In this real estate business we are experiencing one of the slowest summers in the 9 years that I have been in the business. We are usually covered up with buyers and sellers this time of the year. Ever since I have been a realtor this time, school summer vacation, has been the time to make hay. Not so currently. I was very busy up through the 30th of June. That was the magic date for consummating the tax credit on a purchase. After 6/30 it was as if someone switched off the power switch.
Why so? I think that there are a lot of reasons. The economy in general, the unemployment rate, politics, and just an overall feeling of dread by consumers. Witness a 10% drop in the consumer confidence index. That index dropped from 62.7% in May to 52.9% in June. That is significant. I also think that Tallahassee is bit more hard wired than the rest of the state. When bad news prevails it feeds out into the general Florida populace from Tallahassee, the state capital.
I note that there was just yesterday a meeting in Ft. Walton of BP, the Florida department of environmental protection and several realtor associations. The realtors on the beaches are feeling the sting of the BP oil spill. Ask yourself if you want to buy beach front in that part of Florida right now. If you are a holder of beach front property and have not felt some serious angst about your prospects of ever selling it then you sure ought to be concerned right now.
BP has established some sort of financial reimbursement effort. Realtors have submitted claims against those set aside funds and most have not heard anything back. The bureacracy in getting a claim through is unfathomable and untenable. I note that one of the people sitting in at the hearing held yesterday was a government affairs, public affairs designee from BP.
I used to occupy such a job here in Florida for a large company. It was my responsibility to do all the contact work at the state government level and feed all that into our home office. The home office would then contract with some grass roots advocacy group to try and put a positive spin on our efforts to do what is right for the citizenry. It is fascinating to read the spin coming off the newswires and contemplate the effort put into the tiniest little sound bite. A comparable effort is now going on in the headquarters of Johnson and Johnson the big consumer products company. They are smack in the midst of a recall of some serious brands like Motrin, Tylenol because of some quality control failure on a loading dock.
I really feel that consumer confidence being at such an anemic point is due to much of the stuff going on in our world that people just do not have any control over. So we close the blinds, turn down the a/c and squeeze our pennies. Who knows when this general depression of consumer confidence will end.
I will predict that BP will solve the oil spill and become bigger and richer than ever. If you are into the stock market and have expendable cash.............................hmmmmmm........................now that might be a place to put a little extra grease into since the price of that stock has been driven to historical lows.
It is all about the spin and what we believe in our hearts.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Facing Facebook
Well I am back on Facebook. The only thing up in the air is am I going to get back on Twitter? I used to be all over both of them and then frankly got bored with them. I have this unfulfilled question lingering in my mind that relates to whether or not my not being on Facebook and Twitter is costing me business. Is someone going to hire a Realtor who is so techno-challenged that they are not on Facebook and Twitter? One of the main reasons that I BLOG is related to that if I were honest. I do these little test Googles to see where I come up when I query Realtors for Tallahassee, Florida. I guess I should be happy that I come up, out of 2,380,000 hits at #42. Man, I want to come up on the first page. I have only done that one or two times.
I have begged people to bookmark me and visit my website whether they need to or not. I have meta-tagged myself to oblivion. That is a little process on the website that is sort of like word association. It is supposed to drive me to the top of Google searches. I suppose that I am quite happy with my web presence. However, is it bringing me loads of business? Not so much. Out of 100 clients I have attracted I would have to say that 98 of them came from some kind soul referring them to me. So I BLOG just to fulfill this endemic proclivity that I have to want to express myself in the written form.
Back to Facebook. I really think that I am too old to be on Facebook (FB). Most of the people on FB post up things that are enormously mundane. " I just clipped my toenails. Now I am going to bed, after I visit the potty." Post something clever and/or relevant to something important. I have also posted up my own stuff and been too controversial. Making a comment about a particular political candidate, a sports team or a current event can bring down the scourges of the simple minded on you. To wit: I lost a friend over Michael Jackson. They had posted up some trite euphemism about how truly wonderful Jacko the Whacko was after he gorked himself to wherever they send child molesters in the hereafter. I really don't think they appreciated it when I told all my friends that I really didn't give a damn about Jackson doing himself in. He was a child molester. The world is a better place. Not good stuff to put up on your FB page. I had some of my imaginary FB friends read me the riot act. So I got off and remained off for a little over a year.
So I have to ask myself why I am so double-minded about this matter? I believe it goes back to my youth. I was raised on a farm in southern West Virginia. We had no concept of indoor plumbing. The privy outhouse seemed quite functional for all of our bio-needs. We always had electricity but not a phone. I remember clear as a bell when my Dad allowed us to get a phone. People could actually call us up and speak with us now. Nowadays we have 3 phones in our home, all cordless. My wife has a cell and I have one. I have a fax line and a line for my internet. I am filthy with lines of communication.
Yet I think back to that big black phone the size of a horses leg sitting on the table in the corner there in that little farmhouse in Hillsdale, West Virginia. Along with it was my mother or my grandmother sitting with the receiver pressed against their ear and the speaker covered with a towel held firmly in place by their free hand. What were they doing? Why they were eavesdropping. Life was boring. Hardly anyone had a TV and if you did programming stunk. We had a party line as our phone service. We shared a line with 8-10 neighbors. My grandmother and mother found it scintillatingly interesting to hear Mrs. Lugar and Mrs. Tomlinson talk about their vegetable gardens.
