The American spirit of ingenuity is as unprecedented as the irrepressible nature of her citizens is incontrovertible. I am reminded of it daily and often seek solace in its truth. It is a well chronicled phenomenon that these soils cultivate resourcefulness and determination that is uniquely coded into our collective double helix. When faced with a challenge, regardless how daunting, we roll up those shirt sleeves and let our true greatness resolve into perfect clarity for all the world to see … and envy.
“America, f’ yeah!”
Ah ... Myopia can be a wonderful place. Just be mindful that your head isn't buried in the sand too long in any one particular sitting. Tends to lead to suffocation.
I wonder if that which has driven us to excel in the past has left us to stagnate in the present. Ours is a society of dreamers and pajama clad entrepreneurs. Nobody wants to be the poor schmuck pulling factory levers or wielding a nail gun when he can fashion himself into a social media icon in the privacy of his own double-wide domicile. If there is one thing America has taken to heart, it’s the rags to riches tale. We constantly strive to rise above our current stations. We go big or we go home.
We are all would-be chiefs in a tribe desperate for braves.
Too busy working smart to work hard, perhaps?
Raw ambition can lead to extraordinary gains, both personally and collectively, but have we been too successful in our endeavors? Have the rampant technological breakthroughs of the past quarter century led us all to abandon productive pursuits to chase the all too tangible allure of overnight riches? Is ours a culture of talentless drones that simply chase down the promise of easy money that the authentic trailblazers and revolutionaries have shown us is possible? Why strive to invent the wheel when you can copy the original design and simply produce the product cheaper and market it better, after all? Better yet, you can just start inviting friends and relatives to meetings about the wheel and detailing how it will lead to unprecedented new levels of wealth amongst its followers.
We are our own Ponzi scheme.
We talk lots and produce precious little. Good gig for the guy at the top of the ladder, but not so hot for the single mother of three who has abandoned the hairdressing career that was barely covering the bills for the road to easy street. That particular road is paved in, well, nothing, actually. It's not even a road. It's a magic carpet ride that terminates abruptly upon smashing into the jagged cliffs of reality.
If you make nothing, you make nothing.
Instant gratification supplanted the dollar as our true currency ages ago. The abundance of raw data, as dispensed through the virtual world, carries with it a dark edge: lack of quality control. The online evangelists will proselytize the hungry masses with morsels of promise regarding the wondrous new world we live in which allows every voice to be heard. Facts and opinions only a click away, including our own, so we all plot a course to recognition and demigodery (yes, I made that up).
We write, we opine, we argue … but most ultimately accomplish little besides diluting the talent pool. The next Hemmingway is out there somewhere, but he is adrift in a sea of inane commentary that has replaced actual art. Actual productivity. Actual life. There are too many merchants chasing the old goat’s fish, and they have better tackle. Lacking ability, they won’t snare the beast, but they’ll spook the prized marlin off the prime fishing grounds so that it is lost to all.
Or perhaps the old man drags the ravaged carcass ashore after an epic battle with not only nature, but his fellow man, only to find that there are no deckhands available to clean and prep the catch for the bone weary old salt. There are no little boys to carry his gear to his hut at a rate of 5 pesos per bucket. The former deckhands are all circling the bay as captains now, following the new SONAR equipment that they don’t know how to operate. The village children are all inside, blogging about sea currents and fishing conditions. Trying to figure out how to monetize their sites.
The fish market itself is long gone as well. The customers buy their seafood online now, and they won’t be purchasing from him today anyway. Some anonymous poster authored a comment that cited an erroneous report about dangerously high levels of mercury in marlin caught in the Gulf of Mexico. It was written on a well-known message board for a consumer advocacy site and subsequently picked up by the major news outlets. In an unfortunate rush not to be scooped, they ran the dubious story with the requisite disclaimers about the unverified authenticity.
Maybe I should take that BassMaster sponsorship after all, the old man wonders. With the appearance fees alone, I’ll never have to fish again.
