The Last in Line (No More)

I am a heavy metal child of the 80's.  Screaming guitars, crunching base and crashing symbols with all sorts of drum fills is what I musically thrive on.  There are many great talents that ran in the genre, several that still do, but few that equal the pipes of Ronnie James Dio.  No one in my life time could match the haunting low and soaring falsetto that little man provided for many years.  (Joey Belladonna and Geoff Tate) He was made for the arena concert and his personality was all "front-man".  Equal parts intellect and childish fun loving on stage he was enigmatic to the audience because of the way he feigned a doer of evil while at the same time loving life and people, like only a grateful person can.

One of my favorite Dio songs growing up, and later almost a mantra to which I secretly thought of myself, was "Last in Line" - about being lost with no hope of finding a way home again, all while having a good time in the things chose to make one feel better and live for excitement..  About terminal hopelessness because on Judgement day, 'we' would be the last in line and never get into The Kingdom.  That was about me, that was how I was seeing myself in the dark, I was the last in line.  I was sailing a wooden ship close to the shoals because I thought I had to, and I had no hope of making out, but the sight of gold ahead kept me from looking for help outside of myself.  And if I crashed on those rocks and perished, I wasn't getting in.  But it was okay, it was fun....

Two eyes from the east,
It's the angel or the beast;
And the answer lies between the good and bad.
We search for the truth,
We could die upon the tooth;
But the thrill of just the chase is worth the pain.

We'll know for the first time, 
If we're evil or divine;
We're the last in line...

But let's be honest; now I DO KNOW without a doubt that I can be forgiven.  I WAS forgiven long before I ever committed my sin.  And, there is no amount of "good times" that outweighs the question of eternal life or death.  I was a happy guy, on the outside, but on the inside I was mess.  I never felt forgiven no matter who I asked if of.  I never felt worthy no matter what I accomplished or conqured or owned ot achieved.  None of those "good times" in the "chase" was worth the cost.

Thankfully the right people began to appear in my vision in recent years.  I am most certain that God put the right people around me at all times but I refused to see them until sometime in 2012.  As I continued on the path I was on, a trajectory more or less pointed at the gates of hell (laugh with me) I became increasingly aware of other people's feelings in my life.  I began to weigh the cost of what I was doing to others and potentially to others and I didn't like what I saw.  The numbers were all wrong.  It was all about me and everyone else was losing.  I am inherently a good man so that began to itch and finally to burn within me.  I realized that God, sanctification through Christ, was my only hope.

I refused that too, for several years, I couldn't dare go back on my word could I?  I was known for having a staunch opposition to organized religion and traditional churches in particular.  I was a pharisee and was enjoying the debate when I could find it.  Worldly pride kept me from asking God to help me until I reached the brink of disaster, when I had little choice in whether I would keep the things I treasured or lose them for no promise of anything even close, let alone better, just because I couldn't swallow my pride.  The whole episode that lead me to where I am today is another post, and I will get to it, I promise, just not today.

So now, through the forgiveness afforded me by the gift of Jesus Christ, I no longer feel like one of the "Last in Line."  I'm up at the front now, waving my hands like crazy at those behind me to c'mon, because no part of "the chase" and the thrill wrapped within it is worth the cost.  I can't begin to explain how much better my life is today then it was in late February 2016, you just have to trust me.  I'm no longer searching for the truth, I know the truth, and I am no longer worried about the tooth of the beast.  I am a Child of God and no longer a slave to the lies.

I am NOT the same person I was on February 20th 2016, I have been in evolution since then. I am a new man with a new soul, a cleansed heart and clean slate.  Rebuilding my person by the day to live in a way that exemplifies Christ and his sacrifice for this world.  My redemption was paid a long time ago so it's not about that, this is about denying the things that I would use to quantify "life" as I wanted it to be and picking up my cross day by day to share my story and His love.

Tragi-Com(edy)

I can't go back and change things,
Can't go back and change me;
What's done is done,
that water moves on
And that's as far as the mind can see.

Its a simple poem, a rhyme that carries reason for me.  I have lived a few lives in this life time.  Been poor of things, poor of friends and poorer still of love. I have raced against the edge of acceptable hard enough to lose control, ending relationships in a beautiful disaster.  Hurt myself and lord knows countless others, but putting on a show for the casual spectator.  As if I try to make bad happen, as if I need the negative?

But I've been rich with love beyond measure, befriended by the best of character and had the comfort of not having to worry with the contents of my bank.   I have been fortunate to sail this planet as a pirate, knight, nobleman, lover and coffee shop scholar.  I've soaked in knowledge of many things, spilled my own experiences upon unsuspecting audiences and made more people laugh than cry.  I've taken what wasn't mine, tried hard to not keep what I didn't need and worked on leaving everything I touch better than the way I found it.

