Category: Personal Posts

Blog posts by Peter DeHaan, many of which are in his book Woodpecker Wars.

The Exciting Millennial Generation

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 30, 2017

It seems that I’ve recently heard a lot of complaints about this “younger generation,” known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y (those born after 1984—or between 1980 and 2000—depending who’s doing the explaining).

Employers moan that Millennials don’t want to work: they arrive late, lack motivation, and do not make good employees. Customers complain than Generation Y doesn’t seem to care and looks strange.

True, each successive generation causes angst and head scratching from their elders. However, with Gen-Y there is an additional factor at play—the emergence of a postmodern mindset. (See What Does Postmodern Mean?)

Generally, Gen-Y, and to a lesser extent Gen-X that preceded them, have postmodern perspectives on life, whereas prior generations are more likely modern thinkers. Herein is the rub that causes the above frustrations.

One element of the postmodern outlook is that they want meaningful work and to make a difference in the world.Career, wealth, and possessions tend to have little draw to postmodern people. And this excites me.

I recently asked a 21-year woman if she would soon be graduating from college. (This was a bad assumption on my part.)

She hemmed a bit and then admitted that she had just dropped out of cosmetology school—her second post-high educational effort.

She realized that a career in cosmetology would be a shallow and meaningless pursuit. She wants to make a difference in the world by helping those in a third-world country—she leaves in two months.

Another acquaintance abandoned her career path as a paralegal and is cranking through grad school—so she can join the Peace Crops—and then aid governments in developing countries.

Another 20-something friend is wrapping up a yearlong stint in Russia.

Even though he’s not yet back to the States, he is already planning on a return trip as soon as possible. A fourth friend simply desires to travel the world—to help the people she meets.

I could go on and on about this “younger generation” who are set on making a difference, have forsaken materialism, and seek meaningful work—and it excites me greatly—Gen-Y has the potential to make this world a better place.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags postmodern, Sacred-Secular Divide, spirituality, work

Personal Posts

What Does Postmodern Mean?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 24, 2017

I was talking with a 20-something friend and tossed out the phrase “postmodern.” His ears perked up and he asked what it meant.

“You’re postmodern,” I spontaneously asserted.

“I know; that’s what people tell me,” he replied,“but what’s it mean?”

“First there is one aspect of postmodernity that doesn’t fit you,” I clarified. “Most postmoderns do not accept absolute truth; to them all things are relative.

The only thing they accept with absolute certainty is that there are no absolutes.’ (Don’t think about that too long—it will give you a headache!)

“The rest of the profile seems to match you,” I continued. “In general, postmodern people value relationships and relish experiences—for them, the ‘journey is the reward.’

They want work that is fulfilling and allows them to make a difference in the world, but they guardedly balance work with their personal life. They tend to not be materialistic and money doesn’t mean as much to them as a ‘modern’ person.

They are decidedly non-religious, but are quite open to spirituality and metaphysical dialogue.”

He agreed with my assessment that he was postmodern.“And what about you?” he asked.

There is a propensity for younger generations to be postmodern and generations people—like me—to be modern. It’s not a life stage phenomenon, but more a lifelong mindset.

Being on the tail end of the baby boom generation, I should be modern, but in reality, “I skew towards postmodern.” He smiled at that; I guess that’s why we get along so well.

If you work with or manage postmodern people (typically generation Y or the Millennials, born after 1984), you will likely be challenged beyond anything you’ve experienced.

Keeping this brief overview in mind might help you to better understand them. But don’t assume they think and act like you (unless you’re also postmodern) or you’ll never really connect with them.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags postmodern, Sacred-Secular Divide, work

Personal Posts

Dialing for Dollars: Frustrations with Accounts Payable

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 16, 2017

My least favorite task is making collection calls, but it was again time to do so. Although it took less than an hour, I spent more than a day getting psyched up for this distasteful task.

I find that I am quite adept at finding other things to do (which are decidedly more interesting and satisfying) in order to avoid “dialing for dollars.”

My perspective is that it is moral and ethical business behavior to pay all bills by their due date, if not sooner. Therefore, I shouldn’t be put in a position to have to ask people for the money that they freely and readily agreed to pay me for my services.

