The Ol' Ballgame

(This ‘filler’ was written yesterday, while the author was otherwise contemplating more serious fare, many writing sessions deemed by him not quite feeling what he wanted to publish, and shelved)

The Ol' Ballgame

     On Memorial Day, even. 

Yeah, there's nothing like taking a trip to the ol' ballpark. Nothing says 'day off' like a day spent sitting in the stands. 

Forget about how long it took to drive there, or how far away you had to park. Once you're in your seat and looking around at the thousands of other layabouts, you immediately feel like kin. Today is our day to be entertained. 

“Vendor! I'll have one of those bags of 'poor man's lunch' (peanuts) up heah, and they'd better be salted" ('cuz tomorrow is when I'll be thinking about health matters). "Brew vendor! Up heah!" ('cuz I'm thirsty and I don't want to people watch (and game watch) sober). Today's my day. 

The Boys are givin' it their all on the field, doin' their job, and we're keeping half a mind on them and what's going on around us in the stands but that's baseball, right? It's a leisurely affair, unless we're in the playoffs. But that's months away, even if we manage to get there, so for now down on the field it's batter up, fly ball, strike out, 2-1 pitch, line drive to center field, people reaching for pop fly foul balls in the stands, or scramblin' for ones that weren't caught. 

Used to be you could light up at the games but that ain't no more. Commonplace was the sight of the flickering of hundreds of Zippo lighters around the stadium along with constant wafts of smoke but unless you're a senior you have no idea that games were like that, unless you study old footage. Nowadays they have strict rules against partaking and just might usher you out, past the security checkpoints that weren't there either but hey, there's still enough going on to keep you entertained- like eating. 

The upper deck perspective.

Robert Bye- Unsplash.com

Have a brat, then, a corndog, footlong, or Philly, whatever the local favorite is and for you health conscious ones (even on your day off!) there's healthier choices available. I think 'wraps' are a common enough option. 

The food areas are located just off 'the tunnel' and sure enough "Yay it's a home run!" or "Damn it's a pop fly with bases loaded!" roars the crowd and I missed seein' it 'cuz I had to go and was in the john just for a minute but I heard the fan reaction, even in there. 

One of these days I'm going to pony up the money for a behind the plate seat, or for one of those equally pricey ones, the ones at field level along the first or third base line, but I always seem to put that off and get the nosebleed seats on the upper decks or the bleacher bum ones in the 'rockpile', out in the far corners of the outfield where the rowdy people hang out. It's on my bucket list. 

And I like to watch the kids, the young boys thinking that they might get a shot one day, and the young girls hangin' with their daddies (thinkin' now that they got a shot too) and it's a good thing. Baseball is the kind of sport that brings people together as all the usual politics, office disputes, and coworker and neighbor issues are shelved. Forgotten for awhile. 

One of my fantasies is numerous times facing a series of those major league pitchers when the heat is on, the crowd is watching, and I'm in the batter's box. I kinda know what that's like, I played Minor League and Little League and was considered good but didn't get past some guy in Pony League throwing some serious heat, a lanky guy named LaPorte or something. I thought if that ape woulda beaned me I woulda ended up with a concussion or dead, there was so much on his fastball, but maybe I coulda got used to it. Maybe I coulda adjusted and got a hit, or knocked it outta the park. 

Anyway, I didn't get my shot but like everybody else in the stands, I can live vicariously through the players on the field. I got my favorites. I'm sure you got yours. 

So here's to baseball season. "One of the best damn ways to spend a summer's evening!" 

Contentment

If I move away from the fast-paced world and prevent myself from exposure to the daily news cycle, push back from the offerings on Netflix and Amazon, try not to get pulled into the drama of the basketball and hockey playoffs on SportsCenter, refrain from touching upon any number of ultra-compelling exposes, reality shows, science-based explorations and the like playing on TV, set down the Kindle with it's many book offerings, turn away from the latest podcast, and not compulsively watch any cooking and baking shows, I find I'm pretty darn content. 

Which is puzzling because shouldn't it be the other way? I should be restless and agonizing, positively jones’n for a fix. Well, I'm not. Now how can that be, and more importantly, how did that come about?

Those are answers I cannot give for I do not myself know how I achieved, reached, or have been blessed by this state, which has been with me all of my life. "Born into it", I guess I could say. 

  But methinks I was so born because of all the experiences I had in my past where I was highly self-absorbed and very focused upon any number of outside things and through such involvement solved the riddle of contentment, which is a complex equation, or at least it was for me, one that held numerous variables and the weighing of values that resulted in 'those many things equal this' to me, for contentment is a highly personal thing. 

Putting out this content then is not something I feel I have to do, it's something I want to do, and I can drop this writing at any time simply because it doesn't add a great deal to the measure of fullness I already experience. There is some satisfaction in writing a juicy post, in somehow putting the words together that match the vision I hold within, but it doesn't change the sense of contentment I always feel much. Writing to me is sort of like a skills test, self-administered.

(So yes, putting out content changes me a little. I'll admit that) 

Is contentment a state of 'inner peace' that I'm feeling? I don't exactly know what 'inner peace' refers to. That seems to mean something spiritual and/or mystical, which is what contentment is not. Contentment is more like neutrality towards that which is, neither being for nor against, and not being very interested whichever way things go because contentment will inevitably follow, up to a point. 

A far away point that is fortunately never reached. It may be conjectured, surmised, prophesized, or forecast, but the human race hasn't gone the armageddon route so it'll always been unknown whether I could remain content in the face of that, thank God, so everything else is small potatoes and of little concern.

What things are like in the hobbit village.

Rob Mulally- Unsplash.com

Which is what contentment to me is, a generally good feeling that everything is going to work itself out and I'm doing my little part and that is all that is required because if I was to be on stage in some capacity I would be there and I'm not. I am not one so compelled. 

Blogging is my stage and I'm content with that, until I'm not, and then I'll find out, is another way of putting it. 

"Whatever floats your boat" is my philosophy. The Universe- that grand bringer of life and supporter of same- will see to it that I get adeptly placed. There's really nothing to worry about. 

Contentment is an opportunity to really enjoy things being just the way they are. In this state of mind you are able to step back, relax, and gaze upon the big picture. 

Tell Me It's Insignificant

My time with a small group of people is wrapping up. We've been working together for years but soon won't be. One has already flown the coop and the rest will be scattering to the four winds in a fortnight. 

Now when it comes to working together it's not like we've been all lovey-dovey with each other. There have been strong emotions and difficult times aplenty but at this point all of that is water under the bridge. Now we're left kind of staring at each other at times with these sort of blank looks, like when you look past or through something, your attention focused on that which you cannot physically see.