If you were to ask me; "what would you change?" I would not have a ready made answer. My life, at times, has been a tragic reminder of my weaknesses but its been fun.  I smile because no matter what I'm going through or how I 'feel' at the time there is always another who's in worse shape.  I have the gifts of sight, sound and scent so I can enjoy the treasures of earth.  The scent of jasmine, the smile of a child and the combined efforts of a woman who catches my attention. I'm healthy and fit and active and adventurous enough, with a quick smile and handsome eyes with funny friends, smart support people and hero's at my back; all that may make my life slightly better than the 'average Joe' and I can assure you is always a good thing.

My life, I like to believe, has been a bit of an adventure mixed with great sadness and equal parts humor like a sadistic play being written to make one cry and laugh at the exact same moment.  So are there things I would change?  Probably, but what would they be; what event would I circumvent to reduce the sadness or heartbreak and then what events would never take place?

Its all a moot point anyway;

I can't go back and change things,
Can't go back and change me;
What's done is done,
that water moves on
And that's as far as the mind can see.

about that 'love lost'....

Been asked to write a blog or a story on what have I learned from failed relationships?  On Love Lost or Broken Heart Boulevard……

Funny that topic should creep into the peripheral these days for it is the Boulevard I walk; it is the hearts of others I break.

Love lost? 

What love have I lost? 

Have I lost or left behind? 

I suppose I could blame others;

Make myself to be more innocent than I am.

But that is not the truth;

Not how I remember it anyway.

Trampled hearts I have left behind;

A large swath from the landscape burned and churned behind me.

This trial I blaze is alight with the fire;

And those closest to me are consumed.  Always

I have known great love;

The feeling of a constant song from within.

But I know not how to dance;

And I only plot my demise as the music plays.

Love lost is perhaps an art;

And I, the master of the black canvass.

My strokes are fast and deep;

Cutting through the love with like a sharpened blade.

.

No, I don’t know love lost;

Just love tossed aside in my own failed reasoning.

Large steps away from that which calms;

No need for a quiet place.

What have I learned from failed relationships?  I've learned that I am the one to blame on most parts.  I had the power to stop the relationships from failing and chose to ignore that power.  But alas, where one relationship fails to withstand the pressure I create beneath it, others will rise to the challenge.  There is always a new song, a smile on the other side of heartache….if only for a little while.  If only for a little while……

What happened here?

I find it hard to say that I am not of the mind to inundate people with my political beliefs while I sit in bed and type this sentence.  But truth told, after I look at it I realize that I am not so much spewing (thanks Carrie) my beliefs so much as taking the political pulse of my peers.  In my own ground rules I asked for your opinions and asked that you respect the others you read in these passages.  With a rule like that I might as well test its elasticity and see what happens so here goes.

This afternoon I was watching the Bloomberg report when the story broke that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had finally resigned his position after 18 days of protests.  While watching history occur before my eyes via a 52” TV I was struck by the fact that Bloomberg seemed indifferent.  Sure they were excited in the moment but the political speculation and opinions that other channels were vomiting up all over the airwave just wasn’t happening.  It was almost peaceful.  I was learning that as the rest of the world stopped to watch, the Egyptian oil industry kept on churning.

After a brief pause the US financial world went up all across the board on all three exchanges and that is never a bad thing.  I listened intently to an Egyptian born professor of economics at some really big US college talk about how Mubarak’s exit stage left would not only help to stabilize the volatile mid-east market but could have long lasting positive ramifications.  Of course he talked of change and hope and pride and even dabbled in what he thinks could happen but only a little.  That was a refreshing change in and of its self.

After a while I switched over to the other channels and half heartedly listened to ‘experts’ on middle eastern affairs set up the different models for what we should expect in the next 12 months.  I skimmed through FOX News, MSNBC, Headline and CNN (Communist News Network was one title I heard today) and quite frankly, none of the above impressed me.  Depending on which channel you listened to one of two things was going to happen; we were either going to have to prepare for al Qaeda to take over our own soil while based out of Cairo or we can all go on smelling the daisy’s while some great democratic government materializes out of the desert floor but still nothing would affect us here in the great ‘ol United States of America. 

But what prompted this post, what set my mind on fire, what really sent me into a frenzy of thinking (and yes it hurt to think) was an interaction with a friend of mine about it all.  Now this guy truly is a best friend, the kind of guy that if given the right set of circumstances would do anything for me.  We served in the Marines together, fought our way out of more than one bar together and shared our hopes and dreams.  He is a cop’s cop in a big city somewhere west of here and he’s a hell-u-va guy, no two ways about it.  We are probably more like brothers than I am with my own blood brother at times because the way we think, the way we react to life and the way we navigate through this world are so much the same.

