The Best Bloggers Are Storytellers- 2014 Edition

President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir riding horses along a road in Yosemite Valley, with Half Dome in the distance, accompanied by Park Rangers Archie Leonard and Charles Leidig, followed by unidentified man on foot; left to right, Leonard, Muir, Roosevelt, Leidig.

President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir riding horses along a road in Yosemite Valley, with Half Dome in the distance, accompanied by Park Rangers Archie Leonard and Charles Leidig, followed by unidentified man on foot; left to right, Leonard, Muir, Roosevelt, Leidig. Courtesy of NPS.

Some of you may be familiar with The Best Bloggers Are Storytellers, The Best Bloggers Are Storytellers Part 2 and The Best Bloggers Are Storytellers- 2013 Edition.

You don’t need to read or have read any of those posts to appreciate this one but if you are unfamiliar with them I wouldn’t complain if you checked them out or if you decided to become a fan of my Facebook page, thus ends the overt self promotion part of this post.

Blogs Are The Whole, Posts Are The Part

My children often hear me tell them not to sweat the small stuff. I am always sincere when I say it and I should take my own advice because telling people they shouldn’t say they wrote a new blog when they wrote a new post is the small stuff but sometimes a father focuses on do as I say and not as I do.

If it were possible I would take Teddy Roosevelt out to dinner or grab a beer and have a long conversation with him. I’d start by thanking him for saying “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are” because of late it has been one of my mantras.

That is in large part because I am in between positions now and I am starting to feel a little pressure. Been interviewing like crazy but no one has pulled the trigger yet.

Several have thanked me for my time and sent me on  way. In some cases I have been grateful because after meeting with them it was clear they would have been a poor fit but not all.

Some of them have left me wondering if I did a poor job of telling my story. Wondering if perhaps I failed to make clear to them how well I met the requirements and needs of the position as listed or if alternatively they just didn’t read my resume.

Could be one or the other or could be something entirely different.

But it seems to me that Teddy would have understood my desire, my frustration and appreciated my willingness to take on new challenges.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” Teddy Roosevelt

iTunes is playing and I am looking at the list of the last five songs I listened to and smiling.

  1. Domino- Genesis
  2. Highwayman- The Highwaymen
  3. Out Among the Stars- Johnny Cash
  4. All I Ask Of You- Phantom Of The Opera
  5. Someone Saved My Life Tonight- Elton John

It is not easy to relax now. Part of me wonders how I have managed not to lose my mind with the roller-coaster I have been riding on and then I remember that I smile because there is no reason to let the hard moments have their way.

Perspective is a wonderful thing and when I remember to take a deep breath I am reminded that I have multiple irons in the fire and that the list of major accomplishments I made for 2013 is filled with check marks.

That is a history of success. That is a history of accomplishment. Add to the list that I have survived every bad day I have ever had and you see a man you can rely upon, a winner and someone who knows how to dance in the rain and swim with the rip tides of life.

I wonder if Teddy Roosevelt would be a blogger if he were to be alive now. I tend to think he would or so it seems to me.

Would he appreciate my telling him that when I was little I wondered if the people in Black and White photos had black and white memories.

I would be happy to ride a horse through Yosemite with Teddy. I wonder how many similarities between the Yosemite of his day and ours exist. Certain things are obvious. Some of the biggest and most famous landmarks would undoubtedly make him feel at home but there are other things that have changed.

Change doesn’t mean bad nor should it have a negative connotation but my guess is some people like to look back at Teddy’s time and think of it as being a better and purer time for nature.

I suppose in some ways that might be true but some of the medical advances since then would blow his mind.

Go Speed Racer Go!
Yeah, I put another shot of the Mach 5 in this post, it is the second time this week it has been featured. Want to bet that Teddy and the Rough Riders might have loved to have been riding in this instead of on horseback.

Man oh man if I had the Mach 5 my kids might have to ask why is daddy crying.

Tears of joy, kids, tears of joy.

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