Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy – I don’t really foresee reading a ton of parenting books over the next few years, which you might think is completely arrogant and crazy. But while I don’t have a clue what to do with your child sitting over there, I am fairly confident that raising my own kids is going to come pretty naturally. I have a strong instinct that I intend to listen to, and I’m married to someone who is pretty well-educated about childhood development. I also have been really blessed with having parents and inlaws that did a pretty darned good job of raising their kids, and I figure if I try to do most things the way they did I can’t screw it up too badly.

With all of that in mind, I was really interested in reading Free-Range Kids because I’ve read Lenore’s blog, and much of her emphasis is on old-school parenting. IE: Did our parents raise us to be serial killers? No. So what’s so very wrong with how we were parented? She’s against the helicopter parenting that is so prevalent these days, and really the takeaway from the book is to just let your kids get outside and run around a little more.

I was encouraged by her logical approach to TRUE crime statistics, and think I’ll probably try to raise Penny Cate to be a “free-range kid” as much as I can. Overall, I give the book a B+.

Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer – You knew it was coming. My dear friend Kiki gave me the first book when she was down visiting over Memorial Day weekend, and as soon as I started I couldn’t put it down. Then I went to Borders and picked up the next one, read it in a day, and headed to Kroger that evening to pick up Eclipse. I now understand the phenomenon.

People like these books for different reasons, some because they are into vampires and werewolves, others because they are hormonal teenagers who enjoy reading about other hormonal teenagers kissing. And then there are those of us who can totally relate to falling in love with someone who is completely out of their league, and it just doesn’t make sense that that person is returning the affection. I’ve decided that’s why I dig these books so much. They remind me of the year that I dated Matt before we got married. The year that he was THE Matt Hofmann in my mind. The year before he started burping at the dinner table and leaving his dirty socks on the bedroom floor.

The books themselves really don’t deserve a rating of anything more than a C+, which is fine by me because in college I was more than happy with the C’s I earned – too busy socializing to attend class or study. If you are a person who enjoyed college for the same reasons and can appreciate things that are fun for the sake of being fun, you will enjoy the Twilight books. You’d probably also enjoy them if you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. Also, Robert Pattinson is hot.

The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come by Rob Moll - Yes. Really. I’m following Twilight with my brother in law’s new release. Because they couldn’t be more different.

I like this book, and not just because my brother in law slaved over it for the past few years. I just really like anyone who has the guts to talk about things that people, for the most part, are loathe to discuss. And death is one of those things.

At age 27, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about my own death, although I have experienced plenty of loss in my lifetime. This book helped me process through some of that loss and also to consider how to daily live with my mortality in mind. I don’t really know what else to say other than that you should read it yourself. I give the book a B+, mainly because it’s Rob’s first book and he’s gotta have room to go up, right?

We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism by John Derbyshire - I’m only halfway through this book, but I can’t put it down. John Derbyshire cracks me the heck up. Matt asked my mom for this book for Christmas, and after reading it told me that I HAD to read it next. So I am. And I just bought it for my dad for Father’s Day because it’s just that funny. Plus Derbyshire quotes from Albion’s Seed which my dad loves.

Those of you who know me in real life know that I’m, for all intents and purposes, a Libertarian. But my biggest beef with Libertarian politics is the same beef I have with Liberal politics (and actually the current wave of Conservatism too!) and that is an unrealistic Utopian optimism. That mankind is just inherently good enough to improve life for others, or to live and let live. Nice in theory, but fails in practice.

John Derbyshire takes a very practical, yet humorous pessimistic stance and explains why he feels that’s the best approach, and furthermore why the Right should head back to its pessimistic roots. So much of what he says flips my brain upside down, and with his addition of humor the book is quite enjoyable to read. I very much would appreciate if one of my more open-minded liberal friends would read this book so that I could have someone on the other side of the table to bounce my thoughts off of. Anyone? Anyone? I give Derbyshire a solid A on this one.

I don’t have anything else lined up after We Are Doomed, other than to read the fourth Twilight book which I refuse to buy since it’s only out on hardcover. But frankly I’m hoping Penelope arrives before I get to that point bringing my reading to a screeching halt. Or at least exchanging adult books for the much more preferable Dr. Seuss.

I read a ton of books about pregnancy, labor and delivery, even though I never really thought I would. I thought I would want to embrace the “Ignorance Is Bliss” philosophy, but after reading one, you just get sucked in over and over again!