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Slaybaugh - Some of these very words have echoed in thoughts as my head too. Maybe, just maybe, you are onto something here. After all, most want to be something greater than they actually are. The chiefs/braves analogy sums it up nicely. Right now, I'm not sure where I fit in. I just would rather not be on the other side of a tomahawk.
I think the problem, Sardi, is that most of us straddle the border. We could make very efficient and productive little braves if only our own eogcentricity didn't demand greater things. We all know we're special, don't we? I think I know exactly where I fit, but that doesn't preclude me from participating in the identity crisis that is the new national pastime ;)
Swing away, brother:)
We have become a nation all too willing to wait and see what happens. We believe that great fortune will simply find us and it will be easy to come by. No one ever explained that the American dream is an opportunity to fight for what we feel we deserve.
Somehow I knew that five-pointed monster would rear its yellow head with this post. Good deal.
Oh man...I don't have any idea either, this or that? Up or down? Naughty or nice? All I know is my ego is not my amigo!
"We are our own Ponzi scheme."
Oh and I certainly agree with Jason...this is so good and I was beginning to wonder about many of the items on this main page lately! Kudos to you!
Hi Paul...This is precisely why I read you. You have an inate ability to look beyond the obvious.
We claim pride in our fathers and grandfathers, our mothers and grandmothers, and yet we resist being like them.
Work in a factory? No, my intellect and skills are too valuable to do that. I must protect my standing in society and what kind of a role model would I be for my children?
Become a teacher? Do you have any idea what teachers are paid? I'm not about to settle for that.
You make some of us think, Paul, and reevaluate our take on life.
Thank you,
Kate
Paul-this post is oh so true! At 46 I'm not afraid of hard work..as a matter of fact...I recently stated..if I have to work another job...I'll clean hotel rooms if I have to! Nope we can't sit and wait.....I'm too impatient and waiting might just give me a heart attack..worrying about how to pay the bills
I've had many ups and downs in life..and when you've finally pulled yourself out of something very tramatic..so tramatic..you destroyed what you worked so hard to build..guess what...you get up and pull yourself up again or lay there and just get what you get! Its a vicious cycle...its called life! :) and I've taken life both ways. I prefer to pull myself up. And since I've been up for a while..I would like to keep it that way..it sure makes things so many others things so much easier. We can lay there and take it or we can work..and enjoy ourselves! Yes there are days that I get tired but once I get my rest..I am at it again...with a smile on my face.
The problem with me is I hate being told what to do..for some reason..I want flexibility..I am willing to be an Indian but I need to be the Chief too! Does it make sense??
Your post is so poetic!
What a great read. I agree and think that like so many things in life balance is often hard to come by. A General cannot win a war without his troops ~ did we somehow make it that it isn't ok to be troop member? Did we lose sight of the value of family, friends and a fun life (whatever that is to each of us) in the race to compete with a neighbor or an image?
Society as a whole has become a society of snobs who look down thier nose at the people who labor with their hands enjoying a simpler life. What a shame as we are losing some fine artisans and their trades as no one wants to learn their craft. Too many infomercials spouting the "everyone can be rich" programs and all you need to do is send me your money.
JL & Kate, your comments ring a similar truth with me. Somewhere along the line, we forgot that we are promised only the OPPORTUNITY to succeed. That is not enough for our society in its current manifestation, at least by my perspective. We demand the success upfront, not the opportunity. Reminds me of the parable about giving a man $100 versus giving him the ability to earn $100. I think "The Age of Entitlement" gives "The Digital Age" a run for its moniker money. American ingenuity has never been more misplaced, if I may be so blasphemous. We've dreamed up countless ways to make money without making anything. To achieve fame in the absence of merit or ability.
But what the hell ... I'm just trying to parlay this blog into a reality series featuring me and Mrs. Ric Ocasek locked in a basement for nine and a half weeks ;)
Russell - Thanks for stopping by as always, my incorrigible friend.
