Showing posts with label boomers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boomers. Show all posts
6/2/17
9/21/13
Pet Sounds 1966
Calm before the storm...
Before the Summer of Love,
the Monterey Pop Festival,
the Chicago Democratic Convention
race riots and assassinations,
Altamont...
There were the Beach Boys,
Pet Sounds, 1966.
2/25/12
The Wonder and Advantage
Of being that man of a certain age...
Wherein I openly reflect out loud not caring what others may think.
Here I am at that point in life where it is too obvious to ignore that I've become "a man of a certain age." Fortunately it doesn't concern me much since it only jars me into recognition for rare brief periods such as the past few weeks where for the first time in five years I've had some minor physical problems. Although the anatomical disruption is still not completely resolved for the most part it has already passed. Although not definitively diagnosed it's fairly certain that it is the variety that comes with approaching the sixth decade of living and nothing serious or long term. My sense is that due to taking generally pretty good care of myself my entire life things will occur that can be coped with. It's a simple welcome to advancing in life when body parts occasionally annoyingly twist mildly while wonderfully most mental stress and worries uncurl into a lack of concern over them.
Somehow I seem to have escaped a lot of the psychological and mental matters that plague a lot of boomers hitting this mark in life. Frankly I think a lot of those are a result of decisions people consciously and fully made among our panoply of choices and some of them have brought consequences. My hope is younger people observe this and avoid the pitfalls and choose the better options among those of us still around. One great advantage of arriving at this point relatively intact is not really caring too much what others think. A lot of things I once worried about in the social realm no longer cross my mind and I have a definite comfort with myself that didn't arrive until over a decade or so ago. There is also the wonder of wisdom and the sense of being at certain places before and knowing how to deal with them.
This photograph of a wizened tree stump among broken rocks and boulders of ages surrounded by wild flowers reminds me of how grand aging can be. It is not hollow but still full of space to be filled with all sorts of knowledge, emotion and enlightenment. It symbolizes being surrounded by both the known friends who are solid as rocks, as well as the beauty of new blooms of young people and ideas among dead thistles that will revive in season to keep the years full as they go by.
Wherein I openly reflect out loud not caring what others may think.
Here I am at that point in life where it is too obvious to ignore that I've become "a man of a certain age." Fortunately it doesn't concern me much since it only jars me into recognition for rare brief periods such as the past few weeks where for the first time in five years I've had some minor physical problems. Although the anatomical disruption is still not completely resolved for the most part it has already passed. Although not definitively diagnosed it's fairly certain that it is the variety that comes with approaching the sixth decade of living and nothing serious or long term. My sense is that due to taking generally pretty good care of myself my entire life things will occur that can be coped with. It's a simple welcome to advancing in life when body parts occasionally annoyingly twist mildly while wonderfully most mental stress and worries uncurl into a lack of concern over them.
Somehow I seem to have escaped a lot of the psychological and mental matters that plague a lot of boomers hitting this mark in life. Frankly I think a lot of those are a result of decisions people consciously and fully made among our panoply of choices and some of them have brought consequences. My hope is younger people observe this and avoid the pitfalls and choose the better options among those of us still around. One great advantage of arriving at this point relatively intact is not really caring too much what others think. A lot of things I once worried about in the social realm no longer cross my mind and I have a definite comfort with myself that didn't arrive until over a decade or so ago. There is also the wonder of wisdom and the sense of being at certain places before and knowing how to deal with them.
This photograph of a wizened tree stump among broken rocks and boulders of ages surrounded by wild flowers reminds me of how grand aging can be. It is not hollow but still full of space to be filled with all sorts of knowledge, emotion and enlightenment. It symbolizes being surrounded by both the known friends who are solid as rocks, as well as the beauty of new blooms of young people and ideas among dead thistles that will revive in season to keep the years full as they go by.
9/8/11
Alien Among Countrymen
Who ARE these people anyway?...
Most people who know me in person, online or read my blog know I grew up on Bermuda around Britains and Americans. My mother is British and my father was American and he and my aunt made a point of teaching us American speech and culture since they knew that by high school we would be in the U.S. It prepared us somewhat but it was fragments of American culture. Additionally the Americans we knew on the island tended to be highly educated and associated mostly with oceanic research or NASA.
When my cousin, my sister and I arrived in this country we could easily fool most people but we still had to work at being assimilated and "Americanized." There were many gaps in our knowledge, the rituals of high school such as American football, pep rallies, yearbooks, homecoming, graduation ceremonies. Since we were kids it didn't take long to fit in and adopt and adapt to the culture. I went on obliviously for decades thinking I was thoroughly American but in recent years I realize that a lot of what I thought of America was actually is what this country once was. My father, aunt and uncle were from a previous generation, one of "spend and invest" while there was disquiet within me about my generation of boomers who I now recognize as "borrow and spend" consumers. It was the previous generations America that I had been coached and raised on.
Sometimes I feel like an immigrant to a country I don't understand.
My uneasiness really started bubbling beneath the surface when in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001 I was bothered that after the tributes, the songs had stopped playing on the radio, people then went on the biggest borrowing and spending spree that I could have imagined. I was breathing from a straw air from above the surface and didn't fully comprehend why I felt the way I did. I was asking myself "Who ARE these people? They aren't what I thought they were."
Since the economic crisis began in 2007-2008 I began to slowly understand. Many of my friends, natural born Americans, felt a similar disquietude and many hours of discussion revolved around feeling out of place. Recently Mike, writer of the blog rockandconfusion, made a comment that I instantly recognized: "Sometimes I feel like an immigrant to a country I don't understand." It was a relief to be able to put a phrase to what was really bothering me and it came from a red-blooded, born in the USA, natural born American in the heartland. Ah ha!
