After I wrote The Ghost Of Thanksgiving Future and made a crack about Virgos I got another visit from the old man or maybe it was just a dream.
Ghosts, spirits or whatever you want to call sentient beings that once were part of the earthly plane and aren’t any longer might not be real.
Hell, when you have an imagination like mine it could easily be nothing more than just a dream. Somewhere in my baby book my mom recorded a conversation we had when I was quite little.
I woke up and said I had a nightmare and that when I would go back to sleep I would have more.
Anyhoo, the Big O wandered into my dream again and it is only by daylight that I realize how strange it was because he was as I remember him looking when he was younger than I am now.
He was moving quickly which would have surprised his grandchildren because they didn’t know him in the days in which he would choose to walk at a faster pace.
We were at my son’s place because Dad wanted to get a chance to see his grandson at work. I don’t know what we discussed but I know exactly what we said.
I know that the three Wilner men took some time to walk together and that I told my father to get my grandfather because it was time for him and his great grandson to have a real conversation.
And by real I mean an adult conversation because the two of them knew each other for many years. It is funny because I can hear my father yell “Dad” and the echoes of my grandfather yelling back “yeah?”
I wrote the line about in a dream as well as elsewhere and snorted because I knew it would be seen in some ways as pushy as much as it would be viewed as clairvoyant.
Shifting gears for a moment I walked into the dining room and discovered my kids building Lego sets together. For a moment I stopped and stared because it almost felt like walking back a decade and then some in time.
Except they were adult sets and far more complicated than that which would have been built when they were little.
When they noticed my presence I said that Lego sets like they were working upon could be integrated into business conversations about problem solving, project management, entrepreneurial spirit and more.
I fleshed out the idea and the younger Mr. Wilner said I was pretty good at taking something that didn’t seem to have any connection to business and fleshing it out.
“Not so sure that I am that good, but I have been working for 30 some years. If you want to be any good at the things I have done you have to know a few things.
1) How to tell a coherent story that has a beginning, middle and end.
2) How that relates to your business.
3) How you can use the skills you have to develop solutions to problems both internal and external.”
He nodded his head and went back to building.
I smiled and reminded them both that activities that require using our brains should be a part of our regular lives.
“Got to keep the old melon sharp. It is good to engage in things that make you think. It is also good to be able to try and turn things off and recharge too.”
*****
My daughter is a neuroscience major and chemistry minor who is taking the kind of course load I chose not to take in college.
I don’t know if she realizes how sharp she is. That girl has a solid head on her shoulders and the drive to do something with it.
In many ways I was speaking to her when I said it is important to take some time away to recharge. I told her she reminds me of many women I know who keep 27 brower tabs open at once, except they’re in their heads and not on the computer.
There is nothing wrong with that and we all figure out the most effective way to operate for ourselves but I am her father, so it’s my job to occasionally say things if I think she is burning out.
The good news is she is only a few weeks away from the end of the semester so this pace she is maintaining will end and she’ll get some time off.
I obviously used software to create those photos, makes me laugh to look at them.
Without pills or some other kind of help there is no way I am going to see the hair on my head ever match what you see there.
That doesn’t bother me. I gave up bad hair days and worrying about whether the window is open or if I am in riding in a convertible.
Everything else is possible though chances are I probably won’t let my beard grow as long as you see in some of the photos.
I have thought about it and kind of tried doing it, but I always lost patience. Every time I have done it I end up going through this period where it looks like hell and I decide it is not worth it to me.
The younger Mr. Wilner has a pretty damn thick beard right now, probably close to the thickest I have ever seen it.
He is hairier than I am and I am guessing that he probably can get his to grow longer than I can or least a bit faster. But I still have him beat on the ‘stache.
His hasn’t quite filled in yet, occasionally I tease him about that but I can see my days of being able to do so are limited. Won’t be long before that changes.
*****
We’re climbing a hill now and heading towards more changes some of which look to be pretty big. I feel myself looking up with my eyes closed and a smile on my face as I feel the heat wash over me.
And when the darkness comes I close my eyes again and use my senses to find my north star and reorient myself in that direction.
Much of the way involves blazing a trail through places and things that aren’t geared for passage but I keep going. Don’t know any other way to do this thing.
