{"id":151,"date":"2010-11-15T16:50:10","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T00:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/storyresolution.org\/?p=151"},"modified":"2010-11-17T07:40:43","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T15:40:43","slug":"petes_constellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/petes_constellation\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete’s Constellation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written Janua\"\"<\/a>ry 2010 (Revised 15 November 2010)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Pete gave me a lesson in the power of infectious longstories.<\/p>\n

Pete is a roughly handsome and fit looking 60+ year old man, of medium build, with a rugged longshoreman\u2019s face and New York-German accent, complete with bulbous nose and bald head (I assume it\u2019s bald, he usually wears a fisherman\u2019s knit cap). That’s Pete in the picture.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I frequented The Rocket Bakery coffee shop in downtown Spokane. I do much of my consulting work from home, and I go to area coffee shops for a change of environment. During my first year of visiting the Rocket, in early 2008, I\u2019d watch Pete ride up on his old reddish-purple bicycle. He\u2019d lock his bike to a wrought iron railing. He\u2019d saunter in while hobnobbing with whomever he encountered. \u00a0When he wasn\u2019t jesting with a passerby, he\u2019d purchase a news paper, work the crossword puzzle, which he usually completed, and leave the paper for others to read.<\/p>\n

I was intrigued. So in early 2009 I said hello, and I buckled in for my conversational ride.<\/p>\n

What did I learn about Pete? Pete grew up on rough streets in New York City, was married earlier in life, fathered a daughter, and now has a grandson. He doesn\u2019t own a car \u201cbecause it would be too much hassle\u201d. Pete\u2019s experiences include an eclectic job life. One of his early jobs was (in his words) \u201cshoveling monkey shit\u201d from animal laboratory cages. He was familiar with the sea. He had worked on boats, built boats, and he did a stint in the Navy.\u00a0 As sharp minded people do, he learned from his observations and started his own businesses. His most successful business involved selling and servicing industrial batteries. Pete said: \u201cI don\u2019t care what other business people think, business IS people<\/em>. If you don\u2019t like people, if you don\u2019t like to help people, you shouldn\u2019t have a business\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his mid to late 50s\u2019 Pete decided he needed an adventure. He said that: \u201cIt\u2019s natural in my family to be adventurous, to like and to get along with other people\u201d. So Pete sold his battery business, bought a used sail boat, and proceeded to fix it up over the following two years. He said he had intended to roam the sea from port-to-port for the rest of his life, or until he couldn\u2019t sail any more, whichever came first.<\/p>\n

Pete hauled his boat to the Seattle coast, parked his pickup on the street, left its keys and deed on the seat for some passerby to claim, and embarked on his adventure. Pete\u2019s sea adventure lasted about three months after setting sail from Seattle. His adventure culminated one day, eleven hours after leaving Coos Bay, Oregon, when he hit weather so torturous that it stranded, or tested, all the boats in the area. His boat\u2019s deck-to-hull seal broke and he was taking on water. He called for Coast Guard assistance. After a heroic helicopter rescue, where he abandoned his listing boat and was pulled from the sea, Pete was back in Spokane living on his \u201climited, though good enough\u201d, battery business retirement funds. Pete said: \u201cI left my $100,000 boat parked under water off the Pacific Coast\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing this tale in January 2010, seven years after Pete\u2019s sailing adventure. We know about Pete\u2019s visionary tendencies, so what did he do after his boat adventure?<\/p>\n

It turns out that Pete likes (understatement) dance, poetry, and music. Over the past two years, \u201cout of boredom\u201d he said, and because \u201cI give a damn, even though I don\u2019t fit in\u201d, he organized dancers, stage workers and others to perform charity fund raisers. From his success he was inspired toward a new longstory<\/em>. Pete had decided Spokane \u201cneeds a high quality dance company\u201d, and he was going start it. Perplexing even himself, he said: \u201cwhat da hell do I know about starting a dance company\u201d?! Pete didn\u2019t let his ignorance deter him. He said: \u201cI know good dance when he see it. I\u2019ll find other people who know the rest\u201d. Around Spring of 2009 Pete began shopping his vision around.<\/p>\n

Pete offered up his vision, and the world served up people delighted for an opportunity to play parts in: public relations, graphic art, lighting and stage design, dance instruction, choreography etc. Pete even managed to assemble a quality board, including notables in local businesses and arts, to oversee his fledgling company.<\/p>\n

Pete is the first to point out his rough and obstinate temperament, and his paradoxically too-quick-to-trust nature. He points out the hazards of starting something new in an ailing economy, and in a town where exceptional young talent is encouraged to seek fertile ground in larger cities. With his humble means and these portents of struggle it was a wonder to watch how far things progressed. Who would have guessed that so many would have enlisted in his vision?<\/p>\n

Pete demonstrated to me that sincere pursuit of a vision, a vision that provides context and meaning catalyzing latent dreams in others, is the seed for an infectious longstory. Pete\u2019s persistence and loquacious charm, his capacity to embrace his ignorance, and his courage to \u201cfail\u201d, comprise his constellation of longstory-seed nourishing gifts. Regardless of whether a dance company materializes in Spokane, Pete has offered and opportunity for co-creation through his infectious longstory. I celebrate what he has offered.<\/p>\n

Thank you Pete!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pete’s Bicycle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written January 2010 (Revised 15 November 2010) Pete gave me a lesson in the power of infectious longstories. Pete is a roughly handsome and fit looking 60+ year old man, of medium build, with a rugged longshoreman\u2019s face and New … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-longstories","category-our-stoired-lives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyresolution.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}