Made 4 More

Father's Day June 21, 2009 was an eventful spiritual event for me when Armstrong United Methodist Church handed out Patrick Morley and David Delk's "Dad in the Mirror" book to all the Fathers. I used that book in my daily devotional and spiritual journaling that I had started October 2016.  The message from the penetrated my heart then.... and Now - Am I Fathering for performance or Fathering to the Heart?  Behavior flows out of Belief and the goal of a Father is to disciple the heart of his child to Love God and Others. That book also started my devoted support and gifts to Man in the Mirror Ministry. 

This afternoon at lunch I reiterated that Father's Day memory and pivitol moment in my spiritual development as a Son, Man, Husband, and Father.  At lunch was  TD. D. .and his son J.D2. of Made4More (M4M) Ministry. and Pastor Brown whoinitiated this introduction and meeting.  How appropriate that Pastor Brown brought two copies of the June 22, 2026 Father's Day gift to them.  I pray that the Men who took home their copy of  Patrick Morley's new book  "What if Christianity is True?" will do the same with it as I did 17 years ago. 

The only Armstrong Supercharge event I had missed (due to a family death - M.S.) was last March 7. 2026 where Made 4 More presented their excellent material (7 Videos and Group Discussions) to 50 or more Men encouraging them to join a small group and helping them in transformation as Men, Husbands, and Fathers. Man Fully Alive was permission to "Go First" in sharing your story (like the videos) and allowing others into your real life and challenges as a Man.

Our Wednesday Bible Study took the next 7 weeks to dive deep into these discussions and found them transformative. Armstrong UMC supplimented the Made 4 More video material with practical spiritual disciplines as follow-up.   I committed to the "Pain Journal" disciple - now on week 4 of a 52 week exercise in healing.  

God puts people together for a purpose and this meeting will surely produce fruit.  TD. D. offered me the M4M band and asked for prayer for this minstry -  NO PAIN there - I will were it proudly withthe TETELESTAI  33AD band that stays on my right arm!

Squirrel Apple Thief

Not a single apple remains on the four apple trees (or on the ground) in my back yard (well really 2 crab apple trees and 2 other apple trees (see Two Apple Sticks - yellow transparent semi-dwarf and golden delicious dwarf).  So who are the culprits - deer, dog or ...... squirrel?    The picture below incriminates the squirrel along with some videos that I have of the branches shaking with no wind present. But you have to look carefully - he is feasting on an apple underneath the golden delicious dwarf tree!

Trust but Verify

Find people that can make you laugh and enjoy their company.  P.N. called today and we exchanged jokes, teasing and wit.  When he asked me what I thought about the MOU with Iran, I hedged by stating that with 47 years of distrust how can anything on paper be certain.  

P.N. agreed and said one of his friends felt the Iran war was like a marriage - no rules :)  

 

I added to the humor reflecting how so many marriages involve cheating also.  Most marriages also have a mutually assured destruction capability - the red button nuclear option.  We all know which button to push at anytime.

Attempting a shot at positivity, we both agreed that a best practice in any marriage is "trust but verify".  That is probably the best chance at a peaceful resolution of this conflict.

I Don't Know

 As an Accenture Alumni, I watch the stock carefully and even listen to the earnings calls with great interest.  Sadly today the stock dropped 18% and year to date cut in half (actually >50%).  The market is punishing Accenture's lower bookings, revenue below mid-point guidance and general pessimism for this sector based on AI expectations.

Today in the Vistage Alumni (we call it Vistage Vets) monthly meeting, K.W. stated that AI hallucinates about 30% of the time. When I asked Copilot today it cites studies saying 60% incorrect answers on some news citation queries, 17-34 % in legal research tools, and up to 31% in real-world interactions, rising to approximately 60% in complex domains.  K.W seems to be correct!

