Got two different sets of noise cancelling devices, a five year-old pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones and the Airpod Pro I have on now.
They have become critical parts of my work from home gear as well as stalwart companions when I travel.
I use them to create an invisible bubble to block out the world and focus on my task be it conference calls, emails, Web calls or writing other things.
Got them on now so I can engage in this clever fiction of writing indirectly but direct messages to the persons I want to see certain things.
Could be direct and say exactly what I want by email, messenger, phone or even in person.
Haven’t done so because sometimes I follow the rules of the game for a while but eventually I will color outside the lines.
Especially when I know what I have said has been heard because there comes a time when you make like Tom Cruise in Risky Business and say “What The Fuck.”
I Am Not Bruce
I am not Bruce. Can’t write the way he does and turn it a combination of poetry and musical artwork.
Can’t sing well enough to get people to pay to hear me, though they might pay me to stop.
Could tell you I am dancing in the dark because I am and that I was born to run because I was.
I am on fire and maybe always have been. Could keep going with this, talk about being tougher than the rest and how I am on a burnin train but that is too easy.
And let’s face it, I am not the guy who always does it the easy way.
But dammit, I have climbed the hills and walked through the fiery plains to get to the mountaintop and come out the other side.
Took a look today at some accomplishments and had to smile because I did it in spite of the objections, obstructions, flying monkeys and beatdown.
I’d lay it all out and share in detail because the big scary man with the endless intensity doesn’t scare everyone.
Almost 20 years of walking the yellow brick road sometimes with Dorothy, sometimes without and never knowing if the Tinman, Scarecrow or Lion would show up.
Got to Emerald City and discovered the Wizard was just a man but found the magic more than once.
Some say that if you lose it once you’ll lose it twice and that will be it but I never believed it.
Not because of reason or logic or science but that was ok with me because magic doesn’t require any of those, that is why it is called magic.
A while back I found a torn page from the spellbook that showed how to do a few things but it was like Ralph from the Greatest American Hero.
He had a suit that gave him super strength, the ability to fly and a variety of other powers but he lost the instructions and had to figure it out by trial and error.
The big difference between Ralph and I was I didn’t get the suit. I got half a page and a few fragments that I could use to try to figure out how to bring back out the magic again.
Made a few attempts knowing some would fail miserably but there were a few times where I saw the twinkly lights glow and I felt that touch.
That moment where the hair on my arms and neck started to raise and I knew if I could just sustain it the flames would flare up and the fire would roar again.
Not a bad feeling, even if it does provide some frustration because it also proved I was on the right track.
Didn’t need Glinda or any Munchkins to make it happen either. Rouse those who are asleep in the poppy fields and you never know where it can lead.
The man asks me to explain what I am doing and why and complains when I don’t answer immediately.
“I take your silence to mean you have no answer.”
“I have 17 possible answers but I’ll give you three but I don’t know if you’ll be able to follow them.”
That destroys the remnants of the poker face he tried to maintain.
“Are you calling me stupid?”
“Don’t ask me questions that no one wants answered. I am here to tell you what I know and what I suspect, neither of which fall into what you want to hear.”
That brings an explosion of colorful language followed by suggestions of what might occur if I don’t adjust course.”
“I told you I wouldn’t be conventional in approach and that I act and ask for forgiveness after. It is not as reckless as it sounds and is usually based upon sound judgment. I know where I am trying to get to but sometimes I have to blaze a trail.”
We go back and forth for a few more and because I am determined to get one more shot in I ask if insubordinate is a word that should have been used.
That ends the conversation. I don’t like being worked and if I see it happening I have been known to take action.
Life is too damn hard to let people grind you unnecessarily so if you can do something about it there is benefit in doing so.
But only if you are prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions, if not all you have is your clever fiction.
