The History of Daddy Claxton

It’s over.  Goodbye 2010.

For me, as you’ve seen from the previous six posts, it’s been a year of great upheaval in my life.  There have been more dark times and valleys in this past year–maybe to outshine all the others combined.  Ones I am convinced I’ve passed through for a reason, but also have regained the determination to put them very much behind me.

From a life of abundance to a life of barely what I need

God has led me through a rough time.  I’m convinced with each breathe of air I take, consciously or not, that God has put me on a mission and 2010 was only conditioning to get me ready for some new and incredible adventures that only he could prescribe.  At the beginning of the year, and certainly the past 18 months, I was living comfortably in life.  Sure, there were challenges, hills and valleys, rights and wrongs.  But I was managing them.  Then a dam of emotions, financial, physical and personal frustrations broke over my head.   I had people rip me off this year.  I had people try to rip my head off.   I had people rip that which I had fairly earned, paid for and worked for right out of my hands.

Away from a life of ego and folly to one of meaning and social impact.

There will be some who read this Treatise on Life in 2010  in anger and disdain.  To them: I’m glad you are so moved. That means you know down deep that what I say is true. Others shall read it and fail to comprehend it’s significance. Honestly, I do not know which is worse. My three older daughters get it.  They’re 13, 11 and 11.  Why can’t you?

I’ve labored this year to find some new truths in my life.  I’ve asked questions like, “Who says corporate social responsibility programs can’t make money?  Why do some stray so far from the core mission of the business or require so little return? Is this how you feel about the good deeds you do for others?  Why can’t they both do something that has more measurable impact than the sound of a clip book dropped on a boss’ desk in January?”

I’ve learned to quit asking God “Why” or “How much longer?” The answer is clearly because “It’s part of his plan” and “When he’s ready.”

I’ve had a life of impact and influence.  I did so because I worked hard and stuck to my principles. Even in the eighth grade at Mitchell Middle School in Atwater, California my “journalism” teacher, Mrs. Reid, gave me an F on a project: She wanted us to write a short, fictional story in journalism class and could not see the hypocrisy in such a practice.

I realized in October 2010 after compiling a list of what people used to say about me that was bold and complimentary, they weren’t saying anymore.  That was like pouring cold water over my head.

I realized that God has me on a mission, that all of the things I’d been through recently and every other moment of my life were with great purpose.  Meeting and working with Domestic Violence Survivor Veronica Galaviz has helped me see that as plain as the computer before me.  I realized that working in an agency trying to get people to remember the unmemorable was not what I needed to be doing, and was relieved the day I left trying to do so any longer.

So This Is 2011

Just think John Lennon when you read the subhead to this section.  Well, it begins in a few hours.  Already, as I’m putting away the last touches of Christmas 2010, tidying up the place from visitors over the holidays, and just doing some pre-spring cleaning.  I’m making some healthy readjustments in my life.  

I’ve created Claxton Creative, LLC.  I’m in business for myself and I’m picking up clients who, like me, are out to make a difference in this world;  Who don’t just sit around and look at the world for what it is, but rather for what it can become.

Sometimes having an outlook like that leaves one isolated and alone.  Let’s face it, few like change in their lives, and yet it is the only thing that’s actually constant in our lives.   I’m living for change.  I’m looking forward to 2011.  Even my 14-year-old daughter Chandler, when leaving here yesterday smiled and said, “Dad, go get 2011 and make it into your dreams, not someone else’s.” Well, those weren’t quite her words, but it’s what she meant.

I feel so alive going into 2011.  I’ve been beaten down and bruised by others recently, but the bandages, the hurt feelings, and the discomfort are gone.  Sure, I might slip back into a moment of grief or sadness now and then, but I know God will be there to catch me and shove me back into the good fight.  That’s what he’s been doing all year long.  It’s just taken me almost 365 days to figure it out.

Watch out 2011.  You’re going to be mine.

Related articles

• Wrapping Up 2010 (pvponline.com)
• More on Chris Beam’s New York Treatise on Libertarianism (reason.com)
• Joining the global dialogue on corporate social responsibility (theglobeandmail.com)
• Sprint Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Named to SaVoy Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America List (eon.businesswire.com)
• What is Corporate Social Responsibility? (greenanswers.com)

For as long as I can remember, I’ve found great comfort in the thought that indeed, everything happens for a reason.  My maternal grandmother really felt that way and it’s been passed through her on to me and hopefully, down to my girls.   But there have been events in 2010 that wouldn’t have been possible without what has happened before, and not just in my life, but in lives I’ve brushed up against as well.

