Living here in Kernersville, North Carolina, most of the people I interact with are older than I am, and they lived their lives like most people in industrial age small towns. They worked a single job for most of their lives, conserved their money, and spent weekends and vacations at the beach or the mountains. The bulk of their lives were spent in the Carolinas. There's nothing wrong with that. But now they look at the TV news and are afraid of what they see happening in the world. They're good people, but they're nearly a polar opposite of the people I've spent most of my adult life around.
The weird little sport of BMX freestyle drew me to Southern California. A large majority of the people I met were into one or more of the action sports. Surfing, skateboarding, BMX freestyle, snowboarding, motocross, and similar sports lead one to a different lifestyle. Each day, people in these sports go out and try to improve on their physical skills. It's all about progression. It's about getting off the couch and facing your fears. Some of these people did crazy, death defying acts, but most did smaller, more technical feats on a day by day basis. These people tend to look at the opportunities in the future, rather than the negative stuff going on. Not coincidentally, many people I know moved beyond physical stunts, and into creating their own businesses. Some have been widely successful. Many are successful on a more modest level, but successful none-the-less. These people tend to fail much more often than those here in North Carolina, but they also get back up and keep trying. All of us in the action sports world have seen people come out of nowhere, sometimes straight from the streets, and create something amazing. They tend not to count someone out because of a bad spell in that person's life.
Recently, I was part of a conversation where a woman here spoke about how the world is going downhill, and she was just overwhelmed by all the bad news on TV. As a Christian woman she wanted to help in some way, but she had no idea where to start. How many of you reading this can relate to that? You feel you should be doing what you can to make the world a better place, but it just seems like there is too much to do. Many years ago, I developed a workshop to help people figure out what's really important to them right now. When you do that, it usually makes the next step you need to take apparent. When you get clear on where you are, you realize where you need to head next. I'll talk more about that workshop in future posts.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, like the lady in that conversation, what can you do? First, you can come to grips with the fact that you can't help everyone. You can't feed all the hungry, house the homeless, shelter the battered wives, and heal all the kids with cancer and other serious diseases. But you can pick one small thing you can do in the next few days to help someone in some way. There are literally thousands of worthy causes you can devote a little time and effort to. One person may take some homemade brownies to the local homeless people, another may bring gifts to children in the hospital, another may write a book about how they survived a really tough time in their life, another may volunteer with the Red Cross after a natural disaster. Pick one small thing, do it well, and do it soon. Once you get in contact with people who need some form of help, you'll begin to recognize other things that need to be done. Do something simple, do it well, and then build on that foundation.
But what if you don't feel called to do volunteer work? What if you have a business idea? Hey, lots of people need jobs. The same applies to you. Do something simple, do it well, and build on that foundation. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned from the action sports world. I've watched entire industries develop out of nowhere, built by people who found one thing that needed to be done, and then followed that thread where it led them. So... what do you find needs to be done in the world?
Monday, August 31, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
What you love is not necesarily who you are
Ashley Stahl says she loves political science and went straight from college to a promising career at the Pentagon. Then she had a quarter-life crisis and realized that her passion didn't reflect who she was deep down. Now she's a successful career coach. This short talk by a young woman gave me a lot to think about. Maybe it will do the same for you.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Sketchiness in the financial markets
The past week has been a really chaotic time in the financial markets. Today is Thursday, August 27th, 2015, and the stock market as a whole has made huge gains today and yesterday. Unfortunately, that came after huge losses on last Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Is this the long overdue correction to a bull market that's been rising fairly steadily since the bottom of the Great Recession in 2009? Or is it signs of a new economic downturn? The crazy part is that the "experts" on the financial news channel CNBC don't seem to know. Some of the more technical indicators, like volatility, went to levels very rarely seen. Most financial analysts seem to be hoping this is a market correction that will soon work itself out. But the utter bewilderment of the majority of the professional investors and analysts definitely seems like cause for concern to me. If the highly schooled, highly paid "experts" aren't sure where to put their money right now, what chance does the everyday 401k investor have?
I don't know what's going to happen. The incredible growth in China's economy seems to be slowing down, at a time when most of the world is pretty slow already. At the same time, many experts don't trust the economic numbers China puts out, so no one is really sure if the recent crash in the Chinese stock market is a correction, or a much bigger issue. If China's economy continues to slow down in a major way, that will affect economies all over the world. Some see China as an economic bubble that is beginning to burst. Some see student loan debt in the U.S. as the next big bubble that will burst. Many are worried about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates up from zero in September. For over a decade now, interest rates have been historically low, which isn't good in the long run.
Whatever is happening to the global financial markets now is confusing the best minds in the financial world. It does remind me of the 2008 crisis, where "experts" were saying early on that it's nothing to worry about and that sub-prime loans wouldn't have a big effect on the economy. We know now that those people were wrong. We also know that they told everyday investors to stay in the market and not sell stocks as stock prices continued to drop to historical lows. We also know that a lot of people lost huge chunks of their retirement money during that crisis. So what is the average investor to do right now? No one seems to know. Watch this space, it will probably get more interesting in the near future.
