Have you no shame? Have you no decency?

This man's speech said it all.

How it Works

Let's say, you have been hired to do a job. 

Your job is to process papers and move them to the next area.

Intuitively, you know that processing papers would obviously entail that you process them correctly before moving them to Next Area.  You like your job, you are thorough, fast and accurate.

Along comes a great idea from Management.  They want to incent you to do your job better and quicker.

So they devise a plan.

The Compensation Plan for Processors.

"If Mr/Ms Processor processes the paperwork and it averages that 95% of the paperwork arrives to Next Area within 3 days in any given month, that said Processor will recieve an additional bonus compensation payable on the 15th."

Everyone hails the Great Plan. 

About three months into the Great Plan, something seemed to go wrong.  The overall goal in the Great Plan by Management was to actually finalize the ENTIRE transaction sooner, not just Processor time.

But what happened?  You could refer to it as the Great Unspoken Conspiracy Among Processors.

Mr/Ms Processor realized it didn't matter if Paperwork was complete or accurate or ready for Next Area.  And there was no Penalty Clause in the Great Plan for having Paperwork returned to Processor because it was either not complete or accurate.

The days to finalize the transaction actually increased rather than decreased.  And the Processor compensation not only did not suffer, but was rewarded.

Thus began what Big Bad Banking Company called enlightenment.

You Get What You Incent.

No quality standards within the Great Plan resulted in no quality. 

This account is a true story.  The names were changed to protect the innocent.

When we were still only 48.

Who couldn't love Red Skelton?  

I wish I had appreciated this time back "in the day".  And I wish we could have entertainers like this again.  

H/T to Beej.

SAFE

Joseph began his "career" as a clerk in a general store.  Three years later, he and a friend purchased 30 acres of land.  The purchase was what I guess you could call "profitable".

The next year Joseph and his partner started a dry goods store. 

But Joseph had what no other merchant in town possessed.

A safe.

The other merchants began leaving their money in Joseph's safe.  It became known as "the safest safe in town."

Twenty years later, he formally opened an official bank, in the middle of a Civil War.

Along the way, Joseph helped build toll roads, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, and continued building several companies and routes from Indianapolis to Greenwood.

William G. Irwin, Joseph's son, after graduating from Butler University, began working as a cashier at Irwin Bank.  Eventually Will succeeded his father as President of the bank.

Clessie Cummins never made it past the 8th grade.

He was rural farm boy and eventually was hired.  As Will's driver and mechanic.

And you've likely heard of him although you may not know it.

While working for Will, he designed a new diesel engine.  So much for formal education.

Together they founded Cummins Engine in 1919.

Hugh Miller was hired as the Assistant Cashier of Irwin Bank and must have presumably courted and married Will's niece, eventually he followed up by becoming the President of Irwin Bank.  Their son, J.I. continued the family businesses and together with his sister set about making Columbus, Indiana a remarkable "small" town in the middle of nowhere. 

In 1954, J.I. created Cummins Foundation and funded world reknown architecture in the small town by the likes of Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Kevin Roche and Richard Meier.  In Nov/Dec 2008's National Geographic Traveler's Magazine, Columbus was named 11th of 109 historic destinations.

Irwin Union Bank continued to grow.  When banking laws were changed in Indiana to allow branches outside of contiguous counties, Irwin was the first bank to purchase a bank.  Midwest National Bank had been a minority owned bank in downtown Indianapolis and was experiencing some difficulty.  Irwin purchased the bank, eventually selling it to Huntington Bank.  They also bought Inland Mortgage.  The bank and holding company were innovative, growing, prospering.  Inland Mortgage became very successful.

In 1990, J. I.'s son, Will became the Chairman and CEO of the bank holding company.  Will had been on the bank's board since 1985.  Becoming active in the management, Will did not immediately storm his way through the daily detail of actually running the company.  Instead, he would sit in management meetings and committee meetings and take long notes.  Some were impressed that he didn't waltz in the door and assume he knew how to manage the company on a day-to-day basis.

By the time J. I. and his wife passed away, they had amassed quite a fortune.  The Miller House had become a museum of sorts, designed by Saarinen and contained a collection that ended up at the Christie's Auction in London.

A single Monet painting was sold in 2008 for 80 MILLION DOLLARS.

Last Friday night, a few people dressed in business suits walked in the door at 5:30 p.m. and forever closed the doors of Irwin Union Bank.

If you're looking for an evil villian here, I can't help you.  There was no one looking to make a fortune.  In case you missed it, the fortune had already been made.

Did they make mistakes?  Of course.

Did they get involved with what is now considered "risky" real estate business?  In hindsight, absolutely.

But, I'm sure there are more than a few tears in this non-sleepy little town of 40,000.   It's not the end of a bank, it's the death of an era.

