Musings

Because the conversation that took place on Nicole’s post about Occupy Wall Street necessitated me moderating more than commenting, I don’t feel like I really had a chance to verbalize my own feelings about what’s going on there. Nic Wirtz mentioned that it would be great to have a retort of sorts from someone within the movement. Well, I’m not in the movement, but I think there is a lot of great stuff going on tied to this wave of action. What do I like about Occupy Wall Street? Let me offer some tidbits of thought and then we can talk about them further if you like.

People are actually doing something

One of my biggest frustrations about American society during my lifetime is that a lot of people like to complain but when the time comes for action, they are not so keen to participate. I know this because I fall squarely into this category. There’s all kinds of stuff I complain about, but I never actually take the complicated step of doing something. It’s like one of my favorite scenes from Life of Brian (Monty Python). The time has come for action, so the team sits down and starts carefully planning what they will do while time is a’wasting. While the motivations of some folks are suspect – PBS Newshour talked to a Harvard Business Review economist who was clearly there for the media attention – a lot of the people have genuine beefs with the way things are going here. Instead of just immersing themselves in World of Warcraft or reality television, they’ve left home, are risking arrest, and if nothing else, they’re getting people to talk about some of these issues.

The college loan situation

For the last 10 years, I have lamented the way college loans work in this country. If you are able to fill out the immense piles of paperwork you need to fill out to get a loan for your education, you find yourself in a very complex predicament by the time you are ready to graduate. To wit, after you leave school, you have a 6-month grace period before your first payment is due, or at least that’s how it was for me. My last year of school I made under $10,000 for the year. The thought of having to make $300/month payments scared the crap out of me, so I knew I needed to find a job right away.

Have you ever tried to find a well-paying dream job in six months when you’re right out of school? It was tough back in 2004. Now, it’s even tougher.

This framework causes a few things. It causes a sense of desperation, so a lot of people settle for jobs just so they can get money rather than holding out for that job that might be a year to 18 months out of reach. Young people are having to live with their parents longer because they certainly can’t afford rent, utilities, AND their loans with no income coming in. And of course, there is the old catch-22 problem. How can you prove you are reliable and credible and a good worker if no one will take a chance on you?

I did not do anything to protest this framework other than write about it here and there and feel pretty angry for a few years. These young people are getting the issue out there.

Money is messed up in the US

OK, let’s face it. The gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” is not decreasing. The middle class is disappearing, and for the most part, they are not being added to the “haves” crowd. Where I live, which is by no means a crappy area, there are pan-handlers at every corner and in front of every store. There are houses that have been up for sale for months and months because no one can afford them. That’s just in my little corner of the world.

Is it right to say that rich people are evil? No. There are a lot of philanthropists out there. Warren Buffet is begging the government to tax him more. But have a lot of people, tons of people, gotten rich off the backs of people who were already down? Heck yeah. This is hardly a new issue. People have pointed out these kinds of discrepancies for ages. How do you think the serfs felt in Medieval England? I mean, talk about a rotten deal. But in a country that is all about equality, it is getting to seem a little…hypocritical at best.

But there’s a gorilla in the room

To me, the Occupy Wall Street movement is missing the mark by a few states. Ultimately, to me, the biggest problems in our country lie with our politicians. I am not saying that either party is more or less to blame. While I have loved talking about politics for my whole life, the subject now makes me throw up a little, because our leaders, regardless of party, have lost track of what they’re supposed to be doing. They are after sound bytes now. They have created a country that is increasingly poor and increasingly polarized. Those are two Ps that are highly damaging to us as a nation.

So those are some of my thoughts about this movement. I’m watching it closely, but for now, I’m just happy that these painful issues are getting some attention. It’s about time.

Image by Asif Akbar. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/asifthebes

This dream of a post is by my good friend Nicole Fende. Nicole Fende is President and Chief Numbers Whisperer of Small Business Finance Forum. As a credentialed actuary with experience as a former Chief Financial Officer, Investment Banker, and successful entrepreneur, Fende helps her clients reach their profit goals and learn how to effectively and enjoyably run the financial side of their business.

Picture taken by Mat McDermott

For the sake of full disclosure I would like you to know the following about me; I am a tree hugger, I am a capitalist, I recycle religiously, I own stocks, I don’t shop at certain big chains because of their labor practices, I worked as an investment banker, I helped found a fair trade association…

Get the picture?  I straddle both worlds involved here.  I’d like to believe that it makes me ideally suited to debunk the myths, and highlight the truths around #OccupyWallStreet.

