My Fifteen Minutes of Radio Fame

Yesterday with my gravely chest congested voice I was interviewed by the brilliant Kristin Hiemstra for her radio show “The Art of the Potential” on WCHL.  We did a remote location taping at the Durham Branch of the Food Bank.  When Kristin asked me to be a guest on her show I had no idea we were going to do a whole forty-minute show on my volunteer work with the Food Bank.  I thought I might just be one of many guests.

With no script or outline for me Kristin and I talked about how I first got involved with the Food Bank, my weight loss connection, this blog and the work of the Food Bank in our community.  I should have known that I would have a lot more to say about the subject than a forty-minute show could hold.

One question Kristin asked me led to talk about a phrase I first coined when I was a consultant working with ex-monopoly telephone companies that applies to everything in life, “If it’s not a law of nature it can be changed.”  Working with bureaucracy I often heard things from people like, “It is a rule that customers wait three days for a new phone.” Or “Even if we were wrong it is our policy to never refund a call to a customer.”

Those kinds of words make me crazy.  See those “rules” and “policies” are not gravity, which is a “law of nature.”  I can’t change gravity, but lord knows I would like to in relation to a pair of my body parts, but rules and policies can be changed.  When people say things like, “that is the way we have always done it,” or “It’s just the way it is,” I think it is a huge cop out.

What do you want to change?  It can be things in the world, your community, your house or yourself.  If it’s not a law of nature go for it.

If you want to listen to the whole show it will air tomorrow, Sunday January 20, at 2:00 PM on WCHL 97.9 FM or 1360 AM.  Or you can go to this link and listen to it. http://chapelboro.com/pages/14088819.php