What You Tolerate You Accept

I once shook the hand of a man who I considered in some ways to be a rival but never had much respect for because I saw him as not having earned his position.

He got it through dumb luck or so I believed and so when I shook his hand I squeezed tightly enough for it to be uncomfortable and gave a hard smile.

There wasn’t enough strength to match me and he looked away first which made me snort because some of it was juvenile and some was primal instinct.

When you are a slight six foot something man with a neck that is smaller than my bicep there better be something inside your melon but I didn’t sense it there.

And so I walked away shaking my head for a variety of reasons, some of which was my asking myself if he was worth the effort.

I decided he wasn’t and went about my business.

That particular memory came up the other day because of something someone said and I remembered something else.

How irritated some behaviors made me and made a mental note to remind myself that what you tolerate you accept.

Or at least you accept it until you take steps to change it.

Listen While You Can Still Hear

I told the guy at the front desk at the gym it is ridiculous to play the music at a level that requires blasting my own music into my Airpods.

Didn’t care if I sounded like the cranky old man.

“You want to listen while you can still hear and at this volume your ears are going to be shot.”

He turned it down slightly but I don’t think he heard what I was saying and that is ok, I am not his father. But I do pay a monthly membership fee so perhaps my word is worth something.

I have used the expression listen while you can still hear for other purposes and hoped that whomever it was focused at did so.

Always did my best to accept that my requests, hopes, dreams and wishes wouldn’t be important to everyone or even many people.

But I hoped that someone would care and that I could make things happen with the understanding that I had to be the architect, advocate and driver of those dreams.

Some have worked out, some haven’t and some may yet come to be.

Told the younger Mr. Wilner at dinner it is ok to evaluate, pivot and adjust. You don’t have to hold on forever and if it involves other people you don’t have to agree to wait unless it makes sense.

Sometimes you need to let go and if they care they’ll find you and if they don’t you’ll keep moving forward and that progress will serve you either way.

One Hell Of A Weekend

It was one hell of a weekend and I don’t think I could adequately describe it if I wanted to. What I know is that some changes I thought were unlikely are coming not because I received tangible notice but because of a feeling.

That is not scientific or logical or anything you want to hang your hat on because you think it is rational.

But it is based upon a feeling that I have only had a few times and every time it has come so has other things.

That is enough for me.

I have seen and experienced some things that don’t make sense in the traditional way but are absolutely real.

Maybe it is what happens when you have danced in the fire long enough to recognize you don’t always get burned or maybe it is something else.

Sometimes I know nothing and sometimes I know things.

This is one of those moments.