Tiara World

When my niece asked me to be her Matron on Honor several years ago, I was more than a little stunned and thrilled.  The thought still brings tears to my eyes.

The day she got married, she decided that all "the girls" in the wedding would have their hair done at a local beauty shop.  It seemed like it took forever to get her style done.  When it was about half way there, I was getting a little worried, it looked a bit odd, but by the time they were done it was absolutely beautiful. 

My sister had made her veil and the beautician only had to put the tiara part in her hair and the rest could be attached at the church.   So the bride and all the girls all walked back to the car.  My niece was driving and since it was mid-day, we thought we would run through McDonald's drive through.  The line was long, but we passed the time chit chatting like "girls" do right before a wedding.  We finally made it up to order and then slowly poked along getting up to the window to pay.

My niece went to hand the lady the money and the lady said, "Oh, you don't owe anything."  We were all confused.  She said, "The car ahead of you already paid." 

We see a white SUV pulling away.  My niece says, "But we don't know them."  "Well, they paid for your meal."

What a sweet memorable gesture.  And now, several years later we still talk about how some wonderful stranger apparently saw "the bride" behind her in line and decided to give the bride an unexpected gift.

My niece said, "Cool, we should always wear tiaras."

Fast forward to a couple months ago.

My niece is in the middle of adopting two wonderfully sweet girls.  The littlest one thinks she's a princess and wore a tiara during one of the visits to my sisters.  When it had fallen off her head, I stuck it on mine.  It didn't take long before I completely forgot about it.  I usually stick my sunglasses on my head and it's really easy to forget. 

Several hours later we were about to leave for a restaurant and someone mentioned my tiara.  THANK GOD.  Someone else said they should have just not mentioned it to me.  Nice.

Then my niece related a recent story.  She was at home and had also taken her new daughter's tiara and stuck it on her head, completely forgetting it was there.

Hours later when she came in from mowing the lawn, she saw herself in the mirror.

Imagine what the neighbors thought.

H/T to Thoughtsofaregularguy.

I Love This Dad

What a CATCH!  I just love the way he hugs his baby girl after she does the unthinkable.



Little Girl Tosses Back Foul Ball - Watch more Funny Videos

Chaplain Mychal Judge

Another Reminder: Heroes are NOT from Hollywood or DC.

Letters From Home

No, This was NOT because I am Blonde.

When we first decided to join the church I referred to in my last post, they had a dinner one night at the church for the new members. 

While few of our friends can believe it, Bob and I are actually still shy, especially when we are in a big crowd of people we don't really know.  One on one, no one can detect it, but it's really difficult when we are invited to a group where we don't know anyone or only know a handful of people.

So we go to this dinner and just inside the front door was a table where we were to write out our names on nametags.  Having to write a nametag evokes some bad demons on those of us that have that closet shyness that they desperately try to hide from everyone. It immediately signals that "fight or flight" syndrome meaning that to stay after that point will mean we actually have to speak and think of something to say

There were a couple dozen tables past that where we were to sit.  As I was starting to fill out my nametag, Troy suddenly appeared and he and Bob were talking away. 

I handed Bob the marker to write his name and he told me to just fill it out for him.  He does that alot, so I didn't think much about it.  I was listening to Bob and Troy and I began to fill out his nametag without actually paying much attention to what I was doing. 

If you've ever had a little bit of shyness (which as I said, people find it really hard to believe either of us are now), you'll realize that you spend alot of time worrying about where you'll sit, who you will sit with, what you will say.  It's silly, really.  I compensate for it by trying my darndest to remember that everyone likes it if you just ask them questions about themselves and you just start a conversation.

It's still not something I like to do. 

So, anyway.  I'm listening to Bob and Troy and I'm wondering where we'll sit and if we'll just be out of place and etc, etc etc.

Then I hear Bob ask me slowly (and not exactly quietly), "W H A T  

A R E  Y O U  D O I N G?"   I'm confused by his question and then I look down at where he is looking, which is where I am writing his nametag. 

I swear, I looked at my hand like it was an alien hand or possessed (which isn't a good thing in a church).

At the tips of my fingers was the nametag and a black marker with some weird hand that had just written:

G e o    

and the possessed hand was just about to write an R.  I was writing the name George on Bob's nametag.  I'm pretty certain that my eyes bugged out of my head kinda like that Twilight Zone(movie) episode of the creature on the wing of the plane. 

Let me be clear. 

I really don't know a George.  Well at least not for years and years.  I don't work with a George, we have no George's in our family.  I have no freakin' clue as to why my weird possessed hand was writing the name George. 

We ended up sitting with Pastor Jesse and his wife for the dinner and we were to tell things about ourselves (which is also a horrible thing to have to do for us closet shy people).  So I told the story about the George nametag.  The quickest way for me to get over feeling awkward in front of people I don't know is to tell a ridiculous story about myself (you would think that would be the opposite, wouldn't you?)

