SURRENDER CELEBRATION FOR GIVING UP

Surrender celebration starts after you’re done.

Whatever it was you were working on, when it’s done, you’re done.

You’re not going to make anything better at some point.

That’s when you need to know how to walk away.

Portland baby boomers have it down.

They’ve seen their city fade before their eyes.

Sitting between Mt. Hood and Cannon Beach used to be enough.

There’s the beach, there’s the mountain, there’s the sand, there’s the snow.

Pacific Ocean and Cascade Mountains at the doorstep.

For those who could swing the time and money to navigate between the two as a lifestyle priority, Portland was their place.

The town opened up in the 80’s.

It started with the renewal of NW 21st and 23rd.

The hotcake house on the corner of Burnside and 23rd where you cross the street and it becomes SW Vista Drive turned into a real estate office with a seal statue on the roof as a brand reminder.

It went from a dive neighborhood of people in their cups to a shopping district.

You may not find a $1000 purse, but you can get directions.

Sad Portland directions:

Go up the street and turn left at the tent on the corner, step over the napping meth guy crashed in the playground and head southwest.

 

New Portland Directions

The old directions were retire rich, buy a spread, send the kids to Reed College, and find a way to spend all of that leisure time productively.

After that it was all about getting transferred to the NW territory of your company’s sales region, move into a fixer-upper in the West Hills, and join the chorus of complaining to make new friends.

Those were the money-guys who saw Portland as their urban playground, but not too urban.

Then you get guys stepping off the bus after a three day trek from New York’s Port Authority, or hitchhiking in to stay with new friends, or college kids staking their claim after graduation.

It was an urban center, but not too urban.

From not too urban to big city urban swept in unexpectedly.

From reddit:

 

Moved here a few years ago from the south with my partner and we absolutely love it. It really baffles me why so many people are so negative and love to hate on Portland.

In my (limited) experience the people who have the worst to say are Portland natives and frankly from our perspective it kind of just feels like these specific people take so much for granted.

I’m from a small very bigoted rural town in the south and Portland is Eden to me. It’s beyond beautiful, the people are kind, and there’s so much to do! The issues with COL and homelessness are the same in every metro area I’ve lived in which has been quite a few, truly nothing unique to Portland specifically.

Not necessarily saying you should or shouldn’t move here, just wanted to say that for many transplants like us Portland is a wonderful place to call home. Just my two cents.

 

Then there’s The Portland Freeze.

 

Old Portland View

I gave up everything with my Portland move.

The dead end back-office job I scored showed what life would be like.

I worked on a floor of people who worked their surrender celebration.

The old guys in their short sleeves and neckties were retiring and giving way to jeans and t-shirt guys who looked like Wolf-man Jack. (Hey Rocky.)

Dennis, John, Mike, and Nicky were all on their cultural schedule of getting set-up with a nice girl, getting married, kids, and ride the train to the office the rest of their lives.

That was my plan, too, and it felt good.

I liked to think I fit in, but I didn’t.

So I moved back to where I started and continued my man mission.

I didn’t give up on New York as much I understood my certain future if I stayed.

Oregon called and I answered. So I went hardcore Oregonian.

Small apartment, no car, new bike, new neighbors, career job with Oregon flavor.

Eventually I met someone with staying power, who liked to say, “I’ve lived here longer than anywhere else so that makes me an Oregonian, not a transplant; along with, “I would have made a damn good North Bend Bulldog.”

So I proposed, we got married, and moved from NW Portland to Inner Southeast on Lincoln and 11th.

Wife: I can’t live in SE any longer. It reminds me of Los Angeles.

We looked and looked, taking our Portland baby with us, and found Tigard.

One thing led to another and we added Tigard baby.  Two kids went to school, had birthdays, graduated high school and college, got married, have kids.

I add to my memories every day.

Just yesterday I took a five mile walk with kids and dogs and said, “People spend time together but miss the part about shared memories because everyone is so busy. We may forget this walk, but it’s a memory in the making.”

 

Surrender Celebration For Baby Boomers

 

Boomers need to quit complaining and finding something to blame other than themselves.

Figure out climate change and how to make small steps in the right direction.

We’re coming up on the age where running from problems become a problem.

Do you feel tethered to your health care system? Tied to your doctor? Don’t want to start over someplace else?

After taking a good look around, what do you see?

This is what Bruce saw:

 

Now Main Street’s whitewashed windows
And vacant stores
Seems like there ain’t nobody
Wants to come down here no more
They’re closing down the textile mill
Across the railroad tracks
Foreman says, “These jobs are going, boys
And they ain’t coming back

Last night me and Kate we laid in bed
Talking about getting out
Packing up our bags, maybe heading south
I’m thirty-five, we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel
And said, “Son, take a good look around
This is your hometown”

 

Things look different at thirty-five.

Add another thirty of forty years to the calendar and what’s that look like?

Does it feel like you’re making your last stand where you are?

Have you gone to the well so often it’s run dry?

Let’s put the kibosh on that right now.

You haven’t been passed over, passed by, or forgotten.

Neither have you been left out, canceled, or ignored.

If you feel like that, take a look under the hood.

Is someone telling you you’re washed up and finished as the person you think you are?

Do you feel a special surge when you hear a voice and think, ‘I want to be like them.’

As a helpful blogger on a branded boomer blog, I tell my readers to focus on doing better by being better.

Give Portland another chance for starters.

 

When Is It Too Late For A Surrender Celebration

If you’re going to give up anything, do it for the right reasons.

Boomers need to give up on the notion of ‘the good old days.’

Things weren’t all better, you’ve just forgotten the bad parts.

There was a time when no one picked up after their dog, leaving dog crap all over city sidewalks.

I remember when throwing trash out of a car window was normal, and no one recycled plastic.

Who remembers big block cars getting eight miles to the gallon and belching out a smoke screen when the driver ‘punched it?’

Doing small positive things consistently creates momentum away from ‘why bother when everything’s going to hell in a hand basket.’

Start with your part. Pick up after yourself; think of how to make the oceans and the air healthier; join a group.

On the other hand, if you still feel like running away, Tracy Chapman has a plan:

 

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Any place is better
Starting from zero, got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make somethin’
Me, myself, I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so you can fly away?
You gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way

 

Do you need to make a decision?

Make the right one.

This is not the right decision:

 

I’m gonna take a freight train
Down at the station, Lord
I don’t care where it goes
Gonna climb a mountain
The highest mountain
I’ll jump off, nobody gonna know

I’ve gone to buy a ticket now, as far as I can
Ain’t a-never coming back
Ride me a southbound, all the way to Georgia now
‘Til the train, it run out of track

Think it over before you start your surrender celebration.