But today my buddy responded to a post on Facebook that took me by surprise.  It was totally of the FOX News Channel ilk where as the new ‘power vacuum’ created by the president’s departure was definitely the start of something negative for the free world.  How could anyone make such a statement at such an awesome time?  How, in the very bosom of freedom, could anyone not in the CIA begin to set up such negative thoughts about the day’s events?  Really, the birth place of al Qaeda because at one time it was a Muslim ran country?  Egypt??  One of America’s most strategic partners in the Middle East and we would let it get that far as to go backwards?

I won’t go into the details about the interaction that followed because that is not important but my mind was already ablaze with emotion about it.  Not long after my buddy’s post I received two different private messages blasting him and one was supporting me for “putting that pig in his place.”  Do what?  That is my best friend we are talking about, I would take a life for him and you call him a pig and I put him in his place simply be sharing my opinion with him?  What the heck is wrong with people?

We can sit and listen to our preferred flavor of news and that is what we take as bible?  Concrete evidence of the world as it is because you heard it on the idiot box?  What happened to the good in people, to the innate ability to look for the good in all things before you discover otherwise.  To hope for the best but to plan for the worst if it comes?  Now we jump to conclusions, expect the worst outcome in everything and secretly pray it turns that way so that everyone else involved can suffer with us in our own destructive attitudes.   No one and I mean no one on the news reports today acted as if a positive outcome was going to come true.  And because of those opinions that is how a couple of my friends think too? 

I’m asking, are we that far gone now as a society?  Is everyone that negative and I am in the minority or is the world, America specifically, full of generally positive people who don’t care what the news ‘experts’ think?  Is it just me or do we all wish politicians would just shut up and act right, work for a common good and expect the same of the news channels?  Do we still hold doors for others, do we still allow the guy to the right to go first and tell the lady at the checkout counter to have a good day after getting change?  If “we” are the majority why are there not more people ringing the bell for the common good to be a common value? 

Tell you what; post your opinions here and send the link to your friends.  This is my unofficial poll for these questions.  Do you care what the news says and think that they have the master plan or are you hoping for the best in the Egyptian situation?  Do you hold out hoping that the common good is the common value in society or do you think we are too far gone as a nation to care and just secretly hope that others suffer and our personal space is unaffected?  Tell your friends, I want to hear about it.  And remember, opinions are just that so respect others as they will respect yours! 

This could be fun!

db

Smart Business

I have been reading a little on the net about Delta and the 'crisis' that they are in with labor issues, financial troubles and their indifference to customer complaints starting to haunt them  In 2010 they had multiple troubles, on the same day, more than once.  I'm not an expert, never been to school for business and I don't know the first thing about running an airline but I can assure you that is no way to run a company of any kind.

I'm reminded of a story I heard a few months ago but it has stuck with me.  On September 8th, 2010 a series of thunderstorms was forecast to hit the Dallas metropolitan area bringing everything you would expect; heavy rains, strong winds and the possibility of hail and even tornado's.  In anticipation of the sever weather many employees of major airlines servicing DFW either called in sick or began to take early time off as the day would be cut short by cancelled flights anyway.  As a result several flights were delayed long before the inclimate weather even reached Ft. Worth.  By mid afternoon DFW was a mass of late departing flights and a quagmire on the runways as incoming flights had no where to go.  As rain started to fall in short but heavy spurts the major airlines acted accordingly and began cancelling flights altogether.  But that was their own problem, caused by their people and not the weather.  Mother nature just provided an excuse.  By early evening it only got worse as the airport began to crawl to a pedestrian speed.

During the same time about 18 miles away at Love Field, or DAL, Southwest Airlines were running as scheduled.  Staff and ground employees along with everyone in between worked as diligent as ever to ensure that arriving flights were brought in on time, the planes were 'turned around' and departing flights would not only take off in a timely manner but would arrive at destinations on time, every time.  At sometime after 7 in the evening the local Doppler radar detected a possible tornado approaching DAL.  As expected the airport began shuffling passengers and crew members towards shelter.  Stories abound that rather than seeking shelter some of the grounds crews outside the terminal worked twice as hard to load some planes faster, button them up and then seek shelter until after the rouge cell passed.  Really?  They worked HARDER to help complete the mission?  Why would they do that?

It  turns out that the tornado passed just south of the airport but did cause some damage to the surrounding area.  Crews were immediately dispatched to check for debris on the the tarmac, in the rain and the wind mind you.  Flights got a little backed up as delays of 35 minutes were created by the weather system.  But, as you would want every airline to do, Southwest personnel buckled down and went to work harder than normal in order to get back on time.  Crazy right?

Why would the super airlines have to cancel hundreds flights, at an airport that sees thunderstorms several times a year, and yet another smaller airline at an inferior facility could continue on with minor delays?  Better equipment perhaps, better people or maybe better emergency preparedness?  No, nope and nada.  Then what was it that made their day different, why break the accepted 'normalcy' of how the others acted?  Simple really, it was the people that were willing to make it happen.  But why them, why then?  Another easy answer; Southwest treats their people right.

