I don’t know where I’ve been, but I’d never heard of Will Campbell or Brother to a Dragonfly. What a book! My mind was making little explosions as I read through the pages of this memoir about two brothers, the South, and racism. The telling of it touched me deeply. What I take away from it now is different than what I would have taken away as a younger person–and times have changed. We go through evolutions in our lives, and we come to see things differently than we once did. Will Campbell, as well, learns and sorts as he goes. The imagery is powerful and the message is powerful. The book’s two threads, interwoven to the end, captivated me: the brothers and their somewhat painful but loyal and loving relationship, and the preacher who is the man for the job as he carries the race burden for the marginalized and strives to use his life to awaken the country to its ignorance and injustice.

Campbell’s total conversion, after twenty years of preaching, is worth reading. He is asked which one of two men does God love most, a man who was recently murdered? Or the person who murdered him? Campbell struggles to answer. Moments later he has an epiphany. “Suddenly everything became clear. Everything. It was a revelation. The glow of the malt which we were well into by then seemed to illuminate and intensify it. I walked across the room and opened the blind, staring directly into the glare of the street light. And I began to whimper. But the crying was interspersed with laughter. It was a strange experience. . .”

Campbell sees his own wrong thinking even in his acts of well-doing. This leads him in a new direction which is soon to be misunderstood by others. To fully understand the choices Campbell makes, one has to appreciate his mainspring, his faith. In Brother to a Dragonfly the reader is presented with white-washed social injustice. Our own values and, quite possibly, our beliefs about others are up for reconsideration. Will’s brother is troubled, which adds another dimension to this retelling of how it was for a brother and a dragonfly. This poignant tale is for the person who wants to be stretched. It is a fascinating read.

A PURPLE cow stands out no matter how you look at it. Now that is being remarkable. The challenge in today’s overcrowded marketplace is to become VISIBLE rather than to remain invisible in a market with a multiplicity of similar items from which to choose. To become remarkable means the business or entrepreneur must do something which is, in some way, well, remarkable. The product the business or entrepreneur offers to the world must be packaged through an inventive strategy designed to set their product out in the forefront ahead of the competition. According to Godin, purple cow innovation is more than cutting edge. It’s more than mass advertising. It’s more than a recognizable household name. It’s more than tried and true. Instead. It. Is. Original.

Purple cow is offering an item in a remarkable, new way. It’s unusual. It’s consistent. It’s fun! It’s something-you-must-have because it meets a need and is also dependable. Although having a good idea or a useful product is great, most likely in today’s market that is not enough without the purple cow. The product will remain invisible to the buyer and relatively unknown to the masses. This means that businesses must leverage risk by developing something remarkable in order to become visible. For writers, like me, this is important. What good is a writing that is never noticed and never read? Word of mouth matters too.

I read Purple Cow because another author remarked that it changed his outlook and in the process changed his life. I guess what purple cow thinking says is this, what boring is to marketing, conducting business-as-usual is to stale and stagnate–and that is, well, unremarkable. Why not be remarkable instead?