In keeping with current societal norms, ritual and cliche: First, I want to thank you for taking your time to read my Posts. Second: There are errors, mostly language use errors, throughout my BLOG. For this I apologize not seeking forgiveness since when forgiveness is given it often gives permission to do it again. Third, I appreciate your understanding, patience and consideration.
FIRST: FOOD: Even More Powerful Than We Think.
The following may be considered an oversimplification, however SIMPLE works best. I know this because most folks like the SIMPLE things in life which is why they get along with me.
WOW!!!
My most recent Post is about TIME and it certainly has been too long a TIME since then.
With multiple PANDEMICS my focus, concentration, energy and purpose have been delayed much like everything else around the world.
PANDEMIC SOLUTION: Have you ever watched the television show on The Food Network: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives? Perhaps you have and if not then perhaps you should watch at least five episodes because Guy Fieri GETS IT. He and / or the people he surrounds himself with GET IT. My gut is it is he, Guy Fieri, who GETS IT based on his history, success and longevity doing the difficult task of pleasing peoples pallets.
What exactly should you be looking for when you watch Diners Drive-ins and Dives. guess what NOT the FOOD, yet. First, make a list if you are so inclined, and write down the RACE AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY of Triple D as the show is often affectionately referred.
Notice from where the chefs originate, skin color, languages, gender, size, clothing, menus items and so forth. Look a little closer and write, in your notes, that the folks about whom I am referring are from all over the world, settling in The USA and making a huge difference in our lives by, many times, bringing the FOODS of their lands.
That’s it. The secret is not an individual ingredient but the finished PRODUCT. Feel the texture. Inhale the scents. Taste the flavors, perhaps heretofore, never experienced. Meet the CHEF, in many cases, the owner. Note the ambiance, usually small neighborhood type restaurants where folks gather to eat while they enhance, enrich and empower their own lives from the ambiance, colors, decorations, music and the common ground of delicious, tasty, gratifying FOODS that are, perhaps, often attempted at home but never so well expressed as in the company of the creator.
Your overall healthy and well being are enriched by indulging and consuming FOODS unique unto themselves as are the people in front of and behind the scenes.
Are you waiting for my point and purpose? Here goes. Be patient and keep an open mind.
FOOD is not only the ANSWER. FOOD WILL become THE SOLUTION!!!
FOOD: The Great Neutralizer.
People travel to experience the sights, sounds, smells, music, culture, art, museums, landscape, history, language, history, folklore, traditions, customs, observations but what does the traveler remember the most, the one thing that is universal in travel, the topic of their many discussions when asked, “So how as the trip”. ITS THE FOOD!!! IT’S THE FOOD, man!!! Each time you speak about it, THE FOOD, you taste it. IT’S THE FOOD!!! As with most stories it gets better with TIME. You look for THE FOOD at home but can’t find THE FOOD which is why you need to watch Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Eventually you will find YOUR FOOD.
Safe to say, you have traveled somewhere, domestically, and discovered a whole new world of flavors and tastes. Maybe you grew-up eating Hoagies. As you traveled and grew as a person you found, accepted and ate: Subs, Zeppelins, Poor Boys, Cubans. Torpedoes, Grinders all basically the same meal but with a different twist depending on geographic location and chef. When you travel outside of your own zone, even it is just a different part of town, you give yourself the chance to learn, grow and prosper.
Every time a protest is organized, or not, have the local restaurants whose names are not known all over the globe, but the local merchants who live and work in the community prepare their specialties. To be FREE to the protesters the FOOD will be FREE to the professionals who prepare the meals. TIME is their gift and investment. Since many things are given for FREE when needed then, here too, the required provisions for the experts to make their meals is to be FREE as well. The money can be found if the right people look and make it happen for the good of the neighbors, locals, shop-keepers, as well as, for the overall safety, healthy, security and well being of one community and one neighborhood at a time.
Have those folks prepare the magic meals and offer, for FREE, an open invitation to partake in the goodies. On a full belly, tasting and experiencing delicacies, unbeknownst to the attendees, behavior, understanding, compassion, anger, frustration, stress, energy and healing just may be directed towards the positive rather than the opposite results we have seen. Invest in the people and the dividends will follow.
Many have experienced the above such as when they go to a neighbor’s, relatives, co-workers, social event where FOODS are offered and eaten that raise awareness, spark conversation and have folks wanting more of the same.
Think about the times, hopefully, you were invited as a guest to a wedding, religious ceremony and other like kind situation where you may not have been aware of the cultural, religious and ethnic rituals that await. You may feel like an outsider but a little research can ease your comfort level and by consuming the “goodies” that await make you a richer person which you can someday reciprocate.
The Pandemics can be managed, controlled and overcome when you believe, understand and respect that:
The difficult takes some time, while the impossible takes a little longer.
Time for lunch and, also, what to defrost for dinner.
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SECOND: Communications: Clear, Heard and Understood? Needs Work.
I don’t get it.
Who’s LISTENING?
With all the communication experts, authors, lecturers, commentators, professors and leaders why is there STILL an overwhelming abundance of miscommunications.
A young man, Eminem, wiser than his years, and certainly wiser and more informed than me and maybe you as well, upon his emergence as a spokesperson, influencer and poet wrote:
“Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they have something to say but nothing comes out when they move their lips just but a bunch of gibberish and the MF’ers act like they forgot about Dre.”
Another example comes from the Legendary Comedian Rudy Ray Moore:
“I see your lips quiver unk but I don’t hear a *********ing word your saying.
One More from Harry Nilsson, Midnight Cowboy movie
“Everybody’s taking at me but I don’t hear a word their saying only the echoes of my mind”.
Most certainly there are more EXAMPLES (by the way EXAMPLES are the best Explanations which is from a previous Post somewhere below this Post) but hopefully I have Communicated my message clearly, precisely and succinctly.
You Cannot NOT Communicate whether you know this or NOT.
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THIRD: Safety First, maybe NOT in this case.
With all the attention given to safety and security, especially when it comes to our kids, why is it that when driving around several neighborhoods I have seen Pictures with First and Last Names printed on a sign, placed on the front lawn indicating this home is where a graduating student lives.
Schools have locked doors, police on site, sign-in sign our registers, name tag badges with pictures, cameras, teachers on “hall duty”, outdoor supervision during play time, bus loading and off loading staff, fingerprinting, drug screen testing, background checks, work history reference checks and probably many more filters to be filtered all for protection and hopefully to find the “bad guys” before they become part of the school community.
Parents are told not to have their kids names appear on backpacks, gym bags and outerwear. Nothing is to be visible that can identify a kid yet there they are. Pictures with names on the front lawns of where the kids live.
Too frightening to mention, though we all know it is out there on social (actually “a social”) media filled with pictures, names and schools of the ones whose information should not be so public.
Limit your pictures to your pets dressed in costume, your lunch meal, snakes in your yard, flowers, find the “A” puzzles, proms from the 1960’s, old stuff, aka, antiques / vintage and which of the six candy bars or sodas you prefer, etc. etc. etc.
Learn from the past. Live in the present. Prepare for the FUTURE.
POWER UP YOUR POWER ‘CAUSE THE POWER IS IN YOU!!!
Marty
Keep It Simple - Keep It Real 