Strange, it is, how Life threw us together for a time for a reason that we thought we knew. It was all about the money, right? Just a bunch of random people filling slots that needed to be filled and we were the ones that showed up and said that, for one reason or another, we were willing to do it, something that the logical mind declares reasonable and understandable. 

But- is that the case? Was our gathering together a random event? All of my coworkers think so and even I, attuned to things non-physical and searching for any energetic clues, can't sense anything other than the vaguest possibility that there was any purpose in our gathering and working together. For years! You'd think that The Universe would let the cat out of the bag at this point, at least a little bit, and provide me with some metaphysical satisfaction but no, not yet, and maybe not ever.

  Couch it in whatever terminology fits your belief system, that is what those 'blank stares' are all about. Not really knowing, but sensing the possibility that something else might have been going on.

According to the business world, the business model, employees are simply commodities (the very definition of employ is 'to use') and nothing whatsover has occured other than we filled functions and soon won't. 

In a business sense, this is oh so true. Time and business forever march on, towards the future and the profits to be gained there, and you're either marching along with the company or not and if you disappear "So what?" for there are little emotions displayed towards castaways as a rule. 

But something did transpire and I can see that something- perhaps many somethings- in the eyes of my coworkers, that is, when we catch each other like that, which we are trying not to do at this time, because it's telling and uncomfortable. 

We have a sense of (Jeez can I say it?) camaraderie because we laughed together, and fought each other- a lot. Many, many times we were angry at each other, but just as many times we forgave. Or tried to. We worked together as a team and got the job done, despite the directives of management, who we knew didn't have a clue as to what was actually going on in our department. 

Many times, individually, we played the role of heroes for our customers, we went the extra mile because we felt it was the right thing to do (and maybe those customers thanked us for it). We dealt with lousy equipment and crowds and bad weather and all manner of things upsetting and complained about it but did it anyway. We did this so often we got used to it and called it 'reality' though we knew that there were realities far different that other people were experiencing but we blocked that out. 

Had to.

Through it all we watched each other and learned from each other because we were, like it or not, a team, a band of misfits doing a job that few others would have volunteered to do and those others thought not a lot of us as we were ferrying them around. They took us for granted and we griped about that and talked story and traded stories and I was amazed at what my coworkers went through as much as they were amazed at what had happened to me, before break, during the shift, or on the days that they were off.

Then at the end of every working day we went home to our respective houses and turned on our TVs and watched others living lives far more spectacular than the ones we were saddled with and ooh..... .....that was painful but as long as our bread was buttered we knew we were at least surviving. We had established perches for ourselves in a highly competitive, fast moving world and were loathe to go for better. However, when you make that decision it comes at a price because time keeps on moving and over the passage of years you go through stages of anger about your situation, then deny it's an issue before finally dropping into rueful acceptance, only wondering by then how those few at the top managed to do it because you certainly, at the time, gave it a go.

And now here we few are, near The End of our job, and in the eyes of The World we have failed at life and have to pick up the pieces and start over somewhere and the 'insignificance' of our existence is staring us right in the face- but wait!

The moment of recognition is undeniable.

Anton Shakirov- Unsplash.com

There is something there, it's showing in the eyes of my coworkers, in those of some of the managers, and undoubtedly in the minds of some the people we touched while just doing our job and that something is highly significant. We did make a difference in their lives (but we're probably never going to know what it was). It could have been just one thing that we did, or it could have been many things. The essence of who we individually are is etched into their minds, that essence being how we handled ourselves in combat situations, in bored situations, in charged situations (and in many other situations, those being too numerous to list). That 'something' we did is what is turning the gears in their heads behind that blank look these ones are displaying, it exists in that space where the processing of data is occurring but there are as of yet no words.

    I know what that blank look is, I've seen it before. We've touched each other, made indelible impressions on each other. We may have been accidentally thrown together in this life (which is my feeling, save possibly for a few individuals) but we'll never, ever forget each other. Through time and space we'll have the memory of each other and though faces will disappear and eventually bodies too it just might transpire that we will find ourselves together again, in another place and another when, and if that happens (and we're sensitive enough by then) we’ll remember each other by our peculiar energetic signatures. We might all join together for awhile in a different and probably higher in vibration setting to play out another drama or we may simply individually spend a few hours together but all the while I'll certainly (and hopefully they'll too) be inwardly nodding, like I have done many times in this life, thinking this:

"I KNOW you from somewhere!”

      I know you because we have spent time together before and this has separated you out from the mass of humanity. Other people will continue to be background characters but you will always appear different to me. This might just be in a general sense, as in I might feel a degree of familiarity with you, or it might be a recognition so strong that I will be able to pick you out of a crowd.

         In either case, I will know what kind of person you are- without you having to say a thing.

The Mystery Of Our History

Spent some time lately catching up on history, what's being newly presented about what's old in the metaphysical arena, as well as any current day scientific findings, and it's hard to discount what the evidence is pointing towards. A vastly different story than the one we were previously told. 

Now disinformation abounds, so navigating these waters takes skill and determination, but it can be done by anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence because theories that point to preposterous conclusions can be discounted quite readily. Plausible theories are then left over to examine carefully, really pour over. 

Theoretical pondering about what has taken place in the past is not something I find terribly exciting to do but others seem to revel in the realms of archeological, geological, and anthropological focus. (Thank God that they are so driven for years of study and meticulous field work are as a rule required!) Many of these people are then compelled to collaborate with other experts and construct theories, try and connect the dots. The end results of their patient investigations, explorations, and research are they know what they are talking about. The foundation that supports their conjectures about what really happened is strong, graced by high degrees of credibility.

These degrees of credibility and subject matter knowledge enable them to easily withstand the attacks of low level critics, those who would offhandedly discount their theories. To the rest, those critics taking a more reasoning approach towards what is being presented, a certain degree of debate serves as healthy exercise for the presenters for it points out the weak spots in their theories and acts to strengthen them. This fortification process bolsters and over time creates ever more formidable theories supported by an increasing amount of evidence about what might have happened, for until all the evidence is in, no one can ever really know for sure.

That being said.......

.....it then follows that the idea that 'civilization' began on earth X number of years ago (roughly 6,000, as is commonly believed) and that any people existing before that were uncivilized bears (no pun intended) us to take another look.  

Silent witnesses. Just one of many ancient sites all over the world.

Jack B.- Unsplash.com

More has happened here than what we were told is my belief, and that comes from following people who have done the work and presented the evidence, evidence that is credible enough for me. I don't need to know every little thing that happened because if I know enough I can extrapolate the rest. Also, if the energy around what is being presented feels 'clean', that tells me that I'm on the right track. 

If it wasn't, I would feel compelled to dig deeper. 