I don't know what's going to happen. The incredible growth in China's economy seems to be slowing down, at a time when most of the world is pretty slow already. At the same time, many experts don't trust the economic numbers China puts out, so no one is really sure if the recent crash in the Chinese stock market is a correction, or a much bigger issue. If China's economy continues to slow down in a major way, that will affect economies all over the world. Some see China as an economic bubble that is beginning to burst. Some see student loan debt in the U.S. as the next big bubble that will burst. Many are worried about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates up from zero in September. For over a decade now, interest rates have been historically low, which isn't good in the long run.
Whatever is happening to the global financial markets now is confusing the best minds in the financial world. It does remind me of the 2008 crisis, where "experts" were saying early on that it's nothing to worry about and that sub-prime loans wouldn't have a big effect on the economy. We know now that those people were wrong. We also know that they told everyday investors to stay in the market and not sell stocks as stock prices continued to drop to historical lows. We also know that a lot of people lost huge chunks of their retirement money during that crisis. So what is the average investor to do right now? No one seems to know. Watch this space, it will probably get more interesting in the near future.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Entrepreneurs
Quote of the day:
"All good entrepreneurs are the first to admit that they are 'unemployable.'"
-Mitch Joel in the book Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch is also the president of Twist Image digital agency, and the publisher of the well known Twist Image Blog about marketing.
"All good entrepreneurs are the first to admit that they are 'unemployable.'"
-Mitch Joel in the book Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch is also the president of Twist Image digital agency, and the publisher of the well known Twist Image Blog about marketing.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Homeless guys start a T-shirt company
Have you ever flicked on the TV randomly and had a show come on that it just seemed you were meant to see. That happened to me this morning. In my last blog post I vented about my frustration with not being able to find a job, and other negativity I deal with on a daily basis. That rant wasn't the best blog post, but sometimes you just need to blow off steam, and that's what I did in that post. So today, I turned on the TV and it went automatically to channel 14, the Time Warner Cable news channel. It's a channel I rarely watch, except for when there's bad weather heading this way. They have weather updates every ten minutes, and for someone without a smart phone, like me, to check the weather, the TWC news channel works well. Other than that, I rarely turn that channel on. So today, as the picture came up, it was right at the start of a story about two formerly homeless guys in Raleigh that had an idea, and started a T-shirt company.
The idea started when they were both homeless, and were hanging out downtown, and a guy walked up with a shirt that had just one word on it, that word was "college." That reminded one of these guys of the Animal House movie, I guess John Belushi had the same shirt. So they struck up a conversation with the guy in the college shirt, and talked for 15 or 20 minutes. Afterward, they talked about how a single word on a shirt led to a lengthy conversation... for homeless men and a "normal" guy. They wondered what would happen if they actually made shirts with a single word on them. Would these shirts work to start spontaneous conversations as well? They threw the idea around for quite a while. Finally, they decided to go for it. Conversation Tees was born. Now these two formerly homeless guys are entrepreneurs building their small business. They have an apartment, they work regular jobs to pay the bills for now, and they build their business in the rest of their time.
The interview above was the only one I found of them on You Tube. The audio is a little sketchy, and it's a basic, single camera view. But they talk about the day to day struggles of being homeless, and how things just seemed to fall into place once they started working on their business idea. They went from people avoiding the very sight of them when they were homeless to people stepping up to help them get their business going. As someone who was homeless for quite a while and who is now trying to create my own job/small business, it just seemed like I was meant to hear about these guys today. The video above is about 15 minutes, and they tell their story. For more info, you can check out the Conversation Tees website here, and even order a shirt if you want to. In addition, they give a part of their proceeds to groups that help the homeless. It's a good deal all around, I'm glad I came across this story, maybe some of you will like it , too.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Dealing With Negativity
Last week I got to a point where I was seriously considering leaving where I live and going back to being homeless. For most people, that idea is unthinkable. I realize that. But the situation I'm living in is so negative that I had to actually spend a couple of days weighing my options on which situation would give me the best chance of getting back on my feet at some point. For three years I've been living in this situation, and not paying my way. That really pisses me off because since I left my family's house at age 20, I'd always been able to take care of myself. I never made a lot of money, but I was able to get by. Then I quit taxi driving for both health and financial reasons, and became homeless. There was no way to make a decent living once I got to that point.
One of the little known facts about homelessness is that most people don't want homeless people to get back to a "normal" life. There are hundreds of organizations that help homeless people. But most of those help homeless people... stay homeless. These programs help homeless people get through the day with food, hygiene products, or a bed in a really crowded room at a shelter. But few of these programs help homeless people get back to paying their own way in life. Even the programs that help homeless people find homes usually require the homeless person to get on Social Security disability and become dependent on the federal government for the rest of their lives. Their are people who legitimately need to be on disability, but there are also thousands of people taking advantage of that system. For the last three years, several people around me have been pushing me to get on disability, as if that's the only answer. This is something I've been fighting against.
