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One-Way Relationships with People We Don’t Know Exist

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I've been thinking . . .

about a village of relationships with people we don’t know.

I spent many summers in a village. The main street had a bank, a grocery, a bar, a funeral home, a church, a park, and and an ice cream shop. You could find a bowling alley, a school, a gas station, and the city dump.

The town was too small for a stop light. Traffic didn’t find it useful. The kids I played with in that village had the run of the place. We knew who lived in every house on every street. We knew who told great stories, who let us use their yard, and who gave out the best treats on Halloween.

People were connected by stories and by history. Everyone knew my aunt who I stayed with. They knew she was my dad’s sister. They knew him. They knew me. We knew them and their families too.

In my own town, the scale was slightly larger. Still we knew when something was being built anywhere on any street.

I knew all of the kids in my neighborhood and all of the kids in my school. If we met folks from across town, it was easy to find out who we all knew. Even now, when someone from my hometown happens along, it’s “Oh you’re from there, do you know . . .?” The answer usually gets to a “yes,” by question three.

This virtual village can be similar, but a huge difference occurs shortly after a person takes up residence here.

At some point we cross a line that only famous people used to see. That’s when we find that we know far fewer people than the number of people who believe they know us. Social networking and social media have put this process on an even faster track, but it seems a natural phenomena of an interactive web. We attract, collect, and connect with

people who read what we write without leaving word,
people who follow our feeds, our photos, and our twitters,
people who from across time who will read in some future years,
possibly one day intelligent life from other places than this planet . . .

Surely those people think they know us. They form opinions and decide our beliefs without benefit of any personal interaction — just as we might do about Heath Ledger’s final role and the end of his life — and like Heath, we don’t even know that these people exist.

It changes something to consider that people are having one-way relationships with us.

How do you manage a village of relationships like that? Or do you not?

Liz's Signature

What Turns Standing Out into Outstanding?

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Blending In and Standing Out

It’s a fact of gardening and nature. No matter how we plant and tend the seeds, we’ll never be sure that the flowers that bloom will be as expected. Too many things genetic and environmental can happen.

If you’ve found buttercups growing in the weeds, you’ve seen such things. The natural world is filled with juxtapositions. Things in new places stand out.

The butterfly fits with grace, blending into its natural habitat.

monarch_and_flower

We value a butterfly differently when it stands out.

monarch

The least expected often gets the most attention.
Differences interrupt static patterns.

feeling_different

Nature finds it’s own path.
We look for differences.

What turns standing out into outstanding?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
images: sxc.hu

Hurry Up, Slow Down, and Take Your Time

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Up, Down, and In-Between

Working Plans logo

On Friday at the end of a four-day week, I find myself trying to work out

What’s with time that the week seems to have gone by so fast and yet Tuesday seems so long ago?

Much as I’d like to reflect on that perception, at the moment it’s just a shiny distraction. It’s a luxury to examine the time warp of four-day work weeks. My focus belongs on things that I need to get off my mind, off my desk, off my radar screen. I’m tripping over a truth of working efficiently.

The more I want to hurry up, the more I need to slow down.

Slow has definite advantages. I find slow and focused is more productive than multitasking. Other folks find it takes stress completely out of the formula. An entire Slow Movement has grown around the concept of slowing down. Personally, I find slow only works at time that require high focus and great productivity in small spaces.

find I’m in agreement with Suzanne Stinnett, thinking that slow, as a global fix, will never work . . .

Being a slow typist doesn’t get you much these days. Technology knows nothing of slow. It is 100% about speed, and if it isn’t faster, it’s dead. Okay, maybe not 100%, because it’s also about size.

Slow whatever is a natural response to fast everything, I think. But they’re just extremes.

If hurry is up and slow is down and they’re both extreme, what’s in between?

I’m exploring the phrase, take your time.

What does take your time. mean to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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What Do You Do When the World Makes You Feel Small?

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Looking Up

I grew up with two brothers – one who is 8 years older than me and one who is 15 months older than he is. Winning at anything was a losing proposition unless they were placating me. One brother says he decided that I was his personal pet. The other brother said most days somewhat of a pest.

That’s not to say we don’t love each other to death . . . But relationships and little kids can wear on big brothers’ smiles, and I was a little kid who was particularly good wearing things out. It was a lonely “talent” and it often caused responses that made me feel smaller than the little kid I already was.

Yet as I look back, I realize that I learned a lot from my brothers who choose not to entertain the pesty, persistent interrupter that I was.

I learned to find my own measure of how big I am.

With enough practice walking off with my chin on my chest, I figured out that it’s hard to smile when I’m looking down. I also noticed that sidewalks and feet present limited possibilities to think about. We’ll not even talk about how boring I find mulling over the idea of the world is against me again.

looking_up_from_sxc.hu

Looking up has much more to offer than looking down.

Just raising chin makes me feel taller and like I belong. Looking up offers new perspectives and possibilities. Even if I imagine myself tiny enough to stand under a flower I feel important enough to accomplish what I came here for.

Looking up is where the light is, where the clouds can take any form.

When things get big and I’m overwhelmed by it all, I look up. I feel power.

It’s hard to feel less than anyone else under the sky that’s bigger than everyone.

What do you do when the world makes you feel small?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: sxc.hu
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Jumping a Tuesday Train to a Four-Day Week

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Stop the Train! I Wanna Get On!

speeding_train_from_sxc.hu

In 1968, the Uniform Holidays Bill officially changed the observation of U.S. Federal Holidays to Mondays. It took effect in 1971.

Whose bright idea was that? Mondayless four-day weeks start in the middle with no chance to catch up.

That law is another brilliant accident that occurs when folks don’t think through the implications of grand ideas before they make them reality.

Transitions back to the work week are hard enough. Starting on Tuesday is like jumping a train that refuses to stop to let passengers on.

If I’d been asked, I’d have voted for Fridays, not Mondays, off. Jumping off a moving train is easier than jumping on one.

It’s a small thing for sure, but it’s a distraction to get operations back in line. The four-day holiday weeks never fully seem to be fully on track. Guess it’s good I work at home.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

What about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Look to Have Fun with the World

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Look to Be Delighted

The Living Web

Some where around age 9 is when our the frontal lobe of brains develop the capacity to take on abstract thought. The new-found ability to shift in and out of literal thinking could make fun out of the most mundane thought.

Signs were particularly fun.

A sign like this meant where a fire would go out.

fire exit

And in 9-year-old humor, a sign like this meant it was time to visit the toilet. Spotting such signs gained “extra points.”

P sign

This pointed out an option among many we might choose.

one_way_sign

Growing up we spent lots of time in cars and signs like these kept us busy while we were awaiting the grownups in our lives. So naturally we got good at finding new meaning almost anywhere we looked.

With eye like that, imagine what I thought when this taxi came into view. Click to enlarge and read the sign on its roof. What route do you suppose that cab’s will take to get there?

Taxi_to_London_by_Liz_Strauss

This weekend I’ll be looking to have fun with the world like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Images top3: sxc.hu taxi: LizStrauss
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