That, my friends, is the appeal of Facebook. We are on this big internet party line. People revealing all sorts of inner thoughts. Most of it mind-numbingly boring. However, we like eavesdropping. Mary's baby is adorable. It just spit up on her. Perry has a new cocker spaniel. If you like you can look at the 500 photos that he has uploaded onto his page. Susie has a new job. Mike just got a divorce.
I guess at the root of it all is a harmless interest in our fellow human beings. Somehow we touch each other. Sometimes it is just nice to know that there is someone else out there doing the same things that you are doing. So, what's the harm? Anyone that gets scary you can simply block and voila, no more Mike. I think I am back to stay this time. Perhaps I will do much less contributing and a lot more reading just to stay in touch with people for the most part that mean a lot to me.
I have begged people to bookmark me and visit my website whether they need to or not. I have meta-tagged myself to oblivion. That is a little process on the website that is sort of like word association. It is supposed to drive me to the top of Google searches. I suppose that I am quite happy with my web presence. However, is it bringing me loads of business? Not so much. Out of 100 clients I have attracted I would have to say that 98 of them came from some kind soul referring them to me. So I BLOG just to fulfill this endemic proclivity that I have to want to express myself in the written form.
Back to Facebook. I really think that I am too old to be on Facebook (FB). Most of the people on FB post up things that are enormously mundane. " I just clipped my toenails. Now I am going to bed, after I visit the potty." Post something clever and/or relevant to something important. I have also posted up my own stuff and been too controversial. Making a comment about a particular political candidate, a sports team or a current event can bring down the scourges of the simple minded on you. To wit: I lost a friend over Michael Jackson. They had posted up some trite euphemism about how truly wonderful Jacko the Whacko was after he gorked himself to wherever they send child molesters in the hereafter. I really don't think they appreciated it when I told all my friends that I really didn't give a damn about Jackson doing himself in. He was a child molester. The world is a better place. Not good stuff to put up on your FB page. I had some of my imaginary FB friends read me the riot act. So I got off and remained off for a little over a year.
So I have to ask myself why I am so double-minded about this matter? I believe it goes back to my youth. I was raised on a farm in southern West Virginia. We had no concept of indoor plumbing. The privy outhouse seemed quite functional for all of our bio-needs. We always had electricity but not a phone. I remember clear as a bell when my Dad allowed us to get a phone. People could actually call us up and speak with us now. Nowadays we have 3 phones in our home, all cordless. My wife has a cell and I have one. I have a fax line and a line for my internet. I am filthy with lines of communication.
Yet I think back to that big black phone the size of a horses leg sitting on the table in the corner there in that little farmhouse in Hillsdale, West Virginia. Along with it was my mother or my grandmother sitting with the receiver pressed against their ear and the speaker covered with a towel held firmly in place by their free hand. What were they doing? Why they were eavesdropping. Life was boring. Hardly anyone had a TV and if you did programming stunk. We had a party line as our phone service. We shared a line with 8-10 neighbors. My grandmother and mother found it scintillatingly interesting to hear Mrs. Lugar and Mrs. Tomlinson talk about their vegetable gardens.
That, my friends, is the appeal of Facebook. We are on this big internet party line. People revealing all sorts of inner thoughts. Most of it mind-numbingly boring. However, we like eavesdropping. Mary's baby is adorable. It just spit up on her. Perry has a new cocker spaniel. If you like you can look at the 500 photos that he has uploaded onto his page. Susie has a new job. Mike just got a divorce.
I guess at the root of it all is a harmless interest in our fellow human beings. Somehow we touch each other. Sometimes it is just nice to know that there is someone else out there doing the same things that you are doing. So, what's the harm? Anyone that gets scary you can simply block and voila, no more Mike. I think I am back to stay this time. Perhaps I will do much less contributing and a lot more reading just to stay in touch with people for the most part that mean a lot to me.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Fire flies and Iron Man
During the summer months one of my favorite activities is going to a movie in the afternoon. It is a nice cool environment and they have yummy treats, if you can afford them and it is a great way to relax.. When I was a kid one of my favorite things was catching fire flies in the summer. Fire flies still hold a fascination to me. I love to look out out over my balcony onto the golf course and see those little flashing bugs floating through the air.
My wife, Nancy, and I just got back from spending a couple of hours watching Iron Man II. It was an action packed thriller and we enjoyed it almost as much as the original Iron Man. From the audience I caught out of the corner of my eye these little flashes of light, almost like fire flies. I finally came to realize that they were not fire flies at all but cellular phones. I watched a couple of the people as they waved their little electronic candles and I could not help but wonder why woud someone pay good money to come to the movie and then insist on texting on their cell phones. Am I just ignorant but didn't they come to escape all that stuff for a little while? Usually the plot needs to be followed. Why the need to be so connected. Most of these folks looked to be 13-16 years of age. The explanation that they were busy neoroscientists or CIA agents did not seem to fit the need to stay in touch.
