my email to the cloud. For years I have used Outlook and later Windows Mail to download my email to my computer and have worked with it and filed it there. There was always a certain comfort in having it all stored right here in my lap.

But I became uneasy about local data storage a few years ago when I had a computer hard drive crash on me. Lost a lot of pictures in that one and all my saved emails and other documents. Interestingly I had recently bought an external hard drive to store data in case of a computer crash. It didn't work either. Somewhere in the fruitless search for someone who could get my pictures off the external hard drive an expert told me that since a hard drive is a mechanical instrument they will all eventually fail.

About a year ago I started backing up my data on-line (i.e. on "the cloud"), primarily so I don't lose my photos, but since I haven't had to use it to retrieve my data, I still am uneasy about it. I am not especially concerned about someone else getting into it, because one of my principals is transparency. I don't have any secrets other than social security number and the like, and they are not out there.

I have held off to the last on going on'line with my email, but have recently made the change. I am still a little uncomfortable not having it stored right here with me, but am gradually building confidence in the cloud. Wish me luck.

Last Year's Resolutions

It's frustrating. I wrote this once, then lost it. So I'm going to try again.

In a way it's a metaphor for last year's resolutions. I tried, I failed, I have a decision to make. Do I try again? Or do I trash the idea?

One thing I enjoy about the new year is revisiting last years resolutions. Though in recent years I have come to call them "goals." It seems less threatening somehow.

I can revisit them because I have them inscribed at the bottom of my "To Do" list. So as I finish the year I am confronted with the chore of rewriting last years goals. Last year I had four. I know I will reveal something of myself, by talking about them, but that is in keeping with my (unwritten) goal of transparency (maybe more about that in a later post).

Last year's goals tend to fall into three groups: 1. Sucessfully completed, Hallelujah, Amen! 2) Missed it completely, try again this year. Ugh! and 3) Missed it completely, drop it, forget it, Whew! It is that third category that prompted me to write this little piece. It makes me smile.

You see, for years I have compulsively carried over all of last year's unmet goals into the coming year. They constituted a huge collection of difficult expectations with which to confront the new year. Instead of fresh opportunities, the coming year looked rather bleak against the back drop of old failures. Maybe at 69 it is the approaching decade of the 70's that has prompted me to start dropping goals from the list, but it has proved to be an exciting prospect, rather than the bitter nostalgia you might expect.

In 2010 I met two of my four goals - both causes for celebration. I failed to meet two others. One of the two unmet ones goes to the top of the new list with excitement for early work on it in the coming year. The other one goes into the trash can, with a certain glee. It's not that the fourth goal was not worthy. It is just that I have carried it over for far too many years. It was at least as unlikely to be met in 2011 as it was in 2010 and 2009 and...

Goal 1 was to finish the third book: "Relax Christian: God Still has Your Back." I didn't get that done, but it goes back on top for 2011. Goal 2 was to rework my web site (an important step in marketing the ideas that have become an big part of who I am). Got that one done! It didn't take as long as I thought it would. I could have done it sooner. But it is done! It will need to be an ongoing project, but doesn't need to go back on the goals list. Goal 3 was to learn 300 new Haitian Creole phrases by the end of the year. I flunked that one. I don't do well with things that require daily drill. I took some delight in not repeating that one for 2011. I still would like to be able to converse with the Haitian people, but I will have to continue my search for a method other than the "phrase a day" method I had devised. Goal 4 was to clarify for myself my focus on Haiti. I did that one. It took a good deal of time (both mine and that of a large number of other people) and some money, but I got it done. I am not sure anyone but me will benefit from it but I feel a lot better about my interactions with the Haitian people.

So I crossed two off as successfully completed, eliminated one as failed, and carried over one that I want to continue work on. Maybe I'm just old and easily distracted, but it was an interesting and exciting time for me.. I hope the new year brought new joys for you as well.

Helping people in the third world

Here's a lengthier article on how to (more about how not to) help people in third world countries. From the New Yorker

Americans in Haiti

Well, we are back from Haiti. Here's a picture of Magalie practicing to carry stuff on her head. She is doing well and was running around with the other little kids, laughing and playing. She is staying at Roberta's for awhile. She had a place on her face that her mom was concerned about, so we accompanied Roberta on two doctor's visits. Turned out to be stitches working their way through (like the Mayo folks said they would).

The short summary of the trip is that Charlie preached a lot. we did most of the stuff the Haitian Christian Development Project wanted done, and we interviewed four orphan's home directors (or wannabes) for Orphans' Lifeline. Oh, and we drove from one end of the island to the other and back, quite a feat for American drivers. I have lots of pictures and will likely share a few more in a day or so.

I am sure you are anxiously awaiting my conclusions about how Americans can best help Haiti. I did talk to several people about it. Haitians didn't usually want to answer, but when they did, they spoke of helping individuals "get their feet under themselves" (my paraphrase). They meant things like helping people start a business. Americans living full time in Haiti had some interesting advice. One fellow I met in the airport said he was a paper pusher in the military attache's office at the American Embassy, I think that's code for CIA. His advice was for all the Americans to clear out and let the Haitians figure it out. He mentioned both the churches and the NGOs. The fellow assured me that the Haitians were capable of solving their problems if they would let go of the expectation that the Americans were going to fix things for them. That was strangely consistent with the advice I got from many of the resident missionaries and a few Haitians.

