Good Monday Morning,
I just found out I am one of about twenty million people in a heavy rain downpour, flash flooding and torrential precipitation thunderstorm and lighting weather system heading our way maybe your way as well. Check with your local radio and television station. Check with your airline if you are traveling using one the on-time performance leaders of business and industry. Your plane is scheduled to depart at 7:00 AM but wait. Not actually. That 7:00 AM departure time is when the plane pushes back from the gate and all the boarding groups are “in” the plane not “on” the plane, stowing all their stuff, microwaves, golf clubs, more crap than they ever will need for a three day escape from their misery, problems, issues and concerns, screaming into their cell phones oblivious to the world, as if nobody else is in the plane. You may sit in the flight line queue for an hour so before the plane is airborne. Don’t worry all the delays are built into the flight times and schedules. Whew!!! And I thought I was going to have to get through this all my myself. The weather and its trickle down impact. Read on about impact.
Well, all the well dressed, bright smiles and positive attitudes, even when telling us of human disasters, property damage, carnage, welcome home uniformed parents from overseas better known as the onion thank you for your service, reassured me that I am NOT alone in this weather journey and there is comfort, not necessarily safety in numbers, twenty million of them (us) in fact.
I was told by the caring, compassionate, warm, friendly voices and the multi-colored maps boldly displaying the various zones with brightly illuminated indicators of specific regions of the storms, of the advisory, warning, watch, index of the impending storms that will be devastating for many of the twenty million just not sure exactly where. Can’t tell you that until after the storm is out of our region which is a fairly big region if twenty million people are impacted. Have no fears though. The weather folks will be out there driving through the storm wearing their windbreakers and hats with the company logo affixed, talking to the camera next to them instead of keeping their eyes on the roads, walking down flooded streets talking to stranded folks in their vehicles or watching a surfer enjoying natures power waiting for an emergency with the surfer to report as it is happening, That’s news. The present tense, not the past tense. Also, while those folks are out in the storm reporting to us they are also encouraging even pleading with us to stay safe and indoors, not to venture out in harms way as they are doing. AHHH, the mixed message from an earlier post. Love that word impacted. Much more powerful than affected. Like wisdom teeth hurt more when they are impacted and not just a toothache. I suppose twenty million folks are at or on their way to the store to buy toilet paper, milk, bread, flashlights (don’t forget the batteries) and everything they can get their hands on before the power goes out so they can pay for their stuff instead of having to resort to taking it without permission and payment.
Twenty million affected by the storms is not too bad since it only represents about seven percent of the USA Population. Ahhh, those statistics from an earlier post. See how things are related even when they are not.
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With all the TRANSPARENCY, OBFUSCATION controls the message.
The truth is somewhere just not available to us. Bribes, Graft, Corruption, Gossip, Scandal, Who’s doing what to whom, as long as it is not impacting (affecting) me who cares what they do since they’re gonna do it anyway. Morals, Ethics, Values, who are they for? Me. You. Us. Perhaps not them. It is all time fillers. Get Up!!! Get Out!!! Get Going!!! Do something. Participate rather than spectate. Confusion, Deceit, Doubt, Cynicism, Skepticism. Now that’s the stuff that sells
It’ like HONESTY. When you hear those all too telling words: “Let me be perfectly honest with you”, let the sirens go off in your head, bells, whistles and lights flash like the lightening in today’s storm and immediately think, Hey if you are being perfectly honest with me now what have you been before this warning about being perfectly honest with me right now. Suspicions. Can I trust you anymore? Should I have been trusting you up until now. Where is your TRANSPARENCY or did you just divulge it by being perfectly honest with me.
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I ain’t doing that any more or any less whatever your “that” is.
I’m gonna raise more hell than the alligators did when the pond went dry. Actually I’m not. It just sounds funny.
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Speaking of ADDICTIONS. Got your attention now. It is in vogue and fashionable, expensive and profitable, almost celebrity noteworthy to discuss addiction when those suffering and struggling are the ones who need to do the talking. Peer to Peer. Common Ground. Trust. Safety. Pain is Real. HELP!!!
