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My SC Wildlife Dream Machine
Posted 5/25/23
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
I grew up in a large hardwood forest in Georgia, and I rambled in woods every chance I got. I saw deer, wild turkey, ducks, and coveys of quail. When they flushed, it sounded like a bomb going off. Hunting—that was my boyhood dream.
In the early 1960s I read Outdoor Life cover to cover. I dreamed of appearing in its stories. I was eager to wear fine hunting apparel and own exquisite firearms. Freezing in a duck blind? That was for me. Birds on the wing? Count me in. Outwitting a whitetail buck? That was the supreme dream, except for a big problem. No one taught me anything about hunting but I dreamed on, being quick to notice deer stands, a field edge haunted by quail, and a brace of mallards soaring over a lake.
Seeing a buck in dappled sunlight just about did me in, but my life as an outdoorsman was not to be. The years stacked up, dreams of hunting faded, and then fate gifted me. I landed a job with the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department (SC DNR) as a wildlife writer.
The boss of bosses, John Cullar, a Georgian also, believed with all his heart that writers need to experience what they write about. And so a Georgia boy whose hunting resume read “Squirrels Only” was about to experience a real hunting adventure at a place that exuded natural, cultural, and architectural splendor. Bonneau Ferry, once known as Prioli, sat on the Cooper River’s eastern branch. The original plantation stretched 14 miles along the river and flaunted 1,300 acres of rice fields and 8,000 acres of forestlands. The site harbored a wealth of cultural resources, including an 18th-century plantation house and ruins. All this beauty, wildness, and culture found a home. SC DNR acquired Bonneau Ferry in 2005. Back when Westvaco owned Bonneau, it hosted the media, the centerpiece of which was an autumn deer hunt. I went to get experience and an education.
We departed Columbia on an October afternoon when sunlight pours down like golden honey and blue shadows slant across highways. Entering Bonneau ferry we drove through twin ranks of moss-draped live oaks, the quintessential South. Attendants in tuxedos greeted us with silver trays laden with cocktails and cigars. Our host welcomed us and laid out the rules for the morning hunt.
Out back, men were shooting clay pigeons along the banks of the Cooper. The air had a chill to it. Hearts filled with joie de vivre. Men were living a dream.
The fragrance of fine cigars drifted throughout the well-appointed house. That and camaraderie evoked the kind of life Ernest Hemingway must have lived. Many years later, a chance encounter with a fellow who had been there stirred up a memory. “You could open any cabinet in the house, and it would be full of all kinds of brands of liquor, cigarettes, and cigars.”
I rose at 4:30. Coffee lured me into the breakfast room. Cooks in white aprons brandished cast iron skillets as big as snowshoes. After breakfast, I boarded a pickup full of hunters and the truck dropped me off at my stand. Up I went.
As the east lightened, a flock of wild turkeys passed near my stand and soon a patch of brush seemed to move. Materializing like a spirit, a buck with a small, asymmetrical rack came down the trail. I had a decision to make. Should I shoot this animal? The rule concerning asymmetrical racks said, “You must.”
Bonneau Ferry gave me a glimpse of the old South and something else —a memorable start to my career at SC Wildlife. Looking back it’s hard to believe I’ve been gone thirty-six years. Even harder to believe the magazine turns 70 in 2024. Bonneau Ferry took me back as well to days spent dreaming over Outdoor Life. How fitting that John Cullar left SC Wildlife to become the executive editor at Outdoor Life, the source of my boyhood dreams. In a way, I had come full circle with years of writing waiting down the road.
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Mystery Plant! #724
Posted 5/25/23
By John Nelson
johnbnelson@sc.rr.com
Foul words and frowns must not repel a lover;
What though the rose have prickles, yet ’tis pluck’d.
William Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis”; 592.
When I was a senior in college, my very final semester, I took an English class named “Shakespeare’s Comedies”. I loved the class, and I made a B in it. Maybe a B+. If I had known then what I know now about Shakespeare and botany, I’m sure I could have blown that class away with some plant-related essays. Maybe they’ll let me sign up again as an old retired professor.
