seanessay.com
Hello, it’s posting day, and I’ve got nothing… Except here’s a quote that speaks to me:
“Consider what so many younger employees do for relaxation: climb rocks, raft rivers, bike mountains, surf waves, trek in distant locales. … So many come from sheltered backgrounds that the prospect of excitement entices them more than the security of a good salary.” (Footnote)
Sheltered backgrounds, eh? I remember fellows who could seldom adventure past the pool-hall, forget rock climbing, or even hiking, or any of those quiet urban hobbies entailing any risk of failure.
I once commented on a self-made millionaire’s blog, after he mentioned his affluent family, that suddenly I understood him more: He could take risks as a young man, just like a “white middle class” long haired hippie going off to live on handouts, because, figuratively, he knew he had a warm dry room awaiting him back home. He replied that I got it right. That was Derek Sivers.
Years later, he lived in Oxford, and we met for breakfast at a ritzy place in Central London. (he paid) There I cautiously glanced around and confessed to my fellow North American, “Here we are in London, surrounded by the English, and I still don’t know how to drink tea while properly sticking out my pinkie…” (Joke)
The people I know best all go through life a little gingerly, with our hard learned experience of chance and misfortune in this world. For me, that’s reality: There would be something “a little off” in anyone so self confident as to be oblivious about others.
My urban toastmasters club was called Miracles, and truly, I know, everyone who attended was a walking miracle.
…
…
Sean Crawford
Glumly using a staycation to declutter
September,
2021
Footnotes:
~Incidentally, I once taught wall climbing, with ropes, to kids from the Boys’nGirls Club.
~The quote is from The Innovation Paradox: The Success of Failure, the Failure of Success by Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes. (Note: Farson is the guy who “made my day” with his Management of the Absurd)
~As for chance and misfortune, someone wrote in the comments of not understanding, until suddenly in adulthood, Stevie Nick’s song Landslide. (I wish I could link it for you, but Youtube has been bought out by a tech giant) Some commenters said they cry for her song. Ya, landslides happen.