This sense of being an alien among countrymen has nothing to do with not being born here or that I went to British schools until I was in high school. It is about values of worth, chroma of beliefs and position in the spectrum of what life is about and it's deeper meaning. It has nothing to do with whether I was trained how to appear American. It revolves around the core merits of the American Way that most of my generation strayed from to their detriment. There is no question now who these people are nor even why they have become the way they have because it no longer matters.
What is relevant is that many people feel the same sense of discomfort about how many people in this country have become. The good part is there are still more than enough people who have the values of previous generations to be able to pick up the pieces and put the country back again no matter how long it takes. That is the true America that has never totally disappeared but lays just beneath the surface waiting to break through for fresh air and rebirth.
Most people who know me in person, online or read my blog know I grew up on Bermuda around Britains and Americans. My mother is British and my father was American and he and my aunt made a point of teaching us American speech and culture since they knew that by high school we would be in the U.S. It prepared us somewhat but it was fragments of American culture. Additionally the Americans we knew on the island tended to be highly educated and associated mostly with oceanic research or NASA.
When my cousin, my sister and I arrived in this country we could easily fool most people but we still had to work at being assimilated and "Americanized." There were many gaps in our knowledge, the rituals of high school such as American football, pep rallies, yearbooks, homecoming, graduation ceremonies. Since we were kids it didn't take long to fit in and adopt and adapt to the culture. I went on obliviously for decades thinking I was thoroughly American but in recent years I realize that a lot of what I thought of America was actually is what this country once was. My father, aunt and uncle were from a previous generation, one of "spend and invest" while there was disquiet within me about my generation of boomers who I now recognize as "borrow and spend" consumers. It was the previous generations America that I had been coached and raised on.
Sometimes I feel like an immigrant to a country I don't understand.
Since the economic crisis began in 2007-2008 I began to slowly understand. Many of my friends, natural born Americans, felt a similar disquietude and many hours of discussion revolved around feeling out of place. Recently Mike, writer of the blog rockandconfusion, made a comment that I instantly recognized: "Sometimes I feel like an immigrant to a country I don't understand." It was a relief to be able to put a phrase to what was really bothering me and it came from a red-blooded, born in the USA, natural born American in the heartland. Ah ha!
What is relevant is that many people feel the same sense of discomfort about how many people in this country have become. The good part is there are still more than enough people who have the values of previous generations to be able to pick up the pieces and put the country back again no matter how long it takes. That is the true America that has never totally disappeared but lays just beneath the surface waiting to break through for fresh air and rebirth.
8/22/11
A Man and His Hog
He Rides Alone...
Americans like to characterize people and put them in categories of what they think they are and how they will act. If they don't think of bikers as having a bad reputation at the minimum they believe they're on the fringe of society. There are outlaw riders, motorcycle club riders, boomers out for the thrill of it, Harley riders, Kawasaki crotch rocket riders, people who ride them because they like to or it's their only means of transportation. Mostly my experience has been a lot of bikers who look scary to others are pretty much regular people. They choose to live life differently, out of the mainstream culture, just as a lot of people do who do not fit in.
There are many people who do not fit into everyday society nor do they want to. You can make of them what you want but they are integral to what America is really about. You don't have to conform if you don't want to although there are a lot of people who will argue that you do. In the sixties and seventies the common quip about those who had long hair and wore jeans and boots were not noncomformists at all but actually conforming to a different norm. They missed the point. They were refusing to follow the standard rules of society, go to school, wear the usual clothes, get a regular job, get married and have kids.
Zen and the Art of Maintaining Individuality.
Some of us held on to an independent life for awhile and then tried the norm. In the vernacular: "Hated It!" It didn't take many of us long to realize that we would never fit in no matter what we tried. It's in the head, the personality type, the thinking brain and there's no changing it, so why fight it? I decided a long time ago that I was not cut out for a "career" and that I didn't need the stress or hassle not only of trying to meet the compliance a corporation demanded of me but that it also required me to work even harder at fitting ino being somebody I wasn't.
Far, far easier to be comfortable with myself, be who I am naturally with people that accept me for what I am and in turn I accept them for what they are. My friends and acquaintances run the gamut. I have friends in their seventies who are livelier than people who are in their forties. There are retailers in their twenties who are the best conversationalists I know and much more interesting than talking with lawyers I've worked with. I'm familiar with an architect who is the dullest person with a small imagination. On the other side of the coin is the handyman that does work around here and is probably one of the smartest guys I know, not just in craft work, but also in worldly topics.
Make your own noise. If you're happy being an accountant I'm happy for you, all I ask is that you be accepting of the rest of us who don't want to do that. If you want to travel cross-country in an RV go for it. What we all should remember is that America was built on people who were different and that is why they left where they were and came here. Don't characterize anyone who doesn't conform to what are considered societal norms because the most creative ideas and innovative products usually emerge from those that others consider unconventional. What is not in the mainstream culture very often later becomes accepted as the norm. Then the cycle begins again.
Americans like to characterize people and put them in categories of what they think they are and how they will act. If they don't think of bikers as having a bad reputation at the minimum they believe they're on the fringe of society. There are outlaw riders, motorcycle club riders, boomers out for the thrill of it, Harley riders, Kawasaki crotch rocket riders, people who ride them because they like to or it's their only means of transportation. Mostly my experience has been a lot of bikers who look scary to others are pretty much regular people. They choose to live life differently, out of the mainstream culture, just as a lot of people do who do not fit in.
