Force the Issue

In describing the ERTIA UNLIMITED “Lifecourse Diagram”, one of the major points to be made is how important it is to make ourselves “helpable” … i.e., by showing some degree of initiative … by being a “Player” , with an inclination to advance and with some reasonable prospects and positive possibilities of making life happen.  Otherwise – with our innate inclination to defy the very “authorities” that are pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into our personal universes to help get us appropriately launched – those huge investments will dry up and leave us holding empty bags blowing in the wind. 

Unfortunately, we never see it coming!  We’re too busy seeing how much we can “get away with”! 

“Man is a curious creature:

He can’t read the handwriting on the wall

until his back is up against it.”

Adlai Stevenson

And why should we?  Life just continues to get better … doesn’t it?

We start out life completely hapless and helpless but, over time, we become independent forces to be reckoned with.  By age 1, we’re beginning to walk and talk.  By age 2, we learn the word “NO!” and begin asserting our own will and determining our own Destiny.  (Look out world, here we come!)  By age 5, we’re in kindergarten and beginning to read (we don’t “know any better”!).  Each August, we start a higher grade in school and make new friends (and start believing we “Know it ALL”).  At age 16, we get a driver’s license; age 18, we graduate and get to vote in real elections and drink real alcohol; age 21, we get to declare ourselves completely independent; we get a job, get married, have children, buy a house, get promoted, buy a boat, go on cruises, etc., etc., etc, and eventually retire to Florida.  Ain’t life GRAND! 

Besides all that, even the “losers” on TV sitcoms seem to be doing OK and they’re not even half as “Special” as we are!

Facts are hard, and hard facts are sobering.

We are, in fact, NOT going to “make it” – at least in the manner to which we would like to become accustomed – without substantial investment on our own part, taking on increasingly challenging tasks and responsibilities under increasingly demanding supervision with increasingly global expectations without help from substantially significant others. 

·         Donald Trump wasn’t launched in life at a minimum wage job in a sweat factory.

·         All major professional sports figures have “Agents” who look after their wellbeing

·         Professional Mentors and “References” are extremely helpful in advancing professionally.

And if you can’t bring something other than “Joker” cards to add to the deck, you’re not going to be a viable “Player” at the table. 

Point to Ponder

The “Unconditional Love” of our earliest years becomes more “Conditional” with time.

I marvel at what I call the GREAT DISCONNECT of Country-Western Songs:

[Ref.  http://lifemasterymusings.blogspot.com/search?q=San+Francisco]

“San Francisco Bay Blues” [by Jesse Fuller]

“I got those Blues where my baby left me down by the ‘Frisco Bay.

An ocean liner came and took her away.

I didn’t mean to treat her so bad;

She was the best girl I ever had.

She said ‘Goodbye’; she made me cry;

She made me wanna lay down my head and die.

I ain’t got a nickel an’ I ain’t got a lousy dime.

If she don’t come back, I think I’m gonna lose my mind.

If she ever comes back to stay, it’s gonna be another brand new day …

Walkin’ with my baby by the San Francisco Bay ..

Walkin’ with my baby by the San Francisco Bay.”

OK, how about let’s get real?  With background revelations like “treating her so bad” and “I ain’t got a nickel an’ I ain’t got a lousy dime”, one has to ask:

What in the world could one rightfully expect

“the best girl I ever had” to do?

C’mon, man, let’s own up here! 

How much personal equity are you putting into this relationship?

And what kind of a “Catch” are you, anyway?

Then there’s

“I can’t give you anything but love, baby. 

That’s the one and only thing I’ve plenty of, baby.”

Jimmy Mc Hugh & Dorothy Fields

In the words of Charles Barkley:  “Is that all you got!?!”

Empty pockets, poor prospects and pandering promises won’t fly very high, very far, for very long.  

One of the most iconic fables of both the 20^th and 21^st centuries – so far – was Star Wars, along with it’s sequelae and prequelae.  Its indelible tag line was: “May the Force be with you!” 

What was left unsaid was:

“The Force” can’t – and WON’T – positively influence INERT GOODS!

The “Force” referred to in this narrative is the impact of significant others.  It’s what got Wilma Rudolph multiple Gold, Bronze and Silver medals in the Olympics and Pan American Games; it’s what got Barack Obama – and every other President – elected to the Presidency of the United States of America; and it’s what got this writer both a Ph.D. degree and every major career move. 

So here’s the “Charge” and the “Challenge”: FORCE THE ISSUE!  Become ERT material!  Make an imprint.  “Lean In”.  Make something Good happen.  Make something GREAT happen!  Be a “Player”.  Put all the assets you’ve got to work.  Light up SOMETHING on the scoreboard!  Become “investible” material and get connected to someone or something that’s going somewhere.  Without an external force like the wind, a kite won’t fly.  Favorable forces are “out there” waiting for ERT Material to materialize.  I can’t wait to see where your ERT is going to take you!!  Quartermaster