I have found that my customers fall into four categories:

Most pay their bills on time, every time. (Thank you!)
Some generally pay on time, but need an occasional reminder or a resent invoice.
A few always need a phone call before they pay. (This could be a result of corporate policy or cash-flow issues.)
A couple can’t or won’t pay what they owe me.

I once worked for a company whose policy was to pay all bills, net forty-five. It wasn’t a cash-flow issue, but a desire to operate off other people’s money.

This made it most challenging to engage new vendors and keep existing ones happy; they always wanted to be paid net thirty.

Another company I worked for had cash flows issues—sometimes majorly so—and paid almost all bills late, sometimes months late; this was an even more challenging environment.

I have decided to treat my vendors the way I want to be treated: I usually pay bills within twenty-four hours.

That requires a bit more cash reserves—and many would call it fiscally foolish—but I call it the right thing to do.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags money, Sacred-Secular Divide, work

Personal Posts

Are You Wealthy?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 26, 2017

Are you wealthy? Your initial answer on “No” is probably the same as mine was, but I’ve since learned that I was wrong.

My eyes were recently opened to a new reality concerning my relative financial well-being in this global economy.

The website www.globalrichlist.com (which, unfortunately, may not be working anymore) shows how you rank. The site considers your annual income compared with that of the rest of the world.

In this regard, you will find you are indeed quite well off. True, there will be quite a few people more wealthy than you, but many, many more who are paupers in comparison.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, you might be interested to know that if you made 50,000 dollars last year, you would be in the top 1 percent of the world’s wealthiest people.

If you made a mere 3,000 dollars, you will still be in the top 15 percent worldwide.

If you made only 900 dollars a year, you would be in the top half.

This has certainly changed my perspective.

Perhaps its time to develop a new attitude. We need to stop comparing ourselves to that small minority who are better off than we—it will only make us crave more.

Instead, we should compare ourselves to a huge majority that are in greater need than us—it will surely make us want to give more.

By giving more, I can make a difference; you can make a difference. We can all make a difference.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags economy, Sacred-Secular Divide

Personal Posts

Which is Better, Setting Goals or Making New Year’s Resolutions?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 1, 2015

Although I avoid making New Year’s resolutions, I do set annual goals. What’s the difference? Maybe nothing; maybe everything. To me, resolutions are akin to wishful thinking, with low expectations for success.

Goals are concrete, with stated action and quantifiable results.

I don’t think I’ve ever made a New Year’s resolution. If I discover something about myself I want to change, I set about making the adjustment right away. Delaying change until January first makes no sense.

However, every year I do set annual goals. I write them down and may even share them with friends. Throughout the year, I work towards achieving those goals.

Sometimes my goals morph into something else and other times they become irrelevant along the way, but I take each one as far as I can by December 31.

At the end of each year, I look back with a sense of accomplishment over the goals I’ve reached, while not wallowing in remorse over the ones I’ve missed. Never once have I achieved every annual goal and never once have I failed at them all.

This year was a rough year. Life took an unexpected turn soon after the New Year began, and my goals necessarily assumed a lessor priority. Even though it was one of my worst showings ever, I still accomplished two of my six goals.

However, other people shun goal setting, but they always make New Year’s resolutions. Just as I dismiss resolutions, they dismiss goals with equal disdain. Just as I embrace goals, they embrace resolutions with equal fervor.

Maybe the difference between goal setting and resolutions is just semantics, but maybe the difference is one of substance. I don’t know.

What I do know is that, whether it’s a goal or a resolution, we need to do what we can to accomplish the result we want and then look to God for help with what is out of our control.

With him, we have a much better chance of success than without him.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags holiday, Sacred-Secular Divide

Personal Posts

No-Shave November

As a college freshman, my son’s dorm celebrated November by setting aside their shaving gear for the entire month. They called it “No-Shave November.” Though the purpose was to raise cancer awareness, I suspect they just did it for fun.

My son embraced the challenge, relishing the comradery with his dorm mates as they tried to grow beards; his newfound girlfriend accepted his decision.

