High School Sweethearts…

October; autumn … I love this time of the year.  I love the colors and smells.  It reminds me of high school, football, and dating.  Do you remember your high school sweetheart?  

High school is a special time for teenagers.  It certainly was for me.  It was a different time; an innocent time.  I always enjoyed the month of October when I was in high school – Homecoming; Halloween; dating; parties (many chaperoned, some not). 

Fifty-six years ago, this very time of the year, Glenn Vician held a party at his house.  His parents weren’t home.  I hung out with the prettiest girl in my high school at that party.  It was there that I asked her out on a first date.  I guess both events went well enough because here we are fifty-six years later and still together.  Even now I’m awe-struck by the glow of her beauty. 

I hope you enjoy this opening to Chapter XII True North of my book, The Peace & Power of a Positive Perspective © as much I enjoyed writing it and as much as I still enjoy re-reading it every October: 

Dedicated to… a crisp night in October; with a slight breeze blowing through bare trees – waiting for the coming winter.   Close your eyes.  Can you smell remnants of autumn leaves burning? 

To winning the homecoming football game.  To being carefree. To a Saturday night party at the teenager’s house whose parents are away.  Can you hear the kids having fun in the kitchen; the basement; and the backyard, all to the beat of the Rolling Stones? 

To couches, blue jeans and sweaters.  To the floor lamp reflecting on her blond hair making it shimmer with silvery streaks of light.  To the nervous small talk of a teenage boy in the presence of a varsity Pom-Pom Team member.  To the patience of the teenage girl sitting on the couch with the captain of the varsity basketball team.  Can you remember when you could actually hear your heart throbbing? 

To throw pillows, which come in handy when the small talk runs out – what else can a young boy do?  And to playful pillow fights; which lead to gentle wrestling and ultimately to that first kiss. Remember how delicate she felt in your arms – the hint of her perfume – the taste of her lips? 

To first dates – dinner and a movie.  To the movie Catch 22 and the Oriental Theatre in downtown Chicago.  To dating the prettiest girl in your high school; to falling in love; to asking her father’s permission for her hand in marriage.  Were you ever so nervous? 

To the tears welling up in my eyes even as I write this short memoir.  To all those emotions; all the happiness; all those hopes and all those dreams; some fulfilled, some yet to be; and all that I can remember today as if it just happened yesterday – that I will remember every day, as long as I live.  How can someone be so lucky? 

To 1970 - and that Saturday night in October in Elmhurst where I kissed Debbie for the very first time.  And to the friend’s house whose parents were out – to their couch, their floor lamp, to their throw pillows; and to the Rolling Stones music.  Can you imagine being so young, so infatuated, and so in love? 

I still am. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Fear in the AI world…

It’s been over 2 decades since I ventured out into the ocean of social media for the very first time.  I know I wasn’t the original “explorer”, but it was a big move for me back then.  Here’s one of the first quotes I used in my first post: 

People told Columbus the world was flat.  He didn’t insist it was round.  He got in a boat.  

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How cool was that!  No debate; no headlines; no fear.  They said, “Impossible!” he said, “Get me to a boat!”  Then Columbus got in that boat (funded by an original venture capitalist); and proved his point.  

What a stellar example of overcoming fear and committing to success!  “Hey Chris, the world is flat you know.  If you go out there, you’ll sail right off the table into oblivion.”  “That’s OK”, he might have said, “I think it’ll be fine.”  He wasn't alone.

What about you?  What are “they” saying you cannot do?  Are you hesitating, fearing AI, listening to the naysayers?  Are you staying close to shore keeping land in sight to avoid the risk?  Are you afraid?  Or, are you looking out across the vast expanse of your future, seeing opportunity? 

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. 

Vincent van Gogh 

If you’re reading this, then you’re in my boat.  Welcome to The Peace & Power of a Positive Perspective©.  The next time you’re having one of “those days”, filled with too much negativity from “them”, come back aboard to settle your nerves and get a little positive reinforcement. 

I believe maintaining a positive perspective in the face of adversity has been a key to success for as long as there have been keys, don’t you? 

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we often might win, by fearing to attempt. 

