Can You Hear Me & Will You Listen?

Howard Stern’s interview with Bruce Springsteen is among the best interviews I have ever heard. It is so darn good I have listened to parts and pieces of it multiple times.

There are layers upon layers and pure gold for someone like myself who is a fan, interested in writing and storytelling.

Someone asked me if I could pick out my favorite bits and I am not sure that I can limit it, but if you asked me this evening I would tell you to listen to the clip of him singing Tougher Than The Rest, his time singing goodbye to Clarence Clemons and maybe Thunder Road.

Life, death, love, hope– they are all covered in these bits and each touch me for different reasons.

I can see myself in a variety of time and places engaged in conversations about life both the mundane and the most important things all because these are playing.

Not hard to see me walking through Jerusalem, visiting special places in LA and sitting in my old apartment in Fort Worth. That apartment had its own sort of magic and it is where I confirmed that certain ideas and dreams needed more exploration.

It all ties into when I realized the true importance of saying can you hear me and will you listen?

Find A Way

In some ways it was a particularly rough weekend as my brain worked overtime to try and solve some particular challenges.

They were things I couldn’t attend to or deal with prior to Monday morning so I tried hard to set it aside but they were stuck in my craw.

Sometimes I am particularly good at compartmentalizing and sometimes less good. Since these were irksome I considered going to bed early so that I could get to Monday faster.

And yes, I know that I couldn’t make time go faster but sometimes the best way to zone out and shut down is to close my eyes.

Anyhoo, I woke up with no interest in dealing with them and with a burning desire to run straight towards them so that I could begin. Better to just get it over with.

Inside my head I kept reminding myself that I would find a way because I always do. It is a particularly useful and irritating mantra.

I have a perfect record of surviving horrible days as well as those that are simply bad or mildly irritating. That perfect record and the experience of saying I will find a way doesn’t make dealing with some of it more palatable.

But it doesn’t negate the value of trying to get some of the crap out of the way early on.

I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think I did it. I think I found a way.

Maybe.

That is the reality.

Maybe is the answer.

The solution I tried implementing has to be worked upon and tested. It has to be applied and I have to find out if the people involved will give me the opportunity.

They said they would.

Can you hear and will you listen?

Works in both personal and professional settings be it in January, June or whenever especially when you are not just some Johnny come lately.

Which reminds me that one of them asked me to come along quietly and I said no.

Don’t know why they didn’t believe me when I said I am not interested in conflict or confrontation but not afraid of it either.

Some of them actually got me to raise my voice which was my sign that I needed to grab lunch at the gym.

Kind Of Exciting, Kind Of Interesting

It is kind of exciting and kind of interesting to watch, wait and see what happens now. Very curious to see if the energy I expended on it all pays off or if I decide I wasted time on it.

Took me half the day to realize that part of why I felt fired up was my daughter went back to college for her second semester.

I was excited for her but I realized I got used to having her around again. It is nice, but she has to fly on her own and she can’t do that if she doesn’t chase down the life she wants to lead.

I am glad she wants to.

The kids have heard from me for years that you can’t sit and wait for things to happen, you have to go after what you want.

Hope they see me as someone who has done that too because I have tried to model it.

And that is what I am doing now, working on what comes next. It is why that headline is of particular importance.

Can You Hear Me & Will You Listen?