Write A Story About Elephants

There is a teenage boy who is engaged in a test of wills with me.

A boy who doesn’t buy all that I am selling because he is not convinced that what I did 30 some years ago is relevant.

I nod my head at him and say I understand why he questions me and tell him I involve myself in his business when a parent is necessary and needed.

That doesn’t require permission from him, a doctor’s note or a word from anyone else.

“You might not realize I wasn’t born with a body or attitude built for finesse but for demolition. It is not that I can’t finesse things, it is just that I have to concentrate. But demolition is different, I am good at tearing walls down.”

What I don’t tell him is how much time I have spent thinking about this moment and how to approach it. I don’t mention that I have concentrated upon it and actively chosen this particular style.

Might work, might not, can’t say for certain. What I know and recognize is how well he knows me and the need to do things slightly differently this time around.

I don’t tell him about how ridiculous life is and how many times I encounter things that make me shake my head because they are stupid.

Not because I don’t want to but because at the moment he is not hearing or listening to me.

He is pretending to. He is looking at me but he forgets that I have 15 years of experience watching him grow up.

I know him in ways he doesn’t always recognize and more importantly, I know the pieces of me that he has taken on intentionally or subconsciously.

It doesn’t require any effort to recognize the expression and posture that he has assumed because it is mine.

That is pretty close to the way I look when I think someone is wasting my time by feeding me crap.

Part of me is proud of him for standing his ground because from his position it is rational and logical. But it doesn’t work from mine and it is not always a level playing field.

Since he has painted himself into a corner I need to help him find his way out of it and I need to try to make it happen without being obvious.

Somewhere in the distance I hear his grandfather and great-grandfather tell me you can’t screw an old head on young shoulders.

The teenager I used to be hears that and considers ripping the doors off of the hinges because he never liked hearing it then and doesn’t want to admit he was wrong…sometimes.

The father I am nods his head because it makes sense and then thinks about ripping the doors off of the hinges.

Partly because it might be kind of fun and partly out of curiosity, been lifting weights again and am curious to measure my progress.

Write A Story About Elephants

This post was going to be a minor rant about being told to focus on SEO again.

It was going to be me pushing back against short attention spans and short sighted ideas about how to grow and build a readership.

Content, content, content….always content.

Write for people.

It is not that I can’t do these things people suggest or say or that I won’t.

I do them when they make sense, they just don’t make sense for this blog. They aren’t how I am driving things here…today.

Tomorrow might be different, can’t say.

But for now instead of writing about SEO I’d rather write a story about or for elephants.

I’d rather do a million different things and I will because I have figured out a way to make it work.

Now I just have to find a way to get that kid to see that I have listened and heard what he is saying and point out that while he doesn’t have to be me if he follows certain examples life gets easier.

Show me you have figured how to do it your way and that it works and all is good, just don’t keep banging your head against the wall.

Now we’ll find out if he is smarter than I was or if our willingness to walk through fire lives as fiercely in him too.

Good times for all. 🙂