So Pastor Jesse loved calling Bob George after that.  It was one of the first times we had interacted alot with Pastor Jesse other than him welcoming us to the church every Sunday and it was quite an ice breaker.  And since the story got around quickly, many people couldn't remember what his real name was.

What Kind of Church?

Several years ago, Troy worked with my brothers and husband for a big retailer.  We knew Troy was what some people would label, "Very Religious".  All I knew was that he was part of a church that consisted of around 10 people who met in their houses.

So, I remember wondering, what kind of church has 10 people and meets in houses?  Seemed really kinda weird at the time.  But I knew Troy and he and his wife were very very nice people.  So if they seemed to have a strange religion, who am I to judge.

And Troy was never pushy with his religious beliefs, he was just kind and wonderful to everyone, whether they followed his beliefs or not.

Troy and his fellow church members met for a few years and their membership of "whatever" church kept growing, eventually growing big enough that Troy quit his job with Big Retailer to become a Youth Minister of this church.  I remember his going away party.  It was heartfelt as Troy had touched all of the people he worked with, especially my husband.

About 17 years ago, Troy's Whatever Church outgrew their house meetings and began to look for a "real" building to meet.  They prayed about finding a place and happened upon a strip mall that had some open space that was owned by "Locally Owned Big Grocer".   They called Mr. Big Grocer's business and asked about leasing the space.   Mr. Big Grocer's man said the rent would be $7,500. per month.

By then Whatever Church had a real name and their membership was growing, FAST.  But this was a local community and that rent was not within reach, which they informed the owner's agent.  The agent said he would check on something and get back with them.  In the meantime, Troy and the other Pastors began to pray about what they should do.  The members prayed about what they should do.

A few days later the agent called them and said that if they would pay the utilities for the property, they could occupy the empty space.  Which they did.  For FIFTEEN years, growing and growing all along.  Taking up more and more of the retail space.  All of which was rented by only paying the utilities.

We went to one of the services at the strip mall about 10 years ago, along with my brothers when we heard that Troy was going to be giving the sermon.  It seemed to have a lot of life and a nice band and interestingly enough, it was not some weird religion that I had envisioned when I had heard of it years before.

Three years ago this church had been able to save enough from the free rent and the generous donations of their ordinary members to build their own church.

We decided to go to the grand opening service. 

What we found was amazing. 

The lobby of the building was gorgeous and inviting.  The "auditorium" had three huge video screens and soft comfortable seating.  Having grown up Catholic, this was a far cry from the wooden benches and the punishing "kneelers" that were in the Catholic Churches in the 1960's.

The place was packed.  We arrived early and found seats as more and more and more people entered.  The auditorium will hold around 800 people and it was quickly filling up for the first service.  We were greeted at our seats by a kindly old gentleman who introduced himself as Pastor Jesse.

He was making his rounds shaking hands, giving hugs and welcoming members and "Just Visitors" like us.

Suddenly we heard a familiar voice behind us looking for seats.  It was Troy and his wife.  We had not told them we were coming, and you could tell they were delighted to see us.  Then everyone stood as the church band began.

We had never listened to contemporary Christian music and were amazed at how incredible the band sounded and the main singer blew us away.  We were even more blown away when the music was done and the singer walked up to the microphone and began his message.  He was not only the main singer, he was the Senior Pastor.

We had gone out of curiosity.  Pastor Mark began to talk what seemed like a message directed to us.  The big screens showed a video that not only brought chills to my arms, but tears to my eyes.  The next week would continue the series message and we were hooked.

Within just a few months, we began the classes to become official members.  The next August, they held the first baptism in "the pond" that was built outside.  There were over 100 people that "got dunked" in the pond that day and we were among them, with Troy holding onto Bob as we went under. 

He gave us both a big hug, while standing waist high in the water and finally said to me, "I have been praying about this for years."  He never pushed his faith on anyone, but just quietly prays over those he loves.
 

Sadly, last year, we lost Pastor Jesse.  It left a big hole in our hearts and a loss we still feel every Sunday, not having him greet us with a big hug. 

So Troy's "Whatever Church" was not some weird cultist backward church.

It was and is a simple "interdemonational" church who gear their message to the unchurched.  They do not have saints attending on Sundays.  They have just plain old ordinary sinners.

They don't offer judgment, and yet they do not sacrifice God's Word to appeal to the masses.  They appeal to the masses by being simple true Christians.   And "we" have now already outgrown this new huge building. 

I'm sure it was not even dreamed about when they started the church in their homes.  But I'm glad they had a vision that I could not have fathomed.

God, I Just Have ONE Question.

Ok, that's not entirely true.  I have alot of questions, but this one is on my mind tonight.

If heaven is better than the feeling of having two little arms wrapped around my heart, can we all just cut to the chase and get there already?