There are many people who do not fit into everyday society nor do they want to. You can make of them what you want but they are integral to what America is really about. You don't have to conform if you don't want to although there are a lot of people who will argue that you do. In the sixties and seventies the common quip about those who had long hair and wore jeans and boots were not noncomformists at all but actually conforming to a different norm. They missed the point. They were refusing to follow the standard rules of society, go to school, wear the usual clothes, get a regular job, get married and have kids.
Zen and the Art of Maintaining Individuality.
Far, far easier to be comfortable with myself, be who I am naturally with people that accept me for what I am and in turn I accept them for what they are. My friends and acquaintances run the gamut. I have friends in their seventies who are livelier than people who are in their forties. There are retailers in their twenties who are the best conversationalists I know and much more interesting than talking with lawyers I've worked with. I'm familiar with an architect who is the dullest person with a small imagination. On the other side of the coin is the handyman that does work around here and is probably one of the smartest guys I know, not just in craft work, but also in worldly topics.
4/4/11
Thinking Out Loud
Being trendy is uncool...
Cool is not being in vogue and anti-cool.
The last thing anyone would call me is trendy but some do call me "cool." Even my twenty something nephews think I'm cool in whatever the vernacular of their generation is. It is an enigma to me how I obtain that assignation, especially since I write phrases like that...
All I can think is that I am called that by some people because I am, I suppose, a classic kind of guy. That is, in several ways, at least. I tend to stick to things that are timeless and "classic" while still always being open to new things. They often become classic. I adopt things a lot of my boomer generation doesn't, such as I'm pretty decent at computer stuff, smartphones, video editing and creating a website blog content. I suppose classic could also mean I'm pretty old for hip stuff even though I don't listen to Classic Rock. It was good then and occasionally good to hear it again but not all the time especially as a radio format. To me that means being stuck in time and I have never liked that, preferring to develop and grow, moving on down the road to the next stop.
Even still, I don't chase trends, know a lot of new music and follow current TV show and movies. I'm not very wired in that way. Mostly I don't seek it out but I do discover new music (to me), for instance Mumford and Sons or The Avett Brothers, through some happy connection. My basic wardrobe hasn't changed much, just updated to suit the times. Also TV has always bored me, my attention span doesn't care for most popular movies and I don't hang out at popular venues to find out what the latest and greatest stuff is. Neither do most of my friends, they must be uncool too.
My conclusion is that although I know my age, I view it as a marker on how far I've come and grown, it doesn't define what I should and shouldn't do. Trendiness though really is for young people and the pretentious in New York City and Los Angeles that like vaporization. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try new things if it suits you. I am open to always learning and trying new stuff if it's interesting and makes sense to me. Maybe being cool is not following the latest new thing and tossing it aside for the next thing that comes along, but adopting what is new that is classic and worth keeping, building upon it and ignoring the rest. Uncool then becomes pursuing up-to-the-minute latest and greatest rage and cool is really being anti-cool.
Cool is not being in vogue and anti-cool.
The last thing anyone would call me is trendy but some do call me "cool." Even my twenty something nephews think I'm cool in whatever the vernacular of their generation is. It is an enigma to me how I obtain that assignation, especially since I write phrases like that...
All I can think is that I am called that by some people because I am, I suppose, a classic kind of guy. That is, in several ways, at least. I tend to stick to things that are timeless and "classic" while still always being open to new things. They often become classic. I adopt things a lot of my boomer generation doesn't, such as I'm pretty decent at computer stuff, smartphones, video editing and creating a website blog content. I suppose classic could also mean I'm pretty old for hip stuff even though I don't listen to Classic Rock. It was good then and occasionally good to hear it again but not all the time especially as a radio format. To me that means being stuck in time and I have never liked that, preferring to develop and grow, moving on down the road to the next stop.
Even still, I don't chase trends, know a lot of new music and follow current TV show and movies. I'm not very wired in that way. Mostly I don't seek it out but I do discover new music (to me), for instance Mumford and Sons or The Avett Brothers, through some happy connection. My basic wardrobe hasn't changed much, just updated to suit the times. Also TV has always bored me, my attention span doesn't care for most popular movies and I don't hang out at popular venues to find out what the latest and greatest stuff is. Neither do most of my friends, they must be uncool too.
My conclusion is that although I know my age, I view it as a marker on how far I've come and grown, it doesn't define what I should and shouldn't do. Trendiness though really is for young people and the pretentious in New York City and Los Angeles that like vaporization. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try new things if it suits you. I am open to always learning and trying new stuff if it's interesting and makes sense to me. Maybe being cool is not following the latest new thing and tossing it aside for the next thing that comes along, but adopting what is new that is classic and worth keeping, building upon it and ignoring the rest. Uncool then becomes pursuing up-to-the-minute latest and greatest rage and cool is really being anti-cool.
2/17/11
You Can Quote Me On That
r u tlkg 2 me? rly?...
"Are you talking to me? Really?"
Why, yes I am and I find your communication skills appalling.
I work for a division of a large international education company and am not surprised that they are putting out curriculum for "tweens and teens" on how to communicate in standard English. It is a sorry statement on the public school system and parents, that Americans kids that are native English speakers, have to be taught how to communicate in full sentences and paragraphs with proper grammar and spelling. Especially using a designed curriculum external to what they should already be learning at home and in school.
What I have to say about the need for this could fill volumes. I'll spare you.
What I will comment on though is the adults I know under a certain age, especially the former public school educators I work with, who engage in this dots and dashes connection with others. To them it is perfectly acceptable, although not to any of their work peers, to only correspond in cryptic text messages and instant messaging. Don't ask them to actually read an email or listen to a voice mail either. They're not at all embarrassed about telling the rest of us, when asked if they got the important email or voice mail, with information too complex to send in the contemporary telegraph of text or instant messaging..."Oh...I never read email or listen to voice mail, I just delete them."
