Sure, I guess this memoir manuscript qualifies as operating in my own universe with different events, characters and scenery. So here’s to earning that August bonus, except I’m disqualified. Damn.
“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “You’re halfway up the mountain with the requisite vistas and views. It still feels like you’ve a long way to go to get to the top, but you’re worlds away from those who never embarked at all.” Libra
Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 62 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 12th day of June in the summer of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.
Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year
S2 E61 — Pink Behind the Reflections; S2 E60 — She Began to Weep…; S2 E59 — See What You’ve Been Missing
Related from Season One, the Normal Year
S1 E62 – Next Reality?; S1 E61 — Investment of Time and Effort; S1 E60 — Overlapping Cycles of Life; S1 E59 — Where Did All the Dillon Millennials Go? Eureka!
Context
So, if you’re an introvert like me, then you understand how the forced solitude brought on by this Pandemic gives me the wonderful opportunity to work on my neglected manuscript I’ve been calling “Volume Three — a Legacy.”
Here’s an excerpt from the first draft or Chapter One .
So they walk down the long hallway stopping and reminiscing along the hall of photos and enter his office, Topher’s once upon-a-time bedroom.
If this were a crime scene roped off with yellow plastic tape across the doorway next to the downstairs bathroom across the narrow hallway from the laundry center where Jazzy would make it a habit of visiting during the week to wash his clothes, lay on the far side couch in the family room and watch sports on the big screen — the Lakers when in season, then there certainly was a lot to take in.
“Where should we start?” AJ asked following Shaggy into the office by turning left just before emerging into the bathroom.
“I guess the most recent stuff he was working on would be there on the desk.”
The office was a lot smaller than it looked.
The renovated room continued with the same tan carpet found in the living room and dining room combination and on the stairs leading to the second story and into each of the three bedrooms off of the common landing.
He had an L-shaped desktop with three rows of drawers left of middle where the black office chair on the plastic protection sat. The middle of the desk was its deepest and offered the most space. There sat two gray Apple laptops stacked on top of each other and a small backup drive laying dormant behind them.
“Hey, there’s the water color painting of the coastline along the Outer Banks in North Carolina where Darin and I were married.”
In shades of blue and skies and ocean waters and darker tans and lighter tan sands the artist, James Melvin, painted darker brown homes on stilts up off the sand dunes with the vanishing point pointing to the horizon where one sea gull stood on a wooden pylon and two others flew above him.
AJ gave it as a “thank you gift”.
“Wait, what’s holding it up there? It’s not framed and hung on the wall between the desktop and the row of shelves and cabinets above it?” AJ wanted to know hanging back nearer the doorway and the mirrored closet doors which gave the room it’s illusion of space. You took three steps into the office towards the futon, but turned right if you wanted to see what was stored in the closet.
“Oh, it’s the screen of the laptop sitting on top of the older one and hides a display of binders hidden for the most part behind it.” Shaggy said while looking up at the books and photos on display on the shelves and wondered if he could remember what was behind the six white cabinet doors with round golden pull nobs.
AJ looked at the mirrored reflection of the two white wooden shutters which shaded the work area from the harsh afternoon sun. She slid the nearest one to her left to discover its contents.
“Oh shit!” Shaggy said looking at the MacBook Air, the third and newer laptop, after he fired it up.
“What?” AJ asked turning and joining her younger brother at the desk.
“It’s password protected. And I don’t remember what it is. Maybe there’s something in his desk drawers, a piece of paper with it written on it.”
“Good idea, while you do that I’ll look through the cabinets above the TV and in the drawers below it.”
She was afraid of opening the second glass door fear craft materials and gift wrapping stuff would fall out or even worse boxes of photos marked by the years. She decided to explore the closet later.
“Shh. Did you hear that?”
Shaggy looked back at her and said, “That?”
“Yeah, like some sort of swishing sound. What is that?”
“Probably the tree leaves — the new one that replaced the original ficus — glancing along the stucco or window pane, I think we’re in for Santa Ana winds.”
Shaggy told her about how one year the Santa Ana winds blew off shingles from the roof on the back side and carried them into the neighbors yards. He remembered how on trash day the curbside cans would be blown over at every house in the neighborhood. They’re what dries all the vegetation out turning grass into kindling.
