Thursday, March 4, 2010

Odds and End for Friends and Fans

It is a beautiful day in Fort Worth, Texas. It is 60 degrees Fahrenheit. There is a soft breeze blowing at about 13 miles and hour. The relative humidity is at 52%. For a March 4 it is beautiful. I am loving it.

In a bit over one week, I am moving into my new apartment. My own place. A place that will be home for the next 12 months. A place where I can relax and be myself. Because writing is such a lucrative profession in the U.S, today, I will not be back on-line in any foreseeable future. I could be back on a week after the move. I could equally be back a year after the move. It kind of depends on what happens when it comes to a job.

I have had many jobs. I have learned much from all the people I have worked with and the challenges I have worked on. Yet for some reason all I can say is that we have a propensity to throw people away. Who knows maybe it is the population congestion of the peek boom that hit in 1957 and is working the way through the era. I don't know. I know that I feel like I am being punished for simply being alive. Honestly, I am no longer concerned. I am alive to enjoy days like today in relative comfort, and that is enough for me.

Robert A. Heinlein once wrote, "Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so." When it comes to the political, and economic discussion this is so true. The highly qualified shipping clerk, auto mechanic, telephone technician highly skilled and qualified in their own field is apt to hold a higher regard for their political opinion than the college professor with different degrees in various specializations. It is not a lie that the more you do know, the more you realize what you do not know. Those who have not come to this realization are the most likely to be uncompromisingly radical in their opinions. Yet, in truth such decent people, skilled as they are in what they do, know little.

Every time I get deeply engrossed in the politics of the land. I remember the writings of Mike Royko, and his constant hounding of Richard J. Daily. In the end, for all the ink, Mike succeeded in only outliving Daily. The machine never stopped ... and with some modifications is still in power today. Looking at this history, and all the history of politics, I am beginning to wonder if it is not just a matter of genetic predisposition to view life in one way or another. That should give you something to about.

The idea I am getting at, the one lesson taught me by the Bush era, is the the powers are going to do what they damn well please and there is not a hell of allot that we can do about it. I will let you ponder that one. If you are, however, going to get into the fray then get some cross training in human behavior and psychology so that you do understand how people work.

I am looking for a new job to go with my new apartment. If you would like to see the skill sets I bring to the table, you can find them on my LinkedIn account.

Until we meet again, May your God go with you.

Cliff Potts