Bush leads and reads

I laugh at David Letterman occasional bit “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches,” where great presidential sound bites are contrasted with a goofy quip, hiccup, or stammer by our current president… alas, the benefit of having every public moment recorded.

But former Bush confidante Karl Rove revealed last week in the Wall Street Journal that the President is a bit of a bibliophile. Rove’s New Year’s Eve 2005 resolution to read one book a week in 2006 became a competition in the Oval Office. Rove always wins, but the number and range of books our president is reading is impressive.

Among the President’s 2006 readings: biographies of Lincoln, Twain, LBJ and Genghis Khan, as well as Travis McGee novels and books on the Middle East and sports.

In 2007, "W" dropped to 51 books to Rove’s 76,including Krushchev’s Cold War and The Shia Revival. In 2008, leading the free world took its toll, with the President at 40 books, including Sears’ Gettysburg, U.S. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, and Halberstam’s The Coldest Winter.

Rove reports that the President reads the entire Bible annually and a daily devotional book. I have declined the annual Bible sprint in recent years, opting instead to see how slowly I can read those 66 books (more like J. Vernon McGee’s five-year “Through the Bible” approach).

I am similarly committing more time to reading and less to TV. After a couple of years of mental atrophy and sloth, I’m regaining my literary groove. My 2008 reading list is below, and challenge all my readers and writing circle partners to ante up and show me your stuff. I need the challenge to reach higher!

Good to Great – Jim Collins (business book)
Come On, People – Bill Cosby (call to discipline, self-determination)
Why Revival Tarries - Leonard Ravenhill (re-read his call to holiness, Christian character and courage)
Replay – Ken Grimwood (time traveling novel, “do-over” fantasy)
The Runner – Christopher Reich (WW2 novel)
The Divine Comedy aka Dante’s Inferno – Dante Alighieri (classic from 1300)
The Constant Gardener – John Le Carre novel on corporate espionage set in Kenya, Germany and Canada
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – Le Carre novel on cold war
The Looking Glass War – Le Carre novel on cold war
The Shack – William Young
Plus a couple of books for clients (Yes, I’m doing some book promotion now!)

First book read in 2009: My Grandfather’s Son by Clarence Thomas. Amazing memoir!

Chivalry lives!

A print ad for Chivas Regal scotch got my attention in the Wall St. Journal recently. It’s part of a campaign called “Lives with Chivalry.” The risks of hard liquor aside, let’s look at how this effort to sell upscale booze exploits the virtue of chivalry.

The marketing blog utalkmarketing.com writes:
‘Live with Chivalry’ is a reaction against an age of individualism and over-reliance on materialism, and celebrates the concepts of masculine brotherhood, honour, class and sophistication. This 60-second TV spot shows pretty posh boys act like the gents that they are, giving people a hand up off the ground, carrying their girlfriend over a muddy puddle and pushing Rupert’s classic car (out of the mud).

Andrew Pentol reports at the travel-retail blog dfnionline.com :
“An independent international lifestyle consumer survey of 3000 respondents in 17 countries, carried out by leading research company BrainJuicer in August 2008 on behalf of Chivas Regal, revealed that chivalry is a quality valued around the world with 71% believing they would have a far better quality of life if the people around them adopted this new ideal. An overwhelming 95% of all men and women also said they found chivalrous qualities attractive in the opposite sex.”

New ideal?
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This past November, Stephenie Meyer’s blockbuster book franchise Twilight spawned a $70 million dollar box office opening. In an unusual twist for teen fiction – romance film lore, restraint played a central role for the characters. The vampire Edward showed his true love for Bella by NOT indulging his physical desire. (His passion for blood would surely kill the girl he loves.) Imagine that! True love requires self-denial.

Advertising agencies that are so gifted at moving people to spend $$ on "stuff" will continue to tie in products with historically enduring principles. Smart marketers will always try to associate with something more universal than their product alone.

The agency Euro RSCG is on to something. Stephenie Meyer is on to something. Chivalry shows up in the most unlikely places.