In your next life you should be writing romance novels - LOL
So deep and so true!
I never sit, and never stop evolving because I never want to have to ask or wonder about, "what if?" I tell my kids the same thing.
I'm with Midori. Great post Paul. After listening to all the experts opine about the housing crisis today, I walked away from this broadcast, after listening to how lenders knew these were bad loans, but greed got in the way, thinking a great, giant Ponzi scheme brought this whole thing down, and the people know advocating for more regulation, I ask: where were you over the past 10 years? For the people who are scared of partial nationalization of the the banks, I ask: You sure don't mind giving these same banks billions of dollars, so what is that?
Nothing like a nice glass of merlot while reading America 2.0...and I sure do miss the fish market, (the flower market and the peddlers, too!) BTW, there's an oldtimer around here that carries a pocketful of fishhooks...he hands them out to folks and believes he is helping to heal world hunger. That's some American spirit!
I really enjoyed reading this...I only had to re-fill twice. :-)
Hi Paul...Success. An interesting word. I wrote a post about it some time ago.
Many seem to equate success with money. They believe the more you have, the more successful you are. Not me.
As long as that is the key to their success they will never be successful enough because they will never have enough money.
There are so many other things of greater importance (and I'm not talking about Mrs. Ric Ocasek...I actually had to Google her to find out but please do not tell any one or they will know how over the hill I am and I will never, ever make another sale or get another listing and, therefore, I will not earn any more MONEY and thus will not be successful, blah, blah, blah, blah).
Kate
P.S. Would you really be able to survive 9 1/2 weeks? Just asking.
This is so perfect that I don't even know where to begin to comment. What I want to know though, is did this all come to you during your "its a small world" ride?
Kate - I wouldn't last the first 24 hours, but if you gotta check out sometime ... ;)
Hopelessly out of order, but I'll get around to each of you.
Jeannie - It IS a small world after all, isn't it? That may very well be the problem at hand in that ... oh forget it. I can't finish that bs line of non thought with a straight face ;) My ears are still bleeding, by the way.
Mara - If you did indeed refill twice during your reading, I bet this post was really good by the end. I'm going to start encouraging such behavior. Beer goggles make blogs look better, too ;)
Chris - Accountability be damned. As far as I'm concerned that is not merely an institutional problem, either. It permeates the realm of the individual as well as the towering inferno that our financial system has become. The Walmart greeter who bought the $500,000 house knew he couldn't really afford it, too, but he made the same quasi-educated gamble that the bank which loaned him the money did. Even now as we decry the greedy banks and their corporate execs, we walk away from loser investments like the house that is worth more to its owner as a stain on his/her credit for the next five years than as a devalued asset. We walk from bad investments that we can actually afford because we don't want to wait for market values to rebound. W'd rather cut our losses and loose one more raft on the foreclosure sea. Everyone's doing it. Why should I take the hit when no one else is doing the right thing? Besides, I can go buy virtually the same house for pennies on the dollar as compared to what I paid for it three years ago. I'll go steal one and then just stop paying the note on my current house. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
No one sees their personal contribution to this quagmire. I find the whole enterprise deplorable.
Many of us are just ant providing a service to the community as a whole. That isn't all bad.
Care to expand upon that, Russ? Not sure if you are referring primarily to our industry or to society as a whole.
Love the post, Paul. I too wonder what has happened to the term "American Ingenuity". While the ideas are still there, the people to implement the hands on jobs are gone. We've become a nation of people who say "I can hire someone to do that". Thus, we end up with millions of illegal aliens to do the work that Americans now feel is beneath them -- our middle class children don't want to work at McDonald's or Burger King because that is just not cool enough and their parents let them get away with that! They give them cell phones, cars, credit cards and allowances.
Perhaps what is happening is partly meant to make us all sit up and take notice of how selfish and self-centered we've become. I do feel badly that people are losing their jobs and thus their homes. It's just sometimes it seems like karma.
