Corona Virus Quarantine Day #137: Guest Speaker: August 4, 2020

This week, I will have the privilege of celebrating 20 years of employment with John Deere. I have many thoughts about that duration and how crazy it even seems that I have already worked somewhere for 20 years. Most importantly, is that I feel incredibly blessed to be part of the Deere organization. Yes, I know it is corporate and it can change without much notice, but over the past 20 years, Deere has been amazingly supportive to Nancy and our family. For my “Deere” friends and colleagues that might read this blog entry, thank you for being a significant part of our life and supporting our family. John Deere is made up of some incredible people.

During that 20 years, I have had a handful of different roles, but all centered around one main objective: provide information and insights to leaders in order for them to make a better decision. In our team, we have phycologists, sociologists, analysts, doctors, communicators, and even me. We have a variety of backgrounds and skill sets, and we use numerous techniques to transpose the best available information into insights for our leaders. As a team, we are incredibly passionate and diligent about providing “fact-based” information.

Much like a lot of our professions, this mindset drifts into every part of my life. Whether it be a home improvement project or a decision while coaching a team, I am dedicated to looking at all perspectives of a situation. I figure the real “truth”, and ultimately, the best decision, sits somewhere in between all the noise. I am quite confident this annoys Nancy at times, but thankfully, she has learned to appreciate this quirk of mine.

For the amount that I can handle, I even watch the news with this same approach. I flip frequently between CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and try to identify what is consistent and what is clearly leaning one way. Unfortunately, the ends seem to be moving more drastically and the consistent is less and less common. I used to have a few podcasts I could listen to that I felt were “neutral”, but even they have become very vocal in their stance.

To me, that is the most frustrating part of the COVID situation. I honestly do not feel there are sources I can trust. Everything seems to have some agenda behind it. For someone looking to make a fact-based decision, it is incredibly difficult and a situation where you can see why folks navigate to sources that provide the answer they “want” to hear. With so many leaning sources, it is possible to hear what you want, but also potentially very dangerous not to consider the other side.

Like many have said, I don’t have the answers. I have lots of questions. I want to have answers. Heck, I would settle for good information to make decisions. Until then, I will try, and encourage you was well, to protect against creating an echo-chamber of news and information for what I “want” to hear. It may be frustrating to listen to a news story you disagree with, but it is at least worth asking yourself, “why would they have this opinion”. It does not mean you have to agree with their stance. But, it will make your stance and opinion stronger if you know the other mindset.

To close, I want to thank all of you for clicking on this link and being a part of our family’s journey through this year. I am amazed at Nancy’s ability to tell the story of our day, each and every day. Awesome. Wow. I have no doubt that in 3,5,10,30+ years, we will look back at the collection of these days and realize the incredible experience that 2020 was for our family. We are incredibly blessed.

Some pictures from our day:

Fletcher came with me to Costco…he so badly wanted to see his buddy Steven. I wish I got the reunion on camera. Steven was going on break when we pulled up to check out but he opened back up to check us out. In the short time we were there Steven showed Fletcher a picture of his new grandson, gave Fletcher some money (yes, actually) and invited us over for dinner when this is all over. Needless to say Fletcher left there pretty pumped. He literally shouted “bye Steven…have a great day, I miss you” as we walked away. My heart!

The kids played hockey in the driveway on their roller blades for a solid 4 hours today. The weather was perfect but so was this game. No fighting, no whining only siblings having fun together. We only have 2 hockey sticks to the girls used plastic baseball bats.

After a family fire and s’mores the kids went back out to the driveway to play more hockey. I tried to sneak up on them and get a video.