Paragon Steel Newsletter

By Jim Stavis

Imagine you’re on the open sea—ocean all around. No land in sight, or a horizon to see the sun. No GPS system—only a cloudy sky. This feels kind of like living in today’s economic reality. You need a compass, something to give you direction of where to head. It can be a way to return to a safe harbor or perhaps a way to explore new horizons. Either way, you need a compass, because bobbing along in the open sea like a buoy can be dangerous and won’t get you anywhere. There are no traffic signs on the high seas.

Unfortunately, I do not possess the answer to this riddle. If I did, I might be president or something even better, but what I think is important is to find your inner compass and start moving in a direction. For the past year or so, many people and businesses have been so alarmed of what has been going on in the world that paralysis has set in. It has immobilized so many who have watched their 401Ks disappear, their jobs threatened, their friends losing their homes, etc. They fear what is next. It is only natural. And yet, they wait and hope that we have hit the bottom. When will the coast be clear? When will the good times return? Does anyone really know?

In my view, we all have the ability to bring control back into our lives, but we need to locate that darn compass. We need to find our way and stop bobbing along the open sea. It may require some hard choices. It may require lifestyle changes, cutting back on spending or perhaps finding a new career. No one ever said it would be easy. It usually isn’t. Start today.

The Compass and Its Relation to Steel

Somehow it always comes back to steel. The compass has been around since the 2nd century. It showed up in ancient China, India and Arabia and later in Europe. It was the Europeans in the 12th century who used it for navigational purposes when they explored the earth. Before that, you could only travel as far as you could see a landmass. And that was not very far. Anyway, the first compass was created out of necessity. How could you go anywhere if you didn’t know that you would find your way back? It was that simple. It was discovered that the earth had a natural magnetic field. It was also learned that there was a type of rock that contained a high level of iron within it that other objects were attracted to. This rock was called lodestone. These were essentially the first magnets where two objects with a high concentration of metal were drawn towards one another. The iron in these rocks would eventually be the iron ore that steel is made from today. It was also found that the earth’s core is composed of this iron-rich composed rock. This created the magnetic fields in our environment on planet earth.

So the compass was created, whereby a device with a magnetized metal tip on a pivot would be drawn towards the magnetic field and point due north. The other directional indicators flowed from there. It sounds simple today, but there were many ideas about nature that the ancient people had to figure out. Today, a compass is used in astronomy, mining, aeronautics and for many other navigational purposes.

THE METAL ROD

One day a young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his sexy sports car. He was watching for kids as he flew down the narrow street. As his car passed, no children appeared but a metal rod suddenly flew across the street and into the windshield of his car. He slammed on the brakes and backed up the car to where the metal rod had appeared. The angry driver found the nearest kid, pushed him up against the car and said, “What the hell is wrong with you? That’s a new car and this is going to cost a lot of money to repair. Why did you do it?”

The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do. I threw the rod because no one would stop…” With tears pouring down his face, the boy pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It’s my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb, and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Now sobbing, the boy asked the man, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and is too heavy for me to lift.”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He quickly lifted the handicapped boy back into his wheelchair, then took out a handkerchief and dabbed at the boy’s cuts and bruises. A quick look told him that everything was going to be okay. The boy smiled, said thank you and pushed his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk. The driver returned to his car and assessed the damage. It wasn’t as bad as he first had thought and he kept the metal rod as a reminder of what had happened.

The morale of the story is “Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a metal rod at you to get your attention!” God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, he has to throw a metal rod at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH