Category: I Am

Not For Nuthin’

Yeah, Not For Nuthin'
Yeah, Not For Nuthin’

Yesterday, our good friend Skip, posed a question in the comments. Knowing that many of you might not catch the comments, wanted to share it right here, right now – not for nuthin’:

Jeff, how do you define success for your five blogs?

Readership? Participation? Pro vs Con comments?

What is your ultimate goal with these five blogs? Make people think? Make people change? Help people change themselves?

Why should we care that you have produced five blogs per day (without missing a single day) for over one year?

Some of your readers weren’t around when you started this quest. Help us understand the importance of this endeavor.

Great questions Skip. Seriously. All of them have been answered already. As time goes by, the answers get buried deeper and deeper in the past posts.

It’s one of life’s challenges, to sort out what to believe and from whom.

Summary, just for you:
1. I write for Chapin (and myself).
2. The big goal is to challenge 3% of the male Baby Boomers to do something GREAT before they die.
3. The ultimate purpose is to raise enough money until a cure is found for Crohn’s disease.

Note. Superficial measures of success are the things you first described.
There is no reason to care what I do, unless a person is looking for an honest to God real person who practices what he preaches. Ain’t many of them around, I fear. If there are, they are quietly changing the world – and perhaps they ought to make some noise because the world needs many “real” people trying to serve a greater good.

And by real, I mean someone not motivated by personal wealth, who makes mistakes, and never gives up, and pushes/pulls others to do the same.

Does that help?  🙂

I Am Jack’s Boy

Dad, On Drums, In Japan
Dad, On Drums, In Japan

We are all we think we are.  And we are none of it.

Shortly after my Dad’s passing ten years ago, I had many thoughts about life. Typical thoughts, I guess. The ones we all have.

Whenever I return home to Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, and people in their late 60’s and early 70’s especially, remember my Dad, I smile.

He was a drummer.  A really good one.  He played at their weddings, dances and other social functions. He taught some of their kids drum lessons. He worked beside many of them at “The Mill”, for 38 years, until early on-set, rapid progression Alzheimer’s disease forced early retirement.

Those small town folk remember my Dad, but they don’t know my name.

They just refer to me as, Jack’s boy.

When you go home, who are you?

I Am Aggressively Unfancy

Honeymoon On Bikes
Honeymoon On Bikes

Do you know who you are?  Do your loved ones know?  Could they describe you the way you hope?

Aggressively Unfancy.

Working for a Fortune 100 company in Central Florida for 27 years, I’ve grown accustomed to wearing suits, ties and shiny shoes.

When not at work, cut-off jeans, no shirt, no shoes is more of my style.

Jimmy Buffett or Z88.3 playing in the background.

My car is 21 years old, while those around my community drive new, upscale vehicles.

Our Honeymoon cost less than $200, for 2.5 weeks.

I color my hair, slowly. Gray.

I do a lot of other important things that nobody sees. Like starting each day on my knees.

Or pausing to pray every time we hear a siren.

While others read good books, I’m busy writing them.

I am inspired to be a Husband and a Father, and, um, one more thing – I’m aggressively unfancy.

Pushy Is As Pushy Does

Want A Push?
Want A Push?

Pushy people have an agenda, don’t they?

Pushy people want to get ahead, or be first, or take credit, or make others look bad.

Pushy people also think everyone else should know what’s going on and if you don’t, pushy people will find a way to make you uncomfortable.

Why is that?

(pause…)

Or maybe we (society) have it all wrong.

Maybe pushy people are a gift.

Maybe pushy people aren’t in it for the reasons we think they are.

Maybe we are ignorant and ineffective, for not recognizing what a pushy person brings to the table.

One thing for certain, I am sure of my uncertainty.

Published
Categorized as I Am