Shakespeare refers to roses many times in his plays, and not just the comedies. He likes to compare them to purity, beautiful faces, and fragrant things. His concept of rose flowers seems to have been that they were either pure white, or deep red…and of course that’s good for poetic license, too. Then there are the stickery things, and he liked to point out that falling in love with these wonderful flowers means putting up with a lot of sharp stickers, sort of like being forced to take the “fleas with the dog” in life. Now, about these sharp, stickery things.
Shakespeare refers to them as thorns…most of the time. Which is wrong. Of course, he got it right in “Venus and Adonis”, calling them “prickles”, although he was probably not thinking of this word in the way that modern botanists do. We botanists nowadays have decided that a “thorn” is a sharp, modified stem, and a good example would be what you find on a citrus plant. If you looked inside a thorn, you would find vascular tissue, that stuff that allows for the movement of water and dissolved material. Roses don’t have thorns. Instead, they have “prickles”…which can be very sharp, but they contain none of that vascular tissue. Rather, a prickle is actually a specialized structure derived from the epidermis, or the skin, of the stem on which it develops. If you try hard enough (and with great care!) you can pop a rose’s prickle clean off the stem with your thumb. Can’t do that with a thorn.
These are deciduous shrubs, usually no more than about 10 feet tall, usually less. The flowers are exquisite, with five petals, almost invariably an intense shade of pink There are hundreds of golden stamens forming a ring around the pistils. Following the blooms, the fruits develop, and of course they are called “hips”…spherical affairs, bright red, containing the seeds. These are the same rose hips that some people use to make jelly and stuff.
By now you have figured out that this week’s Mystery Plant is a rose, which seems rather obvious from the picture. It is a native American species, found from central Florida all the way to Nova Scotia, Quebec, and southern Ontario, and into the midwestern states. It likes to grow in damp or wet woods: the one in the picture was photographed very recently growing at the edge of an old rice-field marsh in Berkeley County, South Carolina. It was VERY prickly…the sort of shrub that would be good for a bird’s nest. Or two.
[Answer: “Swamp rose,” Rosa palustris]
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.
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The Day The Sky Fell
Posted 5/23/23
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
A beautiful blue-sky afternoon it was. As I walked back from my mailbox a freshly killed squirrel with half its head missing fell right in front of me. What a shock. I looked up to see a red-shouldered hawk glide to a pine and watched another squirrel fall to earth. The hawk must have been training a fledgling or in a mood to do humanity a good deed.
The squirrel startled me, but what if … what if something bigger fell. What, for instance, would it be like if a nuclear bomb fell but didn’t detonate? Well, a few people experienced that. It happened. You’d expect a place where the sky fell to have an alien name. Something extraterrestrial, maybe something named after a planet of mystery like that red planet, Mars. Well, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, fits the bill and it was here on a recent Saturday that I went looking for the crater of an atom bomb that fell from the sky sixty-five years ago.
March 11, 1958—A U.S. Air Force B-47 Stratojet carrying a nuclear payload took off from Savannah’s Hunter Air Force Base. It headed out for nuclear training exercises in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Over Florence County, the navigator mistakenly pulled the emergency release pin and a bomb the size of a car fell from the plane.
Though it wasn’t armed with its trigger of fissionable material, its detonator exploded and created a crater estimated to be 75 feet wide and 25 to 35 feet deep. It destroyed a playhouse near the Walter Gregg residence and leveled nearby trees. Nobody died, but several people in the Gregg family received injuries.
Plunging 15,000 feet, that bomb contained more punch than “Fat Man,” the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. But thankfully no mushroom cloud rose over Florence County. Army Times published Bo Peterson’s report in the Charleston Post and Courier on this “Broken Arrow” accident, as the Air Force labels accidental nuclear weapon drops.
An excerpt: “Ella Davis Hudson remembers stacking bricks to make a kitchen to play house. The next thing she knew, the 9 year-old was running down the driveway, blood streaming from the gash above her eye. She doesn’t remember the actual blast from an atomic bomb…. Hudson, a cousin, had been playing with two of Gregg’s children in the backyard.”
Another excerpt with a happier side: “One smile-inducing postscript to the story: The Greggs later appeared on the television show ‘I’ve Got a Secret’ and stumped the panel trying to guess what the secret was.” Yep, it would have stumped you and me too.
