My favorite movies are the Back to the Future movies
in 3 there is a model like 2 and 1 of Hill Valley the model has a book near a wind mill and it is marked NO RETURN
Risks are taken and we always feel like we can get back to before that risk was taken however very often we will find ourselves at points where we realize there is no return.
The phrase burn the boats comes from an apocryphal tale in which Hernan Cortes invades Mexico and orders his men to burn the boats they came in. The burning of the boats proved to the men that they where to be conquerors or nothing at all.
Usually when we take on new roles or tactics we have the luxury of easing into that role however there will come a time when we cannot return to the older role sadly many of us do not know when this happens.
I guess the lesson is to embrace the new and learn from the old. Know that tomorrow is over and you can really never go back. Everything changes even if we don’t want it to. If we lean into the changes we can adjust and like a great sailor or surfer we can ride the waves and move forward. If we try to look for a point of no return chances are we will never find it and we will not enjoy the now.
Learn from the past, live in the present and look forward to the future.
I grew up watching the tv shows Star Trek. In the show Star Trek the captain was an American Cowboy type. The captain was named James T. Kirk and he was always ready for a fight. The captained acted impetuously and was evened out by his commander S’chn T’gai Spock. Commander Spock was a Vulcan. The Vulcan species were governed only by logic. All decisions made by a Vulcan were the most logical ones possible with the information provided during the series we the audience learn that Spocks mother was human and father Vulcan, this allows for Spock to make some illogical yet practical solutions to save his captain and crew.
Life is full of decisions. Everyday we decide at least 35,000 decisions. That 35,000 comes from this article. Just thinking about that amount makes me tired. I have always assumed that I’ve always made the most logical decisions but this assumption is a bit of solipsism on my part. I have acted impetuously on way more than one occasion.
I’ve always assumed that the most logical decision would be the correct one until recently. There are many examples where logical decisions provide some awful results. One example is the way that airlines are boarded. Some airlines use zones others board all at once and none of them get it right.
Are decisions today will lead us to actions and logic deals with theory and fact not actions. Practical decision making deals with action and practice. On the TV show Star Trek the combination of Spock and Kirk lead to practical thinking and decision making (as practical as a fiction series can portray).
At the end of the day it is important to realize that all decisions we make come from an emotional place. We should employ logic, emotion and practical reasoning and feel good about our choices. If you think you made a bad one don’t worry you have 34,999 chance today to make a better one.
I was working for a company as a janitor. I would clean floors every week night at the local grocery store. The employees were paid every two week. Every other Friday I received a paper check (it was a while ago and we didn’t use direct deposit). One Friday I went to work on the payday and there were no checks available. The manager did not know why and let all the employees know that we would vote to see if we worked that night or not.
Me and the rest of the employees worked everyday because we believed that we would get paid every other Friday. The believe was manifested through hope and the hope was bolstered through getting a check every other week. The week we didn’t get the check shook our faith and belief.
The CEO visited the Monday after with payroll checks and spoke to the workforce in an effort to shore up the belief.
Sometimes things happen that can shake our belief in ourselves, religion, organization, fill in the blank. When this happens we need to “recharge” our faith. We should never loose faith in ourselves but we can and it does happen.
How do we fix it? We invest and support ourselves with positive work. Work on yourself. If you feel like you are loosing faith work on you. Take care of yourself and surround yourself with good people and things. You will only get your belief back through actions.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt
My step son complained to my wife about his older sister. His sister had said something sideways about my step son, some insult from an older child to a younger one. My wife let the older child now that she should not insult her brother then, my wife let the younger child know that he was allowing his sister to live in his brain rent free. She let the boy know that he should not do this.
My wife is a wise woman and this advice was wisdom incarnate. It really was.
Not everyone will be your cheerleader or your supporter, it is a sad truth that there may come a time when someone is working against you. There maybe someone who is trying to hurt you and they may try to physically hurt you but more often you will find that they will try to psychologically, and mentally harm you.