Let's just face it. Utilization of phones for calling, texting, instant messaging has just become a national obsession. It is not a good one in my opinion. We are way too wired up these days. We need to turn those blamed things off sometimes and read a book or have a face to face conversation with someone we enjoy talking with. It is not just an addicition for teenagers either. A lady in her mid-50's ran dead, head on into me on the sidewalk last week as she was texting and walking. I must admit that it has done got a hold on me as well. I am all too aften guilty of texting and walking and I must admit the occassional while driving.
Now that latter one is the one that can be fatal. I was on the road for DuPont for nearly 30 years. They gave me a company automobile to drive. They were fanatics about safety because of the fact that they started thier company in the late 1700's selling gunpowder. They had all too many accidents with people not paying particular attention while they were working. When you make a mistake with gunpowder your co-workers usually end up picking up your body parts and putting them in the nearest basket or crate.
I remember that for one safe driving campaign they sent us a little decal that was to be applied to the drivers side window so that you could see it and contemplate the message. The message was " While behind the wheel, driving is your ONLY business." Boy that sure has application in today's world. I saw a young lady standing outside of her badly damaged car the other day. There was no other vehicle in sight, just a guard rail. I did not see the accident but I will be willing to bet a sizeable amount of money that text messaging while she was driving was the causation.
Several states have already enacted stiff laws to forbid driving and texting. The fines can be pretty hefty. There are lots of fatlities caused by people that insisted on forwarding the latest knock knock joke they just got texted to their buddies whilst missiling down the freeway at 80 mph. Come on folks is it all that blamed important to be that wired up? Turn those things off and listen to the radio or CD player and arrive alive.
My wife, Nancy, and I just got back from spending a couple of hours watching Iron Man II. It was an action packed thriller and we enjoyed it almost as much as the original Iron Man. From the audience I caught out of the corner of my eye these little flashes of light, almost like fire flies. I finally came to realize that they were not fire flies at all but cellular phones. I watched a couple of the people as they waved their little electronic candles and I could not help but wonder why woud someone pay good money to come to the movie and then insist on texting on their cell phones. Am I just ignorant but didn't they come to escape all that stuff for a little while? Usually the plot needs to be followed. Why the need to be so connected. Most of these folks looked to be 13-16 years of age. The explanation that they were busy neoroscientists or CIA agents did not seem to fit the need to stay in touch.
Let's just face it. Utilization of phones for calling, texting, instant messaging has just become a national obsession. It is not a good one in my opinion. We are way too wired up these days. We need to turn those blamed things off sometimes and read a book or have a face to face conversation with someone we enjoy talking with. It is not just an addicition for teenagers either. A lady in her mid-50's ran dead, head on into me on the sidewalk last week as she was texting and walking. I must admit that it has done got a hold on me as well. I am all too aften guilty of texting and walking and I must admit the occassional while driving.
Now that latter one is the one that can be fatal. I was on the road for DuPont for nearly 30 years. They gave me a company automobile to drive. They were fanatics about safety because of the fact that they started thier company in the late 1700's selling gunpowder. They had all too many accidents with people not paying particular attention while they were working. When you make a mistake with gunpowder your co-workers usually end up picking up your body parts and putting them in the nearest basket or crate.
I remember that for one safe driving campaign they sent us a little decal that was to be applied to the drivers side window so that you could see it and contemplate the message. The message was " While behind the wheel, driving is your ONLY business." Boy that sure has application in today's world. I saw a young lady standing outside of her badly damaged car the other day. There was no other vehicle in sight, just a guard rail. I did not see the accident but I will be willing to bet a sizeable amount of money that text messaging while she was driving was the causation.
Several states have already enacted stiff laws to forbid driving and texting. The fines can be pretty hefty. There are lots of fatlities caused by people that insisted on forwarding the latest knock knock joke they just got texted to their buddies whilst missiling down the freeway at 80 mph. Come on folks is it all that blamed important to be that wired up? Turn those things off and listen to the radio or CD player and arrive alive.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
A Radical Paradigm Shift
Two months ago on March 16, 2010 I had a Waterloo of an experience. All of a sudden the real estate market, my golf score, eating, breathing and little else mattered a whole lot to me. My wife of 37 years was admitted to the local hospital with a life threatening illness. She has always been my rock. Steady as the sunrise, day in and day out. Suddenly the sun was coming up in the west. My wife was critically ill. How critically I was to learn a few days later.
Nancy's portal of entry into the health care system was our friend Dr. Snyder at the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. She presented after lingering at home for two weeks. She had a slight fever and zero energy. Her blood glucose was 872, normal is anywhere from 80-110. We had been calling primary care physicians in our local offices for a couple of weeks and recieved the same message from each of them, " Sorry, but our doctor is not accepting new patients." Fortunately for us we chose to take her to the ER and our friend Matt Snyder.
