CHALLENGING TIMES CHANGE CULTURE

Challenging times start early every day.

Fortunately the Beatles prepared us.

Here Comes The Sun.

After that  comes the morning plan:

Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up I noticed I was late

Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream

 

And here we are, someone speaks and we go into a dream.

When the person next to you starts explaining how things are, how they could be, and how to get from one to the other, and you didn’t ask?

It’s a challenging moment to be polite and excuse yourself, which ought to be your first move instead of sending it back at them.

I had a guy, probably a good guy, leave comments on BoomerPdx that always included a particular angle.

He was a gun guy looking for engagement of some kind that matched his fervor for weapons of conflict.

I eased in at first, answering comments as I always do with more content because not everything makes it to the blog.

But he got more revved up, more strident, even demanding, which led to a ban.

He wanted to change the culture of my blog to something that fit him.

To that I say, “Then start your own blog, son.”

His final words wished me well for being a soft pud living in my own echo chamber.

I’m not soft, nor do I live in an echo chamber, but thank you.

I also don’t live where agenda driven shit-birds come to roost.

 

Someone Spoke And I Went Into A Dream

Do you ever get the feeling in modern times that something seems off?

You feel like the narrative throughout your day is driven by something you can’t quite name?

I’ll name it for you and you can thank the nearest Baby Boomer:

Uncertainty.

Doubt.

Fear.

You’re uncertain about the future, have doubts about the direction you’re headed, and fear the outcome if things don’t change.

The uncertainty comes from the changing culture where it’s allowed to make claims.

Just don’t claim to be the King Of The World. We know who that is.

Doubt comes from trying to believe everyone has positive intentions, which you need to work on.

Fear? It comes with change, with the changing culture.

If you don’t want to live in fear, please continue.

 

The Fear

Let’s say you’ve grown accustomed to the way things are, the way things have been ever since you remember.

Maybe you’re a little on the older side and your memory may have gaps?

That’s not an excuse, but bear with me.

We live in an era of ten dollar beer to go with twenty dollar burgers.

No one is serving up burgers and beer for five dollars, including tip, but it’s still a memory.

The cheapest burger I remember growing up was nineteen cents at the Acey Bird (Arctic Circle.)

When I got old enough to get fake ID I remember fifteen cent beers in a thin ten ounce glass in a Eugene pool hall.

Thirty five cents turned into thirty dollars over fifty-odd years?

That’s not the problem.

The problem is eating that dead burger and drinking that lifeless beer and listening to a hype-man tell you it’s the same as today’s gourmet organic free-roaming burger and special edition craft beer made by beer craftsmen who’ve studied the art in faraway lands like Washington State when they rolled out the first two great beers of the common era in the early 1980’s.

The problem is telling them they’re mistaken only to get berated by an expert bull-slinger with more memory gaps than you.

When you know the difference between shit and shinola, and they know you’re right, it spurs them on to greater heights.

Disagree and suddenly you’re a moron, an idiot; you’re too stupid for words, a waste of skin; you wouldn’t know how to pour piss out of a boot with the directions on the heel.

After listening long enough you start believing they are right and you are a fool.

We’re always the last to know with a hype-man missing their mark.

Before you fold and give them the win, before you collapse under the onslaught of hyperbole and horseshit, remember who you are and how far you’ve come.

You haven’t come this far just to hear how lost you are and you need the guidance of a hack to find your way.

Follow me for more life lessons with Rasputin.