I'm willing to accept that as their choice long as they understand that it is also my choice not to engage in discourse with them if they are unwilling to respond in an adult manner. Any complaints to me about their being "left out of the loop" on important matters falls on deaf ears. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect people who work for an educational outfit, who have at a minimum underdergraduate degrees, to be articulate and use standard English sentence structures and make sense when they communicate.
"Are you talking to me? Really?"
Why, yes I am and I find your communication skills appalling.
I work for a division of a large international education company and am not surprised that they are putting out curriculum for "tweens and teens" on how to communicate in standard English. It is a sorry statement on the public school system and parents, that Americans kids that are native English speakers, have to be taught how to communicate in full sentences and paragraphs with proper grammar and spelling. Especially using a designed curriculum external to what they should already be learning at home and in school.
What I have to say about the need for this could fill volumes. I'll spare you.
What I will comment on though is the adults I know under a certain age, especially the former public school educators I work with, who engage in this dots and dashes connection with others. To them it is perfectly acceptable, although not to any of their work peers, to only correspond in cryptic text messages and instant messaging. Don't ask them to actually read an email or listen to a voice mail either. They're not at all embarrassed about telling the rest of us, when asked if they got the important email or voice mail, with information too complex to send in the contemporary telegraph of text or instant messaging..."Oh...I never read email or listen to voice mail, I just delete them."
I'm willing to accept that as their choice long as they understand that it is also my choice not to engage in discourse with them if they are unwilling to respond in an adult manner. Any complaints to me about their being "left out of the loop" on important matters falls on deaf ears. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect people who work for an educational outfit, who have at a minimum underdergraduate degrees, to be articulate and use standard English sentence structures and make sense when they communicate.
10/12/10
Boomers
Our strengths and weaknesses...
There were so many of us because the young people, fresh out of the experience of WWII, started having children right away, creating the baby "boom." Since during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties and WWII the birth rate was low, there wasn't the infrastructure in the US or the UK to accommodate a large influx of children with the same needs. As a result, on both sides of the Atlantic, systems we're built and we had the advantage of the newest and most modern eduction, health services, food and nutrition and thanks to Dr. Spock (depending on your point of view) the most current ideas of parenting.
Everything was constructed around us, therefore we were unintentionally spoiled that way. We were told we were special and that we could do or be anything that we wanted if we tried hard enough, although that was an ideal to strive for and not the truth for everyone. These factors are the elements that are both our strengths and weaknesses. Both genders were empowered to endeavor for higher education or a better career if we wanted and as a result we made great scientific and technical advances along with social progress. We also have an over-developed sense of identity, self-worth and feel a sense of entitlement. Overall the good outweighs the bad but we should be mindful that our dominance in numbers shouldn't crowd out those older and younger than us.
There were so many of us because the young people, fresh out of the experience of WWII, started having children right away, creating the baby "boom." Since during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties and WWII the birth rate was low, there wasn't the infrastructure in the US or the UK to accommodate a large influx of children with the same needs. As a result, on both sides of the Atlantic, systems we're built and we had the advantage of the newest and most modern eduction, health services, food and nutrition and thanks to Dr. Spock (depending on your point of view) the most current ideas of parenting.
Everything was constructed around us, therefore we were unintentionally spoiled that way. We were told we were special and that we could do or be anything that we wanted if we tried hard enough, although that was an ideal to strive for and not the truth for everyone. These factors are the elements that are both our strengths and weaknesses. Both genders were empowered to endeavor for higher education or a better career if we wanted and as a result we made great scientific and technical advances along with social progress. We also have an over-developed sense of identity, self-worth and feel a sense of entitlement. Overall the good outweighs the bad but we should be mindful that our dominance in numbers shouldn't crowd out those older and younger than us.
10/9/10
Boomers
We overwhelm in sheer numbers...
In my lifetime, things seemed a whole lot more real and simpler to me before Disco and the TV show "Dallas" came out in the late seventies. After that, the rapidity with which my generation went from counter-establishment cotton wearers to tacky consumerists in polyester, alienated me for decades. Now I'm rather dumbfounded by how my generation seems stuck in a time warp. It's easy to understand why the generations in front and back of us are overwhelmed by our ubiquity.
We can be very boring, in spite of the energy spent by so many into looking and acting young, to stay "relevant." It's a delusion. We don't accept age well, yet we don't age very well because aging gracefully is just not in the repertoire. It's "buy now, pay later" coming home in a very personal way.
There are so many of us, yet I wonder what happened to a lot of my generation. The strongest traits, optimism and enthusiasm for the future, seems to be fading. Many boomers seemed to have disappeared to me, blipped off the radar screen, slipping into lookalike, cookie cutter living oblivion. I think it's because so many didn't change after the age of thirtysomething, reliving their daily lives over and over again in some comfort zone I don't understand. I never could stand still and seem to relate better to people of all ages who don't either.
You're either "in" or you're "out" and I don't mean that in the fashion or sexual preference sense. Rather to me it infers that life is a continuum that you keep learning, growing, moving on and challenging yourself to other things, which changes you as you go along. A lot of boomers are "in" the sense of change and have kept growing and moving on but I don't sense we're the majority. Many boomers are unfortunately "out" now in this era of economic instability and social disruption and I wonder what's going to happen to them as the world moves on to a new way of living.
In my lifetime, things seemed a whole lot more real and simpler to me before Disco and the TV show "Dallas" came out in the late seventies. After that, the rapidity with which my generation went from counter-establishment cotton wearers to tacky consumerists in polyester, alienated me for decades. Now I'm rather dumbfounded by how my generation seems stuck in a time warp. It's easy to understand why the generations in front and back of us are overwhelmed by our ubiquity.