So, kind of being ahead of this unfolding a little bit I can see that earth peeps got a lot of growing up to do and I don't mean that in a facetious way, a smart alecky way, I mean that in a compassionate way. Thank God we get time to process this 'cuz it's big, yeah, and it's gonna rock a lot of worlds. We're much older than we think and because of that we're a lot richer in experience and that prevents the worst part of our natures from coming out (true for most of us) which enables us to create bigger and better versions of what could be. That’s my idea of 'civilization'. We just get better and better at it because we've failed a number of times before and learned from those failings.

We've already learned the hardest lessons that could be concocted, tests we set up for ourselves, it appears, in order to see which way we would choose to go but it doesn't have to be this way forever. I think enough of us have learned what truly works by now and can take earth life up to the next level, the higher frequency, and as we do the full mystery of our history will then reveal itself because we'll be ready to finally know..... 

......’Humanity- The Rest Of The Story’ 

P.S.- I had a sneak peek of the trailer. This movie is going to pull out all the stops, there’s never been anything like it. High drama, absurd comedy, poignant heartbreak, and supreme challenge abounds. It’s going to be very long but, man oh man, it’s a must see.

Dreams

     I am an avid dream follower. Every night before lights out I program myself to remember my dreams and that has worked fairly well for a long time. I don't remember the entirety of what I have been dreaming about but usually I will get some final image or scene, full of emotion and tendrils of understanding, that makes no sense whatsoever when I initially wake up but over time (not a lot) I can allow some meaning, significance, theme, and/or essence to present itself out of what I 'saw' just before waking. Dream interpretation is tricky so use all the tools. Allow is the key word. However you get there (to comprehension) doesn’t matter so long as you get there.

     A lot of dream stuff is symbolic, as if it is in code, so my technique is I have to sort of ‘triangulate’ feelings, physical sensations, associations with various characters in the dream (be they presently alive or long ago dead, as well as any odd behaviors they were exhibiting), in addition to any other bits of information in order to hopefully ‘get the message’. This is great fun and of course highly insightful. Remembering dreams can also, if you track them over time, start to reveal patterns. Recurring dreams and recurring themes arise on numerous evenings to show that you're still working on an issue and that you are making progress towards resolution. Non-progress is also possible, but who wants that? The impetus is to grow, to expand, and to deepen. Positive energy heads in that direction. It would be extremely hard for me, like it probably is for most people, to override built-up momentum and go the other way. 

       Lately my dreams have been many. I sense my dreams have been very active ones, that is, filled with bustle and people, like being in a crowded room or engaged somehow in a busy town, but I can't remember anything about what I was so involved in seconds ago 'cuz I forget them soon as I wake up. Try as I might, I cannot grasp the tiniest thread and pull on it that leads me into some sort of memory about what I was dreaming about. Usually, this is not the case, for by staying quiet and focusing I remember much, much more but lately, nothing. Zipola. Yeah, this is frustrating but I have experienced periods of non-remembering before. Whatever it is that I'm dreaming about is something I'm not supposed to know yet or it doesn't concern me. Perhaps I’m helping others. 

     The feeling then is that I'm living two lives, one in the waking state and a very different one in the sleeping, states so different that I am unable to recognize one while being at the same time cognizant of the other, know what I mean? They're that far apart. 

      So. Ride it out is all I can do before I'm ‘dream journaling’ again- and that's another thing I want to talk about. Writing down dreams takes forever and is hard to do, because you have to be conscious enough to write but not so awake that you are forgetting your dream. The just-wakened state is a nebulous, fragile, delicate, and very precious one. If your dream (or dreams, as many of them are linked) is a highly involved one the time it takes to write things down might have you forgetting pertinent details. Better to simply have a voice recorder near your bed that is easy to find and activate. First thing you do upon gaining consciousness is turn the thing on then mumble away into it. This is difficult to do, certainly, if you're in a shared sleeping situation because you will sound and look silly doing this but hopefully if you have a partner who understands that this is important to you they can overlook it, maybe by falling back asleep (or even mumbling into their voice recorder). Either way, just mumble away quietly. 

Dreamcatcher deployed.

Nazym Jumadilova- Unsplash.com

Then, upon regaining full consciousness, say at least two hours or so, replay what you have recorded and be amazed at what you were oh so casually talking about then, astounded even, for what you said you would most likely never say in the fully conscious state. Unadulterated, your dream has been captured in its purest form. Further analyze, contemplate, or ‘process’ then ('cuz you've done so already, I'm sure) at will until you’ve exhausted the evening’s dream subject and feel done. Dream understanding takes time. Through a contemplative approach you just might start seeing patterns in your dream and connect the dots, bringing comprehension to what seemed unrelated before. If you cannot gain comprehension, let the dream go and see what happens. I’ve many, many times understood what my dream(s) of the prior evening were about late in the day during flashes of insight. Sometimes you just have to let events unfold.

I'm going to earnestly do voice recording myself for I have recently read some dream journaling I did a few years back where I was writing all my dreams down and it brought it back to me how much doing that served me (as well as entertained me), for the spirit realm is extraordinarily clever and can be quite funny, operating as it does completely out of time and any earth-bound associative rules. 

I know we all have a lot to do and doing this is just one more thing. Capturing dreams only takes a minute or two though. That’s not a lot. All you gotta do is push the button on the recorder. The real ‘work’ is listening to what you’ve said later and then thinking about it. My experience has been that doing so has been worthwhile in every aspect of my life and I wouldn’t let these nightly picture shows escape unnoticed back into the ethers for anything. 

Comfort Zone

'Getting into the comfort zone' with situations used to be the motivation that I had until I realized many of the dreams I had been pursuing, saw the views they offered, and felt the feelings that achieving those goals gave me.

Every time I thought I had feathered my nest completely the satisfaction I felt was only temporary. Instead of permanence, I found I experienced a contentment period of varying length and varying strength before I again was called to move on. Called to move outside of my established comfort zone and into something else. 

This being called to abandon what I had created I did not anticipate, and it was kind of annoying to experience walking away from what I had gained over and over, for I assumed that once I achieved a certain level of satisfaction with my life I would choose to stay there and build on that- which is something that most people do. They do it because it's very hard to leave an established comfort zone, even after it begins to get quite un-comfortable. 

You probably think you know what I mean, about how 'comfort zones' can start to chafe on you. The sofa gets to be a little too cushy. The bed that felt soooo good to crash, plop, or sink into last night now causes you to yearn to be vertical again instead of remaining horizontal. It's that kind of feeling. What was good then ain't so now.

  But let's not confuse a comfort zone with a 'plopped on the couch eating ice cream' feeling or a 'falling into a bed containing freshly washed sheets' feeling. Those are not true comfort zones. True comfort zones are prolonged events and creeping dissatisfaction with them takes extended lengths of time to develop but once that sets in rearranging the furniture in the living room just won't help. Spring cleaning won't alleviate the underlying agitation. Repainting and remodeling might provide a longer term 'cure' but it won't stave off discontent forever. All these patching up efforts, of course, depend on the proclivities of the individual occupying the space, the workplace, and/or life upon which the comfort zone has been established. 