Myth #1: There is one clear message

After I agreed to write this post for Margie I decided to start by identifying the message or goal behind #OccupyWallStreet.   Should’ve been easy right?

Every news story I could find (and as Margie put in her post on Sunday there aren’t many) had different reasons, answers, and quotes.  Look at the pictures of the event and you have the same problem with the signs people are carrying.

I was able to find a couple sites claiming they represented the self-proclaimed leaderless movement.

• http://coupmedia.org/occupy-vote.html (voting is still open)
• http://www.legitgov.org/Occupy-Wall-Street-Its-Objects-Issues-and-Political-Meaning
• http://occupywallst.org/

Myth #2: The Big Banks Created This Mess

The protestors have this partially correct.  Yes the big banks and financial institutions were part of the problem that led to the housing crash.  Yes they bundled things into derivatives and sold them as far safer investments than they truthfully were.

Now let’s talk about the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  All the people who took out loans they couldn’t afford. Whether they thought they could refinance, they could flip the house, or just didn’t care, if everyone had kept paying on their mortgages we would not have had a massive default in home loans.

No one was forced to buy a home.  No one held a gun to their head and said, “You know you can’t afford it, but sign here now.” Each person who took out a loan they couldn’t pay back (or chose not to when the mortgage went underwater) needs to take personal responsibility for their actions.

For the record my home IS underwater and we are still paying on time every month.
[Read more…] about Debunking the Myths of Occupy Wall Street

This post is by my friend Kaarina Dillabough. Kaarina is a business consultant, coach and strategist who helps you set and attain your goals, to be the best you can be, in business and in life. If you want to create more success in your life, grow your business and become an even more extraordinary entrepreneur join her at http://www.kaarinadillabough.com and subscribe to her content at http://feeds.feedburner.com/KaarinaDillabough. You can also follow her on Twitter @kdillabough.

I was looking at my antique suitcases the other day. They aren’t mine. Well, now they are. But they once belonged to someone from another time and place…a time and place far removed from today.

As I stood admiring the suitcases’ frayed leather straps, now-fading stickers from far-flung places, intricate brass corners and fancy lock-and-key closure, I imagined what the original owner might have packed inside…for what trip…for what purpose.

Did they take a minimalist approach, packing only the essentials? Or did they cram every conceivable “might need this” piece of clothing and paraphernalia inside, ‘til the suitcase required a feat of strength, simply to close the latches?

Were the items neatly folded and arranged, making maximum use of the space while maintaining minimal disruption to the contents en route? Or were things simply thrown willy-nilly into the case, with much grunting and groaning about how things just didn’t fit…there was just too much to fit into this small space…and there was just no time to re-pack it, or pack it properly in the first place.

Each day is like a suitcase. It has a limited amount of space and time.  And that space and time can be crammed full of “stuff”, or it can be filled with the essentials.

How heavy is your suitcase? Are you struggling under its weight, or moving along with ease? If you’ve packed too much into your suitcase…your day…then it’s inevitable that you will feel weary, frustrated and exhausted as you haul your day’s work, like an anchor behind you, only to fall into bed depleted…to start packing the next day full to the brim.

Lighten your load. Remove the things you do not need. Pack the important things. Include the beautiful things. Place the productive things into the suitcase that is your day.

And if you’ve tried to make your day one of multiple suitcases…stop. Cast a critical eye on all that you’re carrying.

[Read more…] about What Are You Packing On Life’s Journey?

I would be remiss if I did not take time to note here that yesterday marked the end of the ABC Soap Operas One Life to Live and All My Children. If you’ve never been into soap operas, it’s sort of difficult to explain the levels of bummerism that this is creating in a lot of people. The best way I can explain it is that it’s like following a sports team, the same sports team, for years and years years. You watch all of the drama, you watch players come and go, you watch players come back as coaches or owners. Except, of course, in soap operas you also have everyone marrying each other, having kids, getting shot, and all that kind of stuff. Not so much of that in say, baseball.

When you talk about social networking, people who have been into soap operas know what that means on a deep level. Fans of a show were part of families like the Chandlers from All My Children. We all knew that Erica would very likely find some other guy to catch her eye, often on her wedding day. We would heave big sighs at 1:15 on a Thursday knowing that so and so was going to get through surgery and be fine. Even before Al Gore invented the internet, everyone who watched the soaps, along with the people on the soaps, were all tied together.

