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March 22, 2007

Change the World: Just Show Up . . . BE There

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:54 am

Meet Me for Lunch Tomorrow?

Change the World!

When I went to the UK for the very first time, it was on a business trip. It was escorted from publisher to publisher by a dear friend I’d known for 9 years a that time. He was a buttoned up Brit. I was an American with too much personality. He was my credibility with the rest of the British citizens and publishers I was meeting along the way.

I was such an interesting experience to spend this time with a friend of so many years and so much time spent talking on this side of the water. I knew him well. We had many times over cognac figured out how to solve all of the problems of publishing and the greater world. We knew each other’s foibles, idiosyncracies, and downsides, and still loved each other.

He knew how self-conscious I was about folks who pick up me at the airport. I knew that no one ever saw him in a shirt without buttons up the front.

Still it was revealing to see him in his natural habitat.

On the day before I left the UK, he dropped me at my hotel and said, “Shall we have a leisurely lunch before I take you to Heathrow tomorrow?”

I said, “It depends on who comes to the door.”

A slightly sad, shy smile crossed his eyes, not his mouth. He’d said from the day we met he loved the American sense of irony. That was his way of saying he liked the way I told him the truth.

“And what would the lady prefer?” was his answer.

“I’d like YOU to SHOW UP — all of you. Not that guy in the tie I’ve been with all week. If HE comes, I’m closing the door, eating lunch alone, and taking a taxi to Heathrow. That guy is boring.”

He said, “I understand.”

The next day, a man with a grin showed up. He was live, wearing a sweater over his buttoned up shirt. We had lunch at a bistro that served the most wonderful fruit brûlée. I can’t tell you what we talked about. I don’t remember, but I remember we laughed a lot.

He was there. It was real. It was what friendship is about.

He showed up and he has ever since.

I can’t tell you how my world has been better because of it.

It really means something when you know someone will be there.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

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26 Comments to “Change the World: Just Show Up . . . BE There”

  1. March 22nd, 2007 at 8:15 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Wonderful story. As I am surrounded with English buttoned-up business people I know how hard it (sometimes) is to prick through their ’stiff-upper-lip’ mentality, but once you manage that a whole bunch of funny, warm persons appear (mostly wearing that typical English cricket-sweater, but who cares?)

  2. March 22nd, 2007 at 8:54 am
    Mark Goodyear said

    Liz, this is so true. A lot of what makes good writing, or good blogging, or (I suspect) good business is honesty, transparency, and integrity. The willingness to be appropriately vulnerable.

    Obviously, the SA Spurs don’t need to shout out their game plan to an opponent, but they can be honest, authentic people off the court. (GO SPURS GO.)

    Also, Liz, you said, “I was an American with too much personality.” I love that. And it is a good reminder that one person’s authenticity is not the same as another. While I think I have a lot of personality, I’m basically just a boring editor. : ) I like sentences and science fiction. But that’s my authentic self, and it’s okay for me to be geekily excited about those things.

    I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT SOBCON07!

  3. March 22nd, 2007 at 8:55 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    Thank you. It’s easy to write a wonderful story about a wonderful person, especially one who is still a wonderful friend.

    Thanks for noticing! :)

    I’m coming over there to meet you so that I can write a story about that one day too.

  4. March 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 am
    Nicholas said

    It’s funny how we see people, but we never truly “see”…

    Sometimes the true person is the complete person. The professional buttoned up guy, the family man, and the guy singing at the top of his lungs in a karaoke bar…

    Could it be that your friend was both that the buttoned up shirt and the casual person in the sweater…

    All the same, it’s nice to see all aspects of a person, it is then we truly get a sense of his true personality and maybe if we’re lucky, we get a glimpse of his soul…

  5. March 22nd, 2007 at 8:59 am
    ME Strauss said

    Mark!!!
    I’m so excited too!! How the heck are we going to fit everything that we want to say in a short time like that??

    I love those words honesty, transparency, and integrity. Gosh they make me feel like something important when I think about them. People want to be something and do something meaningful — that’s the way there.

    Sentences make the music of the language . . . :)

  6. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Nicholas
    Of course, he is all of those. Just as I am the self-conscious person at the airport that he picks up. I was just telling him he didn’t need to hide from if we were going to lunch . . . and that I knew it was a habit of his — something that he agreed was the case. :)

    Yeah, you are right if we’re lucky we get a glimps of someone’s soul. If we’re even luckier, we might get a glimpse of our own. :)

  7. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 am
    Karin H. said

    I’m coming over there to meet you so that I can write a story about that one day too.

    Oh, dear! Is that a promise? (coming over I mean, not writing a story - have to ‘brush’ up for you then)

  8. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:04 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    No need to brush up. I like you just the way you are. :)

  9. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:10 am
    Karin H. said

    Pweh.