If someone can live in your mind the damage they do there is far more impactful than physical damage. We may or may not have a choice about physical damage but we do have a choice about our mentality.
Be cautious today about who we allow to impact our minds.
“I will never let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” – Gandhi
We should never allow anyone to walk through our minds or live rent free in our minds if they are negative and trying to harm us. We should work to help those folks and give them positive enforcement and support.
Teams, whether we want to or not we are all part of at least one team. Humanity. A team is a group of people preforming independent tasks to accomplish a common mission or objective. What is humanities goals or objectives? Well it depends on who you ask. At the most basic level it is humanities goal to survive and evolve. At a higher level I hope that humanity would; love, learn, progress, and become all around better as we evolve.
Bill Nye stated that evolution is not survival of the fittest but survival of the good enough. If something in the germ line did not kill you it makes it to the next generation. Whatever it is like lets say an appendix. I think that as a team humans can do better but how? How can we do better with our independent tasks?
First and foremost we need to love others or at the very least be empathetic to others. When I only focus on myself I will often engage in tasks that are not helpful for the team. As a matter of fact the tasks can actually be harmful to the team.
I is hard to empathize with someone we do not know or understand. So secondly we need to learn about our team. What are parts of other cultures, religions, and world views and why?
Armed with empathy and education it should give us teammates a map and a list of new tasks for meeting our teams goals.
“I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team. I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate Champion.” Mia Hamm
Gardening has always been one of those actions that, I love in theory but tests my patience and resolve. You plant water and wait and hope and often you are rewarded but sometimes you are not then you start over again.
Gardens are a great metaphor for life in that, we can do all we can but sometimes we are not rewarded with what we want. Should we stop “tending our garden”? Of course not, if anything we need to start over and maybe learn from the last garden.
I love watching NBA and WNBA games. I follow the NBA and WNBA on social media sites and fan groups. Sometimes the great debate about the pay gap between the NBA and the WNBA will arise (usually around the time that the players unions are negotiating their contract). There are some that do not feel their is a problem with a pay gap between the NBA and the WNBA. These folks often mask their sexism with comments online like “the NBA makes more money so the men deserve more money”. The problem with the making more money explanation for the pay gap would be the reason behind the NBA making more money.
The NBA was created in 1946 and the NBA has poured a lot of time and money into the NBA to make it a success. Players have never been underpaid in the NBA despite the lack of profitability. The NBA was on the verge of bankruptcy teams were closing because of lack of funding but the players that remained were well taken care of or tended to. The WNBA has not received this treatment at all.
It takes time patience and effort to see take care of garden and get some delicious fruits and vegetables. It also takes time patience and effort to get a promotion have a child graduate, graduate yourself and do almost anything in life.
Don’t get discouraged, try again and again and again and… (well you get the point) and of course have some fun with tending the garden. Reward the child and encourage them in all their grades. Reward and invest in yourself along the way to your own goals to.
Grit, according to Angela Duckworth is “is passion and perseverance for long-term goals.” Grit is what you need to do anything that is worth while grit and some rain or luck.
The luck and the rain will come you just have to be ready for it with the planted seed and tended to garden.
Get out of town! No seriously you really should get out of town of course this travel should be done as safely as possible with the current pandemic still raging. Get the vaccination and booster prior to traveling and when in a crowd wear that mask.
Travel brings with it perspective and education. Every group has a culture that is part of that places and persons identity. It is perspective and education that bring unity and compassion along with understanding.
When we get out of town we learn that the world is big and small at the same time. People who look and speak differently than us still have the same primary concerns. No matter who or where you are Maslovs hierarchy of needs seems to be the goal. How we meet those needs can differ wildly and that is where it can be interesting and educational.
I live in a pretty warm climate, I rarely break out a sweater or jacket, I used to live in a more severe climate and would be often seen wearing a sweater and jacket.
