Trayvon Martin

Trayvon Martin Trayvon Martin deserves for his name to live on. He deserves stories that will inspire, console and expand the hearts of people who seek to understand injustice. But I'm still too angry so before inspiration and consolation, I have a few things to say. Number one, if you are talking to somebody about the case and they refuse to have an intelligent conversation about this then please ask yourself if you are maybe the problem. Questions to ask yourself if you are trying to claim that the verdict was fair: do you realize that they just returned a verdict that said it is legal to stalk and provoke black men until they confront you and then execute them. If you don't get that then you probably want to stop defending the guy who killed Trayvon Martin. If you can't imagine a situation where you could be stalked that way and executed then you should probably stop defending the guy who killed Trayvon Martin. Lastly if when you heard that the verdict was returned not-guilty your thoughts didn't fly to someone you were more scared for than yourself, then you probably shouldn't defend the guy who killed Trayvon Martin or the jury that said it was ok. There are a few poems that I want to share but this song maybe be the best place to start: strange verdict, strange fruit

Primed

I have the opportunity and responsibility to hire someone at work and I’m excited to apply lessons that I have learned from my work experience and my interview experiences.

The first thought I had, because the ideal candidate probably works in a call centre, is to try to arrange for them to listen to one of his or her own calls. Not an average call or a random call, but one of their best calls. I want them primed for best performance. I have had interviews, at least one, where they try to throw you curve balls and see how you react under pressure. The idea is that if they react ok under pressure during the interview you know you have someone that will perform well in tough situations on the job. Instead of doing that I want my candidates primed for their best interview ever. I don’t want them wondering for days if they clinched it or not I rather have them walking on air post interview. To follow through though then I want every day that they come in to work for them to be primed in the same way. If it involves me having to bring them tea and tell them that they look like they are about to have the best day of their lives then I will follow through and support them daily.

Isn’t that a lofty goal for a boss? I have wanted to shape someone into a high performer my entire career and I finally have the chance. I want to do it not just for them and not just for me but to prove to organizations that it’s possible if you only focus on it for a bit. I am convinced I can do it.

Missing the Obvious

While still very young I knew that I was very special because I always understood everything backwards and things were always more complicated for me than anyone else thought. This isn’t a bad thing though because generally the problem with people is that they tend to get things backwards and think things are black and white and this was never my problem. But even though this special talent I have for coming off weird and feeling a little smarter that others serves me well, every once in a while I have to admit that I am in fact a little crazy.

For the last two days my energy has been down. This has not gone unnoticed by people who notice these types of things. I considered taking a trip or going on a retreat or maybe even just meditating. I just realized that I have also been coming down with a cold since Sunday night. So it is almost certain now that my low energy is a result of my body trying to fight off sickness when I am also doing the work of two at my job. I also realize that this low level headache that I have and that I thought was an indication of general malcontent is actually just a result of my breathing being off because I have the sniffles.

I know I am weird though. Because even though I know why my energy is down and why I have this headache I still plan on meditating later because I don’t want to take any chances.

I know. I’m special.

Winning

Realizing
When I was in Montreal my buddy was driving me around and we couldn’t remember the name of the song that was playing on the radio. He proceeded to take out his ‘i-phone’ which he is convinced can answer any question, and introduced me to an app I had never witnessed before. The first thought that came to my mind is that we are now living in the future.

I am reading a book that draws attention to how long it takes a generation to accept new ideas. The author brings up examples like astronomy and the rotation of the planets, calculus, or the theory of relativity. It seems it does not take as long anymore for ideas to become reality and I think that this, more than anything, makes me feel like I am living in the future but there are other things.

I remember my mentor asking me what I wanted to do next. I told him I wanted to train a group of people to excel in customer service. ‘And then what?’ he asked. I answered that after I prove that I can do that I want to be headhunted for my next position, that I wanted somebody who took notice to ask me to solve a problem that they have.
I feel once again like I’m living in the future, I feel like we’re there.

I feel as if I’ve been winning lately. My insight into the world and my progress in my career have lined up in the most interesting way because I am at my highest high and my lowest low at the same time. I feel as if while I am getting indicators that I am at the top of my game I’m also lacking something. I feel too much like the people that I meet all too often that aren’t living purposeful lives. I still feel that I am living a purposeful life but that in my career my goals are not clear.

Inspiration

I have been inspired before.
I’ve had teachers that have opened my mind. Coaches that have pushed me to set goals that I never thought possible. Colleagues that have a contagious passion for what they do. And friends, who have shown me so much generosity that I have known goodness.

A friend spoke to me today about a girl that he is in love with. Both of us have known love only once and I think we both resigned to carry our torches to our tombs. But he mentioned something that caught me. And while I have been inspired before, there has yet to be a girl that has inspired monogamy in me.
This is an especially important point to me recently. I have pretty much resigned myself to never truly be in love again. I guess more specifically I have given up on exclusive relationships and the only girl that I have ever loved, well let’s just say that an open relationship was not a viable option and that I am still recovering from her views on that thought.

While I have given up on exclusive relationships and probably on love, at least in its modern day incarnation, I do believe I may have taken one more step towards peace.
I no longer feel like managing relationships is work and my sex drive is higher than it’s ever been; something that an old guy told me when I was young and that I didn’t know to be true until recently.

So while I have been inspired in so many ways I still await the girl who will inspire me with monogamy, anxiously, dreadfully I wait for that girl. And if she never comes, well, everything is as it should be and who am I to tell the universe it’s wrong?

Slightly Offensive Depending…

I was at The Coup, my favourite restaurant in Calgary, one of the only places in the city that feel like home, and the following conversation took place.
Her, “I sometimes, right around the time of my monthly flow, tend to lose patience with people. I have to actually stop myself and ask people to start speaking all over again so that I can try to treat them with some patience.”
Me, “I once did this ski marathon (I did not specify half a marathon) and the most important lesson from a past participant was if something is wrong stop right away and fix it, don’t put up with it for even a minute. That’s not to say there aren’t some parts of it where you feel like you’re trudging on, but with so many factors that you can’t control you have to fix the things you can.”
Her, “I get it, that makes sense, but where are you going?”
Me, “Well, it’s the opposite of patience you’re actually choosing to never put up with a problem, patience implies that you are waiting for something but real people don't wait.”
Her, “Yes, and…”
Me, “Well patience is just something that real people pretend to show people who aren’t quite fully human when they want them to leave them alone.”
Her, “What!?”
Me, “Well you were totally late tonight but I never checked my watch, because I was sitting down enjoying the vibe here and feeling at home. Somebody else would’ve have been checking their watch, sending text messages and trying to exercise some control when everything was already perfect. I remember my buddy dumping one of his girlfriends and using an analogy along the following lines, ‘we’re like two people sitting on a park bench on a beautiful starry night and you’re feeling like you’re wasting your time and I’m just enjoying the night.’ When we show people ‘patience’ we are really just doing whatever we have to do to extract ourselves from the situation, ‘yes, you’re right, I’m sorry,' are just things we do to get people to go away.”
Her, “Yes, I get it now, I guess you’re right."

A Worthy Reason to Break the Silence

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