November 26th, 2007
Thanksgiving is really a nice holiday. For starters, the concept of "giving thanks" is probably something that we could put to work a little more often. I know that I certainly have a lot to be thankful for and do not always do a good job of remembering that. It is also always nice to catch up with family and the Thanksgiving holiday comes at a time when we are not yet burnt out and exhausted from shopping, winter weather, holiday programs at church, school, etc. and all of the other stuff that starts to own us once we get a week or two into December. I love Christmas and New Years, but it seems like it might be a little easier to enjoy Thanksgiving. But…I really ate too much this time. If I keep this up, I am going to need some new clothes for Christmas!
Anyway…I spent Thanksgiving in Sioux Falls with my sister and her family and our parents. Sioux Falls is a very cool little city and we had a really nice visit. I spent a big part of one day helping my nephew put together legos. I hate to be this guy, but legos are very different than they were when I was a kid. They are much more complicated now and each "kit" comes with a thick instruction manual. They can really make amazing things with these sets now, but it much more complex. While we worked at building our Aquabase, it dawned on me that legos are a great metaphor for workforce or community diversity. The legos that I had to play with as a child were much more simplistic than the ones that are available now. I did not need detailed instructions…I could just build. It was so easy to play with those legos, because they were pretty much all the same…at that time you only had a few different kinds of blocks. That made it easy, but it also limited what you could do with your legos…I could not build an Aquabase with my legos. Difference makes things more complex (which is not necessarily the same things as "complicated’), but it also increases the potential outcomes…and that is a large part of the value.