Interesting piece, Tony. And, by the way, "Happy New Year" all. I've been reading, but not posting for a little while. The article reminded me of an address given by Parker J. Palmer several years ago on leadership. I've tried to excerpt the key points, which means that this post is too long and perhaps a bit disjointed. Still I think there's some connections between Palmer's "shadows" and the "dark" tone of the Gehry article. Palmer sets his course this way: I'll give you a quick definition of a leader: a leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to project on other people his or her shadow, or his or her light. A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being m conditions that can either be as illuminating as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what's going on inside him or her self, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good. I want to look at the shadow side of leadership. In the literature on leadership there are so many pamphlets and books which seem to be about "the power of positive thinking." I am afraid that they may feed a common delusion among leaders that their efforts are always well-intended, their power always benign. I suggest that the challenge is to examine our consciousness for those ways in which we project more shadow than light. I'm not talking simply about the heads of nation states, i'm talking, for example, about a classroom teacher who has the power to create conditions under which young people must spend half of their waking hours, day in and day out, five days a week. Have you ever walked into a classroom in which the leader is projecting light? Have you ever walked into a classroom in which the leader is projecting a huge and ominous shadow? That's the question, that's the choice. --"Leading From Within", Parker J. Palmer. That same choice, I would say, is made by architects, landscape designers, nursing home attendants, lawyers, janitors, and taxi drivers. I'm not sure I like the parenting imageI don't think it is necessary to infantalize your client in order to lead the process. But then, "parents" are the archetypical leaders. Any time an "expert" is dealing with a client there is a leadership dynamic at work. And, according to Palmer, that would mean that the shadows within a particular leader are also at work. Palmer suggests that there are many shadows within us, and then focuses on 5 of them: 1. Insecurity-- identity determined by function rather than innate value of one's life: " I go around the country talking to people in higher education, and wherever I go I ask students, 'When was the last time that you were asked to relate your life story to the things you are studying?' They say, 'What? Our life story doesn't count here.' The whole deal in higher education is to replace your 'little' life story with the 'big' story. The whole deal in an expert-dominated, technocratic form of education is to devalue those little parochial stories on behalf of the 'true' one. Reflected in that strategy I see a kind of leadership which is so insecure about its own identity that it has to deprive other people of theirs. "I've talked with some nurses and doctors who say, "Think of what we do to patients in a hospital. Talk about depriving people of identity so that leaders can have more for themselves!" This kind of organizational culture comes out of a profound insecurity on the part of people in power." 2. The perception that the universe is essentially hostile to human interests and that life is fundamentally a battleground: "As I listen to everyday discourse, it is amazing to me how many battle images I hear as people go about the work of leadership. We talk about tactics and strategy, about using our "big guns," about "do or die," about wins and losses. The imagery here suggests that if we fail to be fiercely competitive, we're going to lose, because the basic structure of the universe is a vast combat. The tragedy of that inner shadow, that unexamined inner fear, is that it helps create situations where people actually have to live that way. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy." 3. Functional atheism--the belief that it all depends on me: "Functional atheism is an unconscious belief that leads to workaholic behavior, to burn-out, to stressed and strained and broken relationships, to unhealthy priorities. Functional atheism is the unexamined conviction within us that if anything decent is going to happen here, I am the one who needs to make it happen. Functional atheism is the reason why the average group (according to studies) can tolerate only 15 seconds of silence; people believe that if they are not making noise, nothing is happening! Functional atheism is an inner shadow of leaders that leads to dysfunctional behavior on every level of our lives." 4. Fear--many forms but Palmer singles out one as particularly damaging for leaders: "I think a lot of leaders become leaders because they have a life-long devotion to eliminating all remnants of chaos from the world. They're trying to order and organize things so thoroughly that the nasty stuff will never bubble up around us (such nasty stuff as dissent, innovation, challenge, change.) "ÂWhat we forget from our spiritual tradition is that God created out of chaos. Chaos is the pre-condition to creativity, and any organization (or any individual) that doesn't have an arena for creative chaos is already half dead. When a leader is so fearful of chaos as not to be able to protect and nurture that arena for other people, there is deep trouble." 5. Denial of death: "We live in a culture that just does not want to talk about things dying. You see this all the time in our institutional life. You see leaders all over the place demanding that they themselves, and the people who work for them, artificially maintain things that aren't alive any longer and maybe never have been. Projects and programs that should have been laid down ten years ago are still on the life-support system even though they've been in a coma for decades." Wellspring p.s. My dog, Winna, never barks.

Teddy is almost 10 years old, and doesn't enjoy her walkies as she once did, so I bought her a little golf cart so we can ride around in style. The barking stopped at some point. I guess it was part of puppyhood. She still barks a lot, but it's "action motivated" - such as the UPS man, the doorbell, strangers walking by, etc. With my husband dead, our life has become much more peaceful and full of joy. He never liked Teddy and made no secret about it.

Junebug, I hope you have had a chance to speak with your friend about this. It is always better to hear sensitive views from a friend than from an angry neighbour. Bless your heart for caring. :) I am lucky to be at home 24/7 with my dogs and I live in a very dog friendly neighbourhood, not to mention I have had the same neighbours for mnay years. In fact, we live in a very sheltie thick area. My dogs bark as all shelties do although probably not as much as they have little to bark about when I am here all the time. That said, they can even get to me if they are having a particularly energetic day and none of mine are debarked! :) Many of my puppies have been adopted by previous sheltie owners who said they would never have another dog than the one they grew up with or the one who passed away. Many of these new owners lives have changed considerably since they last owned a sheltie, or at least a young or deaf one. I have often heard back that they will never have another sheltie and kids at the same time again! They go together but they make a lot of noise! :) My daughter being one of those owners and she grew up with a sheltie! Generally, the older dogs are a bit quieter and more settled as are my senior dogs. I can't imagine how it must be with a deaf dog and a puppy! I hope your friend can come to an acceptable compromise both for her family and the dogs. I don't think a bark collar will do any good and may actually add more anxiety to an already anxious dog. Debarking surgically may not be the answer for an aurically scarred dog. Ear, nose and throat are close and scar tissue is thick. Perhaps there is a sheltie rescue in your area. I have worked for sheltie rescue in the past and still do on a less hands on level. We know shelties and are generally more understanding of their "specialness". Lol! It is a sure sign of strength and character to surrender a dog you know is not a good fit for your family, IMO and IME. :) Ginny

This is when I'm so glad we live in the country. After we moved here in our mid-20's is when we got our first dog. I can only remember two instances when dog barking was a problem. When I used to babysit DS1's children from birth to 4 or 5, it was at their house in the country about ten miles from us. UPS always delivered packages (ringing the doorbell then leaving) during nap time and both of their Shih Tzu's would yap and yap and yap. Always woke the kids up, and me too. :) I finally put a note on the front door asking them not to ring the doorbell because of children sleeping. They never did it again. Now this story really burned my hide & I had no choice but to find humor in the situation. Living in the country and having indoor/outdoor dogs, they'd bark when they'd hear something or see a critter whenever we let them out to potty. DS1, his family, and the two Shih Tzu's, built a house behind us. I believe it was the first morning when DS1 had to go to work after the move. He gets up a 5am and leaves at 6am. He needs his sleep. At the time I was waking at 4am, and the first thing I had to do was let the dogs out. While they were out I had to go to the bathroom, and the dogs started barking very loud because they're big. The phone rings and it was DS asking me if I'd get the dogs in the house so he can sleep, plus they were waking up the kids. Now we have to watch their barking in the early morning hours and after bedtime for DS1's family. Neighbors, how dare they! :)