An Honest and Diverse Friend Group

Have you ever been sitting with your friends, look around, and realize that all of you are the same? It is not a stupid question. The next time you are with your extended friend group, glance at what they all look and act like. Are they all the same race, gender, background, etc? I will actually get to the point with this one. Your friend group needs a multitude of different personalities and nationalities. There is a reason TV shows now are including more than just the one black friend to the main character. The friend group in a program could include people of all different nationalities, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and even people of extended age ranges. Art should reflect reality. Our real-life friend groups should include this as well. I am not saying that your friend group should look like a “We Are The World” campaign, but if it looks like the cast of Friends, maybe look up diversity in the dictionary. This is not just me being my whimsical, non-sensical self. I have made every effort to expand my friend group with people of all different perspectives, because it allows me to become a better person by having my very diverse friends be honest with me if I am doing something offensive. For instance, you need friends to help you realize how racist you might actually be being on a day to day. Also, my gay friends help me see the perspective of the LGBTQ+ community so that I can proudly say that I am an ally. At the end of the day, making your friend group a melting pot only helps to open your mind to worlds very different from your own. Also, it makes holidays more fun because of all the different gatherings of which you can be a part. We are a part of a very diverse world, and I believe that the ultimate goal is to find connections for us all. But that is just one man’s opinion. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I appreciate it. See you next time.

The Man From Nantucket Has a Song

Taylor Swift has got to be one of the biggest music stars of the 21^st century. She is famous beyond famous and is not bad on the eyes. Musically not all of her chart toppers are for me, but it is mostly because of the way she makes the songs. She says that you can make music by writing a poem and pairing it with an instrumental. I vehemently disagree. While there is no denying that some of her songs do work lyrically and make for a great time to sing along to, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Truthfully, most of her songs do have a heartfelt and meaningful message, but I can only hear them as the slam poetry they are. It is also true that metaphors and similes in songs are needed. If the artist was to just say words without a little play on those words, it would be no different than if I were to only spell out directly what I mean. Those figures of speech making comparisons of one thing to another are what allows listeners to make connections with their own lives about what Miss Swift is saying in the song. There was an old saying in the country music genre that three chords and the truth made a great song and while I do believe that the Man in Black and other Highwaymen made it work, if they had tried to push the rhyme scheme to fit the stanzas of a 30 line poem, it would have sounded like some college bro with shoulder length hair sitting on the quad with his dented guitar singing about how much he was against the man. When it is all said and done, I guess it is each person’s own preference as to what music they like, but if new artists follow the roadmap of the previous generations, then those that follow Taylor are in for a bad time. Taylor has made it work for her, and she is good at what she does, but the majority of songwriters take a different direction because they know it is poetic to string words together only for them to fall flat on the chord. To all the music makers out there, don’t write poetry. Write music. Make a good beat that is easy to dance to, fun to sing along with, and touching on someone’s heart. Otherwise, whistle along with a previously existing tune and leave the rhymes to the professionals. But that is just one man’s opinion. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I appreciate it. See you next time.

No Crystal Ball, Just a Calendar

My favorite character at a carnival is the fortune-teller. The reason is because they are probably the richest person at the event. Why? Because everyone goes to them to hear about a future that may or may not actually happen. It is comforting to hear things about a life that we dream about, but a vision board can become reality with an attainable goal post and some grit. There is nothing that can’t be achieved with a proper plan and a level head. We all have it in us to accomplish great things. Most people usually do. There are thousands of doctors, lawyers, service men and women, entrepreneurs, and entertainers in the world. However, when I say attainable goals, I mean it literally. We cannot all be Sheldon Cooper and graduate college at 14. As much fun as kids have playing wedding in the back yard, most of us are not going to meet that perfect someone and be happily married in our early 20s. In this modern era, we may never actually own a house. When I say attainable goals, I mean things that could and probably might actually happen in a normal life. A life without Laurie Laughlin as our mom, a life without arranged marriages, and a life without ever having won the lottery. I am not saying we shouldn’t shoot high. I am merely saying that it is okay to go with the flow sometimes and do not get disheartened when we come in under the bar. Just adjust the trajectory and keep flying. There is a reason that they don’t sell 20 year at a time calendars. Some of us would plan that far ahead and might even ask the prognosticator to assist us. My hope is that we can all be happy living relatively normal lives with a few dozen high points as we accomplish the goals we set and knew we would achieve. However, if it were to be foretold that we would meet our one true love while we were wearing red shoes, then one of those goals would definitely be to buy enough red shoes to last us the rest of our lives. But that is just one man’s opinion. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I appreciate it. See you next time.

Employee Shields Activate!!!

It is a literal nightmare in the work field in modern times. I could ramble on about each and every sector of the work force for hours, but in this particular ramble, I am talking about horrible bosses that choose any other position except keeping their employees content. It could be a boss that thinks money is most important. It could be one that picks favorites and makes employee of the month a Hunger Games situation. It could even be a boss that believes in that ridiculous notion that the customer is always right. Newsflash, they usually aren’t. A tip to any boss reading this. If you are one of these or some other example that I just don’t have the room to list, know that employee protection is the most important part of running a business, bar none, hands down, no ifs, ands, or buts. If you don’t have employees, you don’t have a business, because it is impossible to do every task of your business, no matter what industry, by yourself. Now I am not saying that every employee needs to have every demand met or that every one of them needs to be happy, jolly, ecstatic at every minute. What I am saying is that if employees feel unsafe, or if they feel like they are never heard, or even if they feel like there is always something wrong every day they work, they are not going to continue working in that kind of environment, or if they do, they are not going to do the best work and the business still suffers as a result. I understand it is not easy being a boss. Sometimes, there is a boss that bosses have to respond to. This ramble needs to be read by that head honcho character as well. Understand that trying your hardest to make your employees lives easier is the penultimate task of being a leader. Make sure employees have the resources they need to do their jobs. Make sure they are happy at least a few days of the work week. Also, lets all agree to make jobs as simple as possible. There is no good reason to overcomplicate tasks that should be relatively simple to carry out. A worker should not have to email 18 people before one thing gets done. They also should not have to walk 6 miles in the snow, barefoot, uphill both ways to click a button and move a machine, even if that is the way it was done back in the boss’s day. At the very least we should all be able to go to work, make a little money, and not pull our hair out or have a good scream in the car at lunch every day of our working lives. But that is just one man’s opinion. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I appreciate it. See you next time.

May Day and Other Such Fun

With the recent passing of May 1^st or May Day as many know it, it has come to my attention that we really do celebrate a day for just about everything. What I mean is those random days throughout a month that celebrate innocuous things like donuts, the mathematical Pi, squirrels. May Day itself is known as a day of play where people enjoy fun games outside in the sun. In fact, the first week of May is a great example of what I am talking about. May Day on the 1^st, then Star Wars Day on the 4^th (and may it always be with you), and then Cinco de Mayo on the 5th. I have no problem celebrating a few non-major holidays throughout a month. An Earth Day, a Parent’s Day, a national day of reading. They all sound fine enough now and again, but for every day to be a Taco Tuesday gets a bit redundant. We as a society have literally made a day for every member of our families, every food item known, every animal on the Ark, a day to talk like pirates, and even World Lazy Day. I know Sportacus wouldn’t like that one. I don’t know, maybe it is just my mildly pessimistic nature, but I feel like if every day is a celebration, an un-birthday if you will, then we aren’t really celebrating anything are we? But that is just one man’s opinion. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I appreciate it. See you next time.