    (We will have lunch in our lovely village though)

    Wish I could come over for SOBCon, but alas, maybe next time.

  10. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:12 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    I’ve yet to visit a village that hasn’t been lovely in some very unique way. I can’t wait to see the way that yours is. :)

  11. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 am
    Karin H. said

    Have a preview!

  12. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:20 am
    Mark Goodyear said

    One more comment before I unplug.

    People want to do something meaningful. That is so true.

    That’s why I love your site. You remind bloggers that this is only meaningful when we create in community. What we say must have a direct, positive affect on another person–or else we’re just stroking our own egos by building online archives of meaningless content.

    Sure, we can pretend we’re writing for posterity. And we can overly fixated on a need for seeing with our own eyes how our work helps others.

    But the central point remains. We are honest with others to encourage them to be honest. We give ourselves away to encourage others to give themselves away.

    If everyone in the world did that, what a wonderful place it would be!

    And, Nicholas, I wear a tie every day. It’s become part of who I am as a worker. Dress me up in a tie and I act more professional. Go figure.

  13. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:22 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin,
    It looks wonderful! I’m a small-town girl!

  14. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:23 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Mark!
    Unplug your computer, but don’t ever unplug yourself . . . [big grin]

    Giving ourselves away is easy once we know how.

    I think you can dress me up, I’m not sure you can take me out. :)

  15. March 22nd, 2007 at 11:34 am
    Chris Cree said

    Funny how so much of what we do requires some sort of uniform. Even after I got out of military school and the Navy I still had a uniform of sorts. For years, being in operations, it was business casual - khaki pants and polo shirts. I’m not sure I owned any blue jeans.

    Now my current iteration is almost all blue jeans. In fact I got a few weird stares yesterday when I briefly had a suit and tie on.

    And it is interesting how we have different expectations of people sometimes based on how they are dressed.

    Me, I’d rather let people underestimate me. Besides, here in the South, dressing down seems to work just fine!

  16. March 22nd, 2007 at 11:41 am
    Karin H. said

    I think I will get even weirder stares if I ‘dressed-up’ in long dress or skirt.

    Trousers-person, that’s me, since I left school.

  17. March 22nd, 2007 at 11:48 am
    Mark Goodyear said

    Maybe I’m just a romantic at heart (or Victorian… yikes). But I like to dress up.

    Part of the reason I dress up is because it changes the way others view me. I used to wear a suit on the first day of school. Every year the students thought I had become a principal!

    But the main reason I dress up is because it changes the way I view myself. When I teach a bible class at church, I always wear a tie. It’s part of my leadership uniform. For me, a leader dresses the part. (But I totally respect people who can lead on the authority of their personality without dressing up. Chris and Karin H., I’m sure that’s you two.)

    However, I’ll not be wearing a tie to Chicago. : )

  18. March 22nd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Chris, Karin, and Mark,
    Isn’t it funny. One of the best things about being online is that we “forget” how everyone looks — we “hear” their thoughts first. I think that’s one of the parts that I like the best. :)

  19. March 22nd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
    Chris Cree said

    It’s even interesting the language we use to describe our clothing. Wearing fancier clothing is dressing “up” and in casual clothes we are dressing “down”, as though more fancily dressed folks have more value.

    I’m totally not opposed to wearing a tie and all that. It’s just not remotely practical for what I do much of the time these days, climbing around dirty greasy cargo ships in 90+ degree heat.

  20. March 22nd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
    GP said

    it’s amazing how we “see ” the world and other people thru our “filters”. Opportunities like that are so liberating… you get to “kiss those pictures goodbye”… and that’s when possibilities show up… (as well as who we really are)

    Thanx Liz
    GP in Montana

  21. March 22nd, 2007 at 7:25 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Chris,
    i agree. I love the way that you’re looking at works. Up isn’t always good. We neend to be careful though. Up can also mean in the clouds, off the ground, not yet together. Down can mean grounded. Together and sane. :)

  22. March 22nd, 2007 at 7:27 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi GP,
    I love the pictues of you UP in the air with all over the fields and the through the trees. Up and down can mean so many things.

  23. March 22nd, 2007 at 7:47 pm
    Ellen Weber said

    Liz, Your blog came to mind today - as the story of Smith Wigglesworth - changed the world by abolishing slavery! His story unfolded in the movie AMAZING GRACE - and your blog came to mind.

    Changing the world is rarely easy - he discovered - and we were reminded. But what worth when the world become a better place a blog at a time, and in daily doses. Now there’s a challenge for a mind-bending response:-) Thanks Liz and all.

  24. March 22nd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
    Tariq Khan said

    Liz,

    I’m glad you show up :)!

  25. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Ellen!
    Changing the world is rarely easy and never hard. It’s one person at a time thing, a one day a time thing. It’s a one though after one thought rolling along thing. :)

  26. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:16 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thank you Tariq!

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