Thank you.
Thank you for reading this blog.
Thank you for caring enough and to be brave enough to say something.
And now, it is time for me to go back to work.
Because that one critic doesn’t represent the whole world.
That one person represents one world view.
Perhaps though, it is a clue to what someone like them thinks.
And if it is someone you seek to serve, you can now make something better.
Here are the highlights of 1968:
We’ve come a long way over the last 50 years. And while the decade closes in perhaps not the best of places there is plenty to be hopeful for.
Because a record number of women, people of color and LGBTQ have been elected to congress.
Because we have seen the minimum wage raised in so many states.
Because of social movements like #metoo, #blacklivesmatter and #nobannowall.
Because the greedy and corrupt can’t hide the same way anymore.
Because in 30 years it is estimated that America’s majority will be people of color and mixed races.
Because more women are going to college than men.
While the problems we have are urgent and important, because of people like you, things have and continue to change.
It isn’t doom and gloom. The narrative is there to purposely cause people that care to give up.
Instead, make a ruckus.
What we say is not what we mean.
What we do is misinterpreted.
What we know is what we can understand.
Everyone has their own language of how they see the world.
We don’t actually say goodbye to as many people as we used to.
Thanks to social media, you can keep tabs, check-in or stock from a distance.
That shift is vastly different from ten years ago.
And so, we tend to keep people around us. Perhaps, even longer than we should.
Not everyone you meet is going to be extraordinary. As a result, we begin to surround ourselves around mediocrity and become more comfortable with it.
The real decision then is figuring out who is actually a real friend and who is just someone we know on Facebook.
Who is actually helping you become the person you want to be?
And…
Who is keeping you from reaching your goals?
Make no mistake, we need friends. Humans are built to connect. But the amount of friends has nothing to do with quality.
We need to surround ourselves with quality people. Even if we must say goodbye to some for a time and season.
Setting a good example from a distance maybe all we can do. It’s better than living under your potential.
To our senses, the world is incomplete. Because we can’t know everything that is actually happening around us.
When we observe the parts but perceive the whole, it’s called closure.
Our entire reality and narrative are based around this concept of closure.
Because in our eyes, the world is incomplete.
That is why it is impossible to truly make an unbiased decision. There are no unbiased decisions, only more informed.
No matter how hard we try, the world as we perceive it is still fragmented. It’s impossible to take it all in. Our perception of reality then must rely on faith.
You don’t own the flame.
Instead, you get to carry the torch.
For a while, if you are lucky.
It’s your choice who you pass it along to.
Keeping the flame burning is really all that matters.
Since the invention of the electronic signatures, it isn’t efficient to fly from Clevland to LA to sign the final documents of your parent’s inheritance.
Watching a Game 7 on ABC isn’t the same thing as going.
Sometimes we skip booking ahead and take a chance that there isn’t a line at the barbershop.
Not everything is supposed to be done in the name of rational or practical.
Some things in life are better done in person.
If you are feeling stuck in your job or in your routine, it’s probably because every time a choice is made you choose the reasonable one.
Because it seems reasonable to stick with a job you know (and hate). “Have you seen this economy?”
Because it seems reasonable to put off the gym until Monday. “I don’t have time.”
Another way to say reasonable is responsible. We are all trying to be responsible for our actions. We have responsibilities we need to take care of.
After a while, it seems difficult to wager what we have gained.
Perhaps, the answer then isn’t to continue to choose what is responsible in the eyes of others and what we call reasonable…
The answer is to embrace unreasonable.
It is unreasonable to quit a job that pays so well.
It is unreasonable to pursue a new field.
It is unreasonable to go to the gym at 5 am.
Be unreasonable.
Ex-convict.
Single parent.
Orphan.
Refuge.
Immigrant.
Unemployed.
Uneducated.
It doesn’t matter about the circumstances of where you came from.
What matters is where you are going.
And sometimes all we need is to see ourselves as someone who can do great things.
Which is hard when the path we lead to this point hasn’t shown much of anything.
That’s just it.
The paths we take are not great until great we make the path.
…
“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” — Alan Turing
History has shown us two things:
1) Problems are inevitable.
Whether we are talking about solving the way humans travel great distances with the use of airplanes (now we need airports, pilots, air traffic controllers…) or vaccinations (cure one disease and so it begins to mutate); when we solve one problem, two more pop up in its place. Which means…
2) Problems are soluble.
Not solvable. Because that would mean that once we figure out a solution then we would never see that set of problems again. No, we continue to evolve as we continue to face adversity. We rise up to the challenges we face of our day. That with the right combination of information and knowledge, we can temporarily solve something. Or we fail and likely perish.
Wich also means that progress is always attainable. Because there is no destination, only direction. We will never achieve utopia in this life because that would mean we have solved every problem we know (and have yet to discover).
Which finally means, that today is the beginning of something great. That we can move in the direction of progress. That as we continue to grow, we face these new sets of challenges never before seen.