Nancy had a lesion in her groin area and unbeknownst to me it had become infected. After several days of hitting her with heavy antibiotics and hitting her with insulin to get her sugar down she was not making any progress. Our hospitalist, Dr. Innisheer Shah, told me from the first moment she saw Nancy that she was more worried about that lesion than she was the diabetes. On a Saturday after her Tuesday admission she ordered a cat scan. She called me on my cell phone and told me that the news was not good. She described a burrowing wound into her groin and beyond. She had ordered emergency surgery. Dr. Jeff Crooms operated on her at 10:00 PM that evening and debrided the infected tissue out of her. He left the wound open and sent her to ICU where she would be for a total of 10 days.
An infectious disease physician came to consult on day 1 of her ICU stay. It was then that I was to recieve the big picture. He told me that she was critically ill. She had necrotizing fasciitis. He advised me that had we waited another 24 hours to get her into the ER that she would very likely have died. Dr. Philbert Ford described the illness. Necrotizing Fasciitis is also referred to as the flesh-eating bacteria. If you Google it you will find that the mortality rate is better than 35%. If Nancy had developed this infection in an extremity, she could have likely faced amputation. It is hard to amputate a groin. So they split her open and tried their best to remove the infected tissue.
From the ICU she was released to Select Hospital which specializes in wound care among other things. There, an angel of a wound care nurse, named Mary Jo, clucked over Nancy like an old brood hen. She supervised Nancy's healing up the surgical wound, orchestrated her wound being closed by a brilliant, young plastic surgeon, Dr. Rosenberg and then she was released to go home. After 5 1/2 weeks of hospitalization. Follow up by Gentiva Home Health care brought us full circle.
Nancy is at this moment walking around our bedroom fussing about the extent of the mess in the house left to be run by a helpless husband. We were both assaulted so fiercely, emotionally, by this experience that we are still drained and exhausted. Every day, however, she gets a little stronger and better.
I share this experience as a catharsis I suppose. There are far sicker people than Nancy in this world who fight a day to day battle. I attended the funeral of a 37 year old son of a good friend who died in the midst of Nancy's hospitalization. We have family members who have preceded us in death. Nancy's father was on a ventilator for almost 6 years paralyzed from the neck down before he died.
We get so caught up in the thick of thin things. Someone cut me off in traffic. Hannity says the illegal immigrants are taking over America. The gays and lesbians say they aren't getting enough respect. Business is bad. My neighbors drink and party too much. My football team never wins. I lost a fortune in the stock market. You face this assault day in and day out and before you know you have turned into a cynical, unhappy person. This experience has caused me to vow to be a little softer and kinder to people I meet. I have shifted paradigms at least for the time being. The stuff that was so all fired important to me two months ago has taken a back seat to my almost losing the most important person in my life. I reach over and feel her in the bed next to me and I have to suppress my almost wanting to cry like a little girl.
I hope that I have changed for the remainder of our time together.
Nancy's portal of entry into the health care system was our friend Dr. Snyder at the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. She presented after lingering at home for two weeks. She had a slight fever and zero energy. Her blood glucose was 872, normal is anywhere from 80-110. We had been calling primary care physicians in our local offices for a couple of weeks and recieved the same message from each of them, " Sorry, but our doctor is not accepting new patients." Fortunately for us we chose to take her to the ER and our friend Matt Snyder.
Nancy had a lesion in her groin area and unbeknownst to me it had become infected. After several days of hitting her with heavy antibiotics and hitting her with insulin to get her sugar down she was not making any progress. Our hospitalist, Dr. Innisheer Shah, told me from the first moment she saw Nancy that she was more worried about that lesion than she was the diabetes. On a Saturday after her Tuesday admission she ordered a cat scan. She called me on my cell phone and told me that the news was not good. She described a burrowing wound into her groin and beyond. She had ordered emergency surgery. Dr. Jeff Crooms operated on her at 10:00 PM that evening and debrided the infected tissue out of her. He left the wound open and sent her to ICU where she would be for a total of 10 days.
An infectious disease physician came to consult on day 1 of her ICU stay. It was then that I was to recieve the big picture. He told me that she was critically ill. She had necrotizing fasciitis. He advised me that had we waited another 24 hours to get her into the ER that she would very likely have died. Dr. Philbert Ford described the illness. Necrotizing Fasciitis is also referred to as the flesh-eating bacteria. If you Google it you will find that the mortality rate is better than 35%. If Nancy had developed this infection in an extremity, she could have likely faced amputation. It is hard to amputate a groin. So they split her open and tried their best to remove the infected tissue.
From the ICU she was released to Select Hospital which specializes in wound care among other things. There, an angel of a wound care nurse, named Mary Jo, clucked over Nancy like an old brood hen. She supervised Nancy's healing up the surgical wound, orchestrated her wound being closed by a brilliant, young plastic surgeon, Dr. Rosenberg and then she was released to go home. After 5 1/2 weeks of hospitalization. Follow up by Gentiva Home Health care brought us full circle.
Nancy is at this moment walking around our bedroom fussing about the extent of the mess in the house left to be run by a helpless husband. We were both assaulted so fiercely, emotionally, by this experience that we are still drained and exhausted. Every day, however, she gets a little stronger and better.