“When I lived in Santa Barbara before I moved back home their version were called Sundowners when the almost gale force winds blew wild fire flames in the mountains and canyons igniting everything in site. Then the rains come. And the mud slides.”
“Yeah, I remember seeing that on the news, even in Florida.”
“We see your news too. The hurricanes and flooding.”
Evidence
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
Today’s Holiday Birthday:
In some ways, you operate as your own universe this year, powerful as the star of your life, commanding the lineup of events, characters and scenery. You’ll find support for a creative venture. You’ll band together with loved ones for mutual enrichment. There’s a professional bonus in August.
Sure, I guess this memoir manuscript qualifies as operating in my own universe with different events, characters and scenery. So here’s to earning that August bonus, except I’m disqualified. Damn.
“4” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Whether you climb your way up or start off in a higher position, sooner or later everything under you must be learned. That’s your favorite part! You’ll gladly take on the challenge.” Aries
Is that the so-called “standing under”? In the literal definition of understanding?
“5” Steve Smith, 30: “Thinking is harder than it looks, which is why many get tired or lazy and want others to think for them. There are those who would take advantage of this. Give loved ones the benefit of your intellect and your protection.” Gemini
To risk getting too deep in the weeds, our beliefs, psychologists assumed, were by and large reality-based and arrived at by deliberation, weighing facts, opinions, and running calculations.
If you observed the “rationals” out in the wild you’d see people who exuded less warmth than others, while they doggedly pursued internally consistent choices, judgements, conclusions and strategies.
So if all of that is true and we add to it the fact that the rational mind is lazy — most of the time just rubber-stamping what the “Remembering Self” serves up — then you’d see why we jump to conclusions with only the sketchiest of information.
And, why you spot patterns when none exist in the reality-based world and accept conspiracy theories when those claims fill in the blanks.
“4” Steve Howey, 42: “Action is education today when the best way to learn, and perhaps the only way, is by doing. Until you apply yourself, you won’t know what you know.” Cancer
Coming from the Knowledge Management and Corporate Education fields, it dawned on me that education is all about just-in-case information, while training is just-in-time when it includes application. That’s why I championed matching Executive MBA students with C-Suite executives in my Executive to Executive Mentoring Program.
“4” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You’re not out to impress anyone, but you do have something to say. You wouldn’t mind if people were to come away from a conversation with you having more understanding than they started with.” Virgo
When I’m in the composing moment nothing else matters. Sure I have something to say, but it takes time to work it out, and that’s why you get to see this manuscript in progress.
“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “You’re halfway up the mountain with the requisite vistas and views. It still feels like you’ve a long way to go to get to the top, but you’re worlds away from those who never embarked at all.” Libra
So this is the metaphor I feel closest to my passion project today. Figuring out a was to combine all my original research into neighborhoods together with our specific neighborhood as a way into my work-in-progress fondly referred to “Volume Three Manuscript”
“4” Steve Harvey, 62: “You’re more influential than you know, and there’s reason to be mindful of how others are experiencing you. There is intrinsic power in what you say, how you behave and even in your casual statements.” Capricorn
Who was it — maybe Marshall McLuhan — who said kids don’t remember your lectures about right and wrong — all the well intentioned parenting wisdom. They’re raised in your unconscious moments when your values shine through.
“5” Steve Nash, 45: “States of being are tricky. You know when you’re in the zone, but you’re not entirely sure how to get there. It’s worth figuring out, as your production triples when you’re in that frame of mind.” Aquarius
Rituals help. Ever watch the ritual tennis champion Raphael Nadal repeats from them moment he enters the US Open or Wimbledon? He lines up his tennis gear in two bags precisely. He measures the distance among his hydration liquids all in a row. Between shots he swipes at his face with his sweat bands and adjusts his cup while pulling his shorts out of his butt crack. When serving he bounces the ball the same amount of time. And it works.
“3” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Most people don’t reach for a flashlight in the noonday sun, but that’s precisely the best time to find one and get it ready for the evening hour of necessity.” Pisces
Honestly, I don’t know how this TauBit of Wisdom survived. It seems to border on common sense, but at the same time is feel tortured or twisted to prove a point. Like an ounce of prevention …
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
-
- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 3634 to 3808.
Foresight
Quality-of-Life
Long-Form
-
- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate
CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION
The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip