Its not our Father's Work World or Car Anymore

If your Dad was like mine and millions of other in the US they moved where ever their jobs took them and worked the hours and days they were asked.  Never or rarely a question or refusal.  THen somewhere in the mid-70s, mergers, exporting of jobs, recessions, fuel crisis and something else intangible changed things. 

I visited my old corporation yesterday.  It was weird sitting in the lobby as a visitor waiting for an escort.  No - it didn't make me sad or happy.  It was just weird.  Except - I was in a suit.  Looking every bit like a vendor.  I have sat on the client side of the table so much, I don't know that I am sure how to act - protect my own interests or the potential client.  My values will always favor doing the right thing for the client and my brain tells me that in the long run and maybe even the short run, that approach will be best for my business and my hear.

I realized that people will go and do what is best for their own career, their family, their faith and a bunch of other priorities before blindly doing what ever it is that the company would want.  If I had been my father, I might have moved my family.  Instead, I moved my work situation.

Weird indeed.

Cycle of Life - Middle Age Style

So - this week we learned a dear long time friend is going on hospice with uncurable liver cancer.  He's a great guy, from the same town as my Grandfather in Scotland and a great musician.  A really truly great human.  And we are going to lose him and soon.  Not so long ago it seemed like every one was getting married, having a baby or two or three and we were going to confirmations, bar mitzvah's and other like youthful events.  I have this sinking feeling that there are memorial services and funerals in my future. 

When do we get to go back into the babies part of this?

The key message for me in this is that life is a circle but we can make the shape change - some.  Colonoscopies can save lives and we all need to get past the obvious yucky parts of them and get them done - if there's a family history or if you are 50 or over.  So - let's move it folks.  Please, lets all agree to make ovals.
G

Japan, Libya, Africa and Philadelphia

I watch the news and wonder how all this terror and danger came to be.  Did we great the earthquake and Tsunami?  No, but we build Nuke plants on fault lines, create enormous energy demands that force us to damage the earth with oil coal and now nukes.

Starting Out

So, I sit here in the bosom of suburban America in 2011 and wonder how to make the world a better place and keep the promises I made to my wife, my kids, my employer and myself - and have all that benefit our planet in some manner; benefit others in some manner.  I wonder how this will go.

More as I go forward.  But that is my premise. My job is to share my journey and, maybe, make the world a better place.  And - truth be told, sometimes just vent my spleen. 
Peace,
George