So here are my book recommendations for whiling away the hours when you can’t sleep at night.

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth – If you read NOTHING ELSE in your whole pregnancy, you will be fine after having read this book. You might go into it thinking she’s quacky, and with some of the stories and photos you might continue to feel that way. But stick it out and then tell me she’s a quack after finishing it all. For real, it will change your life. And you will likely feel capable of saving the world. Go for it!

Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth – I highly encourage you to read this book which is set up a bit more on a timeline ala “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” without all of the “YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!” and “YOUR BABY IS GOING TO DIE!” crap that What To Expect throws in there. Along those lines, don’t listen to ANYTHING that What To Expect says about miscarriage. They are big fat jerks and I want to kick them in the genitals. “Our Bodies, Ourselves” addresses what you need to know about miscarriage, and while we’re also on miscarriage can I please take a moment to shout from the rooftops that most women do not need D&Cs! Your doc might just schedule you for one routinely, but know that you probably do not need one unless you had a complicated or late miscarriage. Your body will take care of things fine on its own, and you’d rather be lying in your bed eating mac n cheese, weeping and playing cards with your mom than coming out of a druggy-invasive-procedure- fog. Just sayin.

You: Having a Baby – After the disasters that are Dr. Phil and Rachel Ray, it’s hard to believe that any made-famous-by-Oprah character could be any good. But Dr. Oz contributes to this fascinating book that tackles a lot of interesting genetic stuff regarding your baby. It’s the first thing I’ve read that relates honest information about the little truth we know regarding autism (AKA: not Jenny McCarthy’s lies). That’s of course not the focus of the book, but it discusses your pregnancy on a molecular level which is kinda fun. I wish I had read this earlier in my pregnancy, and you’ll want to read it as soon as you can, because it can help you get on a good, healthy path for the nine months ahead.

Finally, there was a beautiful book that my sister-in-law, Beth, showed me over Christmas and I sat down and read in its entirety at her dining room table. It’s a book on newborn care written by a Swedish author filled with stunning photography. I enjoyed every page of it, then came home and promptly read it again in the library. But Christmas was a long time ago, and I’ve forgotten the name of it, so I’m hoping Beth can fill us in on what it was. Pick up a copy just to look at the photos, if nothing else.

I’m venturing a guess that having babies is similar to getting a puppy, and the expecting moms I know were all puppy-owners at one time. (Of course experienced moms are going to say there are no similarities, but we all know it’s just because they don’t get enough sleep.) Before getting Berlin, I read a slew of books on puppy training and what to do and what not to do and hoped beyond hope that we’d have a well-behaved crate-trained little beauty. I also thought she’d never play fetch because of her anxiety. Well, the pup hates crates, but will sleep curled up on the floor next to us wherever we are all well-behaved-like. She never chews on furniture and would rather play fetch than eat, even. So all the book-learnin I acquired from the Monks did nearly jack squat for me. I think the fact of the matter is that your intuition and your unconditional love will win out in the end.

But still read the Ina May book.

I’m excited to try my hand at making baby food because 1) I love to cook, 2) I love to save money, and 3) I think I have no excuse not to. I have fourty hours a week that I’m not in an office, so my full-time job will be taking care of Penelope and managing our budget. And by saving money on things like diapers (by cloth diapering) and home-pureed carrot grossness (by making it myself), I’m going to be able to buy plane tickets to visit my family, thankyouverymuch. Also, really? Do you recommend I spend that time watching General Hospital instead? Because is it just me or has Jax not aged a day in the past ten years? THAT’S believable!

So I picked up the book to find out just how complicated this whole making-your-own-baby-food thing really is. About halfway through Super Baby Food the author mentions that an ice cube is the perfect size for one portion of smashed up frozen veggies or fruit, and you just might want to pick up some more ice cube trays.

And here’s where I need to confess a sin. Nearly every apartment we have lived in has had a few ice cube trays in the freezer when we arrived. And when we moved out I took them – every single one. I am swimming in ice cube trays. In fact I’ve never actually purchased one. Only when we moved to Nashville did I finally have a fridge with an icemaker. But even after Matt installed said icemaker, I stashed my ice cube trays in the pantry cabinet, because guys, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU’RE GOING TO NEED MORE ICE.

Just watch. Penny won’t want anything to do with food that doesn’t come in a Gerber screw-top jar. Something about karma?