I share this experience as a catharsis I suppose. There are far sicker people than Nancy in this world who fight a day to day battle. I attended the funeral of a 37 year old son of a good friend who died in the midst of Nancy's hospitalization. We have family members who have preceded us in death. Nancy's father was on a ventilator for almost 6 years paralyzed from the neck down before he died.
We get so caught up in the thick of thin things. Someone cut me off in traffic. Hannity says the illegal immigrants are taking over America. The gays and lesbians say they aren't getting enough respect. Business is bad. My neighbors drink and party too much. My football team never wins. I lost a fortune in the stock market. You face this assault day in and day out and before you know you have turned into a cynical, unhappy person. This experience has caused me to vow to be a little softer and kinder to people I meet. I have shifted paradigms at least for the time being. The stuff that was so all fired important to me two months ago has taken a back seat to my almost losing the most important person in my life. I reach over and feel her in the bed next to me and I have to suppress my almost wanting to cry like a little girl.
I hope that I have changed for the remainder of our time together.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Idealism and the Olympics
The winter olympics of 2010 are now behind us. I watched off and on from the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony. I was intrigued by the athleticism of the world's sports figures. I was proud of the fact that the US medal count was in the number one position.
I just read that the endorsement potential of stars like Lindsay Vonn, Hannah Teter, Shani White and others has multiple million dollar per year potential. Much of the reason is because of Tiger Woods fall from grace as the golfing nasty boy who has lost millions in endorsement revenue because of his inability to keep his woods in his pants. Now those dollars are up in the air to other spokespeople who project a much more idealistic public personna.
I cannot help but reflect on just how far from the truth that most likely is. I had a friend who won 4 gold medals in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. I used to hang pretty close with this guy. I remember on a trip to an out of town football game almost 40 years ago he pulled out a cigarette case and fired up a joint and handed it to me to join him. I could not help but ask him what the heck he was doing smoking anything, much a less a joint? Aren't you supposed to be a world class athlete? He then went on to describe to me what it was like in the olympic village. You put several thousand young people together and what do you expect to occur in all that idle time when they are not competing? He said that there was a constant presence of drug use and sexuality in the village. I suppose that my bubble was burst for a brief time period but I settled into a general boys will be boys and girls will be girls and drugs will always be drugs sort of mental state over the matter.
I have taken Sports Illustrated for most of my life. I have to say that I like the swimsuit edition. The most recent one highlights Lindsey Vonn, Hannah Teter and many others in provocative poses in the scantiest of fabric to titillate and parade their extremely fit bodies for the benefit of the public ( and the coffers of SI ). I could not help but notice the comedic utterances of William Shatner, Kathleen Parker, Michael J. Fox and others as Canadiens sort of portending what went on in Mt. Olympia during the games. References from making love in a canoe to urinating messages into snow banks suggests that the boys will be boys with girls will be girls and all mixtures in between idle time play was most certainly present.
I have only to think back to some of the many conventions that I attended over my 30 years of working for a big company to apply the " What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas " mentality to the romping escapades of those looking for adventure, to the olympics. The human animal is basically a simple model of reaction to circumstances, endocrine function and frivilous nature.
So dear friends I express my pride for the olympics and the pragmatic opinion that many of the heroes we want to put on pedastals and bow to are foibled and coarse in their basic nature. If you want to worship a hero find a hard working mother somewhere, a hard working father, a minister, a neighbor or many of the millions of people who populate this land of ours. They may not look too great in a swim suit but you would be a whole lot better off emulating most of those people than the glitzy stars of sports, hollywood, the body politic, etc.
I know in the murky world of real estate there abounds much glitz, promotion and down right mysticism. There are many straight as arrow licensees that you can trust and emulate. There also exists many reptilian practitioners who will wrap you in their coils and crush the life out of you to lace their own pockets. Be careful whom you place up on that pedestal.
I just read that the endorsement potential of stars like Lindsay Vonn, Hannah Teter, Shani White and others has multiple million dollar per year potential. Much of the reason is because of Tiger Woods fall from grace as the golfing nasty boy who has lost millions in endorsement revenue because of his inability to keep his woods in his pants. Now those dollars are up in the air to other spokespeople who project a much more idealistic public personna.
I cannot help but reflect on just how far from the truth that most likely is. I had a friend who won 4 gold medals in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. I used to hang pretty close with this guy. I remember on a trip to an out of town football game almost 40 years ago he pulled out a cigarette case and fired up a joint and handed it to me to join him. I could not help but ask him what the heck he was doing smoking anything, much a less a joint? Aren't you supposed to be a world class athlete? He then went on to describe to me what it was like in the olympic village. You put several thousand young people together and what do you expect to occur in all that idle time when they are not competing? He said that there was a constant presence of drug use and sexuality in the village. I suppose that my bubble was burst for a brief time period but I settled into a general boys will be boys and girls will be girls and drugs will always be drugs sort of mental state over the matter.