Three and a half weeks later, he met her family for the first time, a scruffy-faced college student with an unruly mop on top, his appearance must have been questionable. But he won them over and shortly after graduation, became part of their family.

Most every year since, he has observed No-Shave November.

This year he asked me to join him. I surprised him by saying, “Yes!”

“Really, Dad?”

“Sure. Why not?”

This won’t be my first time with a beard. I had one before he was born. I started it in the fall, where it became a warming comfort to the assault of winter’s cold. I persisted through the summer, when it became a hot, scratchy irritant.

But I kept it, looking forward to its warmth the following winter. The next spring, eighteen months after I started, I shaved it off, incrementally over the course of a week.

Today, I didn’t shave, and I plan not to for the rest of the month. As I recall, the first couple of days are itchy, but once I get past those, the rest will be easy. I don’t yet know what I’ll do on December first. I may shave, or I may wait until spring.

The more important thing is enjoying a shared experience with my son. Family is important and anything we do to bond with each other is a good thing.

Regardless of your shaving plans for November, may it be a good month, with great family moments.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags family, Sacred-Secular Divide

Personal Posts

Is It Time For a Vacation?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date August 1, 2014
2 Comments on Is It Time For a Vacation?

I’ve been thinking a lot about vacations lately. It’s been years since I’ve taken an annual two-week break from work. This year is no exception. I wonder if this is wise.

I suspect employers began offering vacations to long-term employees as a reward for their service, expecting workers to return from their two-week sojourn rested and ready to work with greater effectiveness.

Just as the weekend provides a short break from the workweek, a vacation provides a longer break from the work year. And we do need breaks.

Yet too many employees cram as much activity into their vacation time as possible. They come back exhausted instead of refreshed. They need to return to work to rest from their vacation.

This is not as it should be. For these folks, their work prior to their vacation is wasted in anticipation, and their work after vacation is equally unproductive because they’re too tired to do much.

Then there are people like me. At most of my jobs, no one did my work while I was gone. I’d spend the week before vacation, trying hard to work ahead.

Then, afterwards, it would take a couple weeks to catch up. For all the good my vacation did—and I actually rested on my vacations—the backlog of work when I returned quickly negated its benefits.

For the past fifteen years, a two-week vacation has been out of the question: the overlapping production schedules of multiple publications leaves me no time to take a long break.

Instead, I’ve opted for shorter respites, an occasional long weekend, a day trip here and there, even time off during the day for a quick outing.

It’s a rhythm that works for me, but all the while I wonder what I might be missing by not taking a two-week vacation.

When was your last vacation? What did you do?

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Sacred-Secular Divide, work

Personal Posts

7 Reasons Why Daylight Saving Time Is a Bad Idea

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 1, 2014
2 Comments on 7 Reasons Why Daylight Saving Time Is a Bad Idea

Winter, as measured by the amount of snow and extreme cold, has dragged on for too long. I’m ready for spring. A milestone that signals the approaching of a new season is the annual switch to daylight saving time (DST).

In case this isn’t on your calendar, get ready. It occurs in a few days, this year on March 9 (if you’re in the US), when we spring forward one hour.

However, aside from a reminder of spring’s approach, I have no other affection for daylight saving time.

Consider:

1. It’s a Misnomer

We don’t really save daylight; we just alter our perception of when it occurs. Incredibly, some people actually believe this gives them an extra hour of daylight each day.

2. It Wastes Time

We spend too much time changing our clocks.

3. It Costs Money

Businesses must pay someone to reset clocks, adjust equipment, correct payroll issues for people working during the time change, and so forth. This is an added business expense.

4. It’s Frustrating

I always seem to miss a clock or two. Sometimes it’s a week or more before I discover my error, but never until after I’ve had an initial panic that I’m late or messed up my schedule.

5. It Confuses People

After each biannual time change, invariably someone arrives at church at the wrong time. I’m sure it happens at work, too, especially on Sunday shifts.

6. It Takes Time to Adjust our Internal Clocks

Switching time, messes up our sleep; it takes up to a week for me to return to normal.

7. It’s Dreaded

I’ve never met a person who looked forward to changing time, but I know many people who complain about it.