It's so hard to say goodbye

The golden boy just could not do it. He could not retire with a win. Oscar De La Hoya, born in East L.A. 35 years ago to a family of fighters, decided a Golden Gloves belt was not enough. A national championship was not enough. His 1992 Barcelona Olympic gold medal was not enough.

Last weekend’s De La Hoya – Pacquiao fight was a strong argument for “quitting at the top of one’s game.” You’d think Ali’s career (two losses at the end by age 39), or Joe Louis’ career before him (losing to Marciano at age 37) settled the question. Pacquiao dominated for eight rounds, and the fight was stopped. "I don't have it any more," Oscar confessed.

Even with a 39 and 6 professional record (30 by KO), and winning more money than any fighter before him, we will sadly remember only his last fight. I pray that was his last fight. After winning and defending his title 20 times (in four weight classes), he’s split his last eight bouts. The bloom is off the golden boy.

Surely you've heard some overdone brawler utter, “Hey, I’m a fighter. That’s what I do. I fight.”

But Oscar De La Hoya is not just a fighter. He’s got movie star good looks, a promotions company, a community development firm, part of a soccer team, publishing concerns, endorsements, video game covers, an autobiography, three ex-wives, one current wife, and five children.

The 5’-10” De La Hoya will soon stand seven feet tall in bronze outside the Staples Center in L.A. (next to Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky). To quote James Bond, “the world is not enough.”

We can only hope his Golden Boy empire is part of the solution for the beleaguered and beat up boxing game. Then Oscar can make his trips to the bank with the same nobility he once carried in the ring.

HOW TO RETIRE
Esquire.com posted Bill Zehme’s remarkable 2002 profile of Johnny Carson’s retirement. Like most things Carson did, his exit from television and the spotlight was nearly flawless. Steve Martin tried to get Carson to appear during Martin’s hosting of the Oscars in 2001. Carson declined. “That's his very Midwestern morality and humility."

Retirement is not rightly the aim of a man’s life. After service for a number of years, in one trade or profession, a man ought to make a transition. If his labor was mundane, his hobby should be nearly perfected. A man needs to hone a craft. He ought to look for apprentices. In the interest of training others to go further, reach deeper, and take the practice to the “next level,” a man should do less and teach more.

There is a premium on the hard-won wisdom of a man. A gold watch says “thanks.” A protégé says “take that!”

Christmas change

Having voted for change this fall, how will Americans change this Christmas? Fewer gifts? Smaller gifts? Retailers, many of whom depend upon the holidays for much of their annual profit, are forecasting a slim season. People are just too nervous to binge.

For years, I’ve been trying to re-orient our family away from stuff and toward more meaningful gifts. I have failed for a variety of reasons. I like stuff. I like new electronics. I like to lavish things on my wife and children. But what I really want to give them is a heart for others. It’s up to the dad to set the spiritual temperature in the home, and the generosity temperature. It’s hard to give generosity if you don’t have it.

We’ve done the gift boxes for Samaritan’s Purse. The kids loved filling the shoeboxes and decorating them. We’ve been talking about buying soccer balls or a goat through their on line catalog. SHIPPING DEADLINE IS NOV. 24.

Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program is also very cool, totally righteous. Buying gifts for children of the incarcerated is another way of “visiting those who are in prison” (Matthew 25).

I just found a new project, which has true life-sustaining, life-improving potential. Charity: Water builds wells and teaches rural poor in Liberia (and elsewhere) about sanitation and hygiene.

Liberia should get lots of special attention from the U.S. as it was the landing place for mid-19th century black Americans who wanted to return to Africa. And, again, believers are charged to give water to the thirsty (Matthew 25). I cannot remember a time when I was thirsty and did not have a drink of clean water within seconds or minutes. But one-sixth of the people on the planet are thirsty for clean water every day of their lives. Thousands die daily for lack of it.

And for the month of December, maybe I’ll re-direct our entire family’s spare change to the Salvation Army’s red kettles.

I’ll keep trying to give away more and indulge less. I’ll get along without some new gadget for a bit longer. And when I do get my next toy, I won’t feel guilty about it, because a few more people are drinking clean water.

Election night quotes…

John McCain
“Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

“Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone…

“I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.”

Barack Obama
"It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.”

“I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

"To those - to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.”