Preserve What's Important

I was listening to a podcast this morning where a 9 year old girl whose parents were going through a divorce was asking for help and understanding in her difficult times.

She was asking for advice, and trying to somehow make her parents get back together. The question was, what advice would you give to her.

Without thinking, I thought "Preserve What's Important". My advice wasn't to the little girl, it was to her parents. If they have to be apart the most important thing they can preserve is their daughter's love.

Then I realized that the axiom was a simple statement of what I believe.

I consider myself an environmentalist, interested in preserving the environment in general, but also very sad to see any species go extinct. When you consider that the web of life is a rich thick tapestry with all the creatures woven into it, you don't want someone wantonly picking away at the threads. You want it preserved intact.

I want natural sites from the big and obvious like Yellowstone, to the local streams and woods left alone, unmolested by the bulldozer. Conventional wisdom from City Planners say that capitalism in the form of development is good. Communities around here are throwing money and tax breaks at already rich developers and investors to come and exploit what natural areas there are "Come here! Build! Build! Build! No restrictions!" I disagree. Those money men will come and make another pile of money off their wheelings and dealings, but they'll be gone tomorrow from our community and we'll be stuck with one less lake, one less grove of trees, and many displaced wild animals. Preserve what's important. The world before we came and trampled it and paved it.

This can be applied to businessmen. There are many temptations to do and say the thing that it would take to get that sale, close that deal, make that aquisition. What good does it do to to win today if there won't be a tomorrow because no one trusts you? Or, if you are really ruthless, and keep winning at the expense of others, what good does it do to sit alone in your house on a huge pile of money if no one loves, cares, or respects you?

Preserve what's important. For a soldier, this means your life. Do what you have to do, but get home. You can always sort it all out and learn to live with it, but if you're dead, there's no way to live with it.

Preserve what's important. For an individual in their career development, that means gray matter. You won't be able to take anything physical with you when or if the company you work for now lets you go or goes under, but you can take what you learned from your experience. So it's more important to learn than anything else you do in a job. It's the only thing you'll get to preserve later.

Preserve what's important. In your personal life, that means the love and respect of the people in your family. You have to do what it takes to keep the connections alive, insure that they have all the help they need to get through life, and make sure they know how important they are to you.

That's what is important.