Recently I tried to find the crater. I found no signs to help me locate it. I hear local college kids take them as souvenirs. I stopped at a local convenience store and the clerk tried his best to help me but he wasn’t a local, not even from this country. I drove in circles for thirty minutes. No signage and not much help from Google. The next time I’m in the Mars Bluff area, I’ll try again. I’ll see if I can get permission to photograph a place where an extraordinary event came to pass.
Even if I find it, I may not recognize it. Years of vegetation and rain and decomposition have filled the crater in. I hear, though, that you can see fragments of the bomb in the Florence County Museum. I’ll check them out too. One thing’s for sure, the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki left no fragments.
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Living on Purpose: Life is an ongoing transformation process
Posted 5/23/23
By Dr. William Holland
I was at my daughter’s home a few years ago doing some painting, and yes, these are things that retired fathers are happy to do. She was in another room organizing a closet while listening to some music and the Michael Jackson song, “The Man in the Mirror” was playing. I listened intently. Certain songs occasionally stick in our heads and I sensed the Lord speaking to me about this profound message.
We all have mirrors in our homes and they are generally used to make sure our hair and clothes look presentable or if we have barbecue sauce on our face, but there is also a deeper thought about reflecting when we consider what type of person we are on the inside. Spiritual transformation comes when we are convicted to examine our conscience which is exactly what God has been trying to communicate to us since the beginning. You see, we are born with a default spirit that must be changed.
The chorus of the song says, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways.” Actually, God is the one demanding for us to change, but a critical component within this process is that first, we must see our need to yield our will to Him. Until the desire to change becomes stronger than our desire to remain the same, satisfaction with our default existence will continue.
Each week I encounter people that are in different stages of their journey and part of my mission as a minister and counselor is to help and encourage them however the Lord leads. One of the strongest obstacles when it comes to letting go of what we want and embracing what God wants is an aggressive passion to protect our position as the master of our own destiny. Individuals might listen to motivational messages to improve their lifestyles, but many modern churches are failing to explain God’s demand for sanctification. For Christ to be our Lord, our carnal nature must die.
Most people are familiar with the word covenant and realize that it is a binding agreement between two parties. God made His blood covenant promise when He sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins. However, accepting this offer of forgiveness is not the complete idea of salvation. It is God’s side of the contract. Since Jesus gave Himself for us, our promise within this covenant is to give ourselves to Him. Without a complete transformation of our spirit and mind, we are playing religious games.
Colossians 2:20 talks about being crucified with Christ, yet abiding in Him and allowing Him to control our new life. In chapter 3 and verse 3, God declares to those who are born again, “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” Romans 6:11 says, “Likewise In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” Many will say I raised my hand when asked who wants to go to heaven, but it was not explained that I am to be possessed by Him. Grace is an opportunity to love and serve God, but was never intended to be a license to live however we want.
It seems the new comfortable way of celebrating salvation is being relieved that God rescued us from eternal death, while ignoring the need to examine our soul to see if He is pleased with our dedication and responsibility to this covenant. A fundamental difference between many people and the story of the rich young ruler is that he truly believed what Jesus said about the conditions to be a child of God. He walked away depressed because surrendering his will was just too painful. Today, many evidently do not believe God’s warnings and walk away content to follow their own opinions and philosophies.
God loves us and invites us to love Him, but He has no intention of allowing us to remain the same. The last few verses in Matthew chapter 16 remind us about taking up our cross which is a symbol of a torturous death. Again, this is about sacrificing our depraved nature so that Christ can be our Master. “You mean believing there is a God is not enough to be saved?” No. “The demons also believe and tremble” James 2:19.
Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com
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A Favorite Place
Posted 5/23/23
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
Each spring I write of three places, three beautiful places where colonies of rocky shoals spider lilies bloom. One is quite accessible; one is perhaps the world’s largest colony, and the other, though difficult to access, holds childhood memories.
Easy to access and as lovely as can be is the colony at Stevens Creek in McCormick, South Carolina. Here, you can lean over and inhale a bloom’s subtle lemony-sweet fragrance and see the bloom’s mint green core. The sound of whitewater adds serenity to the setting. Steal up to the creek quietly and you may catch a glimpse of great blue herons and a hawk or two. An old gristmill and an old tin chalet perched on a hillside provide additional interest. I think of this as the easy colony to visit.
