The Emerald Rose

I’ve found a dozen citations, and many bastardized similarities and quotes, as to the title of this blog, but none specifically  that I may attribute its authorship, but I’ve been “cogitating” on it for the past several days, and am sufficiently opinionated to now put pen to paper, (oops! Sorry, “fingers to keyboard”, and yes I can still write on paper in “CURSIVE”!

It is an EPIC truth that “DIGNITY AND MEANING TO LIFE”,  has been lost in the past fifty years, and one concept we need to reflect on and discuss,and bring back to our single dimensional society, and back to reality ….hence this “blog” entry.

Growing up in Boston in the mid 1950’s I experienced a lot of things, 1) being restricted to my yard for the 1954-1956 period, (until Dr. Jonus Salk discovered, and created the vaccine for POLIO, my Mom had contracted it in 1947 and went to her grave in 1999 STILL trying to overcome some of  it’s physical restrictions and limitations, ad residual outcomes it left her with as a “reminder of polio” hence the “grounding” sentence during the ’54-’55 polio epidemic to save her five children from it’s agony and scourge,….but what did we know then,…. it’s only after years of life and learning that I have come to appreciate her nature on a lot of things because of her polio.) 2) going to a private Catholic Grammar School, that was part of an Orphanage, and foster home in Boston, run by the Sister of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul, called “Nazareth” (same nuns as the “Flying Nun” TV series with Sally Fields, with the winged head pieces), and then as we progressed, ” ’til we getting to stay out “,…until the street lights came on and not a minute later!”

Such was growing up, in Boston and it’s suburbs, in the 50’s and early 60’s. But other things happened then as well, I began mowing lawns, and selling personalized stationary and cards door to door in my neighborhood, it FELT GOOD! I WAS MAKING MONEY OF MY OWN! I got to “reap what I sowed”, if I wanted to make more money, …I had to work harder and longer, and  pretty soon I had enough to buy a new,  Wilson, Left-handed, three finger baseball glove, a “Nellie Fox” autographed version with my money. (I still have the glove and that was at least 60 years ago!It serves as my reminder that ALL work can give you dignity!!.

From then on I was hooked, it wasn’t about the MONEY, but the inner feeling of self accomplishment and respect, from my peers and even my parents! The other word for that is DIGNITY!! A word we don’t use any more because it is a “snowflake” word, and it is just a “bunch of letters” and has no REAL meaning to folks anymore. We have “dumbed down” our society that much!!

A good friend has been working for almost five years to get her BA in “Human Resources”, she is intelligent, street savvy, and “knows her way around the block”, BUT I fear she will be ground up in “the food processor” of the Job Hunt “PROFESSIONALS”. Too many idiots trying to cover their ass to keep their job, and not a one with the “guts” to “stretch the rules”a bit  to allow for the applicants not being “perfectly in the mold” to give them an opportunity.

Think about this, would you have hired a “rebel, an outspoken, ‘my way or the highway’ attitude, a guy who never took “NO” as an answer, to even the impossible, (at the time)? If you would not have hired him you just missed hiring STEVE JOBS!!!  How’s your “proper resume, specific requirements” doing. You would have  missed the man who used to be, prior to his death, but whose legacy has made APPLE COMPUTER THE MOST VALUABLE STOCK ON THE PLANET, with Billions of dollars in CASH!!

Since then we have ” dumbed down” the jobs to “skirt” defamation and the other “LAWS”/requirements of discrimination, “bias”, prejudice, and BULL SHIT for a feel good society we have evolved into, over the last fifty decades of crap!!

My credentials were less than stellar when I got out of the Navy, who would hire a “Sound propagation in seawater specialist, and Weather Forecaster”, who made every “rank” possible in the minimum time he was in the Navy, but I convinced a BIG bank to do it, became a supervisor within a year, and was hired away a year later by a “little company” called ADP , and have never looked back. Broke out and started my own business, and bought a few others, and started several from scratch. I LOVE DOING BUSINESS AND WORKING. The title of this blog is more of a philosophical statement of a “maverick” who knows hard work, never looked the other way, or back,  and have been thinking “outside the box” since I was NINE years old!!

And as I said in a previous “blog” as a 72 year-old whose only job prospects are to “shag shopping carts” for minimum wage,  until I drop dead,…….it SUCKS!!

True,… at 72 I’ve slowed down, ….but only from 65mph to 50 mph. I don’t set limits on when I can work, nor will I, but I need that “job” to regain my dignity, and meaning in life. Sitting on a bar stool writing these pieces, or at home in my office writing them, what’s the difference? The quickest way to die is to just stay home, try and amuse yourself, (or be “retired”) I have personally known may who have passed years before their “time” from “dying” years early because they “retired mentally” from life! I will not prostitude myself, my education, my mind and my knowledge and experience over 50 years to “shag carts”,……THAT is demeaning(to me)!!!

Rant over, I’m trying to figure out a business I can start,  for ONLY us “old farts” so we can show these “snowflakes” what gut’s , determination, the knowledge of simply living to 65, and the REAL desire to leave a mark and be part of our society are all about! Any ideas send me a comment, or e-mail me at “ag2guinness@gail.com”

As I told my wife don’t bury me for 36 hours as I’m “just thinking on a new business to start,….let me finish in peace.”

I WILL NOT go quietly into the night, …..I WILL rage against it! Thank you Dylan Thomas!

–

30-

Addendum:  While this is MY opinion, THIS is why our “OLDER FOLKS” are getting sicker, and sicker. Yes old age has it’s physical denigration, without a doubt, BUT the job market leaves you only the options of driving your own hearse to the graveyard,…well a different story. We aren’t young and buff, and limber, BUT we are more than 90%  of your businesses smarts experience and intelligence! Think about it, andASK our opinions, use us as Consultants , and other thought areas, …….the mind can not be strengthened at a “gym”,or “CrossFit” studio! IT TAKES THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE which a twenty something, or even a thirty something can NOT have!!

August 11, 2017