Author: Wade Kingston

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Satisfaction vs. Job Performance

Since the beginning of the human relations movement the theory that “satisfaction causes performance” has been widely accepted.  A more recent theory maintains that “performance causes satisfaction” and has also gained prominence.  An even newer theory now insists that satisfaction and performance are not related, but that both satisfaction and performance are themselves “functions of rewards.”

As an older citizen, and one who has held a variety of jobs, I have had the opportunity to see each of these theories in practice.  While working as a restaurant manager in my younger years I was encouraged to follow the “satisfaction causes performance” theory and did so to the best of my ability.  Within my limits I did what I could to keep employees happy so that they were productive.  It never really worked all that well.  After all, what makes one employee happy may do nothing for the next.  I doubt whether any manager is truly capable of making an employee happy or satisfied with their job.  At our restaurant there was a lot of disparity among employees when it came to job performance. Continue reading “Satisfaction vs. Job Performance”

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Peony Passing

My favorite perennial, the lovely and fragrant peony, has come and gone again.  In our area it buds and blooms almost exclusively in May each year.

Peony buds
Peony buds

Does anyone else get excited when this long-lived plant pokes its tiny pink stalks out of the ground early in spring?  I cannot describe the feeling I get when I see it emerge each year.  It’s at once a memory of long-ago conversations with my grandmother, and a promise of an explosion of loveliness to come.  I can remember grandma telling me to leave the ants on the buds alone, that the peony wouldn’t bloom without the ants.  I don’t know if that’s true, but I have never sprayed my peonies for insects and they’ve always rewarded me.  I have had many peony plants over the years—and almost as many stories to go with them.  More to come…
Lovely and fragrant peony blossoms

Lovely and fragrant peony blossoms© Wade Kingston

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Amaryllis Gone Wild

Don’t you just love it when you buy a plant and it rewards you by thriving?

Below is a photo of a pot of amaryllis blooming in May and June.  At last count there were 40+ blossoms that came and went.  Considering how large and showy they are, that’s a startling amount of eye appeal when you consider it all started with one lowly $4 bulb.

Lovely pot of Amaryllis plants
Lovely pot of Amaryllis plants

I bought it for my mom at Christmas a few years back.  You know, one of those bulbs you force and sometimes toss after the holidays? But I’ve never been one for tossing.  I repotted the bulb in a large pot and fed and watered it all that next summer.  The following spring the bulb had split and I had not two but THREE lovely stalks of blossoms.  The original bulb  had not only split but was large enough to send up two bloom stalks.

Huge red Amaryllis blossoms
Huge red Amaryllis blossoms

It just kept getting better and better.  As a reward for occasional feeding and watering, the bulbs continued to split each year until now I am forced to remove and re-pot them.

© Wade Kingston

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Death by Chocolate Torte

I almost never tell someone that chocolate is my weakness  that they don’t agree.  Frankly, I have always been suspicious of anyone proclaiming they don’t like chocolate–and I just don’t trust them.  It’s not normal, people!

Yummy chocolate torte
Yummy chocolate torte

Recently I made this amazing chocolate torte, and then somehow  promptly lost the recipe.  I know it had Baker’s Chocolate, English walnuts, eggs, and other goodies in it.  Trust me, it was tasty to my face and I would share the recipe if I still had it.

© Wade Kingston

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Beatles vs. ABBA vs. Rolling Stones

I love the Rolling Stones. I’ve seen them perform live three times, and of the many bands I’ve enjoyed, their three concerts ranked first, second, and third in my book.  You read a lot lately that this current tour could be their last, and that it will certainly gross hundreds of millions of dollars.  I’m sure that’s true, just as it’s true of Madonna when she tours, and would be true if U2 were touring this year.  If ticket prices average several hundred dollars, then an act only has to round up a million or so patrons to guarantee huge grosses.

And yet I also recall reading—several times over the past dozen years or so—that ABBA has been offered the staggering sum of $1 BILLION dollars to reunite for a tour.  That’s a lot of zeroes.   And you know what?  You can’t believe everything you read these days, but I’ll bet it’s true.  I say that because I believe an ABBA reunion tour would be worth it—at least in the sense that the promoters would see a hefty return on their investment.  I believe an ABBA tour would dwarf anything out there in any year they choose. A real “event.”  The pent-up demand from younger fans alone would guarantee success.  Throw in the grannies and those of us who never saw them on tour in the 70’s and, well, let’s just say money would flow like a river.  Can you imagine the lines to buy T-shirts?

And yet, the reunion tour that would beat ALL reunion tours, the one that would set records so high that not even the combined efforts of the next ten groups could match it, can never be. Continue reading “Beatles vs. ABBA vs. Rolling Stones”