I have taken Sports Illustrated for most of my life. I have to say that I like the swimsuit edition. The most recent one highlights Lindsey Vonn, Hannah Teter and many others in provocative poses in the scantiest of fabric to titillate and parade their extremely fit bodies for the benefit of the public ( and the coffers of SI ). I could not help but notice the comedic utterances of William Shatner, Kathleen Parker, Michael J. Fox and others as Canadiens sort of portending what went on in Mt. Olympia during the games. References from making love in a canoe to urinating messages into snow banks suggests that the boys will be boys with girls will be girls and all mixtures in between idle time play was most certainly present.
I have only to think back to some of the many conventions that I attended over my 30 years of working for a big company to apply the " What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas " mentality to the romping escapades of those looking for adventure, to the olympics. The human animal is basically a simple model of reaction to circumstances, endocrine function and frivilous nature.
So dear friends I express my pride for the olympics and the pragmatic opinion that many of the heroes we want to put on pedastals and bow to are foibled and coarse in their basic nature. If you want to worship a hero find a hard working mother somewhere, a hard working father, a minister, a neighbor or many of the millions of people who populate this land of ours. They may not look too great in a swim suit but you would be a whole lot better off emulating most of those people than the glitzy stars of sports, hollywood, the body politic, etc.
I know in the murky world of real estate there abounds much glitz, promotion and down right mysticism. There are many straight as arrow licensees that you can trust and emulate. There also exists many reptilian practitioners who will wrap you in their coils and crush the life out of you to lace their own pockets. Be careful whom you place up on that pedestal.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Arrogance. What a peculiar disease !
I would like to post on the highlighted title. I once heard a man pose this rehetorical question,
" Isn't arrogance the most peculiar of diseases? It makes everyone sick, except for the person who has it." I am posting just after having listened to Tiger Woods speak to his subjects as a king would to his underlings. I would sum up his comments in one single word. Yes, the word is arrogance. The world rushes to hang on his every closely engineered and edited message. Yet how we can percieve him as anything less than a man who has a made himself a billionaire playing a game designed for gentlemen and then displaying anything but gentlemanly behaviour? His name and his demeanor are synonymous with that word, arrogant.
Another man once said, " I cannot hear what you are saying because what you are roars so loudly in my ear." I don't mean to pick on Tiger. He is just one single visit to a lifetime of arrogant people that I have had interaction with.
Success seems to be the mirror opposite of humility. Be it economic, academic, intellectual, physical bearing, athletic ability, circle of friends, influence, prominence, etc. the natural sequel to all the foregoing sadly is arrogance.
We are taught from an early age that we need to realize that we are special. We each have gifts that no one else possesses. I remember when I was in high school I had a little cock in my walk because of the fact that I was a pretty decent athlete. Later on I was successful as an employee of a Fortune 500, worldwide company. I married a pretty girl. We had pretty and smart children. We live in a nice house in the right part of town. My dog is the coolest one around. Now our grandchildren are exceptional in every way possible. I think it is probably healthy to think like that. It gives us cause to get up day in and day out and face the day.
The problem with living in this quixotic fashion is that sometimes we lose balance. The suffering of Haiti is a far removed reality. How about the various African countries besieged by diseases that no longer exist here in America? AIDS, malaria, cholera, measles, for crying out loud. Out of sight and out of mind. It would take a minor degree turn on the circumstantial barometer for us to realize just how spoiled, helpless and, yes, arrogant we for the most part are. There are people in our own land that get up in the morning hungry and lay down at night hungry.
I had an experience many years ago that caused me to reflect. I was on my way to Panama City to give a presentation to a drug and alcohol treatment center. I was to be the speaker to a group of therapists including psychologists and physicians. I thought I was pretty hot stuff to be making such a splash in this highly technical arena of the medical world. I had my little 35 mm projector and notes. I was going to wow them. How cool could I possibly get?
This was perhaps as much as 20 years ago. The summer Olympics were scheduled for Atlanta. As I exited off of interstate 10 I slid under the overpass there. I saw two middle aged men waking from a night spent under that overpass. That caught my eye. I reflected that they could very well be victims of substance abuse. That having led to their homelessness.
After a few miles I saw a state trooper coming towards me, over the hill of SR 20, a two lane, little country road. There was no one else in view either before me or behind me. The trooper indicated that I should stop to speak to him. I was going to be late so I stopped in an irritated frame of mind. The Florida trooper told me to pull off and wait until the Olympic torch passed by. What ?!? I did not have time for this, I was going to be late. However, it is best to do what a law enforcement officer tells you to do. I pulled over and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Soon an entourage consisting of 2 Georgia Highway patrol cars ( BMW's by the way ), a $200,000 Coca Cola exhibit truck and two bicyclists carrying the torch came snailing by me. I could not help but to reflect, " Man, there is something wrong with the way we do things. I just passed two guys who slept under an overpass last night. Here I see a representation of millions of dollars spent to promote the summer Olympics." Try as I may to connect those two dots, I still come up short.
Arrogance will always be a factor in the mix of humanity. I still encounter it in the people I run into on a day to day basis. I have to admit that sometimes I am the culprit. The goal we should have in mind is to always be kindly, patient and humble.