Everything Happens For A Reason

Within a month of moving out of my house on March 25, 2010, after going through my own living hell I met Veronica Galaviz.  She had obtained a protective order from the Family Law courts of Dallas County, Texas in Nov. 2009.  Her judge took action along the lines of actually applying the law and the consideration of evidence and issued a protective order restraining her estranged husband from contact with her.

Veronica made multiple attempts to notify her local police department that her estranged husband was in violation of the order.  Citing lack of evidence, and thereby, lack of probable cause to make an arrest, the local police literally did nothing.

On the night of April 21, the estranged husband broke into her home at 1:30 a.m. and tried to kill her with a shotgun.  A male friend, (not romantically involved) was spending the night in the guest room and was able to engage the man and allow Veronica to escape her home to call the police at a neighbors.  The friend wound up losing a thumb via a gunshot before also escaping.  When both were out of the house, the estranged husband set the house on fire and then turned the weapon on himself.

Six days later, through the request of my own divorce attorney who knew of my public relations background, Veronica and Julie Lucio were holding a news conference to talk about how after multiple reports of protective order violations, the local police had failed in their mission to serve and protect.  Again, I scared up the media and that night on local TV news here in Dallas, Veronica garnered a total of 35 minutes of airtime in one evening.

Knowing she had a story to tell, I kept in touch with Veronica, and we began meeting every couple of weeks at a North Dallas Starbucks to talk about her healing and to talk about what might be her next steps.

In the resulting weeks, I presented a media plan to her. It made her flinch. She wasn’t ready.  But we kept on meeting and through discussions, through my 20-plus years in public relations, web experience and social media work, we came up with a name for her organization: LivingToServe.org.  The name made perfect sense.  And she feels the essence of the name every minute of the day.  Veronica Galaviz remains alive today so she can help others in domestic violence situations and raise awareness about how something needs to be done.  Indeed, she is living to share.

2010 Almost Over

For me, the LivingT0Share.org project has become something of a calling as well.  I don’t make heaps of money from that project; money really isn’t the issue any longer.  Sure, I need money to help cover my bills and living expenses, but God has taught me in 2010 to re-evaluate my priorities; he’s shown me that I was living life a little too comfortably, and more importantly, he needed to put me back into the game.  In the past couple of weeks, since we really began the resurgence in the media, Veronica now has been invited to speak to two different law enforcement agencies in North Texas.  They want her to speak to police officers about domestic violence from the viewpoint of a survivor.  They want her to possibly open the eyes a little of law enforcement so that their greatest priority on a DV call isn’t to hurry up and settle it and to get back in service (10-8), but understand, they’re possibly dealing with life and death.  At least one TV station in DFW has recognized her as someone to call when a domestic violence attack happens.  There are going to be more.

At the beginning of 2010 I was on a completely different path.  I had the house of my dreams to live in.  I had a wife, her four kids and my three.  I had the sweetest dog ever, Molly, a Great Pyrenees that was given away within two days of my moving out. (I never even got a chance to say goodbye.)  I had a decent job, making decent money–even though most of that was being taken away through deceit and lies in our criminal “justice” family courts system.  My job was trying to raise awareness for a corporate social responsibility program; one I had come to some careful conclusions about, and one which with the work I’m now doing with Veronica and some of my other clients, are having a much greater impact than what I was doing with almost no budget.

I was barely keeping my head above water, but I’d been pulled under by the undertow at least two times.

Dec. 31, 2010

Today is the last day of 2010.  (I couldn’t get to writing this yesterday as planned.) I’m doing all I can today to put away 2010.  I’ve been hearing Jumper by Third Eye Blind in my head all morning.  No, I’m not out on a ledge, but I’m definitely seeking to “Put the past away … put away all the lies that (you)-I’ve been living in….”

Christmas has almost been put away for 2011.  The girls have returned to their mum’s and while the sounds of Disney Channel teen/tween programming has been replaced with the ticks and tocks of my many clocks, things are good.  In fact, they’re better than they were 365 days ago.  For for all the valleys and trials I’ve faced this year, I’ve returned to the deep understanding with God that what I suffered and endured this year wasn’t for naught.  He had a reason for it, and there are many more ahead of me.

And now, Third Eye Blind….. And possibly the best guitar riff solo EVER!

Related articles

• Arlington officer shot to death while trying to protect child (chron.com)
• Nashville Police Turn Blind Eye to Domestic Abusers on the Force (womensrights.change.org)
• National Increase in Domestic Violence Spurs the Mary Kay Foundationsm to Donate $3 Million to Shelters (eon.businesswire.com)
• Domestic Violence Victims Should Be Aware Of Protections Offered By Texas Law, Austin Family Lawyer Says (prweb.com)

As I said yesterday, I’m in the middle of a massive retooling on my brands and in building my new business, Claxton Creative, LLC.

