Snow globe

As a creative thinker I have thought of myself as someone that was sometimes trapped inside the snow globe of thinking that others had formally. I would come up with solutions that were taken outside of the normal patterns of behavior which I thought of snow globe and then, come up with something that works. It didn't always fit with what had to happen, it made me feel as I was coming up with something that would help overall.

For a while I thought of my coworkers as people stuck inside the snow. They couldn't see beyond the freezing surface that they saw around them. They were covered up in blankets and jackets that kept them warm up to a certain point but they could not have it be to be that took them outside of the normal procedures. And when I came to them and said that we can step outside the scope of can actually accomplish things without being limited they freaked out because I was wrong.

So I thought of myself as someone that escaped the snow globe at work. I got outside the snow globe and I actually encouraged people to come out with me. But nobody would because they were so comfortable and they enjoyed what they were stuck in and didn't want to do anything different. So there I was, outside the snow globe, alleviating aching people to come out to me. But alone.

A weird feeling, to be sure, but it's the way that I have felt for a long time. And even as I have everything swirling around me as an operations manager I still feel like I'm outside the snow globe and I'm wondering how to get people to come outside of the snow globe with. It's an interesting thought!

Do you have an extra

Recently I went through some slides from the 60s and 70s with my mother. We were using a slide projector that had to be 30 years old, probably more like 50 years old. Her big question when we started was: "Do you have an extra bulb?"

At the time I didn't really think much about the question but the more I go back and review it the more stymied I am. And the more I understand about me.

My parents, as awesome as they were, if there wasn't a backup plan and support in case something failed they tended not to do something. I learned this from them and then I went forward and acted similarly.

That meant that if I didn't have two vehicles then I probably wouldn't go on a trip. If there were two lightbulbs I wouldn't change the light bulb because the one I'm changing may fail or I might drop it and not have an extra to replace it. If there wasn't two sandwiches that I wouldn't offer anything to anybody else because there wouldn't be enough.

But over the years I've learned differently. At them time I thought it was a silly question and I just said no I don't. And kept rolling.

But I imagine in her mind that without a bulb we can't really proceed because this may stop at any minute. I'm glad I've learned to just go ahead with stuff like this!

Ah, what's bugging me

I finally realized this morning what's bugging me so much about the reaction to this corona virus panic. So many in the media and on social media are acting like this is the end of the world and people are suffering and this is as bad as World War II and the Great Depression. And I hate to break it to them but they don't associate about suffering.

I don't either. When I was growing up we didn't reach a point where there was no food on our table. They did that in World War II. They did that in the Great Depression.

The people that are having to stay home actually you to communicate with the rest of the world directly for as much as they want. They can band together and watch parties on social media. They can laugh and play video games killing digital people. In World War II and in the Great Depression they were isolated. They would write a letter and put it in their mailbox hoping that it wasn't stolen and hoping that the mail man would take it and it would get to its destination.

And that was for the people that could write and read.

So it chirps me to see all these people saying that their suffering. When all that they're actually going through is a little bit of inconvenience.

There is the keyword: inconvenience.

I can't get what I want when I want how I want and so my life is ended in time suffering more than they ever did in history and this is the end of the world.

House! How shallow!

I think that I will add to my prayers and meditations that people never truly know what suffering is.

A virus panic

I remember growing up hearing stories about what the United States of America was like during World War II.  Women working.  Ration coupons being traded between families when special family events were coming up like birthdays so that they could make certain things.  People going door-to-door asking if you had any work for them.

The only thing that I read about it I've seen in movies I've seen in newsreels that I've written books was how young men would volunteer to go kill the enemy.

With this coronavirus thing happening I don't see much of that.  It's a panic!  A panic induced by an entertainment in industry so focused on something our raw nerve with dystopian futures.  An entertainment industry focused on the bad things happening in life.  In entertainment history telling stories that twist reality and religious beliefs into entertaining vignettes that are so far removed from reality it's astounding.

An entertainment industry that brings us news.  People put in front of cameras as authorities that are actually just Teleprompter readers with ugly editors and producers yelling in their ears what to say.  Outlets of information that are biased toward one goal: controlling our behavior.

Granted, the behavior that they want is for us to spend our money willingly on products we don't need or require an effort to reach an artificial level of what's represented as beauty, success, strength, sexiness.

And then when the panic reaches full swing after being fanned into a big bonfire by reporting that excludes death rates, people are not told how they can help defeat the enemy.  They're told to stay home.  To isolate themselves.  To socially distance themselves.  All behaviors that were considered at least in my childhood has punishments.

In today's socially connected world it's amazing how this is being done!  And it's amazing how people are so panicked and so scared and so fearful.

People in forts

I'm reading The Frontiersman (thanks Mark for the steer).  And it tells a story about a man who goes to the great frontier in the late 1700s and learns all about the Ohio River, the Kentucky Indian lands, and learns all about dealing with the Shawnee, the Cheyenne, and other Indian tribes.

What I'm seeing so far is that the people that went into the forts and waited for the Indians to come and attack them died horrible deaths.

The people like the frontiersman who went out and were careful and work their way across the land were successful in living and learning and doing well in life.

Amazing?  No.  Did they get rich?  No.  But they had adventures that everybody else were was eager to hear and they were able to navigate the world.

So many people are hunkered down and waiting for the virus to come to them.  I fear that all the people strapping on protective gear and lathering up every 10 minutes with antibacterial and other corrosive chemical wash is will get to the point where they'll be taken down by any virus that comes along.  Immunity is built in small daily battles with every bug that we encounter in our world.  Our skins are covered in living things that grow and die and then shed along with the flakes of our skin to become the dust in our house and our cars.  The battles that raged inside our bodies between our white blood cells and all the various bacteria and viruses that live inside of us are epic.  And yet they happened in the dark and nobody knows.  I like to think that the flashes of light that I see when I'm about to fall asleep with my eyes closed that I see if I just keep my eyes closed for 10 minutes or so are lasers passing between the different styles that are fighting, almost like a Star Wars like tie fighter excluding battle going on.  Sounds stupid, but it makes me happy.

As Americans we don't put up with being caged and cooped up for very long.  Get back to work!  Start a business based on the opportunities that are being presented right now.

It's time to live, thrive, and survive.  Enjoy!