Depending on where you set out from, the colony at Chester County’s Landsford Canal State Park is a bit of a haul. Not far from the Queen City translates into a lot of visitors. When you get there, the crowds that descend from Charlotte make parking a bit of a task. Then you have a scenic but long walk to the viewing platform where you behold never-ending shoals lilies. The ruins of an old canal add to the overall experience.
Over in Georgia, the Broad River’s Anthony Shoals hosts a large colony of lilies that bloom in one of the region’s wilder settings. My mother grew up just minutes from the shoals. Childhood memories live here. Each May-June I pilgrimage to Anthony Shoals where Mom’s family “laid by” when the crops were done.
On Georgia Highway 79 I turn left at Thankful Baptist Church and make my way to Anthony Shoals Road. I negotiate the long, near third-world dirt road at whose end I park and descend a steep bluff to where the rocky shoals spider lilies stage a May-June spectacle.
These shoals have long lived within me. Mom took me to the shoals as a boy where her brothers caught and fried fish. I remember rock-studded waters and Uncle Carroll scouring a cast iron frying pan with sand until it shone like silver. Then life happened, and for many a year I assumed Clarks Hill Lake had drowned Anthony Shoals. That confused me. Clarks Hill Dam was completed in 1954, but the reservoir filled in 1951-52. How can this be? I should have been too young to remember the place. Still, I had this memory. I couldn’t square things. Surely water had covered Anthony Shoals after that fish fry, but, no, I was mistaken.
The Broad River’s Anthony Shoals and its billowing river garden of rocky shoals spider lilies lived still. Several times each spring I descend that steep bluff and listen. Faint and from afar, I hear Earth’s finest white noise. Down closer I go. The Broad River, a waterfall turned sideways, froths and foams over and around rocks. Milky-white filigrees murmur and beget inner peace as no other sound can. Peering through trees I see lustrous green stalks topped by snow-white blooms bobbing and weaving. Ballerinas in white waltz to a wild river song as ospreys cry and dive for fish. Many great blue herons stalk the rocky shallows for fish.
Shoals lilies, you should know, prefer rocky rivers, plummeting elevation, and clean, free-flowing water. That translates to no dams. To see Anthony Shoals and its lilies is to see the Piedmont as it was before the big dams rose. When I’m there I have no sadness. I don’t think of traffic jams, crime, and scandals. I watch the osprey and shoals lilies and let out a long sigh that such wilderness remains and, in fact, is tied to my mother’s people. So, as you easily guess is my favorite of the three colonies is Anthony Shoals. If you’ve not seen a colony then plan to; it’s a majestic spectacle.
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Mystery Plant 723
Posted May 17, 2023
By John Nelson
johnbnelson@sc.rr.com
The other day I was busying around in the herbarium when a gentleman from the little town of Wagener, SC dropped by, carrying a bucket. Inside the bucket was a good bit of water, from his pond, and in the water was this very curious plant. The nice man was looking for someone to tell him what the plant was, and he had come to the right place.
This is a carnivorous plant, meaning that it is able to capture and digest animal life as a means of augmenting whatever minerals (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) are available to it in the wild. The animals used by carnivorous plants are generally quite tiny; no need to worry about falling into a carnivorous plant around here or anywhere else. The carnivorous Venus’ fly-trap, which does grow on the coast of the Carolinas (and a few other places, because it was planted there), is capable of capturing animals as large as small frogs. (Plant carnivory has always fascinated humans…you might want to see “Little Shop of Horrors” sometime.) You might be interested in knowing that the southeastern USA is one of the world’s hot-spots for carnivorous plants. Our Mystery plant and Venus’ fly-trap (Dionaea), represent two of the genera of them. The others are the sundews (Drosera), the butterworts (Pinguicula), and of course, the fabulous pitcher plants (Sarracenia). Are any of these represented in your area?