While many, myself included, have advocated we skip this twice a year nonsense and pick one time, I have an even better idea: let’s pick one time for the entire world. After all, we live in a global world and should be in sync with each other.

Let’s all switch to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), also known as Zulu time. Then it will be the same time everywhere, with no confusion about time zones.

No longer will we need to ask, “Is that 3:00 your time or mine?” There will be no errors in adjusting for meetings, conference calls, or deadlines with those in other time zones.

This will, of course, require a significant mental adjustment, but we’d only need to do it once.

If my calculations are correct, that means I’d get up at 10:00 a.m. (not 5); eat lunch at 5:00 p.m. (not noon), my workday would end at 10:00 p.m. (not 5), and bedtime would beckon at 3:00 a.m. (not 10).

Of course, while we’re at it, we could also switch to a 24-hour clock and forgo the a.m. and p.m. notations.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Sacred-Secular Divide

Personal Posts

Life is Better When Shared With Friends

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 30, 2013
3 Comments on Life is Better When Shared With Friends

I’m fortunate to have many valued friends in my life. Some of us get together once a month for our writers critique group, where we help each other improve as writers. Collectively, we write non-fiction, memoir, poetry, and an array of fiction.

Regardless of the genre, the important thing is that we encourage one another and share our journey as authors.

Last spring, four of us submitted our work to a national writing competition, with twenty finalists to appear in an anthology.

After waiting months, I was elated when I received notice that they selected my poem. But then I wondered about my friends.

I was afraid to ask, worrying that my joy may cause them pain if they didn’t make the finals as well.

They must have felt the same way, but eventually we learned that all four of us were finalists. How incredible! Even more amazing was that there were hundreds of submissions, yet our work floated to the top.

What a tribute this is to the quality of our writing group and the ability of my friends.

Then we had to wait several more months before finally seeing our work in print.

Earlier this month, we attended a reception to celebrate. Finally, we could hold the printed book in our hands. An unexpected thrill came when people asked me to autograph their copy.

It was great to see my friends’ work in print and for my wife to be present, but even more sweet was to share the experience with my three friends.

Life is truly better when you can share it with others.

The book Imagine This! An ArtPrize Anthology is part of the 2013 Grand Rapids ArtPrize, an international art competition, which sees one million visitors each year.

The book is on sale at several ArtPrize venues and from its publisher, SchulerBooks.

(Don’t buy the book just to read my poem, a Haiku of seventeen syllables and only twelve words it’s hardly a worthwhile purchase. But Jerry’s poem and Jennifer’s and Sally’s essays are definitely worth it.)

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags family, health, Sacred-Secular Divide

Personal Posts

Six Types of Books in My Library

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 2, 2013

What We Can Learn from My Overflowing Bookshelves

I really enjoy books. I like to read them and I like to buy them. My library collection is vast, falling into six categories:

1. Worth Keeping

I enjoyed reading these manuscripts, and I’ll refer to them again.

2. Reference Materials

Some of my books contain information I want to keep at my fingertips.

3. Plan to Read

These works are on my reading list. I really do intend to get to them—someday.

4. Once Was Enough

These books were enjoyable, but one read was sufficient. I’ll never reread them and don’t expect to ever refer to them.

5. Started But Not Finished

Although showing initial promise, these books just didn’t have enough substance to hold my interest. I abandoned them for something more exciting.

6. Seemed Like a Good Idea

These include used books I bought, as well as books given to me and some that just showed up—yeah, it happens. But the one thing they have in common is I’ll never get around to reading them.

There are too many more interesting books awaiting my attention.

Our house has four shelving units stuffed with books. In addition, there are more stacks on the floor. I need to take action.

Someday I’ll go through my library, pulling out the ones in the last three categories. They’re simply taking up room, space that more worthy editions deserve.

I may go through the first three groups in my library, too. But if I do, I’ll definitely keep all of my autographed copies—I guess that’s a seventh category.

Oh, and then there are the books on my Kindle, but that’s a different situation—at least until my Kindle runs out of room.

Lessons from My Books

What things do you have just sitting around taking up space and providing no value. It’s time we do some spring-cleaning. Care to join me?

More importantly we need to make sure that who we are and what we do are worth keeping too.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags writing