Yesterday I sat down to type out the first draft of my birth plan, the culmination of lots of weeks worth of reading, researching, and talking to L/D nurses, midwives and doulas. A lot of my research wound up really turning me around positively on a number of issues. For instance, Matt and I think that next time around we’re going to attempt to have a home water birth if it’s not cost prohibitive (and if this first experience doesn’t change our minds); a type of labor and delivery I used to think was super crunchy crazy and quite possibly dangerous.

But just as I did more reading and learned more about how this natural process has always worked and how we have augmented it over the years, I became absolutely disgusted by parents. Yes, you heard me correctly. I had been forewarned, and had often seen with my own eyes that parents are the most judgmental self-destructive species alive. Mothers are made to feel inferior if they are unable to breastfeed. Women who experience drug-free births get off on thinking they’re Superwomen. Midwives are painted as tribal African medicine-men and OBs as heartless 9-5ers whose own nurses are frightened of them. And then there’s attachment parenting, and Ferbering, and stay at home moms versus working moms, and parents that wind up eating other parents alive at Chuck E Cheese playdates.

I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want that to be my identity. I don’t want to feel pressured to live up to a certain identity or label. I just want to do my research, make my decision, and have the freedom to change my mind. And I will change my mind. I haven’t even had the kid yet, and I’ve already changed my mind on a lot of things. And if that alienates me, then so be it. I’ll still have my best friend by my side who last night told me that he continues to be amazed at my maternal intuition about these things – quite possibly the greatest compliment he could ever give me.

So my plan has been written, and it’s a plan that I hope can be followed, but will not be devastated if it cannot. It’s based partially on my desire to allow my body the space to do what it was created to naturally do and feel the natural rush that goes along with that, and partially because I am more afraid of needles and surgery being inflicted upon me by people with multiple medical degrees and years of experience than I am of agonizing internal pain being inflicted upon me by wee little Penelope.

And I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, I can be the tie that finally binds the two childbirthing philosophies together. Because the woman who will be saying “no” to interventions during labor as a way to experience the natural process will also say “HELL YEAH!” to general anesthesia in the event that she needs major abdominal surgery.

Call it hypocrisy, I choose to call it “reaching across the aisle.”

And with that I leave you this lovely video. Yes, I’m afraid our child will grow up with the entire Monty Python catalog if Matt has anything to do with it.

Sara, an old co-worker of mine, has started a fabulous new blog called More Than Merlot. She used to be a sommelier in Vegas, and let me tell you, she knows her stuff. Best of all, she recommends great wines that won’t dip into your failing 401k.

So check her out and enjoy learning about great wines!

Well, they were mostly right. We’re bumping into a few more errors thanks to IKEA, so we will wait a bit longer than we had hoped to finish up the cabinets. But we were very pleased with all that got accomplished this weekend. Enough jabbering, here are some photos of the work we accomplished this weekend, the guys hanging cabinets, and the girls hanging wallpaper. Also, HOW CUTE is the yellow bird wallpaper? Thanks, Caitlin, for the tip-off!

Also, a HUGE THANK YOU to my parents for all their help this weekend. Eight hands made lighter work, for sure.

Installing Cabinets:

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From Daily Daguerreotype

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From Daily Daguerreotype

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Hanging Wallpaper:

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From Daily Daguerreotype

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This room off the kitchen used to house more kitchen cabinets and the refrigerator. We’re going to turn it into the laundry room. We started by laying liner paper which was a PAIN IN THE BUTT. But we were papering directly on plywood, so felt it would make a smooth surface. The next day we started papering the birds, after realizing we wouldn’t have enough to go around the whole room. So wainscoting will go 2/3 of the way up the wall, and will be painted gray with a white chair rail. I’ll also be adding wainscoting to the ceiling and painting it white. The area on the wall that we wallpapered around will have the hanging cabinets that the previous owners had up. I’m just going to paint them white. Then underneath the cabinets will be the washer and dryer. I think it will be nifty when it’s done, though it may take a while. But that’s fine, cause Matt needs time to grow to love the birdcage wallpaper!

We also got the chance to assemble our new table and chairs for the breakfast nook. We only got two chairs, because the table will slide into a corner where Matt is going to build us a built-in bench for more seating and under-seat storage.

From Daily Daguerreotype

And that pretty much gets you up to date.

There’s a man who picks through stuff at the dump, and if he thinks it’s in working condition, he pulls it out and tries to sell it to people who are dropping junk off. Our conversation went a little bit like this.

