Socialism Distortionism

No, not what the “right” accuses the “left” of professing, but my own efforts toward “living by talking around.” The “business problem” needing a solution is too much time interacting with technology including HDTV, the LeoTreo and this keyboard, and not enough with people. It’s not that I don’t have human contact. I’m not in my mother’s basement and I do spend the workweek with other bees. At home, usually within ten feet from me are my children, grandchildren and their friends. I often joke, “I don’t like people.” That’s not really true, but I’d rather abstain from the masses of uneducated, celebrity obsessed, McDonald’s munching drones our culture produces to vote with Republicans. For the minority not falling into that crass categorization, I’m there. I mean, I’d like to be there and I’d enjoy it. In fact, one of my StrengthsFinder Signature Themes is “Relator: People who are strong in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others.” Unfortunately, I also strongly relate to Seth Godin’s statement, “The web is like crack for someone with ADD, I’ll tell you that.”

It’s obvious people with social connections do better than “loners.” In business, a “network” is critical to success and even from a health perspective, there’s evidence people with more friends are healthier. I do try to establish social connections. Recently a line in Bob Lefsetz’s blog nailed it with a wink to Pete Townshend, “Can you see the real me? I’m trying so hard to reveal it. That’s why I write this shit. I crave attention.” The sad truth is blog built social connections are hidden behind a force field of electrons unless the blogger has the courage to step outside. The post also got me thinking about the correlation between “The Punk Meets the Godfather” and the relationship between Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, but that’s a post for another day…

All the blah, blah, blah up to this point is nothing but a rambling intro to my week of real life social calendar entries that have enriched my life.

Tuesday night was a talk filled dinner with Jeff and Dave. We spent about three hours catching up and actually little time on the notes of life that bind us together. We covered kids, jobs, politics, a battle of gay moguls, the Packers, and of course, former body cavities. The little time spent on music covered the Avett Brothers “Emotionalism” and the Drive By Truckers new one. Our discussion led me to Dave’s page where rock and roll lives:

Thursday I took my team of three offsite to clear heads and envision how we can make the greatest impact to the business we support. The day began at the ICA and also provided me the opportunity to get to know Tim and Natira a little bit better. Twelve hours later as Natira, her husband Rod and I left a waterfront pub, I’d learned quite a bit about myself. Acting on my new awareness will require another tenuous step up the social stairway.

Yesterday my boss took her entire team offsite for a belated “holiday lunch.” It was a long fun lunch with about a dozen of us. What pleased me is that I stepped out of my comfortable circle and moved around the table to chat more with the folks I don’t know well. One conversation was with Jack and the subjects flowed mainly through family matters, but one tributary veered off to whether I’d pay $200K to experience weightlessness for up to 6 minutes on the Virgin Galactic spaceship. My answer was affirmative, but while weightless words flowed, my minds mission control was running a background simulation process including an assumption that six minutes with a woman in orbit would be plenty of time for me to parlay a book deal documenting the experience: “Docking the Soyuz.”

Emerging from that black hole brings us to right now. Finishing this post will make me late for today’s festive fright train, Barb’s 40^th birthday. Barb describes it as her “world’s colliding” with a group of freehold, NJ friends identifying themselves as members of “Institute for Making Boston an Infinitely Better Excursion” (IMBIBE), mixing with her Boston friends aboard a rented trolley destined for Irish pubs throughout the city. Yeah, scary, but I’m going. Speaking of world’s colliding, this brilliant video blends Kyle’s world of Harry potter with my world of music. It’s a beautiful place.