Our yellow-flowered meat-eater belongs to a genus of about 100 species found throughout the world. This one is an aquatic, perennial species which grows attached to the bottom of a pond, where it produces a mass of wildly branched, soft, “pondweed”. When it’s time for blooming, the plant will develop what we call a flotation device. This flotation structure consists of a number of branching “arms” that are inflated with air, and which, as it develops, rises through the water, ultimately bringing the flowering stem to the top. The underwater “floats” bear tiny traps on their edges. These traps are nearly microscopic, but highly effective in pulling in small aquatic critters that swim too close. A complicated mechanism, involving tiny trigger hairs and a trap door, is involved. Other related species of our mystery plant don’t float, but instead live on saturated or dripping soil. The flowers of these remarkable species are clustered at the top of the aerial, leafless stem. Each flower has 5 bright yellow petals (some species have purple flowers), and they are arranged in a very “bilateral” way. It’s good to remember that the flowers don’t “eat” anything…it is the tiny traps down under the water that do all that. After flowering is finished, tiny seed pods form, each containing a number of very small seeds.
You might see our mystery plant in any of the coastal counties of the Southeast. It is fairly common, blooming now, and occurs from New Jersey south to Texas and Florida. Several brilliant yellow flowers…as bright as hot butter…occur near the top of the leafless stalk, and a pond full of thousands of these fascinating plants is a beautiful sight.
©JohnNelson2023
[Answer: “Floating bladderwort,” Utricularia inflata]
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.
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Living on Purpose: A divided heart lives in deception
Posted May 16, 2023
By Dr. William Holland
I’m reminded again of the quote from Scott Fitzgerald, “You do not write because you want to say something; you write because you have something to say.” I can relate to those who are called to express the burdens within their hearts and thankful for the opportunity to share mine. These freedoms may not always be with us as the world is becoming aggressively opposed to God and His disciples. I write for several secular publications around the country and I’m often warned about toning it down with Jesus as it might offend those who disagree. The subtle hint here is that being selective with my words would be better than having no platform at all. Many newspapers have already closed the door on spiritual content because of political, social, and cultural resistance.
The Living on Purpose column is recognized as a source of encouragement and faith, nevertheless, as a watchman I must never ignore His warnings. Pastors and teachers will agree it’s easier to talk about doctrines and Biblical history, but it’s a solemn responsibility and personal sacrifice to deliver a specific and urgent message from God Himself. In the Bible when He would choose a servant that He could trust, often their obedience brought persecution and for some, it cost them their lives. This is happening right now. I’m referring to those few individuals that are not afraid to speak divine truth about sin even if they are silenced with force. The religious “fluff” will continue adapting and compromising as a part of their self-preservation, but sadly this fear of offending is causing many churches to reconsider their stand against sin as a solution to maintain popularity while avoiding hostile spiritual warfare.
Along with most assemblies reinventing themselves, we notice a decline in the promotion of prayer. Why is this? Because the masses would rather be cozy and comfortable, to be entertained, and listen to short “feel good” devotions that are non-threatening. Serious prayer does not fit into this format, even though intercession generates the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the services and increases discernment, anointing, and maturity. When prayer was removed from the public education system, the enemy won a major battle, but why do we not hear more about how the absence of a praying church causes a spiritually powerless nation? One reason is the average religious person only calls for prayer when they need something. If prayer was a top priority of Christians, there would be prayer meetings every day.
How often are we desperate for God? Do we anticipate Him whispering for us to go somewhere private and seek Him? I realize I talk about the human will all the time, but I do not apologize as it is the key to the meaning of life. Our free will is the command center within the human experience that has everything to do with our spiritual connection with our Creator. Until the word of God convicts the will and the mind is transformed to be completely dedicated to Him, there can only be a hypocritical facade. If we choose to fill our minds with the poison of the world, we will not be convicted to pray or have a passion to walk in the awareness of His presence. So, why is the reverential fear of the Lord hardly mentioned anymore? Because the masses do not want to hear that lukewarmness is a result of being filled with more of the world than the Holy Spirit. We are what we think and when we refuse to guard our minds, our conscience easily becomes contaminated. When pleasure becomes more important than pleasing God, our dirty heart separates us from Him.