“Sir, I need a lawnmower. What do you have for me?”

“I’ve got a few good ones. This one is the best. All it needs is a new spark plug and some gas, and it should be good.”

He then proceeded to start it. The engine refused to turn over.

“Ok, well how much do you want for it?”

“Twenty five dollars.”

“Well, I only have $12 on me. Anything for sale for $12?”

He then sauntered around a bit debating what he’d give up for such a low price. I could see the argument inside his mind. Finally, he walked back to the “best” lawnmower.

“Want me to put this in your car?”

“That would be great, sir. I appreciate it.”

So I drove away from the dump feeling MIGHTY good about my find. After all, my father-in-law is notorious for trash picking lawnmowers and getting them back into working condition with a little bit of brains and elbow grease. I was going to be the next Pops!

I headed to Home Depot where Keith helped me find the right spark plug for the model. Then I hopped in the car to fill my emergency gas tank. Called my dad on the drive to find out what kind of gas to get, and I could hear pride in his voice. “My little girl’s gonna get a lawn mower working and mow the lawn!”

It was too late now. I could not let my two dad’s down!

So I headed home with my mower, gas and spark plug and set off to do the miraculous. My first issue was a rusted old spark plug that I wasn’t strong enough to remove. Then I couldn’t figure out how to pour the gas out of my emergency gas tank. Very frustrated, I left the project for Matt.

Now, I need to stop for a moment and explain to you why it was such an urgent need for me to fix up this lawn mower… and not just to gain some parental approval. Our lawn had not been mowed since about a week before we closed on the house. We’re goin’ on a month here, with the last week being a complete rain fest. The grass in our football-field sized backyard was LITERALLY a foot tall in most places.

I’m a new homeowner and all, and granted we are in the process of renovating the kitchen. IE: there are bigger fish to fry, which was Matt’s argument all along. But I couldn’t do this to my neighbors! My dear sweet neighbors who have a male dog that is in love with Berlin. And the other neighbors who let us borrow their minivan to haul drywall home from the store. I can’t walk around having a foot of grass in my backyard with these sweet neighbors!!!!

This is turning into a novella. Let me wrap things up.

For days, I was pushing Matt to please figure out how to fix the lawnmower! So one day, during a break from drywalling, he squatted down by the lawnmower and replaced the spark plug. Then poured the gas into the tank effortlessly. And then he tried to start her up. Wouldn’t budge.

“Honey, Keith at Home Depot said that maybe we need a new air filter. Should I go get an air filter?”

“Babe, I really think this mower is going to take a little bit more work. And I really think we should finish the drywall.”

“Ok, but it wouldn’t take me long to get the air filter. We could at least try it.”

“Babe, let’s stay on task.”

Cut to yesterday when I went over to the house to put a second coat of paint on the master bedroom. When I opened the front door I was overwhelmed by the smell of gasoline. This couldn’t just be paint fumes, I thought. There’s gas leaking somewhere! I ran into the basement where we were storing the behemoth, and sure enough… two HUGE pools of gas underneath the mower. Right about now is where I flipped out. Because there was GAS! IN THE BASEMENT! And I could touch off an enormouse house fire if I so much as MOVED incorrectly! Should I turn off all the breakers? But could they potentially spark if I did that? And the spark could set off a house fire!? OMG! OMG!

And I proceeded to run around the football-field sized yard with foot long grass waving my arms in the air and screaming like a lunatic. Or I just sat on the basement steps for a moment to collect my thoughts. One or the other – you choose!

I opened the double doors in the basement, pushed out the mower to drip its gas in the backyard and add to the pleasantness out there. And I tried my darndest to air out the basement. Gas will evaporate eventually, right? And then it’s not dangerous? I’d make an awful terrorist.

Matt came by the house a few hours later in between his appointments, and I vehemently insisted he take that trash heap of a mower back to the dump, and get it out of our lives forever! He took a look underneath it, and sure enough… there was a massive hole. Like HALF OF THE ENGINE missing. Maybe for the full $25, I could have gotten the whole engine?

Back to the dump we went, where Matt explained the situation to the guy who sold it to me, and gave his steely judicious eye. Matt can be so MORAL sometimes, and can very calmly explain what you did wrong, and make you feel like Satan Incarnate. Usually he’s only doing it to me, but in this case I was glad he pulled out all the stops for the lawnmower salesman. Even though the whole time I was writhing in my seat and couldn’t look at them.