I like what I do and my husband is a professional with many years of education. However, I have ever felt that any job is beneath me. My great grandmother cleaned houses to make ends meet after she immigrated here from Europe. I think we all need to say "I'll do whatever I need to do to get through this".
I have faith that we will again find our way.
Julie - The best method that I am aware of for avoiding regret is to be too damn busy to have time for such indulgence.
Bill - Romance novels?!?! You want to come over, hit on my wife and slap the kids around, too? Why not just start referring to me as the literary Yanni? Romance novels. Kind of like when Simon tells a young hopeful on American Idol that he/she has a wonderful future ahead as a cruise ship entertainer.
Cameron - No one wants to be an apprentice anymore. We'd rather conk the old master over the head with his smithing tools and set up shop the very next day. All ambition and no skill set makes Jack a useless boy.
Kelly - While on the subject of general's, let's just hope that we aren't Custer ;)
Midori - That's a refreshing attitude. Unfortunately, I think most would prefer to be unemployed than underemployed. Funny that the stigma of working a "menial" job still exists, but the stigma of turning your back on financial obligations or asking for someone else to subsidize your family is becoming socially acceptable due to the sheer volume of participants. Since when did welching become an investment strategy? My post wasn't directed at this topic, but it is a symptom, in my opinion, of the greater societal disease.
Paul - I must say that I got stuck on the Team America reference near the top of the post. Good stuff.
That's pretty freaky, Crouch.
Paul... you make some good points and thanks for sharing them. (Don't get me started.) Just kidding... I worry about a lot of the same things. I hate to we're losing joy about work. I don't expect someone to bring me the joy, it's not their responsiblitiy. I'm happy because I choose to be. And as I was taught, it's like Midori says above... it's life, and no job is to low if you it gets you to tomorrow and the day after.
I have some great memories hanging out with my Grandpa in his middle 80's. An immigrant, worked the coal mines, became a contractor and built a lot of fine homes in our area. After all those years of hard work, he was such a warm caring simple person. He loved to build bird houses and give them away.
I'm grateful I have him to remember when confronted with much of what you discuss above.
thx...
Rene'
"We write, we opine, we argue … but most ultimately accomplish little besides diluting the talent pool. The next Hemmingway is out there somewhere, but he is adrift in a sea of inane commentary that has replaced actual art. Actual productivity. Actual life."
This is so true. We are homeschooling our kids and have decided to rear them in the classics. There's so much garbage out there right now it's suffocating.
Thank you for sharing your Grandpa with us, Rene. Choice can be as much a curse as it can be a blessing. So much angst averted, so much production to be wrung from the non-preoccupied mind. Options can control and stifle us when they are too numerous. Our forefathers knew the value of putting their heads down and working for 30-40 years. It doesn't sound any more appealing to me than anyone else, and that more than anything illustrates my muddled point. We're kind of like a society of convicts that doesn't know how to survive in the outside world upon release. Too many choices, not enough routines. Nor actual skills for that matter.
Jeff - The search engines don't know how to distinguish greatness yet, do they? Every Tom, Dick and Harry with a bullhorn PC has equal footing for promulgation with the true scholars. It's an intoxicating enticement for us little guys, but quality suffers. I most likely show up on Google searches well above many of the finer writers of our times, and that frightens me for the future of Earth.
Yours is a very thoughtful and thought-provoking post. Have you thought about the fact that perhaps this "too good for" mentality is being generated by our government as well? Only need to take a look at this whole "our country can't actually suffer because of our bad choices, no, we must bail ourselves out because we are too good to be viewed in this manner!"
It's ridiculous - I am an extremely hard worker and I do love the idea of the American dream, but you are right in that it has been skewed and kicked around to support the idea that we are "better than" certain tasks.
Over a year ago, I took some jobs doing manual labor to make ends meet. I hated every minute of it. But I look back now and say that it was good for me - my body, my mentality, my spirit and my soul. I know now what I am made of. I will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to succeed and won't only consider success as the number of dollar bills in my bank account.