So why don't I just get a job? The simple answer is that I haven't found anywhere that will hire me for a variety of reasons. First of all, there aren't that many jobs out there. Sure, the Great Recession has died down, but the job creation never fully came back. Secondly, my current job history is taxi driving for several companies with big gaps in employment. In today's online job hunting world, that seems to be what's holding me back. A third reason is that I spent much of my life working in the BMX, skateboarding, and TV production industries, and those industries don't exist here to any decent degree. So every time I fill out a bunch of applications, I simply don't hear back. This is where the thinking stops for most people. If you're not making money, "go get a job," they say. For most of my life that wasn't a problem. But now it is. But there is another option that most people here don't think about. It's possible to create a job.
Having spent most of my adult life around highly entrepreneurial people in Southern California, this seems like the best option to me. There are several ways to create your own job, but they ultimately come down to either doing freelance work or starting your own business. Or even a combination of the two. This is not easy, but it's what a huge number of people are doing in today's society. We're not an industrial society with lots of good paying factory jobs in every small town anymore. Those factory jobs have been replaced mostly by robots, and also by corporations taking those jobs overseas where people work much cheaper. In this weird transition period between the Industrial Age and the Information Age, most people just keep trying to get a job...ANY JOB. Meanwhile, there's a growing group of people who are creating their own jobs. This is the category I fit into best psychologically.
But creating your own job first starts with a new idea. I have to find a niche that isn't being filled, and think up a business (or freelance opportunity) to fill that niche. That's not hard, there are hundreds of niche products and services that need to be filled in this part of North Carolina. The problem with coming up with a new idea is just that, it's a NEW IDEA. That means almost everyone around will think it's a BAD IDEA. If it was really a good idea, someone would have done it now, right? Then comes the next part. Starting any new idea usually involves a lot of initial work that you don't get paid for. During that process, a person like me has to wake up every morning and immediately get past the notion that everyone else thinks I'm wasting my time. Another aspect of this is that there are two types of people around you at this point: people who support you, and people who don't support you. The people who don't support you not only don't believe in you, but they often go to extreme lengths to put you down, sabotage your idea, and otherwise work against you. So... in that case, a person like me has to wake up and get past all my own negative thoughts, then I have to deal with everyone else's negative thoughts all day long as I work to manifest my idea. That's tough. It's just plain tough.
So how does a person deal with negativity in a case like this? I have to do everything I can to not let all the negativity drag me down. I listen to music that gets me pumped. I listen to inspiring lectures and Ted Talks on You Tube. I visualize where I want this idea to go. I resort to deep breathing when someone is beating me down psychologically, and then try to move on. It's really fucking hard. I try not to cuss too much in my blogs, but that's the only way to say it. I've found one opportunity to do some work for a friend's company. It's not very much money, and it's not consistent. But it's something. I have to try to use that small amount of money to get another idea going. There's an idea I've been sitting on for about 25 years. It never seemed like a good enough idea to really focus on. But now it does. It's hard to deal with negativity day after day and then try to start this idea I'm not even totally sure about. But I guess that's what keeps life interesting. I just need to keep picking myself up and chipping away at this idea, and the other projects it could lead to. Onward!
One of the little known facts about homelessness is that most people don't want homeless people to get back to a "normal" life. There are hundreds of organizations that help homeless people. But most of those help homeless people... stay homeless. These programs help homeless people get through the day with food, hygiene products, or a bed in a really crowded room at a shelter. But few of these programs help homeless people get back to paying their own way in life. Even the programs that help homeless people find homes usually require the homeless person to get on Social Security disability and become dependent on the federal government for the rest of their lives. Their are people who legitimately need to be on disability, but there are also thousands of people taking advantage of that system. For the last three years, several people around me have been pushing me to get on disability, as if that's the only answer. This is something I've been fighting against.
So why don't I just get a job? The simple answer is that I haven't found anywhere that will hire me for a variety of reasons. First of all, there aren't that many jobs out there. Sure, the Great Recession has died down, but the job creation never fully came back. Secondly, my current job history is taxi driving for several companies with big gaps in employment. In today's online job hunting world, that seems to be what's holding me back. A third reason is that I spent much of my life working in the BMX, skateboarding, and TV production industries, and those industries don't exist here to any decent degree. So every time I fill out a bunch of applications, I simply don't hear back. This is where the thinking stops for most people. If you're not making money, "go get a job," they say. For most of my life that wasn't a problem. But now it is. But there is another option that most people here don't think about. It's possible to create a job.
Having spent most of my adult life around highly entrepreneurial people in Southern California, this seems like the best option to me. There are several ways to create your own job, but they ultimately come down to either doing freelance work or starting your own business. Or even a combination of the two. This is not easy, but it's what a huge number of people are doing in today's society. We're not an industrial society with lots of good paying factory jobs in every small town anymore. Those factory jobs have been replaced mostly by robots, and also by corporations taking those jobs overseas where people work much cheaper. In this weird transition period between the Industrial Age and the Information Age, most people just keep trying to get a job...ANY JOB. Meanwhile, there's a growing group of people who are creating their own jobs. This is the category I fit into best psychologically.
