Have you read anything good lately?

If you have read a book recently that you really enjoyed, let me know or pass it this way. (Notice the comment section at the bottom ... you can write in it!!!) I love reading my friend's choices of good books. It makes me feel a little closer to them.

Have you read The Shack by William Young? Everybody's doin' it! My friend Wendy from work loved it, and Michele Parry said I have to read it. So, I'm reading The Shack. I have Michele's copy. I'm on page 197 out of 248.

Mack is in the canoe talking to Sarayu. So far, I definitely think it's a book worth reading. Worthy of your time and thought. I might even read it again. I kind of skimmed pages 43-63 ... that's the tragedy that sets up the entire book. It's totally necessary for the book to be a success - one of the worst tragedies imaginable - but a little emotionally charged.

Something from the book struck me that I want to make note of:

Mack asks the Holy 3, "...Isn't one of you more the boss than the other two?..." and I love their response. "...Frankly, I haven't a clue what this man is talking about..." (pg 121) The concepts that follow made me think - God did not create a world with ranks or a hierachy... That was man's making. In my mind, I flashed back to studying the Old Testament, when the Hebrew nation asked God for a king, and He said no. They bugged Him enough, that He finally gave them one. His ideal of how human's work best is not one with a hierarchal order with an altimate "boss." (Interesting...how else can we live? How else can McDonald's be a success if we don't have a manager and assistant manager and workers...) The book talks about a circle relationship, everyone submitting to the other, everyone trusting the other. Not a LINE of command, but a CIRCLE based on relationships - trust and love and wisdom.

I think that is, in a way, what we tried to do in school at Plank North when 6 of us taught multi-grade 1st - 6th soooo closely together, coordinating everything we did with kids. And especially when we had such a great structure in place that we could then allow the kids to be a part of our circle. Trusting them. I think that is why the kids loved the team and learned so much. It was a structure based on a circle - the 6th graders were not "better" than the 1st graders. No teacher was the "boss" of the other. We trusted each other - submitted ourselves to each other. Man, I wish I could have gone through school in that type of atmosphere.

Then I see it again at Cazbah, where I now work. The CEO and president proactively attempt to make the business a culture based on trust and a circle - not a heirachy. It's amazing. The trust and respect that is projected is like I have never experienced in the business world. Far beyond people just being nice to one another. Everyone is considered very important. And in the visual - the circle - no "part" is more important than the other. All have to submit to the other or the circle is broken. I don't know how Charles (the CEO) at work knew to do this, but he is doing it - with the help of all around him. Very humbling for me to watch it - to see egos set aside for the good of others and the good of the business.

I recommend The Shack. Take from it what you will. I am enjoying this one a lot.