Recently I have been reading some books about raising kids, particularly about under-achieving gifted kids. The best advice from those books was very similar to the advice I got about America's relationship with Haiti. The kids' books said if you help them too much, you rob them of their chance to develop independence. If you don't help them enough, you rob them of the sense of security that they need in order to take chances and move forward. And here's the trick. How do you know how much is enough? The answer is that you have to know the kid. Or in the case of helping the Haitians, you have to know the people involved and the nature of the project. It is about relationships. Please understand that I am not comparing the Haitian people to American teenagers, just making a parallel in terms of the nature of helping relationships. The bottom line is you can't help very well from afar. You or someone you know and trust has to be on site with some regularity, to know the people involved, to know when you are stifling the development of independence and when you are not giving the security needed to reach out, to experiment, to strike out on their own.

It is a hard answer because it requires so much more from the helper. But Jesus said "Go."

Let me know what you think.

Headed to Haiti Tomorrow

Charlie McGee and I are headed to Haiti tomorrow. Charlie is my brother, and Charlene's. You'll have to ask him about that. Our calendar is full for two and a half weeks. Charlie is doing a gospel meeting at Roberta's the first week and we have several appointments related to my agenda. More on that in a moment.

Then we go to Gonaives to do some work on behalf of Healing Hands Int'l. That's stuff like building bunks, making a VOIP system work ("voice over internet protocol" - that's Charlie), and checking on some water wells and filtration systems. From there it's on to Cap Haitian to see some old friends, check out funding eligibility for a couple of orphanages for Orphans Lifeline, and check on little Magalie. See the earlier posts on this blog, If you are not aware of Magalie.

My larger agenda is to get a better feel for the relationship between Americans and Haitians. I plan to ask everyone I meet three questions, to be answered in whatever order they choose:

1. What are the best things Americans can do that will help Haiti in the long term?
2. What are the things that well intentioned Americans are doing that might seem to be helpful, but that are actually hurtful in the long run?
3. What things are Americans doing or proposing to do that really will not make any difference in the long run.

It will not be a scientific sample, but it will give me a good idea of the conventional wisdom of both Haitians and Americans. I plan to compile and summarize the answers, report them here and and elsewhere and shape my personal efforts from what I have learned.

This research is prompted in large part by the earthquake, by the hundreds or thousands of rescue workers who responded, by reports of a lack of coordination among them, by the subsequent disappearance of most of them, and by my long existing goal to learn how best we can help the Haitian people without fostering dependency. May God bless me in my search.

Hummmpf! Blogs!

Well am I ever behind? When Magalie left I lost interest in this blog. It didn't have a serious purpose. I think the purpose has to be to talk about me and the family and what we are thinking and doing. I see problems with that format. 1) I'm shy. 2) I don't want to appear to be self-focused (I'm shy). 3) I want to respect the privacy of my family and others with whom I deal. 4) A lot of what we do is boring and I don't want to bore folks. 5) I know a blog needs to be kept up in order to keep interest and I'm not sure I have the diligence to keep it up (as witnessed by the last several months of inactivity).

Why would I bother with a blog, If I am not really interested in drawing attention to myself? Basically I have some ideas I want to promote. As I have researched how to market these ideas, what I have learned is that I need an identity to tie them together. That identity is me. If I were a corporation or a church or an agency of some kind, I could hide behind that identity, but in reality it's just me. So, I have to market me in order to market the ideas. That sounds crude to me - downright repulsive.

But it's really about integrity. I decided a long time ago that who I am is a single individual. I am not someone at work, someone else at home and a third person at church. Being the same person wherever you are is the definition of integrity. And my ideas, my way of looking at the church and at God's will for our lives is a part of who I am, wherever I am. It is with me at the Minnesota State Fair or in Port au Prince, Haiti. I can't separate the ideas from what we do, though I do work at not being a bore by talking about them all the time.

One thing I keep forgetting, that makes it a little easier, is that "marketing" ideas is not about trading money for something. All the money from the sale of the books goes into publishing more books and making a few copies available to give away. My ultimate motivation is to further the kingdom of God. I need to pray that He will teach me how to do that without becoming prideful.

So here goes. I am going to attempt to keep this blog up with family news and thoughts on what's going on in the world. See also my web site which badly needs an update as well. Started working on that this morning.

Kitchen Tile Project

Some folks really enjoy this kind of work. Not me. I do like seeing it done when it is over, but I have never gotten into the work itself. I'd rather be reading, writing, or riding a bike through the woods. I have determined that this project has six steps: removing the old tile, sanding, spackling, sanding again, priming and painting. Last night we completed step one. Don't be fooled by the smile on Alex's face. He can be happy because it isn't really his project. He just pitched in to finish up the end of step one.