JustAL Loqui

Tag: blogging

  • A Jerk – To Be or Not To Be

    Traits like honor, integrity, compassion, and respect are not traits you, all of a sudden, decide to accept as personal traits on a particular day and go forth from that point on as a person worthy of being identified as owning these traits. These traits are developed and honed over time through actions and deeds that demonstrate these traits. It requires an intentional and determined effort. As these traits are practiced they become who we are; like muscle memory of a repeated action they demonstrate themselves without an intentional thought to implement, but rather are implemented out of habit. It is also required that these actions be implemented without thought of personal gain.

    A friend of mine (COL William Galbraith) once wrote, “The leadership philosophy of a senior leader is developed through years of experience and education. A philosophy of leadership is a statement or idea that guides how an individual will lead. If an individual starts to develop a leadership philosophy when appointed as a senior leader then the potential for failure is prevalent. The philosophy we use to lead is not something we can turn on and off like a light switch; it is who we are and those we lead know this. The development of a leadership philosophy is conducted in conjunction with the development of who we are. What motivates a leader on a personal level will, in part, define the leadership philosophy.”

    Likewise, our philosophy defines who we are and who we are defines our philosophy. It’s a given if you lack honor, integrity, compassion, and respect you’re probably a jerk. A jerk cannot just arbitrarily start to be a person of integrity. You cannot, because of guilt felt after an action or deed, decide on Saturday to be a person of honor and compassion starting at sunrise on Sunday on your way to Church. As stated by my friend who is much smarter than I, “…the potential for failure is prevalent.” You are destined to fail and repeated failure will eventually lead you to the belief that you being a person of worth is beyond your capabilities and you’ll go back to being whatever caliber of jerk you were the day before—perhaps worse, because now any lingering doubt about whether or not you were a jerk to begin with has been removed and now you are an angry jerk.

    However, the scenario played out in the last paragraph may not be all together true—which means there’s hope for you yet. You can be a person of integrity, honor, compassion and respect, regardless of your caliber of jerk-hood; you just need a strong desire and you need to cater the approach. These traits are developed and applied, not applied fully developed. Let me lead you down a rabbit; bear with me for just a minute. I consider myself a good person, but I also consider myself a failure. I am my own worst critic. People tell me I’m a good person, but they don’t know my secrets. I know that God forgives and I will be eternally grateful for that; and I use the term “eternally” in the most literal of terms. But I have a hard time forgiving myself for past actions. People say, “but you should forgive yourself” because these were done long ago (some not so long ago) and you have been forgiven and hanging on to them will only drag you down. I think the guilt helps me when a desire (or temptation if you will) comes along and prods me to do or say something that defy honor, integrity, compassion or respect. I remember the guilt and often (but sadly not always) the temptation goes away. I remember the feeling I have when I approach God and ask, “Lord, can you forgive me just one more time?” Remembering the guilt is a tool, it’s helpful to me.

    OK, let’s get back on track. You can adopt a desire to do and say the right thing. You can adopt a desire to be a better person. Will you, after accepting this new you, always be a person of honor, integrity, so one and so forth? No. You will fail, but with each successful attempt the failures will dissipate, not completely but a reduction in failure is as good as a win. Will you eventually, after years of trying, get to a point where you will never fail? No. There will always be failures. However, with each failure you can, if you have the foresight to do so, learn a lesson that will come in handy the next time that option presents itself. I might add here if you are at a point in your life where you feel you have mastered the traits of honor, integrity, so on and so forth, then you may not possess any of them; pride trumps them all. Just sayin’.

    jerk

    In full disclosure I must say this will be the hardest thing you will ever do. It is something you will have to “want” with every once of energy. Start small, maybe yield the right of way in traffic and let someone in. Of course I must also say, if this is too hard for you, there is an easier way; just be a jerk your whole life and be remembered as such. Like Bill says, “…what motivates us will define us.” What defines us is who we are.

