Cosmic Whac-A-Mole

Photo: By sa_ku_ra / sakura – *Source: Flickr image., CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36174230

A phrase came to me the other day when I was thinking about what self-improvement heavyweight Napoleon Hill called a “Definite Chief Aim.”

It makes sense to me that one objective should be paramount. One pursuit should be our top priority.

The fact that I have long struggled with this comes as no surprise because I love writing and music equally. I still believe that these two things and coexist, dovetailing into cohesiveness.

But add much more to the mix and I get into trouble.

What about podcasting? Can that be inserted into the formula as well?

See where I’m going with this? Fragmentation threatens.

The phrase is this: Cosmic Whac-A-Mole.

I thought it was brilliant, thank you very much.

Think about it: If we don’t have a specific objective in mind as we go through our days, we tend to live lives of reaction – constantly pounding away at distractions and so-called emergencies when they pop up. And oftentimes our mental mallets miss the mark as these things disappear from sight. It’s an endless cycle. The distractions keep popping up, and we take aim at them again…and again.

No roadmap. No rudder. No setting of the sail. Circling with no place to land. Flapping in the wind.

The next new and shiny object.

But what if the moles that keep popping up are worthy ideas? What if, like me, you can’t seem to decide which pursuit should take the top spot?

In 2015, a woman named Emilie Wapnick coined the term “multipotentialite” to describe “a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life.”

Wapnick created a website called Puttylike, an online community dedicated to multipotentialites far and wide.

Here’s more from her site:

Multipotentialites have no “one true calling” the way specialists do. Being a multipotentialite is our destiny. We have many paths and we pursue all of them, either sequentially or simultaneously (or both).

Multipotentialites thrive on learning, exploring, and mastering new skills. We are excellent at bringing disparate ideas together in creative ways. This makes us incredible innovators and problem solvers.

When it comes to new interests that emerge, our insatiable curiosity leads us to absorb everything we can get our hands on. As a result, we pick up new skills fast and tend to be a wealth of information.

Wapnick’s TEDx talk has been viewed more than eight million times, and for those like me, it’s well worth the 12 minutes. Check it out HERE.

The mile-wide-inch-deep concept is not lost on me. We live in the age of the specialist. But not everyone is cut from that cloth.

Something to think about.

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KISS This

I signed onto Ticketmaster just before ten last Friday morning. My daughter and daughter-in-law did the same thing.

Endgame: Score tickets to KISS at Madison Square Garden for one of their two final shows ever (I’ll believe that when I see it). Friday at ten, the tickets were to go on sale to the general public.

The idea was to go in connection with my twins’ 30^th birthday. My daughter lives in Brooklyn. My son lives here in Myrtle Beach with my daughter-in-law and their baby boy – my grandson.

My daughter isn’t fond of KISS at all, but she was down with going – to do something she knew her brother enjoyed. It’s also historic, after all.

Maybe we’re behind the times, but my daughter and I were looking to spend no more than $120 on our seats (plus my girlfriend). We thought these would be just a step better than nosebleed – but at least we would have been there.

I once lucked out and scored Elton John tickets at Barclays Center for something like $80 apiece. And those were relatively good seats. That was a fun SHOW.

Check this out…

When I signed on, I was put into the “waiting room” until 10 a.m., at which point I was sent into the queue, with more than 2,000 people in front of me.

It didn’t take long until it was my turn.

I can’t say I was shocked, but with the exception of a couple of premium retail seats priced at something like $2,000, the tickets had already become resale tickets. The cheapest tickets I saw were already north of $500.

I saw a resale ticket priced at $3151.50.

What’s going on? Were there 2,000 bots in front of me? Scalpers?

I love KISS. My son loves KISS. But come on. We saw them in Raleigh, N.C. not too long ago. You can read about that HERE. The seats were very reasonable., and we essentially said goodbye to the band then. But we might have enjoyed potential guest appearances – maybe Peter and Ace? Maybe Doc McGhee coming on and waving to everyone. But no way is this worth at least $500 apiece plus airfare and hotel.

My experience on Friday put a bad taste in my mouth. How did those tickets get to resale so quickly?

Stick those tickets where the sun don’t shine.

And don’t you dare come back. This is the End of the Road, after all.

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Not So Woo-Woo

Photo by Brett Jordan on Pexels.com

I was listening to a recording of Jim Rohn the other day, and the late self-improvement legend said that the way things are is different from the way we think things are.

I need to pay attention to that.

I don’t think I’m alone in this. How many times do we overthink and catastrophize certain scenarios, only to discover that we made up a fiction – that the things we brooded about never came to pass?

On the other hand, if you believe that thoughts become things, you are treading on dangerous ground by dwelling on and ruminating about negative outcomes. If you consciously plant that seed, your subconscious will run with it – setting up conditions to manifest that reality.

Rohn was practical, and he avoided anything resembling woo-woo thinking. In fact, he famously said that affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion. By affirming “I am broke,” Rohn said that this could be just the motivation we need to make a change.