But creating your own job first starts with a new idea. I have to find a niche that isn't being filled, and think up a business (or freelance opportunity) to fill that niche. That's not hard, there are hundreds of niche products and services that need to be filled in this part of North Carolina. The problem with coming up with a new idea is just that, it's a NEW IDEA. That means almost everyone around will think it's a BAD IDEA. If it was really a good idea, someone would have done it now, right? Then comes the next part. Starting any new idea usually involves a lot of initial work that you don't get paid for. During that process, a person like me has to wake up every morning and immediately get past the notion that everyone else thinks I'm wasting my time. Another aspect of this is that there are two types of people around you at this point: people who support you, and people who don't support you. The people who don't support you not only don't believe in you, but they often go to extreme lengths to put you down, sabotage your idea, and otherwise work against you. So... in that case, a person like me has to wake up and get past all my own negative thoughts, then I have to deal with everyone else's negative thoughts all day long as I work to manifest my idea. That's tough. It's just plain tough.
So how does a person deal with negativity in a case like this? I have to do everything I can to not let all the negativity drag me down. I listen to music that gets me pumped. I listen to inspiring lectures and Ted Talks on You Tube. I visualize where I want this idea to go. I resort to deep breathing when someone is beating me down psychologically, and then try to move on. It's really fucking hard. I try not to cuss too much in my blogs, but that's the only way to say it. I've found one opportunity to do some work for a friend's company. It's not very much money, and it's not consistent. But it's something. I have to try to use that small amount of money to get another idea going. There's an idea I've been sitting on for about 25 years. It never seemed like a good enough idea to really focus on. But now it does. It's hard to deal with negativity day after day and then try to start this idea I'm not even totally sure about. But I guess that's what keeps life interesting. I just need to keep picking myself up and chipping away at this idea, and the other projects it could lead to. Onward!
Thursday, August 13, 2015
How To Find And Do Work You Love
Remember that feeling you had as a little kid on Christmas Eve? Well, if you're Jewish, you don't. But most of you know what I'm talking about. You were so excited about what was going to happen the next day, that you found it hard to go to sleep. You may have had that feeling the night before a vacation, when you knew the next day would be a trip to your favorite amusement park. Or maybe you had that feeling the night before a birthday. Whatever the case, you woke up that next morning totally excited about what was going to happen that day. Remember that feeling? We all had it at some point in our childhood. Now... do you feel that way when you get up to go to work in the morning? Most of you are mumbling under your breath, "Of course not!" Stop and think for a second, what would it take for you to get that excited about the next day as an adult? As crazy as it sounds to most people, there are people who actually wake up in the morning that excited about the work they do. What would have to happen tomorrow for you to get that excitement again. That basic idea is what Scott Dinsmore speaks about in this Tedx Talk.
This is one of my favorite Ted Talks, because it's about trying to figure out what work you really want to do in the world. So... what would it take for you to get excited about tomorrow? Scott created the Live Your Legend movement to help people find their passion in life. Follow the link for more info and his free online tool kit.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
How We View Other People
In my last post I brought up the subject of how people outside The South view The South. I think I need to dig deeper into how we, as individuals and groups, view other groups of people. To start out, let me say that I grew up moving from house to house on a regular basis. As a kid, this sucked, because I was really shy to start with. With my family's moving, I continually had to meet and find new friends. Looking back now, this sense of not being grounded in one area gave me a different view of people. On one hand, there were differences in culture as I moved from the Midwest to the Southwest to the Northwest and then to Northern and then Southern California. Cultures were different in different places. But people, were pretty much the same. People went to school as kids, grew up, got jobs, and worked to support their families. Despite the differences in language, food, religion, and recreational activities, I learned that people everywhere are largely similar.
At the same time, we see political leaders and others continually dividing people into different groups. As we grow up, we learn prejudices from our families and those around us concerning "other people." I once wrote a poem about a guy who went out looking for the line between "us" and "them. Everywhere he went, people told him about "them," but try as he might, he couldn't find the dividing line between "us" and "them." Everywhere he went, it was just "us." That's one of the many poems I lost when I came to North Carolina, so I can't share it now. But you get the point, people grow up in a population that is "us". All our lives, we are told things about other groups of people... "them." But rarely to people ever dive into why those prejudices exist. Most people just accept the prejudices they are taught without thinking much about them. This is really unfortunate, and the cause for a lot of trouble in our society.
This is where travel plays a key role in development as an individual. As a person travels around the country and around the world, they meet AND GET TO KNOW individuals from other cultures. When a person begins to understand other people on a personal level, they see past the differences and into the similarities they share with those people. The other people stop being "them," and become part of "us."
The best example I can think of right now is the prejudices of people in California and The South as they view each other. Most people here in The South are taught the Californians are a bunch of crazy fools, eating granola and full of ridiculous "liberal" ideas. Likewise, people in California see The South as a bunch of people who hold deep prejudices based on both race and religion. Both viewpoints are largely wrong.
Here in North Carolina, for example, if you mention race, people think in black and white terms, literally. They tend to forget about the Latinos here, the big Greek population in nearby Winston-Salem, the Indians (from India) the American Indians (or Native Americans as they're usually called now) and the other minorities that live here. Hundreds of years of slavery brought Africans by force which evolved into today's African-American population. The main issues of race here over the years are between the white European-American descendants, and the black African-American descendants. All other smaller groups here are largely forgotten.
Now when you mention race in Southern California, for example, it's a whole different story, because Californians are more aware of the large number of different groups that live there. It's not just black and white, but it's various types of Asians, Indians (from India), Arabs, Persians (there's a difference between those two), a wide variety of Latinos (from Mexico, Central America, and South America) and other minority groups like Russians, and Hindus, and Sikhs and a whole bunch more. Since Southern California is much more of a melting pot then The South, people are more aware of the wide variety of people besides the black community in their region. Here's another fact that will blow your mind, there are a ton of rednecks in California. Really. Once you get out of the major urban areas, to the hundreds of smaller towns, you find a lot of rednecks. Even in the large cities, there are always country bars around. It's just one of the many groups living there.
Another thing people in The South don't realize is that the vast majority of Californians are not very weird. California has certain places that attract weirdos from around the world, and that's a large part of why so many new ideas, both good and bad, tend to take form in California. Those weird people toying with wild ideas is a large part of the reason that California is such an economic powerhouse in the 21st century. We now live in an era where ideas are the most valuable commodity, and places that attract people with outlandish ideas are also some of the economic powerhouses of the current era. At the same time, the former economic powerhouses of this country, the urban factory cities of yesteryear, are in serious decline for the most part.
Now, what about the way Californians view the Southern States. First and foremost, The South is the Bible Belt. The majority of people here are deeply religious. A huge number of Californians go to church. But there's also a huge number of people who have been turned off to traditional religions in California. Many have been turned off by the either/or nature of fundamentalist religions. Many have been turned off by what they see as hypocrisy in religions, which I touched on in my last post. There have been child molestation cases tied to religious groups, and not just in the Catholic church. Many cases in various other Christian churches have made the news over they years. Mostly though, many intellectual people see the doctrines of mainstream religions as very close-minded to a wide variety of issues and groups of people. In the Republican debate the night before last, several of the presidential candidates spoke on the subject of abortion, and on the rights they believe an unborn fetus has. Yet, not one of those candidates has a serious plan on how to pull the millions of really poor children out of poverty. The political machines that those Republican candidates are part of are actually reducing help for the poverty stricken in this country. These guys fight for the rights of unborn children, but don't seem to care much about those children once they're born. It's contradictions like this that have turned large amounts of people, especially in places like California, away from traditional religions. So those Californians tend to see people in the South as old-fashioned and not really in touch with the changes happening in today's society.
Both groups, Californians and Southerners, tend to believe the media reports about the other group, without doing much research into the facts. The same is true about the myriad of other groups out there when they look at people in other groups. These prejudices keep us divided. Yet, when it comes down to it, most people want to work and earn a decent living. They want to take care of their kids, and hope those children will have a better future. Across all kinds of differences in race, religion, ethnic groups, nationality, sexual orientation and other factors, most people are looking for the same basic things in life. Yet, we tend to forget that fact because of the prejudices we grew up in. Hopefully this post will give those of you who read it a reason to pause and think about what you've been taught about other groups of people, and to realize that those people are much more similar to you than you think.
At the same time, we see political leaders and others continually dividing people into different groups. As we grow up, we learn prejudices from our families and those around us concerning "other people." I once wrote a poem about a guy who went out looking for the line between "us" and "them. Everywhere he went, people told him about "them," but try as he might, he couldn't find the dividing line between "us" and "them." Everywhere he went, it was just "us." That's one of the many poems I lost when I came to North Carolina, so I can't share it now. But you get the point, people grow up in a population that is "us". All our lives, we are told things about other groups of people... "them." But rarely to people ever dive into why those prejudices exist. Most people just accept the prejudices they are taught without thinking much about them. This is really unfortunate, and the cause for a lot of trouble in our society.
This is where travel plays a key role in development as an individual. As a person travels around the country and around the world, they meet AND GET TO KNOW individuals from other cultures. When a person begins to understand other people on a personal level, they see past the differences and into the similarities they share with those people. The other people stop being "them," and become part of "us."
The best example I can think of right now is the prejudices of people in California and The South as they view each other. Most people here in The South are taught the Californians are a bunch of crazy fools, eating granola and full of ridiculous "liberal" ideas. Likewise, people in California see The South as a bunch of people who hold deep prejudices based on both race and religion. Both viewpoints are largely wrong.