Comfort zones are hard to totally abandon and usually there are many attempts made to salvage them, get them to fit again, but sometimes they just have to be dismantled completely. Storms can do that for you, fires, and floods, and you can easily attribute those events to acts of God, but what if you instigate a change of situation upon yourself because you just can't stand to be in it anymore?

  It takes courage to do a complete makeover because comfort zones for most are deeply intertwined with personal survival. Few will venture outside of the survival situation they have established and deem absolutely necessary for their peace of mind. I know of many who will probably live out the remainder of their lives in endurance situations. Their lives may not be the stellar ones they initially imagined but they'll be safe ones. Nothing wrong with that. There's angst there, oh yeah, but it's manageable. 

Three months of breakfast in bed! How delightful!

Alex Block- Unsplash.com

It just seems ridiculous to me that we choose to place ourselves into these comfortable-yet-not boxes because the amount of stagnation and suffering that is found there outweighs the imagined benefits to the degree that it boggles the mind. But comfort zones also extend beyond the personal and can surround and ensnare us in social webs as well. Neighborhoods, towns, and even major cities can turn into comfort zones. Not a lot happens in them and the people living there simply shrug and say to each other "That's Life!" but it's not, really. So much more can be experienced. 

Creating comfort zones is the goal of nearly all human beings. Scoring the dream job. Manifesting the stellar relationship. Inhabiting the perfect house. Having an enviable circle of friends. Living in the happening city.

We want those things, strive for them, and yearn for them. Then when we actually get them, or get close enough to them to say that where we are is good enough, we got most of what we wanted, we exult "Yay! I'm in my Comfort Zone!". Cause for celebration!

Enjoy each one while they last, friends, 'cuz they'll only provide satisfaction for a while. Eventually they will pale, but perhaps not all at the same time. When each one does, or if they all fade at once, don't cry about losing them! Your soul will task you with creating again. And then again after that. On and on you'll go. It's hard the first time you feel you have to let go of something good for something that might be better, you can never be absolutely sure, but over time and through the gaining of experience you'll look forward to changing things up and just might actually anticipate doing it.

Underemployment Office

     "Underemployment Office. May I help you?"
"Hi, uh.... ....maybe. "I was told to come here to fill out some A1072 forms. I guess I'll also hafta look for a job 'cuz my last one ended"
"Are you one of the guys that was recently laid off at Exco?"
"Yeah"
"Did you work in the foundry?"
"No. I worked in the fabrication department. Sort of like an assembler. I ran a contraption called an 'AutoPress'"
  "I see". She grabbed some papers nearby and pushed 'em over to me. "Here are the required forms you need to fill out to collect unemployment. Can you give me a little insight about the position you held? I'm not quite sure I understand what you did"
"If you're thinking there might be another 'position' in a similar field available, forget about it. What I did was a very unique, specialized, and archaic job, one that is not even worth description. Technology made what I did totally obsolete anyway"
"Ok then.... uh... ...what other skills do you have? Carpentry? Mechanical? You look the tradesman type"
To that inquiry "Oh Gawd, here we go again" I inwardly sighed. "Down the road to nowhere!" 
I hedged a bit, mentally retrieving some dusty files, before I got back to the patiently waiting lifetime civil servant. "You don't understand...... ...let me explain..."

  I tried to give her The Story, you know, about how there has never been a job out there for me. She was only trying to help, as all of them do, but what they can't conceive of is the notion that 'what I do' has never even existed! 

Rumor is, there is job fulfillment out there.

David Siglin- Unsplash.com

Now I know that sounds strange and rather impossible, but it's true, for 'what I do' is not in any career manual and no matter how many corporations exist or have been formed in the entirety of my life there has been no job created, visualized, think-tanked, proposed, or ever briefly spawned that has ever matched what it is I 'do'.
Thus, my fate. Always underemployed.

  Like a stranger in a strange land have I wandered, through the business world, the structured world, the world that says that there are X number of options or slots or positions or avenues. Choose one! Find fulfillment there. 
"No can!" say I. To that. You don't understand me.

  "Balderdash!" and "Harrumph!" (good words) thunder those of The Republican Party, if there is such a thing anymore, dour entities I picture as having the energy, say, of railroad tycoons of the nineteenth century. "Get a job! Fit in!"
"Nay" say I. "I have tried".
"You have not applied yourself!"
We could go round and round with this. You just don't understand. 

Jobs... ...well.... ...they're supposed to come with some kinda juice, right? I know they don't want me (God forbid!) 'lounging around' on the dole but, you know, if you're not on top (definitely lounging around) the offerings of the job market are, to me, uh.... ...how can I say this politely? 'Less than delectable'?

Whatever. Choose a word! Many descriptors fit. I don't know why but for some reason or another my expeditions in the world have been through numerous unfulfilling shadowlands, only 'cuz the job that fits for me has never showed up. It's like I landed on the wrong planet or something or was born in the wrong time and have been waiting, waiting, waiting. 

All I can tell you is I'll know it when I see it. So thanks for the guidance, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Entreprenuer, Money, and all those other magazines. Thanks for the glimpses of what could be, SportsCenter. Thanks (I guess) to Monster.com, Indeed, Glassdoor, Career Builder, Craigslist, and the Classified Ads. Though all your input hasn't helped solve the issue it has whiled away the hours, like watching TV does. 

Oh, should it be that the great and glorious day finally comes for me, as I imagine it has come for others. "I shall be a dentist!" exclaimed one in a moment of realization, a moment that also delivered extraordinary happiness. "An airline pilot!", gushed another, during his "Aha!" moment. "A professional golfer!" fist-pumped another still. At a portentous moment in time each citizen saw possibility (and passion) for them in what was being offered, honed in on it, and eventually realized their dream. 

Least they had one, which is something the underemployed don't. But I feel I'm not alone in my underemployment angst. From talking to people I sense that there are many, many others who carry this burden. However, don't pity us. We don't want that! Nicht, nay, und nein! Keep sending offers our way is all we ask, and pul-eeze don't worry about us. You'll know when we've found 'it' because we'll never stop telling you about it!

It's something we really look forward to 'cuz man, we've been listening to your stories for years.

Reassessment

Having never achieved what The World considers 'success' I and the rest of us non-celebs or non-whatevers (business owners, college grads, insert your version of success here) are plagued with endless retrospectives of others people's careers. One such offering has made me reassess my thinking about what I have been 'missing'.

I was watching a documentary called Hired Guns the other day and marveling at how the same lessons I've had to face were faced in a different way by the people represented in the film. 'Hired Guns' refers to session musicians who are called upon to work a gig with a band, those gigs being A. Filling a necessary slot in a band's developmental stages, B. Being 'the guy' that helps them get through a portentious recording session, C. Filling a critical player's role on a band's upcoming or current tour, or D. Touring for years or decades with the same band or different headlining bands.

