I'm listening to an audiobook, The Host, by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series...never read nor seen the movie, as I work on some weekend painting, fix-it, handyman stuff. My younger brother, Steve suffers a similar fate. His house about a year before being renovated (by his hands alone). Last weekend I helped him cut some stock and mud a bathroom. I'm pretty good at that stuff since I know every inch of the 1,000 sq ft house (floors, walls, and ceilings). All of the work I do is craftsman quality and I take pride in that. However, I am perplexed by the mere fact that I am in this perpetual fixer upper to do list. Is it something in my genetics? Why do my brothers for the most part suffer the same fate. It is hard as hell and not as rewarding as one might guess, but every bit as pain filled and more. Life is a struggle and I wonder why. College educated and middle class, we teeter on the edge of financial ruin. Woe is the life that our parents' generation bequeathed to us. I hope that we have the strength and common sense to turn around the cycle of short sightedness for empathy and compassion...save those, I'd just like to see some practicality brought back into the world.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Greatest Generation My Ass
Ok, I read the book, The Greatest Generation and I admit, I was taken in by the romatic good olde days, even if the good old days meant storming a machine gun bunker with nothing but a rifle and a hand full of grenades. That took balls the size of North Dakota. My hats off to anyone who has served in the military before or since. However, every day, since reading the book, I have doubted more and more that the moniker was merited. If the world had ended at the end of the Second World War, then fine. Give the men and women of the wartime generation medals galore. They earned them.
However, when I think about the legacy that they left and the progress that followed, their holy status gets knocked down a notch. Why? Because their kids were the worst generation. Hands down, there has been more destruction, depletion, waste, conspicuous consumption etc, from the boomer generation than any before and god help us, since. There is a black man in the white house now and that means progress. There are more millionaires than ever before and that means the opposite. How are the two linked? "To whom much is given, much will be required." I don't know where that is from, but I heard it a long time ago when reading about Rockefeller's son. The greatest generation spawned peace and prosperity upon the (this part of the world) and with it a whole generation of greedy bastards.
I'm not trying to point fingers, but it seems obvious to me that the greatest generation is the one that brings peace and compassion to the world not seen since the Native Americans ruled the Americas. I may be jumping the gun here, but trade in your SUV for a bycicle and a pair of walking shoes. Cancel your cable and take a life drawing class.
We are on a one way road to pain and sufferage. The bailed out banks are screwing everyone in sight and making record profits. Every person that is against healthcare reform is 50 and over and selfish as hell. Raising a family is more like running a gauntlet than enjoying life. We are all borrowing from our future and heavily in debt. Instead of paying a professional athelete tens of millions a year to play a sport, why don't we... You get the point and if you don't this blog won't change a thing.
However, when I think about the legacy that they left and the progress that followed, their holy status gets knocked down a notch. Why? Because their kids were the worst generation. Hands down, there has been more destruction, depletion, waste, conspicuous consumption etc, from the boomer generation than any before and god help us, since. There is a black man in the white house now and that means progress. There are more millionaires than ever before and that means the opposite. How are the two linked? "To whom much is given, much will be required." I don't know where that is from, but I heard it a long time ago when reading about Rockefeller's son. The greatest generation spawned peace and prosperity upon the (this part of the world) and with it a whole generation of greedy bastards.
I'm not trying to point fingers, but it seems obvious to me that the greatest generation is the one that brings peace and compassion to the world not seen since the Native Americans ruled the Americas. I may be jumping the gun here, but trade in your SUV for a bycicle and a pair of walking shoes. Cancel your cable and take a life drawing class.
We are on a one way road to pain and sufferage. The bailed out banks are screwing everyone in sight and making record profits. Every person that is against healthcare reform is 50 and over and selfish as hell. Raising a family is more like running a gauntlet than enjoying life. We are all borrowing from our future and heavily in debt. Instead of paying a professional athelete tens of millions a year to play a sport, why don't we... You get the point and if you don't this blog won't change a thing.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
What do you need to be successful?
As a small business owner, time is among the most valuable commodities. I always thing, if I only had a little more time, I could have... That is such wrong thinking and I know it. What a small business owner, or anyone in business for that matter, needs is ambition. Ambition finds time. Ambition makes time. Ambition makes up for time. Forget more time. Ambition will give you drive which will get things done. So as time slips away, don't wish for more of it, just wish for more ambition and time will fly by and you won't even care.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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