Conversely, affirming that you are healthy, happy and terrific without taking action to make this so was the height of folly as far as Rohn was concerned.

Action is key.

If we realize that our perception of a certain reality is likely not the actual reality, we can adjust our thinking to bring us in line with more positive outcomes.

If you feel slighted by somebody, you must first determine if this is a perceived slight. If you think this is an overt slight, you have a choice to make. As tough as this may seem, you can approach the person and ask about it. You might be surprised to learn that the person might have been having a rough day and that you were merely collateral damage. You might even get an apology.

If you hurt somebody and they no longer want to speak to you, there’s not a lot you can do about that – short of asking them what happened. But don’t expect that this person owes you anything, even an explanation.

 Examine your conscience. If you have wronged anybody, apologize quickly.

The real danger lies in the expenditure of psychic energy on lost causes.

In our journeys through life, we will find our people.

Be kind to yourself. Don’t ever try to be somebody you are not.

As James Taylor sang, “Try not to try too hard – it’s just a lovely ride.”

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Crestline and Life “Up the Hill”

Roof Collapse: Goodwin and Son’s Market

My friend Mark recently sent me a photo of more than eight feet of snow outside of his house in Twin Peaks, California, a community in the San Bernardino Mountains near Lake Arrowhead.

He told me that many residents said that they hadn’t seen snow like this in 40 years.

Looking at the photo sent me down a rabbit hole of nostalgia.

Part of my childhood was spent in Crestline, also not far from Lake Arrowhead. Crestline was dubbed Little Switzerland, and many of the homes resembled chalets. I remember a street named Zurich Drive, and my aunt and uncle lived on a dead-end named Zell Court. I also remember a kid named Chris Dietrich, who used to brag that his parents owned a bar called The Yodeler. That kid loved to brag.

I lived at 221 Darfo Drive with my mother, twin brother and Cathy, our niece.

We moved from Miami to Crestline twice, one of many shuttles across the country perhaps intended as a means of de facto reconciliation between my mother and father. They never got divorced, but they were never really together either.

Dad moved to Hollywood in 1967. I still remember him waving as he turned left onto Kirk Street from Tigertail Court in Coconut Grove in his blue 1967 Chevy Impala.

Hollywood was 90 minutes from Crestline. Dad would visit, and I could see that there was some sort of stab at the illusion of family, but something wasn’t right.

My relationship with my father was as loving as could be, but my mom and dad weren’t fated for long term romance. I didn’t see any of the lovey-dovey, television-style mom-and-dad stuff going on.

All that being said, Crestline was a different experience for us. Moving from the sea-level, humid climate of South Florida to a dry California air at an elevation of five thousand feet took some getting used to. At first, my lungs were sore, likely the result of trying to get used to the thinner air.

Even after I lived in Hollywood years later, the same thing would happen when I would visit Crestline.

Hold on. We lived in Buena Park for a very short time after we moved from Miami. Buena Park is the home of Knott’s Berry Farm. I remember going the end of first grade at a Catholic school called St. Pious V. More about that in a future blog post.

I remember living in two rental houses before we moved into our house on Darfo Drive.

We walked a lot in Crestline – exploring the terrain on and around Darfo Drive, checking out the A-frames, pine trees, blue jays…

We walked along a brook, mostly with Dad – and we carved our names – Roger, Chris, Cathy – on a little tree.

Years later, we saw those carvings high up on the now-mature tree, our names expanded along with the growth.

My brother and I took the bus to school. Cathy was something like four. Not old enough for kindergarten yet when we moved to Crestline for the first time. Chris and I were starting second grade. Mom would drop us off at a fire station across from Lake Gregory. That part of the lake was not set up for swimming, but we saw people fishing over there. There was also a beach area a little further down the road. You had to pay to get in, and you could rent paddleboards. We couldn’t swim then, but when we came back for fifth and sixth grades, we started going to that beach regularly. We learned to swim in Miami when we were third graders.

In the fifth grade, my then best friend appeared: Glen Ross. Glen and I hit it off almost immediately and were fast friends in fifth and sixth grades. Our birthdays were three days apart. because I bounced all over the place so much, we lost touch for a long time. I am happy to say we are in touch once again thanks to Facebook.

The first time it snowed, we were in awe. I thought it was like a moonscape. The only other time we saw snow was when we drove through Flagstaff, Arizona on the way to California. But this was a different animal altogether.

We weren’t used to bundling up, but we soon got used to it. There were these plastic discs with nylon handles on the sides, and we’d go careening down embankments.

There are home movies of our First Communion along with a pair of sisters, the Goodwin twins – daughters of the owners of Goodwin and Son’s Market – the only game in town for groceries. We looked like dual brides and grooms, all decked out in our finery.

My friend Mark told me that the roof of that store collapsed under the weight of the recent snow.  I wish them the very best.

Photo: Mark Mulkeen

More to come.

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