Experienced by these people were the usual workplace hazards that I've had to face- betrayal, lack of job security, being liked and in or disliked and out, sudden shifts in management's direction, dissatisfaction with one's current job, group chemistry, cruel bosses, low pay, the compulsion to strike out on one's own, workplace tragedy, riding towards heady success or feeling that the road the group is on is leading to a dead end. That's a pretty comprehensive list, but there may be more. 

Shredding is our passion.

Flavio Gasperini- Unsplash.com

From this grab bag of workplace/group dynamic similarities it's easy to see that if you need to get schooled it doesn't matter where you're placed. Aspiring rock muscians might think they're getting away from a lot of the troubles that ordinary people have to face but the lessons they need to learn will inevitably find them. It is the way of it and I couldn't help but nod my head a lot thinking "been there" when various band members were talking about their experiences, so close to home were some of them for me even though I hadn't been in the music business like they were, chasing The Dream of every teenage guy, achingly near to the top or actually there, but then again I was experiencing grand dramas in my own peculiar way at the time because the crises I faced were as real to me as theirs were. The stakes for me might not have been nearly as high but the emotions were and I guess that's what counts when you're learning about something. You get what you are willing and able to deal with.

The amazing thing about these guys, the 'hired guns', was that all of them had been near or at the top at one time or another and how brief their stay there was once they got there. Of course I knew that from before, that fame was fleeting, but to hear them open up about what it was like for them was relevatory. Having such heady experiences had pressed buttons deep inside of them, core issues had definitely been faced, but then again I had had my buttons pushed too during my times in the fire, only in a different way. 

If we had each faced our inner issues in a different setting or arena in order for them to play out what difference did it make? I can't think of any. We had individually crafted the ways and means to achieve the understandings that we needed in order to proceed, round out aspects of our characters, and seat lessons in our souls that we'll never forget so that we'd be (most of us) better people in the end.

Some people in the film went a different way, they didn't learn their lessons and sort of wasted the opportunity, in my view, which was sad because they'll just recreate another arena in which to stage another drama when the time is right and they're ready to try, try again. 

You coulda titled this documentary "The Path We're All On" or something like that because- fame/schmame. That's only a tool that some of us use to get there- to the place where we've experienced it all, in our own unique ways, and now contain within each of us that precious essence called wisdom.

Reformulating

     I have long seen myself as if I'm passing through layers and layers of awareness to greater levels of understanding. It's amazing.

This process has been accelerating for me. I can't say for sure if it's just the internet and the plethora of information it makes available on every subject imaginable that has been behind it as I have also steadily employed many personal growth methodologies, but I can say it's true that due to the internet, awareness 'upgrading' seems to be happening to the majority of the human race. 

We're getting smarter every day, as a whole. Ignorance about commonly shared things in our respective cultures is harder and harder to have as an excuse. It's as if we're almost expected to know about whatever is going on and the more we know, the more there is to know about! 

To make matters worse, or better, according to your perspective, there doesn't seem to be any 'Off' switch to this. In my case, my worldview continues to change even though I haven't been reading the news much, reading any self help books, or doing any specifically enlightening practices, save some new meditations (which entail the absence of thought, coupled with visualization). It's as if I'm absorbing understanding from simply doing ordinary day to day things (some of which entails 'keeping up') so even though I'm X number of years old and should be 'done' or close to done I find I'll probably never be done with learning. There is no Shangri-la valley where everything remains the same to duck into and even though I've had a gamut of experiences, and find that I know a lot, I hardly know it all and now wonder if 'knowing it all' is even possible. The World isn't the way it was years ago, let me tell you that. It's as if that world disappeared and something new rose in its place.

Everything nowadays is so connected, so interrelated. I see that clearly. Being older has brought it home to me that the know-it-all cockiness I had as a twenty something was ludicrous because The World has continued to surprise me. I'm a specialist in some areas, places where I've held intense focus, but I know I have to defer the majority of the running of the human race to other specialists who do what they do and like I, do what they do very well. 

New and improved!

Louis Reed- Unsplash.com

I, like they, have discovered that if you do something over and over you only get better at it and even though you have done it a hundred or a thousand times you're never done. Take driving, for example, the ordinary commute to work or shopping expedition around town. You might be making the usual drive that you've made hundreds of times but it's never the same drive, is it? And you're never the same person that has made that drive before. Life is like that. You just get better at it, even if you might have, in the eyes of The World, 'failed' somewhere along the way. 

Failing is a hot new concept now. The word is that failure is good because the more you fail the better you get overall in your approach to business and relationships and whatever else. Failure serves you because you inevitably have to reformulate your approach to something the next time you attempt it so that you can 'succeed', but ask any guy that has starred in a hit movie or made a number one record who has achieved 'success' and he'll tell you that it was only momentary success. That was then and whatever he's doing is now. 

We're all reformulating, always, and will be for all time. Just the way of it.

Ackler!

There is a cadre, an army really, of people that work at the airport. Some of them are front and center, the rest are background. Passengers take the employees at the airport for granted, mostly. The employees are performing their functions, just like at any other job, doing what they do and what they do makes it possible for the passengers to do what they do, which is whisk themselves (hopefully) through the process and get outta there or on the plane. 

That said, those that work at the airport see and encounter numerous situations as well as thousands upon thousands of people on a daily basis. Some things are witnessed personally, many are described later by others, those that were there at the time. Every day there's an ambulance at one end of the airport or another, some passenger went down and the paramedics were called. You name it, we've seen it all. Us worker bees. 

So, being on the job at the airport brings up a lot of stuff for you to think about. After all, how many people are awash in such a sea of humanity on a daily basis? Not many, if you think about it. Even if you work in a busy grocery store you're not seeing the volume that we airport workers see. We work at the watering hole of humanity, the place where every creature comes to and I suppose 'creature' isn't the right word but every once in a while, that word fits. I've seen people I never thought existed. 

Ackler’s perception of the busy airport

Thomas Shelberg- Unsplash.com

Uhm..... .....so the worker bees have reactions to what they witness or hear about, because you just don't experience this kind of volume anywhere else. The sheer number of people passing through is bound to produce some kind of drama, and every single day the vibe at the airport is different. It's astounding. We airport workers witness all kinds of things and watch each other's reactions to what is going down at the moment. We're the framework that the flow passes through, at our stations, doing our functions, and it only takes us a moment to glance over and see how Joe is doing, or Nancy, or Fred. We're constantly watching and observing each other's emotional states, gauging how they're 'handling things'. Overall, we have the same general responses to encounters and events. Elderly people that are struggling tend to make us sad. Passengers that engage us in conversation about our day and are sincere about it make us happy. Parents that unfairly berate children make us depressed while witnessing children express themselves in unabashed joy and wide-eyed wonder remind us how amazing the present moment can be. It's hard to see all these different things and not be affected.

