What I was not, what I was, what I'll be

Secret Words

This morning I remembered two 'secret words' that two individuals seperately told me long ago to remember:

Creativity

Chronometer

Unfortunately I cannot remember why I was instructed to remember those two words.  I do remember a password from 1978...'tinulave.'

Odd Dreams

Earlier this week I dreamed of being on a trip to North Korea, not something that I think about.  The overall odor was of jet fuel.  Numerous military planes, knockoffs of the A-10 Warthog were flying about with sort of Asian dragon graphics.  That is something I think about.  (Note:  my better writing, from my perspective occurs between 10 and Midnight.  It's 10 AM right now and I just wrote 'graffics' instead of 'graphics.'  If the spelling is bad my thoughts may be, as well.) 

Last night I was lead around by a woman insurance agent.  That's not unusual because I need to get my Medicare coverage nailed down this month.  The strange part was that we were walking on Lakeview Boulevard in my home town but part of it was also inside a Dayton's Department Store.

There are lingering dreams of endless strategic planning meetings but those usually cause me to wake up.

Single-Mindedness

 William de Kooning was a driven guy, single-minded, creative and had a lasting impact on American art.  Not all of it was well-received but creativity, whether it be pure art, business, relationships, etc., is good.  Partial success is far better than no success.

de Kooning was also an immigrant who came to America with nothing.  There are many strong immigrant stories.  With the exception of a couple hundred of thousand of us, we're all immigrants.

What I was not

 During my long-ago job at the meat packing plant it was clear that that was not much of a careers.  Looking around it seemed logical to move away from animals crazed with an about to die adrenaline rush, pools of blood from those that became our food...and a lot of nasty equipment and sharp things.

I'd read some of the really dark poetry and prose of William Burroughs and thought a postal job would be good.  The short version of the story is that I failed the test.  

 The longer version is that the test contained math, logic, spelling, synonyms, analogies, etc.  It was 1972 of so and it's a big cloudy but it might have also had questions about quantum physics.  For whatever reason I thought it involved sorting by zip code, putting mail in boxes and lots of whistling.

One of the questions referred to images like these.  The question was something like "Are these similar or different?"  During the last years we've grown hundreds of squash and I've folded (and delivered) hundreds of lunch boxes.  If I was taking the test now I'd say 'similar.'  At the time I left it blank.  My failure at the test was broader than this one question.

What I was...

The other night at the small business a couple of people came in and wanted some suggestions for recognizing a departing employee.  We all jumped in with ideas, most of which were about gifts.  What doe this person like to do now?  What will they do when retired or more of when retired?  Unfortunately it's sort of a George Carlin routine.  It call comes down to 'our stuff,' things we have with us, things we left at home, stuff we'd like to buy.

My suggestion was that every departure involves stuff.  Personally I think money is good.  The recipient can convert that into stuff, or services, give it away or save it for a later time.  Pondering that I thought about the person and the impact they had on that organization.  Usually when people leave it's like shutting off the tap.  It's over.  They're forgotten.   It would be nice if companies and organizations worked a bit harder on their alumni, the people that defined direction, did work, answered the phone, made a difference, etc.  I suggested that the organization begin an annual dinner where they invited the former employees for a simple meal, thank them for their formative work and remind them that the organization is today because of what they contributed.  This organization has about 15 former employees.  I also suggested naming the event after the departing employee.

One of the people standing, listening, commented "you must have been a manager."  That was nice.  I was.  Coming up with ideas, recognizing employee contributions was a big part of what I did.

What I'm going to be...

• still working hard on writing and creating
• working on the book "Stories From Pop, My Grandfather"
• working on two books born from the small business
• a bit of a time back in the IT space
• working the secret word into my day-to-day activities (stuff, color,words, stories, conversation)