Here in North Carolina, for example, if you mention race, people think in black and white terms, literally. They tend to forget about the Latinos here, the big Greek population in nearby Winston-Salem, the Indians (from India) the American Indians (or Native Americans as they're usually called now) and the other minorities that live here. Hundreds of years of slavery brought Africans by force which evolved into today's African-American population. The main issues of race here over the years are between the white European-American descendants, and the black African-American descendants. All other smaller groups here are largely forgotten.
Now when you mention race in Southern California, for example, it's a whole different story, because Californians are more aware of the large number of different groups that live there. It's not just black and white, but it's various types of Asians, Indians (from India), Arabs, Persians (there's a difference between those two), a wide variety of Latinos (from Mexico, Central America, and South America) and other minority groups like Russians, and Hindus, and Sikhs and a whole bunch more. Since Southern California is much more of a melting pot then The South, people are more aware of the wide variety of people besides the black community in their region. Here's another fact that will blow your mind, there are a ton of rednecks in California. Really. Once you get out of the major urban areas, to the hundreds of smaller towns, you find a lot of rednecks. Even in the large cities, there are always country bars around. It's just one of the many groups living there.
Another thing people in The South don't realize is that the vast majority of Californians are not very weird. California has certain places that attract weirdos from around the world, and that's a large part of why so many new ideas, both good and bad, tend to take form in California. Those weird people toying with wild ideas is a large part of the reason that California is such an economic powerhouse in the 21st century. We now live in an era where ideas are the most valuable commodity, and places that attract people with outlandish ideas are also some of the economic powerhouses of the current era. At the same time, the former economic powerhouses of this country, the urban factory cities of yesteryear, are in serious decline for the most part.
Now, what about the way Californians view the Southern States. First and foremost, The South is the Bible Belt. The majority of people here are deeply religious. A huge number of Californians go to church. But there's also a huge number of people who have been turned off to traditional religions in California. Many have been turned off by the either/or nature of fundamentalist religions. Many have been turned off by what they see as hypocrisy in religions, which I touched on in my last post. There have been child molestation cases tied to religious groups, and not just in the Catholic church. Many cases in various other Christian churches have made the news over they years. Mostly though, many intellectual people see the doctrines of mainstream religions as very close-minded to a wide variety of issues and groups of people. In the Republican debate the night before last, several of the presidential candidates spoke on the subject of abortion, and on the rights they believe an unborn fetus has. Yet, not one of those candidates has a serious plan on how to pull the millions of really poor children out of poverty. The political machines that those Republican candidates are part of are actually reducing help for the poverty stricken in this country. These guys fight for the rights of unborn children, but don't seem to care much about those children once they're born. It's contradictions like this that have turned large amounts of people, especially in places like California, away from traditional religions. So those Californians tend to see people in the South as old-fashioned and not really in touch with the changes happening in today's society.
Both groups, Californians and Southerners, tend to believe the media reports about the other group, without doing much research into the facts. The same is true about the myriad of other groups out there when they look at people in other groups. These prejudices keep us divided. Yet, when it comes down to it, most people want to work and earn a decent living. They want to take care of their kids, and hope those children will have a better future. Across all kinds of differences in race, religion, ethnic groups, nationality, sexual orientation and other factors, most people are looking for the same basic things in life. Yet, we tend to forget that fact because of the prejudices we grew up in. Hopefully this post will give those of you who read it a reason to pause and think about what you've been taught about other groups of people, and to realize that those people are much more similar to you than you think.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Is Our Society Unjust
This topic stems from my Sunday school class last Sunday. I usually avoid religious topics, because when I was homeless I got totally turned off to organized religion by the people who preached at me time after time. On one occasion I was sleeping in a seat at a large bus stop when two bus drivers sat down nearby and started a loud conversation. It was about 4:30 in the morning, and I'd been sleeping out in the open, wrapped in my sleeping bag, for three or four hours. The bus drivers knew that. They intentionally talked loudly to wake me up. The first part I remember hearing was something like, "My life has become so much better since I took Jesus as my personal lord and savior." They continued talking loudly about how great their lives were because they were born again Christians. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. What really irked me was that these were two of the same bus drivers that would turn their bus's air conditioning on FULL BLAST, IN THE WINTER, while driving the late night routes where homeless people, like myself, would sleep on the bus. Instead of drawing me toward their religious views, they completely pushed me away. Because of many people like those two bus drivers, I didn't attend church for several years.
But now I'm a member of a Methodist church, and participate in a number of church activities, like adult Sunday school. That brings me to the topic we discussed last Sunday. It centered around the question, "Is our society just?" The overwhelming consensus from the born and bread North Carolinians was that our world is definitely not just. The writer of our lesson asked if we thought that most wealthy people became wealthy by taking advantage of other people. Most of the people in my class thought that was true, that wealthy people tend to be unscrupulous. They also had little faith in our politicians in general. One lady summed it up by saying that all the evil in society today was overwhelming, and she just didn't know what to do about it. People spoke about how things were when they were younger, people never worked on Sunday, stores were closed on Sunday, and people in general seemed much more religious. One woman said she didn't know what to do about all the bad influences coming from other parts of the country. This is an underlying belief I see a lot here in North Carolina, and the South in general. After all, this is the Bible Belt. People here often feel like they're being attacked by "liberal influences" of all kinds. The deep seated belief is that people here are devout Christians, and the secular culture of the big cities is decaying our society.
