SIGNALING, MESSAGING, OR JUST WRITE

“Why don’t you just write?”

Instead of ‘signaling,’ write it down.

Written words are part of ‘messaging.’

Instead of making readers wonder what you’re trying to mean, just write and they’ll figure it out.

But you must write to the standards that have come before you.

For example:

When I was a kid I found my story in a song by the Turtles.

You Baby.

I bought the 45 from Jansen Music in Pony Village the day before I got banned for shoplifting a notebook from Payless.

You had to steal something to hang with certain kids in fifth grade so you could all share the big secret.

My Mom found the notebook when I got home and told my Dad, who asked where I got it.

“Randy gave it to me.”

My Dad called Randy’s Dad who proceeded to beat him to tears because of a wrong answer.

What I heard when my Dad handed me the phone:

“Did you give the kid a present or what?”

Slap, slap, cry cry.

“Answer me. Did you?”

Slap, slap, cry, cry.

The last cry was me confessing while my friend got a bad time.

Instead of giving me the same treatment, which would have been a new thing since this was the first time something as bad as stealing and lying was on the table, my parents took another angle.

My Dad drove us down to Pony Village Payless to meet the manager, who I knew as Richie Northrup’s dad.

He knew me, too.

I’d landed in a bad place.

Dad: Do whatever you do with shoplifters.

Manager: For a first offense, he is banned from the store.

The next day I stopped at Jansen’s Music and bought the 45 of ‘I Fought The Law And The Law Won’ by the Bobby Fuller Four.

Later on:

Dad: Is that a new record? Where’d you buy it?

Me: At Jansen’s.

Dad: You’re banned from the property.

Me: No, just Payless.

Dad: No, all of Pony Village.

 

The Legal Process

By his decisions my Dad showed the right way to treat the law.

He didn’t take it into his hands and slap me silly.

Didn’t shun me for bringing shame to the family name.

He went to the scene of the crime and let the victims be heard.

It was pretty clear I wasn’t the victim, even though I felt like one.

Getting banned from the only mall on the Oregon coast in 1966 was severe punishment.

But, it was fair.

I stayed away when everyone else went to the mall. I went home instead.

The last thing I wanted was my Mom catching me up to something and dragging me around by the arm.

Years later, sophomore year in high school, everyone was going to the college dance.

Parents: Don’t go to the college dance.

Everyone else went, I went home.

Some of my older brother’s friends showed up at the house after they saw my Mom cruising the parking lot and asking about me.

Guys: We want to be here when she finds you.

 

Signaling, Messaging, Or Just Write It Down

Since childhood I’ve been a big fan of due process.

I didn’t get my ass kicked in the fifth grade because of due process.

I did get my ass kicked in eighth grade for lying about where I’d been spending time.

It was a girl’s house, and it was worth it.

Not that we were doing anything wrong because we weren’t.

For some reason I didn’t want to tell my parents where I’d been so I kept my secret and stuck to the story I made up.

Those were the formative years, junior high school, where new things, at least new to us, popped up and had to be dealt with.

Girlfriends, boyfriends, different teachers for different subjects instead of one teacher covering it all, and we had to figure it all out on our own.

Have times changed so much?

We still have to figure it all out on our own, but now we have online instructions.

We have better context for better results.

If you have a difficult task to do, there might be resources available.

You don’t know how to do something? Now you do.

With fewer excuses, do we get better results?

Or better excuses?

 

PS: Write your intentions down and get to work. For example:

Me: I will write a blog for thirteen years.

Me (after 13 years:) No problem.

 

PSS: Have you been to the crossroads where ass kicking and relationships meet? How did it go?