I have lived and worked on US military installations and security was present and not uncommon, I have also lived in areas where the security presence was almost non existent and was on the periphery. Security was handled through trust and was reactionary.
In the Steve Jobs biography there is some detail about the time Jobs spent living on a commune picking Apples. Commune living is attractive to some for various reasons I have never lived this way however the strong family bonds are quite attractive.
Different areas of the world honor different people for various accomplishments. Some rural places award livestock raised by farmers and produce grown by farmers. Other communities give out awards for running or cutting down trees the fastest.
It is through meeting all our needs that we learn who we truly are and chances are high that not all our needs will be meet with the perspective and education that comes from only having seen or experienced one group of people.
The world is roughly 24, 901 miles wide (circumference at the equator) it is large and chances are high that you will through travel find people and places that help you meet your needs or better yet through travel you can help others meet their needs!
Last night I watched the new Matrix movie and there was a scene where the general mentions that the Matrix makes a lot of noise in your brain. The line got me to thinking about what noise is exactly and why noise is not the same as sound.
Noise is an unwanted and unpleasant sound that invades and takes over at its apex noise is all that can be heard or even felt. Sound is different in that sound is the vibration that travels through the air. Sounds can be noisy and harmonious. It is odd that as an adjective sound is defined as good or wholesome ie the building is structurally sound, or the theory is sound.
A younger me enjoyed listening to music that my parents thought was noise and now I hear some of my kids’ music and well I can empathize with my parents. I happen to enjoy many genres of music one of my favorite is Jazz. I love the free-form nature of jazz. My favorite part of jazz is improvisation. Jazz has all the same parts as music, melody, harmony, and rhythm. Some people receive Jazz and love it others are not as receptive.
It seems that reception is the key to the difference between sound and noise. How we receive a sound has a lot to do with what makes certain sounds noise.
In the movie, the noise that the general was referring to was noise inside our heads, distractions, disturbances, anything other than what we want our focus to be. Even though the noise is different it still seems that reception is the difference.
A good strategy for handling our overactive noisy brains is to shut off distractions if possible. If it is not possible to shut off the distractions maybe it is time to learn from the distractions or the noises. Be curious, learn what the distractions are why they have manifested.
This weekend I just finished watching the season finale of the most recent season of The Expanse. The Expanse is a sci fi show on Amazon Prime. The show follows the crew of a space craft as they navigate through discovery and a political minefield set in the future. I am a huge fan of space. I love watching and reading about how humanity has been to and is going to space. Rocket travel huge when it comes to getting to space. Rockets provide the velocity to send objects up and out of the earths atmosphere.
Liquid Oxygen is one of the fuels of choice for rocket launching. If the oxygen that has become hot it needs to vent.
If the rocket does not vent it can explode and cause catastrophic damage to the rocket and crew or payload the rocket is sending.
People are the same as rockets, we need to vent sometimes. If we just take all the emotion dumped on us from the world we may explode (especially the negative emotion).
Everyone vents out the unneeded, some call toxic emotions it is how, when, and how long that seems to make a huge difference.
It can be very tempting to vent to good listeners every time we see them, this should probably be avoided. No one wants to be a “buzz kill”. Our relationships are defined by our interactions and even though venting is needed it is also toxic. If we are always venting to that good listener we have inadvertently created a toxic relationship.
Venting takes place before a launch. If you find yourself constantly venting about the same situation and make no changes then you are not really venting in the sense of venting to create action and this is also toxic. There is a fine line between venting and wallowing in something toxic.
Wallowing is when you roll around and relax in something. The last thing we want to do is roll around and relax in negativity.
The trick is to be like a rocket, vent and rise above toxic situations and negative emotions. You can accomplish so much when this happens.
So today is Martin Luther King Jr day in the United States. I cannot express the change this man made and what it cost him and his family! The United States has a long way to go but the progress so far was hard fought. Thank you Dr King!
The Corrigan Encore 