We can be very boring, in spite of the energy spent by so many into looking and acting young, to stay "relevant." It's a delusion. We don't accept age well, yet we don't age very well because aging gracefully is just not in the repertoire. It's "buy now, pay later" coming home in a very personal way.
There are so many of us, yet I wonder what happened to a lot of my generation. The strongest traits, optimism and enthusiasm for the future, seems to be fading. Many boomers seemed to have disappeared to me, blipped off the radar screen, slipping into lookalike, cookie cutter living oblivion. I think it's because so many didn't change after the age of thirtysomething, reliving their daily lives over and over again in some comfort zone I don't understand. I never could stand still and seem to relate better to people of all ages who don't either.
You're either "in" or you're "out" and I don't mean that in the fashion or sexual preference sense. Rather to me it infers that life is a continuum that you keep learning, growing, moving on and challenging yourself to other things, which changes you as you go along. A lot of boomers are "in" the sense of change and have kept growing and moving on but I don't sense we're the majority. Many boomers are unfortunately "out" now in this era of economic instability and social disruption and I wonder what's going to happen to them as the world moves on to a new way of living.
4/18/10
A Moment of Self Indulgence
Pictures of Me...
At Squaw Peak Park with Piestewa Peak behind me.
One of my favorite refuges in Phoenix year round, including the dead of summer. I've hiked all these trails for years and still love them.
The summer straw sombrero regalia. Somehow these days I feel a bit like "Men of A Certain Age" and I guess I'm ok with that. (Is there a choice?)
________________________________________________________________________________________________
At Squaw Peak Park with Piestewa Peak behind me.
One of my favorite refuges in Phoenix year round, including the dead of summer. I've hiked all these trails for years and still love them.
The summer straw sombrero regalia. Somehow these days I feel a bit like "Men of A Certain Age" and I guess I'm ok with that. (Is there a choice?)
(Below)
I'm not sure why I really like this photo of me
4/14/10
4/8/10
In The Future: After Fifteen Minutes
You better know something...
Rant Starts Here:
When my career abruptly ended 10 years ago after almost 30 years of working for the same organization, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, although I only appreciated it to a small degree at the time. It wasn't known then, that it occurred at the beginning of one of the worst decades of American consumerism, celebrity worship and over-the-top-you-name-the-poison. Not to mention one of the worst historic acts of terrorism (September 11, 2001) also occurred at the beginning of the decade, which the American people just seemed to skip over. The lessons came much harder, faster and earlier to me than for most people, who are now feeling the effects of the worst recession since the last Great Depression in the '30s.
Those who have known me a long time will verify that I've been consistently saying since the middle of the '90s the following:
Nothing that has happened in the past three decades can be blamed on our leaders in business, religion, Congress or Administrations. The blame is laid squarely at the feet of the American people.
We have several generations with a large majority of people that have no idea what a bad time, era of difficulty or a period of deprivation of goods is like. They're spoiled clueless. To them it is more important to look good, feel good, have things and far worse, to collect people as objects to enhance their status, not valuable assets to enrich life. The car you drive is more important than having good character on a journey.
My concern for over a decade now, has not been how I or people of strong character I know, will handle tough times when they come along. We'll be fine and adjust. I weathered difficult financial circumstances in the late '60s, when I arrived in this country at 14 years old and had to start working right away. It wasn't horrible, we weren't poverty stricken, my family was rebuilding an exciting new life and reinventing ourselves in America. Rather, I'm more disturbed by how a lot of the population will react when they realize they're not entitled, no one owes them anything and what once came easily to them, is now difficult to obtain or impossible. I want to avoid them by all means.
It has seemed rather obvious to me that since the '93-'94 recession, consumption has been racheting up out of control with only one ultimate conclusion. Since the late '70s and even more so in the '80s, skills and knowledge have been deemphasized and we embraced what I refer to as the MBA Marketing Culture that has no respect for attention to detail. The Cult of Personality and selling image was more important than actually producing something and doing what you said you would do. "It is better to look good than to actually know and do something."
I refuse to participate in the negative of this Economic Crisis. Ninety percent of life is NOT just showing up and getting a pension, social security and health care benefits. I see a link between what is happening economically and the social values of the past few decades and I'm not sure there is a choice about a Second and Third Wave in this Great Recession. I'm not buying the Recovery Kool-Aid...we ain't seen nothin' yet. If you do not want to be responsible for yourself and anything you may have done in the past that is causing pain now, I can't be around that. On the other hand, if you made mistakes with debt, relationships, priorities, careers and own up to them and work to repair the damage and reinvent yourself, no one is more for you than I am. It is to everyone's advantage that responsible people get a break if they need one (public money giveaways are not a break).
Since the late '70's I've watched this country thin it's brains and culture out, aspire to less knowledge, become underachievers, more delusional and too comfortable. We have become infatuated with the idea that "everyone is a winner." As for me, since I can remember my desire has been to engage with people smarter and know more than I do because they envisage things I do not and I want to constantly, continually visualize and learn. That is my American Dream. I'm attracted to people who want to engage themselves to be better but I also realize that it's not for everyone.
What I have found, especially over these past 15 years, is a lot of people are too content at being complacent. I'm willing to throw lifelines to those who have the willingness to grasp and go higher and seek to rise above. To me giving collective power lifts to affirmatively raise the masses higher, which essentially dilutes the value, is a waste of time and resources. It might be a product of decades of my training people but I've discovered that many people tend to attain a comfort level of mediocrity and stay there. People, like water, seek their own level. It's foolish not to recognize that people have different IQ levels and abilities and there is nothing wrong with that, it's a product of nature and humanity. Not all people need a college degree or a high-paying job to be considered a success in life.
