Carol H Tucker Passionate about knowledge management and organizational development, expert in loan servicing, virtual world denizen and community facilitator, and a DISNEY fan
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beladona Memorial Be warned:in this very rich environment where you can immerse yourself so completely, your emotions will become engaged -- and not everyone is cognizant of that. Among the many excellent features of SL, there is no auto-return on hearts, so be wary of where your's wanders...
One of the most difficult things in life is to learn that even if you are all that and a bag of chips, there is always someone who is "more" than you are, someone who is just:
prettier,
more articulate,
sexier,
more lovable,
more mature,
a better person,
more intelligent,
more understanding,
luckier,
richer,
has higher charisma,
more talented,
etc etc and so forth -- you get the idea! The trick when you meet that person is not to resent them, but to learn to learn from them.
On the whole I do well with not resenting -- I do not wish them to be less, I just wish I was more! Usually I am good about appreciating them and not making them feel angst. I don't do as well with not comparing myself to them and realizing all my shortcomings instead of seeing any strengths.
It is hard to remember when you are washed out by the brilliant moonlight that twinkling starlight also has its place.
There are things to do, places to go, chores to be done. But I am in the grip of a strange lassitude that is dragging at me and every impulse to give up and move dies before it reaches my body. When I do force myself by sheer will power to get up and get started, my steps are lagging and the spirit resentful and I cannot wait to sink once more into sloth. The mind stays active with books and online, but the physical presence is dulled
As I walked into the office this morning, I heard a seagull. I stood in the sunshine, the cold air blowing about me and for a moment, I was not in Kensington, but standing on the boardwalk in Ocean City NJ. I used to slip out of the condo as the sun rose and walk the boardwalk alone, away from the bevy of Brinkers that hemmed me in, listening to the gulls and watching the waves. How I love the seashore! I love the constant wind, I love the smell of the sea, I love watching the waves and all the sounds of the resort. Not so fond of getting into the water -- scared of jellyfish. Not so fond of feeding the gulls anymore after I got pooped on. But for a moment, the memory of sun and beach were very strong....
Damn this is just not the life I wanted to lead! I am not quite sure how all my choices have led to here, but I am pretty sure that given the same circumstances, my choices would be the same -- just like Peggy Sue. Working on upgrading my outlook on life -- the mantra is: Things happen for a reason. That has gotten me through an awful lot of difficulties. I may not understand the reason. I may not actually agree with the outcome, but there is a rhyme and reason not just an arbitrary happening.
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
I don't care if the history is clouded, or if it is considered pop culture and not really deep or meaningful. I LIKE that poem!
There are a couple of things that my mother had to say about my birth. For one thing, it was a long and hard labor and she knew right then and there I was going to be a problem. For another, Grandmom was 23 when she had my mother and she was 23 when she had me [and I was 23 when I had Tom but it stops there]. And last, my mother had always told me that I missed April Fool's Day by five minutes -- I always was a bit proud of the fact that I had enough sense not to be born on the 1st. Then, in the brief time she was living with me, she snapped out that I was born five minutes after noon, which would've changed my astrological calculations considerably! Now she could've been having one of her episodes or just wanted to be nasty, but now I had some doubt. So, I finally decide to send off to the Department of Vital Statistics and get a copy of my birth certificate.
It came today
Says I was born 11:55 PM on April 2nd.
Says my mother was 22 [altho she would've been 23 later that same year]
Oh well, the degrees change but the chart pretty much remains the same. But I barely made it on Palm Sunday -- maybe that is why I wasn't ever a "Sunday's Child"
Outtside at this very moment it is raw and cold and a combination of snow/freezing rain is coating the roads. Is it any wonder that my 2nd life looks pretty good?
I have three very good, close friends that have been part of my life for decades. As of this past Tuesday, I am now the only working stiff left -- the others are all ladies of leisure. I also am the only one who has been in the new paradigm of a knowledge nomad.
All three of them went to work full time after school. I got married and had kids -- I didn't enter the workforce until 1982 and didn't go full time until 1985
All three of them spent years working for one employer. In the past 30 years I have worked for nine different employers. The longest stretch of time I was in one place was twelve years.
All three of them have traditional pension plans in addition to 401K plans. Not one of the places where I worked offered pensions and the employers that they were with stopped offering themin the mid-70's. All of my retirement income has to come from what I have been able to save in the 401K.
In short? Despite my age, my professional career is more akin to the next generation, caught in the transition and the alteration of the social contract.
I wonder how they will cope when they get to retirement age. Hopefully they will make better arrangements in the intervening years than I have. Meanwhile I will keep playing the lottery.
Chestnut Rau reflects on the role of truth in conflict.... Me? I am still pondering revisionist history, whether or not denial of the past can be a good thing, and the value of silence.
One of the fun things to do in SL is to change things around on your land and in your house! When Nowhereville thaws, it is time to redo the beach and shed the last remnants of the past. The grotto will stay since it has the bridge to Piper's Point, but I haven't decided what to do with the rest! Meanwhile, high in the clouds, the house has been refurbished with a perfect place for book lovers to relax and hang out
The invisible part about this is that probably about a dozen people could festoon themselves about and read or chat!
When we were roleplaying, it was my job to make whatever quarters we were assigned cozy and practical for a Chief Scribe. Some of the places were real challenges with low prim counts and odd shapes, and sometimes daunting spaces, but I think I was always able to create this kind of welcoming home. In retrospect, I wish I had taken pictures of some of the homes I made over the years, but I didn't usually. They are all gone now, just glimpses in the background of pictures taken....
Sometime ago I wrote about Grandmom Hughes' saying [one that I often quote], that "tomorrow is promised to no one" and how I still gave her credit for the quote even though someone more famous gets the cite. I know for a fact that she never ever heard of that person, or read him, and that it was a personal conclusion.
Recently I read a cite that took one of my favorite sayings, "the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference", and expanded it. Here is the full quote courtesy of Searaven Raymaker: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." Elie Wiesel is the official author -- someone that I have never heard of and had to GOOGLE to find out who they were -- sounds like a bit of an attitude there, doesn't it? Sorry, I still think that conclusion belongs to me -- and it was dearly won, wrung from a lot of personal angst on how to deal with divorce and loss. I have to admit though, sometimes indifference is really hard to acheive and I wonder if it is necessary in order to move on.
But what took the cake was reading in a series of posts online about the Dunner-Kruger effect . We all know and deal with people who think they know more than they actually know everyday and as a result there are all kinds of sayings about a little bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing. So around the turn of the century [isn't that a fun phrase? just made you feel incredibly old, didn't I?], it was actually researched and labeled! So the next time that coworker is blathering on and on about a portion of your job and they have no clue, you can just nod wisely and murmur something about the Dunner-Kruger effect and wander off throwing your scarf over your shoulder a la Dr. Who
CEOExpress
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