If we allow God to purify us with His refining fire, there is no way we can continue absorbing the corruption of wickedness. We have two choices: continue pledging allegiance to the darkness or become a living sacrifice for Christ. We can’t love two masters and being neutral is serving the darkness. Beyond the motivational talks and inspirational stories, we must own all aspects of truth, we must demonstrate what we confess. Until we surrender our will to Him, we will not change. We’ve heard about being born-again, but not a lot about what it really means. When a person accepts Christ as their Savior and Lord, they no longer serve themselves. All control has been given over to their new Master, and to continue living exactly the same “after” we make our holy vow to Jesus is a fraud.
Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com
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Mystery Plant! #722
Posted 5/10/23
By John Nelson
johnbnelson@sc.rr.com
All of the maple trees of the world belong to a genus which has been named “Acer”. There are well over 100 different species, and practically all of them are native to the northern hemisphere. Maples play an important role in various ecological settings and forest types, and several species have considerable economic value. For instance, there is sugar maple, from which maple syrup comes… maybe that’s the best example. Otherwise, the wood of different maples is useful traditionally in making musical instruments, bowling pins (although I can’t imagine that some sort of plastic is now more commonly used for them), and just good for carving, too. Oh right, and also baseball bats. Maples are some of the most attractive canopy species in temperate forests, especially in the autumn, with really colorful foliage, one of the big reasons to spend time driving around in the mountains around here at “peak” season.
All maples are what we say are dioecious…this is a term we’ve used before, and it refers to a species whose individual plants are either staminate (“male”) and producing pollen, or pistillate (“female”), producing seeds. The leaves are always opposite, that is, two at a time on a twig. The leaves are simple, with a single blade, and usually equipped with lobes, most of the time angular, and often toothed. Think of the maple leaf on the Canadian flag. Or maybe a Japanese maple. The fruits are distinctive, and they are called “samaras”: each is equipped with an elongated wing which allows it to helicopter through the air once dropped.
Our Mystery Plant is a maple, but a bit of an oddball: its leaves are compound, with three leaflets. The twigs are green. It’s a tree which is frequent in most of the eastern USA, and it is generally found in damp forests.
And now, for some true confessions. Those of you who have ever gone on one of my botany field trips will remember that I am fond of being naughty with my students at times…I’ve enjoyed teasing them occasionally with little snippets of botany humor. I have, I shall admit, used our Mystery Plant as one of these subjects, announcing to the gathered class that this tree is an example of the astounding “POISON-IVY TREE”! And that the kids need but to gaze upon its fearsome trunk and bright green “let-it-be” foliage to know and tremble! Of course, and as we have learned, our Mystery Plant has foliage which does look a lot like that of poison ivy. But poison ivy is never a tree…it often grows on trees, however, and large vines of it with their horizontally spreading stems can make it look like a tree itself. If you are fond of hikes in the woods, it’s a good idea to be confident about knowing what is and what is not poison ivy: mistakes involving its identifications can cause serious torment, if you are susceptible to its biochemical power. Our Mystery Plant, though, shouldn’t cause any problems.
[Answer: “Box elder,” Acer negundo]
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.
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20 Lessons Learned: From Diploma to Today
Posted 5/10/23
By Reba Campbell
‘Tis the season for college graduations. USC’s recent graduation weekend makes me realize I walked across the Carolina Coliseum stage 40 years ago to pick up my Journalism degree.
Several days later, I packed my car heading to DC to start my first job as a Congressional receptionist. In looking back, I tried to remember if I was concerned that my first job mainly involved answering phones, giving tours and driving my boss to the airport. After all, I believed my resume illustrated strong leadership skills, solid job experience and good writing samples.
As best I can remember, I was thrilled with that first job. I knew turnover was high in Congressional offices, and young staffers could move up quickly if given the chance to prove themselves. I had my sights set on being a press secretary, after all.
That newly minted young professional had no idea what was in store for the next 40 years of a winding, yet in retrospect, amazingly aligned career path. I also had no idea of the lessons I’d learn along the way.
That newly minted young professional had no idea what was in store for the next 40 years of a winding, yet in retrospect, perfectly aligned career path. I also had no idea of the lessons I’d learn along the way.
A number of years ago, I started an inventory of those professional life lessons to use in a presentation for a group of college seniors. Since then, I like to revisit and update this collection of lessons annually as a way to reflect on the past year.
Read on for this year’s updated list of career lessons. Hopefully seasoned and new professionals alike will find a nugget or two here.