Thank you for this post - keep it up!
Paul,
I love this post! The only thing is, I think often we're jaded by what we're surrounded by and what we see the most. In pursuing the next level for our businesses, we're often awestruck by the size of the crowd we're running in, but when viewed in perspective, this crowd is a tiny fraction of this country. Having said that, I believe you may be ahead of the curve in spotting a disturbing and growing trend. Centainly role models are completely different now for younger generations than they've ever been before. Only time will tell what the results of these changes will be. I agree with the spirit of the article and many of the comments though, that constant evaluation and improvement is essential for our businesses and the economic future of our country.
Jason Sanders
Nikki - Didn't mean to skip you. I appreciate your comment and similarly believe that there is no lack of honor in doing whatever is necessary to survive the tough times with employment that actually provides a genuine service to the community. I know lots of semi-employed Realtors who aren't doing anybody any good at present. Might as well sweep a sidewalk and earn a few dollars for the contribution.
Emily - The beauty of our system of government is that it reflects the will of the people. As such, I still place the onus on the shoulders of the individual over and above the government, or big business, etc. Such institutions reflect our values and our culture rather than vice versa. I'm not a fan of bailouts in general, not very entusiastic about this one in particular, but I am likewise unfond of the specter of another Great Depression. Markets left to their own devices will eventually self-regulate, but it could take a generation to recover. Raw capitalism works only in theory. The swings too wild and severe to promise equal opportunity for success from one generation to the next. Much as we are loathe to admit it, we sometimes need our government to intervene to save us from ourselves. I understand the need to take a bite of a foul tasting sandwich to get us back on track ... I just hoped it would be a bit more appetizing than this chopped liver we are being forcibly served. As is often the case with politicians, they seem to have crafted a Frankenstein bill that has been added onto and watered down to render it largely useless. Should have just locked a team of economists in a room and let them hammer the darned thing out.
That's all academic at this point, however. The disease is not a bad mortgage backed security or overextended credit line. Those are simply symptoms. The disease is us. Either someone needs to call Jonas Salk or we need to be outfitted with steel braces until we learn to walk in the shoes of our ancestors again. American gumption is not a birthright. It is a label earned by those who preceeded us. Time for us to stop coattailing them and earn our own keep.
Jason - Interesting and valid perspective. Of course the online phenomenon extends to just about every industry, every social group, etc. As a business practice, it is an invaluable tool. I just wonder about the derivative offshoots, the newly minted social gurus angling to make a living doing ... what exactly? I think about the real talent that gets drowned out by the unearthly screech of the din. Anybody can be a star in the year 2009, and I am just wrestling with whether or not that is a good thing. With such instant fame (and ostensibly fortune) at our fingertips, are we lured further into the deep dark cave of nonproductivity? Beats me, I just write here ;)
Hi Paul, This is a marvelous post and I can certainly see why it was featured. I enopyed reading some of your persective and I think in similar ways. regretfully, I doubt that we could expect an change any time soon. But hope does spring eternal.
William - Thanks for reading, my man. I don't expect a sudden sea change either in what has taken root over the course of several decades. I only hope that all of this new entrepreneurship leads to some actual job creation. Strike that. There are plenty of jobs and positions available now, even if many are whimisical flights of virtual fancy. I hope it leads to more productive work opportunities for the masses. Time will tell.
From gold in Ca, to oil in Tx, to a plot of dirt in the heartland, we have chased 'easy' money and get rich quick schemes. The magic elixer salesman now peddles bottles of SEO rankings, Stock picks, etc but the value of the glass still generally exceeds that of its contents. We were, are and will be a nation filled with dreamers and with those who seek to take advantage of a situation (technically they are dreamers also). Progress is created in those 'oh sh-t' moments when we realize that easy money requires hard work and get rich quick schemes take a lifetime to perfect. This, my friend, is one big OH SH-T moment. As such, the optimist in me says that it's a time to shine. Economic and social forces have aligned and the potential to do great things (develop alternate energies, radically improve infrastructure, change processes and ways of thinking) exists. The more pessimistic side wonders whether we will recognize and seize these opportunities. Certainly, the Era of Entitlement must end for this to occur.
