There Really Are Four Kinds of Everybody

I've become very aware of how many places Messiah's parable about four kinds of soil, and Torah's teaching of four kinds of men applies in just about every situation involving more than three people. Oh, now, G-d's Word is always true, but sometimes it takes a few more than four to see all four kinds, because good soil and wisdom are rare. For example, I've recently become aware of a fourth kind of organizer.

We are all now familiar with a community organizer for a President. I, for one, am not impressed. He seems to be able to organize the price the rest of us will pay and the hard work required to supposedly reach some elusive goal he envisions, but the reality is, he's a typical organizer that knew the right people or sold his soul at the opportune moment. He is the embodiment of what I've always experienced with organizers and micro-managers. He gets up late, he has plenty of advice and insight about what "should have been done before he arrived" and he has words, lots and lots of words. He is very well spoken, but then organizers are. That's how they hand off responsibility and blame, while I didn't realize until recently just how much time, wordy organizers take from others. If only they'd organize their own thoughts and schedule, maybe their explanations wouldn't take so long and they wouldn't need to keep anyone waiting . . . But I think that has something to do with their opinion of their own importance.

Upon observing our leader, I've noticed many similar traits amongst organizers, but there are differences as well, which brings me to our four kinds of organizers.

Our President is a community organizer, so that means he has some get-up and go, and can work large crowds. Even though he'll stroll in and out on his own schedule and check his blackberry in the middle of someone's conversation with him, he's on top of his game and he knows exactly how to make people feel genuinely cared about and bring them ownership. Of course they have ownership, they are the ones doing the work, but they are happy to do it, for the greater good of the cause . . . and for the "personal" relationship with the "community organizer." A good community organizer makes everyone feel that they have a special bond with the leader for whom they are donating time and basically giving up their life to see succeed. Does anyone really think the hundreds of volunteers who considered it their personal privilege to work for this man, even question the difference in the lifestyle in which they struggle and the one they helped him to attain?

Now I happen to have been "graced" by the acquaintance of other organizers as well. They also share the President's value of timeliness. Their time is important and those of us who get up early and get something done, well they'll get up in enough time to question it, change it, or at least offer their ideas and advice. Those of us who have something actually going on in life besides organizing others often find ourselves waiting upon the one who has organized the event, the meeting, or the conversation . . .

What I love about personally knowing other types of organizers, is being able to mull over the observations I make while they take a text, answer the phone in the middle of the most insane things to interrupt or simply answer the call waiting line and then come back to tell me they forgot about me. These other organizers are just as awesome, in their own minds, as the community organizer we now call our President. These other organizers have advice regarding religious and business choices of others, while not actually accomplishing any endeavors, themselves. I think that's why so many people have difficulty believing in the week of creation. They can't imagine a world without community, religious, or business organizers. It probably would have taken G-d a lot longer than six days, if He'd created an organizer early on, but if there is any validity to the theory of evolution, it is the three kinds of organizers who have evolved, and continue to do so.

I think Lot was the father of all organizers. He tagged along with a man with a vision, Abraham, then chose the best land for himself. He organized two wedding parties for his daughters, but still ended up leaving town with them in tow, still virgins. Even after YHWH G-d rescued him from the judgment pouring down on Sodom and Gomorrah, it was Lot who suggested to the Creator of the universe, a different destination, than where G-d had told him to go . . . Lot was clearly an organizer with chutzpah.

While G-d changes not, most organizers have to continuously change and raise the bar and move the hoop to organize those with a real vision and love for progress. Most organizers realize if they ever got up early and listened, they might have to actually pitch and work also!

I am not an organizer, but I know where my stuff is, by the color of the basket or tub. My filing cabinet is color coded, and when it comes to my computer, my music and videos are organized because the thought of sorting them is overwhelming and I don't just automatically recognize those by the date. Now my writing and my pictures, I don't organize because I recognize them, they are just a a part of me. Since I'm not an organizer, and they are a part of me they are not organized . . . until they are needed for publication. Which brings me to the fourth kind of organizer.

Now, I have met the fourth kind of organizer, and oh my what a blessing! After knowing delegating organizers and the deferring organizers, as well as seeing the dictating organizers, it's so nice to finally meet a diligent organizer! I knew there had to be one that actually organized by example. She lives what she talks and it's refreshing! I have started a number of projects with "organizers" trampling through, and frankly it's work to work around them, but not this gal . . . She knows how to organize and she actually organizes! She organizes papers, she organizes people, she organizes computer files, but the difference is she organizes herself and gets things done! As I've observed, there are really four kinds of everybody and now I'm blessed to be the editor of an Internet Periodical with an executive administrator that is a true organizer the way G-d designed organizers to be! James tells us to not just be hearers but doers. Not to add to or take away from G-d's Holy Word, but I think Scripture has plenty of passages that indicate we're not just supposed to be talkers, but doers, also.

When Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes he didn't say, 'Whatsoever your hand finds to do, tell somebody else how to do it,' he penned, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might . . ."