At that point, I had to speak up. I said something like, "As you all know, I've spent most of my adult life in California, and I grew up in the North, so I have a much different point of view that probably won't be very popular here." I went on to say that when you live in other parts of the country, outside the South, you tend to think of The South as the land where some of the worst tragedies in U.S. history happened. As we all know, the Southern economy was built on slavery. Not just were people enslaved, but they were literally ripped from villages on another continent, and shipped to the U.S. in chains. Here they were separated from their family members, and sold to the highest bidder. That highest bidder was most likely a devout Christian. The African slaves worked on land that was taken from American Indians, which was the biggest genocide in human history. That genocide, which continues today in some ways, was led by highly religious people. Then came the Civil War, the deadliest war ever to U.S. citizens. As we all know, The South seceded from the Union. Ultimately the North won, the nation became one again, and the slaves were freed, but most lived in poverty for generations. During those generations, black people were terrorized and sometimes lynched often by people who thought of themselves as devout Christians. It took nearly 100 years for those descendants of freed slaves to get the right to vote. The racism born of slavery is much less vivid than it was years ago, but it's still there, especially in the older people of the South, both black and white. The younger generations are much less racist today than their parents and grandparents were. I didn't go into all of that in class, but I got the point across that much of the country sees the South as a land of hypocrisy, where people are devoutly Christian, but hundreds of years of atrocities have happened here that didn't happen in other parts of the country. Or if they did happen, it wasn't to the same degree.
Now, after saying my piece, I expected to be verbally annihilated by members of the class. What happened surprised me, and took us right to the core of our lesson for the day. Several members of the class spoke about how they remember there being white only restaurants or restrooms during their childhood, and they accepted that because it was considered "normal" here at that time. Other class members spoke of having black people who worked around their houses doing odd jobs, but when it came time to eat lunch, the white family would go inside and eat at the dining room table, while the black workers ate at a picnic table outside. That, also was considered normal here when my class members were children. As it worked out, we had a really good discussion about the bad things that happen in society that we, as individuals, do not speak or act against. That was the whole point of Sunday's lesson.
One lady summed up most people's feelings at the end of class by saying that there was so much terrible stuff going on in the world, that she just didn't know where to start to try and change things. In addition, she felt helpless against the huge amount of tragedy and injustice in the world. At that point, class was over, so we left it there.
But that showed me just how different my viewpoint of the world is compared to most of the people around me here. Not only have I spent time living in several different parts of the country, but I got into BMX freestyle (bike trick riding) which led to me living and working with people who were world class athletes, minor celebrities, and entrepreneurs. In know several people who are wealthy, and most of them are really decent human beings, not the robber baron types the Sunday school lesson spoke of. They also know how to make stuff happen, which is also is something that's not as common here in this area. As an early participant in several of the action sports, I've seen people I know not only create entire new sports, but create entire new industries around those sports. I mean, to all of us that met Mat Hoffman (look him up on You Tube) in the 1980's, it's hard to say anything is impossible. We've seen Mat and many others do the impossible year after year, in athletic pursuits, in healing and overcoming injuries, and in business. When you're hanging around people like that, almost anything seems possible if you're willing to work at it hard enough.
So... what DO you do if you see a world that seems over run with tragedy, unfairness, and injustice. First of all, you try and figure out what bugs you the most. Poverty? Homelessness? Childhood cancer? Unhealthy living? Political issues? There are thousands of issues out there that need attention. If you want to make a difference in one of them, pick the one that is most important to you. I read a book once, I think it was one of Dan Millman's books, where the author said something like, "resign as general manager of the world, you can't do everything yourself." Then find something small that you can do to help the problem. You could make a few sandwiches and hand them out to homeless people. If you play guitar and sing, for example, you could put on a one person show for children and their families in the local hospital. You can give blood. You can volunteer at the Red Cross or thousands of other places that need volunteers. You could visit the shut-ins in your area. That's something that several of the people in my Sunday school class do. Find a little niche where you can help, and do what you can on a small level. Then, when you start to get a better grasp of what those people need, find like minded people who may be interested in helping you. The internet and social media these days make that process much easier. Then take the next obvious step. Do something a little bigger or a little more involved if it's needed. Or commit to doing something helpful on a regular basis if you can. Keep taking the next obvious steps, one by one. You never know where that journey might take you.