Classic comment, Erik. I'll drink to your optimistic side. Come to think about it, I'll drink to your pessimistic side, too. Wherever we go from here, it's going to be thirsty work.
Whew, I was afraid that I was the only one drinking.
WE've been waiting for a paul slaybaugh feature!!
Top 5 Words used in the above passage&comments
Notable mentions:
Conclusion: Best written passage so far on AR. Badge that.
You, my friend, are the next Hemingway! Seriously.
The next Hemmingway is out there somewhere...
From the sound of this post he might just be hiding out in a little Arizona oasis.
Paul,
I think like anything else, you need to walk a balance between what you have to do and what you want to do.
I am as ambitious as anybody you will ever meet, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to roll up my sleeves and do the dishes if that is what is necessary.
I like what you said, "If you make nothing, you make nothing".
Paul, nice post. I have been planning to write something like this but you sure know much better how to present your idea in a diplomatic way. I agree, information quality is very important now. With online information so abundant, I however, gradually convert back to traditional. I read traditional news source albeit their online version. Once online, I found these authors are more careful when they write.
Victor - How about "effusive?" You are too liberal with your praise.
Victor and Jesse - He or she is out there, but I aint him. I'm just clogging valuable server space look a good 2.0 American ;)
Mark - My biggest concern is that even the hardest working among us are being bred to produce little other than their own personal wealth in the online world. What do many online gurus and practitioners really produce at the end of the day other than their own opportunity? Nothing they can drive home or use to keep them warm in the winter. We are creating new markets, so consumers are being told what they need versus real voids being filled. We simply need to remember that the internet is a means to an end rather than the end itself. I have more to say on the matter, but it's just too jumbled in my head at present. More coffee.
Random Spammer - How very kind to extend your welcome to me on my own blog. Anyone and everyone is welcome to comment on my posts, I only ask that you contribute to the discussion at hand or at least refrain from advertising your wares in such a blatantly spammy way.
Huiting - You are one of the shrewd ones. Too many don't bother to research the source of the news and gossip tidbits they come across on the internet, let alone proactively select the source they utilize and trust. Too many TMZ's and not enough WSJ's.
...I'm starting to understand the Slaybaugh Style a little more with each post !
Loved this ! ... and what a use of the English language you have !
.... looking fwd to the next post !
Cheers !
Sheldon
Is anyone looking for Hemingway? Is anyone afraid of Virginia Wolff?
Sheldon - I have a style? Uh oh, that runs contrary to my unpredictability. But perhaps my unpredictability has become predictable. Now you've done it, I'm a basketcase over here.
Lenza - No one's looking for Hemmingway. They want romance novels. Have you contacted Fabio's people about the coverwork for your recent submissions yet?
LOL ... well I didnt say I had MASTERED your style yet !!
I am at the very embryonic stages of possibly maybe getting a small piece of understanding that may help me figure out the slightest reasoning for your posts ... maybe !!!!
Paul, Effusive works.
Added to our Top 100 words Paul Slaybaugh uses in literary works list.
Sheldon, did one of your badge icons drop off your picture? he/she looks happy about it :)
Paul,
You wrote a song that's been ringing in my head this past year. I actually sat and stared at a sewing machine at the store the other day for 30 minutes. I really intend to give it a whirl. I can cook and garden and fend a bit for myself, but I have a longing to be more practically useful. I also want my children to live in a world where that is valued above all else.
And the man I respect the most, aside from Martin Luther King Jr., is my grandfather who, god bless, was what you would call Practically hard working. A product of the depression, a hard working Polish gent from the burbs of Chicago who as a youth his father died at the age of 11...he the eldest in a blended stepfamily of 12 children, worked to raise this family at the age of 12.