1. Take risks. Look for the unexpected opportunities. No one can expect perfection. It’s OK to be a beginner. You can often learn more from mistakes than successes. Yes, really, you can.
2. Cultivate strong writing skills. Solid writers are the people strong leaders want around the leadership table with them. Be the one colleagues seek out to flesh out and articulate ideas clearly on paper with accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation. Even if writing isn’t a priority part of your job, be the one on the team who can quickly break down and communicate concepts on paper.
3. Go to your boss with a solution, not a problem. Your boss is solving problems all day. Make her life easier by presenting a solution when you present a problem. Even if it’s not the solution that ultimately solves the problem, presenting an idea for a solution keeps your boss from dreading the sight of you at the door or your number on her phone.
4. Keep up with people. The students you sat next to in class. Your roommates and their friends. Bosses in your entry level college jobs. Lab partners. Professors. The people you met through your campus activities. College deans. They will all have contacts within their professional circles. Stay in touch with them. You never know where a new job contact, sales relationship or your next stellar employee will come from. Every job change I ever made was the result of someone I knew making a connection for me. All of my current Medway Group clients grew out of established relationships. The connection to one of my first clients came from a former intern.
5. Be interested and interesting. Ask good questions and ask them often. Young professionals have a great deal to offer a work environment. Speak up when you have something to offer, but remember to balance your enthusiasm with senior-level colleagues’ experience.
6. Keep learning your craft. Find out what your boss or leaders in your profession are reading or listening to (books, blogs, professional publications, podcasts, websites, etc). Seek out professional development opportunities. Pay for them yourself, if necessary. Join professional organizations and get involved.
7. Be kind and remember that everyone carries their own sack of rocks. You never know what type of personal issues the co-worker who missed a deadline is dealing with at home or with his family.
8. Write thank-you and follow-up notes (handwritten, not emailed). Collect business cards or contact info from people you meet at events, in meetings, or just out and about. A handwritten “nice to meet you” note will set you apart and help people you meet remember you. Technology is good, but the personal touch still matters (along with good penmanship).
9. Travel any chance you get. Travel to small towns and big cities across the country and around the world. Don’t put off travel – use your vacation days. You’ll never tell your grandchildren about that great trip you didn’t take because you were too busy at work.
10. Plan the work before you work the plan. Having no plan gets you nowhere. Plans will change either by force or circumstance. Be flexible, but have a plan regardless of whether it’s a work project, a trip, a job search, a major purchase or an important life decision.
11. Looking busy doesn’t equal being productive. The co-worker who crows about her heavy workload and long hours is probably much less productive than the one who is organized and prioritizes his days.
12. Be a good listener and observer. It’s an old adage, but true – there’s a reason we have two ears and one mouth. Watching and listening to others can bring valuable insights to the words you eventually speak.
13. Stay in the loop, but avoid the gossip. Be a “boundary spanner”— someone who is respected and trusted by people at all levels of the organization. Just don’t be the one who everyone counts on to know “the dirt.”
14. Build your financial literacy. Pay yourself first. If you use direct deposit, set up an allocated amount to go to your savings account from each paycheck. If you get the chance to participate in your company’s 401K, do it! Even that smallest contribution early in your career will help you establish good saving and investment habits. Learn the basics of budgeting, saving and investing. Keep your rainy day fund separate from your retirement dollars.
15. Seek out a mentor. I’ve found most mentor relationships happen naturally rather than being established formally. Be on the lookout for them. I bet my best mentors probably don’t know they even served in that role. Also, look for “reverse mentoring” opportunities. You can be a resource to your older colleagues. Seasoned professionals can learn a great deal from their younger peers.
16. A good editor will make you shine. Don’t look at having your writing edited as you would look at a teacher correcting a paper. Editing is a collaborative process, and there’s always room for improvement in your writing.
17. Move during the day. Regardless of whether you have a desk job, use your lap as your desk while sitting on the couch or work outside of a traditional office environment, moving your body and getting your brain engaged in something other than your work is key to sanity and creativity. Walk around the block, stretch once an hour, or put in your earbuds and listen to high energy music.