But there is one guy in the airport that isn't affected, apparently, by anything. Ackler! This guy, a senior in his early 60's, is something else. No matter what is going down Ackler has the exact same reaction to it, which is a sort of blank stare along with a disinterested "whatever!" shrug. It's all the same to him. Is Ackler a Zen master? No! I don't think Ackler has been within one hundred yards of a spiritual bookstore in his life, has ever perused enlightening videos on the internet, has been inside a church for decades (if ever), and from the looks of him, he's not into any kind of self help study whatsoever so with Ackler, what’s up?

Does he not care about people, the effect that the current political climate is having on society, the staggering ramifications of tech, the uncertain direction that the planet is going, and all the other things there are to think about? That I think about? That I can't help but think about because just give me a moment and my wandering mind will find something to dwell upon, and perhaps deeply, but Ackler seems to never go there. Whatever is occurring, he's over it in seconds. I swear the guy's attention span is the same as a golden retriever's. He's there, man, he's got it, that thing that we all want- equanimity- and the incredible thing is, from the looks of him, he doesn't even know he has it! 

The guru of the airport, Ackler is. He's not there every day, but when he is I'm watching him like a hawk. I have seen astonishing amounts of drama take place around him. He's nonplussed by it. I have seen other airport workers struggle with excruciating boredom during the slow times while Ackler remains unaffected. I've seen Ackler's workload become almost painful to witness, yet he just does his job- without attitude, cynicism, or complaint.

Ackler has no resistance! To anything!

     What an amazing guy. Another person I took cues from was when I worked at a different airport. This cat was an African American guy whose job was to check in passengers curbside. A rather large fellow, he was. He had the most exquisite attitude, something that had been highly honed by years of experience in the airport as well as outside of it  but..... .....that's another story, one that I perhaps shall take the time to put to words later. Bottom line is-

You can learn a lot by watching other people.

Swensons's Sacred Shift

     (I can't help but present the experience I had in the forthcoming way for 'twas as if the gleaming Halls Of Honor demanded my words be fashioned in such a manner. Swenson's Sacred Shift would not have been done justice in the using of ordinary methods of description). 

The opportunity came up and I took it. Swenson had gone on vacation and the guy above me, Clark, in hallowed seniority didn't feel like working so I swooped in and signed my name on the schedule. 

My request was, after the painstaking reviewing of union rules, subsequently approved.

Swenson, let me give you a little background here, is an old, old hand. He probably doesn't know what working nights and weekends are like, it's been so long. He also has perhaps dim and distant memories of staying late to help out the ever-shorthanded night shifters but he, like everyone else, plays all the angles so it's not like he can be faulted for taking advantage of every small, miniscule, or even microscopic way to distance himself from pulling his true weight at the jobsite.

Now Swenson has been spotted coming in earlier, here and there, but when he does (to cover for the absent 'King Of Seniority', a guy named Krueger) he just leaves earlier! It's not like he's helping out, he's helping himself. But, that's his M.O.. (I've got everybody's charted around here). 

It took Swenson many, many years to get to the lofty heights his perch overlooks the jobsite from and he'll never let those under him or any newbies forget it. He has aches and pains, or makes like he does, when he bails out the door ("after a ruff week", as he puts it) on Friday afternoons. N'er on a weekend day is he around. Folks tell me that this is the way things have been since long before I showed up. 

Well, enough about Swenson. Let's get back to where we started, talking about his venerated shift, one that is simultaneously protected like Fort Knox, the secrets of the Vatican, and what actually happened at Area 51. 

Swenson's start time is at 7:00 a.m., and his quittin' time is at 3:00, but Swen (as he's known around here) starts putting his tools away at 2:30 in order to 'tidy up some'. Not in a hurried way, mind you, but in a time killin' way, 'cuz he's eyein' the time clock and doesn't want Chief (the supervisor) to find him waiting in front of the time clock to punch out. 

Studying a layout

Thomas Sweeny- Unsplash.com

Monday through Friday Swen is on the job, that is, unless he's on vacation (he gets more than a month off every year). This guy is hard to take, he's kind of a know it all, but I've managed to avoid him mostly and now here I find myself, driving to work to work his shift at the ungodly hour of 6:00 a.m.! Is this what Swen's day is like every day, driving to work in the pre-dawn darkness? It is. I marvel at the amount of traffic I encounter. Lotta other Swenson's out there! More than I imagined.

Upon arriving at the jobsite, I clock in and station myself at Swen's work area. It's like entering a damn enemy camp! Dayshifters all around eye me warily. They know I'm only a temporary apparition but still, they don't want me to establish any toehold. This is what I'm thinking but a few of them greet me warmly. I'm a breath of fresh air to them, it seems, 'cuz they've had to weather a lot of Swen's gruff attitude and I'm appearing to not be (they're checking) carrying any of that. I'm actually grateful to be at work at such an early hour and that shows, even if the light is awfully bright and the shadows that are being cast are lying in odd directions. 

"So this is what it's like!" think I as I get my tools out and get to work at Swen’s actual work station. It's like holy ground I'm standing upon. Few mortals have ever had the privilege. How have I come to be so blessed?!

As the shift progresses I witness any number of odd, only seen during the day, things. Some of what I see disturbs me, but I say not a word. If I'm ever going to hope to fit in with this crew I'd best be holding my tongue. They've got a system, a hierarchy, a pecking order, a certain flow that has developed over the years, one that has been reluctantly yet continuously modified. Swen has his place in all this and I represent it, but only for a day. Some other employee, also unimaginably blessed, will get to experience Swenson's Sacred Shift tomorrow, for tomorrow I must resume my regular shift on my regularly scheduled day. I wish I could stay, oh I wish it were so, but "Nay!" say The Gods Of Seniority, who rule with ruthless, merciless, and heavy hand. 

"'Tis not fair, the system!" I cry, or think about crying out, but like most of my other thoughts inside the confines of The Company, I keep such matters to myself. Swenson earned his exalted perch through the toil and sweat of many years labor. Who am I to question this, ask for any boon, or beg for lenience when before me sits Swenson's workbench, supremely weathered and worn, ample evidence of Swenson's selfless devotion to those selfsame gods of profit that we all must answer to, in some way or another? Swenson's trek up the mountain was entirely honorable. No greater sacrifice could one give but his life and I must acknowledge that. I must know my place and dare not overstep any bounds. 

