I Need A Change

Some days I find I'm just bored.  With my job, my interests and so on.  Very little seems to light that creative fire.  Rutsville.

This is one of those days.

I could make a few comments about how to overcome those feelings, or days like this.  But frankly, I don't really feel like writing that.

So dear reader - go read something else today.

Age & Wisdom and All That Stuff

I had a chance meeting with an old friend this week, someone I worked with 15 years ago.  He's a global traveller and always on the move in his job, and I knew there'd be some point when we were both in the same city.  I'll admit I don't remember everyone I worked with in the late 1990's, nor would I go out of my way to go sit down and have a coffee with them, but this person is special, he's always been my 'poster-child' of common sense, and I really like him.

I was actually looking for something when we met, I had an ulterior motive admittedly beyond just catching up.  I was looking to speak with him for a little while to see if common sense had matured into wisdom.  You see I've always been curious as to the nature of wisdom.  Sure, it comes with age and experience - I get that part.  But just as an Oak tree doesn't grow from a Lilac tree sapling, wisdom must have it's origins in a specific type of person, or personality.

I won't offer my conclusions here, suffice it to say people with wisdom continue to impress me.  It seems so rare a quality in society at large that we ought to value it highly, if only for its scarcity.  When combined with a strong ethical compass, it's the stuff great leadership is made of.

While I don't consider my efforts this week to have been at all scientific to determine the roots of wisdom, I am clear that it remains important to ask the question, and continue doing so.  After all if we're each on our own journey as the days go by, we should in my humble opinion aim for wisdom as a destination.  It does seem like the biggest possible gift we receive as we get older.

Squirrels

I have to admit a small obsession, and it's a a sign that I've been spending a little too much time at home of late.

 You see I've got a few bird feeders and I love watching the  sparrows, chickadees, cardinals and blue jays come in all day  long.  Makes me happy to help them survive a bitter winter.

Anyone who has done bird feeders before understands that it's a package deal however, and we have four neighbourhood squirrels that also appreciate a free meal.  I however have no place in my heart for these furry tailed tree rats though, and when forced to choose between birds and squirrels, well, let's just say the squirrel can't quite die fast enough for me.

I will give my local squirrels a little credit, they are more tenacious and persistent than I am, coming back over and over and over again.  I may have outsmarted them for a while by re-arranging the feeder they like on a long, high wire, out of their reach, and beyond leaping distance - and these little guys can really leap far.  However one of them has learned to walk the wire, and still gets into the food.

The interesting part is that only one of the four squirrels (and the non-dominant black fur one at that) has cottoned onto this, while the others continue to be frustrated and instead settle for fallen seed only. I'm going to watch them over the next few days to see if they learn from one another, perhaps via language (with tail movement??) or example.

To me this has all the traits of a lab experiment, with newly learnable skills and rewards.  It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.  Perhaps they are indeed smarter than I am.

The Magic Number is 17

One of my own new year's resolutions was to try to write and publish daily.  I felt it was good practice in a few different ways and I was also curious as to when I'd have to resort to writing drivel...clear indicators that I was fresh out of original ideas.

I'm saddened to say that my own ability to stay on the horse is 17 days.

But, like a new workout program or something else requiring will power, missing a day doesn't mean it's abandoned, it just means you missed a day.  Get back up on the horse, and try again.

How long have your own resolutions lasted..?

Freedom of Accomodation

Ever have one of those situations where you're exposed to an idea either for the first time, or it's reintroduced and then everywhere you turn, it seems to be popping up ?

Accommodations are like that for me right now.

I can't seem to get away from the concept of accommodating someone's specific need, beliefs or quirks.

And each time I hear about it, the same question goes through my own mind - since when did accommodating someone's personal situation include having negative implications for another ?

I see little problem with excluding someone from a given situation, so they aren't exposed to something they don't happen to like, except when the doing of it - the accommodating itself -  has a negative impact on another person.  In other words, accommodation has to be implication free.  The kid that elects not to hear the Lord's Prayer in school, stands in the hall when it's done - that is fine.  Only they are affected.  The child that cannot participate in gym class due to some physical issue, doesn't participate.

But when a person has to be accommodated and as a result others have to pick up the pieces, then that's not a case for accommodation, that's a person that isn't willing to participate in the activity, according to the rules of the activity.  If my chosen religion means I can't work on Tuesday's, and my job normally calls for that - well then I shouldn't be given that job. Play it out to extremes...I'd like to be a fish, but need accommodation as I can't actually breathe underwater, so I'll do all the other fish activities, except for being underwater. Silly, right ?

Today in society in an effort to be equitable, we are seeing more and more accommodation pop up. But it isn't a freedom or right, and I fear that in order to be reasonable we are confused about it in more than a few cases.

Substitutes

I spent some time with customers this week, and they have little to no intention of using our products and services in the future.

Of course they didn't say that.  But it was clear.

They took the easy way out - they threw money in our direction and then didn't support the desired outcome - their outcome by the way.   They weren't present to illustrate that this was important to them, instead leaving their staff in the hands of a 'substitute teacher'.  Me.

It was polite, and went fine.  No one threw gum, or wrote bad words on the charts we used.  We were all adults.

But this wasn't my first rodeo, and I saw them sending messages, subtly, that this wasn't important.  We say so much, when we say very little.

So, I was disappointed in the day.  I know what the future will bring here, and I see that I wasn't able to work any magic.  Sometimes that's the case.

The Anonymity of Travel

The hotels all look pretty much the same.   Dull, unremarkable hallways leading to rooms with the same stale scent, of too much stress and little joy.    Work hotels are different than vacation hotels, always.

The flights are similar too, as are the airports.  They heave with people, but we’re not together, we just happen to all be at the same place, trying to get through the same hassles. 

We don’t connect when travelling- at least not for business travelling when it’s wake, eat, meet, eat and sleep again.  Another city, another day where you don’t really experience the place, but instead think primarily of the tasks of travel – the logistics of keeping going, moving until you get to the magical ride home.

We’re surrounded and yet we’re alone when we travel.