Example: This might be a repeat from an earlier BLOG Post but what the heck filler is filler.
Many years ago I had to stand in line waiting for my daily work assignment. The first couple of days I was way back in the line. We had to remain quiet.
From the front of the room all I would hear was yelling, screaming, hollering, cursing, badgering, harassing, rudeness, profanity and no appearance of a nurturing heart. The guy giving out the work assignments was the guy behaving like modern day parents at their kids youth sports games. He was awful. Rude, Crude and definitely socially unacceptable even by the standards, norms and rules back then.
As I got closer to his desk he seemed to have calmed down, becoming a bit more human and able to communicate without all his nastiness.
On his desk were two huge thermoses, or is it thermi, that were empty since he went reaching for them attempting to drain every drop of the liquid fuel that eased his pain.
It wasn’t until after he consumed both containers and gulped down the contents that he reverted to a more acceptable status. The two containers were loaded with coffee and until he drank both containers he was unbearable, probably constipated as well. After he downed both thermoses, or is it thermi, he was “right” and he would actually engage in gentle, civil and pleasant conversation mostly about the weather not knowing how many millions of people are in the path of today’s forecast.
I told myself, self, right there, at age 19, that I would never allow any product, substance, beverage food, except maybe cookies, okay ice cream, well sticky buns I know I know sugar, fat, sugar fat sugar fat, to have control over me.
I never have consumed a cup of coffee. I like the smell when the can is opened. I have made coffee reluctantly since no two folks “take” their coffee the same way which must drive the baristas, et al absolutely crazy. By the way being crazy is okay since it keeps you from going insane. Besides it is just a state of mind. Two sugars, one cream. No cream, fresh milk. Fake sugar (I’m cutting back), three creams. Half Regular coffee half De-caf coffee, no sugar, four creams. I am most certain there are scores and more combinations but what I know about coffee and all the combinations would echo in a thimble.
I did smoke cigarettes in high school but not during sports season. They were twenty cents a pack, $2.00 dollars a carton. Then the price jumped to twenty-five cents a pack. I hung in there. But then the price went to thirty cents a pack and that is where I drew the line. It was easy and convenient to throw down one coin, a quarter, on the counter at the corner store but now I had to add that extra nickle which put me over the top most significantly since that nickle, even that quarter gave me hours of pleasure, therapy and entertainment playing the pinball machines where I was quite adept and would win “free” games with my pin-balling skills.
In addition, cigarettes caused my fingertips to turn brownish yellow, my clothes to smell like a bowling alley causing me to spray deodorant on my clothes to hide the smell from Mom and Dad who knew anyway and worst of all is when I went to pick my nose all I would smell were my fingertips which smelled like a filled ashtray. Also, mouthwash makes your breath smell worse than the cigarette smell and it tastes nasty except when using after brushing your teeth.
I was never one to indulge in the brew. When I did some drinking it was beer. I would “nurse” one or two beers a night while all the other guys drank 6, 8, a dozen or more a night. Those guys got skinnier while I ballooned up forty pounds from my high school (no, I never scored four touchdowns or any for that mater in one game) playing weight which was overweight as well. My DNA can’t handle the beverage and the subsequent weight gain so I stay with cookies, ice cream and sticky buns as previously mentioned.
Drugs, Chemicals and other Substances. Learning comes in many forms. Often I learn from what I see and what I saw were the horrible negative affects and impact(?) of putting stuff in your body that ain’t suppose to be in there. Ugly. Destructive. Catastrophic. Not for me. Hopefully, not for you. Have compassion for those suffering and struggling with the illness. Help those who need help find help. It is out there like the truth. If you look you will find. You are NOT alone!!!
Keep It Simple – Keep It Real
POWER UP YOUR POWER ‘CAUSE THE POWER IS IN YOU!!!
Marty
hamp73@gmail.com
Keep It Simple - Keep It Real 