  • Star Date 20190309

    “Star Date 20190309 – Captain’s Personal Log:”

    That’s what Captain Kirk used to say before talking to his computer.   As he spoke, the computer would record his words, which I suspect would be used in a court of law should he be unjustly accused of violating the civil rights of an illegal alien landing on the planet without authorization. As a child watching the first televised episodes of Star Trek I understood it was all science fiction (heavy on fiction) and the ability to talk to a computer and get a response was not possible nor would it ever be possible. Of course I was wrong. People talk to their phones everyday to get directions or to find the answer to some trivial question that, once answered, means nothing… and the phones talk back. I have learned over the past many years that science fiction has a way of becoming fact. Many of the fictional depictions played out in each episode of Star Trek is now commonplace; except for the “Beam Me Up Scotty” thing. We’re not there yet but I am confident someone somewhere is trying to figure it out.

    I recall Spock holding a 3 inch square plastic disk and, after sliding it into a slot, could extract from it volumes of data. The only thing they got wrong was the size. Rather than 3 inches square it was 3.5 inches square and even those are now antiquated. We now have the ability to store several volumes of encyclopedias on a single chip with no more dimension than that of a fingernail.

    There is one thing they got wrong. The Star Trek of the future had eliminated hunger, prejudice, crime and corruption—or at least that is what they said. Of course almost every episode dealt with hunger, prejudice, crime or corruption. But that was only becauThe-Borgse of those pesky Klingons. Once we became friends with the Klingons we had to deal with the Ferengi, and those evil Cardassians (or is that spelled Kardashians)—and of course we should never forget the misunderstood yet evil Borg.

    Most Si/Fi movies and Television Shows portrayed a future devoid of poverty, where the “State” had total control. Everyone worked but nobody got paid because the “State” provided all you needed; with no pay we can conclude nobody paid taxes. And everyone was content with that! Therein lies the fiction. Of course we had the Mad Max post-apocalyptic scenarios where it was total anarchy and it was eat or be eaten. Looking around today’s great society I think maybe that might be a more concise scenario of our future.

    Did you know Washington State has offered up a bill (SB 5001 – 2019-20) that would give a person the option of, rather than the traditional burial, providing their lifeless body as compost which the family can later collect and plant flowers in pots around the house? UCLA is also working on a concept that utilizes a pressurized capsule that liquefies the body and leaves only bleach-white bones. The liquid that was once Aunt Edna is then flushed down the drain. The drain, of course, leads to the local treatment plant where Aunt Edna comes out the other end as tap water, or water to be flushed down the drain again through the toilet. Is it just me or is drinking Aunt Edna just a bit creepy? Does the movie “Soylent Green” come to mind?

    The entertainment value of Science Fiction, and perhaps the drive of imagination and invention that is in its wake, has a place in society. A desire to eliminate hunger, prejudice, crime and corruption is admirable, I’m just not sure it is attainable to any degree of satisfaction. The human race is the human race… has been since the beginning and will be until the end of time. And of course the elimination of taxes is a pipe dream. But, it gives us something to strive for, but there are, I believe, things outside of our reach, and maybe things within our reach but best left alone—Aunt Edna being one of them.

    One last thing, WHERE’S MY JET PACK? When I was in grade school back in the early ‘60s I was promised a jet pack to fly around the country side—where is it? I think it was that point in my life where, unbeknownst to me, my trust issues started to develop.

    See these are the things that roll around in my head when I lack adult supervision.  Margie’s away this week.

  • Facebook – Needed a Break.

    Not long ago I got thoroughly disgusted with Facebook. I got so tired of the hate and divide and I decided no longer wanted to be a part of it; at the very least I needed a break. I was good, for the most part, at ignoring the “white privilege” crap and the “I hate Trump” posts and the “if you don’t think like me you’re evil” posts. I also got burned out on all the pictures of what people were having for dinner. But I found myself commenting on the really ignorant memes and that never ends well. So, rather than let the Puppet Master use me I suspended my account.

    I’m not saying the Puppet Master is an actual person or a cabal of sinister minded board of directors but I do believe the Puppet Master is real. I see the Puppet Master as a compilation of “group think” types who, for some reason, entertain themselves or are entertained by division and hate. Regardless of who or what the Puppet Master is, I find the concept repulsive.

