Third Quarter - FY 2006-2007

We live during a great time. How fortunate each of us is to enjoy our time as employees of the City of Los Angeles and as members of LAMAAA. I work in the Office of the Controller, and it’s a great time to work in this office. We have great leaders, including our Controller, who has devoted herself over the last few years to skillfully magnifying her position. The City of Los Angeles and each of us as professionals has benefitted from her work.

Our Mayor is also an example of hard work and enthusiasm. Over the years, I’ve come to know a few of the employees in his office, and I admire their hard work and competitive spirit. Each of us would do well to lift our sights a little higher and catch a little of the Mayor’s enthusiasm.

Every leader figuratively climbs a wobbly ladder to add a few strokes of paint where needed or to prune an otherwise beautiful tree and lead us all in doing a little more, even while some would wobble the ladder a little more. Leaders love it when someone comes along and steadies their ladder. Think of what you can do for one of the leaders where you work.

And when it comes down to it, aren’t we all on a somewhat wobbly ladder? We all face challenges and appreciate those who steady our ladder, magnifying our strengths instead of our weaknesses. Think of the last time someone steadied your ladder with a kind gesture. Remember that time when Mom or Dad ran along beside your new bicycle and helped you get the feel of a two-wheeler? Special moments of kindness, given or received, enrich us and twinkle like stars in our memory. More of those moments would improve the world we live in.

Last year about this time, I had the special opportunity to volunteer on a special day at the local fair. One day before the fair opened to the public, the fair opened for children with a variety of disabilities. Many of the children had mobility impairments and needed a wheel chair. Many could only manage the easy rides, but as we helped each child from ride to ride the day grew more and more memorable. Even now, as I thnik about my experience that day it brings tears to my eyes.

I remember another time, as a fairly new City employee, when Rose Reyes shared her talent for kindness by making an extra effort to help me with a problem I was having with some paperwork. Her extra effort and kind demeanor set a good example for me. Try thinking of someone you know who exemplifies kindness and copy one of their good deeds.

One of the kindnesses we offer to others is to acknowledge that we are all learning. Even those with great skill in their profession make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes cause a setback in our own lives. Think of the scenario where someone angrily says, “You offended me!” —Bullies use that line all the time. Gang members in our own community kill each other over small “offenses.”

In fact, it’s not accurate to say so-and-so “offended” me, because we have a choice whether to be offended or not. Our response to someone else’s actions is always our own choice. That’s what being “response-able” is all about: choosing the correct response. I encourage you to respond with a little more kindness to the daily offenses that come our way.

Pinned by magnet to a white board in my cubicle is the following poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

One ship sails east and another sails west With the self-same winds that blow. ‘Tis the set of the sail and not the gale Which determines the way they go.

As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate As we voyage along through life, ‘Tis the set of the soul that determines the goal, And not the calm or the strife.

I encourage each of us to make kindness a little more a part of our lives. We will all be richer.

Will