There are no unions for the attendants, ground crews and pilots.  There is no super structure of company representatives, union delegates and mid level third party observers to argue over minute details and cry foul while real work does not get done.  There are no memos sent out about how to treat a supervisor when you are asked to do something you don't want to do.  Instead there are open lines of communication going both ways.  Employees on the ground know that they are important and that they are part of something special, something bigger than them.  Southwest has a clear mission to provide a better travel experience than their competitors all while doing so at a lower price.  There is a sense of pride in the employees vs. the sense of entitlement you see at other airlines.  Ever had a bad experience at a Southwest counter or a snobby flight attendant?  (I did, once, and called the counter lady out on it.  She simply stated it was marital problems and she was extremely sorry for her attitude.  I've had those same problems, can't say I blamed her much if you know what I mean.)

Southwest people work at making sure you have a good experience.  There are smiles everywhere, humor in some cases and efficiency at every point.  Look at the boarding process.  There is no calling for twenty different passengers who have not checked in yet.  Nor is there any worrying about zones, silver platinum gold super passengers and what not.  Everyone in line like a stable, you pick your seat once you're on and there is definitely less waiting to sit down.  Speaking of the people, ever noticed that your fellow passengers are a little nicer too? just saying.  But what about the planes themselves.  Southwest can 'turn' a plane in less than 30 minutes on average.  That is landing, porting, debarking of passengers, refueling, replenishing, inspection, crew swap if necessary, loading of passengers, pushing off, taxiing to the runway and wheels up.  Are you kidding me, in less time than it takes Perfect Couples to go from start to finish?  The airline industry standard for major carriers, damn near twice that.

It's all about how you treat your people.  You treat them right, give them ownership of the mission and it's outcome and you can make anything happen.  You make the work place a great place to conduct business and I assure you the customer experience is amplified.  So why don't the other airlines get it?  Do they not care or is it just that they do not know how to change.  You can argue that if would be difficult to make the changes but certainly not hard.  The unions that represent the workers would most definitely fight a change as they are there to make money.  Make no bones about it, in the end that is all the unions care about, their bottom line and not the care of the people they represent.  But the airlines can make strides by simply making an effort.  I don't care what if you fly buses of sell fruits and nuts at a pet store, or manage any of the above because it's all the same.  How do you make for a great customer experience, you make for a great work place first.

And having those two together are one in the same.  Just Smart Business.

So; I'm new here. You?

Yea, that's about the butt end of it.  I'm new here and not sure where this is going.  But I figure that I have posted my opinions on everything just about everywhere so that anyone can see them at anytime.  To make it easier, I am putting them all down on here.

Please don't expect many big words (I don't know a lot) and don't log on attempting to find secrets to success.  You most definitely need to peek from time to time if you need a laugh but do beware, I may make you sad too.  I am not trying to take on or challenge the world and I surely do not expect to give any great insight to today's hottest topics so that we may all live better as a society.  I know I have some strong opinions about some touchy subjects but you'll find that I am a realist and that most of what the media or social networking sites deem as important at that time, I can give a damn about.  I am simply going to put my words onto the screen.  Those words are meant to share my opinions, likes, dislikes, funnies and daily discoveries.

I intend to blog about everything.  No really, everything.  At some point, if you become a regular visitor to this blog, I am going to upset you and I want to know about it.  I want to hear your opinions too.  I want us all to hear them.  We will discuss politics, travels, books, my past, my present and my future plans.  We will get into foods, recipes, wines, whiskey's (oh I am so into Scotch now) and beer just to keep it rounded.  I may even blog a little on personal fitness but don't expect much on that as I am not a role model for staying fit.  I am human and you will see that in these pages.

Before we go crazy there are some things I have to say and some ground rules that are not implied, they are explicit and I will carry out punishment. (I love saying that, its fun).

1. Your opinions are just that; your opinions.  I value them and respect them but you are not to get personal on here.  There will be no personal calling out or comments directly pointed at one person and what they have to say.  If you cannot abide by that, get lost.  Sorry, but I don't have the patience to deal with petty crap so I’m not. 
2. You may post links of interest but please do not weigh this page down with 100 links to your favs.  I like to be informed and I like to surf the web but I cannot hang out on here long enough to see everything.
3. #'s 1 & 2 being acknowledged and agreed upon, I want you to share too.  If you have been invited to see this blog then become a part of it.  You have a family recipe for Pecan Pie that you think others will slap their momma's over, post it!  You found a new band that rocked your shoes off or dealt with a business that have done you wrong then tell us about it, we NEED to know those things so when the opportunity arises,,,,,you get the idea.
4. ENJOY!!

So, I’m new here. You?