He was never bitter...I just remember him as a loving man, a great man.
"Better yet, you can just start inviting friends and relatives to meetings about the wheel and detailing how it will lead to unprecedented new levels of wealth amongst its followers."
Can't wait to hear about the wheel - will there be refreshments? Where do I sign?
Victor - LOL. Now that's a list that will need to be rounded out with "the," "an" and other assorted articles if it is to ever be finished.
Rebecca - We want to leave our children with a better world than was left to us, but sometimes I think we don't really understand the meaning of "better." We are certainly making it different, but like any product that is too tampered with and manipulated and artificially flavored, some endeavors might be better left unimproved. Bet your grandfather never took out an option ARM with a 1 year reset on the gamble that he would make a huge windfall on the sale prior to the rate adjustment. He simply worked and was happy.
I can't really tell you about the goings on at the meeting, Elaine. If you could just come down to one of our events that are staged throughout the Southwest, the organizers can get into all of the details. We have 28 meetings scheduled for your area tomorrow, coincidentally. We can come to your house if need be. You have a projecter and boom box, right? If the wheel is not your thing, we also have a juice product made out of 79 different berries (some of which don't even technically exist yet!) that can cure diseases up to cancer while folding your laundry for you. So, which time slot can I put you down for?
I think many of us are due for a good humbling. The kind of blow that makes us all a little fearful and a lot more respectful of what we have. One that might suppress the "godlike" mentality of "I want, I get". It's a dangerous thing to have everything you want and many of us are there... having it all and doing it all.
I often dream (literally) about my former life as a grocery store cashier. Long days, tired legs, cranky customers, shitty pay... but I usually wake up with a smile. Odd? Nah. There's a therapeutic quality in a good, hard day of honest "labour" that just can't be replaced by doing it smarter and faster (or hiring someone to do it). It's a therapy that many of us have erroneously given up.
I am so impressed, Incorrigible has been used to describe me many times but not quite as nicely as you! Hah! Thanks, if you don't realize it...I am a FAN! Keep them coming!
Liz - At the end of the day, I think the secret lies in the honest evaluation of what you actually contributed, not just the potential for your own wealth that was produced. We Realtors are in a position, especially now, to help people on a daily basis, but the emphasis is not always in the right place. The advent of all this new wonderful technology only serves to remove some even further from the actual work that makes ours a noble occupation. Technology is great as long as it doesn't become a means to produce less effort. Rather than doing less, we should employ the new tools to contribute more.
Russell - Ditto, my friend.
Paul, just added # 49, should be finished by the end of the evening. Oh yes it will be finished!
Is it too late to trawl my own catacombs to throw in a few "fustigates" or "obfuscations?" ;)
Things are not the way they used to be,
I wont tell no lie;
One and all have to face reality now.
though Ive tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask.
though I know its impossible to go livin through the past -
Dont tell no lie.
There's a natural mystic flowin' through the air ...
Brilliant post. America has always had the soul of a gambler. It was just on a 200 year winning streak. We have always from our inception as a nation worshipped and staked our claim almost exclusively to modernity, technology, abreviation, brevity. At one time that devotion harnessed and propelled us to reach new and greater heights. Now that love affair is strained and our collective aspirations are not in synch with the reality of our grasp and limited apetite for struggle. Who knows, the aptitudes you mention in the double helix may just only be burried in a shallow grave.
"America has always had the soul of a gambler. It was just on a 200 year winning streak."
What a great line, Michelle. While we could point to a few obvious swoons amidst that timeline, your point is well taken, and I appreciate your ability to turn a clever phrase. You just earned yourself a new reader with this one well worded comment.
Paul I am very flattered by your comment, however my blogs are too tame for the likes of you. I don't venture past the green eco-freindly arena, at least not yet.
Someone could write about what they had for breakfast and still pique my reading interest if done with style and ability. Besides, it's too late. Already subscribed ;)