BE YOURSELF SINCE EVERYONE ELSE IS TAKEN

If we’ve learned one thing in baby boomer life it’s Be Yourself.

Mr. Spielberg may have a different take, but he’s still Steven Spielberg.

Not to say he’s got a mental health problem like multiple personalities, but who turns into a different person? Every year?

Maybe it works best in his world, where personal identity depends on how the last movie did?

If he’d had a decade of box office bombs his name would be Steven Who?

By the way, what was his last movie? Ready Player One. His next movie out this year? West Side Story.

Directing a gamer movie then a remake of a Broadway musical sounds like it would take two different people. Who is that adaptable?

You. And here’s why:

If there’s ever been a time to switch things up, it’s now. The pandemic quarantine year of 2020 is worthy of change.

For example, I’ve changed from viewing humanity as walking breathing disease vectors back to people.

After I got vaccinated. But my mask game is still strong.

This change of viewpoint is based on science, or science based, because I went to college. Before you drag me off my academic high horse, I graduated from Portland State University.

For reference, I started in 1973 as a PE major, English major, sociology major, or what ever major had classes at the right time. With that record after one year, I dropped out and joined the Army to refine my choices.

Sounds kind of funny now, but it was an educational two years.

I returned to college as an English major at UofO for two years before dropping out for romantic reasons. Yes, I was a romantic, probably too much of a romantic.

But I ask, is there such a thing as being too romantic? In the spirit of bad romance, yes. I moved on to NYC where dreams are made to be broken.

Be Yourself Before You Forget

My lust for knowledge continued when I moved to Portland. So did rekindled romance.

If you go to school long enough, and date different people, you don’t turn into someone new. Instead, you learn to understand differences without judging.

I’ve been introduced as a new boyfriend, a summer fling, and a guy in the neighborhood.

My wife and I met when I was just a guy in the Northwest Portland neighborhood. We each had other commitments, but we double dated a few times. She even introduced me to one of her friends as a potential.

The friends go-to drink was a Rusty Nail, the go-to conversation was complaining. We hit it off at a house party where we dirty danced. I walked her to her car without the music playing. You know, real life.

She went home, I went back inside. The Rusty Nail date the next week settled it. There wouldn’t be another. We were both relieved, but not as much as my future wife as things turned out.

I enrolled at Portland State, got married, had kids, and graduated in 1991. I’ll do the math: eighteen years and parts of three decades work on a four year degree. Impressive, no?

The educational experience helped me harp on my kids about finishing what they start. At the same time, it sunk in and they both got college degrees in five years.

Remember What You Signed Up For

Firstly, be true to yourself. It’s easier when you know who the heck you are.

The Big Man Of Letters, Ernest Hemingway, once said, “We’re all broken. That’s how the light gets in.”

The great Jim Croce added to the idea in Bad Bad Leroy Brown:

Well the two men took to fighting
And when they pulled them from the floor
Leroy looked like a jigsaw puzzle
With a couple of pieces gone

Be yourself, not a junkyard dog, a tree top lover, or King Kong.

Or Ernest Hemingway.

Change when you need to, apply a lifetime of experience when called, and do this one thing: learn to listen.

After a recent conversation, I asked, “Did you notice my listening skills?”

“Yes, and I was surprised, but ready.”

“Ready?”

“Yes. I talked fast so you couldn’t interrupt.”

“You’re catching on.”