Will Blogging Help You Game The System?

chain of destiny
The funny thing about The New Normal is how much energy it is taking out of me.

It is a mix of curious, disconcerting and somewhat surreal to be in a position where I wonder why I feel jetlagged all day long.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, don’t know if the 156 ounces of coffee each day is helping or hurting or if there is something else.

It has been years since I could rely on pure athleticism to get by on the basketball court so even though I have been more dominant there I attribute it to being a crafty veteran who is playing with men who are young and dumb.

Sometimes I look at those guys and laugh because they are letting me game the system and not taking advantage of the mismatch.

Much as it hurts to admit, I just can’t play the way I used to. My body can’t take the pounding like it used to and my knees hurt for a day or two after each game.

But the young  and dumb are easily played and instead of making me run they let me con them into playing a half court game of power ball.

I don’t take credit for devising this trick because when I was young and dumb some of the older guys pulled it on me. All I have done is proven I learned from the old guys that came before me how to game the system.

Will Blogging Help You Game The System?

Give me a chance to bend your ear about blogging and why I love doing it and I’ll share a host of reasons.

I’ll start by telling you I love being able to chronicle the lives of my children and ask you to read Do You Miss Old Fashioned Blogging?

Somewhere along the way I’ll talk about my desire to become a better storyteller and how blogging has been instrumental in it and then I’ll probably hit gaming the system.

Except it is a different sort gaming the system than I referred to above and probably different than what you are thinking of.

This one isn’t about shortcuts. It is not about finding the angles and using them to bend the rules to fit my needs.

No, this is about writing down my thoughts and ideas so I can figure out what I think or believe.

I don’t know if that sounds silly or strange to you but for me it is important because I like understanding why I think or believe certain things.

When my children ask me questions I want to be able to give them an answer I can stand by because it is based upon more than saying I am XYZ because that is what grandma and grandpa taught me to be.

It doesn’t mean there aren’t moments where the best or only answer I have is because. Those moments and those things exist, arbitrary decisions about what we like or dislike are part of being human.

I don’t like shrimp, never have and most of it is because they look disgusting to me. I know many people love them, but I just can’t get beyond the look and the way it impacts how they taste to me.

That is not logical or rational, it is just arbitrary but I am ok with that. Maybe one day I’ll change and maybe I’ll won’t.

Doesn’t matter all that much to me because I have yet to find an experience in which I suffered a dramatic loss because I don’t want to eat the cockroach of the sea.

So blogging helps me game the system to try to figure out my thoughts and ideas and to help me begin to build road maps to get to the next place in life.

“Churchill: “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?”
Socialite: “My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course… ”
Churchill: “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?”
Socialite: “Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!”
Churchill: “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price”
― Winston S. Churchill

You know that game we sometimes play at parties or with friends in which we are supposed to name historical figures we would like to meet?

Well you can put Winston Churchill in my top ten, maybe even my top five.

I would imagine that he has some exceptional stories to tell and I would be content to sit and listen to them. It would be interesting to ask for his advice and counsel on some things as well as to question why he did what he did in others.

During one of those who do you wish you could meet moments someone told me they thought I would be intimidated by men like Churchill or Einstein and I laughed.

They probably saw it as bravado but it wasn’t that. There are people who impress me but intimidate isn’t something that happens unless I am head over heels in love and even then it is not like I am struck deaf, dumb or blind.

It is because a thousand years ago my dad told me if I ever felt intimidated by a person to remember they are all human and the person standing next to me suffers from bad gas, colds and every other human thing we all share.

The next time you feel intimidated by someone try pretending they have the kind of gas that would make Satan choke. It is remarkably effective.

What Will Life Be Like In Five Years?

When I was around 36 or 37 I asked my dad for some advice  and he told me it was hard to predict things that were more than a couple of years out.

It surprised me because my dad is a typical Virgo, the man labels everything and works out plans for everything.

Anyway, I have never forgotten the conversation and ever since have tried to break things into five-year increments.

I expect that five years from now the new normal won’t be a term I use while rolling my eyes.

I’ll have one kid in college and another in the middle of high school. I’ll be that much closer to becoming an empty nester.

Go back five years and I couldn’t imagine a house without children. Kind of hard to do it now, but it is almost close enough to imagine.

Time moves far too quickly.

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4 Comments

  1. Larry March 31, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    You write about b-ball often. How regularly do you play?
    Btw, I often thought it would be cool to meet Mark Twain.

    • Jack March 31, 2015 at 11:14 pm

      I used to play four and sometimes five days a week. I did it for years but life caught up with me and prevented me from playing as often as I wanted to so I had to cut back to three days a week.

      Sadly I am down to two days a week. although there are still weeks where I find a way to get that third game in.

      But I don’t know how much longer I can keep going, there are days where my body feels great and nights where the general mutiny makes me wonder if it is worth the battle.

      Yet I still love the game so who knows…

  2. Nancy Davis March 31, 2015 at 4:54 am

    Where has the time gone indeed. Five years ago, I did not have the problems I have today. I also had not won all the fights I thought I would lose. That is the thing about life, as I get older I realize that there are so many small victories to be happy about.

    My new normal is a huge departure from who I am, yet I now have systems in place to deal with it. Five years from now, I will have my son back in my life and I will be settled into a permanent residence, hopefully a house.

    Time moves so fast.

    • Jack March 31, 2015 at 11:16 pm

      Hey Nancy,

      Your comment made me smile. You have been through the wringer but I love that fighting spirit and the confidence. I think you are right.

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