Then it was off to Home Depot to visit KEITH! Who hooked us up with a new self-propelled Toro that cuts! And mulches! And collects clippings in a little bag! And can also spit the clippings out the side! THANKS KEITH!

($10 off the purchase by showing my Lowes coupon! YAY!)

The story ends with me mowing my football-field sized backyard yesterday – my first experience with mowing. And I got halfway through it before I was rained out. I loved it! I loved mowing! I want to be The Official Mower Of The Matt Hofmann Family. Talk about instant gratification!

Except there was this one moment where a little snake slithered in front of the mower to safety. And I jumped when I saw it. And last night I had terrible nightmares where I kept hitting snakes with the lawnmower and their bodies would get all chopped up in the blade. And bloody bits of snake body would fly up from the mower and splatter all over my face.

So now, I want nothing to do with mowing or lawn mowers. Ever again. I don’t care who I’m letting down.

Regardless, we got a lot accomplished and have pretty much stayed on schedule. We wanted to have the bathroom tiles refinished, and the kitchen walls and electrical completely finished and ready to go by the end of September. Then the month of October would be for installing cabinets, countertops, and backsplash leaving the first half of November for the installation of appliances and the Hard Wood Floors Man coming to redo the floors in the kitchen. If we can keep on that schedule, we’ll be good to go.

The end of this week will mark our one month anniversary of ownership of the house, and I’d like to take a brief moment to point out the skills I have acquired in the past month. Prepare yourself to be IMPRESSED!

1. I can now remove any wall or ceiling surface down to the studs. Even with 74-year-old sheep’s wool insulation falling in my eyes.
2. I can uninstall a dishwasher, built-in microwave, and range.
3. I can remove and reattach the doors of a side-by-side refrigerator.
4. I can make $130 by selling old crap from the house off Craigslist!
5. I can rip up linoleum floor and subfloor, although my 50-year-old back is then sent into extremely painful back spasms, so I will never do that again.
6. I can haul plaster and lathe to the dumpster, man. And pick up a $12 lawn mower for my husband whilst there.
7. I could have changed out the spark plug on the aforementioned lawn mower if I had been strong enough to unscrew the previous plug which was rusted on. I knew WHAT to do.
8. I can nail blue electrical boxes to studs – very crookedly… BUT AT THE RIGHT HEIGHT!
9. I can run wire and hook up an outlet.
10. I can wield a reciprocating saw (and change its blade!), rock the tool that I refer to as the “Variable drill”, and I’m pretty sure I could use the RotoZip to cut around electrical boxes if I had to, since I’ve seen it done so frequently. But it was part of Matt’s anniversary gift, along with his new tool belt and boots, so I won’t get grabby with the little machine!
11. I can restore a 74 year old rope and pulley window to it’s original glory.
12. I can measure, cut, and install drywall. Matt even let me do my very own little piece from start to finish.
13. I can put up FibaTape (which belongs in a rap, take note my hip-hop readers).
14. I can put a toilet back together, courtesy of my father-in-law’s Handyman Helpline.
15. I can put a pedestal sink back together, also courtesy of my father-in-law’s Handyman Helpline.
16. I can blow through money at Home Depot like you’ve never seen!
17. I can paint. Oh boy, I can paint.

And later this week I will learn how to spackle and sand from the man who INVENTED spackling and sanding. I have also become quite skilled in coming home smelling like dinosaur poo and throwing a frozen pizza in the oven. I am VERY, VERY good at that. Three cheers for transferrable skills!

Say what you will about the fall of Wal-Mart, it’s trade practices or ethics, while Walton was at the helm, great things were accomplished, and he was one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century. The book gave me incredible insight into his personality and management style, much of which I believe is due great respect.

A compilation of a few quotes from the book that struck me. It may be lengthy, but well worth your time.

On incentivizing employees and creating repeat customers:

The more you share profits with your associates – whether it’s in salaries or incentives or bonuses or stock discounts – the more profit will accrue to the company. Why? Because the way management treats the associates is exactly how the associates will then treat the customers. And if the associates treat the customers well, the customers will return again and again, and that is where the real profit in this business lies, not in trying to drag strangers into your stores for one time purchases based on splashy sales or expensive advertising.

