One of my favorite local Asian restaurants is Siam Cafe (Cleveland, at E 40th & St. Clair) where dinners commonly feature huge tables of Chinese families around a great menu of Chinese and Thai cuisines.

What’s equally good is the chaotic system of service redundancy. According to co-owner Mei, everyone has a station and in their travels everyone will pay continuous attention to cover any just-in-time needs like orders, checks, refills, adjustments - regardless of whose station area it is.

So in a recent brief lunch, there were zero delays for me as different people took on whatever I needed at the moment. Matrix service at its best. No wonder I’m one of many loyal regulars.

If the US pulls troops out of Iraq on time, whatever time that is, where should they put them? It’s the (appreciative) principle that moving away is impossible without a moving toward. So without a clear moving toward, we should logically expect delays on moving away.

The conversation brings into play US values and beliefs relative to military role in foreign policy, and for that matter foreign policy itself. And yes, we are all responsible for engaging or not showing up for this conversation. We can’t realistically expect an unconscious government to do anything but act unconsciously.

I have a small but complete zen garden for a front yard and it was interesting walking down the street yesterday noticing that although leaves were clinging to every grass surface along the street, the zen garden was clear. Zen garden as fall metaphor for non-attachment - letting leaves come, letting leaves go.

There is apparently consensus among American adults that this generation of very indulged children are hurling more social rudenesses than ever (from a piece in the NY Times today). Less than 10% of adults could say that they experienced children’s public behaviors as “respectful toward adults.”

I don’t think the answer is in how best to blame kids and their parents who spend more time with their children than perhaps any previous living generation. It has to do with how we, who supposedly are higher on the emotional intelligence food chain, engage them when they are in our presence. We need to take responsibility for engaging them in a way that makes it easy for them to act with the respect they will need to cultivate for any successful future job, relationship, and career.

Waking up means becoming conscious of the power of mind relative to the quality of our moment to moment experience. Waking up begins when we experience a choice about where our attention goes, such as to deficiency or abundance, past or present, weakness or strength, complaint or vision.

When we are unconscious, we experience no choice. That’s what ego would have us believe. To see choice is to actually become conscious. That’s what being conscious, awake is. That’s where ultimate power is.

Which leads to one of the things I appreciate most about my friends over the years - their ability to support my consciousness and their receptivity to my supporting their consciousness.

In his new book, “A New Earth”, Eckhart Tolle observes that to be conscious is to be present, and that all unhappiness comes from unconsciousness - not being here now; trying to be somewhere else. Unhappiness is resistance to the present.

Happiness is always in the present. The illusion of happiness is that it comes from any object of experience. Reality is, happiness is when we’re present to any object of experience - when we have no resistance to it. That’s why there is joy in flow experiences when we feel one with the present.

Subtle difference, yet transformational.

Today here in the states, people honor thanksgiving. If you’re Buddhist or come from any wisdom tradition based in gratefulness and appreciative living, this is the high point of the year.

The power of gratitude is how it creates a space where transformation and transcendence emerges. It is ultimately the lens that allows us to see our true nature.

Have a great thanksgiving, wherever you are.

Organizations and communities have cultures dominated more by commitment or control, an observation from my buddy Tom Carlson over a long conversation tonight.

The commitment culture invites alignment given freely (read: authentically) rather than demanding it.

The mega-investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs, in not only now investing $1 billion in oil and gas alternative energy source technologies, it’s put forth aggressive environmentally-friendly decision making policies.

They’re showing leadership in a field that includes JP Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch who have begun to factor the environment into its investment metrics. Another good example of how the moral will of socially responsible business can outperform an ambivalent government.

Give people a possibility to live into, not an expectation to live up to.

Benjamin Zander, Boston Philharmonic conductor