Every morning when I get to work, I go through the mail, email, LJmail, etc., before delving into the steaming pile that is today’s work. Today, after reading everything, I feel the urge for an observation post. So here goes…
(Now where did I put that soapbox. Oh, there it is. Pardon me while I climb up on it; these old bones don’t move as fast as they used to…)
Back when I was in college, those horse-and-buggy days of the early 1980s :-), we used to have a tradition in the Computer Club of writing our assessments of the other club members in the log. Some folks raked folks over the coals. Me? I was accused of being too “nice”. I could never bring myself to say anything bad about anyone. Even today, after 44 years, I only have about 3 people on my shitlist (I know folks that have had to extend their shitlists by using a list of pointers to aux-shitlists; not me!). I’m still optimistic: I really don’t get depressed; when I do, I try to do something about it to get out of that state.
There are plenty of things to get depressed about: Bush is being reinagurated, the recent LJ-outage was caused by a user in the facility pressing the Emergency Power Off, friends are getting layed off left and right, folks are having financial and life trouble… and I’m turning 45, which means my life is likely over ½ over, and I’m sliding down the razor blade of what’s left.
Yet, despite it all, I’m not depressed. I’m dealing. I’m making the best of what I’ve got. When things go bad, I’m looking to them as an opportunity to do better. Sometimes, we get so focused on the day to day that we lose sight of the big picture. Yeah, the day to day can suck. But forward progress gets us to our goals, slowly and steadily.
We tend to obsess. I’m on a mailing list for webmasters of Reform Congregations, and there is the usual debate going on about whether to put pictures of congregants or maps to the congregation on websites. It doesn’t bother me at all; I view it like the issue of credit cards on the Internet. What do I mean? You’ll give your card to a waiter you’ve never met, who takes it in back for 10 minutes, and returns with a slip for you to sign—yet you worry about giving it to a large public entity on the Internet. Similarily, you have no qualms about publishing a map in a flyer, or a picture in your hardcopy newsletter you distribute hither and yon for advertising purposes—yet to put it on the Internet? Heavens forfend! One person on this list put it this way: “At one point I had to deal with a group that electronically distributed pictures of missing children; they were upset that a rumored pedophile might have access to the distribution network. This struck me as a misplaced concern, since the whole point of electronic distribution was to give these pictures the widest possible exposure (with the goal of recovering the missing children). Since the locations of the children were by definition unknown, it wasn’t clear to me that having the pictures was of any particular use to a pedophile. Besides, pedophiles are allowed to buy cartons of milk.” Think about that last sentence. Sometimes, we lose our perspective on life.
Your outlook of life affects what happens to you. Expect shit, and you’ll walk behind the horses. There’s no shit if you’re out in front leading. So work your way to the front, incrementally. You can do it; I know you can. From what I’ve seen of the folks I’ve friended, you are all really good people (that’s one of the reason I friended you). Realize it. I believe in you.
(Slowly and carefullly, I climb back down from the soapbox, so that I don’t trip and crack my head).
Now, back to work…