A man I have a great fondness for wrote:
" Humility is not weak, vacillating or servile. Humble and meek properly suggest virtues, not weakness. They suggest a consistent mildness of temper and an absence of wrath and passion. Humility suggests no affectation, no bombastic actions. It is not turbid nor grandiloquent. It is not servile submissiveness. It is not cowed nor frightened. No shadow or the shaking of a leaf terrorizes it. Humility makes no bid for popularity and notoriety; demands no honors. Humility is deity seated on the back of a lowly ass." ( Spencer W. Kimball; Faith precedes the miracle. )
Anyone who has ever played golf with me knows that I am the polar opposite of humility and control. However, I believe, that attaining control in this one thing is that which will ultimately save us. I hope Tiger and everyone else can keep their eyes set on that goal.
Please visit me on the web http://elvass.com/
" Isn't arrogance the most peculiar of diseases? It makes everyone sick, except for the person who has it." I am posting just after having listened to Tiger Woods speak to his subjects as a king would to his underlings. I would sum up his comments in one single word. Yes, the word is arrogance. The world rushes to hang on his every closely engineered and edited message. Yet how we can percieve him as anything less than a man who has a made himself a billionaire playing a game designed for gentlemen and then displaying anything but gentlemanly behaviour? His name and his demeanor are synonymous with that word, arrogant.
Another man once said, " I cannot hear what you are saying because what you are roars so loudly in my ear." I don't mean to pick on Tiger. He is just one single visit to a lifetime of arrogant people that I have had interaction with.
Success seems to be the mirror opposite of humility. Be it economic, academic, intellectual, physical bearing, athletic ability, circle of friends, influence, prominence, etc. the natural sequel to all the foregoing sadly is arrogance.
We are taught from an early age that we need to realize that we are special. We each have gifts that no one else possesses. I remember when I was in high school I had a little cock in my walk because of the fact that I was a pretty decent athlete. Later on I was successful as an employee of a Fortune 500, worldwide company. I married a pretty girl. We had pretty and smart children. We live in a nice house in the right part of town. My dog is the coolest one around. Now our grandchildren are exceptional in every way possible. I think it is probably healthy to think like that. It gives us cause to get up day in and day out and face the day.
The problem with living in this quixotic fashion is that sometimes we lose balance. The suffering of Haiti is a far removed reality. How about the various African countries besieged by diseases that no longer exist here in America? AIDS, malaria, cholera, measles, for crying out loud. Out of sight and out of mind. It would take a minor degree turn on the circumstantial barometer for us to realize just how spoiled, helpless and, yes, arrogant we for the most part are. There are people in our own land that get up in the morning hungry and lay down at night hungry.
I had an experience many years ago that caused me to reflect. I was on my way to Panama City to give a presentation to a drug and alcohol treatment center. I was to be the speaker to a group of therapists including psychologists and physicians. I thought I was pretty hot stuff to be making such a splash in this highly technical arena of the medical world. I had my little 35 mm projector and notes. I was going to wow them. How cool could I possibly get?
This was perhaps as much as 20 years ago. The summer Olympics were scheduled for Atlanta. As I exited off of interstate 10 I slid under the overpass there. I saw two middle aged men waking from a night spent under that overpass. That caught my eye. I reflected that they could very well be victims of substance abuse. That having led to their homelessness.
After a few miles I saw a state trooper coming towards me, over the hill of SR 20, a two lane, little country road. There was no one else in view either before me or behind me. The trooper indicated that I should stop to speak to him. I was going to be late so I stopped in an irritated frame of mind. The Florida trooper told me to pull off and wait until the Olympic torch passed by. What ?!? I did not have time for this, I was going to be late. However, it is best to do what a law enforcement officer tells you to do. I pulled over and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Soon an entourage consisting of 2 Georgia Highway patrol cars ( BMW's by the way ), a $200,000 Coca Cola exhibit truck and two bicyclists carrying the torch came snailing by me. I could not help but to reflect, " Man, there is something wrong with the way we do things. I just passed two guys who slept under an overpass last night. Here I see a representation of millions of dollars spent to promote the summer Olympics." Try as I may to connect those two dots, I still come up short.
Arrogance will always be a factor in the mix of humanity. I still encounter it in the people I run into on a day to day basis. I have to admit that sometimes I am the culprit. The goal we should have in mind is to always be kindly, patient and humble.
A man I have a great fondness for wrote:
" Humility is not weak, vacillating or servile. Humble and meek properly suggest virtues, not weakness. They suggest a consistent mildness of temper and an absence of wrath and passion. Humility suggests no affectation, no bombastic actions. It is not turbid nor grandiloquent. It is not servile submissiveness. It is not cowed nor frightened. No shadow or the shaking of a leaf terrorizes it. Humility makes no bid for popularity and notoriety; demands no honors. Humility is deity seated on the back of a lowly ass." ( Spencer W. Kimball; Faith precedes the miracle. )
Anyone who has ever played golf with me knows that I am the polar opposite of humility and control. However, I believe, that attaining control in this one thing is that which will ultimately save us. I hope Tiger and everyone else can keep their eyes set on that goal.
