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2022-08-26
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GIVE THANKS FOR WHITE SPACE TOO
By Harvey Mackay
A reader sent me an Albany (NY)
Times Union article about Cablevision
Systems Corp. CEO Jim Dolan. The
article is not about Jim DolanRs day
job. He heads up the communications
conglomerate that owns Madison Square
Garden, the New York Knicks, Rangers
and Radio City Music Hall. Last year,
according to the company's annual
report, he earned $6.4 million in
salary and stock. He has all the usual
perks: limos, helicopter, jet, lavish
expense account, "the works."
The article was about Jim and his
blues band, JD & The Straight Shot.
They were appearing at an Albany club.
The writer of the article asked Jim
why he was doing this. "You know
what's great and what I really love?
I'm 50 years old and I can do this.
It's just me singing. If there are
only 10 people out there, I'm still
going to be singing, still be having a
good time. I'm doing it because it's
part of me. I've been playing guitar
and singing since I was 17. In my
life, I need more than just my job and
my family. I need to be able to
reflect another side of myself.
There's an artistic side that I don't
get to use much."
Asked if he's really the same guy
when performing on stage, CEO Dolan
said, "I'm happy. I leave everything
else behind. I'm wrestling for balance
in my life. What it really is is that
I'm letting people in, and I'm letting
myself out."
Jim exemplifies an important
lesson for all of us. In the wired
world we now live in, with about 30
GPS satellites whirling overhead, with
the Internet humming 24/7, with cell
phones, BlackBerrys, personal digital
assistants, laptops, and
videoconferencing, we need white
space. That's the term the wired
generation uses for time spent
unwired. We need to spend time
disconnected, devoted to our dreams,
hobbies, fantasies, meditations --
personal time, down time, quiet time
-- whatever you want to call it.
Think of U.S. Presidents. Bush is
into exercise; Clinton has his sax.
Eisenhower needed to get out on the
links and Kennedy to go sailing. Woody
Allen has his clarinet. Bill Gates and
Warren Buffett have contract bridge.
Ted Williams and Ernest Hemingway
loved to fish and hunt.
In fact, from the days of sailing
ships, to ensure their safety, sailors
had an expression: one hand for the
ship, one hand for me. That way they
wouldn't fall out of the rigging and
drown.
The point is, you have to set
aside time for yourself. I know a
writer who holds his Monday five
o'clock racquetball appointment
sacrosanct. He builds his whole week
around these two hours. In the same
way he reserves all the time his two
daughters spend in school activities.
He attends all their soccer,
basketball and softball games. I
admire that. It's heartbreaking to
hear executives and professionals say
they missed seeing their kids grow up.
They always tell you if they had it to
do over again they would spend more
time supporting their kids and their
activities.
Last year I wrote a column called
"Make a living; make a life, too,"
based on words of wisdom from a
University of Tokyo student. The idea
was that modern life spun so fast, had
so many conveniences, and took so much
for granted that the essence of life
was missed. Its pleasures are
forfeited, its meaning destroyed.
Reader response to that column was
overwhelming.
Even the world's largest bank has
this theme of life lost in the shuffle
on its mind. Citibank has an ad out
that says, "There's more to life than
money. Live richly."
Which brings to mind this snippet
published in the New Yorker magazine
last May:
Joseph Heller -- an important and
funny writer now dead -- and I were at
a party given by a billionaire on
Shelter Island.
I said, "Joe, how does it make you
feel to know that our host only
yesterday may have made more money
than your novel 'Catch-22' has earned
in its entire history?"
And Joe said, "I've got something
he can never have."
And I said, "What on earth could
that be, Joe?"
And Joe said, "The knowledge that
I've got enough."
Not bad! Rest in peace!
- Kurt Vonnegut
HM