A successful life can mean many things and a lot of them have nothing to do with career, money, fame or appearance.
Back in my early Bell System days I worked for a Traffic Manager who probably had no idea that he would have a lifetime impact on me with a few simple, direct concepts. To him I was probably just another one of those hippie kids they forced the company to hire. He was definitely "old school", a product of a military stint and a cowboy from Arizona days of yore. He did watch over me though and gave me quite a few good rules on being a leader. If I was beginning to get a little slipshod he would strongly but not too sternly say: "Son, you need to get your papers in order." If I offered up excuses he responded: "Son, charm works for 15 minutes, after that you better know something."
Since my involuntary "separation" from my career I've experienced and learned a lot and fortunately am probably as prepared as anyone for what we are likely to see in this country. We're in a highly unusual period and looking at history, macro and micro, distant and recent, the world has been here many times before. It seems to me that in this Era of Great Disruption, you better know something.
End of Rant.
Rant Starts Here:
When my career abruptly ended 10 years ago after almost 30 years of working for the same organization, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, although I only appreciated it to a small degree at the time. It wasn't known then, that it occurred at the beginning of one of the worst decades of American consumerism, celebrity worship and over-the-top-you-name-the-poison. Not to mention one of the worst historic acts of terrorism (September 11, 2001) also occurred at the beginning of the decade, which the American people just seemed to skip over. The lessons came much harder, faster and earlier to me than for most people, who are now feeling the effects of the worst recession since the last Great Depression in the '30s.
Those who have known me a long time will verify that I've been consistently saying since the middle of the '90s the following:Nothing that has happened in the past three decades can be blamed on our leaders in business, religion, Congress or Administrations. The blame is laid squarely at the feet of the American people.
We have several generations with a large majority of people that have no idea what a bad time, era of difficulty or a period of deprivation of goods is like. They're spoiled clueless. To them it is more important to look good, feel good, have things and far worse, to collect people as objects to enhance their status, not valuable assets to enrich life. The car you drive is more important than having good character on a journey.
My concern for over a decade now, has not been how I or people of strong character I know, will handle tough times when they come along. We'll be fine and adjust. I weathered difficult financial circumstances in the late '60s, when I arrived in this country at 14 years old and had to start working right away. It wasn't horrible, we weren't poverty stricken, my family was rebuilding an exciting new life and reinventing ourselves in America. Rather, I'm more disturbed by how a lot of the population will react when they realize they're not entitled, no one owes them anything and what once came easily to them, is now difficult to obtain or impossible. I want to avoid them by all means.
It has seemed rather obvious to me that since the '93-'94 recession, consumption has been racheting up out of control with only one ultimate conclusion. Since the late '70s and even more so in the '80s, skills and knowledge have been deemphasized and we embraced what I refer to as the MBA Marketing Culture that has no respect for attention to detail. The Cult of Personality and selling image was more important than actually producing something and doing what you said you would do. "It is better to look good than to actually know and do something."I refuse to participate in the negative of this Economic Crisis. Ninety percent of life is NOT just showing up and getting a pension, social security and health care benefits. I see a link between what is happening economically and the social values of the past few decades and I'm not sure there is a choice about a Second and Third Wave in this Great Recession. I'm not buying the Recovery Kool-Aid...we ain't seen nothin' yet. If you do not want to be responsible for yourself and anything you may have done in the past that is causing pain now, I can't be around that. On the other hand, if you made mistakes with debt, relationships, priorities, careers and own up to them and work to repair the damage and reinvent yourself, no one is more for you than I am. It is to everyone's advantage that responsible people get a break if they need one (public money giveaways are not a break).
Since the late '70's I've watched this country thin it's brains and culture out, aspire to less knowledge, become underachievers, more delusional and too comfortable. We have become infatuated with the idea that "everyone is a winner." As for me, since I can remember my desire has been to engage with people smarter and know more than I do because they envisage things I do not and I want to constantly, continually visualize and learn. That is my American Dream. I'm attracted to people who want to engage themselves to be better but I also realize that it's not for everyone.
A successful life can mean many things and a lot of them have nothing to do with career, money, fame or appearance.
Back in my early Bell System days I worked for a Traffic Manager who probably had no idea that he would have a lifetime impact on me with a few simple, direct concepts. To him I was probably just another one of those hippie kids they forced the company to hire. He was definitely "old school", a product of a military stint and a cowboy from Arizona days of yore. He did watch over me though and gave me quite a few good rules on being a leader. If I was beginning to get a little slipshod he would strongly but not too sternly say: "Son, you need to get your papers in order." If I offered up excuses he responded: "Son, charm works for 15 minutes, after that you better know something."Since my involuntary "separation" from my career I've experienced and learned a lot and fortunately am probably as prepared as anyone for what we are likely to see in this country. We're in a highly unusual period and looking at history, macro and micro, distant and recent, the world has been here many times before. It seems to me that in this Era of Great Disruption, you better know something.
End of Rant.
3/31/10
Build Character
Invest in yourself...
Take control of your life.
Educate yourself and develop your mind.
Take good care of your health, mental and physical.
Have relationships with people who are good for you and who you are good for.
Think positively, work at replacing bad habits and thoughts with good ones.
Figure out what works best for you and develop a habit of positive self-talk and engage in it. Ignore any idea that it doesn't work or what others may say about it. Affirmative self-talk does work by reducing stress and improves your life. I'm living proof of that.
It's not my style to go into a list of things I've survived, although there are people who know all about them, without them I wouldn't have survived. You'll just have to trust me that these concepts have worked as tools for getting me through tough times and past them.