And then, alas, alas. As all days do, this one progresses and I find myself once again at the punch clock, holding my time card, about to punch out at the absolutely astounding and utterly amazing time of three o'clock p.m. With trembling hands I steady the card in its receiving slot, then press the machine's button. 'Click!" My time is recorded and I think I ought to frame this particular time card, or take a picture of it, to show to my coworkers, wife, family, and friends, for who will believe that I have worked Swenson's Sacred Shift were I not to provide any evidence? In any case, I am sure to be hotly queried about my pulling off the impossible for Swenson's Sacred Shift is known to all who work at the facility, in most every neighborhood home, at every after-work bar for miles around, by the governors of every adjoining state, and even to a gaggle of ship captains plying the distant and briny seas. 

Soooo glad I got to experience it.

Time Marches On

Or does it? Yes... ….it does….  ...and no, it doesn’t. From a human perspective, time definitely marches on. Every moment counts. One must maximize, super-size, and prioritize one's life. The gaining of experience is what ultimately matters in life and when it comes to experience accruing, let’s gobble up as much of the good stuff as possible while avoiding at all costs the bad because can’t you just hear that damn clock ticking? It’s there, we’re very aware of it, and that’s why we all hit the ground running.

Looking around the airport in which I spend soooo much time the passage of time has almost a desperate quality around it. Wasting not a second, the passengers, most of them, are on the move. No military operation moves faster or more efficiently than a family hup-hupping it to wherever it is they are going, no just-retired couple is filled with more goal-achieving satisfaction that the duo deftly wending their way through baggage claim, traveling light and traveling a lot, this stop only one of many that are planned, while the singles threading their way through have their own destinies to fulfill, those being meeting the family (again), the lover waiting for them in a curbside car, or a friend or friends with which they will have some sort of adventure. 

You can almost hear choirs of angels singing "Precious moments are at hand!" when meet-ups happen. It is so poignant, amazing, and yet at the same time sobering to witness this, over and over. The wide-armed greetings, squeals of joy, wraparound hugs, big smiles, firm handshakes, and the lover's embrace that lingers and puts off heat oh my God get a room already.

On the flip side of all this are the various scenarios where the passage of time weighs like an anchor on hearts and minds. Take a look at any employee who is putting on a brave face but would rather be anywhere else. Gaze at the wheelchair passengers who somebody is going to pick up but that somebody is not in any hurry to get there. Glance at the ones who aren't that good looking and don't have lovers waiting for them and are just making their way through the mob to their home or hotel. Observe the surly traveling worker bees with their little carry-ons, toolboxes on wheels, or demo gear who only want to get home and are emitting the vibe “Don't bother me and don't delay my progress un momento!”

Stop reminding me what time it is! What’s new on Netflix?

Jack Sharp- Unsplash.com

  To keep the throng appraised of where they stand, every half hour a time announcement comes over the airport's intercom while little kids play and some of the passengers squirm, tap toes, and people watch inside the terminal. The others sit staring at their phones, packing more data in. This data is to some degree knowledge, to the other useless trivia, which accumulates and is stored ‘somewhere’. The data absorbers are trying to fill up a gargantuan and seemingly insatiable computer hard drive called Mind, which they individually call my mind, which can't be located anywhere inside or outside of their bodies. Maybe it exists in 'The Cloud'.

Meanwhile, outside of the airport windows, there are other clouds and movement is occurring. The tide is rising, the sun is slowly arcing across the sky, and the brooding mountains nearby are experiencing rain. This scene seems to be taking place within the same context of human time but if you really think about what is happening out there, it’s timeless.
Ten thousand years could pass, geologically, the present-day humans long gone, the airport a crumbling relic, and the natural surroundings would most likely have only imperceptibly changed. 

For outside of the human experience there are no clocks or calendars. There is no such thing as 'day', 'night', 'weekend', 'decade', or 'history'. There are no labels for anything because there is no one measuring, calculating, or comparing anything. There is no ‘evolving’ and no ‘purpose for being’.

Which may be something to think about the next time you're sitting in an airport lounge, patiently (or impatiently) waiting for your flight. Look out those big windows, past the busy runway and the planes taxing into position, at the distant horizon where you can see some nature. There, outside of the human drama, the grand and passionate 'telenovela’ we’re all soooo wrapped up in, everything just is.

Oversharing

"It's not like I'm adverse to hearing your story.... uhm...."
(she doesn't want to hear it)
....and I don't want to interrupt...."
(oh no time's up)
".....but I really have to change the subject before I forget...."
(yeah I know, revert the conversation back to your stuff)

".......to tell you about what happened at my new gig inside the offices of Domenite Corporation yesterday, which has sort of been a theme to my life. It's a...."
(oh here we go)
".....pattern of injustice that actually really became apparent during the time I held that human resources position at Blurt Company......"
(she's not interested in my life at all!)

".....which was like, really traumatic! Grayson and Frederika were soooo mean. I mean they- and especially Grayson- saw that I had an in with Terrell, who's was grooming himself for upper management, and they......"
(it's okay for her to share)
"....set up that meeting, the one I told you about, remember? Terrell was warm to me when we sat down but when Frederika said what she said...."
(you shoulda got over this months ago)

“Yup….. ….I see…… ….uh huh…..”

Andrea Tummons- Unsplash.com

"....that's when Terrell's attitude changed towards me and after that it was never the same. I had been branded somehow with the Scarlet Letter- for doing absolutely nothing! The head of human resources and a few other people in other key management positions....."
(staring blankly, nodding occasionally)

".....started giving me the cold shoulder, like I had the plague or something. And I did! The BlurtCo black plague! I had been marked for death! It was so unfair. Frederika got promoted soon afterwards...."
(I wonder what I'm going to make for dinner tonight?)

"....but didn't last, did she? She only thought she had the right stuff! Grayson (laughs) had to run solo after that, and that enabled Terrell to clearly see that he was incompetent. Justice, huh? But then Janice showed up. Ugh! That little tart! When she came onto the scene my career became as good as over! Terrell......"
(sigh... ....trying to look like I’m listening)
".....and her started going out and I knew. I knew that it was the end for me. That's when I started sending out my resume. Anything was better......"
(I feel so alone)

"...than the oppressive environment that BlurtCo became. But you know what it did for me, that whole experience?"
(what?)
"It changed me into a better person. I wasn't bitter about it. Being bitter only makes it worse. I chose to move on. Other people don't care what has gone on in your life!"
(tell me about it)
"My getting shot down at BlurtCo was what got me to take classes. Classes in human development that were offered for free by the local community college. Group therapy sessions, they were, hosted by a psychologist. A group of ten of us....."
(maybe I should join one…)

"....shared the experiences we had had, wrestling with pain. We listened to and supported each other's journeys. Sometimes it got really deep. I remember there was this guy named Jason....."
(please do go on)
"....who had been persecuted at work, not exactly in the same way that I was....."
(I think I'm gonna pass out)
"......which was by a tag team duo. Jason got picked on by the whole department he was in. He was gay, you know. In a construction company! When the guys he was working with found out...."
(what were you saying? I think I missed something)

"....it was like he was radioactive. The whole environment of camaraderie he had been enjoying with the guys shifted right under Jason's feet. Not a single one of them would talk to him anymore....."
(I know what that feels like)
"......so he retreated to this inner world. I guess we all have one. I know I do! That's the place I go......"
(when the outer world gets to be too much?)