Please visit me on the web http://elvass.com/
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Walk Away and Forget It
I had a friend forward me a rather disturbing op ed about intentional defaults. The gist of the article was that the financial industry has committed malfeasance by placing people into mortgages that they could not afford. In that the financial institutions have stuck it to us then we should, in turn, stick it to them. We do that by burning our mortgages, sort of like we burned our draft cards back in the 60's to protest the war. The machine is evil therefore we implode it from within by walking away from our mortgages. The beast then has no traction and is destroyed. Honestly, I did read this. I will try and place a link to the article at the end of this post.
I have had clients that I was tempted to coach to that very end. I tried to negotiate short sales with the people holding their mortgages to no avail. The financial institutions were unbending. So what does it hurt if you simply disappear in the middle of the night just as people have run out on the rent in the same fashion? I just cannot, as a licensed professional, summon that anti-fiduciary counsel for anyone.
It is just hard for a 64 year old conservative like myself to give into this logic. Noone held a gun to your head when you signed that mortgage promissory note. You wanted that house really badly did you not? This whole process involves great effort to establish your likelihood to repay. You made a super-informed decision to sign. You cannot blame it on some sort of genetic malfunction within your self. You made a choice. Do your best to live with it.
It sort of falls into the fat gene world. " I am fat because I am genetically ordered in that direction.". Baloney I am fat because I shove more calories down my pie hole than I burn off. I make choices about that. "I got caught having innumerable affairs because I am addicted to sex." Buffalo chips ! You are a creep who does not live your marriage commitments and got caught. You made choices to that end. Pity you? I probably secretly admire you but you got caught Tiger and now you need to pay the piper." I look at pornography because I am just engineered to do so." Bull feathers you like doing it. Every time you make the decision to purchase that video. True it does cause an endorphin rush but face it man, you are a pervert. Get some help.
We live in a society that is married to the concept that we act like we do because we just cannot help ourselves. It is always someone elses fault. My behaviour is uncontrollable because my mommy did not breast feed me. My dad never took me fishing. My uncle was a peeping tom. I was sexually molested as a 3 month old. I remember it vividly. Hockey pucks !!!
People we have an obligation to live by a code of ethics. We repay our mortgages and other obligations simply because it is the right thing to do. If you get run over by a train and can no longer make a living then that is one thing. But to just walk away from something we agreed to do is just flat out wrong. Period.
There are a lot of people hurting in this stale economy that has descended upon us. It may surprise you that the larger percentage of them do not pick up a gun and go out and rob a bank than do. Why not? Because they were raised to be better people than that. The same reason applies to why we just don't walk away. We do all we can to meet our obligation.
http://www.housingwatch.com/2010/01/25/the-new-mortgage-revolution-walk-away/?icid=mainmaindl3link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.housingwatch.com%2F2010%2F01%2F25%2Fthe-new-mortgage-revolution-walk-away%2F
I have had clients that I was tempted to coach to that very end. I tried to negotiate short sales with the people holding their mortgages to no avail. The financial institutions were unbending. So what does it hurt if you simply disappear in the middle of the night just as people have run out on the rent in the same fashion? I just cannot, as a licensed professional, summon that anti-fiduciary counsel for anyone.
It is just hard for a 64 year old conservative like myself to give into this logic. Noone held a gun to your head when you signed that mortgage promissory note. You wanted that house really badly did you not? This whole process involves great effort to establish your likelihood to repay. You made a super-informed decision to sign. You cannot blame it on some sort of genetic malfunction within your self. You made a choice. Do your best to live with it.
It sort of falls into the fat gene world. " I am fat because I am genetically ordered in that direction.". Baloney I am fat because I shove more calories down my pie hole than I burn off. I make choices about that. "I got caught having innumerable affairs because I am addicted to sex." Buffalo chips ! You are a creep who does not live your marriage commitments and got caught. You made choices to that end. Pity you? I probably secretly admire you but you got caught Tiger and now you need to pay the piper." I look at pornography because I am just engineered to do so." Bull feathers you like doing it. Every time you make the decision to purchase that video. True it does cause an endorphin rush but face it man, you are a pervert. Get some help.
We live in a society that is married to the concept that we act like we do because we just cannot help ourselves. It is always someone elses fault. My behaviour is uncontrollable because my mommy did not breast feed me. My dad never took me fishing. My uncle was a peeping tom. I was sexually molested as a 3 month old. I remember it vividly. Hockey pucks !!!
People we have an obligation to live by a code of ethics. We repay our mortgages and other obligations simply because it is the right thing to do. If you get run over by a train and can no longer make a living then that is one thing. But to just walk away from something we agreed to do is just flat out wrong. Period.
There are a lot of people hurting in this stale economy that has descended upon us. It may surprise you that the larger percentage of them do not pick up a gun and go out and rob a bank than do. Why not? Because they were raised to be better people than that. The same reason applies to why we just don't walk away. We do all we can to meet our obligation.
http://www.housingwatch.com/2010/01/25/the-new-mortgage-revolution-walk-away/?icid=mainmaindl3link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.housingwatch.com%2F2010%2F01%2F25%2Fthe-new-mortgage-revolution-walk-away%2F
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