Soap Operas are unlike any other medium out there. My mom has been watching stories involving the same characters for 40 years, since All My Children began. I remember watching AMC when I was home sick from school. During summer vacation, my mom and I would eat lunch and yell at AMC. My freshman year in college, I made sure not to schedule any 1 PM classes so I could watch and not feel so homesick. It was like that for a lot of people. It was a way of checking in, not just with the characters but all of the people who watched the show with you. Even if you didn’t talk about it every day, the storylines on these shows were part of the fabric that made up your life.

It’s true that the soaps are going to try to become online serials. I’m not sure if that will work or not. I feel like it’ll be a rough struggle. And anyway, it won’t be the same.

I’ll miss you, ABC Soaps. I will feel really sad when shows like South Park and the Simpsons at long last come to an end, but those characters never aged, and for the most part never matured or changed. Certainly none of the characters experienced multiple personality disorders or baby swaps. There’s just nothing quite like you, and I don’t think there will ever be again.

Thanks for the memories.

Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Ambrozjo

I love this post by my friend Judy Helfand! So glad she wrote it for me 🙂 Judy Helfand is co-owner of Webconsuls, LLC, functioning as a Project Manager. She has worked for a number of Fortune 500 companies in both the banking and insurance industry and has successfully owned and operated two small businesses – a country inn in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Webconsuls, LLC.  Judy’s personal blog is Judy’s Op-Ed and she also writes and manages Webconsuls’ Blog. Feel free to follow her Twitter @judyhelfand.

Do you have a favorite recipe for grits?

That’s right. I want to know how you prepare grits. The reason I ask is while reading The Help, I came across this passage:

“In the kitchen, I fix some grits without no seasoning, and put them baby marshmallows on top.  I toast the whole thing to make it a little crunchy.  Then I garnish it with a cut-up strawberry. That’s all a grit is, a vehicle.  For whatever it is you rather be eating.”

I was so taken by these few sentences that I stopped reading for a minute, dog-eared the page, and then thought about how most of what we do in the social media world is to use vehicles that might propel us into those prestigious social media communities and from there who knows.

Think about this for a minute.  Do you like GRITS or is it the salt, butter, and/or brown sugar that is sitting on top of the GRITS?  The same with oatmeal or cream of wheat.  Do you like french toast or is it the maple syrup, melted butter, preserves that are dripping down each slice of toast?  Would you eat the french toast if you were out of butter, cinnamon, maple syrup or preserves?  My guess is you wouldn’t bother. You wouldn’t waste your energy, you would just eat a couple of slices of bread to ease your immediate hunger. (Although my father liked to put salt and pepper on his french toast, but maybe that was a holdover from the depression.)

Remember when you would add excessive cream to your coffee and your friends might have quipped: “Gee, why not have some coffee with your cream?”  The truth is you probably really didn’t like coffee, but if you added enough cream to it so you could tolerate the coffee and join in the old-fashioned coffee break – you were magically part of the community.

But back to today’s virtual social communities, what vehicle(s) do you have to use in order to get to be where you want to be?  Are you using these vehicles: blogs,Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, disqus, livefrye, chats? That’s just seven, there are hundreds. I don’t have to name them all. And yes, I know I didn’t mention Google+ or Triberr. Maybe the more important question is where do you want to be? Or need to be?

[Read more…] about Do I Have to Eat the Grits to Get the Tasty Stuff?

This excellent introduction to a great site was written by my friend Mark Robertson. Have a talk with him on Twitter @markosul.

Joe Dixon, of justjoemusic, is a “musing muso,” who tells us about his life and experiences with references to songs. He also writes a letterly in which he explores the depth and breadth of a classic album; his writing has some technical language, but is focused on his experience in a life marinated in music.

The work is credible. His words are underpinned with a deep, almost charitable love for music; his stories are elegantly threaded through sound, beat and lyric.[1]

Critics don’t do this. They “break the album” with a rating and highly-pretentious language that often distracts; critics from The Guardian and the A.V. Club, among others, use elegant prose, but I see their work as “implicitly autobiographical.” We learn more about what they can say about new music–how to categorize and how to create buzzwords.

In a recent letter about Tool’s album Lateralus he explains some of the technical complexity (viz., 5/4 time signature), but focuses his attention on the way the music broke new ground in his sonic imagination. His most recent blog post is about eye-contact aversion and Billy Bragg. The reader feels an affinity to the experience and has a sense of the way music informs and resonates with our experience.

Here’s a riff from his letter on the final track from Tool’s Lateralus:

[Read more…] about A Bit About Just Joe Music