".....when I feel I'm not being heard. It's a place where I can express my feelings and maybe get some feedback, like when I'm talking to a close friend. A friend like you! I really treasure...."
(is this really happening?)
".....these times when we talk".

Honor Your Commitment

While it is clever of you to work the angles surrounding your present job, to find all the little gray areas where you can play your avoidance games, it would really be helpful if you didn't. 

     For you see, we, your coworkers, showed up ready to work. Somewhere along the way it got instilled in us that Honoring Our Commitment was valuable let me explain…. 

People don't exist in a vacuum. What they do has an effect on everybody else and every other thing. Most of what people do is absorbed into the great big gestalt called The World which is the cumulative effect of people's actions and is measured by scientists and sociologists but let's not go into broad spectrum awareness. Let's keep it close to home. In fact, let's go inside that 'home away from home' called the workplace and make it personal. 

  Now I know we each have our issues. Things aren't working out the way you thought they would. The wife is on your back, or the boyfriend, or it’s the ex or the kids or the in-laws or you got health issues or your mother is long term sick or whatever. We all got our problems. 

    And I know it's hard sometimes to look at the situation you're in and not try to lay some or most of the blame for things being the way they are on The Man, 'the oppressor', but you gotta understand that The Man is far removed and supremely shielded from whatever actions you decide to take at work to 'get back' at him. Or is it her? Doesn't matter. 

To your feeble efforts The Man laughs, for he doesn't feel a thing. Your coworkers- us- however, do. When you decide to call in sick when you're not, we have to cover for you. When you decide to take a three day weekend and not report on your Monday or Friday of the week, we have to cover for you. When you disappear at work or figure out a way to appear to be working but are really not, we have to cover for you. Need I go on? You look to be strangely puzzled by this. Are you not getting it? I thought that what was being relayed was unmistakably clear..... 

     No, you are getting it. And that's the problem. You know what you are doing yet you do it anyway. 

Perhaps figuring out why you choose to take the low road might be a course of study beneficial for you to undertake for you probably don't feel so good about yourself or the actions you are taking. It's okay. We understand because way back in the past we did the kinds of things that you did and felt the feelings you are now experiencing. Those weak and sickly vibrations didn't settle well with us so we chose to explore them in order to get rid of them. 

    The only way we could figure out how to overcome those feelings was to live honorably in a dishonorable world. We knew we couldn't change the exterior a whole lot, there were too many people making dishonorable choices, but we decided that at least we were going to feel good about ourselves.

That was a long time ago for us, it seems, for we know that time weighs heavy on the dishonorable. 

The only thing you can’t escape is having to live with yourself

Zoltan Tasi- Unsplash.com

Consequently, we don't go home at night anymore carrying guilt and self loathing. We may at times stray in our actions, everybody does, for The World is an intense place, but we course-correct rapidly while you don't. You linger in the dark, heavy, and sad vibrations and go into endless stories about this and that and them in order to justify your actions to yourself and the people that share your views, who you call 'friends'. The only entity you may fear is God, your creator, for while everybody else is ‘totally snowed’ you suspect that there is one who isn't taken in the least bit by your actions but you can even mentally come to grips with that. He's the forgiving kind, or so you’ve heard. When the time comes you'll just check out like you usually do so there's really not a lot to worry about there. 

Oh, I, we, wish we could reach you but so far all our efforts have been futile for you do what you do again and again and again. 

This is not to scold you, or lambaste you, for the honorable don't do that. Neither is this presented in order to shame you or forcefully educate you. It is only offered in compassion for you to consider. 

Eventually, the pain you have been causing others will have to be reckoned with and boy, that's gonna hurt. You. Hell, it happened to us, that's how we know. We saw the damage we caused, said "Anything but that!", and from then on stuck to the high road for we couldn't continue on in any other way.

A Message To The Class Of 1999

     How's all that world changin' workin' out? Are U Millennials getting things done, the kinds of things that you hoped the previous generation would have gotten around to? 

Well, speaking from experience, you probably feel at this point that you coulda done more and you're puzzled by that, you're looking back and going "What the hell happened?" because things haven't really changed all that much. 

Yeah, you brought us a lot of tech, and we got to thank you for bringing those wondrous computers and apps and all that into our lives, but you also opened the door to a lot of bad things coming through and using those portals but you can't be faulted for tryin’. 

To improve the world, that is. Every generation gives it a go. 

You were so full of hope then

Ben Konfrst- Unsplash.com

What you might be finding right about now is that the twenty-somethings are kinda lookin' down on you some, thinking that you have seriously dropped the ball and that they've got a long row to hoe 'cuz things we're supposed to get done on your watch and they weren't. Some of 'em might be a little mad. 

But you got busy, didn't you? It was a little more than you expected, this thing called Life, and well, things take time you know, and most times the path you were on didn't flow in a straight line. You got sidetracked or sidelined by things and might even have lost a little ground somewhere along the way before you got back in the game but those of us that have been there totally understand all that, and that's why we didn't take it so personal when you got mad at us do you remember?

Nah. You probably don't. You were too full of yourselves then. But that's okay. So were we, in our time! 

Lookin' on the bright side though, you did get a surprising amount of things done which pissed off or outright scared the kinds of people that don't like to see progress so those folks dug their heels in all the harder and put up walls or somehow hobbled progressive movements like it was the end of the world comin'(!) or something but you were just trying to help. You saw a way things could be made better but they didn't want to see a whole lot of change unless they could work that change for their own betterment, you understand, and you do. You saw darkness come out of hiding, like we did. 

“So yeah, uhm… …welcome to the club!” say we who have come before. Furthermore, we’ll tell you the gist of what we realized and came to grips with when we hit forty: “You can't give up, 'cuz what else is there?”.

If you’re anything like us, and you probably are, you’re going to find that you and your contemporaries are not going to be as vocal as they used to be, and most of them won’t make it near the front page anymore. Movies and TV shows will stop portraying your generation so much. You’ll find that you’re hardly as ‘up and coming’ as you once were and that you’re certainly not hot, not as hot as the twenty-somethings coming right out of the gate. But even so, you’ll continue doing what you can. 

So go and have a home-brew or something. Take the load offa your feet. Kick back and take a breather ‘cuz you gotta prepare yourself for what comes next. The twenty-somethings are hard at work creating a new culture and lingo and you’re gonna have a hell of a time trying to keep up!