Something Rich and Strange

I'm sitting in one of my favorite places to be on the planet: an airport. Anywhere. OK. So it's not glamorous, nor is there great food (unless you are a hot dog fan; and there's still not great food). But it means that I'm going somewhere, hopefully someplace fascinating, exotic, or, at least interesting. Right now I'm waiting for to embark on a rather circuitous route to a place I've always wanted to go: Budapest (for those of you who want to know, I'm staying in Buda).

So on this Thanksgiving day I'm thankful for my good friends, having a wonderful job doing meaningful work and the opportunity hop on a jet and go to faraway places. Life is good and my (silver) bird awaits.

I now have irrefutable proof that the recession - or whatever the nom-d’economic disaster you want to give it – is over. The evidence arrived in my mail box recently, weighing in at slightly more than the latest Bantom Weight champion – in the form of the fall Restoration Hardware catalog. The September issue of Vogue would need to bulk-up to even come close to the heft of the offerings from this here-to-fore “traditional” retailer. In fact, the release of Restoration Hardware’s catalog and the famous issue of Vogue constitute a battle of the bulge for prime real estate in your mailbox.

The size of the catalog itself is rivaled only by the size of the pieces it is hawking. Steam Punk meets BarcaLounger sofas. Light fixtures that would be at home on a Phantom of the Opera set. A map of Paris that fills an entire wall. And lots of pieces that look like they were crafted from salvaged airplane parts circa 1965. In fact, to house much of what you see in this catalog you would have to live in a space roughly the equivalent of an airplane hangar.

So what’s up with timing a major re-brand to coincide with unprecedented unemployment and an economy intent on reaching new lows? According to CEO Gary Friedman in a missive that accompanies the catalog:

During the collapse of the global economy . . . we chose not to listen to the conventional wisdom encouraging us to follow the pack and lower quality to reduce prices. Instead, we saw an opportunity to be liberated, abandoning our past to embrace the future, one that has redefined the essence of who we are. No longer mere “retailers” of home furnishings, we are now “curators” of the best historical design the world has to offer.

We’ve destroyed the previous iteration of ourselves, clearing the way to express our brand in a never-before-seen fashion.

As we witness a rebellion against the one percent of Americans who are presumably Restoration Hardware’s new sales demographic, it will be interesting to note whether this born-again retailer will ultimately find salvation.

Well, it’s been a spell since this blog was updated. And while I’m not exactly (or even inexactly) being hounded to fill-in interested parties on what I’ve been up-to for the last few months, I do have a really, really good excuse (really). I’ve been kinda busy recently with work stuff. So here’s the back story.

For some time, as I may have droned on about, it has been my goal to transition my experience in non-profit management into international development. Easier said than done, I’ve learned. The catch (as in “Catch 22”) is that most international jobs require international experience. But how do you get international experience in the first place if you, well, can’t get a job without it? One way is to volunteer, which I did last year in Nepal, Jordan and India doing capacity building in communications and management with local NGOs.

In between, to keep bread on the table and Stuart Weitzman’s on my feet, I did some consulting. My latest gig was with Earth Day Network (yes, the folks responsible for the annual tribute to our planet, but who do so much more year-round). I had the opportunity to work on promoting what this wonderful organization's many partners are accomplishing worldwide, which is truly inspiring.

OK. Back to the international development thing. My wishlist was short and to the point:

1. Find an organization that was making a difference worldwide
2. Find an organization that was making a difference worldwide that wanted to hire me

Of course, it would be great if the organization was held in high regard in international circles, synomymous with service and helping people build better worlds for their communities, themselves and their children. Hmmm. How about the Peace Corps? Yes, that’s where I think I’ll go. And as luck, and a little hard work would have it, that is exactly where I’ve landed. I started today in a newly-created position responsible for doing internal (think inter-, intra- agency) communications for the Peace Corps’ stellar IT division. There’s not much more I can tell you right now since this was my first day going through NEO (no, I am not in the Matrix, but New Employee Orientation). However, it’s hard to go wrong working for an organization that's name begins with “Peace.”