Friday afternoon

Last Friday I had to work late. A class was graduating from their training and getting promoted from recruits to fire fighters. My role was to ensure all the technical work for the graduation went off without a a hitch and it did. Curtains opened closed on que, sound was perfect and video flawless.

In the control room I heard the whole presentation and later that night while speaking with my wife I mentioned how graduations are important. It is important to celebrate accomplishments and finishing fire fighter training is a big one! I have noticed that a big part of a few graduations involves the mindset of being better when you get through adversity. I asked my wife though if she thought adversity ever ended? I am not sure that it does. Let me explain, if life is a game than it is an infinite one. Games have a beginning and an end and our lives while they have an end in death and a beginning in birth their really isn’t a point in time when we stop and take stock of our “points” and determine a winner. Life is a gift really more so than a game. We have a chance to learn and experience the sensation of being a sentient being in our universe and that is pretty cool. Part of living is adversity, it could be health woes, financial woes, or relationship ones and we will learn to live with and mitigate this adversity however we will always have to deal with health, finances and relationships. As long as you are living you will have to deal with life and life can be great or hell. You never really get through adversity you are more likely to rise above adversity and again mitigate the adversity as best you can. In the corporate world goals are often called “Big Rocks”. The concept behind “Big Rocks” is that the corporation find a way to sail around or above the BIG Rocks in the river they are traveling in. I know this can seem like a matter of semantics getting through or rising above but I think that when we approach a situation as a obstacle we must get through we become a destructive force doing harm to others and ourselves. If we approach a situation as a rock opposed to an adversary I cant help but think that we will have a better world view and mental state.