moon

As our earth hurdles through the universe on its elliptical orbit around the sun, spinning on its axis, with the moon dancing around and around, we humans discover that there is a great rhythm and predictability within creation.  Evening moves toward morning and back to evening again. The seasons come one by one in turn. Our view of the moon shifts ever so slightly with each passing day from full moon to full moon again as each month whirls by. It is a beautiful rhythm. It is a wondrous dance, magnificent in its predictability, comforting in its order, beautiful in its constancy.

But within this grand predictability, there is much that is not. On the grand Newtonian scale, all is patterned and ordered. At the smallest scale, all is less certain, more random, free. The moon is predictable but the wind blows where it wills.

Freedom within constraint. Improvisation within structure. Spontaneity within order. This is the nature of reality.

I think good leadership leads into the overlap of these seemingly incongruent dynamics, understanding that they are not actually incongruent at all. They are complementary. They are the dissonance and resolution of every song. They are the push and pull of every dance. They are the minutely charted parts played by every instrument that create the space for Charlie Parker to soar upon the wind of improvised melody.

I want to lead like that. I hope my leadership can influence predictable rhythms and sensible harmonies that make sense of the winds of the spontaneous. I hope that within contexts that are completely predictable, there remains the wonder of you never know what might happen. I hope that with each choreographed dance of the moon, the wind still blows

-alan smith