Take control of your life.
Educate yourself and develop your mind.
Take good care of your health, mental and physical.
Have relationships with people who are good for you and who you are good for.
Think positively, work at replacing bad habits and thoughts with good ones.
Figure out what works best for you and develop a habit of positive self-talk and engage in it. Ignore any idea that it doesn't work or what others may say about it. Affirmative self-talk does work by reducing stress and improves your life. I'm living proof of that.
It's not my style to go into a list of things I've survived, although there are people who know all about them, without them I wouldn't have survived. You'll just have to trust me that these concepts have worked as tools for getting me through tough times and past them.
3/28/10
Some Things My Parents Taught Me
although I don't always follow them...
1. Be responsible for what you do. Clean up after yourself, pay your bills, be on time, take care of your possessions, fix your mistakes, apologize if you're wrong, be honest, tell the truth. Respect other people's property; don't trample the land.
2. Perseverance. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Don't give up in the face of adversity, it will make you stronger and success will be more rewarding. You can do anything you have a mind to, if you think it's worthwhile and you really want it. If anything is worth doing, it's worth doing well.
3. The Golden Rule. Treat others as you would have them treat you. Civilized people have a sense of fair play; don't kick the underdog. Respect other people's differences, be civil and polite. Have a modicum of respect for the social order, moral values and habits of the general population.
4. Be selective of the company you keep. They can either help you or harm you and always reflect on your choices about character, yours and theirs. Appreciate your friends and people who are good to you; don't hate your enemies, you made them. You can always find someone worse off and someone better off than you.
5. Eat right and take care of your health. Value learning and education. All that glitters is not gold. There is beauty in simplicity. Respect nature and wildlife. Be prepared for a rainy day. Think before speaking. Don't talk too much. Waste not, want not. Haste makes waste.
1. Be responsible for what you do. Clean up after yourself, pay your bills, be on time, take care of your possessions, fix your mistakes, apologize if you're wrong, be honest, tell the truth. Respect other people's property; don't trample the land.
3. The Golden Rule. Treat others as you would have them treat you. Civilized people have a sense of fair play; don't kick the underdog. Respect other people's differences, be civil and polite. Have a modicum of respect for the social order, moral values and habits of the general population.
4. Be selective of the company you keep. They can either help you or harm you and always reflect on your choices about character, yours and theirs. Appreciate your friends and people who are good to you; don't hate your enemies, you made them. You can always find someone worse off and someone better off than you.
5. Eat right and take care of your health. Value learning and education. All that glitters is not gold. There is beauty in simplicity. Respect nature and wildlife. Be prepared for a rainy day. Think before speaking. Don't talk too much. Waste not, want not. Haste makes waste.
3/13/10
Through A Glass Darkly
"For Now We See In A Mirror Dimly...
but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known."
(I Corinthians 13:12)
Understanding this piece of Scripture, whether you're a pure Christian Believer or choose to acknowledge basic premise truths in life, is a powerful understanding. We have an obscured view of life and selves and regardless of personally held belief systems, being aware that we do allows a better perspective on how things are and the control we do and don't have over circumstances. How also we can make the best of them and not allow kismet to overcome us.
For me the Personal Key in Life is intrinsic in me and my belief is it's rooted in my Christian background and the fundamental basic truths originally intended in the New and Old Testaments. They provided the foundation for the broader understanding of how to interpret and cope with the world. I am not so arrogant and audacious to believe that access to understanding, enlightenment and spiritual awareness is limited to one religion or spiritual path. This has given me much trouble over the decades with fellow Christian Believers...so be it.
My Key is about rising above, looking up and thinking positively and faith in a Higher Power. We can always look around and find someone better off and someone worse off than we are. We are bound to feel downhearted at times, it is how we turn it around that matters. It takes work.
Our vision is veiled but we see enough outline to tell what is good and right and where and how to proceed. On occasion we get rare visions of beautiful clarity, however mostly it's operating on instinct. Experience is the greatest teacher and to not learn from it is folly. Once you go near the fire, you don't go back to get burned again. Negativity spirals down a dark pit. Thinking positive and heading to light attracts others looking for light, not darkness...support always helps. To that end, take from Jesus, "Let your light shine before men in such a way they may see..." (Matthew 5:16).
If you're secular and believe nothing spiritual, I won't argue with you over that, it's your choice and everyman has free will. On the other hand I won't argue with you if you draw your Higher Power from a supernatural being or a belief that is different from mine, my only judgment is I must perceive that it comes from light.
__________________________________________________________________________________
but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known."
(I Corinthians 13:12)
Understanding this piece of Scripture, whether you're a pure Christian Believer or choose to acknowledge basic premise truths in life, is a powerful understanding. We have an obscured view of life and selves and regardless of personally held belief systems, being aware that we do allows a better perspective on how things are and the control we do and don't have over circumstances. How also we can make the best of them and not allow kismet to overcome us.
"On Reflection" by JR Snyder Jr 2010
For me the Personal Key in Life is intrinsic in me and my belief is it's rooted in my Christian background and the fundamental basic truths originally intended in the New and Old Testaments. They provided the foundation for the broader understanding of how to interpret and cope with the world. I am not so arrogant and audacious to believe that access to understanding, enlightenment and spiritual awareness is limited to one religion or spiritual path. This has given me much trouble over the decades with fellow Christian Believers...so be it.
My Key is about rising above, looking up and thinking positively and faith in a Higher Power. We can always look around and find someone better off and someone worse off than we are. We are bound to feel downhearted at times, it is how we turn it around that matters. It takes work.
