MY PEOPLE, YOUR PEOPLE, OUR PEOPLE

My people are good listeners, up to a point.

Requesting something five time in a minute is close to that point.

“Please do this. Have you done it. It’s all set up for you. Get started. You’d be done if you’s started sooner.”

We also have patience.

What about your people?

Your people should also be good listeners with patience.

They don’t interrupt you when you say, “Please do this. Have you done it. It’s all set up for you. Get started. You’d be done if you’s started sooner.”

They show patience when you repeat yourself a few times.

Our people? We know them well enough to do things ourselves instead of asking them.

If you ask someone a question, they have to answer.

The wrong answer is a problem. No answer is a problem.

What isn’t a problem?

“I’m doing this, you can come along if you want.”

If you believe people define themselves by what they do, not what they say they’re going to do, why not be one of those believable people?

As you can see by browsing through the posts offered on BoomerPdx, (browse the more than 3500 posts after you finish here, leave a thoughtful comment, and copy and paste the link in every social media known to the net,) when I say I’m going to do a blog post, I do a blog post.

Maybe I’ll write a blog post? No.

I think I’ll write a blog post? No.

After I do more research I’ll get one up? No.

I write a post every morning with rare exceptions.

Anyone who does the same are my people, unless they write, “I’ve been noodling with a notion,” or, “Since it’s Tuesday and I’m tired,” or, “Not that it matters to anyone else, but . . .”

They won’t last with that sort of attitude, and my people have endurance.

They do hard things,

 

With a million hard-luck stories in the big city, it’s a long line of sorry tales.

People come and go. They show up for the good times, only to find those ended last year and all that’s left is to clean up the mess.

If it’s not the sort of mess they’re used to, they go back home and get to work.

 

Home Is Where The Heart Is

What do you do when things aren’t working out where you are?

Say you decide to relocate and find the perfect home, but it’s in a furnace hot desert?

It’s going to be hot, but maybe you love extreme heat and just don’t know it? (Hey Vick)

Or maybe you love the beach so much you move there, not knowing the existential dread of a tsunami projected to happen tomorrow, on the Aztec New Year, or ten thousand years from now.

Or. Right. Now. EEEK (Hey out to me)

I was ten years old when the old man (thirty-four) took us for a drive out to Charleston after the Anchorage Alaska earthquake in 1964.

I remember asking, “How did that boat land on a roof?”

It’s a fair question from a ten year old.

 

If my baby boomer hands keep telling me that the end is near now, what are hands telling the millennials?

First of all, hands and skin are not like trees. No one is cutting a finger off to count the rings.

Ask anyone their age, if you have to, and accept whatever number they give.

As long as the driver keeps their hands on the wheel while reminiscing about what a long, strange, trip it’s been, you’re all good.

If they start rambling about a dragon chasing them down a railroad track, play some Grateful Dead to bring them around.

 

Since I’ve lived where I am, I’ve known people who moved six or seven times, building or buying.

They stamp each place with an unmistakable style with beautiful results every time. (Hey JJ)

Any where they go is better off because of them. I call them inspirational, better than a design book.

No matter where they go they make it home, and since I’ve known them awhile, each place feels like a continuation of a homeward bound spirit.

Whether a rain forest, desert, or mountains, they see the world as it could be, then start working on it.

 

What You Don’t Want To See, Hear, Or Think, But . . .

Telling yourself you suck at everything is not the picture you want to paint for yourself.

I know it, you know it, my people know it. So do yours.

Saying it to yourself is one thing.

Saying it to someone else? And they’re a ‘fixer?’ And you didn’t know they were a ‘fixer?’

A hopeful person will start with the hope; a caring person starts with the care; a loving person?

You know the story, but if you don’t, here it is:

When you express yourself negatively in a group, and the new person isn’t used to hearing your throwaway lines of bullshit, they feel compelled to act.

Go ahead and explain how you didn’t mean it and they’ll think you’re just burying your true feelings, which is an invitation for them to start digging.

It starts getting uncomfortable when they find what’s really buried in there:

 

 

PS: When a fixer latches onto you, and you need a touch-up, maybe more than a touch-up, you have to change your ways. If you don’t, you could be going to hell like the Cowboys. Again.

PSS: Living a good life with a fixer means maintenance. Stay sharp. Do it for my people, your people, our people. When you spend time with others, make it time will spent.