On the adverse effects of unions, and the benefits of strong communication and adept management:

But historically, as unions have developed in this country, they have mostly just been divisive. They have put management on one side of the fence, employees on the other, and themselves in the middle as almost a separate business, one that depends on division between the other two camps. And divisiveness, by breaking down direct communication, makes it harder to take care of customers, to be competitive, and to gain market share.

On the other hand, let me say this: anytime we have ever had real trouble or the serious possibility of a union coming into the company, it has been because management has failed, because we have not listened to our associates, or because we have mistreated them. I think anytime the employees at a company say they need a union, it’s because management has done a lousy job of managing and working with their people. Usually, it’s directly traceable to what’s going on at the line supervisor level – something stupid that some supervisor does, or something good he or she doesn’t do.

On businesses resting on their laurels:

If American business is going to prevail, and be competitive, we’re going to have to get accustomed to the idea that business conditions change, and that survivors have to adapt to those changing conditions. Business is a competitive endeavor, and job security lasts only as long as the customer is satisfied. Nobody owes anybody else a living.

Many people in this business are still trying to charge whatever the traffic will bear, and they’re simply on the wrong track. I’ll tell you this: those companies out there who aren’t thinking about the customer and focusing on the customer’s interest are just going to get lost in the shuffle- if they haven’t already. Those who get greedy are going to get left in the dust.

On ethical free markets:

You start with a given: free enterprise is the engine of our society; communism is pretty much down the drain and proven so; and there doesn’t appear to be anything else that can compare to a free society based on a market economy. Nothing can touch that system – not unless leadership and management get selfish or lazy. In the future, free enterprise is going to have to be done well – which means it benefits the workers, the stockholders, the communities, and, of course, management, which must adopt a philosophy of servant leadership.

Recently, I don’t think there’s any doubt that a lot of American management has bent over too far toward taking care of itself first, and worrying about everybody else later. The Japanese are right on this point: you can’t create a team spirit when the situation is so one sided, when management gets so much and workers get so little of the pie. Some of these salaries I see out there are completely out of line, and everybody knows it. It’s obvious that most companies would be much better served by basing managers’ pay on the performance of the company or return on investment to the shareholders or some yardstick which clearly takes into account how well they’re doing their job. And the formula has to make sure that profits are divided fairly among workers, management, and stockholders, according to their contributions and risks. At Wal-Mart we’ve always paid our executives less than industry standards, sometimes maybe too much less. But we’ve always rewarded them with stock bonuses and other incentives related directly to the performance of the company. It’s no coincidence that the company has done really well, and so have they.

Now this is just incredible. Note that Walton wrote the book in 1992 – YEARS before the collapse of the American auto industry. His foresight was truly tremendous:

Our auto industry doesn’t play on level ground. But I don’t think we should counter with protectionism because it doesn’t address the real problem: the quality of our product doesn’t compete with that of the Japanese, whether we want to admit it or not. The challenge is a great one for management. What they have to do is build a partnership with their people.

I understand that this industry has all kinds of problems we haven’t seen in ours. I know that US auto workers make $22 an hour versus $16 in Japan, and that Mexican auto workers earn much less. I’m not saying I could solve all these problems, but I’d love to have the fun of trying to take a unionized company today and sell its people on the idea of having to be competitive globally – whether it was in autos, or steel, or electronics. I’d love a chance at that, the pleasure of seeing if they could be motivated into a team that would share in all the company’s success – and still have a union. It would take a powerful lot of persuading to pull this off, but I guarantee that it could be accomplished by somebody obsessed and persistent enough. But if American management is going to say to their workers that we’re all in this together, they’re going to have to stop this foolishness of paying themselves $3 million and $4 million bonuses every year and riding around everywhere in limos and corporate jets like they’re so much better than everybody else.

I’m not saying every company should necessarily be as chintzy as Wal-Mart. Everybody’s not in the discount business, consumed by trying to save every possible dollar for their customers. But I wonder if a lot of these companies wouldn’t do just as well if their executives lived a little more like real folks. A lot of people think it’s crazy of me to fly coach whenever I go on a commercial flight, and maybe I do overdo it a little bit. But I feel like it’s up to me as a leader to set an example. It’s not fair for me to ride one way and ask everybody else to ride another way. The minute you do that, you start building resentment and your whole team idea starts to strain at the seams.

All in all I found Sam Walton to be an inspirational business figure who worked harder than most people, and tried to run an ethical business. I’m glad Sam’s not around to see what his companies are up to these days…