Category: Observations

Music has the power to capture, amplify and commemorate our highest emotions. Life’s most joyous moments are memorialized in song. Music uniquely expresses the feelings of jubilation after having won a victory or mastering a difficulty.

Many know this experience from the playing of school songs following a victorious sports contest. Marching band music honors parades of returning heroes. Even a song from a Broadway musical (Oh What a Beautiful Morning) can celebrate an important life event.

Celebrating a Political Exodus

When the British Empire was at its height, music was part of the national euphoria. One of my favorite examples of this victorious spirit is Handel’s oratorio, Israel In Egypt.

The oratorio is the story of the Hebrew’s flight from Egypt. The music paints multiple word pictures of the plagues and the drama of the fleeing slaves pursued by the Egyptian army.

The work is mostly for a double chorus with few solo arias. It is a joy to sing because of its musical exuberance embracing many emotional moods. And fast tempos.

The peak moment is the finale, “The Lord Shall Reign For Ever And Ever.” It reprises Miriam’s Song and the Song of the Sea. After the sea is parted and the Israelites are safe from the pursuing Egyptians, Moses and the children of Israel praise God for having saved them:

Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song unto to the Lord, and they said: I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed, O triumphed; horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea . . . 

For an expression of sheer exuberance, listen and watch this six-minute excerpt. Even the musicians are dancing! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0nMXunT3A4)

After seeing yesterday’s political cartoon, one reader suggested this modification.

A colleague sent me this report from the IBM Institute of Business: “COVID-19 and Future Trending Insights”

It summaries five ‘epiphanies’ from multiple surveys of leading executives.

“Our research suggests five key discoveries for the post-pandemic business landscape offering new perspectives on digital transformation, the future of work, transparency, and sustainability. Together, they provide a playbook for proactive leaders who understand that old ways of working are gone.”

My take away for credit unions

The fourth epiphany is the one that could be most relevant to coops.

“Epiphany 4: Some will win. Some will lose. But few will do it alone.”

The conclusion on page 6 reads:

“Within sectors, expectations are growing that broader reach will help define winners. Our data also point to greater reliance on platform business models and partner networks, with 70 percent of executives planning significant partnering activity inside their industry and 57 percent looking outside. Either way, they expect such participation to grow more than 300 percent over the next two years compared to two years ago.”

The graph illustrating this executive intent is headed as follows:

“Businesses are partnering up

Executives say they plan to participate in platforms, ecosystems and partner networks significantly more in the future than before or during COVID-19.”

The strategic question for credit unions: Who are the “partner networks” that are critical to your future?

One CEO phrases the challenge this way: “As we face the future, you cannot make the mistake of dreaming about going it alone as the next step. The next step is always best served by your faith to go at the edge through collaboration.”

Our Covid pandemic has generated a number of comments about how serious this is versus the seasonal return of flu.

As America’s pandemic deaths exceed 225,000, hopefully the chart below puts our current challenge in the proper perspective;

Also, make sure you get this year’s flu shot! We already have a vaccine for this virus.

“To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“Our movement does not exist because it was created from the top down. Rather, it was created from the bottom up . . . We did not tell Congress we wanted to be “safe and sound” institutions. We always knew that if we were lending to our members there was risk involved. Serving came first; safety and soundness was a means to the end of serving.”

– Ed Callahan, May 1999

The Long View

“When troubled times come, and surely they will sooner or later, you cannot make knee-jerk decisions. The latest economic projections for the next six months are not a good source of strategy. Instead, you must hold a vision and strive to achieve it.”

– Ed Callahan