The Emerald Rose

 And that is the truth!!

     So maybe this is where I should have paid more attention to the work world. And now you know WHY I don’t “play well with others”.

     In fact I wonder what my life would be like if I were only seven years old today and in the local school. Would I be a troublemaker? No. Would I be an activist/anarchist “delusional” child? Probably. And maybe that is the problem.

     We seemed to have “dumbed down” our educational system such that we teach to the level of the lowest link in the group. That is flat dead ass WRONG! That is why (old fart rant coming,…duck!) we are getting the type of folks we are getting today. College today is far less strenuous than high school was forty years ago, AND pretty much teaching the same stuff as High School used to teach then! We did not become the country today that were are by waiting and teching, and progressing at the weakest links pace. It’s all about self-esteem today, not learning and knowledge. I can speak to this with some knowledge because I’ve been in schools over the past six or seven years and spoken to students, so what did I see?

       Teachers barely had control of thier classes. Kids were in little “clusters” at “group tables that were round. (Gee just like sitting around a table with your “buds” kind of like in a restaurant, a bar, the kitchen table, etc. The result that’s exactly what they did, chat with each other, show off and clown around, ignore everyone and everything and just continue what they were doing, etc. Me? I was there to talk to them, about what is irrelevant, the thing is I could have just evaporated and they could care less, The only person listening to me, and YES I can be dynamic and interesting, and excel at public speaking, was the teacher! And I’m not sure if she was listening or just “zoned out” for a break with “Thank God five minutes to myself!”. And the “dress codes” in today’s schools are also pathetic.

     Parents took pride in how thier  kids looked when they went to school, rich or poor, that is how children learned some self respect. I remember as a kid the big day in August, when your folks took you to the shoe store to by “school shoes”. They made you know it was important to dress sharp for school and how to hold your own. If you didn’t have a lot of money, and five kids in school, like my folks, it got very expensive, very fast, but they NEVER cut corners. We wore shirts, and girls wore blouses, not tacky Tee shirts with logo’s and crap on them. We wore pants, not jeans, girls wore skirts. Like I said to my wife one morning when we dropped our oldest boy off at school because we were all running a little late that day, “My God, no wonder they aren’t learning anything, they are all dressing like they are going to “muck out” the barn! How can you learn when you can’t “dress for Success” ?

     Don’t get me wrong, I am definately not Mr. GQ, nor that crisp, sharp military look. But I do try.

 Even when someone did what dogbert above did and said they were smarter, it would piss me off and I would try even harder, learn more, faster, better, until I was satisfied I was on top, and guess what I learned also I did not have to go tell anyone I was smarter,…becasue I KNEW it, and that’s what counted.

    One of my biggest regrets in life is I never valued myself in the market place monetarily. That was not my focus, ergo like the cartoon above I’ve always earned way below my ability, because I don’t fight for my pay. That is a regret. A friend of mine, who is a nationally recognized motivational speaker that I met about twenty years ago when he was just getting started on the motivational circuit had asked me to be his guinea pig. I took tons of tests, pschye tests, you name it. The conclusion after about three weeks of this? He said “How much do you make?”told  So I told him. “That’s all?” he said. “Yeah why?” I asked. He said “Well, I’ve known you for a couple of years and, I ‘ve tested you a dozen ways on a dozen scales and different levels, and that’s all you make?” I said “yes, why?” he tells me I should be making a lot more than I am and I said , “Well who’s gonna pay me that?” He was stymied and he said, “You gotta ask for it.”

     Well I never have. I really don’t want to go there and beg for my money. If you can’t see my value, I’ll move on, get another job, whatever. One thing I did learna long time ago is I work for myself. I am my own little company. I can honestly say I’ve never taken “a job”. I take what interests me, do my best, and if you don’t want to pay my “company” a just and fair level of compensation, I will either withold, or deny you my services. Only prostitudes negociate in my book. (And I’m told they don’t do any negociating these days!”

     Well so much for the rant today, gotta go get something done.

     As Popeye, I think, says ,”I ams what I ams and I is what I is!” (I like his style!)

    I’m a little disjointed today, a lot on the mind, what’s left of it!

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