    Contrary to social thought there are no Facebook withdrawal shakes or tremors when you pull the plug.  These past two weeks have been rather productive.  But will admit I missed some of my friends and family.

    Facebook has some good points. I got reconnected with old friends, found new ones and certainly Facebook is a great tool to use if you need help, want to help, want to share insight, or share pictures of loved ones who have accomplished great or small things. I even got my high school class ring returned after being lost for over 15 years; how cool is that? Anyway, after two weeks of being off of Facebook I ponder on the wisdom of my action.

    I miss the interaction with those I cherish and will admit I miss the pictures that accompany many of the comments made by those I cherish. I resolved to return but return with a new set of rules. Rules that, if followed, will return me to what I have always hoped was the original intent of Facebook. Well, actually the original intent of Facebook can be traced to the currently taboo practice of body-shaming. The original Facebook (called Facemash) was shut down a few days after it went on line by Harvard executives and Zuckerberg faced expulsion from Harvard University for breach of security, violating copyrights, and individual privacy. He, Zuckerberg, launched a new site called TheFacebook but found himself again in trouble when some Harvard seniors claimed he had stolen their idea for a social networking site. That claim was settled out of court. There’s more to the story but suspect if you want to know more you will dig into it on your own, you don’t need me for that.

    OK, where was I? Bit of a rabbit hole there. I’ll crawl out of the “rabbit hole” with a final comment on this sidebar subject; Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard.

    So, the ”original” original intent is not my intent, not interested in body-shaming. In my mind I see the original intent as bringing people closer together. It has failed at that but only because we have allowed it to fail at that.

    I will endeavor to abide by my new set of rules and hopefully will not suffer an abundance of setbacks. Feel free to call me out if you see my strings tugged by the Puppet Master. But do it nicely, sometimes I don’t play well with others. We all have good days and bad days. I won’t make light of your bad days if you don’t make light of mine.

  • Blogging – 101

    I was reading a lesson plan on blogging today. I think I like blogging (not sure why) so if I plan to do this right I decided I needed to learn from the pros. I must admit I have lived my life with the philosophy of, “reading the manual is a sign of weakness” and more often than not the un-instructed result showed me the errors of that mind-set.

    Anyway, one of the exercises outlined in this training guide directed that I write for 20 minutes with no focus, just write. The rules outlined were:

    1 – Write with no focus

    2 – Don’t cross out anything you wrote

    3 – Don’t worry about grammar, spelling or punctuation

    4 – Lose control

    5 – Don’t think

    6 – Don’t get logical

    7 – Don’t worry if something may be offense

    I reviewed these seven basic rules and came to the conclusion, “This is how I write now; I don’t need to practice writing this way.” I was told to do this every day for a week—seriously? Who has 20 minutes to spare during the day? I may have some spare time on occasion, but everyday… probably not. I guess that is kind of a lie. I could make time, but if I did that I would miss out on watching re-runs of Justified and NCIS.

    I was then told to post the gibberish I wrote. Like that’s going to happen. If I immediately posted what I wrote the few followers I do have would drop my like an Ebola invested hamburger. As a rule I will write, then re-write 5 or 6 times before it gets posted and even then I’ll get a quick post from my wife pointing out a mistake; usually a misspelled or ill-used word.

    The learning pamphlet provided some generic topics to write about. Ideas ranged from cooking to programming or things that happened today. My expertise in cooking does not go far beyond that which requires a toaster. If I want to get exotic with my cooking I pull out the Hot-Pockets and put them in the oven. Programming? We won’t go there. My days are, for the most part, boring. I would not want to read the boring details of someone’s life, so feel it only kind that I not bore others with mine.

    I write because it relieves stress. There are other methods to deal with stress but apparently shooting at people is against the law. I guess there is another reason. It is not like I want to go public with my thoughts. I consider myself a private person. But, if a person wanted to know who Steve Briscoe is they can get a good idea by reading what goes through my mind. Consider yourself fortunate that I do not write everything that goes through my mind—it gets kinda weird in there sometimes.