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| May each of us adapt better to change than the dinosaur! |
In my work, I spend a fair amount of my day driving. I
travel to my clients instead of them traveling to me. Except on really icy
days, I like it that way. My drive time gives me time to listen to music,
listen to my favorite speakers, sometimes just think, and sometimes just relax.
As I drive about, I often pass individuals dressed in goofy
costumes of someone else’s choosing;
costumes made with the intent to catch the attention of those driving by
like myself. Where I drive, the most common such sights are individuals in a
Statue of Liberty costume holding up signs selling tax preparation services and
individuals in a Roman Caesar costume selling $5 pizzas. Sometimes the
individuals have no costumes, just large signs, such as the ones proclaiming
that “we buy gold and silver.” I have nothing but respect for those
individuals. As I drive by them (particularly on cold, snowy days like today),
I can’t help but speculate that their current vocation probably was not part of
their life plan. If we were to have met that 25 year-old man or woman when he or
she was a 16 years-old and in tenth grade; and asked about dreams; we would
probably not be told us that at 25 that he or she hopes to be standing on a
busy street dressed in a“Lady Liberty” outfit and holding a sign for $8 an
hour. Please understand, I do not mean
that in a flippant or disrespectful manner. I am simply making the point that
it is most likely that life just is not working out as planned. Again, I have
nothing but respect for such persons. Each are doing what he or she needs to do
to try to feed themselves (and sometimes children) and keep a roof over their
head.
The fact is however, in one way or another, we live in
challenging times in which for a growing number of people, life simply is not
working out like they planned (nor anything even close). We live in a society
in which more and more people are falling out of the Middle Class. As someone
who will be fifty this year, I remember back to my own High School days. In
those times, the fast food restaurant was largely the work world of my High
School peers. The fast food job was a means to save for college, obtain the
experience of the “first job” which would help one to begin to build a work
history and demonstrate work ethic and dependability. For many, it was simply a
way to earn some extra money for the small luxuries of life, such as the first
car, gas for the first car, money for dating, or money to buy the nicer clothes
(in those days the alligator or horsy on the polo shirt).
When I take my lunch break in a fast food place today
though, I am just as likely (if not more likely) to be served by someone in my
own age range or within a few decades (sometimes younger and sometimes older), than I am to be served by a High School
student. I always try to make a point of being pleasant with those service
people, because I speculate that life simply is not working out like they
planned.
This is the heart of my page; to address the issue of what
does one do when life does not work out as one planned. I would suggest that
this is one of the most daunting concerns of our American society today, and it
is one which we seldom address directly. In one way or another, often not as drastic
as my illustrations above, life is not working out as planned. I myself would
be the first to say that I have nothing to complain about. However, at the same
time, life has not worked out as I planned. Some may experience that difference
from plan and reality as poverty and having to worry if they will have a place
to live next week. For others, like myself, that difference is experienced as
stress or to use a good psychobabble word “angst.” Both though are very real,
and both can have some very real adverse consequences.
The intent of this page is to explore these sorts of issues.
I will strive to keep my topics related to these sorts of areas/issues which
include: consequences on an individual level of the discrepancies between
dreams/plans and reality; and how does one start over or re-create oneself once
one realizes that life is not working out as planned. I hope that “Thrive” will
be a blessing and inspiration to some. I dedicate it to all those individuals
whose life plan and reality have diverged in an unwanted way. I sincerely hope
that even if the original life plan is lost and mourned, that my page will in
some way help you find a path to a new, meaningful, and fulfilling future.
Eric E. Craig
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