Willing to be fooled

Now, you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because, of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out.

You want to be fooled.

I was reading this article from my friend over at Reformed Perspective and I was reminded of the above quote from The Prestige, one of my favorite movies. The quote is focused on the way a magician fools his audience -- I'm willing to bet this is not unlike our affinity, in any age, to be willfully fooled by hoax after hoax no matter what the medium.
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Home is where the kitchen is

My wife and I have often commented on the excessive "open concept" used in every new house these days. It is one of the peculiar items that has made us more inclined to look for older homes whenever we are house-hunting. The popularity of combining all siting, dining, kitchen, and even entry areas into a single "great room" is as strong and as lasting as the India Pale Ale.

So I was fascinated to read this think piece by Kate Wagner that outlined the history and drivers behind these floorplans.
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On Christmas, Scrooge, and various scrooges

I grew up with a few lovely sets of grandparents who made sure we were supplied with Christmas gifts. Yes, even though my father died when I was 3 years old, my mother and older siblings made sure that Christmas was especially distinct and happy -- dare I say "holy."

My memories include a lot of unique experiences: cutting a live tree and the inevitable disagreements over what type (Blue Spruce, Douglas, Grand, or Noble firs all had different appeal) of tree, how big, where to place it, and how to decorate it. We had a tradition for a while of decorating the tree together and bargaining over who got to put what ornaments up. There was always a special ornament with my dad's picture to place. Somehow there were never tears over who would place it, but it had meaning. Decorating the tree sometimes got "emotional" for me when I would argue with my older sisters. There was the one year they thought it would be fun to do a "Victorian" tree, which basically meant a Noble Fir, only white lights and a few less of the oddball musical ornaments. As an aside, I don't know where we got so many musical ornaments. There were SO MANY! Some played the same "midi" version of jingle bells and others had unique tunes. They were either little red pianos or gold or silver gifts-shaped boxes with switches on the bottom. Then there were the ones you could squeeze to activate. For a while, we had a game where everyone would grab a music ornament (needed all hands) and activate them simultaneously and laugh at the resulting ridiculous cacophony.
Other traditions were not so silly: We were all choir kids. Christmas meant somewhere between one and three choir obligations for which to prepare. Sometimes it was church family night. Sometimes the local city choral group singing the advent portion of Handel's Messiah. And gifts... About those gifts.
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Gospel teamwork

I often find myself being sucked into work culture and leadership articles. For some reason, leadership studies and workplace culture-building are important to me. Some of that is formed by my teen years in Civil Air Patrol, in which I discovered how difficult it is to transform children into serious, mission-minded adults. So when someone claims to understand what it takes to motivate and lead their colleagues to success, I pay attention. When someone goes on about emotional intelligence and the need for leaders to be trust-worthy and servant-like, I nod along vigorously.

But I keep having a nagging thought: Why are "team culture," "company culture," and "leadership" such studied disciplines by well-paid consultants in our day? Is this because we've always put up with horrible leaders and coworkers in the past and just now we've decided to study it for the sake of our mental health and productivity?

No. The reason we study this and pay money to consultants is because the need has grown.

Frankly, we are spending a lot of money studying and attempting to learn basic virtues. Except that in a culture without shared values or a law of kindness, we are now learning them as adults, and only as tools to get ahead. Put more bluntly, we are dealing with the fallout of the loss of law and love.
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