Our focus is on Public Relations–but not Old School PR.

I’ve been able to assemble a great team of partners who you will learn more about over time.  But we’re all focused on three main objectives:  Social Impact, Innovation and Invention.

We are equipped and designed to handle PR projects for School Districts, Businesses, Domestic and International Brands, Bloggers and are working to build a series of partnerships to create what the Harvard Business Review recently called Hybrid Value Chains.

There are entrepreneurs we’re making contact with who are in emerging markets around the globe.  They’re looking to build positive relationships with well-established businesses who also are willing to link with citizen-sector organizations to find innovative and inventive solutions that will have an impact in these emerging markets, but also around the world.

And that’s exciting and we are poised, ready, and already on the cutting-edge of this new and expanding network of real change.

So, please, check out the new site, and don’t get too discouraged if you dig very deep and don’t get far yet.  I promise, the content, the philosophy and the tools to help you and your company get involved in this never-before-available opportunity are just around the corner.  Give me a call, DM me or shoot me an email.  Let’s talk about how we can build a new HVC that has social impact, innovation and invention all wrapped into one huge revenue stream.

Here you go fokes.  I caught it just before it got too big for my lens.  I wish I could have had a little more time to play around with apertures and shutter speeds.   This was shot at 10 seconds, F/10 with an 18 mm lens. Anyone else get a shot?  You can learn more about Moon Rings here.

I have had two clients in the past few weeks that wanted bulk print orders and the printing for framing, memorabilia, etc. was a new side of the house for me.  I’ve got some 40,000 RAW photo files in Aperture 2 (yeah, when I get a new Mac, I’ll get Aperture 3) now on this wonderful Mac of mine, but most of the time, I’ve either posted them on the Web on the Flickr account, Facebook, or Twitpic.

But these prints were serious stuff.  One was softball team photos and “buddy” prints with 8x10s, 5x7s, wallets, and then I had an opportunity to shoot my city council members for 8x10s and one 11×14.  In other words, these prints had to be high quality and they had to be right.

I’ve yet to figure out why my RAW files on the Nikon D-40 seemed to fluctuate in size.  I also had a few issues with making the photos printable to 8 x10 without cutting off too much of the person in it.   More on that in another post.

But I got out my Scott Kelby seminar workbook and then his all things considered book, Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers, and really picked up some great tips, like upping the resolution for 8×10 pics to 360 and then setting the Bicubic SHARPER (best for reduction) settings away from the Bicubic setting in the Image Size dialogue box.   Apparently, these two changes made a significant difference in the prints.

MPIX, WALMART, TARGET and WALGREENS

I’d been trying to do my prints through Walmart’s online photo booth.  I had even gotten to the credit card ordering section, but then a snag popped up between using my Chase Debit/Credit Card and their Visa Verify system. After even calling Chase and getting the password verified and even reset, the system for Walmart locked up and it said my credit card would never work on ordering on their site again.  Can you say LOST SALE?

I then checked out Target’s site.  And then  Walgreens.  Guess what?  The ordering mechanism is the same for all three sites.  What’s different, is their pricing, and if I recall correctly, Target gave a few more options on photo sizes.

But then last Saturday, in my weekly hour chat, actually, it was 2.5 hours this past weekend, with Ron Rose, my mentor from Fort Worth who you can find at RonsFaithNotes.com, he, too, a photographer, suggested I use MPIX.

And so, the rest of my day Saturday I began the ordering process.  It was easy to set up an account.  And there was no Visa Verify mess.  The prints were ordered.  The platform also made it easy to ensure that all the essential parts were going to be framed appropriately for the larger prints, and shipping, through the USPS standard rate was reasonable without adding a huge overhead cost.  On top of that, since there’s not a retail MPIX outlet here in Texas, there was no sales tax either.  So with all that, I probably came out ahead of what I would have been paying with Walmart, and for God’s sakes, I would have just handed my wallet over to Walgreens.

So, my endorsement, and I’ve not been paid a penny for it, I’d highly recommend MPIX for ordering prints.  Now the post office wouldn’t leave my boxes at the apartment’s mail center, the front office, or heaven forbid, they actually drive the 100 yards to my door, so I had to make a trip to the post office.  But everything came nicely, tightly secured in pretty, pristine white boxes, and they were double sealed, wrapped, and highly protected in the boxes, plus, I got a guarantee from Betty that she’d inspected my order to ensure it was all there.

On top of all that, each photo back has ClaxtonCreative.com printed on it so anyone who ordered the pictures knows where to contact me to get more.  (Now all I have to do is really get that site up and running!)