WHAT'S YOUR MANIFESTO?
(March/April 2006 Issue)

New Year's resolutions seem to disappear faster than the morning fog on an East Texas pond. They start well enough, but fade fast. So this year, I'm giving up on resolutions. Mine haven't been more successful than most others. I still weigh about what I did thirty years ago. I'm guessing your good intentions don't fare any better than mine.

Sooo -- this year, let's do something different. Albert Einstein has been famously quoted as saying that the definition of insanity is to continue doing what we did before and expect a different result. But what?

I'm indebted to a friend of thirty years for a solution to this dilemma. James Surls is a sculptor, an artist. He's a big mountain of a man with the heart of a genuine romantic, both a pragmatist and a mystic.

He works with his hands on large scale pieces and with his heart on very expressive drawings, as you can see in this the invitation to his most recent exhibition at the Gerald Peters Gallery, which happens to be right across the street from my office in Dallas.

Not long ago, my assistant, B. J. Engle, ducked around the corner as I was finishing a conference call to say, "You have a surprise visitor. James Surls is here." James had finished installing his show and had a little down-time to just hang out for a while. As I greeted him, I noted something was different about him. More on that in a second.

As we chatted like two old friends, James told me a story. James has five daughters. He's prolific in several ways! He said, "You know one of my daughters in studying art at NYU. She called one day to ask: 'Dad, what is your manifesto?'" James replied, "Never thought about it. I don't have one." His daughter responded, "Well, Dad, one of my art professors has given me an assignment. He wants me to interview an artist to find out what his manifesto is and you're it!"

"I thought about it for a minute," James said, "and three lines came to me." When James gave me the three, I was intrigued by what he said. I asked him if he would write them on a white board in my office so that I could remember them and think about them. Here's what he wrote:

Recognize the Gift

Accept the Gift

Execute the Gift

Great ideas for an artist - and great for the rest of us as well. The idea of a gift acknowledges that a very large part of what makes us who we are is from outside of us. It's not "I did this" or "I earned this," but "I received this as a gift." There's a good deal of humility in accepting a gift. The very idea of a gift, whether from God or from another person, is something we possess, but we haven't earned. A gift is not an entitlement. A gift comes from the grace of the giver. A gift is not a transaction or an exchange.

As I turn it over and over in my mind, I am inspired by James' example. He has found the strength to acknowledge the talent of "seeing" that has been granted him. He has the sense of responsibility and the work ethic to "execute the gift." I am his beneficiary . not only of the four pieces that Linda and I live with every day, but of years of friendship and, even in an odd way, common cause. I've always known that
there was something way beyond craft involved in James' sculptures and drawings, something transcendent, something symbolic.

Later in the day, Linda and I attended the opening reception for James' show. There, surrounded by a swirl of appreciative attendees and his work, James said, in his characteristically cryptic way of speaking, "You know I'm with you. I know where my gifts come from." He recognizes his gift. He accepts his gift. And there, around us, were the evidences of the months of hard work with axe, welding torch, and pen that were the tangible results of his executing his gift. The title of the show was "Giving and Receiving!"

A New Year - A Change of Season
James is good with symbols. When we were together earlier in my office, James said, "You notice I've cut my hair. For 37 years, I've had a ponytail and a beard. People ask me, 'Is this some sort of mid-life crisis?' I say, 'No, I'm through that now.' My wife, Charmaine, says, 'Yes but you are just now at the end of it.'" James said, "I decided to cut my hair. I just reached up and cut chunks of it."

A new season.
A new manifesto.
A new symbol.

About Bob Buford
Bob Buford is chairman of the board of The Buford Foundation and Leadership Network, was the co-founder and first chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, and has authored four books, including Halftime and most recently Finishing Well. Visit www.ACTIVEenergy.net to register for Bob's ACITVEenergy weekly e-newsletter which is full of Bob Buford’s musing, interviews with world-changers, and resources that will enhance your life and work. Contact him as follows:
Bob Buford, 2501 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas, Texas 75201 USA.
214-754-9733; e-mail: bjengle@leadnet.org

After selling Buford Television, Inc., a large network of cable systems across the country, in July 1999, Bob Buford has turned to investing the remaining years of his life in the lives of others. He is chairman of the board of The Buford Foundation and Leadership Network, was the co-founder and first chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, and has authored three books, including Halftime and most recently Finishing Well, which can be found at bookstores everywhere. Bob and his wife, Linda, make their home in Dallas, Texas.