But now I'm a member of a Methodist church, and participate in a number of church activities, like adult Sunday school. That brings me to the topic we discussed last Sunday. It centered around the question, "Is our society just?" The overwhelming consensus from the born and bread North Carolinians was that our world is definitely not just. The writer of our lesson asked if we thought that most wealthy people became wealthy by taking advantage of other people. Most of the people in my class thought that was true, that wealthy people tend to be unscrupulous. They also had little faith in our politicians in general. One lady summed it up by saying that all the evil in society today was overwhelming, and she just didn't know what to do about it. People spoke about how things were when they were younger, people never worked on Sunday, stores were closed on Sunday, and people in general seemed much more religious. One woman said she didn't know what to do about all the bad influences coming from other parts of the country. This is an underlying belief I see a lot here in North Carolina, and the South in general. After all, this is the Bible Belt. People here often feel like they're being attacked by "liberal influences" of all kinds. The deep seated belief is that people here are devout Christians, and the secular culture of the big cities is decaying our society.
At that point, I had to speak up. I said something like, "As you all know, I've spent most of my adult life in California, and I grew up in the North, so I have a much different point of view that probably won't be very popular here." I went on to say that when you live in other parts of the country, outside the South, you tend to think of The South as the land where some of the worst tragedies in U.S. history happened. As we all know, the Southern economy was built on slavery. Not just were people enslaved, but they were literally ripped from villages on another continent, and shipped to the U.S. in chains. Here they were separated from their family members, and sold to the highest bidder. That highest bidder was most likely a devout Christian. The African slaves worked on land that was taken from American Indians, which was the biggest genocide in human history. That genocide, which continues today in some ways, was led by highly religious people. Then came the Civil War, the deadliest war ever to U.S. citizens. As we all know, The South seceded from the Union. Ultimately the North won, the nation became one again, and the slaves were freed, but most lived in poverty for generations. During those generations, black people were terrorized and sometimes lynched often by people who thought of themselves as devout Christians. It took nearly 100 years for those descendants of freed slaves to get the right to vote. The racism born of slavery is much less vivid than it was years ago, but it's still there, especially in the older people of the South, both black and white. The younger generations are much less racist today than their parents and grandparents were. I didn't go into all of that in class, but I got the point across that much of the country sees the South as a land of hypocrisy, where people are devoutly Christian, but hundreds of years of atrocities have happened here that didn't happen in other parts of the country. Or if they did happen, it wasn't to the same degree.
Now, after saying my piece, I expected to be verbally annihilated by members of the class. What happened surprised me, and took us right to the core of our lesson for the day. Several members of the class spoke about how they remember there being white only restaurants or restrooms during their childhood, and they accepted that because it was considered "normal" here at that time. Other class members spoke of having black people who worked around their houses doing odd jobs, but when it came time to eat lunch, the white family would go inside and eat at the dining room table, while the black workers ate at a picnic table outside. That, also was considered normal here when my class members were children. As it worked out, we had a really good discussion about the bad things that happen in society that we, as individuals, do not speak or act against. That was the whole point of Sunday's lesson.
One lady summed up most people's feelings at the end of class by saying that there was so much terrible stuff going on in the world, that she just didn't know where to start to try and change things. In addition, she felt helpless against the huge amount of tragedy and injustice in the world. At that point, class was over, so we left it there.
But that showed me just how different my viewpoint of the world is compared to most of the people around me here. Not only have I spent time living in several different parts of the country, but I got into BMX freestyle (bike trick riding) which led to me living and working with people who were world class athletes, minor celebrities, and entrepreneurs. In know several people who are wealthy, and most of them are really decent human beings, not the robber baron types the Sunday school lesson spoke of. They also know how to make stuff happen, which is also is something that's not as common here in this area. As an early participant in several of the action sports, I've seen people I know not only create entire new sports, but create entire new industries around those sports. I mean, to all of us that met Mat Hoffman (look him up on You Tube) in the 1980's, it's hard to say anything is impossible. We've seen Mat and many others do the impossible year after year, in athletic pursuits, in healing and overcoming injuries, and in business. When you're hanging around people like that, almost anything seems possible if you're willing to work at it hard enough.
So... what DO you do if you see a world that seems over run with tragedy, unfairness, and injustice. First of all, you try and figure out what bugs you the most. Poverty? Homelessness? Childhood cancer? Unhealthy living? Political issues? There are thousands of issues out there that need attention. If you want to make a difference in one of them, pick the one that is most important to you. I read a book once, I think it was one of Dan Millman's books, where the author said something like, "resign as general manager of the world, you can't do everything yourself." Then find something small that you can do to help the problem. You could make a few sandwiches and hand them out to homeless people. If you play guitar and sing, for example, you could put on a one person show for children and their families in the local hospital. You can give blood. You can volunteer at the Red Cross or thousands of other places that need volunteers. You could visit the shut-ins in your area. That's something that several of the people in my Sunday school class do. Find a little niche where you can help, and do what you can on a small level. Then, when you start to get a better grasp of what those people need, find like minded people who may be interested in helping you. The internet and social media these days make that process much easier. Then take the next obvious step. Do something a little bigger or a little more involved if it's needed. Or commit to doing something helpful on a regular basis if you can. Keep taking the next obvious steps, one by one. You never know where that journey might take you.
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