William Shakespeare 

Now, technology is dominating our lives.  Scary.  Similar to Christopher Columbus, no one can predict how AI will impact the world; impact our future.  I’m not going to argue about it; deny it; fear it.  (Well OK, I might fear it a little bit, HaHa!)  Regardless, the future is upon us, machines and all.  I’ll continue to provide commentary. 

I hope you join me for the voyage and visit https://gpokorn.blogspot.com/ often.  Bring a friend!  After all: 

No sense in being pessimistic.  It wouldn’t work anyway.    

                        Unknown Sage 

Here’s to the next, New World.  Thanks again Chris! 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

 

For years…

Every year, at this time of year, for more years than I can remember, I’ve written about my junior year, when I quit my high school football team (Link).  Something different happened this year. 

You see, I’ve come to clearly realize I’m not a quitter by nature – just the opposite.  For the past 57 years I’ve thought about; accepted; regretted; and ultimately written about that time I quit, thinking perhaps it would have some sort of cathartic benefit.  It hasn’t. 

There’s always been something in the back of my mind about the circumstances surrounding that event. Ever happen to you?  Ever change your mind – change your feelings – after you think more clearly about something you did?  When others say you were wrong, ever find yourself influenced enough to agree, even though deep down you feel you might actually have been right? 

That time in high school, I was faced with a tough situation.  No excuse.  We’re all faced with tough situations throughout our life, true?  In fact, over the years I’ve had enough tough situations that I solidified my view about myself: 

     Adversity clarifies commitment. 

After all these years, I’ve (finally) come to realize that I wasn’t committed in the first place to playing football my junior year.  I made it known before the season.  The varsity coach actually called my house over the summer to convince me to change my mind.  I was flattered – but I was not committed.  At 17 years old, I didn’t know the difference. 

The flattery lasted one week.  That’s when the abusive, macho-man, let’s intimidate high school boys, behavior resurfaced from an assistance coach.  He was the head coach of my sophomore team and moved up to varsity my junior year.  The previous year he totally turned me off to football.  I was quickly reminded by his bullying style and knew in my heart continuing was a bad fit.  

Quitting was the easy way out perhaps, but it was the lone way out I could see.  I felt like I was drowning.  I didn’t have anyone to turn to.  I didn’t put my trust in God (although I probably should have).  Up to that point, I’d always been a star athlete.  How could someone like that quit?  The hardest part was telling my Mom.  It was the only time in my life she said I disappointed her.

Who do you turn to when you’re in that tough, quit or keep going, commitment-clarifying, adverse situation?  When you feel like you’re drowning?  It could be problems at school, with a teacher, a coach, at work, with a manager, in your marriage…  Who do you turn to when you’re not sure if it’s them or you?  How do you decide whether or not to quit?  And if you have quit before, how do you get over lifelong regrets? 

Well, let me save you a few years of thinking about it, grinding on it, maybe even writing about it.  I suggest you turn to you, to your instincts, trust your gut, trust God.  If you do that in the first place it will probably turn out just fine. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Keeping our heads…

Renown poet, writer and novelist, Rudyard Kipling along with our favorite, Unknown Sage have pertinent advice for us during these trying times.

In 1910, Kipling wrote about staying calm and rational when everyone else is panicking in his poem If: 

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! 

What do you think?  Are there “men” among us today?  Are our companies (and our country) in crisis mode?  Is this the new-normal?  Well, don’t panic. Our  favorite, Unknown sage adds: 

If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you’ll be a head taller than everyone else. 

Let’s all stand tall!  

For me, I’m trying to follow the saying from an old painter I used to work with when I was in my twenties.  His favorite lunch was a pint of Malort.  After lunch, we doubted Carl could paint a straight line (let alone walk a straight line).  Never the less, he had trust enough in himself to finish out his shift.  And if he spilled a little paint, he’d just say, “Oh Malort” and then sing a little from the Newfoundland and Labrador folk song: 

Don’t panic.  Jack was every inch a sailor. 

I don’t know if Carl was once a sailor, but I noticed that he never panicked.  He simply kept his head and finished the job.  He reminded me to keep my head in the face of adversity, too. 

I wonder - where’s your head, and your heart, these days? 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.