On the front page of the Indianapolis Star 9/29/2010 is the following hard hitting headline "Motivational seminar comes with a catch." Granted it comes below the fold. But it is on the front page. The vaunted guardian of democracy is trying to protect us from the deceitful promoters from Get Motivated! business Seminars.
The gist of the story is that there is a motivational seminar in Indy that is offering 9 speakers for $9.95 for your entire office or $1.95 for the friendless. (I haven't seen this kind of deal since we used to sneak a into the drive-in in the trunk of my grandmother's Buick.) It appears that the Star has uncovered that the hopeful under-motivated are going to have to sit through the torture of advertising (the catch) in order to satisfy their need for that motivational spark.
How could anybody with the good sense God gave a goose think that this is news? The star did the math for everyone. If all of Indianapolis is friendless and shows up @ $1.95, the gate is $35,000. Not even half enough $$$ to listen to Colin Powell's wisdom. Not to mention if Eli Lilly and the GM stamping plant show up. That lowers the gate to a grand total of $19.90. That won't even pay for the wisdom of Colin's colon.
It appears that this shortfall will be made up from investment pitches. It appears that Get Motivated! Believes that the marginally motivated can be convinced that there is enough shore front property in arizona to make up the difference. It appears that p.t. Barnum has found a rich vein of prospects in the desperate dissuaded.
Ironic? Yes. Newsworthy? No. Not in our city at this time.
Our society has a long history of relying on advertising to pay the freight. Or more aptly, the profits made off of those susceptible to the messages advertising. News flash to the Star; it costs more than $0.75 per paper to publish your rag. The catch is that I have to look at the Meijer ad to offset the actual cost of gathering the "news".
Dear reader please don't be dissillusioned. You can get motivated for free. Where you ask? Who is this entity that will share their wry observations with no catch?
Me right here in this blog. That is until some day after all of you have shared it with all of your friends and they share it with all of their friends and everyone starts following my blog. On that day I will hit the monetize button on the screen and you will be sent ads and I will make 5 cents. A fair wage.
Until the next post.
Take care
Roger
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Girls gone wild?
Our youngest went and started college this fall. Within three weeks, she had gotten the idea that gravity does not apply to her or that she has suddenly developed aerodynamic tendencies that will allow her to abandon perfectly good airplanes and plummet to earth without getting hurt. During a visit and an evening out to eat, she informs me that she "is going sky diving tomorrow". I had been warned but still after hearing it come out of her mouth I wondered why she could not have informed me after the fact. But there it was. "I'm going sky diving." It all turned out okay. Gravity still exists. And you can partially overcome the affects of gravity by creating enough wind resistance from certain light weight rip resistant fabrics. And by all accounts it was a fun and exhilarating experience.
My daughter is no dummy. In a few years, she will be a college graduate, and in a testament to that innate intelligence and the marketing skills that she learned from running a farm market during her formative years, she purchased the video because "you all wouldn't believe me" and "a picture is worth a thousand words." Then, she posted it to facebook and let the comments roll in.
And roll in they did; "u go gurl", "omg; my heart was in my throat the whole time", "you officially rock. you are who I want to be when I grow up," "next time jump over a cemetery and eliminate the middle man," (mine). Which generated a comment to me about writing about a wild daughter's first few weeks of college.
I have been silent to that idea until now. Wild? My daughter? What tone do I take? Is it to be a tone of admonishment? Praise? How do I feel about a wild daughter? What is my role as commentator on wild daughters?
Every time I have thought about all of these questions ( and all of the similar questions brought about by my son), I have been transported to an office looking out a large window on a gray day the spring after my father died in a farming accident. Twenty-nine, I was agonizing on what road to take with a friend. Do I go back to the farm, or do I stay here? I wonder what my father would suggest. Grieving that he had been taken away just as those suggestions would be welcomed again. That friend said "I never met your father but knowing you, I know that he spent every waking moment of his fatherhood training you to be independent. Independent enough for this day." That gift from Lee made all of the difference and provided a touchstone for every parental decision that my wife and I worked out.
From that touchstone, I say. Wild? I hope so. Do you know what my daughter wants to do some day? End human trafficking. An estimated 27 million people world wide are slaves. She had better be wild. Wild. WILD!
In watching that video, everybody sees so many different things; Fear, Excitement, Anxiety, Exhilaration. This is what I see. At the very beginning of jump, when the door is open and she is sitting on the floor of the plane with her feet out the door two miles above the ground, she is leaning back as far as she can. I see someone who is uncomfortable with where they are at but getting as close to it as situation requires. Leaning back but not backing away. What beauty, strength, wildness. Taking a look at the situation, facing all of the voices of caution that I must confess that I helped put into her head, counting the cost and then answering the call.
No. The door to that plane will probably be the most defined challenge she will have to face in the call of her life's arc. There will be many more that produce all of the aforementioned feelings and more with much less evidence as to the success of the outcome on hand. That wildness will provide the ability to accept those feelings as feelings and let go and answer the call.
What do I say about a wild daughter's first weeks at college?
Ger
on
im
ooooo!
My daughter is no dummy. In a few years, she will be a college graduate, and in a testament to that innate intelligence and the marketing skills that she learned from running a farm market during her formative years, she purchased the video because "you all wouldn't believe me" and "a picture is worth a thousand words." Then, she posted it to facebook and let the comments roll in.
And roll in they did; "u go gurl", "omg; my heart was in my throat the whole time", "you officially rock. you are who I want to be when I grow up," "next time jump over a cemetery and eliminate the middle man," (mine). Which generated a comment to me about writing about a wild daughter's first few weeks of college.
I have been silent to that idea until now. Wild? My daughter? What tone do I take? Is it to be a tone of admonishment? Praise? How do I feel about a wild daughter? What is my role as commentator on wild daughters?
Every time I have thought about all of these questions ( and all of the similar questions brought about by my son), I have been transported to an office looking out a large window on a gray day the spring after my father died in a farming accident. Twenty-nine, I was agonizing on what road to take with a friend. Do I go back to the farm, or do I stay here? I wonder what my father would suggest. Grieving that he had been taken away just as those suggestions would be welcomed again. That friend said "I never met your father but knowing you, I know that he spent every waking moment of his fatherhood training you to be independent. Independent enough for this day." That gift from Lee made all of the difference and provided a touchstone for every parental decision that my wife and I worked out.
From that touchstone, I say. Wild? I hope so. Do you know what my daughter wants to do some day? End human trafficking. An estimated 27 million people world wide are slaves. She had better be wild. Wild. WILD!
In watching that video, everybody sees so many different things; Fear, Excitement, Anxiety, Exhilaration. This is what I see. At the very beginning of jump, when the door is open and she is sitting on the floor of the plane with her feet out the door two miles above the ground, she is leaning back as far as she can. I see someone who is uncomfortable with where they are at but getting as close to it as situation requires. Leaning back but not backing away. What beauty, strength, wildness. Taking a look at the situation, facing all of the voices of caution that I must confess that I helped put into her head, counting the cost and then answering the call.
No. The door to that plane will probably be the most defined challenge she will have to face in the call of her life's arc. There will be many more that produce all of the aforementioned feelings and more with much less evidence as to the success of the outcome on hand. That wildness will provide the ability to accept those feelings as feelings and let go and answer the call.
What do I say about a wild daughter's first weeks at college?
Ger
on
im
ooooo!
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