So how does this get corrected and will it take Accenture expertise and digital data cleansing tools or does recursive self improvement just naturally improve this bad batting average?  Copilot weighed in on that question also;

✅ Bottom line

• Consulting-scale engineering (like Accenture): necessary for real-world reliability
• Recursive self-improvement: helpful but limited
• True solution: a layered system combining
• better models
• grounding mechanisms
• verification processes
• human oversight

Interesting concept is that AI is not rewarded for honesty (or punished for errors) and the models don't know when to say "I don't know".  

And as to whether Accenture stock will recover from all this pessimism........  "I don't know"

For Give - Fore Gift

 "The mind repeats what the heart can't delete" was the comment of B.S. this morning in our beginning study of "Choosing Forgiveness" by Fr. Thomas Berg and Dr. Timothy Lock.  A.S. did a great job of facilitating and mentioned another book that would be worthy of reading "Forgive Everyone Everything" by Greg Boyle.

Our Wed. 7:15BC group will explore the "bondage of unforgiveness" and "the pathway to healing, peace, and interior freedom. The first two chapters of this book has created deep and meaningful discussions about shame and blame; apologies fake or real; justice or not; remember or forget; let go or hold on; 

My insight was around the "gray areas of truth".  In many hurting circumstances --- There is my story, There is your story and then There is the real (true) story.  Especially those difficult spousal interactions with stressful emotional interactions that seem stuck in a dead end. How to get "unstuck"? That's the toughest part of forgiveness. Who goes first?

Maybe the act of going first is practicing God's gift of grace.   It takes a fore gift to forgive.

DYI Tax Downsides

 Woke up this morning at 4:20am with inability to get back to sleep.  I'm usually a sound sleeper so I wondered why as I lay awake.  

It was the conversation with A.C. last night over dinner.  I was talking about the character (or learned behavior) of audit reconciliation and that the "new Garen" can let go of things like a tax refund computed by the government that is different from my expectation and what I filed.  Both Ohio and Federal Tax Refunds were "slightly off". A.C. at age 92 said he still can't do that ..... and as my mentor and teacher it sunk in.... I can't really do that either.

Susan as an accomplished accountant has no problem with the concept of materiality and practical time allocation on reconciliation (when it is needed and when it is not).   She would not have given this marginal difference a second thought regardless of whether in our favor or not.

BUT... the complete training I received at Arthur Andersen/Andersen Consulting/Accenture in system test results and 10 column accounting totals kicked in again - this time at 4:20 am.  

After 4 hours of digging and finding letters from IRS and State of Ohio the difference could was reconciled.  The government calculation was correct!  A $49 difference was accounted for.  My mind could now be at peace.

The real culprit is the fact that I just continue to DYI my own taxes. Luckily those taxes are becoming easier to understand and input into Turbo Tax but with diminishing returns of accuracy as I age.

P Cubed

 A.C. drove down from Michigan to attend the Accenture Alumni Partner Lunch now traditionally at Trios.  A.C. was actually the genesis of the tradition back in 2001 when he suggested (or maybe assigne me) that we all meet monthly for lunch now that we were all ex Partners.  It was just another example of how A.C. focused on people and culture which is likely why the Cincinnati Alumni get together every year on the Thursday following Thanksgiving for an Alumni Reunion.

With two Partners now gone (B.W. and J.R.) we had the usual P.G. G.M P.E. K,D. and myself to reminise about the early days of Accenture and to compare and contrast the cultures of the Cincinnati Office vs Columbus and Cleveland (the days of the All Ohio Practice).  

Coincidentally, my suggested next topic for the Vistage Alumi meeting this Thursday is mentors in our lives and clearly A.C. was instrumental mentor to me.   

I have many many A.C. stories and pearls  of wisdom and have blogged about them before -  B players, On the Backs of "Bs" , Bad News Ages Fast , Silent Lie , If Only I Had ...  .  But today his 92 years of wisdom had not ceased.  A.C. mentioned when he talks to high school classes, he stresses "P cubed" - Priorities, Passion and People. 

That pearl of wisdom is easy to remember, but harder to practice.  

Thank you A.C. for putting the "P cubed" into me!