Sketch: Balancing Topper


Not much more than a doodle but it brings me joy and seemed brilliant in 1976. Now, I'm not so sure, but I can still smile.


Cartoon: A short treatise on existence



I created this oddity in 1976, in the middle of a disappearing relationship, working a series of very odd jobs including security guard, bartender, and parking lot attendant. Saved for posterity because I'm just too self-absorbed not to, I guess.

You May Not Need Every Tool


Do you have a lot of tools?

I don't. I had a nice collection inherited from my dad (I call them a collection because I collected them but when they were his he actually USED them) until they were destroyed in a fire.


Now, an apartment dweller, I have few tools. I still don't use all of them -- but I know how.

When we are solving problems we have many tools. The temptation is to use them all. It's oddly satisfying to bring out tool after tool. Satisfying, but sometimes inefficient. Simplicity - elegant simplicity is often best.

Use the tools that work, and leave the rest for another time.

It isn't always necessary to overwhelm a problem in order to solve it.

Sometimes the solution is right there in from of you and in need of only one tool. Dialogue. Talk about it and see what happens. You might just solve that problem faster than you expected.

-- doug smith

This entry comes from one of my other blogs: High Performance Leadership and also appears on Centered Problem Solving. I copied it here, just because...

Poem: off again

did i ever tell you
that any of that
                mattered
or that
       holding out hope
is what i do best?

with your barely open gates
closing and
your once flirtatious musing
silenced you
look at me
          differently and
see another friend
                  ending
this dance
          again
ending this
          dance
again
          But,

didn't you tell me that

you don't dance?

-- doug smith


Photo: Wedgwood Office

FRL Office in Longmont

Are You Sure?

What if every secret was a lie?

-- doug smith

Take Joy

Take joy on those parts of the past that bring you joy and let go of those that do not.

-- doug smith


No One Expected Moses

  No One Expected Moses -- collage by douglas brent smith 4 August 1983