Generally speaking I’m a pretty easy going dude…at least from outward appearances. I get along just fine in public. Make friends fairly easily and overall play very well with others. I enjoy a good conversation and like small talk as much as the average guy on the street. I would say that my patience is good, for the most part, and that I am very capable of tolerating a pretty high level of stress…
This being said; I think I might be ready to go postal...Go ballistic. Go rogue.
As Popeye put it so eloquently… ”I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”
People are getting to me. They are getting under my skin and inside my head. They seem to be coming out of the woodwork just to pull out in front of me and then step on the brakes.
Is it me…or has someone turned the volume up on ignorance, short-sightedness, negativity and closed mindedness.
Sure, they aren’t known by those names when they're out on the town, in street clothes.
They come dressed up in tweed jackets with labels like conventional, traditional, cautious, and conservative.
They come with a side of “that’s not the way we do things around here” or “we tried that back in ’83 and it didn’t work, why would we try that again?”
They usually travel in groups, because their attitude is viral. Contagious. Easy to catch and hard to get rid of.
They are the voices from the right of the room that always have to bring up past failures.
Past struggles and missed marks are the center of attention for them, not present successes and certainly not the future. They're obsessive about clinging to the downside of any news and the naysayers of any potential changes, positive or not.
Real change is their underlying fear, though I rarely hear them admit it.
Now, don’t read into this that I am a liberal rebel nutcase who wants everything turned upside down just to have something new to view. Though I have been known to look at the “what ifs” and “why nots” more often than the “why bothers” in life, I am not a card-carrying Democrat (or Republican for that matter) or a sign wielding protestor. At least not yet.
I do believe that the future belongs to those who have learned (and it is a learned skill) to embrace progress and change…I also believe in the value of positive changes made by those who were the entrepreneurs and pioneers of yesterday. In other words, just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s broken.
But if it IS broken, whether old, new or otherwise…don’t expect me not to try and fix it. That's what I do. Don't show me something dirty unless you want something shiny there when next you look.
What I will not do however, is sit by and let the curmudgeons complain about all of the “radical” new ideas out there today and tell me how “terribly liberal” our society has become, simply because they have failed to pick up their feet and move along with those of us moving forward. If you are going to get off the rollercoaster, that's fine, but don't scream at me from the ground while I'm in the middle of a triple loop about how I am going too fast and how you prefer to keep both feet on the ground.
Someone has to keep this world moving, growing and evolving and it's usually those of us who are pulling the weight, pushing the load…and it seems to be done lately with the naysayers sitting on top telling us to slow down.
I love the fall. Autumn. The smell of the leaves and of the fireplaces fired up for the first time…the apple cider and the crisp morning air. The football games and hay rides and sweaters and pumpkins. It’s one of my favorite things about Northeast Ohio.
Fall is a great reminder that change is a wonderful thing. Transition is a natural and necessary part of life. Summer was great with the hot days and poolside conversations. Margaritas and laughing kids running through the sprinkler on a Tuesday afternoon. But every good thing must end and there is wonder to be found in the time in between. Yes…it does mean that winter is on the way. Yes…it does mean that soon the grill will be packed away and the gas bill will reach triple digits…but not just yet. The fall is a golden yellow, orange and red reminder that we can’t be in such a big hurry to rush into the next chapter. There is an almost otherworldly beauty in this momentary redecoration of the landscape. Time seems to slow for just a moment and things just feel good.
Of course this whole peaceful warm fuzzy feeling is derailed when you are dealing with a house full of whiny, sneezy, snotty, fevery, coughing, wheezing sick kids…
But it is a great time nonetheless…
Happy fall…
What is it about some friendships that just never seem to get stale? While some friendships, regardless of their longevity, seem to need constant care and grooming, these old friends see you as the same person they knew when the friendship was young and vibrant.
My wife and I just recently had a fantastic dinner with some friends whom we have not seen in almost a year. Prior to that it had been nearly two years...and yet they were as familiar, as close and as comfortable as in the years we spent in close proximity. Was it the experiences we shared when the friendship was young? Is it the common interests or ties we share? I don't know what it is but it is undeniable, some friendships just have staying power. Some friendships can span a lifetime, with such minimal effort that you run the risk of taking them for granted, but please don't make that huge mistake. They are like the tent stakes that keep all four corners on the ground when the storm hits. You may not notice the tent stakes when the weather is calm, but you sure would if they weren't there when the winds came.
Good friends don't need constant grooming. They don't need "dressed up" for and they don't expect to always see you at your best (although they do bring out the best in you). They make you instantly feel like yourself, even after months of forgetting who you really are. They believe your crazy stories and more important, they believe in you.
Even more impressive, these friends make you want to reciprocate all of these things to them, thus making you a better person and friend in return.
I have thousands of acquaintances in my life; I have hundreds of friends and dozens of good friends and just a few really good friends. Those few know who they are. Some are new to my life; some have been in my life for years, some decades. All are loved.
Life is too short to live without them.
A year is too long to go between seeing them.