18. Sharpen your speaking skills. A strong speaking presence doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but practice can help anyone improve. Seek out opportunities to speak up in meetings, identify your pain points, practice in front of a mirror, mirror speakers you admire. Learn to be the one in the room who can catch, and keep, people’s attention.
19. Establish your personal brand. Decide what you want your reputation in the workplace to be, and let your actions define you. Keep promises and make deadlines. Under-promise and over-deliver. Avoid behavior in your personal life that could hurt your professional life (even more true today with all the risks of social media in the mix). Remember that details count, especially when getting the details right sets you apart from others.
20. Have fun and be creative. Figure out your own version of work/life balance. The “balance” will probably fluctuate daily, and it most certainly looks different after the COVID experience, but keep focused on creative outlets, exercise and hobbies that let you have fun.
Reba is the president of the Medway Group. She is passionate about travel; writing; learning to play the uke, guitar and keyboard; and staying connected with old friends. She can be reached at reba@themedwaygroup.com, @rebahcampbell on Instagram and Twitter and through her blog, Random Connect Points (bit.ly/RandomConnectPoints).
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Living on Purpose: Are you in love with God?
5/9/23
By Dr. William Holland
The Almighty has the power to unlock all doors and break down every obstacle. We also believe He can do whatever He wants, but often are left clueless to comprehend His decisions. I’ve heard testimonies from individuals who were in a grave situation and suddenly they were delivered. Coincidence? No, I believe God had a precise plan that would bring Him glory. On the other hand, as a chaplain, I’ve been on scene where someone was involved in a terrible accident or had taken their own life and obviously, He did not prevent that. No human can understand why sometimes He intervenes and other times He does not, but His sovereignty is defined as Him being the Omniscient judge with all authority. Didn’t we pray, not my will but thy will be done?
So what about our desires and choices? If we want to spend time each day praying for a stronger spiritual awareness, and focusing on developing a closer relationship with Christ, we certainly have the opportunity to do it. He designed us with free will which means we choose what we do and whom we serve, and it’s evident who desires to be filled with God’s Spirit and who could care less. The religious masses will scoff and say, “It’s ridiculous! No one can think about God all the time!” Really? This is not true. Responses like this are a defense mechanism trying to disguise guilt by justifying rebellion. There is a remnant today that is devoted to being one with God. They desire to pull away from the dark persuasions of the world and passionately invest their entire lives in drawing nearer to Him. Are you included with these disciples?
I can hear the arguments now, “Am I supposed to live in a monastery and chant day and night, I have a family and I want to enjoy the pleasures of life!” Did I say the only way to know and love God was to live in the isolation of a dungeon? I’m just trying to relay that every Christian can live in the awareness of God’s presence while also receiving all the blessings that God wants to graciously give. What I’m talking about is love. It would be amazing if we loved Him only a fraction of how much He loves us. Do we love Him enough to give Him our will completely? Let’s see, should I pray, study, and worship, or watch this next movie? I’ll do it later. We are guilty of drawing blueprints for our lives, but shouldn’t we be following the plans God has made for us? There are consequences when we manage our daily affairs without first consulting our Master.
I know a man that had a wonderful wife, two beautiful children, a great job, a nice house, and new cars, but one day he sold everything and set out to walk with God and live completely by faith. I consider him a Bible scholar, but he thought that by pulling away from trusting and depending on this world, he could lead his family into the realms of a higher spiritual existence. However, instead of finding peace and joy, he was confronted with every possible attack imaginable. They faced fear, worry, discouragement, frustration, and stress, and after all the money was gone, he was haunted by feelings of failure. Since this idea was supposedly sanctioned by the Lord, he felt accountable to hold firm to his faith. Long story short, his wife took the children and divorced him.
I realize there are different opinions about this story, but whether God intervenes or not, or even if we relocate to an igloo in the North Pole, we are still who we are and our relationship with Him is in our heart. The only reason why we would not live in the awareness of His presence is because we are not really in love with Him. Going off-grid and living in a recreational vehicle does not make us more holy, it’s all about loving Him to the point that we want to be with Him more than anything else in the world. When this happens, the nature and character of Christ will be seen within us wherever we are. Beyond the words and deeds, walking the narrow path is to know God so intimately that we are constantly listening for His still small voice, however, we cannot obey God and live according to our own decisions at the same time.
Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com
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