What's In A Name?

-a very short piece of writing

Wiley Hunter is a hard name to live up to if you’re an anti-gun vegetarian out here where some believe the high school should shut itself down for deer season. Almost as bad a name as Alexander Bates after our Grade Six year when we had the exchange teacher from England who called everyone Master Hunter or Master Smith or whatever. I figure that’s the reason Alex turned into such a skirt chaser, at least eight kids by three different women. He had to disprove the nickname.

Funny how those childhood handles stick. Newcomers, which is anyone who wasn’t born here even if they’ve lived here thirty years, wouldn’t know that Cheryl Milford is called Saucy because her maiden name was Applebaum which became Applesauce which we shortened to Saucy. She’s actually as withdrawn as cash from a gambler’s bank account, quieter than a teenager trying to sneak in after curfew. Not Saucy at all.

But the worst has to have been Murray Finnie after some wag reversed the letters to make Furry Minnie. Though now he’s Father Finnie. Or Father Furry behind his back.

On Being Eclectic

My father died when he was 47 (I was 11), his father when he was 43. One of his sisters said each of the brothers (it was a large family) heaved a sigh of relief when he hit 50.

I was never morbid, walking around terrified that my life would be short or afraid to do things thinking they were dangerous or might somehow shorten my life. However, when I hit 50 and felt quite burned out, I realized I had packed an awful lot into my years. Many people don't fit in that much in 80 years, some never, so no wonder I felt mentally exhausted.

The lesson I had learned, largely an unconscious one, was not to wait to do things. I suppose it helped form that philosophy that the motto of my high school was Carpe Diem (make the most of the day). While our homeroom teacher who explained what that meant to us had a slightly different orientation - his take was about working hard on school work every day - it furthered that underlying value I had unconsciously developed, that it was important to pack as much as possible into every day because you didn't know how many you would have. (I hope that doesn't make me sound manic - there was never a frantic aspect to my behaviour. I sat still frequently -usually with something to read in my hands - but my head never stopped. My wife once commented that my brain never turned off and my reaction was a very surprised one - Why would anyone want that to happen? -meditating is not an attractive concept to me, though maybe I don't really understand what it means.)

The result is I have a very wide range of interests and knowledge. I'm not an expert in anything, but can carry on a discussion on just about anything, as long as it is a focussed discussion. (I am terrible at small talk.)

All of which brings me around to this blog. I originally started it because one of my interests is writing fiction (I have published three novels, several short stories, and am now working on a play and another novel.) However, the blog is not simply about writing, though some entries are. Rather, there are a wide variety of topics, reflecting the wide range of my interests.

Is anyone interested in my ramblings? -I have no idea, but articulating issues which are triggered by something that happens during the day is an interesting process.

Crisis Management

Every time I turn around, I seem to hear or read someone saying something about managing a crisis. I always liked that you can look at a crisis in two ways, negatively as a problem or positively as an opportunity. I remember reading once that the Chinese ideogram is two charaters, superimposed. (I don't know if that is true - I don"t speak or read Chinese.) The two characters are 'danger' and 'opportunity'. That captures the dichotomy that I recognize. You can look at a crisis in that dark light, that there is a problem of some kind. Or you can look at with the lighter colouring, that the crisis presents an opportunity for positive change.

A local social service agency changed its name to Point In Time a few years ago. Personally, I'm not keen on it - to the public, it doesn't speak to what the agency is about- but I understand it. They deal with people in crisis of some kind (you don't go to them if everything in your life is fine) and a crisis indicates you have reached that point in time where you are willing to change. Most of the time, people aren't willing to change, even if something isn't great, because the prospect of changing is scarier (read more painful) than maintaining life as it is. A crisis presents the opportunity to change that.

Negativity In Writing

I am no Pollyanna. I certainly have known my share of pain, have seen more anger than I want, realize the world can be a cruel, viscious place. But I write about people who struggle with diffculties with positive characteristics like determination, the ability to connect with others, the belief that things can and will be better.

But somewhere along the line, the negativity that used to be reserved for the antagonists in stories, what needs to be overcome, has crossed the line into something desireable. Protaganists are bitter, cynical, sarcastic, etc. There is an underlying positiveness in that they overcome real evil of some kind, but any positve effect on their characters is transitory at best - they remain cynical.

Maybe it's just what I read. I get the feeling fantasy, which I don't read, is based on positive characters who overcome difficulties to become even more positive.

Two questions then: Am I right, and if so, why is that optimistic view of people reserved for fantasy stories? Has the real world actually become populated by peo0ple who find the other characters entertaining and worth emulating?

Somebody Must Be To Blame

There are people whose response to any diffculty is to look for someone to blame. -Not to solve the problem, stop the bleeding or change direction, but to find whose fault it is. Somehow that gives them considerable satisfaction, even if they are the ones who are suffering or losing out because of the difficulty. Having someone to blame is more important to them than finding positive responses to the situation itself. Righteous indignation makes up for everything else.

It's not that I think examing a problem to understand how it happened is always a waste of time. The opposite is often true. It's important to recognize how a problem started, what fed it so that it became bigger, why it now has the stature it does. But the reason is so that change can happen so the problem won't be repeated. -Not so there then can be a kind of self-satisfaction now that we know who to blame.

Luck, Preparation and Opportunity

One of those hokey inspirational sayings that has always stuck with me is that Luck is when Preparation meets Opportunity. I guess it has always stuck with me because I think for the most part it is true. So often, what appears to be luck is really someone being able to take advantage of an opportunity because he/she has prepared for it in case the chance ever arises. Even if that preparation only involves thinking, it is still preparation. Someone who considers a possibilty and thinks about what he or she might do in the event the opportunity ever arises is ready to take advantage of the opportunity when it does come. Outsiders who haven't seen the thinking may only recognize it as luck.

There are genuinely lucky random things, such as having a lottery ticket drawn, and I don't consider buying a ticket to be preparation. However, what the person then does with the money fits into this. The money gives him/her the opportunity to do things he/she might otherwise not have had the chance to do. If that person has thought about it (preparation), he/she probably won't be in one of those horror stories we occasionally hear, a lottery winner who is bankrupt a few years later.

At work, I used to have an 'idea folder', scribblings of ideas I hoped to be able to do someday though at the time, they seemed unrealistic as there weren't the resources or the technology or something to actualize them. Then when I heard of of funding or a technical development or a project someone else had going that seemed to fit, I was able to respond. Some of those ideas are still in the 'idea folder', but it is surprising how many of them came to fruition even though at the time they were simply 'someday it would be nice' ideas. Someone once remarked to my boss that I was lucky, that I had fallen into a good thing in my job. Her response was to the effect that No, I had made the good thing. Certainly a large part of that was preparation, being able to take advantage of opportunities when they came along.

That's why I maintain a healthy dose of scepticism when someone seems to be lucky. I usually ask what they might have done in preparation.

-And none of this discounts positive thinking, the Law Of Attraction. That might well be the most important aspect of preparation.