Sometimes I wonder if I have the time, energy, and ability to write regularly and sustain a single idea into an entire coherent blog post. Usually my mind works in fits and starts and I am better at noticing things I find interesting, amusing, heart-warming, inspiring, or a blessing to me. They take too long to formulate and write rapidly, so I am going to call them "not-so-quicks." I'm just getting the hang of this and I am sure some will be worth more than others, but here they are.
1. Fear and Loathing in the human heart
What is it about naked manipulations of otherwise seemingly rational people using fear based rhetoric that is so effective?
And why do I seethe with rage when I hear this kind of argumentation?
Maybe they work so well because we overstate the argument that human beings are rational creatures.
Perhaps I hate them because they are better at provoking reaction than producing helpful dialogue.
Maybe they work so well because they are more about what is unsaid and unanswered.
Perhaps I hate them because it is in the aftermath of these arguments that chaos and disorder play havoc.
Maybe they work so well that they will never be properly banished from sane conversation
Perhaps I hate them so much because I bear the stripes of their irrational fury
2. 9 most difficult leadership positions
Forbes posted an article about the 9 toughest leadership positions. And...
...the moms have it.
That's right. For hours required, gratitude received, and harshness of performance review there's nothing harder than a stay at home mom. I think I would have guessed this and not guessed it at the same time.
On one hand, full time mothering doesn't have a clocking in and out mechanism. It doesn't have a union, and, most telling, it doesn't produce a paycheck. Unless you count soggy cheerios and artwork on the freshly painted living room walls.
Yet on the other, I have witnessed since becoming an adult how labor intensive having and raising a kid is. Thankless? Yes. Stressful? Yes. Demoralizing? Often. But do the moms I know regret it? Amazingly, no.
I'm glad to hear the business conglomerate Forbes identify something paradoxically self-evident that most of us remain blissfully unaware of. Moms are great! Here's one who blogs.
3. "Do you mind..."
Recently I had a conversation at a cafeteria where I work. I stepped around a person in line waiting for her order to take one of the pre-prepped gyros on the counter. I was not cutting, rather she had ordered something that needed a second to prepare. (I don't have that kind of patience, especially when I am hungry.) As I reached passed her, I asked the perfunctory,
"Do you mind if I grab one of the..."
"Yeah sure!" she replied reactively.
A captive to my grammatical upbringing, I pulled back quickly and she noticed, looked at me for the first time, and smiled shyly.
"I mean, of course I don't mind...I never know how to respond to that question." I apologized for asking a confusing question, reached again for the sandwich.
It was a funny exchange that broke the normal etiquette of a lunch line with its perfect mix of affected politeness and ineffective attempts to mask annoyance. I have never stumbled into a conversation by "stumbling" into a conversation like that, but maybe there's a way to redeem the imprecision which creeps into random conversation because our minds are somewhere else.
So whether its answering "good" instead of "well" when someone inquires of your health. Or trying to emphasize something by saying "irregardless" rather than "regardless." Or perhaps, as I have been guilty, exposing one's ignorance that the word "penultimate" does not by any means mean "Very Ultimate," maybe these slight linguistic faux pas have a deeper purpose while not meaning what we mean.
So if you are ever in the back of the line and ask the penultimate person in front of you to grab something briefly and be away, and he responds
"I could care less."
Smile and ask "Could you? Or Couldn't you?"
Then introduce yourself.
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