Our vision is veiled but we see enough outline to tell what is good and right and where and how to proceed. On occasion we get rare visions of beautiful clarity, however mostly it's operating on instinct. Experience is the greatest teacher and to not learn from it is folly. Once you go near the fire, you don't go back to get burned again. Negativity spirals down a dark pit. Thinking positive and heading to light attracts others looking for light, not darkness...support always helps. To that end, take from Jesus, "Let your light shine before men in such a way they may see..." (Matthew 5:16).
If you're secular and believe nothing spiritual, I won't argue with you over that, it's your choice and everyman has free will. On the other hand I won't argue with you if you draw your Higher Power from a supernatural being or a belief that is different from mine, my only judgment is I must perceive that it comes from light.
__________________________________________________________________________________
9/7/09
The Economy and Me: My Hometown
Phoenix, Arizona | Labor Day Weekend
This is the summer I believe we will look back and remember as the time when the fullness of this economic crisis and the aftermath, became much more real to the mass population.
Relatively no one will go untouched by the current and upcoming extended economic period. The United States and world are affected profoundly and in this video blog I discuss my thoughts on the one city and state, Phoenix, Arizona that I know well. In my mind the most difficult bear to wrestle is going to be unemployment because that is about income. The conundrum is an old one and too large to tackle here.
.......................................................
Due to my personal circumstances I've had unique opportunities to see this economic crisis develop to it's ultimate collapse in a variety of ways. My professional associates, friends, family and myself have had to and are dealing with issues daily very directly and no end seems in sight. Currently I am in a good place of acceptance with an understanding of basic facts that no public relations spin of any corporation, media outlet or government agency will change my mind about, when they're as plain as the nose on my face. Of course my acceptance is subject to change with new information, since the ground is shifting beneath us. Another key though is knowing that shifting ground is part of the package.
It's been a long road since this Economic Crisis really began for me with the Tech/Telecom Crash in 2000 and then exacerbated by the events of September 11, 2001. Additionally I am living in a state that was giddy with vaporous money at the height of the market, when my mindset was that if it seemed too good to be true, it was. There have been employment and monetary struggles but they have been overcome, but not without challenges.
As painful as it's been at times, this decade for me has been rich with learning new things about myself and others, as well as where, when and how my values diverged with certain parts of American culture (such as consumerism). So many of us were sidetracked and I'm finding many of us are now finding our way back to our original selves and reflecting on "where do we go from here"?
This is a topic I am far from done writing and video blogging about I suspect.
.......................................................
.......................................................
Due to my personal circumstances I've had unique opportunities to see this economic crisis develop to it's ultimate collapse in a variety of ways. My professional associates, friends, family and myself have had to and are dealing with issues daily very directly and no end seems in sight. Currently I am in a good place of acceptance with an understanding of basic facts that no public relations spin of any corporation, media outlet or government agency will change my mind about, when they're as plain as the nose on my face. Of course my acceptance is subject to change with new information, since the ground is shifting beneath us. Another key though is knowing that shifting ground is part of the package.
It's been a long road since this Economic Crisis really began for me with the Tech/Telecom Crash in 2000 and then exacerbated by the events of September 11, 2001. Additionally I am living in a state that was giddy with vaporous money at the height of the market, when my mindset was that if it seemed too good to be true, it was. There have been employment and monetary struggles but they have been overcome, but not without challenges.
As painful as it's been at times, this decade for me has been rich with learning new things about myself and others, as well as where, when and how my values diverged with certain parts of American culture (such as consumerism). So many of us were sidetracked and I'm finding many of us are now finding our way back to our original selves and reflecting on "where do we go from here"?
This is a topic I am far from done writing and video blogging about I suspect.
.......................................................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbCARgTdin8
.......................................................
8/15/09
There is a lake in California...
A visit to Dry Ford Lake in California in August, peak heat of the year
My video blog on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/jrsnyderjr
_____________________________________________________________________________________
My video blog on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/jrsnyderjr
_____________________________________________________________________________________
8/9/09
...on not casting pearls before swine
If you live long enough you experience the joy of learning things over and over again.
This is certainly true for me regarding the internet and specifically the social web. In the nineties when the internet came into the mainstream and more social with the advent of the worldwide web, I learned some lessons which laid the foundation for how I intended to deal with a technology that quickly became an information backbone of our time.
Since then, the internet has become more ubiquitous. A wealth of information and a cyber junkyard, a web of commerce and a social networking venue but above all else an overflowing warehouse of too much data. The rules controlling my online social engagement are pretty much the same as they are offline. I have come to relearn that not only is it intrinsic to my nature to be selective but also a requirement in order to keep my sense of self relatively intact as well as balance and order in my life. Rules for my life online need to come from my experience in life offline.
I was the kid who lived in a remote place and back in the day would have loved to have online interaction to explore the world and for a while escape what seemed like a mundane local world.
Oh, if I only knew then what I know now...For some reason it seems necessary to reconsider the ground rules for operating on the internet. I'm not sure why...but I trust my instincts. It's not clear if this is due to the economic crisis, a change of decade, feeling overwhelmed, I'm wiser or something else and right now the reason seems irrelevant. The bottom line fundamental rule is I have control over how much and what information I see, and who I interact with online and any benefit or repercussions are due to my choices. In any case I use and interact on the web on my terms and what I use any website for is generally my business and not subject to the opinion of people who do not influence me.
This doesn't mean that I'm stopping or slowing my current online activity or judging what anyone else does. Perhaps our privacy is not as intact as we'd like to think and we should recognize accessing the "information superhighway" means sharing the road with unlicensed drivers. That also means making intelligent choices about how much road we can handle and proceed with caution.
http://www.youtube.com/jrsnyderjr
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